Woyzeck by Gas Theatre ARTICLE 10 Feb 1994

March 2-20 1994 Wed - Sun 8.30

At the old CUB Ale House, Bouverie St. Carlton

Writer: Kate Herbert around 12 Feb 1994

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

By Kate Herbert

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

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

At Napier Street Theatre from February 1, 194

Writer: Kate Herbert on Feb 1, 1994

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

By Kate Herbert Feb 3, 1994

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

 

Written by Marguerite Duras

At La Mama Theatre, Carlton

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

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: 5

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

KATE HERBERT      3.2.94      370 wds

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

 L'Amante Anglaise by Marguerita Duras

La Mama Theatre, Carlton

10.30 pm Wed - Sat; Sun at 5.30pm

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

Directed by Laurence Strangio 

Cast: John Flaus and Brenda Palmer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kate Herbert     3.2.94      

L'Amante Anglaise by Marguerita Duras

La Mama Theatre, Carlton

10.30 pm Wed - Sat; Sun at 5.30pm

Until Feb 13, 1994

Directed by Laurence Strangio 

Cast: John Flaus and Brenda Palmer

Opa: A Sexual Odyssey by Patricia Cornelius 29 Jan 1994

At Atheneaum Theatre II, Jan to Feb 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

KATE HERBERT   29. 1. 94      260 w

The Danube by Maria Irene Fornes REVIEW 29 Jan 1994

At La Mama till Sun Feb 13, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

KATE HERBERT  29.1.94        310 wd.

Game of Dolls by Brett Melke 22 Jan 1994

 

(Venue uncited) from 22 Jan, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Kate Herbert   22 .1 94

An Indian Summer by Julia Britton, 16 Jan 1994

 

By Performing Arts Projects

At Rippon Lea House from 16 Jan, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 16, 1994.

 

January in Melbourne has been more of an Antarctic than an Indian summer, but Performing Arts Projects pays no heed. It's outdoor performance, ˜An Indian Summer is playing in the glorious grounds of Ripponlea. The audience, carrying fold-up chairs, is led from the gates by the robust tour guide, and actors are posed en route frozen in tableau amongst the trees.

 

 Julia Britton's story is set at Garsington, the Oxfordshire mansion of Lady Ottoline Morrell, patron of the Bloomsbury group. Director, Robert Chuter, has used seven locations including the driveway, stables, orchard, lake and croquet lawns. In fact, the greatest asset of this production is the surroundings which so sumptuously evoke Garsington and the period. 

 

The audience seemed to enjoy both the performance and the location. There are some very smart quotes from Bloomsbury characters, some entertaining moments and a creative use of the gardens although often background action was more fascinating than scenes. Chuter has actors boating on the lake, strolling and standing about the house and garden. The performance is often upstaged by screeching birds, aeroplanes, trains and even an incoming wedding.

 

Although it is a delightful evening in the garden, there are several problems with his production one being that the script has no dramatic action. This is the last weekend before Lady Ottoline sells Garsington. This central issue might have generated intense emotion for the party, but the whole remains totally unemotional and unaffecting.  The most interesting events are spoken about. Nothing actually happens.

 

The script relies on information and quotes about the art, philosophy and sexual preferences of its various artistic and indulgent characters: biographer and bisexual Lytton Strachey; his lover Dora Carrington; painter and sister to Virginia Wolf, Vanessa Bell; ballet dancers from Diaghelev's company; Aldous Huxley and his long-suffering wife, Keynes the economist and the odd fop.

 

Scenes are very static. The acting style is arch and often histrionic which leaves it without heart. Somehow, extraordinary characters emerge lacking in dynamism and charm. The pace is unnecessarily slow and the script needs editing, but anyone who has an interest in the Bloomsbury set will find it interesting and watchable.

 

Kate Herbert   14.1.94       360 wds

Wind in the Willows, (ASC) 13 Jan 1994

Adapted from Kenneth Graham’s story by Glenn Elston

At Botanical Gardens, Melbourne from 13 Jan, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 13, 1994.

