Strategy for Two Hams by Raymond Cousse, Anthill Theatre, April 29 1994

THEATRE

At Anthill Theatre until, May 15 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around April 29 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after April 29 1994

 

Strategy for Two Hams by Raymond Cousse shares themes of incarceration and prison psychosis with Someone Who'll Watch Over Me. But instead of the predicament of Beirut hostages, it witnesses he last hours of a pig on Death Row at the slaughterhouse under the supervision of a cretinous swineherd. 

Cousse draws unsettling parallels between piggy lives and the human condition. The pig obsesses about humanism, philosophy, morality, freedom of action and freedom of thought. The depressing existential dilemmas seen in Kids' Stuff are again present. The pig, like any condemned person, awaits death, rambling and reminiscing like an old digger about his life.

 

This hog seems more concerned with details such as the dimensions of his "cell" or the position of his bucket. The latter is a statement about his freedom of choice. It is a sad little detail, an outward sign of the last vestiges of his dignity.

 

He is proud of his small achievements. How he has cared for his hams, taking to the meadows to enrich them. He is like the animal, bred for eating, in Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Universe. which comes proudly to the table so the diner may select his cut.

 

This sad, helpless creature faces with equanimity his last hours. Slaughter is his destiny.  He even boasts of how, in his youth, he took his hams to the meadows to enrich them. His can barely wait to get to the dinner plate.

 

Counterpointing this poignancy against the humour and the grossness of the images of slaughter had the potential to move an audience deeply. Unfortunately, this potential remains unrealised in Jean Pierre Mignon's production. Mignon, who also directed the original production in 1982, has kept an unnecessarily tight rein on both the actor Ian Scott and the play's dynamic range.

 

The smart wordiness of Cousse's text is testament to its origins as a novel. In this production it translates as almost a lecture-demonstration. It demands a vigorous physicality to enhance and enliven the semantic arguments of this bucolic pig.

 

Scott's usually hilarious clowning and wry humour are seen only intermittently. He is somehow not quite credible as the pig not merely because he lacks the porky corpulence of Cousse who lost 30 kilograms to perform the original production. When he is allowed to get physical by the middle of his performance, the show takes a dynamic leap and, as the season progresses this energy may translate to the rest of the play.

 

By Kate Herbert

 

 

Steven Berkoff: One Man – The Tell-Tale Heart, Actor, Dog, April 19 1994

THEATRE

At Athenaeum Theatre April 19 to 23 April 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around April 22 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after April 22 1994

 

Steven Berkoff likes to be watched; watched with admiration, even adoration. Unlike most theatre actors, he is a celebrity who attracts acolytes, many of whom were present at the opening of One Man. "If he moves clap him," is their motto.

 

For over two hours he is alone on stage. His detractors might suggest that this is because nobody can work with such an ego. Fans would argue that he fills the stage with his enormous presence and needs no supporting cast.

 

In all three pieces: The Tell-Tale Heart, Actor and Dog, Berkoff demonstrates he is a master of theatrical technique. He plays all roles, shifting effortlessly and precisely between madman and old man in The Tell-Tale Heart and between actor, mother, father, various wives and casting directors in Actor. His transformation from Bovva Boy to Bull Terrier in Dog is uncannily accurate and instantaneous.

 

Berkoff is a master of body and voice. His vocal gymnastics are dizzying albeit sometimes unnecessarily elaborate, and his creation of space objects through mime is extraordinary. In fact his skill is so palpable, we often watch the technique not the drama.

 

This is particularly so in The Tell-Tale Heart, Berkoff’s adaptation of Poe's story of a lunatic who murders an old man whose "vulture's eye" distresses him. He seems to spotlight the mechanics of his work by indicating and almost satirising his own method.

 

Berkoff is a masterly clown. The Bovva Boy in Dog, is a terrifying but hilarious portrayal, heightened to the bizarre, of a violent Cockney thug. Clowns utilise repetition to advantage and Berkoff is no exception. We watch him milk a laugh by repeating it over and over, often beyond its natural life (although I suspect the acolytes would have watched till the casting agents came home). He even got laughs from integrating an intrusive aeroplane into the story.

 

His work has always been risky, outrageous, riddled with taboos and often offensive. Remember East? The original draft was too rich even for the progressive actors who read it. Berkoff takes an idea and raises the stakes: " I'll see your grossness and raise you a sadism."

Dog offends with images of the Bovva Boy "tongue-kissing" his pooch who in turn scoffs his vomit. Tasteless - pardon the pun.

 

The most emotionally affecting piece, Actor, is about a permanently "between jobs" actor, is dotted with misogyny which feels uncomfortably like Berkoff's own rather than just that of the character's.

 

There is little emotional contact in these three pieces and although his mastery is unquestionable, one wonders if there is anything for the general public in this show or is it an ego on parade to be stroked by his adoring fellow artists?

