All's Well That Ends, Dir. Suzanne Kirsten, April 18, 2004

All's Well That Ends 

 Directed by Suzanne Kirsten

 March 18, 2004

 Well, Well, Well. All's Well That Ends - well, in total confusion really.

This production of Shakespeare's play, directed by Suzanne Kersten, incorporates eclectic styles, language, periods and music. The collision of styles can be compelling and entertaining in new theatre making. Each component enhancing or informing another. Or, it can just be a nasty muddle.

In this production the intersection of Shakespearian text with popular culture and language is incoherent and lacks cohesion. The play, All's Well That Ends Well, is almost irrelevant. The cast is an energetic and youthful group totally committed to the concept.

The narrative is roughly as follows: The rampant clubber,  Belinda  (Clair Korobacz ) is compelled by the disease-riddled Queen  (Deanne Eccles) to marry the despondent Herman. (Paul Moir) as a reward for Herman's curing the Queen's illness. A narrator, La Feu (Fleur Dean) provides information about characters and style.

The royal court is transformed into a raunchy club environment. The young women compete in "The Body Fest Competition" which is essentially an erotic dance competition in the style of live sex shows.

 Not every experiment in the rehearsal room should be included in the performance. There are long - too long - scenes of solo or group dancing that interrupt the flow of story and add nothing to the concept. Gender roles from the original text are swapped. The women are rough and sexist with their multiple sexual partners.

The links between scenes are clumsy with long gaps as we wait for performers to move over a rather noisy set of platforms to a new position.

Many of the contemporary references and images are cheap parodies. The Queen's Throne is a toilet. A giant, inflatable penis is a sex toy in the dancing.

The performers are awkward in the scenes from Shakespeare, having difficulty connecting truthfully to the Shakespearian language. They are all far more at home with the club land dancing. The entire piece is intended to sexualise Shakespeare but it is not in the slightest sexy. It is, rather, narcissistic, self-indulgent and poorly executed.

Perhaps they should leave the bard alone next time.

By Kate Herbert

The Slippery Slope by Merrilee Moss, 17 March, 2004

 The Slippery Slope by Merrilee Moss 

Women on a Shoestring

 La Mama, 17 March to 28 March, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on 17 March, 2004

Ageing is never an easy ride but, for the hippy children of the 60s, it is a slippery slope.

 Playwright, Merrilee Moss, portrays three friends over sixty who spent the 1960s travelling the hippy trail together through Europe and Asia.

It is Caroline's (Chrissie Shaw) 60^th birthday party at her beachside haven.

Despite years of separation, Robert (Peter Green) and Susan (Camilla Blunden) are the only guests invited - apart from Susan's ex-lover, Drago, who never arrives.

Between the reunion scenes are vignettes from their youthful, dope-smoking travels.

Just watching older actors play young hippies is funny.

In many ways, little has changed in young people. We still see the pretentious, the adventurous, the faux spiritual, the promiscuous, the feminist and the macho.

Although there is no action on stage in either of these scenes, each is amusing. Many will recall the reckless abandon of their hippy youth and others will recognise the fear of ageing.

There are two other modes in the play. The trio plays an elderly singing chorus of rickety lawn bowlers who quote old songs and sing raunchy numbers.

Ageing is also investigated through the eyes of the actors themselves who drop out of character intermittently.

They discuss stage fright, the trickle of acting work, creaky joints and forgetting lines.

The four components sit a little awkwardly together although each is entertaining in its own way.

The performances are often engaging although a little uneven.

Green is amusing as an ex-rogue trying to hang on to his youth. Shaw as the young, ethereal Caroline, is entertaining. Blunden seems more comfortable in the chorus scenes.

Age has changed and wearied all three characters. What we miss is the detail of their lives and the complexities of their reactions to each other, the past, the changes in their relationships.

Robert's Vietnam experience is tossed into the mix quite late and never integrated. Susan's broken marriage is never dealt with and Caroline's middle years are barely mentioned.