 

For eight years now Glenn Elston has produced Wind in the Willows in the perfect surroundings of the Botanic Gardens. Families seem to love it. The kids, who are dubbed rabbits by Head Chief Rabbit (Ian Mc Kellar), have "an adventure" with Ratty, Weasel, Mole, Badger, Otter and the inimitable Toad of Toad Hall played with great panache and wit by Guy Hooper.

 

Oldies can lounge around picnicking and laughing at the abundant adult humour in the script.

 

The production is not high art and has a flawed script, but it characters make delightful surprise entrances in boats, through trees, on bicycles and in motorised vehicles. 

 

There is some inconsistency in performances and voices are often a little strained in the outdoors, but the show is gentle and fun with plenty of participation for the kids and time for wine-sipping for parents.

 

Kate Herbert 13.1.9

South Pacific, 9 Jan 1994

 

Music by Richard Rogers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan

At State Theatre Melbourne, 9 Jan 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 9, 1994.

 

We are definitely in the midst of The Revival of the Great Musical. 42nd Street has been, West Side Story is coming and the exuberant production of South Pacific, directed by Christopher Henshaw, has just opened at the State Theatre.

 

The play has a strong narrative which manages to incorporate two multi-cultural love stories, the Second World War, black-marketeering and several wacky US Marines. The gender politics of the play are, of course, outmoded. Women are represented by characters like the bimbo nurse Nellie (played energetically by Paige o’Hara) and her nursing comrades in bimbosity, or by the exotic and silent island-girl, Liat.

 

The politics of the show redeem themselves with a talented Phillip Gould singing You've got to be Taught. The lyrics succinctly describe the careful training from an early age which produces a racist. "You have to be carefully taught" to despise others for their eyes, colour and race - a chastening thought.

 

The sexiest, most interesting and entertaining woman is Liat's wicked and sassy mother, Bloody Mary played superbly by Roz Ryan. Mary is a Pacific Mother Courage who wheels and deals to ensure her daughter's future.

 

The unremittingly memorable songs keep marching on. Love songs like Some Enchanted Evening by Andre Jobin as the French plantationist, Younger than Springtime, and Bali Ha’i is sung hauntingly by Ryan.

 

The big number, Honeybun, had spectacular costuming and design and antics by the irrepressible Paul Blackwell as the enterprising low-life navy clown, Louther Billis.

 

There is Nothing Like A Dame as a highlight. It was sexism taken to a high art: leering and gyrating boys with superb bare chests and lyrics which would turn a feminist's hair blonde. Ah! The forties!

 

This production does not emphasise dance, but it is big on spectacle. The design and lighting are exceptional. Surprisingly, it avoids the tropical island paradise flavour one expects, and chooses to counterpoint army images against huge and austere Polynesian totems and muted cane constructions. The whole works against the lightness of tone in the opening scenes and heightens the drama of the devastation of war and loss of life.

 

The most memorable image was the extraordinary on-stage take-off of a real aeroplane. This sent the audience into paroxysm of childish glee.  Musicals are always thin on plot, but it was a pleasant surprise that South Pacific was topical and moving as well as a hoot.

By Kate Herbert

Scrooge the Musical by L Bricusse, 9 Jan 1994

Book, Lyrics and Music by Leslie Bricusse

Produced by David Mariner with UK producer Graham Mulvein

At Princess Theatre, Melbourne, from Nov 1993 to Jan, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was published in Melbourne Times after Jan 9, 1994.

 

It may seem inappropriate to see a show about Christmas in January, but Scrooge the Musical is a great night out at any time. Not the least of its assets is the formidably talented expatriate, Keith Michell. He manages to be charming as the miserly and villainous Scrooge. And he can sing too!

 

The story, we all know, is based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is visited by his dead partner in miserliness, Jacob Marley who warns him to be a nice generous guy or he'll have hell to pay later. Scrooge is visited by Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future which all scare the living B'Jesus out of him.

 

In fact, this production delights in scaring the heck out of the audience too. Spooks appear and disappear at the rate of knots. The production is a bevy of (magic) illusions wrought by Paul Kieve, and other techno-theatrical feats thought up by director Christopher Henshaw. Actors fly, dissolve into thin air and vanish through walls and mirrors. Not only the kids squealed at explosive entrances.