 

By Kate Herbert

 

Tania Lacey in All of Me, REVIEW, Melbourne Comedy Festival, April 10, 1994

COMEDY

At Lower Melbourne Town Hall

Melbourne International Comedy Festival 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around April 10, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after April 10, 1994

 

In All of Me, Tania Lacey bares nearly all, not only physically but emotionally. You might consider standing on stage in your underwear to be exhibitionism, but the teensy bra and knickers presage the personal revelations and vulnerability which are to follow.

 

All of Me is a one-woman rave, stand-up, cabaret, dance thing in which Lacey reveals her dark secrets about wildly obsessional behaviour with men, ballet, men, food, men, smokes, drinks and – well – more men.

 

The material is personal and truthful. She quips often about her therapist being responsible for the content. It is not unusual for comics to use audiences for therapy, but they don't always own up. Lacey is feisty, spunky and driven on stage.  She struts, dances and yaps, playing herself and various other characters with outrageous energy.

 

There are some very funny sequences about being a "90's woman". Lacey's theory that we are either "Party Girls" who make 'em laugh or "Pouty Girls" who take 'em home, is too close to the truth. Her impressions of "Bad Boys', New Men and Dream Lovers are glaring indictments of our endless capacity to be duped by morons and bastards.

 

Lacey savages not only pouters and men, but also herself.  "I was a fat ballerina." She does a great, abusive fall-down drunk and some very unflattering and truthful whimpering as herself in ‘lerv’ with yet another jerk.

 

The material is nearly stand-up, but the show has a more theatrical edge which is probably its major flaw. There are some jumpy lighting changes and, given that costume changes are on-stage, it seemed unnecessary to black out for anything else. It slowed the show and Lacey is at her best when going hell-for-leather.

 

She runs on a fierce adrenalin and engages an audience readily with both her wild jokiness and her shifts into truthful anguish. These could have been melodramatic if she were not so sincere. The show ends on a rather moving self-revelatory note.  "Other people's laughter always seemed more real than my own." Laughter can mask deep sadness and there is a genuine poignancy which filters through this pacey and hysterical performance.

 

Kate Herbert     10.4.94     380 wds

Act Safe-Physical Theatre and its Risks, April 10, 1994

THEATRE FEATURE

Feature Article: Act Safe- Physical Theatre and its Risks

Writer: Kate Herbert on April 10, 1994

This article was published in The Melbourne Times after April 10, 1994

 

The last few years have borne witness to some gruesome accidents in the theatre.

 

Anni Davey fell head-first breaking her neck during a Circus Oz performance in Perth. Heather Tetu dropped nine metres from a trapeze in her show at Jupiter's Casino in Surfers' Paradise in '92 smashing both ankles and putting her in a wheelchair until recently. She spends 16 hours a day in therapy.

 

An actor in All of Me, the Legs on the Wall show, fell and smashed her jaw during the Adelaide Fringe. Camilla Sobb miraculously survived two shipping containers falling on her during rehearsal for STC's The Visit at the Opera House recently.

 

The Actors' Equity branch of the Media and Entertainment Alliance is at present consolidating a new Health and Safety policy for artists in live performance. Which, says Merryn Canning, Melbourne Equity organiser, has been in the pipeline for at least five years.

 

Insurance covers injuries generally but Canning says that companies seem loth to insure performers. "They think they're wild beasties. I think they have this image of everybody tearing along motorways at four in the morning, coked out of their heads drinking champagne out of bottles. Instead of everybody being tucked up in bed with their milo learning their lines, which is closer to reality cos we're also very poor."

 

 The draft policy, formulated by Sean Marshall, Equity Organiser in Sydney is doing the rounds to offices all over the country. Marshall says that it is geared to mainstream theatre employer-employee relationships.

 

Employer groups are legally bound to take responsibility for safety issues. The problem is that, in the entertainment industry, many artists are self-employed or are engaged in collective work developed outside of the normal worker-employer framework. Individual artists are not always as careful of their own welfare says Canning and they are out of her jurisdiction.

 

Sean Marshall draws comparisons between stunt actors and physical theatre workers. Stunties have very rigorous codes of safety and they are never live. They work on television and film sets where there is a great capacity to cheat the eye and provide safety factors which are unseen by the audience.

 

Osteopath, Stephen Sexton, treats many of the bodies broken and damaged in live performance. He believes that the fatigue of physical performance is a major factor in injury. Extra work is involved in touring, setting up a tent, rigging seating and equipment, doing late shows, multiple performances, working difficult and unfamiliar venues to limited time frames. All this adds to the normally high stress of performance and can reduce concentration and cause accidents.

 

Sexton believes the ego often prevents artists seeing the danger to which they are subjecting themselves when fatigued. Artists will try tricks not suited to their stature or beyond their skill level. 

 

 Obviously it is not just performers who cause accidents. Directors may demand more of their company than is safe or possible through ignorance or exuberance. I have seen unskilled actors hanging by their, running barefoot on unsafe surfaces, bruised or damaged from rehearsals or workshops.

