Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness, MTC, March 23, 1994

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

 By Frank McGuinness

MTC Russell Street Theatre

March 23 to April 23, 1994

Published in The Melbourne Times, April 1994

Reviewed by Kate Herbert, March 23, 1994

An Englishman, an Irishman and an American walked into a cell. No, it's not a bad joke but the framework for Irish playwright Frank McGuinness's play, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me: a passionate, stirring, torturous and hilarious piece of near-documentary theatre. The play is set in the terrifyingly claustrophobic atmosphere of a Beirut prison cell in the 80's during a period when Arab terrorist groups were picking foreign workers off the street and incarcerating them to publicise their cause or to hasten release of their members.

First two, then three men, are incarcerated in a tiny cell. In Sartre's No Exit, Hell was living in a room with people you hate. McGuinness throws three men together to survive incarceration, torture, beating and each other. The play is a celebration of the human spirit; our capacity to overcome adversity, to rise above suffering, torture and degradation. These men survive by jogging, fighting, caring for each other, nursing their delicate psyches, checking their sanity against each others' and drifting into flights of fancy.

McGuinness throws three men together to survive incarceration, torture, beating and each other. The play is a celebration of the human spirit; our capacity to overcome adversity, to rise above suffering, torture and degradation. These men survive by jogging, fighting, caring for each other, nursing their delicate psyches, checking their sanity against each others' and drifting into flights of fancy. There is little "action" but much dramatic tension, emotional intensity and hilarity. It is episodic, covering a period of months, perhaps years. Moods vary. Wills waver. Strength fails. They sing, play games, "shoot movies", "write" letters, relive memories and create experiences at home and with their loved ones to create lives outside this nightmare.

The Irish boozing journo, Edward, loathes Michael, the wimpy lecturer in obscure Old English poetry just as his real life counterpart, Brian Keenan took exception to his cell-mate John McCarthy. Adam, the Californian Christian psychiatrist, based on Dr. David Jacobsen, could drive a man to drink if he could get near some. All the action take place within the cell. The guards are a constant but invisible threat outside the single door. Trina Parker's extraordinary design manages to fill the stage but confine the actors' space giving a sense of restriction without narrowing their capacity to perform.

There is little "action" but much dramatic tension, emotional intensity and hilarity. It is episodic, covering a period of months, perhaps years. Moods vary. Wills waver. Strength fails. They sing, play games, "shoot movies", "write" letters, relive memories and create experiences at home and with their loved ones to create lives outside this nightmare.

 The play is a gift for actors. It is directed simply and stylishly by Bruce Myles with magnificent performances. Gallacher takes us on a roller-coaster ride in his passionate and loving portrayal of the volatile and maddening Irish wit, Edward. We squirm at Richard Piper's foppish Brit, until he reveals his strength as he supports Edward in his grief. Melvin J. Carroll as Adam has a gentleness which makes his journey more painful to witness. His Amazing Grace was achingly beautiful.

There is a wrenching, existential pain in Frank McGuinness' play which can only come from such deprivation, isolation and terror as that experienced by political hostages. We are voyeurs on the psychic torment of these men. Every observer knows that it could be he or she in that cell. How would we survive? What resources can we draw upon and would we want to live anyway?

 KATE HERBERT 25.3.94

Telemachus by David Lander, La Mama - REVIEW- 20 March 1994

THEATRE

Written and performed by David Lander

At La Mama, Carlton, until April 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around March 20, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 20, 1994

 

The ancient art of storytelling is not very fashionable in this era of physical and non-narrative theatre. A linear narrative with a single actor's voice is a rare bird indeed in our theatres.

 

Telemachus, the late show at La Mama, is such a theatrical piece. It is written and performed by David Lander who, until Telemachus has concentrated his attention on writing and teaching in recent years after a career in improvisational performance and storytelling.

 

This adaptation of Homer's Odyssey concentrates its attention on Telemachus, son of Odysseus. While his father is away fighting the Trojan War with Menelaus and Agamemnon, Telemachus, from the age of three, lives in abandonment with his mother Penelope who is constantly fending off unwanted suitors.  At twenty-three, the now adult son decides to fight back, attempts to evict the suitors from the family home they have invaded and seek his lost father.

 

This is a coming-of-age story, a rites of passage tale of manhood not unlike that of Parsifal in search of the Holy Grail. This story is particularly pertinent at present, given that our book shops are riddled with new literature on fatherhood and the making of the man.

 

Lander's performance is powerful and intense, accentuating the violence and darkness of the story. On opening night it lacked the dynamic range which could have plumbed the depths of both the tragedy and joy of the myth but was eminently watchable. It is a tale rich in imagery, symbolism and characters.

 

The simplicity of the staging and direction were refreshing with Lander using only a single chair as set although the slightly overstated lighting was intrusive and perhaps unnecessary. The style felt physically restrained, evidently more by nervousness than design. The added looseness and physicality would enrich this fascinating quest for revenge, lust, blood and discovery of manhood.