 

This is a fairly traditional style of musical. Large and rousing London street chorus numbers are interspersed with scenes and solos. The songs are generally entertaining but not memorable. The exception is an old favourite, That's the Nicest Thing that Anyone's Ever Done for Me which is the vehicle for Rod McLennan to do his jaunty cockney bit.

 

One song provided a very moving moment. Scrooge's song of rebirth, I'll Begin Again, was sung by Michell with both vocal and emotional resonance. Scrooge's journey from miserliness and misery to benevolence and familial love is poignant and credible in the hands of this consummate performer.

 

Michell is more than ably supported by an impish and athletic William Zappa as Marley and by an ebullient Max Gillies who plays Christmas Present as a rather bemused old Santa who looks like a cross between Henry VIII and Nero.

 

The design by Paul Farnsworth is appropriately dark and Victorian. London street scapes fly away to reveal the dark splendour of Scrooge's lodgings or the dank interior of his offices. All is enhanced by a spectacular lighting design by Hugh Vanstone who creates hellfire, moonlight, warm interiors and a London chill through lighting.

 

Scrooge is terrific family entertainment with a message and Keith Michell should not be missed - in anything.

Kate Herbert    400 w

Icheka: Return of the Heathen AN Take Me as I Am (Musical) REVIEWS 2 Jan 1994

Icheka: Return of the Heathen by Bad Lot Theatre Company

Take Me as I Am (Musical), book by Patrick White, score by Marky Mark and Girlfriend.

Jan 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around 2 Jan 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Jan 2, 1994.

 

Icheka

 We are too often faced with politically incorrect theatre nowadays. Icheka: Return of the Heathen is a bi-lingual, bi-partisan, bisexual romp by Bad Lot Theatre Company who are renowned for their earnest commitment to devising sound political theatre in an avant-garde form.

 

Icheka is about a boy who runs away from his right-wing Canberra parents to join a circus. The narrative, by Faye Bunny (Binkata: Eyes of the Hunter) was written after exhaustive research into families of politicians and circus performers. It is authentic and demanding for an audience, weaving together themes of dislocation, migration, separation, feminism and witchcraft.

 

The direction is masterly, integrating enormous puppets, latex masks and Indonesian shadow puppets, fire-eating and acrobatics with a powerful text in an eclectic soup of theatrical genres.

 

"Theatre must transform and transport its audience," says director Ben Leather-Jacket in his Fitzroy studio; and transport people he does. The whole performance takes place on the express train from Melbourne to Geelong. The sense of desolation is heightened by the oil refinery background to the final scenes - and also by the fact that the audience is now stranded in Geelong ("City of Oil Refineries”) without a paddle or a return ticket.

 

Icheka is sensational theatrical experience. Take a blanket.

 

Take Me as I Am

Meanwhile in a major musical venue, is a "don't-miss" revamped musical: Take Me as I Am, with book by Patrick White and score by Marky Mark and Girlfriend. This is a playful look at disasters perpetrated by Australian Prime Ministers this century. You will recognise tunes like Take Me Back to the March Election, sung by John Hewson, the ever-popular Malcolm's Trousers, Heh Mama There's a War up North, Harold Forgot his Snorkel, and Paul Keating's new hit, I'll see your Queen and Raise You a Republic, plus more old faves.

 

Get amongst the revivals for summer before they go back to the dead.

 

KATE HERBERT 25.12.93      325 w

Summer 1993-94 Shows: Icheka: Return of the Heathen/Take Me as I Am (Musical) Dec 25, 1993

Icheka: Return of the Heathen by Bad Lot Theatre Company 

Take Me as I Am, with book by Patrick White and score by Marky Mark and Girlfriend

Dec 25, 1993

By Kate Herbert

 Published in The Melbourne Times, Jan 1994

We are too often faced with politically incorrect theatre nowadays. Icheka: Return of the Heathen is a bi-lingual, bi-partisan, bisexual romp by Bad Lot Theatre Company who are renowned for their earnest commitment to devising sound political theatre in an avant-garde form.