Most of the action is off-stage or talked about in the past tense. Even in a memory play there needs to be forward moving action.

This play is part of Senior Citizens' Week and could delight or shock its audience.

LOOK FOR: The trio singing the raunchy number, Root, root, rooty-root.

By Kate Herbert

The Soul Miner by Ray Swann, March 11, 2004

The Soul Miner by Ray Swann 

by Identity Theatre

Where and When: Trades Hall, March 8 to 20, 2004; Frankston Arts Centre, 21-24 April, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 11, 2004

The Soul Miner, written and performed by Ray Swann, is a vibrant, passionate and compelling solo show about a Gallipoli survivor.

Swann, directed by Richard Sallis and Andreas Litras, peoples the stage with vivid characters that flow effortlessly from one to another.

Jim, the central character, Swann first brings him to life in a mining accident after the war. He is trapped in a shaft trying to rescue Alfie,  an injured lad.

Jim tries to distract himself and the lad by recounting comical tales of his army mates.

As he struggles with his panic and incarceration, memories of horrific experiences at Gallipoli flood his mind.

Swann transforms before our eyes, shifting physically and vocally to inhabit another of his creations.

Multiple locations are conjured despite his being alone on an empty stage strewn with sand and with only a torch, a tiny lantern and a foldaway chair.

Swann is an accomplished performer with an engaging presence. He draws these men with great sympathy and intelligence.

Our eyes and hearts travel with him as he transports us to 1914.

We meet Frank, Jim's mischievous, garrulous mate who keeps morale up by telling jokes at the expense of the Kiwis and breaking into the quartermaster's store for cooking plonk.

Jim describes another army pal, young Davo, as a galah. Dave is uncoordinated, slow and good-hearted.

The target of Frank's ridicule is Reverend Beefy Moncrief who attempts to boost the boys' mood with inappropriate quotes from Francis Bacon and Lewis Carroll.

Sallis and Litras keep the action fluid by avoiding scene changes and using only the occasional blackout for dramatic impact. John Panetta's lighting is evocative.

There are particularly powerful images of Swann portraying an entire battalion being mown down on the beaches at Gallipoli.

He ploughs forward with his invisible rifle and bayonet, falls, rises again as another soldier until they all lie fallen.

This is a complex psychological investigation of the distraught mind of a soldier who once again faces his mortality in amine shaft.

LOOK FOR: Jim cradling the injured Frank in his arms on the beach.

By Kate Herbert

Crossing the Bridge by Gaylene Carbis, March 10, 2004

Crossing the Bridge by Gaylene Carbis

La Mama, March 10 to 28, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Crossing the Bridge rests on a common issue facing the children of men who survived the Second World War.

Their fathers were emotionally distant and traumatised by their wartime experiences.

Writer, Gaylene Carbis, is partially successful in representing the impact on both generations.

Don, (Sam Sejavka) travels by train with his partner, Jan, (Samantha Bond) to his elderly parents' home in the middle of nowhere.

The summer heat is oppressive, as is the atmosphere in this dysfunctional family home.

Don has little contact with his very conservative parents,

Alan (Ross Thomson) and Blanche. (Brenda Palmer) They ignore his success as a poet, novelist and psychologist.

Their focus is on his parade of girlfriends, his debt and his wasteful use of their electric fan.

Thompson's portrayal of Alan is both moving and comical.

He captures the frailty of this old digger as well as his stubbornness and dogged refusal to admit fault or brook any change to his daily routine.

Director, Lynne Ellis, stages the play in an unusual configuration with actors sitting and walking amongst the audience. We seem to be right inside this grim little home.

Sejavka seems more comfortable in the later scenes in which he allows us to see Don's more vulnerable side.

Carbis writes some moving and funny passages but has not yet found the balance between the naturalistic dialogue and poetic monologues.