 

By Kate Herbert 20 March 1994

Interview with Toni Smith from Circus Oz, March 16, 1994

 CIRCUS - ARTICLE

Interview with Toni Smith from Circus Oz

Writer: Kate Herbert March 16, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 16, 1994

 

"I'm doing a double head trapeze" says Toni Smith blithely. "Lu balances on his head and I hang off him." Lu is Chinese master acrobat Lu Guong Rong and Smith is describing her work in the Circus Oz show opening in the Melbourne City Square on April Fool's Day.

 

This acrobat is no April Fool. Her circus career began in 1979 at the age of seven as a member of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in Albury. She performed in their second season and stayed until 1988. She joined the Oz in December '93 just in time for successful seasons at the Sydney Festival and in Hobart and just after its tours to Columbia, Northern Territory and Queensland. Almost in her acrobatic dotage at twenty-two, Smith has had a fifteen-year circus career.

 

According to Smith, most acrobats in Australia begin their careers as adults when they no longer have the requisite flexibility or strength.  Smith believes that early training, as well as harnessing the obvious physical assets of youth, implants positive behavioural habits in the mind. "It's like learning to ride bike." The skills will be automatic.

 

Training of our acrobats is not as rigorous as the Chinese who have visited here to teach. "We are nowhere near as disciplined. It's not in our nature," she quips. "The Chinese start at some ungodly hour in the morning. Their first hand-stand is for thirty minutes. The longest we would do would be four or five minutes." Evidently, the Chinese rather hedonistically break for a nap in the afternoon then continue into the evening.

 

Smith and other local acrobats have learnt a great deal from Lu Guong Rong who came here with the Nanking Acrobats in 1983 to teach in Albury. The visit was a remarkable artistic and cultural experience for our performers, the locals, the Fruit Flies and the Chinese. The Australians learnt something about rigour and the Chinese about laying back.

 

After the Chinese visitors left, our circus training improved considerably. In addition to their skills, the Chinese had brought volumes of equipment. With increased funds, the Fruit Flies could purchase mats and safety equipment which, in this industry, are imperative.

 

The profile of Circus has changed dramatically with the rise of Circus Oz. Its parent group of the 70's, Soapbox Circus, was big on entertainment, music and politics, but light on skills. These days the more radical, political Circus Oz has been superseded by a younger more physically skilful company with members graduating from the Fruit Flies.

 

Circus Oz, after years in an inadequate space in Flemington, has found a new home - an ironic thought for an institution which one imagines lives on the road in tents and caravans. "It's fantastic," Smith effuses over the Port Melbourne building. "It's huge. Really high ceilings so we can rig everything in the one room. Everybody's in the same building," which was evidently impossible in Flemington.

 

Smith prefers Oz to traditional circus like Sonelli’s with whom she toured for 18 months. "They (trad circuses) thrive on spontaneity” which is a characteristic of Australian entertainment. Routines and running order are constantly changing which Smith says keeps things interesting.

 

 "It tends to get a bit tedious after a while, doing the same thing day after day." The Chinese combine both skill and glamour. "They work a lot on their presentation."

 

In addition to the enormous working space, the Bay Street building has a second rehearsal room and props store upstairs with an additional music room and workshop. It is owned by the Department of Defence and you can bet your U-Boats this old Navy Drill Hall has never seen such a peaceful purpose.

 

The company will visit Washington DC in October this year as part of a group of Australian performance groups including the Australian Ballet.

 

We have a new breed of circus performer in Australia now. They are younger, stronger and more flexible, perhaps with less broad theatrical experience but nonetheless skilful. Circus Oz is in the vanguard of the new wave of Physical Performance which is defining Australian companies overseas.

 

Washington will love them. LA did in the 80's.

By Kate Herbert 16 March 1994

 

Disturbing the Dust text by Luke Devenish, Adelaide FEstival_REVIEW_March 6 1994

 

THEATRE

At Scott Theatre, Adelaide

Adelaide International Arts Festival 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around March 6, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 6, 1994

 

 

Memory is a trickster. As we age, we remember the distant past perfectly and our recent experiences are muddy.

 

Disturbing the Dust, directed by Ariette Taylor with text by Luke Devenish, deals with the last hours of Miss Nina, a faded grand dame of the ballet played with verve and charm by Patricia Kennedy. At seventy-four, she is now re-fabricating her past in a home for the aged, accompanied by other confused and shaken elderly folk.

 

Nina, who was born Alice Pike in London, prefers the exotic and passionate memories of the Greek woman Sophia and the Italian, Maria. This obsession creates the most extraordinary theatrical moment of the production in which actors, stories and characters from Calabria, Greece, London and Australia merge and become interchangeable.

 

The play is charming and impressionistic. Characters appear and disappear from Nina's vision. Action is stylised, almost choreographic, displaying Taylor's own dance background.

 

There are moments when the abstraction is overdone. Balletic movement, romantic watery lighting, cosmic music pall at times. A most effective scene, however, is the recurrent rush to the Underground in the London blitz.

 

Kennedy is supported by a strong and versatile ensemble which justifiably allows her the limelight.  Mary Sitarenos has a quiet dignity as Sophia, Malcolm Robertson is delightfully offensive as the "slurper" and David Tredinnick demonstrates his range in several roles.

