Book of Exodus Part 1, June 4, 2017 ***

Co-created by Adena Jacobs & Aaron Orzech

Presented by Theatre Works & Fraught Outfit 

Theatre Works, until June 18, 2017 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert  on June 4, 2017

Stars:***

Review also published in Herald Sun Arts Online on Mon June 5, 2017 & later in print. KH 

 Sol Feldman

The only actors in Book of Exodus Part 1 are two children (Sol Feldman, Tarana Verma) who are charming and relaxed as they perform a series of episodes that have a tenuous relationship to Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament.

The actual book of Exodus makes a brief but welcome appearance when one child reads a biblical excerpt about the Israelites in Egypt being spared the death of their first-borns by obeying God’s instructions to Moses that they paint lamb’s blood on their doors, so that God will pass over their homes.

Any clear connection to Exodus starts and ends there. The production, co-created by Adena Jacobs and Aaron Orzech and directed by Jacobs, is cryptic, and any story or message it hopes to communicate remains opaque.

It has some compelling visuals with an inventive, white-on-white set design (Kate Davis) that sees the stage floor piled with fragments of Styrofoam and a stark, white rear wall on which are projected live and recorded video of the children at play.

The two children initially emerge by scrambling their way out from under the piles of Styrofoam, wearing latex masks depicting an ancient man and woman who walk with the crooked backs and halting gait of aching, old people.

Without any dialogue, they shuffle across the littered floor and one calls ‘Hello’ into a microphone, perhaps calling to an absent God, then the other orders the old woman to remove her gold, possibly echoing the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.

They find a candle – perhaps the burning bush – in the rear wall, and listen to disturbing, portentous and thunderous sound that may represent the voice of God, while digital codes, reminiscent of the Nazis’ branded identification numbers, flash rapidly on the screen.

They search through the scraps to find a series of perspex boxes, one holding headphones, another serving as a bath and a third containing a gingerbread house that provides the children with tasty, sweet treats.

The rear projections inform us that one child is Moses and the other is Aaron, the two brothers who led the Israelites out of Egypt.

One child is ordered to display his scarred arm, leg and back and then he smears the scar on his arm with blood.

From yet another box, they pull medical supplies, including a stethoscope, a bag of blood and bandages that one boy uses to wrap the head and bloodied arm and leg of his friend.

Despite the appropriately warm reception for the two young performers, ultimately the production fails to illuminate the compelling and complex narrative of Exodus, and suffers from style and symbolism that override and obscure its content.

By Kate Herbert

Note: Part II follows in and will include 40 children

Co-created by Adena Jacobs & Aaron Orzech

Director - Adena Jacobs

Designer Part I -Kate Davis

Lighting Part 1 -Emma Valente

Composer -Max Lyandvert

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, June 1, 2017 ***1/2

THEATRE 
Adapted by Dale Wasserman from Ken Kesey’s novel

Presented by Monster Media 
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler, until June 11, 2017 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Thurs June 1, 2017

Stars: ***1/2

Review also published in Herald Sun Arts online on Friday June 2, 2017, and later in print. KH

 Michael Robins, Eddie Muliaumaseali'l GWPhotography

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, adapted in 1963 by Dale Wasserman from Ken Kesey’s novel, is both funny and heartbreaking as we witness the absurdities and horrors facing a disparate group of men in a psychiatric ward in 1960s America.

Randle P. McMurphy (Michael Robins) thinks he is getting an easy ride when, instead of facing a five-month stretch in prison, after convincing a judge to commit him to a psych institution.

With his gutsy, provocative and blokey behaviour, McMurphy livens up the fellas in the ‘acute’ ward with some low-key gambling, boisterous basketball games, secret partying and simple disobedience that make McMurphy an enemy of Nurse Ratched (Catherine Glavicic) who controls the ward.

Carl J. Sorheim’s dynamic and spirited production, with its cast of 16, is set in a clinical, black and white hospital ward (Sarah Tulloch designer) and focuses on McMurphy’s relationships with the other patients, and on his own blindness to his precarious circumstances.

Robins gives a muscular performance as the unwitting hero, McMurphy, playing him with tenacity and audacity as well as a vigorous, adolescent playfulness. We want him to win, to beat Nurse Ratched and to save his newfound pals from their slide into institutionalisation and despair.

