Educating Rita, HIT Productions, Vic. June 27, 2007

 Educating Rita by Willy Russell, HIT Productions

Where and When: Touring Victoria, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on June 26, 2007

You might recall the movie version of Willy Russell’s play, Educating Rita, with Julie Walters and Michael Caine, that was faithful to his stage play. 

Rita (Lisa Chappell) is a brassy, 26-year-old Liverpool hairdresser who aspires to an education. She seeks this in an Open University literature program taught by Frank (David Downer), a jaded, boozing university professor who abandoned his career as a poet and now seeks solace in a whisky bottle.

Rita is a product of her working class environment but chooses not to be a victim of her educational deprivation despite the overt hostility of her husband to her studies. Chappell, who some might recognise from McLeod’s Daughters, competently plays the demanding Liverpudlian with a blend of chattering anxiety, good cheer and brazenness.

The narrative of Russell’s witty play unfolds in a series of weekly tutorials in Frank’s messy office. Over a period of months Rita is transformed from a blathering but lovable twit with no taste and bad hair into an intellectual young woman with confident opinions on a range of literary subjects and an understanding of culture for which she hungers.

Downer is credible and commendable as Frank, playing him with a shambolic and dejected quality. Frank’s loss of direction and motivation in his teaching is revitalised as he coaches Rita in her quest for learning. What is surprising for us and for Rita is that, unlike Henry Higgins with Eliza Doolittle, he is not proud of his creation. Rather, he resents her changing and wants to recapture the gauche, clueless but engaging Rita he first met.

Director, Jennifer Hagan, allows the relationship between the characters to be the focus of the production and keeps the action swift and the dialogue playful.

Good teachers are hard to find and Frank very successfully provides Rita with the education, and hence the social power, that she craves. Rita’s rise from obscurity is paralleled inversely by Frank’s descent into the bottle and his banishment, on university sabbatical, to Australia.

The play, written in the early 1980s, encourages a dialogue about education, culture, social status and about what personal traits are valued in our community. Russell’s script is riddled with literary references and jokes although it is not necessary to know the allusions to understand the play. The production is warm and funny, providing an entertaining night out.

By Kate Herbert

June 24, 2007

Ying Tong by Roy Smiles, by Melbourne Theatre Company

Where and When:  Playhouse, Mon & Tues 6.30pm, Wed to Fri 8pm, Sat 8.30pm, June 24 to July 23, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on June 24, 2007

Fall over yourself to see Ying Tong whether you are a Goons aficionado or not. 

Roy Smiles play, directed by Richard Cottrell, is a clever, funny and often poignant portrayal of Spike Milligan’s fraught relationship to The Goons and his fragile grasp on sanity as he grappled with manic-depression in an era that did not understand it.

Milligan (Geoff Kelso) was the writer of most of The Goon Show, a radio show performed on the BBC from 1951 to 1960. His scripts combined ludicrous and surreal plots with a cast of peculiar comic characters, dialogue riddled with puns and silly sound effects.

Smiles deftly recreates the rambling nonsense of The Goons. “There’ll never be gibberish like it,” said Milligan. Smiles is true to the non-linear narrative of the radio show but tells Milligan’s story through flashbacks, delusions and dream sequences.

The play is “a journey to the centre of Milligan’s brain” and is seen through Milligan’s delusional memories and ravings during his periods of hospitalisation in a psychiatric ward (Designed by Michael Scott-Mitchell). Kelso as Milligan perches, like a frightened bird, under a blanket on a hospital bed, conjuring memories. “Not another flashback,” he quips.

Ying Tong derives from “Ying-tong-iddle-i-po”, a Goons’ nonsense song. The play reproduces snatches of live radio recordings and snapshots of Milligan with Harry Secombe (David James), Peter Sellers (Jonathan Biggins) and Wallace Greenslade (Tony Harvey). We meet Eccles, Bluebottle, Seagoon, Major Bloodnok, Minnie Bannister and Henry Crun, Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty.

Kelso is perfectly cast as Milligan; his own past stand-up comedy channelled The Goons’ diversions and crazed content. He allows us into the impenetrable chaos of Milligan’s dysfunctional mind, erratic moods and humour.

Biggins depicts impeccably the parade of characters played by Sellers and his thoroughly egotistical personality. His Dr. Strangelove, who appears as Milligan’s imaginary psychiatrist, is a cunning blend of visual, verbal and character gags.

James as Secombe captures the soaring notes and vocal vibrato of the Welsh tenor. Secombe was genial, talented and balanced; a still point amidst Milligan and Sellers’ chaos. Harvey plays Greenslade with a wry, almost military British dignity and the trio of grinning leprechauns (Harvey, James, Biggins) brought the house down.