 

In memories as in dreams we are often observers of the action. Significant others are stronger presences than the self. This has created problems theatrically because the protagonist, Alice/ Miss Nina, is sketchily drawn and so never really gains our sympathy. She is rather a narrator who, unlike the authorial voice of a novel gives little detail of herself.

 

We could afford to see more of Nina's own passion for dance. We should care more about her predicament, her past and her struggle with the dramatically awkward image of the Angel of Death.

 

Devenish's project to write a vehicle for Patricia Kennedy has been largely successful despite some structural problems with the text.

 

It is a joy to see a play with an older woman as a central character. 

KATE HERBERT   6.3.94  

350 wds

Hotspur by Jeffrey Atherden_ MTC_REVIEW_ March 13, 1994

 THEATRE

By Melbourne Theatre Company

At Playhouse, Melbourne Arts Centre

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around March 13, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 13, 1994

 

Major theatre companies need commercially successful productions to support their enormous overheads. In Hotspur the Melbourne Theatre Company may have one.

 

This is not a play which pushes the boundaries of taste, style, form, politics or content. It is, however, superbly performed, wittily written and extremely enjoyable. Ruth Cracknell portrays with wit and subtlety the abrasive Fiona McPherson's journey from spritely but pernicious sticky-beak to elderly lovelorn victim and back again.

 

Garry McDonald, cast deliciously against type as entrepreneur Freddy Brown, is vivid and obnoxious. Brown is a conniving, manipulative, expensive con man who reeks of Alan Bond. He unashamedly buys up Australia's art, land and its people. In his own words he is "a sleezy bag of shit" whom we would like to see fail, put in gaol or impaled. He makes one's flesh crawl.

 

Brown takes a flat in Fiona's dilapidated, pseudo-English home, Hotspur. He is evidently in abject bankruptcy, facing a well-publicised divorce from his equally dreadful wife, Julie, played with relish by Val Levkowicz.

 

The narrative relies on the conflict between the two arrogant characters of Freddy and Fiona and the evolution of their relationship as Freddy appears to assist Fiona to save her estate from massive real estate development.

 

The characters are more interesting than the plot, which is amusing but thin and, at times, clumsy. Marisia, the Polish viola-player, is played passionately by Celia de Burgh and Dennis Moore as Vern the devious little councillor, is a delightful, cowardly weasel. Emotional moments were fleeting, being dispelled by the light comic style which falls somewhere between melodrama and farse.

 

Tony Tripp's design is a perfect naturalistic replica of the interior of a stately home. It is perhaps too elaborate, with a model of the exterior of the house unnecessarily poised above the stage to depict the exterior of the building.

 

The performances are definitely the highlight of this production and they are enhanced by the brisk direction of Simon Phillips who gives these consummate actors their heads.

Kate Herbert     

West Side Story-by ernstein, Sondheim, Laurents_REVIEW- Melbourne_27 Feb 1994

MUSICAL THEATRE

Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Arthur Laurents.

Musical conceived by Jerome Robbins.

At Princess Theatre from Feb 26, 1994 (till Kingdom come! date unknown.)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around Feb 26, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 27, 1994

 

Romance and Death are ideal pivots for a dramatic plot and West Side Story has both.

 

In this year of the Revived Musical, West Side Story has been resurrected without looking too anachronistic. Apart from the fact that teenagers no longer fantasise about wedding vows on their first date, (does anyone?) this mixed-race love tale still twangs the heart strings.

 

It is essentially a 50's version of Romeo and Juliet with terrific tunes: Maria, (I Want To Live in) America, Tonight, I Feel Pretty. (Lyrics: Sondheim, Music: Bernstein). In case you've been living in a cave for thirty years and don't know the plot, it is set in New York's West Side where the Puerta Ricans Sharks (Montagues) fight a racial gang street war with the All- American Jets (Capulets). Head Jet, Riff (Mercutio) and Maria's brother Bernardo (Tybalt) die in a rumble by knife (rapier).

 

Marina Prior as Maria achieves her dramatic peak at Tony's death when Maria has "learnt to hate". Earlier she is in good voice, but her portrayal of the virginal Maria lacks latin passion. Sean McDermott is a vigorous and attractive Tony with a strong upper register, but the voice lacks subtlety. Adam Marchant is almost regal as Bernardo.

 

Romantic leads are often dull characters. Their best friends are invariably more interesting. Caroline O'Connor as Anita, Bernardo's girlfriend, is vibrant, magnetic and energetic. Her Irish name belies her charismatic Hispanic stage presence.

 

With the exception of the rather schmaltzy ballet during Somewhere, Ian Judge's direction is tasteful, swift and economical. Stage design by John Gunter brings New York's alleys uncannily to life with tenements skyline an even the Brooklyn Bridge on stage.

 

High points were the Dance at the Gym, Cool, led beautifully by Todd McKenney as Riff, and the quintet of Tonight. The Jets parody of delinquents and police, Gee, Officer Krupke was a riot with an enjoyable performance from Eden Gaha as the volatile Action.

 

This show is fierce, fast and furious, recreating original choreographer, Jerome Robbins, hot street jazz dance and Puerta Rican mambo. It is also disturbingly violent. Stylisation heightens the ferocity of the fights. There are echoes of contemporary war zones: peace comes only after sufficient people have died and enough survivors have recognised the stupidity of the conflict.

