Little Black Bastard by Noel Tovey , Feb 8. 2005

 Little Black Bastard by Noel Tovey  

 Midsumma Festival

 Black Box, Arts Centre, Feb 8 and 9, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

It is chastening to hear a life story of an artist who has overcome terrible adversity to become a successful performer.

In his solo show, Little Black Bastard, Noel Tovey tells his gruelling and inspiring tale on a near empty stage surrounded by enormous photographic images. The photos depict Tovey and his family as well as his friends from the theatre who included Mary Hardy, Bunny Brook and John Truscott.

There is little stage action, physicalisation or characterisation but, intermittently, we hear voice overs that represent Noel as a child, his mother or characters from Tovey's life in the streets of Melbourne.

Although the show lacks dramatic structure it is the personal quality of Tovey's delivery and our awareness of the poignant truth of his telling that captivates the audience.

His tale of dragging himself up by the bootstraps began in Melbourne in the 1930s.

 He was born to a part-African Tivoli performer father and a part-Aboriginal mother. It ends just after Tovey leaves Melbourne by boat to realise his dreams of a career on the stage in London.

In between, here are audible gasps of shock and sympathy for the little boy who was born into poverty and hunger, called "little black bastard" by the kids at his Catholic school.

At four years old he was raped by his uncle, neglected then abandoned by his drunken and incompetent parents and, finally, adopted by another opportunistic sadist.

He survived a life on the streets as a rent boy - a gay prostitute - survived Pentridge and found a strange niche in the bohemian quarter of Melbourne's clubs and cafes and theatres.

His dreams lead him to train in ballet, singing and acting. He was cast in his first professional performance by sheer luck and the rest is Tovey's history.

The Fellowship that lead to the research that produced the autobiography gave birth to this show of the same name.

It is a moving tribute to a man's steadfast desire to lift himself out of the darkness in the light to achieve his dreams.

By Kate Herbert 

Pugilist Specialist by Adriano Shaplin, Red Stitch, Feb 4, 2005

Pugilist Specialist  by Adriano Shaplin  

 Red Stitch Actors Theatre

 Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel St, St. Kilda, Feb 4 until March 5, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

From America movies, we recognise the highly skilled US Marines, tough, no-holds-barred combatants.

Adriano Shaplin's play, Pugilist Specialist, eavesdrops on four Marines preparing for a "Black Op" in the Middle East.

The operation is an assassination of Big Stash, (Big Moustache) code named The Bearded Lady. It is obviously Sadaam Hussein.

The four characters are peak performance fighters.  Lieutenant Emma Stein (Kate Cole) is the Marines' poster girl, always sent for photo opportunities and promotion.

She is thorough, committed, feisty and is not usually sent on the secret missions known as Black Ops.

Lieutenant Studdard (Dion Mills) is a considered and controlled communications expert who, it is hinted, is a tough homosexual.

The third Soldier is Lieutenant Travis Freud, (Richard Cawthorne) a loud, foul-mouthed, sexist Southerner with a competitive streak.

He baits Stein with his chauvinism, taunts Studdard about his sexuality and challenges him to a hotdog-eating contest. Freud is machismo embodied and he obeys all orders.

Colonel Johns, (Kenneth Ransom) their commanding officer, is a demanding and challenging leader who, we suspect has a secret agenda.

Most of the play takes place during their preparations. We witness their first meeting when the three soldiers are still guessing at their upcoming mission.

When the Colonel finally briefs them they are surprised that their mission is an assassination. There is plenty of bravado, competition, rising tensions and verbal sparring.

What follows are secret meetings in which they argue about methods, weapons, communications devices and the timing and location of the kill.

All four actors are energetic and punchy in the roles. Shaplin's dialogue is smart, acerbic and rapid with the edginess and satirical quality of a New York comedy writer.

It is a very American play that does not resonate readily with the Australian sensibility.

The characters have unlikely but very entertaining arguments on philosophical points.

Greg Carroll directs the play with no on-stage physical action but the drama builds to the final scene, the proposed killing.

The stage is darkness except for pin lights attached to the actors' headsets.