Ying Tong is achingly funny, desperately sad and a joyful reminder of the comic talents that changed the course of comedy and blazed a trail for Monty Python and others.

By Kate Herbert

Grotesque Beauty & Whose Memory? St Martins Next Generation 2007 , June 21, 2007

Grotesque Beauty & Whose Memory? 
St Martins Next Generation 2007

 Irene Mitchell Studio St Martins, June 21 until July 1, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on June 21, 2007

St Martins Youth Theatre trains and encourages young performing artists and Next Generation 2007, the program for emerging artists, features two very different projects created by two young women.

Whose Memory?, written and performed by Jennifer Monk, is a short series of vignettes featuring characters inspired by Monk’s own photographs.

She begins with a cute little girl who proudly shows off her fluffy, yellow dress and her red, sparkly Dorothy shoes that her Granny gave her. She twirls and shyly hides behind a child-sized lace parasol. Then we meet an infirm, elderly grandmother who longs to see her grandchildren who visit her only to snatch $20 on their birthdays.

 Next is a teen runaway whose conversation is riddled with expletives and who loves to play the guitar – very badly. About the same age is a conceited high schooler who dreams of seducing her Media Studies teacher in the darkroom. In contrast is an intellectually disabled girl who struggles to put on her cardigan.

The five characters are not connected and there is no narrative. Monk enjoys the challenge of transforming from one persona to another but there is a need for more than simple demonstration of the characters. Some dramaturgical advice on forming the pieces into a dramatic structure might have served her well.

Grotesque Beauty, choreographed by Emma Anglesey, is a longer, movement-based performance inspired by the film adaptation of Virginia Wolf’s Orlando. Anglesey explores mutations of Elizabethan women’s costume, dance and manners, warping traditional images to create a contemporary style.

The dancers hold hands to form a daisy chain and trail through the semi-darkened space or mould their bodies into a horse and carriage with a lady riding atop. The dancers strike poses reminiscent of the Elizabethan court but the movement is grotesque and contorted. They distort their faces, mime gossiping conversations and whisper criticisms.

The movements are slow but convulsive. The bodies are out of control, moving to the discordant strains of the electrified cello (Jeremy Shelly) and recorded sound scape. They tremble and twitch, glide and lurch in a dreamlike netherworld.

Although the piece would be more compelling at half the length, Grotesque Beauty is definitely an interesting exploration of movement with non-dancers.

By Kate Herbert

Miss (You) Melbourne, Female Comics, June 19, 2007

Miss (You) Melbourne

Where and When: Trades Hall, June 19 to 30, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on June 19, 2007

Miss (You) Melbourne is a season of female comics talking about Melbourne. One of the women laughed so hard that she went into labour and had to be replaced.

Tanya Losanno, a second generation Italo-Australian, got laughs from comparing her childhood in the cultural wasteland of Canberra with her adopted multicultural home in Coburg, land of the Muslim Bogan and “enviable crime statistics”.

Sandy Gandhi is an eccentric Indian character comic who hails from Byron Bay, home of all things hippy and feral. She looks like an Indian stereotype, dressed in traditional colour and speaking with a lilt. However, Sandy’s humour is dry, cynical and well observed. Much of her material is about dope smoking, coastal hippies or being dark-skinned in a white culture. But it is her totally outrageous jokes about Egypt and the shock of an occasional expletive interrupting her well-modulated accent that make her a treat. Her list of instructions from an Egyptian Viagra packet is hilarious.

Celia Pacquola, in jeans and T-shirt, is a perky young gal who finds plenty of comic material from her experiences in a girls high school and a pretentious drama school. Her impersonation of an incoherent drama tutor sounds uncannily like a former Dean of our major Drama School. Pacquolo’s set is lively and incorporates theatrical routines and characters rather than simply gags. She has clever routines about Melbourne’s bipolar weather and those cartoon seals that appear in adverts.

Ethel Chop (Andrea Powell) is a conceited, old woman with smudged lipstick, bad hair, the articulation of someone with loose, false teeth and a line in audience insults that would make Edna Everage pale. She talks about tripe and ox-tongue, stupid road signs and her seductive attributes. Ethel is not a comfortable character to watch and is often thoroughly unpleasant.

Last on the bill was Judith Lucy, a consummate comic who happily airs her dirty laundry. Her recollections of her salacious life in Melbourne 20 years ago are an object lesson in how not to lead your life if you want to live to 40. Melbourne corrupted the virginal young Lucy when she moved here and discovered drugs, alcohol, sex and comedy. Mouths dropped as she recounted tales of her decadent lifestyle, slatternly housekeeping, boozing, smoking, pashing and even being mistaken for a transvestite.