Nurse Ratched is the villain and, because of her bullying and manipulation, can never be likeable, but Glavicic’s portrayal reveals Ratched’s misguided view that her unyielding, control freak behaviour is in her patients’ best interests.

 Michael Robins, Catherine Glavicic, Paul Morris GWPhotography

Eddie Muliaumaseali’l is velvet-voiced and dignified as American Indian Chief Bromben, who seems to be catatonic and addresses the audience only in lyrical, internal monologues, until McMurphy brings him to life again.

Nicholas Denton is boyish and sympathetic as stuttering Billy Bibbit who is ruled by his mother’s critical opinion of him, and Troy Larkin is credible and dapper as Harding, an intellectual, Southern gentleman who is intimidated by his voluptuous wife.

The mischief, rebellion and hope of recovery of Act One transforms in Act Two into insidious control and menace as we realise that McMurphy’s playtime is at an end.

Ratched tames her patients by enforcing rigid ‘ward rules’, belittling them and removing their privileges, and she controls disobedience with frightening threats of electric shock treatment or worse – lobotomy.

This is a funny and moving production and Wasserman’s stage play is as compelling as Kesey’s ground breaking novel and the 1975 movie starring Jack Nicholson, but it is the desperation of the men in the psych ward that haunts the audience after we leave the theatre.

By Kate Herbert 

Josh Futcher, Troy Larkin, Eddie Muliaumaseali'l, Michael Robins, GWPhotography

Carl J Sorheim - Director

Sarah Tulloch - Designer

Jason Crick - Lighting
Designer

Robert John Sedky -Sound Designer

Lyndal Grant - Fight Director

Cast

Michael Robins - Randle P. McMurphy

Eddie Muliaumaseali’i - Chief Bromden

Catherine Glavicic - Nurse Ratched

Nicholas Denton - Billy Bibbit

Troy Larkin - Dale Harding

Josh Futcher  - Scanlon

David Gannon - Martini

Kostas Ilias - Cheswick
Seton Pollock -  Dr. Spivey & Ruckley 

Stephanie Lillis - Nurse Finn

Jack Dixon-Gunn -Aide Williams

Ben Sofowara - Aide Turkle

Paul Morris - Aide Warren

Angela Scundi - Candy Starr

Natalie Bond - Sandra

Hello, Dolly! May 27, 2017

I was unable to review Hello, Dolly! for the opening night on Saturday May 27, but I heard great reports about it. I have posted some photos and other details below. KH

Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman
Book by Michael Stewart
Based on The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder
At Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, until June 11, 2017

Hello Dolly, Marina Prior & cast - pic Jeff Busby

Cast includes:

Marina Prior - Dolly Levi

Grant Piro - Horace Vandergelder

Irene Molloy - Verity Hunt-Ballard

Glenn Hill - Cornelius Hackl

Nigel Huckle - Barnaby Tucker 

Imogen Moore -Minnie Fay

Mike Snell - Rudolph 

 

  Hello Dolly, Marina Prior, Grant Piro - pic Jeff Busby

Songs
Act 1

Call On Dolly

I Put My Hand In

It Takes a Woman

World, Take Me Back

Put On Your Sunday Clothes

Ribbons Down My Back

Motherhood March

Dancing

Love Look In My Window

Before the Parade Passes By

Act 2

Elegance

The Waiters’ Gallop

Hello, Dolly!

The Polka Contest

It Only Take a Moment

So Long, Dearie

Finale - Hello, Dolly! & other songs

 Hello Dolly, Marina Prior - - pic Jeff Busby

 Hello Dolly, Marina Prior & cast - pic Jeff Busby

 

Shrine, May 26, 2017

I was unable to attend or review Shrine on Friday May 26 but here are some pics & details. KH

Written by Tim Winton

Presented by The Kin Collective & fortyfivedownstairs 

At fortyfivedownstairs, until June 18, 2017

Chris Bunworth- GW Photography

Cast

Chris Bunworth 

Christian Taylor

Alexandra (Ally) Fowler

Tenielle Thompson

Keith Brockett

Nick Clark 

Director- Marcel Dorney

Ally Fowler, Tenielle Thompson, Chris Bunworth- GW Photography

Christian Taylor, Ally Fowler, Tenielle Thompson- GW Photography 

Wild Bore, May 19, 2017 ***

Created and performed by Zoë Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez & Adrienne Truscott Presented by Malthouse Theatre 
Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, until June 4, 2017 
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 19, 2017
Stars: ***

 Review also published in Herald Sun Arts on Monday May 22, 2017 and later in print. KH

 Ursula Martinez (wearing a 'bumhead') –Tim Grey Photo

‘You will probably be offended. Actually, you will be offended,’ says the publicity about Wild Bore by Zoë Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez, Adrienne Truscott.