 

 

KATE HERBERT    27.2.94   

 370 wds

Unsettled by $5 Theatre Company,-REVIEW-Feb 19, 1994

 

THEATRE

Three plays: No Family, At Dusk, Seeing Violet 

 At Napier Street Theatre Tues-Sat 8.30pm Sun 5.30 till March 6, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around Feb 19, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 20, 1994

 

Good one act plays are rare. Good one act plays written by women in the thirties in Australia are like hens' teeth. $5 Theatre Company has included two such scripts in its 1994 program at Napier Street Theatre.

 

In addition to Miles Franklin's comedy, No Family, and At Dusk, written by Millicent Armstrong, there is a third, Seeing Violet by Pamela Leversha, which was commissioned as a response to the two plays.

 

At Dusk is "bush gothic" capturing a sinister element of the outback when two very different sisters arrive home alone. The writing is clever although the melodramatic direction diminishes its intrinsic suspense. It deals with the timeless women's fears of violation and invasion.  but the whole is effective.

 

No Family combines the wit of Miles Franklin with the quirky, clownish directorial style of Chris Corbett. It is a light and funny piece with some acerbic commentary on the war and morality.

 

The strongest script and highlight of the night is the longer (40 minute) Seeing Violet. The script very satisfyingly echoes elements of the previous two plays in dialogue, images and themes. It is a rhythmic piece which has surprises in plot, character and relationship which keep audience interest. Direction by Melanie Beddy is imaginative and uncluttered.

 

Hugh, a painter and "self-indulgent old goat", draws two consecutive wives into his chosen isolation in the Dandenongs in the 60's. After Violet dies Isabel, the younger second wife, becomes obsessed almost possessed by her. It is a clever weaving of ideas and time frames with some very witty dialogue.

 

The several strong female roles are performed admirably by Catherine McClements, Melanie Beddy and Victoria Eagger, supported by Tom Considine and Glenn Perry. Performances are delightful and ensemble work is excellent. $5's have fulfilled a political agenda to put more female characters on stage and seem happy with the short play format.

 

KATE HERBERT    19.2 94        330 wd

The Bacchae: Burning Water, by IRAA Theatre, -REVIEW-Feb 19, 1994

 THEATRE

 by IRAA Theatre, After Euripides; Bacchae

At IRAA, Lowther St, Alphington

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around Feb 19, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 20, 1994

 

Never expect a traditional performance of a classical play from IRAA. In The Bacchae: Burning Water, director, Renato Cuocolo, once again employs his vigorous "psycho-physical" acting technique to create an intense and rhythmic collage of text, imagery, passionate performances, resonant emotional content and rich soundscapes.

 

There is a strange, mythic and mystical atmosphere in the tiny church hall in Alphington. This is not The Bacchae, but a mesmeric journey into some dark other world which resonates with Euripides’ Bacchae but disconnected excerpts of text from Euripides, Joyce, Mann, Koltes and Robbe-Grillet. It has the distinctive and masterly direction of Cuocolo.

 

The piece is a battle of wills between Pentheus the rigorous, rational and rigid Pentheus and the passionate desire of Dionysus. It could be Pentheus' own internal war: "The Dream of Pentheus". The darkened space, hypnotic music, prolonged stillness and silence, repetition of words and actions are all elements of dreams and echo Jungian symbology.

 

At times the dream turns to nightmare. The horror of the slaughter of Pentheus (Robert Meldrum) by his mother Agave (Catherine Simmonds) is both heightened and undercut by simple verbal description and non-violent images. The unseen violence is more potent.

 

The whole performance takes place in shallow water, a symbol of the sub-conscious and emotional life. Pentheus refers repeatedly to buildings and walls, all evoking the self and containment. Reflections, mirrors, blood-red blindfolds, milk are all rich with symbolism.

 

The rippling light on water was breath-takingly beautiful as it dappled actors' bridal gowns like watered silk.

 

The dark honey voice of Meldrum, both live and recorded, is almost meditative and when he wails for Mum, we all feel the pain of the "child-man". Actors Simmonds and Nadja Kostich are strong and lyrical presences as the Maenads and Tony Yapp as Dionysus has an eerie and powerful androgyny.

 

 

KATE HERBERT   19.2.94        300 wd

Forget Me Not by Compagnie Phillipe Genty REVIEW 13 FEb 1994

At The Playhouse, Melbourne Arts Centre

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around 12 Feb 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 12 1994. KH

 

There is a magical journey which can only be taken with Compagnie Philippe Genty. This company ignores narrative and combines dance, mime, clown and visual theatre to create a potpourri of delicious imagery.

 

Forget Me Not is the latest production from this internationally acclaimed company. Actors are partnered with life-size puppets. They are dressed in white gowns and dinner suits and are none of them quite complete humans. They cannot stand. They prop each other up. Bodies tumble like dolls and dolls collapse like humans. We question reality at every point. Which are the puppets? Which are human size?