Five comediennes perform each night and the women are funny. 

By Kate Herbert

Spring Awakening, The Hayloft Project, June 10, 2007

Spring Awakening by Franz Wedekind 
by The Hayloft Project

At  fortyfivedownstairs, Mon to Sun 8pm until June 10 to 17, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on 2007

Spring Awakening, a play by Franz Wedekind, was written in 1890 but its performances were heavily censored until the 1960s. Wedekind’s themes of the sexual awakening of teenagers were ahead of his time, in fact, ahead of Freud. Surprisingly, they are still challenging.

The play is a violent indictment of the sexual repression of Wedekind’s society. The ignorance of the children and their parents’ lack of candour about sexual issues lead to at best shame, secrecy and perversion and at worst to unwanted pregnancy, dangerous abortion and suicide.

A group of children attend school, struggle to understand Virgil and Aristotle and vie for academic places in their next year. Melchior (Angus Grant), a brooding adolescent, writes a frank manual about sexual reproduction. His friend, Moritz (Dylan Young), an anxious student, is mortally afraid of failing his parents’ expectations. The innocent young girl, Wendla (Katie-Jean Harding), having never experienced a beating, craves a whipping at the hands of Melchior.

Simon Stone’s directorial debut production is swift moving and contemporary in style. His abstract setting creates a parallel to the confused and chaotic psyches of the children. In the first half old, wooden school desks are arranged uniformly in the stark space and the real windows of the warehouse space allow the children a forbidden view onto the adult world.

In the second half, when the downward spiral begins, the desks are tossed and piled haphazardly. Tufts of dried grass litter the floor and line the formerly pristine window ledges. The children must negotiate a complex landscape of obstacles in this new season of life.

Stone keeps the cast on stage throughout. As scenes are played, those who are technically off-stage remain visible, perching on window ledges, hiding behind desks or in corners, or peering out through windows.

The performances are all capable and committed and the contemporary gaze of a young cast and director gives the play a modern feel. Playing the remaining children are Shelly Lauman, Sara Gleeson, Russ Pirie and Beejan Olfat (OK) and there is a marvellously peculiar cameo by Rhys McConnochie of a man in a gas mask.

There is a violent energy and a menacing atmosphere in Spring Awakening with a sense of impending doom for these innocents.

By Kate Herbert

Tape by Stephen Belber, June 7, 2007

Tape by Stephen Belber

Human Sacrifice Theatre

At  Chapel off Chapel, Thurs to Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm, until June 7 to 24 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on June 7, 2007

Tape, written by Stephen Belber and directed by Morgan Dowsett, deals with the unplanned reunion in a shabby motel room of three high school friends ten years after their graduation. 

Each recalls differently an incident between two of them on a night late in their final year and it is these fractured memories that permanently shatter their friendships.

Vincent (Mark Diaco) is “a swarthy Italian-American” who works as a volunteer fire fighter and a small-time drug dealer. He stays at Motel 6 in Lansing, Michigan, so that he can support his high school best buddy, John (Justin Hosking), whose low budget film is showing in the Lansing Film Festival. John, who stays at the Radison, arrives at the seedy motel to find Vince in his boxers, scoffing beers, smoking dope and snorting cocaine.

Vince is prone to “unresolved violence” and is obsessed by discovering the truth about what happened ten years ago when John seduced Amy, Vince’s ex-girlfriend. Not only does Vince attempt to force a confession of rape from John, but he also invites Amy (Alexis Porter), who is now the Assistant District Attorney in town, and triggers a confrontation between all three.

Belber’s play deals not only with the unreliability of human memory and perception but also with the fragility of friendship, the fruitlessness of petty revenge and the desire to be “right”.

The cast of three is strong. Diaco captures Vince’s volatile, egotistical and confused behaviour, making him strangely attractive and boyish and allowing us to also have some sympathy for his bruised ego. Hosking initially keeps John playful but watchful as, ironically, he lectures Vince on how to live a moral life that serves the greater good. He rapidly slides into desperation and panic as Vince challenges him.

As Amy, Porter presents as a cheerful, sleek, well-heeled, middle-American blonde. Her brittle veneer cracks when Vince compels her to reveal details of her night with John all those years ago.

Belber’s dialogue is often well observed and he captures the confusion of these relationships. The videotaped scene from John and Vince’s high school days gives some insight into their relationship in the opening scene. The play, however, seems to miss its ending by introducing further footage, after the motel confrontation in concluded, of Amy’s ramblings as a teenager and John’s recent musings about his future.

