MUSICAL
THEATRE
What: Ghost Quartet (online
version), Music, Lyrics & Text by David Molloy
Produced by Antipodes Theatre
View online: https://antipodestheatre.com/, filmed at Meat Market Stables
Reviewer:
Kate Herbert
Stars:***
This review published only on this blog. KH
L-R Willow Sizer, Hany Lee, Devid Butler-006-Jack Dixon-Gunn
Ghost
Quartet by David Molloy, is a ghostly song cycle constructed around a mash-up of
familiar and unfamiliar stories including Arabian Nights and Poe’s The
Fall of the House of Usher and drawing on a range of eclectic musical styles.
In
this chamber musical directed by Brandon Pape, stories meander and characters
merge, which is initially confounding, but eventually the bold tapestry of tall
tales become clearer. Characters are reincorporated and live in multiple narrative
worlds. For example, two women called Rose and Pearl are sisters, lovers, friends
or mother and daughter.
A
woman breaks her camera, someone falls from a subway platform, parents worry
about their child who obsesses over a ghost, an astronomer wants to sing, four
friends drink whiskey, a dancer laments. Characters merge, tell stories, then
split apart only to appear again in another reality.
The
cycle is arranged in four sections, like four sides of a double album, each song
begin announced as “Side One, Track 1”, and so on, a device that breaks up the momentum
and flow at times.
Four
singer/musicians play all roles and instruments: David Butler (piano),
Hany Lee (percussion, zither, piano), Patrick Shnur (cello, guitar), Willow
Sizer (drums, guitar, ukulele).
The
end of Side 3 is compelling and successful when three songs – Bad Men, The
House of Usher-Part 3, and Prayer – ebb and flow with changing styles
and rhythms like a musical theatre piece, incorporating dialogue, narrative and
characters effectively into the songs.
The
final song, The Wind and Rain, is a beautifully evocative and genuinely
moving and melancholy lament in the style of an English or Irish folk tune.
It is the tale of two sisters, a lover, jealousy and death and a fiddle that is
strung with the dead girl’s long brown hair. I’m still singing it!
Ghost
Quartet is an appealing and diverse production performed by a versatile cast.
It is a good sign that it even works when watched online!
By
Kate Herbert
Cast
David
Butler
Hany
Lee
Patrick
Shnur
Willow
Sizer
Creative Team
Directed
and Designed by BRANDON PAPE
Musical
Director DAVID BUTLER
Costume
Designer JODI HOPE
Lighting
Designer KIT CUNNEEN
Sound
Designer EVAN DRILL
Stage
Manager ASHLEIGH WALWYN
Assistant
Stage Manager HOLLY ANDERSON
Graphic
Designer JULIAN LEON
Casting
by RHYS VELASQUEZ
Social
Media Management by CHLOE TOWAN and AUBREY FLOOD
Song List
Side
One
1.
I Don’t Know
2.
The Camera Shop
3.
Starchild
4.
Subway
5.
Usher, Part 1
6.
Soldier & Rose
7.
Any Kind of Dead Person
Side
Two
1.
The Astronomer
2.
Family Meeting
3.
Four Friends
4.
Fathers & Sons
5.
Usher, Part 2
6.
The Telescope
7.
Tango Dancer
8.
Monk
Side
Three
1.
Lights Out
2.
The Photograph
3.
Bad Men
4.
Usher, Part 3
5.
Prayer
Side
Four
1.
Hero
2.
Midnight
3.
The Wind & Rain