This scene might be more effective if shouting had not obscured the tension. Also, the stated frisson of sexual tension between Freud and Stein was not visible.

The rhythm of the play is a little out of balance. The cuing is slow for dialogue written to snap and crackle.

Pugilist Specialist is a witty and vigorous representation of four dangerous fighting people.

By Kate Herbert

Beowulf, adapted by David Malikoff, Feb 3, 2005

Beowulf adapted by David Malikoff

 Trades Hall,  February 3 to 19, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 3, 2005

There is a richness of style in David Malikoff's adaptation of Beowulf, the Old English poem.

Malikoff, using a blend of several translations of the original text, narrates and enacts the story of Beowulf, the mighty warrior of Geatland who journeys across the sea to kill the monster, Grendel, that terrorises the Danes.

Single-handedly, he wrests the arm from the fiendish Grendel who subsequently dies. Beowulf is then pitted against Grendel's vengeful and monstrous mother whom he beheads in her own underwater lair.

The warmth and rich texture of Malikoff's voice lends great range to the tale and colours the panoply of mythic characters he portrays.

Paul Plunkett directs Malikoff imaginatively. Simple physical shifts and variations in vocal quality and accent conjure each character and define their differences.

Beowulf stands erect and regal with a deeply resonant voice. The ancient King Hrothgar (OK) of Denmark, is a frail old man and Hrothgar's best warrior is a taunting drunk.

The stage is peopled with characters both human and monstrous.

A wide upstage screen of wood and canvas houses three painted images: cliffs, a portrait of a King and a huge sword. (Linda Martin) The design (Malikoff)  is simple but creates complex moods and locations.

Differing levels are created by one small, low rostrum downstage and a banquet-like table and benches upstage.

The lighting (Paul Plunkett, David Byrnes) is evocative. Multiple floor lights create eerie atmosphere and deep shadows. The screens are lit from behind and the table from below to dramatic effect.

This poem is a masterpiece of its time that still holds an audience enthralled. The interpolated fragments of the original text echo with the lyrical tones of the Germanic-sounding Old English.

Some may recognise the sounds as the language spoken by the Elves in the Lord of the Rings. Indeed, Tolkien was a translator of Beowulf into modern English language.

Malikoff is a charming, skilful and relaxed performer who takes us on a mystical and mythical journey through the chambers, dungeons and banquet halls of Old Herot, the home of the Danish King.

The story resounds with the sagas about heroes and laments the death and dearth of warriors with spirit and courage to lead their people against evil.

It is an epic tale told by one man in many voices.

By Kate Herbert

Troy's House by Tommy Murphy , La Mama, Feb 1, 2005

Troy's House  by Tommy Murphy 

 La Mama, Carlton Courthouse, February 1 to 19, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 1, 2005

Troy's House, written and directed by Tommy Murphy, may have greater appeal to an audience of teenagers. 

The central characters are eighteen years old and adolescents may identify with their agonising over unsatisfactory teen sex, smoking bongs and getting stoned and plenty of swearing.

The show feels more like a university drama production and, in fact, most of the cast cite Sydney University Drama Society and Australian Theatre for Young people as their backgrounds.

The play was written in the late 1990s when the writer was only eighteen. The immaturity of the writer is evident in the problems in the script that seems nto to have been rewritten for its new season.

The story, such as it is, concerns four Canberra teens who recently completed Year Twelve and have no idea where their lives are heading although this topic is not satisfactorily explored.

Felicity, (Anna Yeo OK) spends all her free time at her childhood friend, Troy's (Michael Hammell OK) place because there is absolutely no discipline there. Her new, unsullied boyfriend, Ben, (Robin Hart) is shocked by the environment.

The house is a filthy chaotic dump, an ex-government house in the seedier suburbs of Canberra.

Troy's mother, Diane, (Lucy Wirth OK) is a loud, foul-mouthed, lazy slattern who makes a habit of poisoning her neighbour's cats and welcomes the local youth to use her house as a drop-in centre for partying, smoking dope, drinking nad having sex.