By Kate Herbert

Menopause The Musical by Jeanie Linders, June 6, 2007

Menopause The Musical by Jeanie Linders

Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, June 6 to 28, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Once again Menopause The Musical, written by Jeanie Linders and directed by Gary Young, is back at the Comedy Theatre with an audience of women over fifty shrieking in recognition at every joke about hot flushes, night sweats and bad moods. 

This is “identification theatre” in the extreme.

Four actor-singers of a certain age (Caroline Gillmer, Susan-ann (OK) Walker, Donna Lee, Susie French) play four diverse characters that find themselves in a department store, fighting over underwear on a sale table. What follows is a series of familiar songs with rewritten lyrics reflecting the horrors of menopause and the irrepressible of spirit of these women.

Gillmer is the corporate executive who is usually attached to a mobile phone or in a boardroom. Walker is a the hippy farmer who eats organic and never sleeps while Lee is a mousy housewife from Dubbo come to town for some shopping. French’s character is an insecure, ageing television soap star whose career longevity relies on her youthful looks.

The show begins with Gillmer singing a belting version of the soul classic, Chain Chain Chain, that is retitled Change of Life. It is followed by a rousing rendition of Grapevine with references to lying about one’s age and a song about sleeplessness, I Am Awake, that is sung to the tune of I Will Survive. Are you getting the references?

There is a series of tunes about hot flushes and sweats including I’m Having A Hot Flush (Heat Wave) and Fever. A favourite, to the tune of Bill, was Pills, a song about taking various anti-depressants; “ I love them so, I always will,” got a big laugh from those familiar with mood swings.

Gillmer is sassy and raunchy as the Power Woman singing a range of tunes. Walker is engaging as the goofy, forgetful Earth Mother who shifts from hippy cool to a complete witch because of her insomnia. French plays the Soap Star with an edge of desperation and unwillingness to let go of her youth. It is Lee who seems to win the hearts of the crowd of women with her broad comic antics and expressive face as the naïve Housewife from Dubbo.

There were shouts of delight when the foursome tried on designer underwear and shrieks of embarrassment when they tested a vibrator while singing Shakin’ All Over.

This is definitely a show for a specific gender and age group and the Menopause Karaoke at the finale is a fine opportunity for the audience to leap on stage and dance it up with the cast.

By Kate Herbert

The Mysteries of the Convent by Peepshow Inc. May 31, 2007

The Mysteries of the Convent by Peepshow Inc.

Abbotsford Convent, May 31, 2007 to June 10, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 31, 2007

The Abbotsford Convent, formerly run by the contemplative Good Shepherd Order of nuns, is a sprawling site by the Yarra and is steeped in the history of its original residents.

In The Mysteries of the Convent, Peepshow Inc. incorporates puppetry, visual elements, music and comedy

in this site-specific performance. As we are led on a guided tour, characters, both real and animated, representing the nuns and young women of the convent, appear and disappear mysteriously through doors, stairways and even laundry baskets.

We begin our theatrical tour of the Convent Building in the Bishop’s Parlour, the only room where a man could visit, after an introduction by our hilariously unprepared ring-in guide (Anna Scheer), who, for the entire tour, checks her scribbled notes in an attempt to cobble together some genuine history and amateur art criticism.

An ancient, toothless puppet woman, seated in an armchair and manipulated by an unseen puppeteer (Juanita Pope), recalls her childhood at the convent. Orphans and girls with illegitimate babies were brought here for education or rehabilitation and to work in the industrial laundry. There are frightening echoes of the punishing treatment of girls by the harsh Madgalen Sisters in Ireland.

A silent, pink-haired girl, portrayed by both a puppet and an actor (Fiona Gillies), flits furtively from room to room, appearing surprisingly in different locations. She avoids the stern and frightening Mother Superior  (Angela Orrego) who supervises our walking tour and hides ghostly nuns’ faces inside her habit.

Many of the scenes are accompanied by a sonorous double bass (Delia Poon) with occasional snatches of an Irish ballad, a latin hymn and even four nuns dancing to Tom Lehrer’s Vatican Rag (Lauren Simmonds, Kris Chainey, Nick Barlow, Poon).

Two lyrical scenes involve washerwomen. In the eerie chill of the basement, four ghostly puppet heads hang sheet upon which images are projected. It is here, in the cellar, that we witness the escape of the pink-haired girl and hope she made it safely to the other side of the river.

There are some charming moments in this performance, directed by Melinda Hetzel. There is certainly some potential for further development of the story and the sense of history in this evocative location.