The characters and relationships could benefit from some further development and deepening in the writing.

At present, they all seem to be on one note: Don is negative, Jane is bemused, Blanche is evasive and Alan is recalcitrant

There is great potential in the issue of child abuse triggered by a father's wartime trauma. The problems with the script are that there are no surprises.

When the argument comes to a head the impact is limited because all the family problems have been revealed repeatedly early in the play.

Family crisis and argument always has an illogical flow. However, there needs to be some logic to the characters and their revelations.

The script needs a clearer dramatic arc to the narrative and fuller relationships between characters to realise its full potential.

LOOK FOR: Ross Thompson's stroppy old man.

By Kate Herbert

Kiss them All Soundly by Jason Cavanagh, March 4, 2004

 Kiss Them All Soundly by Jason Cavanagh
Chambers Theatre Company 

Gasworks, from March 4, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Three nursery rhymes were the stimulus for Kiss Them All Soundly, the first play by Jason Cavanagh.

The play does not enact the rhymes but uses them as a jumping off point for three contemporary tragedies.

The play is successful in part. The most effective scenes are those in which the characters confront, reveal or admit their traumatic past experiences. These scenes have some emotional weight and more substantial narrative and characters.

In Georgie Porgie, George,  (Bill Johnston) an elderly man resting at a bus stop, meets Alice,  (Grace Anderson) a twelve year girl and they become friends.

We have some doubts about her safety, as does she at first. However, eventually she and we realise George is harmless and genuinely friendly.

In the story based on Mary Had a Little Lamb, James (Jason Cavanagh) is concerned about his wife, Mary, (Tamara Searle) who never leaves the house while he is at work. It is clear to us that she lives in a fantasy world in which her baby is still alive.

Simon  (Cavanagh) is caught in a strange world. He remembers nothing of his time immediately before arriving in what we know is a hospital.

He is angry, frustrated, impatient and cannot understand why he cannot leave and, later, why his wife and child do not visit.

The that intersect of these three stories at the end is interesting whereas the opening scenes are abstract, short and sometimes confusing or irritatingly obtuse.

Simon's initial daily conversation with Martin,  (Johnston) his doctor, is repetitive, as is the repeated action between Mary and James.

There are two false endings and three overwritten monologues. Cavanagh attempts to represent grief and trauma that causes mental breakdown. His representation of both is very superficial and the easy solutions to Mary and Simon's psychosis are unlilkely.

The actors often seem uncomfortable in the roles. Director, Jasper Bagg, moves actors between stories and roles. The delineation between the characterisations and the locations is often unclear on the stage.

This is a good effort for a first play but it needs some reworking.

LOOK FOR: The final silent image of the trio on a bus stop bench.

By Kate Herbert

Act One adapted from Moss Hart, March 3, 2004

Act One 

adapted from Moss Hart by Don Mackay  

La Mama at the Courthouse  March 3 to 13, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

An interesting life can be a rich basis for drama.

Writer/director, Don Mackay, based Act One, on American playwright and director, Moss Hart's autobiography of the same name. Simon Russell plays Moss Hart while Simon Mallory appears as almost everybody else.

The play spans 1916 (OK) to 1930 and is set in various American cities and, finally, Broadway. We witness Hart's rise from poverty in the Bronx  to theatre producer's office boy and fledgling playwright. After years writing unsuccessful dramas, in 1930 Hart becomes the darling of Broadway with his first comedy, Once In A Lifetime.

Mackay stops at this point rather than continue with Hart's rollicking success with The Man Who Came To Dinner, and You Can't Take It With You.

The trap with adapting a popular autobiography for stage is the temptation to include too much text and too long a time period.

The agonising development of the final script of Once In A Lifetime is the most compelling part of the play. The earlier period could be edited to give the same information more effectively.

Mackay uses Hart's own colourful narration and descriptions of characters such as George S, Kaufman,  heiress, Mrs. Harris and Moss' Aunt Kate.

