KATE HERBERT Arts Weekly 3MBS Sat17Aug2024

In this radio spot, I talk with Arts Weekly producer, Nick Tolhurst, about SIX the musical return season in Melbourne, and Apologia by Nicola Gunn at Malthouse. 

Only 7-8 mins.

Apologia REVIEW 9 Aug 2024 ***

THEATRE

Written by Nicola Gunn, by Malthouse Theatre

At Beckett Theatre, Malthouse until 18 August 2024

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: *** (3)

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 17 August 2024. KH

Apologia_Nicola Gunn_c Gregory Lorenzutti

Nicola Gunn’s performance work is always surprising, eccentric and often extremely successful. Apologia succeeds in its first parts, but its final section is less satisfying.

 

Written, performed and directed by Gunn, the marvellously quirky conceit is Gunn’s absurd fantasy of being a French actress, a persona that she perceives to be elegant, romantic, stylish and mysterious, amongst plenty of other stereotypes of the Parisian woman. Of course, she speaks no French, but seems to think this is a surmountable obstacle. Funny concept!

 

The second character in this performance is a French-English translator Severine Magois, who is present only by voice, although a large speaker on a stand that projects her voice feels very human after we’ve listened to her for a while. Severine is a heavy smoker (we can hear her Vaping), acerbic, asocial, and completely uninterested in being a romantic representation of a French woman and, in fact, uncertain what being a French woman means.

 

Gunn and Magois argue and banter as they try to determine the characteristics of a French woman, and how a film script about this French translator and her mother would look and sound. As they argue, Gunn changes on stage into a parade of chic, black outfits, including sassy underwear.

 

In part two, Gunn becomes the French actress with a perfectly dubbed French accent, as she stands upstage behind a scrim, talking on the phone to her mother.

 

What follows is totally dislocated from this first section: two Japanese tourists – speaking Japanese with surtitles – muse on the replica spire being built on the cathedral of Notre Dame. It raises the issue of language, identity, nationality, and expectations of Paris. Evidently, according to program notes, it explores what is known as “Paris Syndrome” when tourists – particularly Japanese – are disappointed with Paris. This could have been more fully explored to link this episode with the first section.

 

The final section with Gunn and her co-actors – all sporting body-hugging, lacy leotards and waving coloured discs around – resembles a bizarre, 1970s drama class. I have no idea what this was doing in the piece, apart from the fact that it represents distortion and dislocation and perception of colour.

With a different ending, Apologia might be a more expressive and successful piece.

 

By: Kate Herbert.

 

Cast

Nicola Gunn, Yumi Umiumare, Taka Kakiguchi, Voice: Severine Magois

 

Creative Team

Nicola Gunn -Writer/ Director

Karie Atland -Set  Design

Kate Davis -Costume Designer

Emma Valente - Lighting Designer

Darios Kedros - Composer/Sound Designer

Martyn Coutts -AV Designer

Aoi Matsushima – Japanese translator

 

SIX REVIEW Comedy Theatre 7 August 2024 *****

 

THEATRE

Book, Lyrics & Music by Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss

At Comedy Theatre until 20 October 2024 (so far)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***** (5)

 This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 16 Aug 2024. NB: It includes much of the content of my 2022 review of the previous production. KH

 L-R LOREN HUNTER,ZELIA ROSE KITOKO,DEIRDRE KHOO,KIMBERLEY HODGSON,CHELSEA DAWSON,GIORGIA KENNEDY - PHOTO JAMES D MORGAN-GETTY IMAGES

SIX sets the stage ablaze again with its opening, rocking song, Ex-Wives, that introduces and gives voice to the six wives of Henry VIII then proceeds to reframe and reimagine their “her-story” through a 21^st century lens that references modern gender politics.