By Kate Herbert

Respect: A Musical Journey of Women, Crown Casino, May 30, 2007

 Respect: A Musical Journey of Women
by Dorothy Marcic adapted by Beatrix Christian

Where and When: The Palms at Crown, May 30 to July 15, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 30, 2007

Respect: A Musical Journey of Women, by Dorothy Marcic and directed by Roger Hodgman, is less a dramatic piece of music theatre than a good excuse for a bunch of 20^th century hit tunes.

The inimitable Rhonda Burchmore plays Dodi Calquhoun, a jaded Broadway star. Dodi is preparing three young hopefuls (Lucy Durack, Belinda Wollaston, Elenoa Rokobaro OK) to audition for a musical inspired by Marcic’s real bestseller, Dorothy’s Story that celebrates the lives of Marcic’s grandmothers and mother.

This backroom musical, set in a rehearsal studio, focuses on the relationships and on Dodi’s encouragement of the youngsters. On arrival, each demonstrates nervousness and is in awe of Dodi’s experience but all evolve as performers under her direction.

The program states that Respect is the story of a Norwegian girl in New York in 1900, and of her female descendants. Intermittent readings from a storybook are scattered amidst the story of the young auditonees. This historical story serves no dramatic purpose, has no narrative development, is too expository, is unengaging and comes to no resolution. It could be omitted so we can concentrate on the on-stage characters.

Burchmore is all long limbs, throaty voice, quivering vibrato and bolshie characterisation, drawing the eye with her eccentric showgirl looks and idiosyncratic delivery. Her experience shines and the trio of young women are a fine supporting cast.

Burchmore’s solos, backed by the trio, are highlights. She is brassy in Bill Bailey, sassy singing These Boots Are Made for Walking in a Barbarella mini-dress and the soul number, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. and magnetic prancing across the stage belting out I Will Survive.

Rokobaro, as the painfully shy Grace, has a warm, heartfelt blues voice. Her God Bless the Child and the Black activist song, Ain’ Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around are thrilling.

Durack, playing dizzy Rikki, performs a song as well as she sings it. You Don’t Own Me gives meaning to the lyrics and Someone to Watch Over Me is charming.

Wollaston has a powerful voice but is best when she holds back, maintaining the warmth in her voice. Her opening song, Greatest Love of All, was hilariously overplayed but an occasional harshness or flat note might stem from playing the pushy Miriam.

Some of the best musical moments were when the three girls sang together doing an Andrews Sisters number, Stop In The Name of Love and a rivetting version of Hero, by Mariah Carey.

By Kate Herbert

The Pillowman, MTC, May 24, 2007

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 
Melbourne Theatre Company

 Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, South Melbourne, May 24 to June 23, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 24, 2007

There are certainly echoes of Kafka and Grimms’ Fairytales in The Pillowman by Anglo-Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh.

It is a tragicomedy, a peculiar knitting of violence and humour reminiscent of a Tarantino movie. McDonagh razor-sharp dialogue produces outbursts of laughter amidst the horror.

Katurian (Joel Edgerton), a writer of dark tales, is interrogated and tortured by two unpredictable police officers (Kim Gyngell, Greg Stone) of a totalitarian state, about the relationship of his grisly stories to several actual child murders. In an adjoining room, his intellectually disabled brother, Michal (Dan Wyllie), gives his own account.

The interrogation is interlaced with Katurian fairytales that transport us to grim places. In Little Apple Men, a father dies eating apple laced with razor blades and in The Tale of the Town by the River, a passing stranger chops off a little boy’s toes. Apart from the innocuous Little Green Pig, Katurian writes almost exclusively gruesome tales.

McDonagh write very funny, swift-moving dialogue and the three hours are compelling. It is, however, disconcerting that laughter dilutes the gasping horror of the crimes committed against children and diverts us from genuinely feeling the pain or experiencing the tragedy. This is a signature of McDonagh’s style.

Simon Phillips’ direction is stylish and beautifully timed and his cast is exceptional. Edgerton captures a naivete and confusion, making Katurian vulnerable and credible. Wyllie’s depiction of the disabled and abused Michal is uncanny and often hilarious; he finds humour in the pathos of a disabled young man who misinterprets the world and his brother’s stories so tragically.

Gyngell’s playful and quirky portrayal of “good cop”, Tupolski, is totally engaging and impeccably timed and is a perfect foil for Stone’s gruff and vicious “bad cop”, Ariel, who reveals his softer side late in the play.

The bleak, grey set design (Gabriela Tylesova) evokes not only the distressed concrete walls of the interrogation cell but also its transparency allows grotesque fairytales and the boys’ childhood memories to be played out as an eerie half-life. Lighting (Matt Scott) transports us from past to present with evocative and subtle changes while unnerving and ghostly shadows play on the scrim. The production is enhanced by Ian McDonald’s music.

