The Sound of Waves, Nov 28-30, 2008 ***

The Sound of Waves by Gareth Ellis

Where and When: VCA, Nov 28-30 (Finished)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

The Sound of Waves is a whimsical fairy tale and an allegory for performer, Jodie Harris’s own experience as a young deaf woman who received a cochlear implant then studied acting and voice at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Harris portrays a child who is slowly becoming a fish, growing gills, losing her hearing and choosing to live at the bottom of the ocean with the sound of waves and the company of other fish.

This performance is captivating on several levels for the audience. Harris’s performance is lyrical and physical and we are constantly aware of her voice bearing only occasional signs of her deafness after her years of Actor-Vocal training with Geraldine Cook (Head of Voice at VCA).

The play is preceded by an extraordinary seminar about Ms. Cook’s vocal training with deaf teenagers with cochlear implants. This program movingly demonstrates what Ms. Cook describes as “The joy of hearing and the joy of being heard.” It was a joy to be hearing it.

By Kate Herbert

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Nov 27, 2008

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead 

By Tom Stoppard, PMD Productions

Where and When: Chapel off Chapel, Nov 27 to Dec 13, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 27, 2008

Stars:***

Tom Stoppard’s play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, cunningly peers into the private world of Rosencrantz (Miranda McGee) and Guildenstern (Luke Lennox), characters from Hamlet who are off-stage for the majority of Shakespeare’s play.

Stoppard investigates the off-stage world of Shakespeare’s two thinly drawn characters and immerses them in a comical existential dilemma. They do not know where they came from, why they are there or how to fill their time while awaiting instructions.

The pair is intermittently interrupted by the real action of Hamlet. The Prince himself greets them, the Players entertain them and the King and Queen consult them. The rest of the time they play a coin toss game that defeats probability by always turning up heads.

The play is a black comedy. We know Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are hanged at the end of Hamlet but in Stoppard’s play they are plagued by foreboding and suspect their own fate. They are confused not only about their role but are even unsure which of them is Rosencrantz and which Guildenstern.

McGee and Lennox, directed by Paul Knox, are an entertaining double act as playful clowns struggling to understand the darker machinations of their world. The other actors are less effective performing the excerpts from Hamlet that require a complete understanding of Shakespeare’s language, character and narrative.

By Kate Herbert

Duets for Actor and Musician,Nov 25, 2008

 Duets for Actor and Musician

By Dina Ross, Kelly Trounson & Anna Schoo, by A Is For Atlas

Where and When: Abbottsford Convent, until Nov 29, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 25, 2008

Stars:***

The title says it all; this production comprises three duets for one actor accompanied by a musician. Each piece also involves the writer of the monologue, a visual artist who provides a design element and the director, Xan Colman, who simply but imaginatively draws the three works into one program. 

The musical instruments (french horn, clarinet and violin) provide a second voice in the stories and the musicians interact physically with the actors creating a metaphorical layer.

MRI (Dina Ross) is an intense depiction of a woman undergoing an MRI scan when she is confronted by looming paralysis while Car Park (Anna Schoo) is a fretful monologue by an anxious office worker. Down In The Dirt (Kelly Trounson) portrays a quirky and funny view of a woman obsessed with death and with her prosthetic leg.

By Kate Herbert

Death in White Linen, Nov 21, 2008

Death in White Linen

By Michael Dalley, Full Tilt

Where and When: Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, until Nov 29, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 21, 2008

Stars:***

Michael Dalley has an exceptional facility for writing and performing satirical songs as seen in his previous shows such as Vaudeville X and Intimate Apparel.  The witty and barbed lyrics featured in Death in White Linen are as clever as his earlier shows but, this time, Dalley performs solo – apart from his accompanist, John Thorn, on piano.

Dalley peoples the stage with vividly drawn, very funny characters. He opens with the camp, old, vaudeville show host of the “Shitey Village Cruise Line”. His accent is broad Northern England and his jokes are riddled with innuendo, “how’s your father” dialogue and peppy music hall style songs.