And I was offended – but not by the plumply jiggling, naked bottoms perched atop a trestle table and talking into microphones.

Nor was I offended by the performers’ full frontal nudity or the scatological language or the swearing or even by the chocolatey stuff squeezing out of the padded ‘bum-heads’ that masked the performers faces (or should that be ‘faeces’?).

And it wasn’t the rambling, post-modern, self-referential, gender-political, meta-theatrical (Yeah, look that term up ‘cos they use it repeatedly) monologues or the absurdly silly dancing.

And I certainly wasn’t offended by their vehement and often hilarious attacks on theatre critics who have ridiculed or dissected former productions by these artists and others.

What offended me was that they didn’t quote me! Clearly, I’m just too dull or too nice a critic to be quotable. Of course, I expend a lot of energy avoiding being quotable because critics are misrepresented and misunderstood as often as are these performers.

Now, how do I write a critical commentary on a show that is a critical commentary on critics’ critical commentary on critically awful shows? I can’t so I won’t.

Writers like to be memorable, so plenty of critics write riotously scathing and unforgettable criticism that artists dismiss, so I try to write criticism that artists may heed – if I’m lucky and they are listening.

So, amongst the bums and puns and rants and dancing and finger pointing and gallumphing around the stage, there are some golden quotes from critics.

 ‘Al Pacino walks like an anchovy and looks like an unmade bunk bed.’ Oh, how I wish I’d written that! That’s Rex Reed’s achingly funny and vitriolic review of Pacino in David Mamet’s China Doll.

Martinez slices and dices a critic that accused her of building a brick wall ‘for no apparent reason’ in a show, and Coombs Marr has a go at someone who couldn’t tell the difference between ‘dramaturgical design’ and ‘whimsical incompetence’ in her previous production.

Anyway, there’s no point explaining or critiquing anything in Wild Bore except to say that some of it is really funny and some is desperately dull and indulgent. You may love it if you work in the theatre, or go to the theatre a lot, or love these three performers, or are just a sticky-beak. And it’s short!

By Kate Herbert 

PS: There’s one famous book of ‘the worst theatrical reviews in history’ and it’s called No Turn Unstoned and it was edited in 1982 by Diana Rigg – yes, Mrs. Peel from The Avengers (the proper Avengers from the UK in the 60s).

Oh, and I did write a scathing review once but you’ll need to scour every single review in my blog to find it. It was a beaut!

 Adrienne Truscott, Zoe Coombs Marr_Tim Grey Photo

 Adrienne Truscott, Ursula Martinez& Zoe Coombs Marr_Tim Grey Photo

Minnie and Liraz, May 18, 2017 ***

Written by Lally Katz, by Melbourne Theatre Company
Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, until June 24, 2017

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Thurs May 18, 2017

Stars:***

 Review also published in Herald Sun Arts online on Fri May 19, 2017 and later in print. KH

 Virginia Gay, Rhys McConnochie, Nancye Hayes - photo Jeff Busby

If black humour about old age, serious illness, death and funerals makes you laugh, then the folks and jokes in Minnie and Liraz may tickle your funny bone – or your bad hip.

Set in the Autumn Road Retirement Village in Caulfield, Lally Katz’s latest play pokes fun at the strokes and heart attacks, deafness, widowhood, grandparenting and horribly failed hip replacements of the various geriatric residents.

When Minnie Cohen’s (Nancye Hayes) long-term Bridge partner dies unexpectedly, Liraz Weinberg (Sue Jones), whose Bridge partner is also recently deceased, proposes they join forces to win the hotly contested Australian Seniors Bridge Tournament.

Minnie reluctantly agrees to partner her former rival on the proviso that Liraz introduce her single grandson, Ichabod (Peter Paltos), to Minnie’s unmarried granddaughter, Rachel (Virginia Gay).