Natasha Herbert and Richard Bligh skilfully portray a range of grotesque characters and Rima Hadchiti is enchanting as the real and the fairytale Child.

The Pillowman is a cunningly wrought and disturbingly comic play.

By Kate Herbert

Show Us Your Tiddas! Melbourne Workers Theatre, May 17, 2007

 Show Us Your Tiddas! by Lou Bennett 

 Melbourne Workers Theatre

Black Box, Victorian Arts Centre 

May 17 to June 2, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 17, 2007

Show Us Your Tiddas! is Lou Bennett’s stroll down her own memory lane through song and narration.

It is an autobiographical cabaret that begins with her early childhood in her Indigenous community in Echuca.

 Bennett nursed dreams of joining her Uncles’ band, The Shades. She struggled to learn guitar, without the help of the Uncles, beginning with one single chord but determined to succeed. She finally makes it to the stage to play with their band then moves on, at seventeen, to very nervously start her singer career.

Although the show, directed by Rachael Maza, is to some degree hampered by Bennett’s limited theatrical ability, it is carried by her warmth and commitment to her own stories. The show begins rather clumsily but picks up pace, confidence and interest as Bennett’s story unfolds.

Backed by her drummer, Phil Collings and bassist, Alice Gate-Eastley, Bennett peppers her self-narration with original songs from her ten years with The Tiddas, her extremely popular, Aria Award winning Indigenous trio, in addition to some new songs of her own and a few old standards.

There are several moving moments, the first being her father’s loving and supportive farewell the day she left Echuca to search for a lesbian community that was unavailable to her in Echuca and to pursue a musical career. “Don’t you forget, I’ll always love you – no matter what,” says her dad warmly.

Another compelling story is told about Tiddas’ (which means Sisters) visit to Thursday Island, an occasion when Bennett had an enlightening experience about island culture and her relationship to her totem, the turtle.

A darker story emerges when a yobbo in a remote pub calls out, “Show us your tits”, a taunt that triggers a grim memory of familial abuse when Bennett was a teenager. This incident became a key moment in her evolution because it allowed her to see her abuser as “small and pathetic” and so to move on from the abuse.

Bennett has warmth and a raw charm that was obviously part of her success with The Tiddas from 1990 to 200. Her portrayal of her feisty and argumentative relationship with the other women in Tiddas and her life journey has pathos and a great deal of humour. What this show lacks in style and finesse it gains in truth and honesty.

By Kate Herbert

Macbeth, Bell Shakespeare, May 16, 2007

Macbeth by William Shakespeare 
Bell Shakespeare 

 Clocktower, Moonee Ponds May 16 & 17, Wyndham Cultural Centre, Werribee, May 19, Karralyka Ringwood, May 2, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 16, 2007

John Bell’s production of Macbeth focuses on the relentless repercussions of one horribly wrong decision made by Macbeth (Sean O’Shea), a celebrated general in the wars of Scotland and a favourite of the King, Duncan (Robert Alexander).

As occurs in Ancient Greek tragedies, a fatal flaw and a poor choice lead to Macbeth’s rise and fall. Driven by pure ambition and vanity he heeds the supernatural prophecy of three witches (Linda Cropper, Michelle Doake, Leon Cain) that he will become Thane of Cawdor then King of Scotland. When he and his wife conspire to execute Duncan in their own home, they set in motion a series of bloody events and immoral actions that oppose the natural order.

The soundscape (Phillip Johnston) is ominous and the evocative design (Jacob Nash) is a series of tall panels painted with a muddy river of blood with tributaries trickling across the floor and lit with filtered beams (Matt Scott). Bell seats actors on the sides of the stage amidst a clutter of battle paraphernalia under tall spears-like poles that later double as Burnham Wood.

O’Shea plays Macbeth initially as a louche and friendly fellow who is quickly overtaken by fantasies of kingship triggered by the witches. As he rides the wave of violence and success, he becomes not only crueler but also racked with profound guilt and terror at his own actions.

O’Shea gives this Macbeth, who is now too steeped in blood to retreat, an excitable and threatening edge of mania, a lack of control over his mind and actions. Macbeth cannot live with his own treachery and breaches of duty and honour.

Cropper plays Lady Macbeth, the woman behind the powerful man, with a dark sensuality and a genuinely threatening quality. She is as dangerous to Macbeth as the witches but, like her husband, cannot abide her loss of humanity. Her decline into sleepwalking delirium and her subsequent suicide become credible.

The supporting cast are accomplished. David Whitney is commanding as Macduff and his grief at the murder of his family is palpable. Alexander has dignity as Duncan and Richard Sydenham’s Banquo is imposing.