Icheka is  about a boy who runs away from his right-wing Canberra parents to join a circus. The narrative, by Faye Bunny, Binkata: Eyes of the Hunter was written after exhaustive research into families of politicians and circus performers. It is authentic and demanding for an audience, weaving together themes of dislocation, migration, separation, feminism and witchcraft. 

The direction is masterly, integrating enormous puppets, latex masks and Indonesian shadow puppets, fire-eating and acrobatics with a powerful text in an eclectic soup of theatrical genres.

"Theatre must transform and transport its audience," says director Ben Leather-Jacket in his Fitzroy studio; and transport people he does. The whole performance takes place on the express train from Melbourne to Geelong. The sense of desolation is heightened by the oil refinery background to the final scenes - and also by the fact that the audience is now stranded in Geelong ‘City of Oil Refineries without a paddle or a return ticket.

Icheka is sensational theatrical experience. Take a blanket.

Meanwhile in a major musical venue, is a don't-miss, revamped musical: Take Me as I Am, with book by Patrick White and score by Marky Mark and Girlfriend. This is a playful look at disasters perpetrated by Australian Prime Ministers this century. 

You will recognise tunes like Take Me Back to the March Election, sung_by John Hewson, the ever-popular Malcolm's Trousers, Hey Mama There's a War up North, Harold Forgot his Snorkel, and Paul Keating's new hit I'll see your Queen and Raise You a Republic plus more old faves. 

Get amongst the revivals for summer before they go back to the dead.

KATE HERBERT 25.12.93

325 w.

1993 Kate’s Theatre Picks, The Melbourne Times, Dec 1993

1993 Kate’s Theatre Picks

Kate Herbert Dec 15, 1993

Published in The Melbourne Times, December 1993

During 1993, Melbourne's vibrant theatre scene kept on churning shows out in spite of funding cuts. Although '93 was a less prolific season than '92, it was  a year of fine imports, musical and other revivals, more adaptations  and deconstructions of texts and plenty of mono-dramas.

There has been limited local fare to inspire, but the Rumanians won my award for extraordinary moments in theatre with Titus Andronicus. The passion and intensity of performances, images and the provocative style were a treat during the festival.  Another foreign, passionate, if fairly conventional gem was the Abbey's Dancing at Lughnasa (Irish) and Trestle's  State of Bewilderment (English) captured Leunig's eccentric world on stage.

A musical done well can still be the greatest night in the theatre. Chamber Made Opera's,  Don Leaves Linda, was an extraordinary piece of witty music-theatre. High Society has great songs and changed cast more often than its underwear and 42nd Street was a fabulously extravagant, tongue in cheek production. Even its opening night party was a theatrical feast of posing, over-dressing, sycophancy and extravagance.

The pre-publicity budget alone could subsidise the Performing Arts Board. Jan Friedl's Sweet and Bitter Conversations captured the poignancy and drama of Brecht's songs in a way that Mother Courage could not without voices of quality.

TV and film stars hit the stage with a vengeance.  Warren Mitchell was inspired in

I'm Not Rappaport  along-side the wonderful Kiwi, George Henare. In MTC's Much Ado About Nothing, Hugo Weaving was a very sexy Benedick with comics Michael Veitch and Kim Gyngell clowning on the side lines. Jackie Weaver was applauded on her opening night entrance in  Shadowlands

 Mark Little flew in from the UK to play the 80's mongrel entrepreneur in The Temple

 for Playbox. The MTC consolidated both financially and artistically under Roger Hodgman and Carillo Gantner handed the baton at Playbox to Aubrey Mellor. Anthill's move to the Gasworks sent the company into crisis and its resultant $80,000 deficit caused a delay in funding allocations for '94.

Theatreworks lost its general grant as did Woolly Jumpers and Melbourne Writers' Theatre now has a venue (Courthouse) and no funds. Arts Victoria thought it would see better return on individual project grants which is probably true. Projects seem to be the way of the world yet again -and doesn't Melbourne do them well?

Kosky's Faust was expensive and weird while IRAA had yet another artistic hit with

Agamemnon This company is by far Melbourne's most consistently interesting under director Renato Cuocolo. It's visit to Vienna in July with Trojan Women put Melbourne on the map in Europe. $5 Theatre had another winner with The Master and Margherita.