 

Although Sexton suggests that 80-90% of the injuries he treats are the result of performer error, fatigue or over-doing it. Equipment failure, says Sexton, causes much grosser injuries. A trapeze platform fell from under Nikki Ashton recently and, two years ago, a broken foot loop caused Anni Davey's fall from a trapeze.

 

Anni Davey recommends that artists take responsibility for their equipment and therefore their lives, by always checking if not rigging, their own equipment. In some cases the artists are not allowed to rig because of union job demarcations. Artists put their trust in their support staff. Technicians and stagehands are responsible for rigging and safety checks. Davey suggests that technicians, particularly Stage Managers and Production Managers, should be specifically trained in rigging for circus.

 

Davey says many producers crop "bump-in" (set-up) time to cut costs.  Circus Oz tours internationally and is often employed by festival management and festivals like Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Edinburgh have a very tight turn-around time on shows. At least a two-day bump-in is essential for Circus but some producers demand one day which is inadequate.

 

Guy Hooper who has worked for Death Defying Theatre, Circus Oz, MRPG and Back to Back, has the dubious honour of being the only person ever to injure himself falling onto an air-bag crash mat.  Having come from a theatre background, Hooper wanted to increase his skills and test his nerve by sitting on a trapeze bar, but he had omitted to learn how to fall properly. He was covered by WorkCare and the Circus looked after him, but Hooper believes it was his responsibility to educate himself.

 

Rigorous and extreme physical theatre training such has Butoh has come into vogue recently bringing physical problems for actors, even though they "are reasonably fit and very committed", Hooper suggests a slow build up to this training is necessary to avoid injury.

 

Hooper was impressed by the attitude of a speaker at the Contemporary Performance Workshops in Sydney in October 1993. This physiotherapist advised artists to avert injury by learning how to maintain their bodies' fitness, flexibility, balance and strength. To emphasise one only can be dangerous. Flexibility without strength can leave joints without muscles to support them.

 

We are yet to see the long-term effects of physical theatre, says Hooper. We have seen dancers with hip replacements and shot knees and are starting to see acrobats with chronic tendonitis from repetitive stressful actions.

 

Physical Theatre now characterises Australian performance. So how we do we change this damaging scenario and preserve the well-being of our artists? Anni Davey fears that being "prescriptive" about safety issues could lead to being "restrictive". Guy Hooper believes more could be done in companies to ensure members have seen demonstrations and understand application of techniques in practice. Stephen Sexton recommends some kind of monitoring of fatigue levels and safety codes.

 

It would seem that it is an issue of education. Artists, directors, trainers, technicians and producers need to be informed of dangers, controls, guidelines and policies and should be encouraged to take responsibility for themselves.

 

One thing is certain. We cannot stop artists performing or taking risks.  Says Sexton, "That's part of being a performer. If you take that away from them, they're not going to be any good, are they?" The physical buzz must be stronger than the survival instinct or Anni Davey would not be hanging off that ol' trapeze again.

 

By Kate Herbert

Circus Oz -REVIEW- April 2 1994

CIRCUS

Circus Oz At Tent in City Square

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around April 2, 1994

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

 

Throw me a safety line! I've just seen Circus Oz! There is nothing like a circus to get your adrenalin going. Vicarious danger is thrilling, physical prowess is awe inspiring and Oz has heaps of both.

 

The show is very loosely based on of a cafe staffed by acrobats. The cafe, however, becomes unnecessary, even intrusive. The most successful characters, the cowgirls and warriors, are unrelated to the theme.

 

The live band, under musical director Julie McGuinness, creates an atmosphere of excitement and magic for the acts. They also fly! Director Stephen Burton has cleverly structured the show, so every sequence builds dramatically to fever pitch. The warrior fire-juggling escalates in spectacle and danger. Bicycles follow scooter, skateboard and uni-cyclists, building up to the eight-person bike balance.

 

The trapeze is the location for exceptional feats. Anna Shelper is abandoned and almost reckless in the air and Master Lu Guang Rong, originally from the Nanking Acrobats, is breath-taking. His humility, grace and graciousness belie the fact that he is balancing on his head on a trapeze spinning hoops on his ankles and wrists or on his hands on a wine bottle on top of ten trays of glasses. The man defies gravity and sanity and he looks like he's meditating as he does it!

 

The show is peppered with a couple of great comedy acts. Darryl John's contact lens juggling was a hoot and very silly. Lisa Small and Nicci Wilkes (stage manager) do a delightful cowgirl sister double act. They wrangle shopping trolleys, spin plates of spaghetti and whip balloons from between the knees of an unsuspecting volunteer.

 

Some performers are not actors, so the purely physical acts or those integrating physical feats with characters were the more successful. One major problem with the show was the opening which was unfocused and insubstantial, relying on some bad acting.

 

It is not easy to make old tricks look and feel fresh, but Oz is still finding ways to break tradition, integrate theatre, circus and rock music to create the perfect feast for all ages. The show has a generous spirit, youth, vigour and excitement. And boy! Can those bodies move!