 

Much of the performance is pure clown. Slapstick such as the three slippery water-wielding morticians, is often gut wrenchingly hilarious and yet much is accompanied by a delicacy and poignancy.

 

The dramatic interplay between these anonymous characters comments incisively but silently on relationships and humanity. We laugh at the tragedy of human existence, our disasters and our foibles, our loves and disputes. And the whole scenario is viewed by a rather bemused and be-gowned ape woman who seems incredulous about human behaviour and reacts simply by whacking the recalcitrant on the head. Simple enough.

 

Forget Me Not echoes the sharp social observation and choreography of Pina Bausch's Wuppertaler Dance Theatre as well as the whimsy of Trestle Theatre's stage adaptation of Leunig. There are also Genty 's signatures: acres of billowing silk, stage smoke, evocative music and seven extraordinary, multi-skilled performers and endless magical illusions, appearances and disappearances.

 

This is truly an ensemble. There is a fluidity of movement and unity of spirit which allows the cast to move effortlessly as one. The sheer beauty, charm and resonance of images seemed to ring chords in the audience. It is a genuinely enchanting performance.

Playland by Athol Fugard REVIEW Feb 13, 1994

By Johannesberg Market Theatre

 At the Studio, Melbourne Arts Centre, until Sat 19 Feb 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around 13 Feb 1994

 This review was published in The Melbourne Times after 13 Feb 1994.

Athol Fugard has always written sharply observed political commentaries on institutionalised racism in South Africa. Most of his plays have been performed by the Johannesberg Market Theatre but Playland differs from his previous plays by dealing with the personal political situation rather than the broader context.

 

Directed by Fugard himself, the play is a dynamic face-off between Gideon, an Afrikaaner ex-soldier, and Martinus, the black caretaker of the park. The ironic location for their confrontation is Playland, a touring Luna Park sans mouth. As the carnival festivities proceed the two argue the human condition, life and philosophy, morality and the Commandments, humanism and religion, existential dilemmas and God.

 

It is New Year's Eve and Gideon wants distraction and celebration. He pesters the reticent Martinus. Gideon is in turn sceptical, hysterical, depressed, a victim but always neurotic and a total dickhead. This oaf is played superbly by Sean Taylor who makes him lovable, annoying, hateful and dangerous, but still sympathetic.

 

John Kani, Associate Director of the Market, gives a rich and poignant performance as the bemused, simple and secretively vengeful Martinus. His dry acceptance of his lot is both admirable and tragic.

 

The two tortured souls are worlds apart and yet are bonded in their struggle to survive the aching pain of their pasts and their searing sense of loss and alienation. Both have murdered. Martinus knifed a white rapist and Gid slaughtered SWAPO guerrillas on the Namibian border. Martinus nurtures his revenge, Gid seeks forgiveness. They scrap like children, threaten and bait each other but just talking to a stranger challenges then alleviates their burdens.

 

The dreadfulness of the night brings them together. They fight and the cold light of morning brings fresh vision and hope that they can move on in parallel lives until the following year.

 

This is a hopeful fable of the New South Africa which makes its point simply and movingly.

 

KATE HERBERT       325 wd

Bell Shakespeare Launch 1994

Bell Shakespeare Launch 1994

By Kate Herbert

Feb 13, 1994

The Melbourne Times

published in Feb 1994

This week, on February 9, Bell Shakespeare Company launched its 1994 Melbourne season at the Comedy Theatre. Founder John Bell will direct Taming of the Shrew and play Macbeth in a production.

Bell will direct Taming of the Shrew exploring the gender relationships of a notoriously sexist text in a modern context of the domineering man and the dependent woman.

He will also play the lead in a production of Macbeth directed by a recent graduate from NIDA, David Fenton. Fenton describes his view of the Witches as creatures with access terrifically advanced technology.

The company will extend its touring to include not only Melbourne and Sydney but Canberra, Perth, Hobart, Launceston and Newcastle. The Melbourne season commences in May. The Sydney program will include a schools season called Actors at Work.

There is also a list of publications of Australian Shakespeare productions beginning with Romeo and Juliet.

The company will extend its touring to include Canberra, Perth, Hobart, Launceston and Newcastle, the Melbourne season commencing in May. Other activities include a schools program called Actors at Work and publications of Australian Shakespeare productions.

KATE HERBERT 13.2.94

Woyzeck by Gas Theatre ARTICLE 10 Feb 1994

March 2-20 1994 Wed - Sun 8.30

At the old CUB Ale House, Bouverie St. Carlton

Writer: Kate Herbert around 12 Feb 1994

This article was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 10 1994. KH

Woyzeck is an unfinished manuscript by 17th century German writer Georg Buchner. To highlight the fragmentation of the original text, Gas Theatre will perform the play in a derelict building in Bouverie Street. Non-theatre sites are exciting and a challenge to the audience who can never relax comfortably in an upholstered seat. A viewer is compelled to engage with not only the actor, the text and the meaning, but with the physical environment. To misquote Marshall McLuhan, "The location is also the message."