Two solo shows were glittering moments. Anthill revived  Kids' Stuff  with Julie Forsyth playing the kid's role impeccably and William Yang's Sadness  touched our souls with a rare honesty and beauty.

La Mama kept on programming new works as it should, but at times too frequently. Two week seasons were too swift and there were a number of shows selected inexplicably. One great success at La Mama was  The Eye of Martha Needle  by Bruce Thompson. It had a delicacy and integrity in script and style, which was rare this year. Another was Good Morning Midnight, a fine adaptation of Jean Rhyss's novel which assembled the whole of 1920's Paris within the confines of La Mama.

But the greatest dramatic tension was at the opulent opening night party of 42nd Street at the Hyatt Ballroom. Amongst the ice sculptures the lobster and backless gowns, we watched Gareth Evans shake hands with John Hewson and waited with baited breath to see who would use the judo throw first. Can't beat real life for drama!

Kate Herbert  15.12.93 

   620 wds

1993 Reviews Kate Herbert, The Melbourne Times

1993 Reviews Kate Herbert, The Melbourne Times

The following are all reviews published in The Melbourne Times during 1993.

They will all be uploaded at some time in full.  KH March 2012

Remember Kemp
Theatre 93 
Sotoba Komachi
Mary Hickson transcript
Hickson article
Great Day
Kidstuff
Skins
Rooftops
fourplay
Aubrey Mellor interview
Lola Lightwheel
Aubrey Article
Station + Station
Dark Heart
King Lear
Ass saw the angel
Ereshkigal
5 Gays named Moe
Shadowlands
Mroceck
MIFA Retro
MIFA 2
All My Sons
Blabbermouth
Below the Belt
Titus
The Tituses
Desire Lines
Oops!
Tight Shorts & Duet For One
Pale Blue twinset
Behind the Play
Faust
Desire
Much Ado
Lughnasa
Back to Back
Czajor Award 93
Death & maiden
Dreadnought Absentia
IRAA Agamemnon
Misanthrope
Remember Kemp
St Zoot
Adelaide workshop
M Butterfly
Reviews Com Fest 93
Escurial
Wed to Come
Road to hell La Mama
Little Eva
42nd Street
Sturua workshop
12 Angry Women
Wogarama
Veitch
The Temple
Angel of Graveyard
Leso Play 9/7
Feet of Clay
Dutch Courtesan
Jan Friedl
Mother Courage
Dinner With Andre

Interview with Aubrey Mellor, A.D. Playbox, Nov 7, 1993

Interview with Aubrey Mellor, Artistic Director of Playbox Theatre, Melbourne

by Kate Herbert

November 7, 1993

"There's no such thing as a perfect play," says Aubrey Mellor, the incoming Artistic Director of The Playbox Theatre. If there were, presumably we would by now have an equation for it.

Mellor is, however, taking a punt that amongst the eight plays in his 1994 season there may be some pearls. His main ambition at Playbox is to cultivate new Australian plays and to create a Writers' Theatre in the truest sense. He plans "to strengthen the developmental stage of new work: reading of plays, getting the feedback established, getting all the readers organised, more dramaturgical people involved, directors who know how to work with writers, actors who know how to be in a workshop to develop a play not just to get it ready for performance."

Of the eight plays in the 94 season, only Michael Gow's Furious is not a premiere. "I mean Melbourne has seen all the plays that Australia has ever written really," he quips - and he is probably right.

He sees his ambition to support writers as "all foundational work that is gradually effecting the nation."  Mellor wants established writers to  "look to Playbox as being the main company which is supporting and developing both new work and established writers." He wants them "to be refreshed or to do something that they don't have a chance to do somewhere else." With his new play, ˜Sanctuary, David Williamson has had "the freedom to write in the way that he started out with The Removalists - from his own personal passion, I hope."

 Mellor wants our  playwrights to be household names. People should recognise Michael Gurr as readily as they would Tennessee Williams. Australians don't tend to think like that about their writers, says Mellor. Only Williamson and possibly Louis Nowra have that kind of reputation as yet.