 

This outstanding, dynamic production returns to Melbourne with several cast changes since its wild success in 2022. With a musical repertoire inspired by pop divas including Beyonce, Adele, Shakira, Sia and girl groups, was conceived by talented UK duo, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (book, lyrics, music), and is fiercely directed by Moss with Jamie Armitage. A tight, all-female, four-piece band, Ladies in Waiting, and evocative set (Emma Bailey) and lighting (Tim Deiling) complete the atmosphere.

 

Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s crisp, vigorous choreography is fast-paced and sassy with plenty of hip bumps, pelvic rolls and sharp foot work, while Gabriellla Slade’s costumes provide another character with their gleaming bodices and skirts echoing Tudor attire, and their stiff fabrics and sharp lines referencing 16^th century armour that provides protection for the women.

 

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived is a way to remember the wives, or one can listen to songs that illuminate their lives and marriages while mocking damning assumptions made by past historians about their characters. SIX depicts the wives as heroines, but they were victims of trauma, abuse and imprisonment in Henry’s court.

 

The conceit for this episodic musical is the wives competing in a twisted popularity contest. The first wife, strong-willed, Spanish Catholic, Catherine of Aragon, is played with passion by Kimberley Hodgson and her rousing song, No Way, is a declaration of war on the king who divorces her and breaks England from Catherine’s beloved Roman Catholic church.

 

Infamous Anne Boleyn, trigger for both the divorce and the rift in the church, is played by Deirdre Khoo as an impudent, waspish young woman whose perky pop song, Don’t Lose Ur Head, mocks her beheading and is littered with modern text-speak.

 

The remaining four wives were poorly documented, but that never stopped historians leaping to judgement. Jane Seymour, played again by Loren Hunter, portrays herself as the only queen Henry genuinely loved and Hunter’s warm, honeyed tones elevate her heartfelt love ballad, Heart of Stone.

 

Vivacious and statuesque Zelia Rose Kitoko is German Anna of Cleves, and her feisty, razor-edged song, Get Down, reveals a woman who, despite being damned as ugly, survived after divorce to live a comfortable life. Kitoko may not have the same vocal skill and control as others, but she really owns the role with her sass.

 

Chelsea Dawson reprises the role of Katherine Howard, whose song, All You Wanna Do, is resonant of Britney Spears’ music and life, expressing a teenage girl’s hopes for love being dashed each time she is abused by another predatory man.

 

Catherine Parr, played in this production played by Giorgia Kennedy, interrupts the other queens’ rush of blood to challenge them about their contest to determine who suffered the greatest trauma or abuse. Kennedy’s poignant, impassioned I Don’t Need Your Love features a vocal run that reaches a knock-out top note. She really has vocal chops!

 

This pop-fuelled musical is ferocious, topical and resonates with contemporary audiences who leapt to a spontaneous standing ovation on opening night after the finale, MegaSIX, a thrilling remix for this girl group of queens. This is show that you cannot, must not miss!

 

Kate Herbert

 

 

CAST:

Kimberley Hodgson - Catherine of Aragon

Deirdre Khoo - Anne Boleyn

Loren Hunter - Jane Seymour

Zelia Rose Kitoko - Anna of Cleves

Chelsea Dawson - Katherine Howard

Giorgia Kennedy - Catherine Parr

 

Creative Team

Toby Marlow -Writer

Lucy Moss -Writer & Co-Director

Jamie Armitage -Co-Director

Carrie-Anne -Ingrouille Choreographer

Claire Healy -Musical Director

Set Design -Emma Bailey

Costume Design - Gabriellla Slade

Lighting Design -Tim Deiling

Paul Gatehouse- Sound Designer

 

 

KATE HERBERT Arts Weekly3MBS Sat3Aug2024 REVIEW King Lear, English

In this radio spot, I talk with Arts Weekly producer, Nick Tolhurst, about King Lear by Bell Shakespeare, and English by Sanaz Toossi, at MTC.