The story line is loose and falls to pieces later in the show but it is simply the washing line upon which are hung the songs and characters that are the features of the show. It focuses on Brian Kennedy, a working class Liverpool upstart whose father, a docker, dies when hit by a crate of good Irish linen.

Brian, after winning a scholarship to an English Catholic Grammar School then emigrating to Australia with his widowed mother, claws his way to the top of the Melbourne social scene, becomes a personal injury barrister and marries money.

Dalley’s depiction of Brian is a scathing portrait of a social climbing lawyer who denies his roots and eliminates all telltale signs of his accent and class. Brian’s wife, Suzanne Angus-Hereford, is big-boned and a rowing fetishist – but filthy rich.

Dalley is more sympathetic to Teresa, Brian’s seamstress mother, who wants only the best for her son. She has some of the best lines including, “He has a face like a farmer’s arse well-slapped”. Brian’s rise in social status is accompanied by witty songs including Observing the Mating Habits of the Bourgeoisie.

Brian’s obsession with the Roman Empire causes him to name his sons Maximus and Cassius. The boys are hilarious upper class twits. Cassius is the resentful loser who cannot hit a cricket ball and Maximus is the bruiser who captains the Grammar School eleven.

This smug prat’s world-view is, “Invest in the trappings of wealth and the substance will come.” He is an inveterate snob, a useless father and an excellent target for Dalley’s caustic satire.

By Kate Herbert

One Cloud, Nov 20, 2008 *1/2

One Cloud 

By Shannon Murdoch

Where and When: Theatreworks, until Nov 29, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: *1/2

One Cloud tells the story of an isolated, repressed and peculiar island community that lives according to patriarchal rituals, rigid social conventions and a rejection of all outside influence. 

When a scatty, vodka-drinking, modern young woman (Kylie Trounson) washes up on their shores, the residents are initially polarised about her presence. They either love her or hate her because she has disturbed their plain and simple life. They are as weird and insular as The Brethren.

The script is unnecessarily oblique and repetitive in an attempt to be poetic or non-naturalistic. This could be a 20 minute play. With more imaginative direction the script might have potential but the direction (Sarah McCusker) is clumsy, leaving the actors looking awkward and crowded on a cramped stage.

By Kate Herbert

Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat, Nov 13, 2008

Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat

By Monkey Baa adapted from a book by Stephen Michael King

Where and When: Fairfax Studio, Victorian Arts Centre, Nov 10-14, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

About 600 primary school children saw Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat at the Fairfax over five days. 

Three lively performers directed by John Saunders and accompanied by musician, Trevor Brown, engage and delight the children. 

It is a simple, whimsical story about Milli (Crystal Hegedis) a young boot maker who is bored senseless with making plain old work boots. Milli’s great love is creating new playthings from discarded objects. 

When travelling performers, Jack (Tony Harvey) and his Dancing Cat (Vincent Hooper) arrive in town Milli exchanges new boots for dance lessons and makes two new friends.  The tiny tots were captivated for the entire hour of song, dance and slapstick.

By Kate Herbert

Danny and The Deep Blue Sea, Nov 9, 2008 ***

Danny and The Deep Blue Sea

By John Patrick Shanley, Human Sacrifice Theatre

Where and When: Chapel off Chapel Thurs to Sun Nov 9 to Nov 23, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 9, 2008

Stars:***

Danny and The Deep Blue Sea is a gritty piece of American realism by John Patrick Shanley. Danny (Justin Hosking) and Roberta (Tania Lentini) are two damaged New Yorkers who meet in a Bronx bar. There is a violent edge to the start of the play and Hosking is credible as the troubled Danny who has a very short fuse and a habit of picking fights after drinking too much.

What follows is a gentler and strangely romantic interaction between Danny and Roberta, a young mum who is looking for human contact. Roberta takes Danny to her home where she lives with her parents and her child and they grapple, argue, dream a little and hope for a better and more loving life ­– together. This is a love story that looks hopeless but might just work in some insane way.