 

Location theatre is very popular in Melbourne. We have seen theatre in motor repair shops, The Old Gaol, warehouses, the brewery, cafes, swimming pools, the Gallery moat, parks and gardens. Gas have selected the old Ale House site of the Carlton and United Brewery in Bouverie Street. The basement of the brewery was used by Tarquin Theatre in September but according to Gas actor, Charlie Powles, working in an above ground venue poses fewer logistical obstacles.

 

The Ale House is a two-storey bluestone edifice constructed in the 1880's. The ceiling and walls have been eliminated so it is a cavernous, long and narrow warehouse with holes in walls, shattered bricks for flooring and vestiges of crumbling walls. Although it may involve an enormous amount of work clearing the space for a performance, such a dramatic and blasted landscape provides a ready-made design for a play.

 

The Gas Theatre production of Woyzeck is directed by Lucien Savron and performed by Powles, Tom Wright, Nick Crawford Smith and Meg White, will use the whole length of the space with the audience at one end giving them a deep perspective view of the performance.

 

White and Powles describe this play as mythic, archetypal, a true tragedy. They see the characters as "inexorably doomed." It is not a play which highlights a message although it does speak to a modern audience about two people crushed under the weight of their socio-economic position and their existence. It is not judgmental. It is a universal existential dilemma. Says White, "If you take away the universality it becomes two dimensional."

 

The building, says Powles, looks like an army barracks which is particularly relevant given that Woyzeck is a soldier. Powles says the play looks at images of ruin and decay, but it also contrasts the wholesome presence of nature with the destructive presence of civilisation. This lends symbolic significance to the weeds which have overgrown the site.

 

The broken images of the location reflect directly the text. Buchner died at an early age before completing his manuscript so Woyzeck is a collection of scenes which are often composed in different configurations. The various translations also take liberties with meaning and structure, but the company has selected that by Muller, a translation which highlights the fragmentation of the play and which suits the style of Gas Theatre.

 

It is the tale of Woyzeck, a poor and unstable soldier who is driven to murder Marie, his lover and mother of his child because of her dalliances with other men. This may sound a primitive reaction, but our society is no more sophisticated. Most murders are still domestic. Love and jealousy rule.

 

Says Powles, "Buchner opens a whole world of conflicting ideas and motivations for why the murder takes place...On the one hand he is saying he was just a victim of the pressures of the times and on the other he is not excusing it at all and is showing the real evil of taking that sort of step."

 

The characters are broadly drawn and are often described as caricatures. White who plays Marie, sees a direct relationship with characters of the Commedia dell'Arte: Dottore, Capitano, Colombina and Harlequin. She is quick to explain that the Commedia clowns are always happy being who they are, whereas these characters want to be someone else.

 

"The Doctor wants to be more (of a) doctor than he really is, and Marie wants to be more (of a) woman than she really is." They are none of them satisfied. and all have a dark internal level. "If you make them clowns they lose the drama."

 

Powles describes Buchner as a fan of Shakespeare. "You can read the allusions to Macbeth and Hamlet and he also finds appealing those clown elements in Shakespeare. It sits well in the context of the play because the world is so dark and the view so pessimistic. Yet within that Buchner has allowed this light, the joy is just poking around the edges". He is, however, clear that they wish to avoid caricatures.

 

The play has a balance of social and psychological commentary. It would be easy to dismiss the murder as the act of a psychotic who suffers visions and obsessions, but Woyzeck's unbearable social context is constantly being indicated.

 

"The visions, the nightmares he has, are classic manifestations of the oppressed spirituality of 20th century existence." says Powles. "Everything has been squeezed into being a soldier so the only way the soul can manifest itself is in this perverted, disruptive way."

 

Buchner, a poet and playwright, is considered one of the great voices of German literature. He died of typhus in 1837 at the age of 23 but his plays have an uncanny link with the late 20th century. In this decimated ale house the audience will experience "a murder in a context of social and political oppression and perversions of the natural order", a story which echoes the Balkans, urban decay and political dictatorships in the 90's.

 

By Kate Herbert

Unsettled –ARTICLE – One-Act plays by $5 Theatre Feb 3, 1994

A season of One-Act plays by $5 Theatre Company

At Napier Street Theatre from February 1, 194

Writer: Kate Herbert on Feb 1, 1994

This article was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 1 1994. KH

 

Good one act plays are rare. God one act plays written by women in the thirties in Australia are like hens' teeth. $5 Theatre Company has included two such scripts in its 1994 program, Unsettled at Napier Street Theatre from February 15.

 

Miles Franklin's comedy, No Family, is set in Australia after World War I and portrays a family in mourning over their son's death. At Dusk written by Millicent Armstrong in the thirties, coins the style "Bush Gothic" and is set in 1880.

 

The most extraordinary thing about these plays is that they were found at all. Tom Considine, actor, director and founding member of $5 Theatre, was browsing in a second-hand bookstore and came across a book entitled Best One Act Plays of 1937.

Considine was surprised that one third of the plays in the book were written by women and half a dozen were really interesting.  The inception of ABC radio drama seemed to have propagated them.

 

After selecting At Dusk and No Family, the company commissioned Pamela Leversha to write a response to the two plays. "It could have no relationship at all to them, but we asked her to keep them in the back of her mind as she wrote." They were expecting a modern play, but Seeing Violet is set in 1961 in the Dandenongs before the 62 bushfires.