Kate Herbert  2 April 1994

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness, MTC, March 23, 1994

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

 By Frank McGuinness

MTC Russell Street Theatre

March 23 to April 23, 1994

Published in The Melbourne Times, April 1994

Reviewed by Kate Herbert, March 23, 1994

An Englishman, an Irishman and an American walked into a cell. No, it's not a bad joke but the framework for Irish playwright Frank McGuinness's play, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me: a passionate, stirring, torturous and hilarious piece of near-documentary theatre. The play is set in the terrifyingly claustrophobic atmosphere of a Beirut prison cell in the 80's during a period when Arab terrorist groups were picking foreign workers off the street and incarcerating them to publicise their cause or to hasten release of their members.

First two, then three men, are incarcerated in a tiny cell. In Sartre's No Exit, Hell was living in a room with people you hate. McGuinness throws three men together to survive incarceration, torture, beating and each other. The play is a celebration of the human spirit; our capacity to overcome adversity, to rise above suffering, torture and degradation. These men survive by jogging, fighting, caring for each other, nursing their delicate psyches, checking their sanity against each others' and drifting into flights of fancy.

McGuinness throws three men together to survive incarceration, torture, beating and each other. The play is a celebration of the human spirit; our capacity to overcome adversity, to rise above suffering, torture and degradation. These men survive by jogging, fighting, caring for each other, nursing their delicate psyches, checking their sanity against each others' and drifting into flights of fancy. There is little "action" but much dramatic tension, emotional intensity and hilarity. It is episodic, covering a period of months, perhaps years. Moods vary. Wills waver. Strength fails. They sing, play games, "shoot movies", "write" letters, relive memories and create experiences at home and with their loved ones to create lives outside this nightmare.

The Irish boozing journo, Edward, loathes Michael, the wimpy lecturer in obscure Old English poetry just as his real life counterpart, Brian Keenan took exception to his cell-mate John McCarthy. Adam, the Californian Christian psychiatrist, based on Dr. David Jacobsen, could drive a man to drink if he could get near some. All the action take place within the cell. The guards are a constant but invisible threat outside the single door. Trina Parker's extraordinary design manages to fill the stage but confine the actors' space giving a sense of restriction without narrowing their capacity to perform.

There is little "action" but much dramatic tension, emotional intensity and hilarity. It is episodic, covering a period of months, perhaps years. Moods vary. Wills waver. Strength fails. They sing, play games, "shoot movies", "write" letters, relive memories and create experiences at home and with their loved ones to create lives outside this nightmare.

 The play is a gift for actors. It is directed simply and stylishly by Bruce Myles with magnificent performances. Gallacher takes us on a roller-coaster ride in his passionate and loving portrayal of the volatile and maddening Irish wit, Edward. We squirm at Richard Piper's foppish Brit, until he reveals his strength as he supports Edward in his grief. Melvin J. Carroll as Adam has a gentleness which makes his journey more painful to witness. His Amazing Grace was achingly beautiful.

There is a wrenching, existential pain in Frank McGuinness' play which can only come from such deprivation, isolation and terror as that experienced by political hostages. We are voyeurs on the psychic torment of these men. Every observer knows that it could be he or she in that cell. How would we survive? What resources can we draw upon and would we want to live anyway?

 KATE HERBERT 25.3.94

Telemachus by David Lander, La Mama - REVIEW- 20 March 1994

THEATRE

Written and performed by David Lander

At La Mama, Carlton, until April 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around March 20, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 20, 1994

 

The ancient art of storytelling is not very fashionable in this era of physical and non-narrative theatre. A linear narrative with a single actor's voice is a rare bird indeed in our theatres.

 

Telemachus, the late show at La Mama, is such a theatrical piece. It is written and performed by David Lander who, until Telemachus has concentrated his attention on writing and teaching in recent years after a career in improvisational performance and storytelling.

 

This adaptation of Homer's Odyssey concentrates its attention on Telemachus, son of Odysseus. While his father is away fighting the Trojan War with Menelaus and Agamemnon, Telemachus, from the age of three, lives in abandonment with his mother Penelope who is constantly fending off unwanted suitors.  At twenty-three, the now adult son decides to fight back, attempts to evict the suitors from the family home they have invaded and seek his lost father.

 

This is a coming-of-age story, a rites of passage tale of manhood not unlike that of Parsifal in search of the Holy Grail. This story is particularly pertinent at present, given that our book shops are riddled with new literature on fatherhood and the making of the man.

 

Lander's performance is powerful and intense, accentuating the violence and darkness of the story. On opening night it lacked the dynamic range which could have plumbed the depths of both the tragedy and joy of the myth but was eminently watchable. It is a tale rich in imagery, symbolism and characters.

 

The simplicity of the staging and direction were refreshing with Lander using only a single chair as set although the slightly overstated lighting was intrusive and perhaps unnecessary. The style felt physically restrained, evidently more by nervousness than design. The added looseness and physicality would enrich this fascinating quest for revenge, lust, blood and discovery of manhood.