Russell makes a meal of his role and skilfully compels us to listen to tracts of description of places and people.

He plays Hart as a bright, magnetic, intense, ambitious young man and drives the play forward with wide-eyed, direct address to audience between many short scenes. He has an uncanny way of making the audience feel he is looking each in the eye. 

 Meanwhile, Mallory sprints about, donning hats, ties, spectacles and feather boas to embody a parade of characters with great comic timing and an engaging presence.

The audience is fascinated not only by the characters but by Mallory's capacity to alter his persona rapidly and frequently. He captures the intense, intelligent and generous George S. Kaufman perfectly. His Mrs. Harris is charming and funny and Harris, the producer, provides a welcome change of rhythm.

Act One is a faithful and entertaining rendering of a fascinating life in the theatre.

LOOK FOR: Russell's hilarious old ham actor.

By Kate Herbert

The Zoo Story by Edward Albee, March 2.2004

The Zoo Story by Edward Albee

 Theatreworks, 14a Acland St. St. Kilda,  March 2 to  13, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

The Zoo Story is one of celebrated American playwright, Edward Albee's, finest short works.

It is an exploration of maleness, social status and the collision of two unlikely and disparate lives in a park. This production eliminates comfortably the Americanisms of the original and localises the language.

Albee's writing is pithy disturbing and often hilarious. Intelligent, wry cynical and darkly humorous, particularly for the central character, Jerry (Tom Healey).

 Greg Ulfan directs the play with a firm and dramatic hand, maintaining intense dramatic tension through out and focussing on the relationship between the characters.

Healey and Damien Donovan  (Peter)  perform with finesse on a stage that is bare but for a single wooden park bench.

This is an intensely actorly performance infused with passion and poignancy. Healey plays Jerry a peculiar, unstable, homeless transient who has an unexpected power wisdom and awareness.

Jerry accosts Peter who sits reading on a bench in the park on a quiet Sunday. What transpires is like the peeling of an onion or opening a Russian Doll. As Jerry reveals his tormented inner world step by painful step, Peter is drawn further into his orbit.

The stage is Healey's. We are riveted by his character from the moment he appears perched like a creature of prey, peering at Peter and poised for attack. Healey's broad dynamic range and portrayal of Jerry's apparent weirdness and intermittent normality are exceptional. His timing is impeccably. And he gives Jerry great sympathy and a ragged dignity.

An emotional roller coaster reveals the loss of Jerry's parents, his aloneness, his sordid, soulless boarding house and his cryptic visit to the zoo that day.

Donovan is a fine support for Healey and portrays Peter, the stitched up, middle class I.T. executive with a rigid reserve.

His is an ordinary, suburban life with a wife, two girls, two cats and two budgies. His attentiveness to Jerry becomes our attentiveness. We are aware that an accident of fate placed Jerry, not Peter, in the hollow, strange, half-lit world Jerry inhabits. We care about both of these mismatched characters.

Despite our attitude toward Jerry seesawing between fear and sympathy and the escalating conflict between them, we want a happy ending. The Zoo Story is a fine piece of theatre.

LOOK FOR: The finale of Jerry's black dog and burger story.

By Kate Herbert

XXX, by La Fura Dels Baus, Feb 3, 2004

XXX by La Fura Dels Baus 

adapted from Philosophy in the Boudoir 

by the Marquis de Sade

 Comedy Theatre, From Feb 3 to Sun Feb 15, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

There was a hoo ha  when America  saw Janet Jackson's breast this week. They should cop a look at XXX!

XXX is just that - triple X rated. Well, here it manages an R rating because people's naughty bits are obscured on video.

How does one explain this show? It is a meeting of a live sex show, Quentin Tarantino movie and Playschool. They even have a food fight.

The four performers are compelling. Directors, Alex Elle  and Carlos Padrissa allow no boundaries, either emotional or phsycial.