Hosking and Lentini play these characters with sympathy and sensitivity. Danny is volatile, unpredictable and dangerous but Hosking explores his soft underbelly while Tania is erratic and needy but strangely lovable. Shanley’s play, directed by Lucy Freeman, is a short, edgy drama with a heart.

By Kate Herbert

Macbeth Re-Arisen, Nov 6, 2008 **

Macbeth Re-Arisen

By David Mence by White Whale Theatre

Where and When: Trades Hall, Nov 6 to Nov 23, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 6, 2008

Stars:**

Macbeth Re-Arisen is a parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth – with zombies. Yes, Macbeth rises from the dead and rallies an army of the undead to help him retake the Scottish throne. 

The play was first staged at Melbourne University and it still feels like a student production. The script is written with a nod to Elizabethan English and is peppered with quotes from Shakespeare’s tragedies and it would benefit from a vigorous edit, particularly of some of the monologues. 

The dialogue is generally florid and over-written in an attempt to replicate Shakespeare. (Why use one word when you can use ten?) The production is most successful when it does not take itself seriously and lets fly with some mad, slapstick zombie action.

By Kate Herbert

Menopause the Musical, Nov 5, 2008 ***

Menopause The Musical

By Jeanie Linders, HIT Productions

Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne, Nov 5 to 9, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

Menopause The Musical, written by Jeanie Linders, is back with its jokes about hot flushes, night sweats and bad moods. This is “identification theatre” in the extreme. 

Four actor-singers of a certain age play diverse characters who meet in a battle over underwear on a sale table. There is the corporate executive, a hippy farmer, a mousy country housewife and an insecure, ageing television soap star.

They sing classic songs from the 60s and 70s with new lyrics that reflect the horrors of menopause and the irrepressible of spirit of these women. Chain Chain Chain is retitled Change of Life, I Will Survive becomes I Am Awake, I’m Having A Hot Flush is sung to Heat Wave and Pills is a song about anti-depressants – “I love them so, I always will”.

By Kate Herbert

A Tribute to Danny Kaye, Nov 8, 2008

A Tribute to Danny Kaye

By Russell Fletcher

Where and When: The Spiegeltent, Arts Centre, Nov 8 & 15, 2pm

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

Russell Fletcher’s tribute show will tickle Danny Kaye fans. Fletcher bears an uncanny resemblance to the redheaded joker. 

He does not attempt a detailed impersonation but rather embodies Kaye’s style and vitality while recreating routines and songs from his live shows and movies (Hans Christian Anderson, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Court Jester).

The frenetic wordplay, galloping songs, madcap storytelling, vocal sound effects and witty interaction with the audience conjure Kaye’s spirit. 

Fletcher revels in the sheer silliness of Kaye’s inventive comedy. He relates the entire story of The Little Fiddle and the evil Glockenspiel in disguise. 

As the belligerent German conductor he leads Kaye’s rendition of the Flight of the Bumblebee with audience members playing mime instruments.

The final Court Jester song convinces us that we need nutty comic geniuses such as Danny Kaye.

By Kate Herbert

Yibyung. Company B & Malthouse, Nov, 4, 2008 ***1/2

Yibiyung  

By Dallas Winmar, Company B & Malthouse Theatre

Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, Nov 4 to  16, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 4, 2008

Stars:***1/2

Published in Herald Sun in Nov 2008

 Yibiyung, by Dallas Winmar, is a poignant story about Lily (Miranda Tapsell), an aboriginal child taken from her family early in the 20^th century. Her journey takes her from childhood with her mother (Jada Alberts), baby brother and Uncle (David Page) in her homeland to mission schools then to her work as a domestic servant.

Wesley Enoch’s production, with an inspired design by Jacob Nash, is performed on a stage empty except for one enormous tree. The space feels expansive because the vast Australian sky is replicated in clusters of white chalk stars drawn on black walls and lit by ultra-violet lights.