English REVIEW MTC 22 Aug 2024 ***1/2

 THEATRE

Written by Sanaz Toossi, by Melbourne Theatre Company

At Sumner,  Southbank Theatre until 29 August 2024

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 3 August 2024. KH

Osamah Sami, Delaram Ahmadi, Maia Abbas and Marjan Mesbahi_ENGLISH_Pia Johnson

In a classroom in Iran, Marjan (Salme Geransar), an Iranian woman, teaches English as a Foreign Language to her four adult students who are Farsi (Persian) speakers. She insists they speak English only and any breach of that rule attracts a penalty. Total immersion! The only way to learn a new language!

 

English, a play by Iranian-American writer, Sanaz Toossi, won its writer the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. It is not a grand play that deals with explosive, highly dramatic or political issues that one might expect from a play set in Iran and written by a woman who lives in the US. Rather, it is an intimate, delicate and sensitive exploration of language, identity, relationship to country and communication.

 

Each character has his or her own reasons for studying, and a particular relationship to the English language and to their own culture.

 

Marjan lived eight years in Manchester but returned to Iran where she feels lost in the cracks between the two cultures and languages.

 

Elham (Maia Abbas) is stroppy and ambitious but hates English and the way it makes her feel and sound stupid when she aims to study gastro-enterology at RMIT. Her direct opposite is 18-year-old Goli (Delaram Ahmadi), who is cheerful, optimistic, eager and quick to learn as she has her whole life ahead of her. Failure is not even in her vocabulary.

 

Roya (Marjan Mesbahi) needs to learn English so she can move to Canada to live with her son and grandchild, but she cannot grasp the language, clings to her roots and believes one’s name is sacred and should not be changed in another language. “Our mothers name us, not others.”

 

Omid (Osamah Sami) is a totally different creature from the others. His English is advanced, and he seems to have no reason to attend the classes. His secret will out!

 

Toossi creates a gentle, warm atmosphere that allows us entry into the minds, behaviour and needs of these five people. The play, directed by Tasnim Hossein, is a series of very short scenes that represent the passing of weeks in class. By the second half, this episodic structure and the regular blackouts becomes a little tiresome. It could merge some scenes.

 

I recall my own experience studying Italian by total immersion in the language. I was accustomed to being the expert in the room being the teacher, not the novice student. I was unable to tell a joke or make people laugh, I saw people’s eyes glaze over as I struggled to form sentences. I felt like an idiot. It was necessary to accept this new, temporary identity until I mastered the language sufficiently to make a joke successfully and string a coherent sentence into a conversation that enthralled. It was tough.

 

Language does provide one an identity. Farsi is a poetic and expressive language, and we hear its lyrical sound at the end of this delicate portrayal of Iranian people seeking to preserve their identity and culture while exploring new versions of themselves through another language.

 

By Kate Herbert

 

Full Cast_MTC_ENGLISH_image Pia Johnston

CAST

Elham Maia Abbas
Goli Delaram Ahmadi
Marjan Salme Geransar
Roya Marjan Mesbahi
Omid Osamah Sami

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Director Tasnim Hossain
Set & Costume Designer Kat Chan
Lighting Designer Paul Lim
Composer Hamed Sadeghi
Sound Designer Marco Cher-Gibard
Persian Language Accent / Dialect Coach Ana Bayat
Voice & Text Coach Mark Wong
Assistant Director Afsaneh Torabi
Assistant Lighting Designer Giovanna Yate Gonzalez

Voice in recorded English lesson & Voice of Nader Ali Samaei
Consultant – Persian Culture Dr. Afshin Forghani
Voice in recorded English lesson Effie Nkrumah

 

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King Lear (Bell Shakespeare) REVIEW 26 July 2024 ***

 THEATRE

Written by William Shakespeare, by Bell Shakespeare  

At Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne until 11 August 2024

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:*** (3)

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 3 Aug 2024. KH.