 

By Kate Herbert 20 March 1994

Interview with Toni Smith from Circus Oz, March 16, 1994

 CIRCUS - ARTICLE

Interview with Toni Smith from Circus Oz

Writer: Kate Herbert March 16, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 16, 1994

 

"I'm doing a double head trapeze" says Toni Smith blithely. "Lu balances on his head and I hang off him." Lu is Chinese master acrobat Lu Guong Rong and Smith is describing her work in the Circus Oz show opening in the Melbourne City Square on April Fool's Day.

 

This acrobat is no April Fool. Her circus career began in 1979 at the age of seven as a member of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in Albury. She performed in their second season and stayed until 1988. She joined the Oz in December '93 just in time for successful seasons at the Sydney Festival and in Hobart and just after its tours to Columbia, Northern Territory and Queensland. Almost in her acrobatic dotage at twenty-two, Smith has had a fifteen-year circus career.

 

According to Smith, most acrobats in Australia begin their careers as adults when they no longer have the requisite flexibility or strength.  Smith believes that early training, as well as harnessing the obvious physical assets of youth, implants positive behavioural habits in the mind. "It's like learning to ride bike." The skills will be automatic.

 

Training of our acrobats is not as rigorous as the Chinese who have visited here to teach. "We are nowhere near as disciplined. It's not in our nature," she quips. "The Chinese start at some ungodly hour in the morning. Their first hand-stand is for thirty minutes. The longest we would do would be four or five minutes." Evidently, the Chinese rather hedonistically break for a nap in the afternoon then continue into the evening.

 

Smith and other local acrobats have learnt a great deal from Lu Guong Rong who came here with the Nanking Acrobats in 1983 to teach in Albury. The visit was a remarkable artistic and cultural experience for our performers, the locals, the Fruit Flies and the Chinese. The Australians learnt something about rigour and the Chinese about laying back.

 

After the Chinese visitors left, our circus training improved considerably. In addition to their skills, the Chinese had brought volumes of equipment. With increased funds, the Fruit Flies could purchase mats and safety equipment which, in this industry, are imperative.

 

The profile of Circus has changed dramatically with the rise of Circus Oz. Its parent group of the 70's, Soapbox Circus, was big on entertainment, music and politics, but light on skills. These days the more radical, political Circus Oz has been superseded by a younger more physically skilful company with members graduating from the Fruit Flies.

 

Circus Oz, after years in an inadequate space in Flemington, has found a new home - an ironic thought for an institution which one imagines lives on the road in tents and caravans. "It's fantastic," Smith effuses over the Port Melbourne building. "It's huge. Really high ceilings so we can rig everything in the one room. Everybody's in the same building," which was evidently impossible in Flemington.

 

Smith prefers Oz to traditional circus like Sonelli’s with whom she toured for 18 months. "They (trad circuses) thrive on spontaneity” which is a characteristic of Australian entertainment. Routines and running order are constantly changing which Smith says keeps things interesting.

 

 "It tends to get a bit tedious after a while, doing the same thing day after day." The Chinese combine both skill and glamour. "They work a lot on their presentation."

 

In addition to the enormous working space, the Bay Street building has a second rehearsal room and props store upstairs with an additional music room and workshop. It is owned by the Department of Defence and you can bet your U-Boats this old Navy Drill Hall has never seen such a peaceful purpose.

 

The company will visit Washington DC in October this year as part of a group of Australian performance groups including the Australian Ballet.

 

We have a new breed of circus performer in Australia now. They are younger, stronger and more flexible, perhaps with less broad theatrical experience but nonetheless skilful. Circus Oz is in the vanguard of the new wave of Physical Performance which is defining Australian companies overseas.

 

Washington will love them. LA did in the 80's.

By Kate Herbert 16 March 1994

 

Disturbing the Dust text by Luke Devenish, Adelaide FEstival_REVIEW_March 6 1994

 

THEATRE

At Scott Theatre, Adelaide

Adelaide International Arts Festival 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around March 6, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 6, 1994

 

 

Memory is a trickster. As we age, we remember the distant past perfectly and our recent experiences are muddy.

 

Disturbing the Dust, directed by Ariette Taylor with text by Luke Devenish, deals with the last hours of Miss Nina, a faded grand dame of the ballet played with verve and charm by Patricia Kennedy. At seventy-four, she is now re-fabricating her past in a home for the aged, accompanied by other confused and shaken elderly folk.

 

Nina, who was born Alice Pike in London, prefers the exotic and passionate memories of the Greek woman Sophia and the Italian, Maria. This obsession creates the most extraordinary theatrical moment of the production in which actors, stories and characters from Calabria, Greece, London and Australia merge and become interchangeable.

 

The play is charming and impressionistic. Characters appear and disappear from Nina's vision. Action is stylised, almost choreographic, displaying Taylor's own dance background.