 

There was an underlying political agenda in the company's selection of a program spanning one hundred years of women in Australia. Their previous work had been not male-dominated but somewhat "Male-heavy" says Considine. "There are very good roles for women in all three of these plays..... At the end of the night the audience should be subliminally aware of having seen a lot of female roles." He emphasises that it is not an evening of Women's Theatre, but it provides great roles for women.

 

In programming three short plays, $5's are returning to a program from previous years. Suitcases in a Thousand Rooms comprised four commissioned shorts. In 1993 they performed a full-length adaptation of Bulgakov's The Master and Margerita. They had sought a full-length play for '94 but found nothing to suit in casting, content or style.

 

"The short play form is obviously still an interest, " says Considine. "It's a bit like a short story. Writers who can do it are very special. Full length plays often have an interesting beginning and then become an ordinary play." A short play, he thinks, can be idiosyncratic. "Without being linear it states its themes very clearly, develops them and then finishes. It is very satisfying artistically."

 

By Kate Herbert Feb 3, 1994

L'Amante Anglaise REVIEW 3 Feb 1994 *****

 

Written by Marguerite Duras

At La Mama Theatre, Carlton

10.30 pm Wed - Sat. Sun at 5.30 Feb 3 to Feb 13, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: 5

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Feb 3, 1994.

 

L'Amante Anglaise is a superbly crafted piece of writing. She plunges us into the dark side of murder, madness and mystery with the story of 60-year-old Clair Lannes who has confessed to the gruesome murder of her deaf-mute cousin, Marie-Therese.

 

The production at La Mama is directed with a light and tasteful hand by Laurence Strangio who very sensitively allows the text to speak for itself without embellishment. The two actors, John Flaus and Brenda Palmer talk, seated opposite each other for most of the 90 minutes. It is riveting character drama: an actors' dream.

 

In the first scene, a female psychologist interviews Lannes about his wife. We obtain, from her rigid, insensitive and deeply dislikeable husband, a peculiar second-hand biography of this woman who has committed such a hideous crime.

 

After we have become fascinated with Clair, the actors change roles and chairs, and Clair is interviewed in turn. The interviewers struggle with our own dilemma. Who is Clair Lannes? And why? why? why? did she do this dreadful thing?

 

The performances by both Palmer and Flaus are relaxed and rich and multi-layered. Palmer has found a delicacy and peculiarity which makes this woman attractive and other-worldly, an unlikely murdereress.

 

These characters, in the intimate surroundings of La Mama, are accessible, passionate and absorbing. We are so close we are almost voyeurs on their poignant situation. We know them. We empathise with Clair in her struggle to explain or rather, not to explain, her actions. We want to ask questions, participate in the process.

 

There is nothing turgid or morbid about this piece. In fact it is exceptionally funny in its observations about the human situation. This is a murder mystery of an extraordinary standard. It holds the audience, reveals its soul slowly and keeps some secrets even after the end.

 

The salon-sized audience on opening night wanted to talk on about the story and characters. If you value exceptional writing and powerful drama over trappings in the theatre, please stay up late and see this if you see nothing else for the year.

 

KATE HERBERT      3.2.94      370 wds

L'Amante Anglaise, La Mama, Feb 2, 1994

 L'Amante Anglaise by Marguerita Duras

La Mama Theatre, Carlton

10.30 pm Wed - Sat; Sun at 5.30pm

Until Feb 13, 1994
Reviewed by Kate Herbert on Feb 2, 1994 
Published in The Melbourne Times, Feb 1994

Directed by Laurence Strangio 

Cast: John Flaus and Brenda Palmer

MARGUERITA DURAS' PLAY, L'AMANTE ANGLAISE, is a superbly crafted piece of writing. She plunges us into the dark side of murder, madness and mystery with the story of 60 year old Clair Lannes who has confessed to the gruesome murder of her deaf-mute cousin, Marie-Therese.

 Laurence Strangio directs the production at La Mama with a light and tasteful hand, very sensitively allowing the text to speak for itself without embellishment.

The two actors, John Flaus and Brenda Palmer, talk seated opposite each other for most of the 90 minutes. It is riveting character drama – an actors' dream.

In the first scene, a female psychologist interviews Lannes about his wife. We obtain, from her rigid, insensitive and deeply dislikeable husband, a peculiar second-hand biography of this woman who has committed such a hideous crime.

After we have become fascinated with Clair, the actors change roles and chairs and Clair is interviewed in turn. The interviewers struggle with our own dilemma. Who is Clair Lannes? And why, why, why, did she do this dreadful thing?

The performances by both Palmer and Flaus are relaxed and rich and multi-layered. Palmer has found a delicacy and peculiarity that makes this woman attractive and other-worldly, an unlikely murderess.

These characters, in the intimate surroundings of La Mama, are accessible, passionate and absorbing.

We are so close we are almost voyeurs on their poignant situation. We know them. We empathise with Clair in her struggle to explain or rather, not to explain, her actions. We want to ask questions, participate in the process.