Troy is a dim-witted nonentity who enjoys Nintendo, growing marijuana, ferreting and pressuring his hapless girlfriend, Tania, (Julia Grace) into disappointing sex.

The characters are two-dimensional and Troy and Diane are simply caricatures who pull faces, shout and swear a lot.

Two actors (Felicity Barnes, Charlie Garber) wearing plastic wings, represent the inner thoughts of the teenagers but this device never quite reaches its potential.

The direction is often awkward and lacks any specific style. The play is uncertain whose story it is, much of the dialogue is expository and the journeys of the characters are unresolved and incomplete.

The scene in which the four kids slip into a confused and drug-induced haze is the most successful and entertaining.

Some of the issues might make useful material for discussion amongst teenagers but this play needs some more work to give it any weight.

By Kate Herbert

Falling So Slowly by Steve Willis, Jan 18, 2005

 Falling So Slowly  by Steve Willis  

  Fly-on-the-Wall Theatre 

2005 Midsumma Festival

 Randall Theatre, St Martins Lane, South Yarra, Jan 18 to until February 5, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Award-winning American playwright, Steve Willis, began his play, Falling So Slowly, on a snowy, winter's day. Snow falling gently outside a New York apartment plays a role in his play.

Two young men meet in a bar and go home together for a night of what they expect to be just a wild, anonymous one-night stand. What surprises them is that it develops into a more intimate experience that might evolve into a relationship.

Grant (Brian Davison) is a well-dressed, 31-year-old African-American musician and college drop out, struggling with part-time jobs. He comes from a family of classical music lovers and enjoys Chopin.

Bobby (Christopher Pender) is almost Grant's opposite. He is nineteen, white, uneducated, from Alabama in the Deep South, victim of child sexual abuse and evicted from home by his mother.

The surprise is that Bobby, despite his small town background, seems affluent, living in a slick and expensive apartment in New York City. (designed by Stacy Gardoll) Clearly, there are secrets in Bobby's life and work.

We suspect immediately, as does Grant, that Bobby is a hustler, a boy prostitute but we discover he does gay pornography movies.

Although Grant tries to leave Bobby's apartment in the early hours after their sexual antics, he is compelled to stay and know the boy better. Obviously, these two want more form each other than just sex.

The pair spend most of the night talking, although there is another explicit sex scene before dawn.

Willis's characters are credible but the dialogue is sometimes repetitive and expository.

The falling snow seems a metaphor for their slow dance of intimacy but the metaphor is not fully integrated.

Pender is believable as the naïve and needy Bobby. Davison brings a lively energetic presence to the stage although his vocal quality is sometimes repetitive.

Director, Robert Chuter, keeps the pace rapid and scene changes unobtrusive.

The production might benefit form some silence and space between the dialogue to allow us to witness the impact of the meeting upon the pair and to see their inner worlds.

By Kate Herbert

Heads Up! Alex Jones & Florette Cohen, Jan 12, 2005

 Heads Up! written by Alex Jones and Florette Cohen

by TAJ Productions 

 Deaflympics Cultural Festival
 BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square, Jan 12 to 15, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Heads Up! is a joyful show designed both to entertain and educate audiences about Deaf culture and Auslan, the Australian Sign Language.

The show is the Australian contribution to the Deaflympics Cultural Festival program. Alex Jones and Florette  Cohen perform a collage of stories, mime, song, dance and an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Jones, who is also Artistic Director of the Festival, is a Deaf actor while Cohen is Hearing but fluent in Auslan.

The show uses English and Auslan as well as a theatrical visual and physical language to tell its stories and communicate with a mixed Deaf and Hearing audience. Many audience members used sign language from other countries.

The pair begins with a lively and fun version of a pop song, Life and then proceed to teach us several useful and simple signs in Auslan; Yes, No, Deaf, Hearing.

The eye-opener was the Auslan sign for Australia. It is a visual image depicting the English transporting convicts to Australia.

Some of the vignettes are cheeky mime stories. The first is a short comic physical and completely silent scene between two competitive painter-decorators. It is used to demonstrate how a story can be told without language- either English or Auslan - using only body language and facial expression.