 

There are moments when the abstraction is overdone. Balletic movement, romantic watery lighting, cosmic music pall at times. A most effective scene, however, is the recurrent rush to the Underground in the London blitz.

 

Kennedy is supported by a strong and versatile ensemble which justifiably allows her the limelight.  Mary Sitarenos has a quiet dignity as Sophia, Malcolm Robertson is delightfully offensive as the "slurper" and David Tredinnick demonstrates his range in several roles.

 

In memories as in dreams we are often observers of the action. Significant others are stronger presences than the self. This has created problems theatrically because the protagonist, Alice/ Miss Nina, is sketchily drawn and so never really gains our sympathy. She is rather a narrator who, unlike the authorial voice of a novel gives little detail of herself.

 

We could afford to see more of Nina's own passion for dance. We should care more about her predicament, her past and her struggle with the dramatically awkward image of the Angel of Death.

 

Devenish's project to write a vehicle for Patricia Kennedy has been largely successful despite some structural problems with the text.

 

It is a joy to see a play with an older woman as a central character. 

KATE HERBERT   6.3.94  

350 wds

Hotspur by Jeffrey Atherden_ MTC_REVIEW_ March 13, 1994

 THEATRE

By Melbourne Theatre Company

At Playhouse, Melbourne Arts Centre

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around March 13, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after March 13, 1994

 

Major theatre companies need commercially successful productions to support their enormous overheads. In Hotspur the Melbourne Theatre Company may have one.

 

This is not a play which pushes the boundaries of taste, style, form, politics or content. It is, however, superbly performed, wittily written and extremely enjoyable. Ruth Cracknell portrays with wit and subtlety the abrasive Fiona McPherson's journey from spritely but pernicious sticky-beak to elderly lovelorn victim and back again.

 

Garry McDonald, cast deliciously against type as entrepreneur Freddy Brown, is vivid and obnoxious. Brown is a conniving, manipulative, expensive con man who reeks of Alan Bond. He unashamedly buys up Australia's art, land and its people. In his own words he is "a sleezy bag of shit" whom we would like to see fail, put in gaol or impaled. He makes one's flesh crawl.

 

Brown takes a flat in Fiona's dilapidated, pseudo-English home, Hotspur. He is evidently in abject bankruptcy, facing a well-publicised divorce from his equally dreadful wife, Julie, played with relish by Val Levkowicz.

 

The narrative relies on the conflict between the two arrogant characters of Freddy and Fiona and the evolution of their relationship as Freddy appears to assist Fiona to save her estate from massive real estate development.

 

The characters are more interesting than the plot, which is amusing but thin and, at times, clumsy. Marisia, the Polish viola-player, is played passionately by Celia de Burgh and Dennis Moore as Vern the devious little councillor, is a delightful, cowardly weasel. Emotional moments were fleeting, being dispelled by the light comic style which falls somewhere between melodrama and farse.

 

Tony Tripp's design is a perfect naturalistic replica of the interior of a stately home. It is perhaps too elaborate, with a model of the exterior of the house unnecessarily poised above the stage to depict the exterior of the building.

 

The performances are definitely the highlight of this production and they are enhanced by the brisk direction of Simon Phillips who gives these consummate actors their heads.

Kate Herbert     

West Side Story-by ernstein, Sondheim, Laurents_REVIEW- Melbourne_27 Feb 1994

MUSICAL THEATRE

Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Arthur Laurents.

Musical conceived by Jerome Robbins.

At Princess Theatre from Feb 26, 1994 (till Kingdom come! date unknown.)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around Feb 26, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 27, 1994

 

Romance and Death are ideal pivots for a dramatic plot and West Side Story has both.

 

In this year of the Revived Musical, West Side Story has been resurrected without looking too anachronistic. Apart from the fact that teenagers no longer fantasise about wedding vows on their first date, (does anyone?) this mixed-race love tale still twangs the heart strings.

 

It is essentially a 50's version of Romeo and Juliet with terrific tunes: Maria, (I Want To Live in) America, Tonight, I Feel Pretty. (Lyrics: Sondheim, Music: Bernstein). In case you've been living in a cave for thirty years and don't know the plot, it is set in New York's West Side where the Puerta Ricans Sharks (Montagues) fight a racial gang street war with the All- American Jets (Capulets). Head Jet, Riff (Mercutio) and Maria's brother Bernardo (Tybalt) die in a rumble by knife (rapier).

 

Marina Prior as Maria achieves her dramatic peak at Tony's death when Maria has "learnt to hate". Earlier she is in good voice, but her portrayal of the virginal Maria lacks latin passion. Sean McDermott is a vigorous and attractive Tony with a strong upper register, but the voice lacks subtlety. Adam Marchant is almost regal as Bernardo.

 

Romantic leads are often dull characters. Their best friends are invariably more interesting. Caroline O'Connor as Anita, Bernardo's girlfriend, is vibrant, magnetic and energetic. Her Irish name belies her charismatic Hispanic stage presence.