There is nothing turgid or morbid about this piece. In fact it is exceptionally funny in its observations about the human situation. This is a murder mystery of an extraordinary standard. It holds the audience, reveals its soul slowly and keeps some secrets even after the end.

The salon-sized audience on opening night wanted to talk on about the story and characters. If you value exceptional writing and powerful drama over trappings in the theatre, please stay up late and see this if you see nothing else for the year.

Kate Herbert     3.2.94      

L'Amante Anglaise by Marguerita Duras

La Mama Theatre, Carlton

10.30 pm Wed - Sat; Sun at 5.30pm

Until Feb 13, 1994

Directed by Laurence Strangio 

Cast: John Flaus and Brenda Palmer

Opa: A Sexual Odyssey by Patricia Cornelius 29 Jan 1994

At Atheneaum Theatre II, Jan to Feb 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 29, 1994.

 

 

Sexual fantasy is the stuff of Hollywood movies and of a new play by Patricia Cornelius. Opa: A Sexual Odyssey, steals the ancient Greek myth of Penelope awaiting the return from war of her warrior husband Odysseus (Ulysses). She waits, chaste and faithful, dodging the potential lovers for twenty years. Unbelievable!

 

Opa is written and directed by Cornelius with music by Irene Vela. It is an intensely female show performed by five actor-singers and four musicians with an all-female crew. It contains some revealing and threatening material based on interviews with women about their sexual fantasies - of which there are evidently myriad.

 

The performance is relentlessly entertaining and sexy. These women of Italian, Greek, Islander and Anglo heritage are warm, honest, passionate and exposed emotionally and sexually. It is both titillating and a challenge to watch.

 

The music is a highlight. Sons from many cultures pepper the show and are sung with relish and skill. The opening number, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, with leads vocal by Anna Butera as Penelope was a golden moment as was the final farewell to Odysseus, Je Ne Regrette Rien.

 

In spite of the sheer delight and raunchiness of this show, there are some problems. Its structure is often loose and direction thin. There are moments of confusion about the narrative and characters. The set of scaffold and plastic is clumsy and awkward for the actors who often look unsafe.

 

But this is a vibrant night in the theatre. Be prepared to have your secrets shouted to the skies.

 

KATE HERBERT   29. 1. 94      260 w

The Danube by Maria Irene Fornes REVIEW 29 Jan 1994

At La Mama till Sun Feb 13, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 29, 1994.

 

Maria Irene Fornes' play, The Danube, like the river itself, resonates with romantic, emotional and political images. The narrative is skeletal. Paul, an American soldier in Budapest, marries Eve, a young Hungarian student. They become ill. They must leave. But it is the structure, form and the allegorical references rather than the story which are the important components of this play.

 

Scenes are composed as taped language lessons in Hungarian. The characters communicate in the clipped, simple sentences of the language novice as a voice-over translates to and from Hungarian. It has the peculiar and dramatic effect of dislocating the speakers from their thoughts and detaching dialogue from the often passionately expressed emotions.

 

Some scenes remain untranslated but the formal verbal style of question and answer, repetition and information-giving remains. It makes seemingly banal conversations about ordering food, seeing the doctor, going to the movies, seem strange and absurd. This is accentuated by the brisk, concise movement of Wendy Joseph's direction.

 

There is an underlying sense of tragedy in the tale of these eccentric characters. Hungary is described as heavy and dark, America as light and bright. Paul (Nick Crawford-Smith) and Eve (Trina Tonkin) become ill and polluted like the river, like the politics. They are symptoms of an inexorable cultural degeneration. They are trapped in the thrall of the Danube and Budapest.

 

All performances are impressive. Crawford-Smith is magnetic as Paul the GI and Robert Lyon as Eve's eccentric father, is charming. It is strong ensemble work with Stephen Smith playing a bevy of quirky Hungarians. Joseph's direction takes risks which have largely been successful. At times, however, the set changes between such short scenes became unnecessarily laborious, and briefly the persistent translation became tiresome.

 

This is an intelligent, dense and poetic piece of writing which makes a powerful night in the theatre at La Mama.

 

 

KATE HERBERT  29.1.94        310 wd.

Game of Dolls by Brett Melke 22 Jan 1994

 

(Venue uncited) from 22 Jan, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 29, 1994.

 

Lawyers, violent crime and court cases are meaty content for a playwright. Game of Dolls is written by Brett Melke and draws on his experience in legal practice. Andrew has an extensive history of felonies and psychiatric treatment as a result of being an abused child. He is accused of theft and rape but denies the rape.

 

Game of Dolls addresses the problems faced by his young female solicitor and experienced male barrister. This seemingly innocent youth has incontrovertible evidence against him.

 

This is a gripping story if not perfect theatre. The episodic TV drama form is not enhanced by clumsy direction. Scene changes seem interminable, much of the acting is mediocre and an evocative score by Lencon is misused to make scenes too melodramatic. A major problem was that the actor playing Andrew was unable to make this pivotal and complex role credible.

 

There were a couple of good performances. Kristen Moses is believable as the solicitor and Simon McGuiness gives a credible and detailed performance as the smug but competent barrister. Melke's legal background has created three-dimensional lawyers, but other lives remain ill-defined.

 

Kate Herbert   22 .1 94