It is difficult to tell an entire life story on stage so Winmar compresses the story of Lily to encompass the years from just before she was stolen to just after she went into service at 16. There is a simple beauty in the first half of the play and the Lily’s family life is portrayed with joy and sensitivity.

Stars, or “djindi” as she calls them, are central to the tale, providing a backdrop to Lily’s life. Her mother’s story about the birth of the Southern Cross is compelling when told in her tribal language and later in English. Five women escape from male violence to find freedom in the sky as stars. Freedom is Lily’s aim throughout the story.

David Page, as Lily’s Uncle (“Kongkan” in her language), has charm, humour and warmth. Her relationship with her Uncle calls Lily home throughout her exile in the white man’s world. It is the grief of a child being taken from family that makes the first half of the play so moving.

The petite and pretty Tapsell makes believable her transition from playful child to distressed, rebellious teenager then to polite servant with a desire to escape. The ensemble of nine provides the rest of Lily’s world. Melodie Reynolds is heart-rending as Djindi, the nameless child who does not know her family. Jimi Bani is delightfully physical as the high-spirited boy, Smiley.

Several characters represent the diverse views of the white community that controlled Lily’s life. Sibylla Budd is luminous as the tragic, well meaning but finally destructive Lady. Russell Dykstra is versatile in multiple roles: kind but powerless policeman, patriarchal and abusive doctor and innocuous farmer.

The simplicity and truth of Lily’s tale of imprisonment and freedom makes a touching play.

By Kate Herbert

Charles Dickens- A Christmas Carol, Nov 2-16, 2008

Charles Dickens = A Christmas Carol 

By Eagles Nest Theatre

The Speigeltent, Victorian Arts Centre, 4pm Nov 2 & 9, 2pm Nov 16, 2008 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 2, 2008

Stars: ***1/2

Phil Zachariah performs Charles Dickens’ famous morality tale, A Christmas Carol, alone but he cunningly peoples the stage with Dickens’ characters. The stage is empty but for a wooden lectern at which Zachariah sometimes stands to read a leather-bound book. All this is reminiscent of the manner in which Dickens read his own work for the public.

The narrator’s voice is ever-present in Dickens’ writing as a commentator upon characters and action and Zachariah uses this narrative voice to effectively evoke the entire environment of A Christmas Carol. Dressed in a formal tail coat and sporting a Victorian beard, Zachariah transforms from  the whining, wizened, old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, into the parade of characters that surround that old niggard.

The changes between locations and characters are swift and efficient, reminding us of the skill and magic of a great theatrical storyteller. Bob Cratchett’s poor home and meagre Christmas feast are vividly depicted and his tribe of children, including the ailing Tiny Tim, come to life. The streets and houses of Dickens’ London are skilfully described to us with Dickens’ words and Zachariah’s resonant voice and characterisations.

By Kate Herbert

Spontaneous Broadway, Nov 1, 2008 ***

Spontaneous Broadway

Where and When: Spiegeltent, Victorian Arts Centre, Saturdays 4pm, Nov 1, 8, 15, 29, Dec 6, 13, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Nov 1, 2008

Stars:***

SPONTANEOUS BROADWAY is an improvisational musical format created in the US and based on the promotion of new musicals by a cheesy Broadway producer (Russell Fletcher). 

At the Spiegeltent you can see a totally original musical comedy each week when four performers (this week featured Julia Zemiro, Geoff Paine, Scott Brennan, Rebecca De Unamuno) hit the stage as stereotypical music theatre darlings.

Audience contribute possible song titles that the cast improvise with accompaniment by pianist, John Thorn. The show I saw boasted such titles as, Ikea is the Gutter That Drains My Happiness from a new musical called Kvaaaart, a story about marriages that are broken in that Swedish furniture labyrinth. Plenty of laughs.