Bell directs the play with a taut hand and brings the violence to the stage in the stylised battle scenes (Felicity Steel) in an age when CGI usually does all the work for an audience.

By Kate Herbert

Checklist for an Armed Robber, Theatre @ Risk, May 12, 2007

 Checklist for an Armed Robber by Vanessa Bates by Theatre@Risk

 Trades Hall, Carlton,  May 12 to 27, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 12, 2007

Theatre @ Risk’s production of Checklist for an Armed Robber is inspired. Chris Bendall and his cast (Paul Ashcroft, Ryan Gibson, Natalia Novikova, Edwina Wren) interpret with imagination and polish Vanessa Bates’ cunningly wrought documentary-style script.

Bates docu-drama interweaves two stories of violence and invasion taken from actual newspaper articles. One concerns the a Russian journalist who is called to negotiate with Chechen rebels’ during the hostage situation in a theatre in Moscow and the second a young heroin addict who tries to rob a bookstore in Newcastle.

The four actors shift effortlessly between the two stories, playing multiple characters. Bendall seats them in plush, red velvet theatre seats, behind which are tall shelves stacked with books. Within this simple design (Isla Shaw) the two stories bleed together. Whether seated or moving around the chairs, the actors people the stage with a parade of characters, in turn embodying frightened hostages, cynical rebel fighters, foreign journalists, the bookshop owner or customers.

Dramatic and evocative lighting by (Nick Merrilees) and an ominous soundscape (Jethro Woodward) add to the sense of menace and impending doom.

The cast play several roles including various Moscow audience members, and all are three-dimensional and completely believable. In addition, each plays a central character.

Ashcroft captures the vulnerability and panic of the young and disenfranchised armed robber in Newcastle. His Aussie accent is broad and his predicament credible. Gibson, as the grinning and dangerous Rebel Leader, strikes fear into even our own theatre audience. These hostages could be us.

Novikova provides a moving and authentic portrayal of the Russian journalist and Wren’s mature and womanly bookshop owner is sympathetic.

The production is sleek and delicately balanced by director, Bendall who brings clarity and precision to the text. The content of the play subtly investigates the variety of modes in which humans deal with fear and the different manifestations of courage in the face of danger. It also is a study of our willingness to understand the plight of those who take drastic action and how we try to find some manner of communicating with them.

Checklist for an Armed Robber is a thoroughly professional and compelling production on all levels.

By Kate Herbert

Hamlet, Eagle’s Nest Theatre, May 11, 2007

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Eagle’s Nest Theatre

Northcote Town Hall, session times alternate with The Birds, until May 20, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 11, 2007

Performing Shakespeare requires considerable skill, insight and creative interpretation in a contemporary world. 

Hamlet is one of the most complex of his plays and needs a deft directorial hand and an exceptional talent in the title role. This production, despite all its best efforts, has neither.

The cast seems to be a mixture of professional and amateur actors, most of whom lack the technique to penetrate the meaning or poetry of the text or to deliver the dialogue convincingly. This is not to say that there is no merit in some of the performances.

James Adler, as Hamlet, is better when on full voice in his more impassioned moments such as in the final scene when he is physically engaged in the sword fight with Laertes (Jude Hansen) and his vocal expression is stronger.

His earlier interpretation of Hamlet’s grief, feigned madness and private moral struggle relies too heavily on an internalised and often inaudible vocal quality - a devoicing. This choice diminishes the intensity of Hamlet’s moral dilemma and reduces him to a muttering and indecisive churl.

Bruce Woolley, as Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, finds some emotional range in the character, shifting from strutting and rutting newly crowned King to, as is revealed in his soliloquy, a guilt-ridden, fearful and frightened coward who fears repercussions of his murder of his brother, the former King and Hamlet’s father.

Claudius is recently married to Gertrude. Liz McColl seems under-confident in the role of the passionate older bride. Her voice is weak and the character lacks the requisite dignity and grace. Phil Zachariah captures something of the dottiness of old Polonius, although he overplays his mumbling at times.

Aimee Neistat misses the layers of Ophelia’s ravings and Sam Spalding is miscast and out of his depth in the important role of Horatio. Hansen is suitably vengeful as Laertes but is a little melodramatic.

Director, Janine Cowie, has bitten off more than she can chew with this play and her ensemble is too inexperienced to handle its complexities. The staging is clumsy, the cast stand and deliver far too much and find little layering to the characters or their relationships. It is tempting to stop listening to such beautiful speeches being poorly played.

We commend companies doing the classics – but please, do them well or not at all.