Robert Menzies, Bell Shakespeare's King Lear _Photo by Brett Boardman

 

King Lear is one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies and any new production attracts plenty of comparisons to previous successful or patchy versions.

 

Peter Evans’ new Lear for Bell Shakespeare comes some years after two productions featuring John Bell himself as Lear, both of which received mixed responses. It also follows Ian McKellan’s Lear that visited Melbourne, Barry Kosky’s controversial interpretation and Evelyn Krape playing a female Lear for Melbourne Shakespeare Company. Most memorable Lear for me was by Rustaveli Theatre of Georgia in which Lear was a tyrant. More of that later.

 

Evans captures the tragedy of two elderly fathers, King Lear (Robert Menzies) and his loyal Duke of Gloucester (James Lugdon), both of whom are victims of vile abuses by their children.

 

Menzies’ Lear is a highlight in the production. He is frail, beleaguered and tortured but he is also narcissistic and vengeful; Lear’s venom and vitriol directed at his two ungrateful and disloyal daughters is vividly played by Menzies and he delivers the poetic text with nuance and skill.

 

James Lugton, as Lear’s trusty friend, Gloucester, is noble and dignified with a command of Shakespeare’s language and he elicits gasps from the audience at his horrific torture.

 

Unlike many other Shakespeare plays, there are fewer attempts to shift it into some contemporary setting or period. Evans sets the play in no specific time. It takes place on a sparse design by Anna Tregloan that features gleaming, reflective, coppery panels and flooring, and the costumes are simple and mostly black with a few splashes of colour.

 

King Lear is a tragedy about a man who believes he has power – until he loses it. He believes he has love, until he realises it was never there. He believes he has loyalty, until it deserts him.

 

At the very start, Lear makes his first mistake, by planning to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. When his youngest and dearest, Cordelia (Melissa Kahraman), refuses to mouth platitudes of love to equal the obsequious flattery of her two sisters, Goneril and Regan, Lear disowns, disinherits and banishes her with his blunt but loyal Duke of Kent.

 

It all goes wrong for Lear from that fateful moment. His older daughters want his power and wealth but deny Lear any love, power, position or even his retainers. He ends up half-crazed and roaming the wilds in the storm with his wise Fool and a poor naked man.

 

Although the cast generally expresses a clear understanding of the text, there is some unevenness in performances and some less successful casting.

 

Janine Watson is audacious as Kent and Alex King captures some of Edgar’s qualities, but lacks the wildness of Edgar as Poor Tom in the storm.

 

Cordelia is often played by the same actor as Lear’s Fool, in this case Kahraman, but apart from the witty prattling language of the Fool, these two characters sound and appear too alike. Goneril (Lizzie Schebesta) and Regan (Tamara Lee Bailey) are stroppy and mean-spirited without seeming dangerous. This pair of treacherous daughters could be more overtly brutal and self-serving to highlight Lear’s total abandonment. 

 

My greatest experience of King Lear (apart from seeing McKellen in the role and production that didn’t do his performance great service) was Rustaveli Theatre of Georgia, directed by Robert Sturua.

 

In Sturua’s production, Lear is a despot. The design appears to be a torture chamber, decked with weapons and devices of torture. For the first eight minutes there is silence as his family and courtiers await the despotic Lear’s is arrival. The desperately terrified Albany faints. It is the most powerful eight minutes I’ve ever seen at the beginning of the play!

 

When Lear enters, he is relaxed and cheerful, holding a canary in a cage while Cordelia, his favourite youngest child, capers around him. It is both remarkable and alarming and highlights the fact that Lear is completely comfortable in his tyrannical power while others quake at the thought of his arrival. This makes his downfall and his madness and his loss of his wits all more tragic and compelling.

 

Although this Bell production lacks that same power, it captures the essence of Lear by relying heavily on the two oldest and strongest actors, Menzies and Lugdon. These stalwarts of Australian theatre are the core of the production.

 

By: Kate Herbert.