They use contemporary technology, web cams, live video feeds inter-cut with pre-recorded scenes to confuse and horrify us. (Franc Aleu, Emmanuel Carlier)

The music (Mike Espuma & Big Toxic) is atmospheric and the design (Roland Olbeter) simple but effective.

 The flimsy narrative is about Eugenia,  a teenage girl, (Sonia Segura) who arrives at a casting session only to discover it is a clandestine hard pornography set run by three weirdo S and M  freaks.

Sonia is seduced, titillated, abused, raped and taught the niceties  of the Marquis de Sade's  views on pleasure and pain.

XXX is based on de Sade's Philosophy of the Boudoir written in 1795.  His words are projected or spoken throughout. If we are truly liberated we will love abuse and abusing. Criminal acts will be acceptable.

Poor little hypocrites we are, living our normal little lives.

Sonia is so taken with Madame Lula, (Teresa Vallejo) Giovanni (Damia Plensa) and Dolmance (Jorje Flores Dr Flo) that she returns for more. And more there is.

XXX depicts grotesque, violent, aberrant and abhorrent sexual acts. The intention is to portray pornography in a cynical and critical way. However, the product is often just indulgent, pretentious and almost adolescent in its attempt to titillate and shock an audience.

What is interesting is that at no time is it erotic or even sensual. There is nothing sexy about the sex.

Of course, each time an on-screen woman did something sexual to a man, the bloke behind me made loud yobbo comments.

The women are disembodied, made into commodities. The men get off lightly, as one male audience member shouted.

The sex is aggressive and angry. The abuse offensive, particularly the final scenes when Sonia' mother is hauled in to be violated in ways reminiscent of war zone rape camps. Without any political framework it is simply hard core porn.

Having seen the other two La Fura shows in Adelaide and Sydney, I was delighted that during XXX, I was not spattered with blood or run over by machine.

These shows always bring out the look-at-me audience. One leather-clad man was attached to a woman by dog leash.

Funnily, the show-offs were all silent and invisible when volunteers were called to make comments, go on stage or to take their clothes off in the auditorium.

By Kate Herbert

Paris, by Jon English & David Mackay, Jan 29, 2004

Paris (Musical)

 by Jon English & David Mackay   

Stella Entertainment

National Theatre, St. Kilda, Jan 29 to Feb 7; Frankston Arts Centre  Feb 11 to 1, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 2, 2004

Published in Herald Sun 2/2/2004

Jon English and David Mackay's musical, Paris, is not about the romantic city but about Paris, the young Trojan who abducted Helen from Greece and transported her over the Aegean Sea to Troy.

Thus began the ten year Trojan War. Blind, selfish love sent a betrayed King Menelaus, Helen's husband, to seek revenge.

It all ends in tears when the Greeks, at the gates of Troy, feign defeat and leave a huge wooden horse at the gate as a tribute.

When Troy takes it inside it walls, Greek soldiers pour out, destroying Troy.

English and Mackay wrote this classic Rock Opera, twenty years ago but this amateur production is its premiere.

It is a lively score comprising ballads, comic ditties and driving rock numbers.

The eight-piece band, directed by Andrew Patterson, is a great asset with its tight arrangements and skilful musicians.

Peter Fitzpatrick directs over twenty principals plus ensemble and dancers. It is a youthful group with a few more experienced artists.

The sheer number makes staging a little awkward at times.

Jessica Enes plays the Prophetess, Cassandra, sister to Paris. Her voice is rich and her presence compelling. Her opening song, Head Without a Heart (OK) and, later, Oh, Paris, (OK) were thrilling.

Angela Scudi, playing Helen, is a year twelve student with a powerful voice beyond her years. Her performance is passionate although the character could benefit from a broader emotional range.

As Paris, Ben Spaull  has moments when his vocal quality is evident but he is straining in the upper register.

Amongst the men are several fine performances. Tony Appleby plays Ulysses  with great composure and a fine theatrical presence.