By Kate Herbert

Mommie and the Minister by Sisters Grimm, May 10, 2007

Mommie and the Minister by Ash Flanders and Declan Greene

By Sisters Grimm

At La Mama,  May 10 to 20, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 10, 2007

Mommie and the Minister, by Ash Flanders and Declan Greene, is a genuinely outrageous and hilarious short play. 

It has overtones of John Waters high camp movies, Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the absurdism of Eugene Ionesco.

Edmund (Flanders) and Harriet Lovely (Gillian Perry) spend their days in the basement of their home playing hide and seek, training a rat circus or confiding in Kitty (Matt Hickey), a painting of a cat that talks only to Edmund. They have been locked in the cellar for twenty years since Mommie decided that they needed to learn to show her a little respect before she would introduce them to her friend, the Minister who visits daily for tea.

In fact, Mommie is simply a vindictive, brutal harridan who lies to, brutalises and starves her lovelies, keeping them obedient and terrified. When this cruel narrative is embedded in high campery, it becomes screamingly funny. The script is clever, cynical and dripping with irony.

Greene directs the show with a deft hand, maintaining a swift pace and dynamic rhythm. The performances by Flanders and Perry are delectable and casting a drag queen, Missfit/Gerard Williams, as Mommie is inspired.

Perry, a compelling clown, plays the dizzy, disturbed Harriet with wicked humour, superb timing and a face that changes in a nanosecond. Covered in filth and wearing a lacy child’s frock, she throws toddler tantrums and seduces her brother with her clumsy suggestive behaviour.

Flanders gives the insipid Edmund a Little Lord Fauntleroy tone. He cunningly balances Edmund’s complete idiocy with his burgeoning awareness of Mommie’s treachery. He minces around his basement, sullenly seeks privacy with his pal, Kitty, or attends meaningless appointments in the corner, by the bicycle wheel.

The “children” lick themselves clean, eat slops that Mommie provides, follow her rules, fear her temper and wait for her unlikely approval.

Missfit, dressed in various tailored women’s outfits, false eye lashes and sporting pancake laid on with a trowel, is truly grotesque. He plays Mommie with an edge of menace and a veneer of gentility that crumbles when her irrational rules are broken or when she is taken hostage by the children. Her final scene is almost Boris Karloff in style and teeters on the brink of Grand Guignol bloodiness.

Funny, funny, funny! Go see it.

By Kate Herbert

OT: Chronicles of the Old Testament, Malthouse, May 10, 2007

 OT: Chronicles of the Old Testament by Uncle Semolina (& Friends)
by Malthouse Theatre

Beckett Theatre, Malthouse,  May 10 to 27, 2007

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 10, 2007

OT: Chronicles of the Old Testament investigates the myths of the Old Testament without CGI or complex sound technology. 

It intentionally employs low-tech theatrical conventions, toys and game playing to illuminate the biblical stories that shaped the beliefs and behaviour of generations.

Devised and directed by Christian Leavesley and Phil Rolfe, the concept works in part. A few stories are effectively illustrated while some are glossed over with a line of text or an image and a couple are unintelligible.

The cluttered, almost claustrophobic stage is constructed of huge, scrappy sheets of cardboard and is littered with primary-coloured, plastic nursery chairs and baskets overflowing with toys.

Four young, agile actors, (Luke Ryan, Phillip McInnes, Amelia Best, Katherine Tonkin) enact the stories like children attempting to understand through play a complex, confusing adult world.

A bearded, mute old man (Peter Snow) is Yahweh, God of the Jews. Like a careless, absent father, he sits silently watching the children’s antics, rarely intervening, disappearing intermittently to the distress of his children, through a door ripped in the cardboard.

Samson’s story is a highlight. Ryan self-narrates Samson’s battles, playing Samson as a foul-mouthed yobbo with a grudge and mighty strength. More poignant is the interpretation of the Trials of Job, told as a failed stand-up routine by a comic making bad jokes at the expense of the suffering Job.

Projections provide lyrics for Joseph’s song, Dream Interpreter, that is presented as a garage-band song using trashy home amplification. Lot’s Daughters is a disturbing view of ancient incest and Abraham, his wife, Sarah and servant, Hagar, wear cardboard masks of television stars.

Toys play multiple roles, manipulated by the actors. A bear and a Ken doll play Jacob and Esau and Humphrey Bear and other dolls have sex on the floor.

Despite its shambolic form, this show raises questions about humanity and God. Is Yahweh a vindictive or merciful or jealous God? The Bible is splattered with the blood of violent tribes and human brutality. What is God like if he made us in his own image? How do we understand his message? How do children learn the value of human life if their lessons are in such stories?

Is it any wonder our world is in such a state of chaos and despair?

By Kate Herbert