Julius Caesar, Bell Shakespeare, July 21, 2018 ***

THEATRE
By William Shakespeare, by Bell Shakespeare Company

At Fairfax Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, until July 28, 2018, then touring 
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***
Review also published in Herald Sun Arts online on Wed July 25, 2018 and in print on Thurs July 26, 2018. KH

Kenneth Ransom, pic Prudence Upton

Citizens and politicians love powerful, popular leaders – until they don’t – and so it goes when opposing forces wrestle for power in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, set in Ancient Rome.

When Caesar (Kenneth Ransom) becomes too ambitious, former supporters, incited by conniving Cassius (Nick Simpson-Deeks), convince Caesar’s friend, Brutus (Ivan Donato), to conspire with them to assassinate Caesar on the Ides of March, a date about which a soothsayer warned Caesar.

Shakespeare’s play is an epic political thriller with slaughter, battles, treasonous plots and a political coup.

James Evans’ scaled-down, touring production is a novel interpretation of a power grab, but its severely edited script and grungy style cannot deliver Rome’s grandeur or the devastatingly vicious in-fighting of its formidable antagonists.

Wearing modern, casual clothes, the actors look more like competing street gangs or rebel tribes than noble Romans, and the masked rabble look absurd.

Had this edgy interpretation gone further – tougher street attitude, grittier violence – the production may have been more successful, with greater dramatic tension and danger. Evans’ stylistic choices often jar with Shakespeare’s soaring language.

Donato brings strength and truthfulness to Brutus’s struggle with his decision to murder Caesar, delivering Brutus’s monologues with clarity and conviction, while Ransom’s Caesar is vain, insecure and easily swayed by flattery.

Simpson-Deeks’ Cassius is suitably manipulative while convincing Brutus that their treachery is reasonable.

Mark Antony (Sara Zwangobani) is played here as a woman, and Antony’s renowned speech, ‘Friends, Romans and countrymen,’ is uncomfortably split before and after interval, although Antony’s rhetoric to rile citizens to mutiny against Caesar’s assassins is effective, despite Zwangobani’s mild delivery.

Caesar’s gruesome assassination is stylised but awkwardly choreographed and his bloodied corpse is never seen, while the deaths of Cassius and Brutus are so casual as to be dismissive and lacking tragedy or drama.

This production will not appeal to Shakespeare purists but may engage those unfamiliar with his plays with its stripped back, industrial grunginess.

by Kate Herbert

Director James Evans

Designer Anna Tregloan

Lighting Designer Verity Hampson

Composer & Sound Designer Nate Edmondson

Movement & Fight Director Scott Witt

Voice Coach Jess Chambers

Assistant Director Nasim Khosravi

CAST

Kenneth Ransom

Jemwel Danao

Ivan Donato

Maryanne Fonceca

Ghenoa Gela

Neveen Hanna

Emily Havea

Nick Simpson-Deeks

Russell Smith

Sara Zwangobani

An Ideal Husband, (No review) opened July 20, 2018

By Oscar Wilde, by Melbourne Theatre Company

At Playhouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, until August 18, 2018.

I didn't review this show but here is some info & a pic. KH

 

Director - Dean Bryant  

Dale Ferguson - Designer

Cast includes:

Gina Riley - Lady Markby

William McInnes - Earl of Caversham.

Brent Hill - Lord Goring

Simon Gleeson and - Sir Robert Chiltern

Zindzi Okenyo - Lady Chiltern

 

Rocky Horror Show (no review)

Book, Music and Lyrics by Richard O’Brien

Produced by Howard Panter, John Frost and GWB Entertainment

At Her Majesty’s Theatre, until August 26, 2018

I couldn't review this show, but here's a couple of pics. KH

TODD MCKENNEY PIC-JEFF BUSBY

L-R. MICHELLE SMITHERAM, ROB MALLETT, TODD MCKENNEY PIC-JEFF BUSBY

Melancholia, (no review)

Melancholia, from the film by Lars von Trier
Adapted for the stage by Declan Greene
By Malthouse Theatre.
At Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, until August 12, 2018.

 I didn't review this show but here is a pic and some info. KH

Pic by Pia Johnson

 

DIRECTOR- Matthew Lutton

CAST / Alexander Artemov, Maude Davey, Steve Mouzakis, Eryn Jean Norvill, Liam Smith, Leeanna Walsman, Gareth Yuen

SET & COSTUME DESIGN / Marg Horwell
LIGHTING DESIGN / Paul Jackson
SOUND DESIGN & COMPOSITION / J. David Franzk

 

Lip Service (no review)

Lip Service, by John Misto

By Strange Duck Productions.

At Southbank Theatre, The Lawler, until July 28, 2018.

I didn't review this show but here is a pic and some info. KH 

Amanda Muggleton, Linden Wilkinson, Septimus Caton - Pic Robert Catto

Lip Service is set during ten years of Helena Rubenstein's career in New York and deals, among other things, with her rivalry with Elizabeth Arden.

Amanda Muggleton - Helena Rubinstein

Linden Wilkinson-  Elizabeth Arden

Septimus Caton - Patrick “Irish” O’Higgins

Director - Jennifer Hagan

 

Coral Browne, by Maureen Sherlock (No review)

Coral Browne: This F***ing Lady! 

Written by Maureen Sherlock

By Prospect Productions

At fortyfivedownstairs, until July 22, 2018

I didn't review this show, but here is a pic and and some info. KH

Genevieve Mooy - CORAL BROWNE  Pic Rob George

Genevieve Mooy plays Coral Browne, an Australian actress who made it big in England and America. She even married Vincent Price! Browne is relatively unknown here despite having been born in Footscray.

Maureen Sherlock - writer / director  

Festen, by David Eldridge (no review)

Festen, by David Eldridge, by Play Dead Theatre

Rippon Lea Estate Ballroom, Elsternwick, until July 22, 2018.
 I did not review Festen, but here is a pic and cast/ creatives.
 Based  on an award-winning Danish film of the same name.

L-R Michael Mack, Johnathan Peck, Mark Yeates, Pic Sarah Walker 

 

Jennifer Sarah Dean - Director

Cast

Mark Yeates - Christian

Michael Mack - Michael

Adrian Mulraney - Helge 

Rosie Traynor - Else

Hester Van Der Vyver -Mette

Johnathan Peck  and others

 

Gloria, MTC, no review, pic only

Gloria, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, MTC
16June to 21 July, 2018, at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner.  

I have not reviewed Gloria,but here is a pic and cast & creative list. KH
This play was Pulitzer Prize finalist 
 

Gloria- Jane Harber, Lisa McCune_ pic by BrettBoardman

Cast Callan Colley, Jordan Fraser-Trumble, Jane Harber, Aileen Huynh, Lisa McCune, Peter Paltos

Director Lee Lewis
 

Set & Costume Designer Christina Smith
 

Lighting Designer Paul Jackson
 

Composer & Sound Designer Russell Goldsmith
 

Voice & Dialect Coach Anna McCrossin-Owen