 Peter Dennis is a wonderfully villainous Agamemnon, and Phil Haby brings weight and dignity to King Menelaus. 

David Bramble is a feisty Hector and Norm Smart effective as Priam of Troy. Aaron Hughes is very funny as the plump drunk, Thersites.

Paris is an energetic and ambitious epic. English and Mackay engender a sense of love and danger on stage with both musical arrangements and lyrics. This new amateur company gives it a commendable first production.

By Kate Herbert

A Thousand & One Night Stands, Barry Lowe, Jan 28, 2004

 A Thousand and One Night Stands 
 by Barry Lowe
 Performing Arts Productions Australia

Theatreworks, St. Kilda,  Jan 28 until Feb 14, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 28, 2004

A Thousand and One Night Stands is a misnomer for this play about the sordid and tragic life of Jon Vincent.

The concept of the one night stand pales into insignificance in the light of Vincent's often violent sexual cavalcade.

His life involved years of male prostitution, a long career in gay porn, all sorts of addictive drugs and alcohol and several marriages.

Barry Lowe's  play is based on the book of the same name written by Vincent's friend, Hope A. Carson,  and conceived in the months before Vincet's death from a heroin overdose.

Aaron Smith,  faces the challenge of one hundred minutes on stage alone and naked, talking directly to the audience as Jon Vincent about his damaged, drug-riddled and nearly pathological life.

Vincent travels from potential US baseball star to porn star in his early twenties.

There is, admittedly, some morbid fascination for his tragic life, even for those who do not know his videos. The story is compelling in a perverse way.

Lowe's script is extremely dense with dialogue describing Vincent's past exploits. There is little action. Smith does not move from the single bed that is surrounded by hypodermic needles.

Such a torrent of expository dialogue is difficult for the actor to sustain and the audience to absorb. It leaves little room for theatrical or emotional action.

Director, Robert Chuter,  compensates with small stage action, constant doorbells and phones ringing and Vincent's frequent onstage drug taking.

Although Smith does not physically resemble the bulky, athletic Vincent, he makes the dialogue credible much of the time. However, he is inclined to maintain the same vocal rhythm and pace and his Southern accent is intermittent.

Some unsuccessful directorial choices are made with the background sound. Snatches of dialogue and songs are often out of place.

Anthony Breslin's  set design is effective with huge white drapes and hypodermics strung as curtains.

As part of the Midsumma Festival,  this production and its companion piece about Joey Stephano,  will appeal to a part of the gay community.

It might not be your cup of tea.

By Kate Herbert

My Life as a Dyke 3 - More Tales From The Dyke Side, Jan 22, 2004

 My Life  as a Dyke 3 - More Tales From The Dyke Side   
by Nik Willmott  and Rachel Forgasz  

La Mama, Jan 22  until Feb 8, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 22, 2004

Published in Herald Sun on Jan 26, 2004

Nik Willmott and Rachel Forgasz describe their sketch comedy very accurately as "simultaneously self-deprecating, affirming and downright silly." They are also very funny.

My Life as a Dyke 3 - More Tales from the Dyke Side,  is the third in their series of comedy shows for the Midsumma Festival.

Although it claims to be about lesbians, the jokes are universal.

It opens with Wilmott singing a silly song and follows up with the very memorable Professor  (Forgasz) presenting part three of her lecture series - Lesbianism 301.  

The Prof,  supported silently by her lab-coated assistant, Elizabeth, (Willmott) pontificates and prowls like a panther in a cage.

This year's lecture pertains to Breaking Up  in lesbian relationships. Forgasz plays the seductive and patronising Ph D who serves up hilarious advice and abuse with alacrity.

The next sketch is also a follow up of two popular characters from the previous shows and is riddled with great gags not only relevant to lesbians.

Susie  (Willmott) comes home after another disastrous first date with a woman who presented her relationship CV.