Audience participates cheerfully in the learning of sign and several are called on stage to make moving machines. In this show, we had a physicalised, human version of a photocopier, a pencil sharpener and a crane made by volunteers.

Another story told verbally and in Auslan then in theatrical language, was an Aboriginal tale of how the birds got their colours. It was a charming dance piece.

The final piece was Romeo and Juliet, a universal love story re-jigged to tell the tale of a Deaf Romeo and a Hearing Juliet who met and fell in love despite their families being at war.

It was a crisp, funny and clever way to demonstrate difference and prejudice through a well-known story.

The finale was a group participation song with the audience learning to sign words to I am we are we are Australian.

Heads Up! brings new energy to the educational theatre arena and it seems to be a very effective learning tool for students and adults alike. I certainly know more Auslan than I did when I arrived.

LOOK FOR: Juliet's speech on the balcony

By Kate Herbert

Toys by Toys Theater, Jan 10, 2005

Toys  by Toys Theater   

produced by xeAxe International

Deaflympics Cultural Festival

 BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square  Jan 10 to 14, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Toys Theater,  Russian theatre for the Deaf, is part of the Deaflympics Cultural Festival.

Toys is a children's performance with four charming physical performers, all of whom are Deaf.

The show is a series of vignettes with actors playing a mechanical toy, each uncannily accurate in its mechanical movements.

The Toy-Dwarf (Alexander Filimonov OK) is a quirky, clown character who controls the other toys with his remote control and teases the audience.

Filimonov has a mischievous glint in the eye and a dexterity of movement as this cheeky character. Toy-Dwarf is dressed as a brass band leader wearing gold epaulets and a wind up mechanism implanted in his back.

Loudmila Romanovskaya (OK) is the pretty, girlish dancing Doll, the childlike love interest for the male toys.

The chubby Toy-Cook (Vassily Solonitsky OK) is a charmingly petulant chef who stamps his feet and plays like a child. His cheeky seduction scene with female audience members is very cute.

Toy-Boy (Ilya Goltsov OK) is a romantic spiv who believes in his own charms and uses them on the Doll. Goltsov is an adroit mime artist who prances, dances and romances as Toy-Boy.

There are many highlights in the seven scenes. Toy Dwarf manipulating the other toys movements with his remote control is a demonstration of their great mimetic prowess in mechanical movement.

The road trip sees Toy-Boy and Doll driving their mime car on a comically dangerous trip.

But it is the mini tennis match between Toy-Boy and Toy-Cook that takes the prize. Toy-Boy, using his boater hat as a raquet, plays a challenging tennis match against Toy-Cook who bats the ball back with his frying pan. Doll controls the huge ball on the end of a stick in classic clown style. It is hilarious.

Apart from the skill and humour of the actors, the experience of being a Hearing person in a predominantly Deaf audience was extraordinary. I have never seen signed applause - a room full of silent people with raised hands and wiggling fingers.

Toys is accessible to all ages, Deaf or Hearing. It is cheerful and a reminder of all those favourite game and stories from childhood.

LOOK FOR:  Other Deaflympics shows: Heads Up (Australia) Jan 12 and 15; Mosaic (USA) Rainman (Canada)  and Contraposition, (India) all Jan 10-15

By Kate Herbert

The Wind in The Willows, Dec 30, 2004

The Wind in The Willows 
adapted from Kenneth Grahame 
The Australian Shakespeare Company
Botanical Gardens, Melbourne Gate F, Dec 2004 to January 31, 2005

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Each summer, The Wind in the Willows is invariably a popular family show.

The script may be the same each year but each group of actors brings a new face to the show and introduces topical gags that appeal to all ages.

Adults and kids are all labelled 'Rabbits" and then the fun begins.

Our MC, The Head Chief Rabbit, is Rosco Mathers who has cheeky repartee and a comfortable manner with the littlies.

His nemesis is Weasel  played with plenty of snivelling and twitching by Robert Jackson. They make a wonderful double act both comically and musically.

Mathers plays trombone and accordion and Jackson backs all of the songs on either clarinet or electric guitar.