Some people mellow with age, but Minnie and Liraz buck that trend, with Minnie being ambitious, abrasive and quietly critical while Liraz is loud, mean, crass and competitive to the death.

This production succeeds almost exclusively because of its capable actors who give life to Katz’s comic caricatures and work like Trojans to milk every last laugh out of the rather obvious jokes and observational humour about old age.

Hayes is sprightly and refined as Minnie and plays her with a vibrating anxiety and acerbic tone that emphasise Minnie’s deep-seated fears about failing as a parent and her obsessive need to marry off her granddaughter.

Jones is a comic highlight as Liraz, getting huge laughs from her deft manoeuvring of Liraz’s motorised mobility scooter, her vulgar jokes, loud and rusty laugh and her feisty competitiveness.

Both Minnie and Liraz unashamedly use emotional blackmail to manipulate their family and friends, making them both thoroughly dislikeable – but comical.

Gay is very funny as the eccentric and clumsy Rachel, playing her with clownish awkwardness as she struggles to overcome her self-loathing and under-confidence, despite her success as the headmistress of a primary school.

As Ichabod, Liraz’s socially inept physicist grandson, Paltos channels the brainiacs in Big Bang Theory, getting laughs from his weirdly compulsive behaviour and his obsession with alternative universes, but his character remains two-dimensional.

Rhys McConnochie is sympathetic as Morris, Minnie’s lonely and long-suffering husband, while Georgina Naidu is relentlessly cheerful as the aged care worker, Norma.

Director, Anne-Louise Sarks, allows the actors to make the most of the gags, but her staging is unimaginative.

Although the revolving stage (Mel Page) provides multiple locations in the retirement home and the slow scene transformations initially mirror the residents’ pace of the life, these scene changes eventually slow the production to a snail’s pace.

Katz’s light, insubstantial, comic script includes occasional moments of pathos, such as Morris’s poignant war story told during ‘memoir group’ and Minnie’s revelation of her regrets but such moments are infrequent and the dialogue is repetitive.

The funereal humour and the digs at possessive grandparents are certainly funny, but this production succeeds primarily because of the comedic skills of its cast.

By Kate Herbert 

 Sue Jones, Peter Paltos - photo Jeff Busby

Cast

Virginia Gay - Rachel 

Nancye Hayes - Minnie Cohen

Sue Jones - Liraz Weinberg

Rhys McConnochie - Morris Cohen

Georgina Naidu ­- Norma

Peter Paltos - Ichabod Weinberg

Director Anne-Louise Sarks

Set costume Mel Page

Lighting Matt Scott

Composer Sound Stefan Gregory

My Fair Lady, May 16, 2017 ****1/2

MUSICAL THEATRE 

Book and Lyrics by Alan J. Lerner & Music by Frederick Loewe
Produced by Opera Australia and John Frost 

At Regent Theatre, Melbourne, until July 27, 2017 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 

Stars: ****1/2

 Review NOT published in Herald Sun. It appears only on this blog. KH

My Fair Lady, Anna O'Byrne & cast -photo Jeff Busby

Now, don’t pretend you’re too cool to sing along with the songs in Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady because you know they are eminently singable. Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? and Get Me To The Church On Time stick in your brain like ear worms.

Julie Andrews, who is musical theatre royalty, was the first Eliza Dolittle in 1956, and she now demonstrates her directing prowess in this sleek, funny and stylish production that features Australian soprano, Anna O’Byrne, as the spirited Eliza, and Charles Edwards, British star of stage and screen, as the bombastic Henry Higgins.

Lerner and Loewe based My Fair Lady on George Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion. If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know the story, Higgins is a ‘phoneticist’ (he studies accents and language) who makes a wager with Colonel Pickering (Tony Llewellyn-Jones) that he, Higgins, can transform Eliza’s voice and appearance from a rough flower seller to a lady in six months.

Andrews pays homage to the 1956 production by reviving Oliver Smith’s set design that features London’s grubby streets and Covent Garden flower markets, as well as its opulent homes and extravagant ballrooms bedecked with chandeliers.

In an inspired choice, this production recreates Cecil Beaton’s incomparable costumes that range from the earthy tones and shabby fabrics of street urchins, to remarkable, lavish ball gowns and those unforgettable and exquisite black and white outfits at the Ascot races.