 

With the exception of the rather schmaltzy ballet during Somewhere, Ian Judge's direction is tasteful, swift and economical. Stage design by John Gunter brings New York's alleys uncannily to life with tenements skyline an even the Brooklyn Bridge on stage.

 

High points were the Dance at the Gym, Cool, led beautifully by Todd McKenney as Riff, and the quintet of Tonight. The Jets parody of delinquents and police, Gee, Officer Krupke was a riot with an enjoyable performance from Eden Gaha as the volatile Action.

 

This show is fierce, fast and furious, recreating original choreographer, Jerome Robbins, hot street jazz dance and Puerta Rican mambo. It is also disturbingly violent. Stylisation heightens the ferocity of the fights. There are echoes of contemporary war zones: peace comes only after sufficient people have died and enough survivors have recognised the stupidity of the conflict.

 

 

KATE HERBERT    27.2.94   

 370 wds

Unsettled by $5 Theatre Company,-REVIEW-Feb 19, 1994

 

THEATRE

Three plays: No Family, At Dusk, Seeing Violet 

 At Napier Street Theatre Tues-Sat 8.30pm Sun 5.30 till March 6, 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around Feb 19, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 20, 1994

 

Good one act plays are rare. Good 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 at Napier Street Theatre.

 

In addition to Miles Franklin's comedy, No Family, and At Dusk, written by Millicent Armstrong, there is a third, Seeing Violet by Pamela Leversha, which was commissioned as a response to the two plays.

 

At Dusk is "bush gothic" capturing a sinister element of the outback when two very different sisters arrive home alone. The writing is clever although the melodramatic direction diminishes its intrinsic suspense. It deals with the timeless women's fears of violation and invasion.  but the whole is effective.

 

No Family combines the wit of Miles Franklin with the quirky, clownish directorial style of Chris Corbett. It is a light and funny piece with some acerbic commentary on the war and morality.

 

The strongest script and highlight of the night is the longer (40 minute) Seeing Violet. The script very satisfyingly echoes elements of the previous two plays in dialogue, images and themes. It is a rhythmic piece which has surprises in plot, character and relationship which keep audience interest. Direction by Melanie Beddy is imaginative and uncluttered.

 

Hugh, a painter and "self-indulgent old goat", draws two consecutive wives into his chosen isolation in the Dandenongs in the 60's. After Violet dies Isabel, the younger second wife, becomes obsessed almost possessed by her. It is a clever weaving of ideas and time frames with some very witty dialogue.

 

The several strong female roles are performed admirably by Catherine McClements, Melanie Beddy and Victoria Eagger, supported by Tom Considine and Glenn Perry. Performances are delightful and ensemble work is excellent. $5's have fulfilled a political agenda to put more female characters on stage and seem happy with the short play format.

 

KATE HERBERT    19.2 94        330 wd

The Bacchae: Burning Water, by IRAA Theatre, -REVIEW-Feb 19, 1994

 THEATRE

 by IRAA Theatre, After Euripides; Bacchae

At IRAA, Lowther St, Alphington

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around Feb 19, 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 20, 1994

 

Never expect a traditional performance of a classical play from IRAA. In The Bacchae: Burning Water, director, Renato Cuocolo, once again employs his vigorous "psycho-physical" acting technique to create an intense and rhythmic collage of text, imagery, passionate performances, resonant emotional content and rich soundscapes.

 

There is a strange, mythic and mystical atmosphere in the tiny church hall in Alphington. This is not The Bacchae, but a mesmeric journey into some dark other world which resonates with Euripides’ Bacchae but disconnected excerpts of text from Euripides, Joyce, Mann, Koltes and Robbe-Grillet. It has the distinctive and masterly direction of Cuocolo.

 

The piece is a battle of wills between Pentheus the rigorous, rational and rigid Pentheus and the passionate desire of Dionysus. It could be Pentheus' own internal war: "The Dream of Pentheus". The darkened space, hypnotic music, prolonged stillness and silence, repetition of words and actions are all elements of dreams and echo Jungian symbology.

 

At times the dream turns to nightmare. The horror of the slaughter of Pentheus (Robert Meldrum) by his mother Agave (Catherine Simmonds) is both heightened and undercut by simple verbal description and non-violent images. The unseen violence is more potent.

 

The whole performance takes place in shallow water, a symbol of the sub-conscious and emotional life. Pentheus refers repeatedly to buildings and walls, all evoking the self and containment. Reflections, mirrors, blood-red blindfolds, milk are all rich with symbolism.

 

The rippling light on water was breath-takingly beautiful as it dappled actors' bridal gowns like watered silk.

 

The dark honey voice of Meldrum, both live and recorded, is almost meditative and when he wails for Mum, we all feel the pain of the "child-man". Actors Simmonds and Nadja Kostich are strong and lyrical presences as the Maenads and Tony Yapp as Dionysus has an eerie and powerful androgyny.