By Kate Herbert

Spinning Straw -Mounting a Production, Oct 29, 2008

Mounting a Production

Spinning Straw, by playwright, Kate Herbert
Carlton Courthouse Theatre, Oct 29 to Nov 15, 2008
 

Jenny Lovell, Julia Markovski, Geoff Wallis in Spinning Straw. Photo; Joe Calleri

Creating a new play can be joyous, playful and endlessly rewarding – if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, all the demons of theatre conspire to make it a living hell. Think of all the time and effort, all the things that can go wrong when planning a wedding. The wedding goes well – then you have to do it again every night for three weeks. That’s theatre.

I have been luckier than most in the development of my new play, Spinning Straw, being blessed with three talented and intelligent performers who challenge me as both writer and director. Yes, I am doing both because, when writing a script, I create not only the words but also the entire vision of the piece on stage. The sound, lights and design form a background for the voices and physicality of the actors.

During rehearsal, Director Me often asks questions of Writer Me. “What did you mean here? Can we change this or cut that line?” I swap hats and Writer Me looks puzzled then responds. The script changes in the rehearsal room with actors. When I hear dialogue coming out of their mouths sometimes lines need tinkering – or cutting.

Spinning Straw is a comic-tragedy; it’s both funny and grim. I can’t seem to write a play that is strictly one or t’other. This is challenging for the actors as they map their path from characters dealing with alcoholism or family violence to mad, cartoonish creatures in the Rumpelstiltskin fairy-tale.

The play is about a young, pregnant boozer and pill popper called Annie – she prefers to be called Pig – and her older neighbour, Margaret, who tries to keep Pig sober during her pregnancy.

The script evolved from various stimuli over the past year. I was moved by a documentary about long-term heroin addicts trying to straighten up when they had a new baby and by the public concern about widespread, teenage binge drinking. I was horrified when my tertiary students told me that they got plastered from Friday night to Sunday every week.

I saw another program about the high incidence of teen pregnancy and spoke to someone who worked in adoption and foster care. The drama work I did with kids in detention gave me a background to the dysfunctional home life for Pig.

We are bombarded with so many romanticised images of infants that we forget that babies are hard work. Trying to kick a substance habit while dealing with a newborn must be a nightmare and managing a baby when still a child yourself must be terrifying and confusing.

If you are wondering how this play could be a comedy, this crazy kid, Pig, is funny despite her failings. Se emerged fully formed from the back of my mind and continues to amuse and astonish me.

Kate Herbert

The Big Quiet, Oct 27, 2008 ***

The Big Quiet

 La Mama Explorations Season,  by AMES

La Mama, Oct 27, 28 & 29, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Oct 27, 2008

Stars:***

The Big Quiet is a community project developed by professional theatre workers (Gorkem Acaroglu & Christian Leavesley) with a group of young, recently arrived immigrants and refugees who are studying English with Noble Park AMES (Australian Multicultural Education Services). 

As part of the La Mama Explorations season, it allows this group of non-actors to explore story and language. The charm of the piece lies in the warmth and commitment of the performers.

Each person describes his or her experience of the silence that they perceive in Australia, having left countries that are heavily populated, noisy and bustling. Two gently absurdist stories involve the confusion arising from one person believing he is in an airport while the other thinks she is in her own home. The audience of fellow language students were delighted with the comedy.

Explorations continues with eight more shows running for three days each until November 23.

By Kate Herbert

The Mysteries of the Convent, Sept 25, 2008 ***

 The Mysteries of the Convent 08

By Peepshow Inc.

 Abbotsford Convent, Wed to Sun, Sep 26 to Oct 5

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

The Mysteries of the Convent, a return season of the 1007 show by Peepshow Inc. draws on the history of the Abbotsford Convent, formerly run by the contemplative Good Shepherd Order of nuns but now an artists’ precinct. 

It is a sprawling site by the Yarra and is steeped in the fraught history of its original residents.

This eccentric and often fascinating, site-specific performance incorporates puppetry, visual elements, music and comedy. 

The audience goes on a guided tour and encounters both real and animated characters who represent the nuns and young women who lived and suffered in the convent. 

