The Sublime, Aug 28, 2014 ***1/2

Written by Brendan Cowell, Melbourne Theatre Company
Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, Aug 28 to Oct 4, 2014
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:***1/2

Full review also published in Herald Sun online, Fri Aug 29. It will then be in print on Sunday Aug 31. KH

 MTC The Sublime: Josh McConville (Dean), Ben O’Toole (Liam), Anna Samson (Amber) Pic JEFF BUSBY

What happens in Thailand stays in Thailand – or so the rowdy footy players believe when they go on their alcohol-fuelled, post-season trip in Brendan Cowell’s play, The Sublime.

AFL star player and all-round-nice-guy, Dean (Josh McConville), accompanies this Rugby League team trip to keep an eye on his boisterous, rugby-playing, younger brother, Liam (Ben O’Toole).

When Dean foolishly agrees to take ambitious, teenage athlete, Amber (Anna Samson), and her friend on the trip, he unwittingly triggers a disastrous series of events, the repercussions of which are far-reaching.

At the centre of the plot is an alarming, sexist culture that permeates the football codes and this is most evident in the unrestrained, sexual debauchery and explicit language that may offend some patrons.

What is even more ominous is the pattern of behaviour that not only covers up sexual assault and violence, but also tolerates it as boyish high spirits or, even worse, encourages it as a team-bonding activity.

The Sublime is a disturbing story that is made more distressing because it begins in a light, playful and comic style that contrasts starkly with its grim and disquieting later scenes.

Rolling Thunder Vietnam, Fri Aug 22, 2014 ****1/2

Rolling Thunder Vietnam – Songs That Defined A Generation
Written by Bryce Hallett, concept by Scott Barton
Friday Aug 22, 2014, at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ****1/2

Review also published in Herald Sun online on Mon Aug 25 and in print thereafter. KH

 Kimberley Hodgson; Matt Pearce; Tom Oliver; Will Ewing; Wes Carr; Photo Dylan Evans

The Vietnam War and the vehement, anti-war protests that surrounded it inspired a flood of unforgettable rock songs that defined the politics and culture of the younger generation during the 1960’s and 70s.

This impressive concert drama, Rolling Thunder Vietnam – Songs That Defined a Generation, threads these classic songs amongst personal stories about Aussie and US soldiers and their loved ones to create an outstanding depiction of the times.

The band is tight and hot under Chong Lim’s musical direction and the singers are bold and harmonious, but the added emotional layer of four characters’ diverse experiences of conscription, war and homecoming makes this show both a musical and dramatic triumph.

At the heart of the narrative is country boy and newly conscripted soldier, Johnny, played with naive patriotism, courage and warmth by Tom Oliver.

 As his digger mate, Andy, Wes Carr is loyal and tough-minded and the two are living examples of a Vietnamese girl’s quoted description of Aussies as, “funny, nervous, rugged and kind.”

Matthew Pearce is compelling and statuesque as Thomas, Johnny’s pal who was an exchange student in Australia before becoming a US Marine. Pearce’s singing is powerful and his depiction of the committed Marine’s disillusionment with his country’s warmongering is heartbreaking.

The Effect, Aug 21, 2014 ***

Written by Lucy Prebble, by Melbourne Theatre Company, 
At The Sumner, MTC Southbank Theatre, Aug 21 until Sept 20, 2014
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:***
This is a short review that is NOT for Herald Sun and will appear only on this blog. KH

 Zahra Newman (Connie), Nathaniel Dean (Tristan) Photo © Jeff Busby

A play about the use and misuse of anti-depressant medication is timely given that Australia is now one of the world’s leading users of such drugs.

The Effect, by UK playwright, Lucy Prebble, peers through a window at the near-disastrous impact of a new anti-depressant on two participants in a drug trial and the behaviour of two doctors (William McInnes, Sigrid Thornton) associated with the trial.

The two trial guinea pigs are Connie (Zahra Newman), a whip-smart but annoying, middle class student of psychology and Tristan (Nathaniel Dean), a young, working class man who wanted some extra cash to travel the world.

The two fall for each other and, when the chemical effects of the drug become confused with the effects of lust and attraction, the trial is compromised as is the health and well being of the pair.

The issues are provocative and compelling but the play is not. Prebble’s dialogue is so weighed down by research information, that the dialogue becomes didactic, expository and dull, particularly in the first half.

This strips all four characters of any distinctive voice, personality or emotional and psychological complexity – which is ironic when one considers that antidepressants are known to flatten mood. The doctors’ characters particularly are underwritten.

Thérèse Raquin, Aug 19, 2014 **1/2

Adapted from Emile Zola by Gary Abrahams
Dirty Pretty Theatre
At Theatre Works, Aug 16 to 30,  2014
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: **1/2
Full review also published online in Herald Sun on Tues Aug 20, 2014 and later in print. KH

The themes in Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola’s 1867 novel, have much in common with soap opera – lust, murder and madness.

