By Sisters Grimm, MTC NEON
Festival
MTC Lawler Studio, July 12 to 21, 2013
Reviewer:
Kate Herbert on July 12
Stars: ***1/2
Review also published in Herald Sun online on Tues July 16, 2013 and then in
print. KH
Ash Flanders in The Sovereign Wife
In
The Sovereign Wife, Sisters Grimm delivers a bizarre, irreverent and furiously
entertaining conflation of styles, anachronisms and characters in drag that is
expected from this inimitable, queer theatre company.
Declan
Greene’s production, set on the 19th century Ballarat goldfields,
looks like a Victorian melodrama colliding with a 21st century drag
show, and its great strength is that it never takes itself seriously.
Over
three acts, the play charts the life of naive, Irish immigrant, Moira
O’Flaherty, as she struggles to survive the goldfields, her marriage and a
cunning enemy who returns to plague her.
The
clever script (Ash Flanders, Greene) counterpoints witty dialogue with
appalling clichés, while the
performance style balances intentionally amateurish acting and staging with broad
parody and moments of subtlety.
Cheesy
soap opera bumps into poignant dramatic scenes, shambolic staging contrasts
with sharp choreography, and colonial Australia exists alongside a drug-addled,
club-dance scene.
The
style, narrative and characters reference the spectrum of bad Australian
movies: early talkies, Chips Rafferty in The Eureka Stockade, Jedda in the
desert, Jimmy Blacksmith’s violence, and Nicole Kidman’s awkward performance in
Australia.
A
different actor (Genevieve Giuffre, Ash Flanders, Jason De Santis) plays Moira in each act, starting
with a doe-eyed Moira suffering the indignities of a drunken husband and a
randy neighbour.
Eight
years later in act two, the now-wealthy landowner, Moira – played in perfect
drag by Flanders – faces demons from her past.
The
confounding final act, with its weirdly satisfying denouement, sees 19th
century Moira juxtaposed against contemporary Australia– but I won’t spoil the
surprise.
The
racially diverse cast plays intentional stereotypes and intentionally racist,
clownish depictions of Chinese, Irish and Indigenous characters on the
goldfields.
The
characters are outrageous rather than offensive and provide an unexpected,
political commentary on Australian society.
There
is an obvious unevenness in the quality of performers, but Flanders shines with
his uncanny ability to play a woman genuinely, and his skill in balancing broad
farce with moving, truthful, dramatic moments.
Paul
Blenheim, Giuffre, Morgan Maguire and Peter Paltos are versatile in multiple
roles, and Joseph Chetty’s diva leads a rousing finale.
The
show is riddled with anachronisms: 21st century music, topical
references, language and sensibilities that bang up against colonial tunes,
historical facts and period details.
Nobody
is spared the scathing satire and parody of the Sisters Grimm in this often shriekingly
funny, zany and sometimes bewildering production.
By Kate
Herbert
Director Declan Greene; Writers Ash Flanders and Declan Greene;
Set Design Romanie Harper; Costume Design Owen
Phillips; Composer & Sound Design Jed Palmer; Lighting Design
Katie Sfetkidis; Producer Bek Berger; Dramaturgy Nakkiah Lui
Cast Paul Blenheim, Joseph Chetty, Jason De Santis, Ash Flanders,
Genevieve Giuffre, Bessie Holland, Felix Ching Ching Ho, Morgan Maguire, Peter
Paltos
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