They appear and disappear mysteriously through doors, stairways and even out of laundry baskets.

By Kate Herbert

In The Arms of a Lion, Sept 25, 2008 **

In The Arms of a Lion 

By Peter Van Der Merwe (OK)

Northcote Town Hall, Tues to Sun until Oct 4

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Sept 25, 2008

Stars: **

Born in South Africa, Peter Van Der Merwe was 10 when Apartheid was dismantled in 1990. Although he missed the horror years of abuse and segregation, he lived through the crisis of the aftermath in the 90s.

In his solo show he depicts, through diverse characters, the racism and other prejudice that still exists after radical political change. Surprisingly, Van Der Merwe focuses more attention on the sexual prejudice visited upon his central narrator, a young gay man, than on racial issues.

The character tells the story of coming out to his bigoted, Christian fundamentalist family. Van Der Merwe plays the boy’s mother despairing about her fallen angel son and his sister who accuses him of destroying their family’s untarnished, white history.

The characterisations dealing specifically with more outrageous racists are most successful. It is chilling to see the smugly smiling South African Defence Forces officer looking like Hitler Youth and giving a lecture to children about terrorist bombs. Van Der Merwe’s portrayal of a fundamentalist preacher reveals the twisted rhetoric that justified racial abuse by deeming it to be God’s will.

The direction (Penelope Chater) does not mask the episodic structure and lack of a clear through line. Costume changes and shifts between characters interrupt dramatic development. However, there are some fascinating stories about South Africa.

Kate Herbert

Samuel Beckett: Endgame 1958-2008 , Oct 20, 2008 ***

Samuel Beckett: Endgame 1958-2008  

By Eleventh Hour Theatre, Melbourne International Arts Festival

170 Leicester St., Fitzroy, Oct 20 to Nov 8, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Oct 20, 2008

Stars: ***

The Eleventh Hour production of Beckett’s Endgame has four admirable actors (David Tredinnick, Peter Houghton, Evelyn Krape, Richard Bligh) who display an exceptional understanding of Beckett’s style and form.

They capture the absurdity, the existential dilemmas, the slapstick and verbal comedy and the eccentricity of the characters and dialogue.

Endgame, in classic Beckett style, is a grim, comic view of human existence. It highlights human foibles, physical weaknesses, ageing, desperation and confusion as well as the awful reality of our personal power relationships.

Directors, William Henderson and Anne Thompson focus effectively on the physicalisation of characters and adherence to Beckett’s principles of style. Julie Renton’s design uses distressed walls and canvas to create a grey environment that is highlighted by Niklas Pajanti’s dusky, evocative lighting. Miwako Abe adds atmospheric live violin.

By Kate Herbert

21.100.100, Oct 16, 2008 ***

21.100.100

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne International Arts Festival

200 Gertrude St. Fitzroy, Tues to Sun until Oct 25

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

One could spend hours perched on tiny stools at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces gallery, listening to this sound installation. 

100 21^st century sound artists from different countries around the globe are represented here. In two clinical, white gallery rooms one picks up headphones that are devoted to each artist to listen to each design.

The works range from vinyl, techno-music through environmental sounds, designs echoing Japanese traditional music, remixed voices, random industrial sounds and many more. It’s free, so you can pop in for a minute or an hour.

Kate Herbert

Echolocation, October 2008 ***

Echolocation

by Alex Stahl, Melbourne International Arts Festival
Walkway under Princes Bridge, all day,  Oct 16 to 25, 2008
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***
 
If you walk out of Fed Square, along the Yarra walkway under Princes Bridge, you will find a little sign that tell you to call a number and leave a voice message, any message. 

Then walk under the bridge and above your head is a line of speakers that look like lamp shades. Out of the speakers comes distorted bird song recorded from birds that flock under the bridge. 

Your voice will be “remapped, remixed, reverberated,” to merge with the birdsong. I dare you to recognise yourself. 

What a great idea! And it’s free.