Gary Abrahams’ stage adaptation tends toward melodrama rather than soap, employing the histrionic acting style, heightened emotion, realistic set, and even the vivid, red velvet curtain of 19^th century melodramas.

Thérèse (Elizabeth Nabben) is unhappily married to her cousin, Camille (Paul Blenheim), a whining hypochondriac who is pampered by his controlling mother, Mme. Raquin (Marta Kaczmarek) who treats Thérèse as a servant.

When Camille brings Laurent (Aaron Walton), his self-serving work colleague and former childhood friend, to the flat, Thérèse and Laurent begin a torrid love affair that leads them to plot and carry out Camille’s murder.

Thérèse and Laurent lurch from one emotional disaster to another, leading to their mutual demise – which again resembles a soap opera plot.

The early scenes resemble Chekhov’s naturalistic “scenes from life”, but the production rapidly and disconcertingly shifts from restraint to bursts of florid dialogue, the characters lose depth, becoming two-dimensional, and the acting loses any subtlety.

Showboat, Aug 16, 2014 ****

Music by Jerome Kern; book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; based on novel by Edna Ferber
By the Production Company

State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, Aug 16 to 24, 2014

Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:****

Full review also published in Herald Sun online on Monday Aug 18 and later in print. KH

Showboat - Alinta Chidzey and Gareth Keegan; pic Jeff Busby

Show Boat may have hit the musical theatre stage in 1927 but it echoes compelling, 21st century issues including racial intolerance, family breakdown and the desire for fame and a quick buck.

It features some of the most memorable and singable tunes by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, but Show Boat also broke boundaries by successfully weaving serious themes into a perky, musical theatre spectacle.

The story spans the years of 1887 to 1927 and tracks the lives of the Hawks family, owners of the Mississippi show boat, Cotton Blossom, and its performers, stage hands and dock workers.

The vivid, cheerful veneer of this floating world of melodrama and music hall acts, masks an underbelly of prejudice and doomed love.

This production, directed deftly by Roger Hodgman, uses a pared down version of Show Boat that effectively narrows the breadth of the original, expansive show.

The result is a taut, captivating production with accomplished and versatile leads, a balance of operatic and musical theatre voices, sassy choreography (Dana Jolly), a nimble orchestra and tight musical direction (Kellie Dickerson).

Perhaps the most recognisable tune in Show Boat is Ol’ Man River, made famous by Paul Robeson, and Eddie Muliaumaseali’i, as Joe, delivers it with his rich, velvety bass and the stevedores’ accompanying harmonies are sublime.

The Girl Who Forgot To Sing Badly ****

By Finegan Kruckemeyer
By Theatre Lovett (Ireland) 

Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, 

Public shows: Sat 9 Aug & Sun 10 Aug, 11.30am & 1pm. (Schools shows 5-8 Aug)  
Reviewer: Kate Herbert  
Stars: ****

 Review also published  in Herald Sun online, Aug 7, 2014 and later in print. KH

 Louis Lovett pic by Pat Redmond

Engaging an audience of children in the theatre is a delicate art and Louis Lovett’s solo show, The Girl Who Forgot To Sing Badly, does it with style and humour.

Lovett, an award-winning performer visiting Melbourne from Ireland, populates the stage with eccentric characters in this bittersweet, adventure tale about Peggy O’Hegarty and her parents.

Peggy and her shrill, deaf mother and patient father, run a business as packers; they pack small stuff into bigger stuff, such as putting foxes into boxes.

This production, directed by Lyne Parker, is deceptively simple, but Lovett’s skills are complex and include vivid storytelling, goofy clowning, bold characterisation, melodic singing and evoking an elaborate landscape through mime.

One of his exceptional skills is to effortlessly and imperceptibly draw the children into unexpected participation so that they automatically fill in the blanks in his dialogue, remind him to finish the play, call out helpful hints or clap a rhythm for his dancing without any prompting.

I Heart John McEnroe, July 31, 2014 ***

Concept by Clare Watson and Co-Created by Uninvited Guests
Theatre Works July 31 to Aug 10, 2014
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***
Review also published in Herald Sun online Friday, Aug1, 2014 and pater in print. KH

 Luke Mullins (L) and Bert la Bonté

You are not alone if you think of temper tantrums on a tennis court when you hear the name, John McEnroe, AKA The Prince of Petulance.

I Heart John McEnroe is an entertaining collage of playful parody and paper-thin psycho-analysis of that notoriously temperamental, US tennis champion.

On a realistic, green tennis court surface littered with tennis balls, five performers channel aspects of McEnroe’s personality and episodes from his life while exploring their own relationship to anger and their attitude to that much-criticised player.

Director, Clare Watson, devised the production with her talented cast: Natasha Herbert, Bert LaBonté, Luke Mullins, Katherine Tonkin and child performer, Ivy Miller, who is the voice of reason when the others chuck childish, McEnroe tantrums.

The structure of the piece is episodic, incorporating short vignettes and dialogues about McEnroe with crisp, movement sequences based on his recognisable gestures as he angrily criticises the umpire’s decisions.