Her flat mate (Forgasz) attempts to write Susie's own CV until she realises that hobbies such as playing air guitar  and a patchy relationship history will never recommend Susie.

Scattered amongst the longer character sketches are numerous tiny one liners from Willmott that are very silly.

Forgasz, wrapped in a feather boa, sings an outrageously lascivious and naughty song that has to be seen to be believed.

A husband (Willmott) and wife (Forgasz) deciding whether their daughter is a lesbian is a clever scene that argues the positives of having a lesbian daughter.

The finale is their "Dyke Anthem" - a wonderfully cheeky adaptation of All That Jazz  from Chicago.  with Bob Fossey  style choreography. The clever lyrics name celebrities that they think should be lesbians.

Forgasz and Willmott are charming, relaxed and really funny. Their sketches are unusual and intelligently written and their characters are vivid and accurately drawn.

The pair has a wicked sense of humour and will try anything.

This is a show that gives you laugh out loud comedy about characters who just happen to be lesbians.

By Kate Herbert

Illegal Harmonies by Combo Fiasco, Jan 22, 2004

Illegal Harmonies  by Combo Fiasco   

Chapel Off Chapel  Jan 22  until Feb 1, 2004 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 22, 2004

Published in Herald Sun on Jan 26, 2004

Combo Fiasco are splitting up after their upcoming national tour, so you need to see them now.

Sean Murphy, Tony McGill  and Charmaine Clements  have sung their clever harmonies for eleven years since meeting during the music theatre show, The Secret Garden.  

The trio sing tightly harmonised tunes accompanied by McGill on piano. A percussionist and double bass player back them..

Vocal and musical arrangements, by McGill and Murphy, are inventive and often surprising. Their a capella  version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow   has a soaring vocal quality.

Their repertoire comprises old favourites such as Sweet Georgia Brown  as well as less familiar or famous numbers.

This show is tailored to the predominantly gay audience for the Midsumma Festival so the group has re-jigged some lyrics accordingly for comic value.

Clements quips, "Gay men and single women in our thirties have a lot in common. We are both a disappointment to our mothers."

They then sing Mr. Sandman which takes on a new dimension with the lyrics, "Mr. Sandman bring me a man."

The wicked song, If There's God He's a Queen,   is followed by McGill's rewrite of The Wind Beneath My Wings.  Itis a satirical jibe at boring ex-partners. "Did you ever know that you're a zero?"

Murphy makes a feast of the naughty Come Ti Gusta Mi Pinga?  that asks, in Spanish, a question that would be very rude in English.

The show is slick and seamless, shifting from song to song with a little comic patter as cement between.

There are several beautiful ballads, some less familiar than others. Where Do You Go To My Lovely  is sung as a medley with a sad tune about Marilyn Monroe's  last night.

Clements sings the very pretty, Someone is on Your Side  from Sondheim's  musical, Into the Woods.

The comic highlight of the show is still Clements version of the satirical I'm on the Stage.  She plays the musical star who "can't carry a tune in a bucket," but lands the lead role.

It is sad to say farewell to the trio so get a look at them now before it's too late.

By Kate Herbert

Hinterland, Matt Cameron, MTC, Jan 16, 2004

 Hinterland  by Matt Cameron  
 Melbourne Theatre Company

 Fairfax Studio, Jan 16 until Feb 21, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 16

Published in Herald Sun on Jan 20, 2004

Hinterland is Matt Cameron's serious comedy that pokes fun at just about everything in Australian politics and society.  It is a very dark and very funny play with an exceptional cast and direction.

Cameron's style draws on European absurdism, echoing Beckett  and Ionesco.

This is a laugh out loud play with slick direction by Peter Houghton , complex and evocative lighting by Philip Lethlean  on a transformational design by Dan Potra.