"I always thought the writers would just emerge as great forces but if they're not nurtured they won't. And I hate the fact that some of our great people like Dorothy Hewitt just get dropped." He hopes that writers "will grow old in this country, continuing to blossom in different ways rather than grow stale."

He will encourage older writers to nurture the newer ones "by taking an interest, by becoming dramaturgs." Some, such as Alma de Groen, Louis Nowra and  Stephen Sewell, he says, are very good at it .

The 1994 season includes two commercial plays which Mellor hopes will increase the dishearteningly low subscriber list and subsidise productions of newer untried work. Mellor assumes  that David Wiliamson's Sanctuary, although it marks a move away from his populist scripts which have done country-wide tours, will attract a large crowd.

His other commercial choice is the new Steve Martin play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile ,which had its first workshop production at Playbox with a group of local actors under the direction of Neil Armfield.  Mellor believes that it will not only attract a local crowd but it is reason to "celebrate a blow for Australian Theatre." He decided it would "be more helpful to Australian play writing in the long run to put it in even though it isn't Australian."

Mellor, in addition to expanding the Sunday afternoon Theatre in the Raw program, is initiating an elaborate and effective program of development for new scripts. Three or more scripts will have a cast and director and a one week run in a theatre after a main production.

"We'd like more work to be seen because that's where the writers really learn. You can workshop them forever but until you actually get those scripts out of their writers' hands and give them to actors performing and really try it out in front of an audience."

Mellor says this requires "a brave audience". That sort of person who can see things in progress- not the sort of people who come in and say 'Oh that's not good enough ..' and just judge and kill."

Mellor thinks Australians are far too tough on new work. "We want them all to be perfect and if they're not perfect...It's something in the Australian psyche "'if it's not perfect kick it out.' Reviews of new works at the National Theatre in London acknowledge that " it's raw.... then along comes a wonderful success and people get excited. But that big success couldn't have happened without the others. And we don't seem to swallow that."

Some people, particularly in Melbourne, would argue that a Writers' Theatre is dead and that an Auteur-ensemble is the only theatre. Mellor thought they sounded like very young people. 

"We've all been through that kind of thing," he laughs. " Those directors egos will always be there... I'm much more interested in the integrity of people like Neil Armfield who will actually nurture the vision of the writer." This century has basically been a Directors' Theatre he says, and he wants to alter that.

He believes the auteur theatre will and should continue "and no doubt we will feed from it and it will effect the way we do our work. And certainly some of the pieces such as Disturbing the Dust in the season are put there because they are playing with form." 

Pressure from those who want to change the nature of our industry keeps us all alive and fresh but if we were to do exclusively the avant-garde' theatre, " we would probably kill the industry overnight ." Wouldn't we all get bored with  deconstructed text, white face, dirt on the floor and lots of chanting.

"We've all been through that kind of thing," he laughs. " Those directors egos will always be there.... I'm much more interested in the integrity of people like Neil Armfield who will actually nurture the vision of the writer." This century has basically been a Directors' Theatre he says, and he wants to alter that.

He believes the auteur theatre will and should continue. “No doubt, we will feed from it and it will effect the way we do our work. And certainly some of the pieces such as Disturbing the Dust in the season are put there because they are playing with form."

Pressure from those who want to change the nature of our industry keeps us all alive and fresh but if we were to do exclusively the avant-garde' theatre, " we would probably kill the industry overnight ."

Wouldn't we all get bored with  deconstructed text, white face, dirt on the floor and lots of chanting?

He is more concerned to " actually effect the writers so that the writers start to think visually ." He is planning a workshops for writers to develop movement and visual elements in their writing. He describes the script as "a score", for which the direction, the acting, the design etc. can solve many problems.

 He would like us to suspend our judgmental selves and allow the work to develop in a positive and supportive environment. He would like the word "good" to be abandoned and for the work to become " worthwhile and interesting - a valuable experience ." Here's hoping Playbox under the inspired direction of Aubrey Mellor,  nurtures plenty of "valuable" plays in the next few years.