The adult actors shift from playing McEnroe to playing themselves as they confront their own anger or taunt other actors to trigger angry outbursts in each other.

Green Screen, until Aug 3, 2014

By Sans Hotel, Conceived and Directed by Nicola Gunn
NEON Festival, MTC Southbank Theatre, The Lawler, until Aug 3, 2014

I haven't seen this yet but I am a great fan of Nicola Gunn's work. See it. KH

Devised and Performed by Nat Cursio, Tom Davies, Nicola Gunn, Jonno Katz, Kerith Manderson Galvin; Production Designers Nicola Gunn and Gwen Holmberg-Gilchrist;
Sound Designer Duane Morrison;
Research Assistant Aaron Orzech

From Media Release:
So, tell me about yourself. What do you do? Part-careers expo,
part-social experiment, Green Screen is a show about the
way we work and how we are in the world.

Glory Dazed, Red Stitch, July 25, 2014 ****

By Cat Jones, Red Stitch Actors Theatre

Where & When: Red Stitch Actors Theatre, July 25 until Aug 23, 2014

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****

 Review will apear in full after publication in Herald Sun online on Monday July 28, 2014. It will then appear in print. KH

(L-R) Laura Jane Turner, Emily Goddard, Andre de Vanny, Jonathan Peck

The stage is a perilous place in Glory Dazed, Cat Jones’ short play about an English soldier whose war trauma drives him to bursts of violent rage.

Ray (Andre de Vanny), a stouthearted, working-class Northerner, is so desperate to win back his ex-wife, Carla (Emily Goddard), that he locks the doors to their local pub in order to force Carla to take him back.

It is a dangerous game that Ray is playing but he has no clear plan because he is in a state of confusion and is driven by anger, fear and despair.

This is a fine ensemble production with compelling performances from the four cast members who explore both the danger and humour that bubble in the pressure cooker that is the pub.

Greg Carroll’s direction is bold and assured, ensuring that the action has a powerful dynamic range and that the pace and rhythm have an almost tidal variation.

Mother and Son, Comedy Theatre, July 24, 2014 ***

By Geoffrey Atherden
Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, until Aug 24, 2014

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 
Stars:***

A shorter version of this review went online in NEWS, Herald Sun at 9.50pm on Thurs July 24 and will be in print on Arts pages on Monday July 28, 2014. KH

Darren Gilshenan & Noeline Brown. Pic by Lachlan Moore.

If you have ever felt a twinge of antipathy towards a parent, spare a thought for poor, beleaguered Arthur Beare whose mother has held him an emotional hostage for his entire adult life.

In a flurry of excitement, nostalgia and laughter, Maggie and Arthur Beare are back in the house – literally – in this newly minted, stage version of Mother and Son, Geoffrey Atherden’s acerbic, 1980s, Australian sit-com.

These two much-loved characters are reincarnated live on stage by Noeline Brown (Maggie) and Darren Gilshenan (Arthur), whose consummate comic skills do justice to these treasured characters originally brought to life by Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald.

Atherden’s intimate family comedy, directed by Roger Hodgman, is naturalistic, identification theatre with characters that are still relevant in 2014 and dialogue that is sharp-witted and well observed.

The comedy relies on the maddeningly dysfunctional but predictable relationship between lonely and frustrated Arthur and his manipulative, carping mum, Maggie.

Arthur gets no support but a lot of excuses from his successful, selfish and deceitful brother, Robert (Shane Jacobson), the dentist, and Robert’s mouthy, snobbish wife, Liz (Nicki Wendt), with her ever-so-slightly affected vowels and sassy manner.

Brown is achingly funny and exasperating as Maggie, the mother of all mothers, whose days revolve around keeping Arthur tied to her apron strings with her expert emotional blackmail, complaints, intrusiveness and real (or often fake) forgetfulness.

Guys and Dolls, July 19, 2014 ****

Music& Lyrics by Frank Loesser, Book by Joe Swerling & Abe Burrows
Based on a story by Damon Runyon
Produced by The Production Company
State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, until July 19 to 27, 2014
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ****

Review also published in Herald Sun online on Tuesday, 22 July then in print on Wed 23 July, 2014. KH 

Blend some New York gangsters and gamblers with showgirls and missionaries, toss in some romance and songs, and you get Frank Loesser’s inimitable Guys and Dolls.

This 1950 musical is based on Damon Runyon’s gritty, underworld stories but is seasoned with Loesser’s witty lyrics and singable tunes, and earthy dialogue and book by Joe Swerling and Abe Burrows.

Director, Gale Edwards, musters an exceptional cast of singer-actor-dancers in the lead roles and the accomplished Orchestra Victoria, conducted by Guy Simpson, is impressive performing Loesser’s music.

The story is a classic Romeo and Juliet tale of two lovers from the opposing worlds of petty crime and the temperance society.

As Sarah Brown, the prim, pious Save Our Souls gal, Verity Hunt-Ballard shifts effortlessly from prissy preaching to riotous, drunken salsa dancing in Havana and her versatile voice is clear and pretty singing If I Were A Bell.