 

 

KATE HERBERT   19.2.94        300 wd

Forget Me Not by Compagnie Phillipe Genty REVIEW 13 FEb 1994

At The Playhouse, Melbourne Arts Centre

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around 12 Feb 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after Feb 12 1994. KH

 

There is a magical journey which can only be taken with Compagnie Philippe Genty. This company ignores narrative and combines dance, mime, clown and visual theatre to create a potpourri of delicious imagery.

 

Forget Me Not is the latest production from this internationally acclaimed company. Actors are partnered with life-size puppets. They are dressed in white gowns and dinner suits and are none of them quite complete humans. They cannot stand. They prop each other up. Bodies tumble like dolls and dolls collapse like humans. We question reality at every point. Which are the puppets? Which are human size?

 

Much of the performance is pure clown. Slapstick such as the three slippery water-wielding morticians, is often gut wrenchingly hilarious and yet much is accompanied by a delicacy and poignancy.

 

The dramatic interplay between these anonymous characters comments incisively but silently on relationships and humanity. We laugh at the tragedy of human existence, our disasters and our foibles, our loves and disputes. And the whole scenario is viewed by a rather bemused and be-gowned ape woman who seems incredulous about human behaviour and reacts simply by whacking the recalcitrant on the head. Simple enough.

 

Forget Me Not echoes the sharp social observation and choreography of Pina Bausch's Wuppertaler Dance Theatre as well as the whimsy of Trestle Theatre's stage adaptation of Leunig. There are also Genty 's signatures: acres of billowing silk, stage smoke, evocative music and seven extraordinary, multi-skilled performers and endless magical illusions, appearances and disappearances.

 

This is truly an ensemble. There is a fluidity of movement and unity of spirit which allows the cast to move effortlessly as one. The sheer beauty, charm and resonance of images seemed to ring chords in the audience. It is a genuinely enchanting performance.

Playland by Athol Fugard REVIEW Feb 13, 1994

By Johannesberg Market Theatre

 At the Studio, Melbourne Arts Centre, until Sat 19 Feb 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around 13 Feb 1994

 This review was published in The Melbourne Times after 13 Feb 1994.

Athol Fugard has always written sharply observed political commentaries on institutionalised racism in South Africa. Most of his plays have been performed by the Johannesberg Market Theatre but Playland differs from his previous plays by dealing with the personal political situation rather than the broader context.

 

Directed by Fugard himself, the play is a dynamic face-off between Gideon, an Afrikaaner ex-soldier, and Martinus, the black caretaker of the park. The ironic location for their confrontation is Playland, a touring Luna Park sans mouth. As the carnival festivities proceed the two argue the human condition, life and philosophy, morality and the Commandments, humanism and religion, existential dilemmas and God.

 

It is New Year's Eve and Gideon wants distraction and celebration. He pesters the reticent Martinus. Gideon is in turn sceptical, hysterical, depressed, a victim but always neurotic and a total dickhead. This oaf is played superbly by Sean Taylor who makes him lovable, annoying, hateful and dangerous, but still sympathetic.

 

John Kani, Associate Director of the Market, gives a rich and poignant performance as the bemused, simple and secretively vengeful Martinus. His dry acceptance of his lot is both admirable and tragic.

 

The two tortured souls are worlds apart and yet are bonded in their struggle to survive the aching pain of their pasts and their searing sense of loss and alienation. Both have murdered. Martinus knifed a white rapist and Gid slaughtered SWAPO guerrillas on the Namibian border. Martinus nurtures his revenge, Gid seeks forgiveness. They scrap like children, threaten and bait each other but just talking to a stranger challenges then alleviates their burdens.

 

The dreadfulness of the night brings them together. They fight and the cold light of morning brings fresh vision and hope that they can move on in parallel lives until the following year.

 

This is a hopeful fable of the New South Africa which makes its point simply and movingly.

 

KATE HERBERT       325 wd

Bell Shakespeare Launch 1994

Bell Shakespeare Launch 1994

By Kate Herbert

Feb 13, 1994

The Melbourne Times

published in Feb 1994

This week, on February 9, Bell Shakespeare Company launched its 1994 Melbourne season at the Comedy Theatre. Founder John Bell will direct Taming of the Shrew and play Macbeth in a production.

Bell will direct Taming of the Shrew exploring the gender relationships of a notoriously sexist text in a modern context of the domineering man and the dependent woman.

He will also play the lead in a production of Macbeth directed by a recent graduate from NIDA, David Fenton. Fenton describes his view of the Witches as creatures with access terrifically advanced technology.

The company will extend its touring to include not only Melbourne and Sydney but Canberra, Perth, Hobart, Launceston and Newcastle. The Melbourne season commences in May. The Sydney program will include a schools season called Actors at Work.

There is also a list of publications of Australian Shakespeare productions beginning with Romeo and Juliet.

The company will extend its touring to include Canberra, Perth, Hobart, Launceston and Newcastle, the Melbourne season commencing in May. Other activities include a schools program called Actors at Work and publications of Australian Shakespeare productions.

KATE HERBERT 13.2.94