My Fair Lady cast -photo Jeff Busby

Edwards’ consummate performance as the arrogant, pompous Professor Higgins elicits the audience’s outrage at Higgins’ bluntness and insensitivity that borders on cruelty, then, with impeccable comic timing, tilts the crowd into guffaws at his self-absorbed, mummy’s boy behaviour.

Using a clipped, spoken delivery rather than song, Edwards highlights Higgins’ smug chauvinism in Why Can't The English? and A Hymn to Him, then, just when we are certain that we loath him, he turns us on our heads with Higgins’ warmth and secret longing for Eliza in I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face.

O’Byrne’s performance is assured and her voice is both powerful and sweet in tone, doing justice to the fanciful Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?, the feisty Just You Wait and Show Me, the triumphant The Rain in Spain, and the romantic and celebratory I Could Have Danced All Night.

Her Eliza is charming and her transformation from scruffy, rough-toned Cockney to articulate and elegant lady is joyful and entertaining, although the changes in her voice and behaviour from start to finish could perhaps be more extreme.

My Fair Lady cast - photo Jeff Busby

The audacious and hilarious Reg Livermore is delectably vulgar, cheeky and greedy as Eliza’s booze-soaked father, Alfred P. Dolittle, and his renditions, with chorus members, of With A Little Bit of Luck and Get Me To The Church On Time, are crowd-pleasers.

Robin Nevin is deliciously refined and wittily restrained as Henry’s mother, Mrs. Higgins, while Llewellyn-Jones is appealingly bluff and bumbling as Colonel Hugh Pickering, and Mark Vincent’s velvet voice expresses Freddy Eynsford-Jones’ puppy-dog adoration during On The Street Where You Live.

Under the musical direction of Guy Simpson, the orchestra gives an assured performance of Frederick Loewe’s inimitable music, while the accomplished chorus provides rich vocals and vivacious choreography (Christopher Gattelli) in the ensemble numbers.

There is something delightfully old-fashioned and endearing about this production with its picture frame / chocolate box, proscenium stage and swift scene changes that take place magically behind the lowered curtain.

It is difficult to fault this captivating production, and Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady certainly earns its place as one of the most memorable and exceptional musicals ever written.

By Kate Herbert

Cast

Anna O’Byrne Eliza Dolittle

Charles Edwards Henry Higgins

Reg Livermore Alfred P. Dolittle

Robin Nevin Mrs. Higgins

Tony Llewellyn-Jones  Colonel Hugh Pickering

Mark Vincent Freddy Eynsford-Jones

Mrs. Pearce Deidre Rubenstein

Creative Team

 Directed by Julie Andrews
Musical Director  Guy Simpson

Choreographer Christopher Gattelli

Set design Oliver Smith (from original)

Costumes Cecil Beaton

Costume recreation John David Ridge

Lighting design Richard Pilbrow

Sound design Michael Waters

  Anna O'Byrne & Charles Edwards  -Photo BrianGeach

  Anna O'Byrne  - photo Jeff Busby

Songs

Act 1

Why Can't The English? – Professor Higgins

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? – Eliza and Male Quartet

With A Little Bit of Luck– Alfred Doolittle, Harry, and Jamie

I'm an Ordinary Man – Professor Higgins

With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise) – Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble

Just You Wait – Eliza

The Servants' Chorus (Poor Professor Higgins) – Mrs. Pearce and Servants

The Rain in Spain– Professor Higgins, Eliza, and Colonel Pickering

I Could Have Danced All Night – Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants

Ascot Gavotte – Ensemble

On The Street Where You Live– Freddy

Eliza's Entrance/Embassy Waltz – The Orchestra

Act 2

You Did It – Colonel Pickering, Professor Higgins, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants

Just You Wait (Reprise) – Eliza

On the Street Where You Live (Reprise) – Freddy

Show Me – Eliza and Freddy

The Flower Market/Wouldn't It Be Loverly? (Reprise) – Eliza and Male Quartet

Get me To The Church On Time– Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble

A Hymn to Him – Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering

Without You – Eliza and Professor Higgins

I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face– Professor Higgins

I Could Have Danced All Night (Reprise) / Finale – The Orchestra