It is set in a 1950s Australian home and office. Henry Quely  (Tom Long) and his wife, Olive,  (Christen O' Leary) are a parody of old fashioned family values. They repeat a well-worn script in their daily routine of spousal interaction.

Everything is hunky dory   - until their slightly scruffy home is raided by government Minister, Winsome Snell  (Helen Thomson) accompanied by Frank Gruel,  (Kim Gyngell) her volatile head of security.

The government is dodgy. It keeps the public in the dark about  - well, just about everything.

Cameron's parallels with the Howard government and its policies are blatant, evoking spontaneous laughter and applause.

There is a suppressed report - aptly named "The Cumbersome Report" - that criticises the government.

In the "Hinterland", behind hidden doors and in secret corridors, reside the Opposition who are shadowy and frightened replicas of the Government.

Each character in the visible world has a nervous doppelganger in the shadowy hinterland.

The message is obvious. Ignorance is not bliss; government is deceptive, obsessed with power; fear is the best controller; a little safety is no replacement for liberty.

This is a consummate ensemble of four comic and dramatic actors.  Long plays Henry  with a palpable sense of his trembling existential crisis and he transforms beautifully into his doppelganger's  macho bravado.

O'Leary's Olive is cold, fickle, manic and colourful until she shifts into the shadow Olive who is warm and sensitive.

Gyngell is mad and unpredictable as the violent and confused henchman, Gruel Thomson is sexy, dangerous as Winsome. This double act has impeccable timing.

Hinterland is a fine beginning to the MTC year and a feather in Cameron's cap.

By Kate Herbert

Romeo & Juliet in The Gardens, Jan 15, 2004

 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 
The Australian Shakespeare Company

 Botanical Gardens,  Gate F, Dec 2003  until March 6, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 15, 2004

Published in Herald Sun on Jan 19, 2004

 

Thanks to The Australian Shakespeare Company, we now have a long tradition of summer Shakespeare in the Park akin to cities such as New York.

This year Greg Carroll  directs Romeo and Juliet. The production is the similar to previous years but changes in casting and location and individual style and banter make it feel new.

As usual, the actors perform on the perfect set: the Botanical Gardens lush greenery and the twitter of occasional nights birds may not evoke Verona  in the fifteenth century but they provide atmosphere.

Actors enter from amongst the audience or through the foliage. Juliet appears as if by magic in the top of a tree for her balcony scene.

If you have been livings on Mars and do not know the story, here it is.

Romeo (Philip Cameron Smith) falls in love with Juliet, (Andrea McEwen) the daughter of a rival family. He kills her cousin, Tybalt,  (Brendan O'Connor) and it all ends in tears and death for both the lovers.

The adaptation makes Shakespeare accessible to everyone. It is colourful, cheeky and peppered with boyish banter and harmless Shakespearian innuendo.

Playing intimate love scenes outdoors is difficult but Andrea McEwen brings a delicacy and bright childlikeness to Juliet. Cameron Smith seems more at home in his scenes with Romeo's mates  than in love scenes.

A highlight is the rakish fight scene between Romeo's friend, Mercutio,  (Kevin Hopkins OK) Tybalt and Romeo himself. It is feisty, funny and has an edge of thrilling danger.

Ross Williams  plays Juliet's father, Capulet  is beautifully observed. He portrays him delightfully as a vain society father who is good humoured until he is defied.

Dennis Coard  finds a slightly bawdy and vulnerable edge to Friar Lawrence  while Anthony Rive  as Romeo's loyal comrade, Benvolio,  is a sympathetic and mischievous character.

There are dignified performances from Helen Hopkins as Lady Capulet  and Peter Hosking  as Romeo's father.

Christie Sistrunk  seems awkward as Juliet's impish Nurse  and looks too young for the role.

The incidental music and the additional songs add a new and contemporary dimension to the production. "A Pair of Star-Crossed Lovers" is a very singable tune with poignant lyrics.

Remember the woollies and a blanket. It can get cool out there.

By Kate Herbert