Kate Herbert 7.11 .93

Remember -Jenny Kemp 18 July 1993

 

Interview about Jenny Kemp’s new play. with cast Margaret Cameron, Margaret Mills, Robert Menzies (actors) and David Symons (assistant director)

Article by Kate Herbert

18 July 1993

This article was published in The Melbourne Times after 18 July 1993

 

Jenny Kemp's company working on her new play Remember seemed dazed like people who had been astral travelling rather than rehearsing all morning. In the Church Hall rehearsal space in Gardenvale, Margaret Cameron, Margaret Mills, Robert Menzies (actors) and David Symons (assistant director) were themselves like characters in a dream. It was an interesting challenge to interview them, at their request, en masse in this strange other-worldly, dream-like atmosphere.

 

The content of this piece, says Cameron who, with Mills, has worked on this project since its inception two years ago, "is about the mind, memory, imagination, fantasy and reality and dream." These are favoured topics of Ms. Kemp as demonstrated in previous works such as Call of the Wild and White Hotel.

 

Kemp's style generally involves a non-linear narrative structure but in this case there is a story. Mills describes it as, "a woman attempting to integrate a trauma." "Trying to remember," adds Cameron. The woman, Moderna, has entered a shonky business deal with a man who subsequently rapes her. She is in hospital trying to remember and to heal herself both physically and mentally. The references are both personal and socio-political.

 

Do not be deceived. The presence of a "narrative" does not mean that the form of the play is conventional. "There are two time narratives that are actually fairly coherent", says Menzies. "Pre-rape and post-rape which are often played simultaneously. But it is in the interweaving of these two narratives that there is an element of confusion which is kind of built into the work itself." Moderna "goes somewhere", says Symons. "From a point of not remembering to remembering", says Mills.

 

Time is elastic. Kemp sees the piece overthrowing the constraints of linear time. She wants to " 'disorganise' conventional patterns and cause 'cracks' and fissures' through which a more inner world can seep." (Attacking the Constraints of Linear Time, J Kemp).

 

The four all agree that the audience should be able to drift in and out of the piece. Time can be taken to feel, to dream.

 

So here the content meets the form. If the content is like that, says Cameron, then the form necessarily must reflect these issues. It is not uncommon that the content of a piece becomes the form (Remember McLuhan? "The medium is the message") Interestingly, as I watch these people responding from their dream-like, Jungian, mythic, exotic place, I see the form has also invaded the personal territory of the creators. They, to some degree, are living it - not as a method actor might do with a character but they have been penetrated by the very form and tone of the dream and mystery.

 

This project may sound like an intense inner world, but the company insists that Remember  is a spectacle, that it is extravagant visually, a big picture, animated. There are also "lots of ordinary, funny places," says Cameron.

 

 There is a variety of genres employed: surrealism, naturalism, expressionism. The surrealism of French painter Delvaux is the location, the set, the landscape, according to Cameron. Naturalistic scenes give "moments of grounding" for the audience.  Menzies describes the actors as at times real people in real situations, or embodiments of emotions, mere mouthpieces for words or simply physical presences.  For the actors this can be confusing but exciting.

 

One element which seems intrinsic to the piece is song. The six songs by Dalmazio Barbare draw on styles as diverse as cabaret, recitative, classical opera and ballad. Menzies emphasises the ironic role of the songs and their placement within the play. Mills says "They come to her when she needs them.... when she needs lightening up." For Cameron, they represent the most creative and highly imaginative possibilities. They are in the woman's psyche, says Cameron because, in this piece, "there is no other place." They are healing, thinks Symons and are also "a way of giving greater form to something prosaic", he says.

 

The transforming and transporting effect of music is essential to this work. As we talked these actors were struggling to label their process and their potential product until we came upon the notion of "orchestration". "It is like a piece of music" says Cameron. They play their notes and seek the balance, the nuance, their placement. Evidently in early rehearsals, remembers Menzies, Kemp divided the play into "themes and variations" and used musical terminology to expound her concept. This musicality may explain why it is so difficult to communicate in words the nature of the work.

 

These people rehearsing in an old church hall are not only actors in this piece. They are threads in a weaving, patterns in a fabric, notes in a musical score, thoughts in a universal consciousness. They are components of a whole. It is no surprise, then, that it was essential for them to discuss this work as an ensemble. It is the ensemble.

 

KATE HERBERT

18.7.1993