We are invited on a journey to meet the legendary and very pompous Mr Toad. Played with blustering vanity by Trent Baker (OK) The audience is kept alert with three location moves and a parade of new and even more daft characters.

At first we meet the retiring Mole  (Perri O'Connor OK) who is obsessed with cleaning and wants to go on an adventure.

At the River, (played beautifully by the Lake) we have a treat in store. Jolly old Ratty,  (Ezra Bix OK) appears in his rowing boat and offers us all a picnic.

Bix has the style of the show down pat, employing delightful physical detail in his role as the very social and leisurely water rat.

Next we find wise old Badger asleep on a bench. Alan King  plays him with a booming voice like a fusty old Brit.

Otter is portrayed by James Stafford, another fine singer who doubles as a Copper and the Judge who puts Toad in jail.

The entire show is peppered with audience participation  and cheerful songs.

The songs  range from the opening "Waggle your ears, wiggle your nose" to Badger's  song about Toad's exploits and Toad's own self-serving song called "The Famous Mr. Toad."

Some cast changes in this season improve the characterisation and the new ensemble peps up the pace.

The banter between the actors is always a hoot for adults and the cast captivate the children with the dilemma of Toad hall being invaded by rascally Weasels.

The characters are smug and charming and very, very English. But who cares? It's great entertainment.

By Kate Herbert

Box Set, Rawcus, Dec 16, 2004

Box Set  by Rawcus    

Theatreworks  16 & 17 December, 2004 only 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Dec 16, 2004

Box Set is a delightful collection of solo and duo pieces devised by Rawcus with seven guest directors.

Rawcus is an ensemble of actors with and without disabilities.

In the Box Set project, each member had the opportunity, over nine rehearsals, to pursue areas of their own interest, to explore different performance styles and to develop an intimate performance in a creative process. 

Each piece is a gem in its own way.

Royal Command Performance (director: Chris Kohn) is an absurdist piece featuring Raymond Drew and Dan Tobias.  One is a disembodied head sitting on a silver platter on a dining table arguing about the Queen and singing with his pal, the ukelele player.

Steve Ajzenburg and Kellyann Bentley perform Wonder Thing, (director: Mandy Pickett) a poignant and gentle movement piece based on Steve's story about his right arm which was disabled in a car accident.

Louie Riisik  (director: David Wells) relishes playing The Angry Old Woman who slopes around in her dressing gown and rollers, drinks too much, hates Christmas and rants about her son.

Three recorded songs create the foundation for Let's Dance, another movement piece (director: Ingrid Voodendt ) by Clem Baade and Nilgun Guven.  One effective element is the design composed totally of red helium balloons floating around them

Il Maestro Tonso ( director: Nick Papas) is an hilarious clown routine by John Tonso who parodies a smug musical soloist preparing to play Mozart on the trombone. His antics with a music stand, mobile phone and the trombone are very funny.

The master -servant relationship with Papas as Tonso's assistant is a highlight.

Twisted Sisters, the final piece, (director: Clare Bartholomew) features Rachel Edward and Kerryn Pe in a silent clown piece with a dark comic edge. One sister ( Edward) continues to attempt to kill her sister ( Pe) with poisoning, stabbing, strangling and finally, pushing her under a train.

The story is simple and very funny and the performances of Pe and Edward are a delight.

The collection of seven short works ranges in style from movement to clown , monologue and absurdism.

Rawcus created this charming show over nine Saturdays. Box Set is a tribute to the ensemble and the seven guest directors. It deserves  a longer season.

LOOK FOR: Il Maestro Tonso and the Twisted Sisters.

By Kate Herbert

The Best and Worst Theatre of 2004, Dec 2004

 The Best and Worst of 2004  

Reviewer: Kate Herbert, Dec 15, 2004

 Published in Herald Sun, Dec 2004

This year may have seen no exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime nights at the theatre but there were a number of fine pieces of work. Unfortunately, as always, there were a few screamers dotted amongst the goodies.

One name kept coming up in the 'best' column for both small and large companies: Tom Wright.  With director, Nick Harrington, Wright is responsible for two extraordinary, moving and grim plays at La Mama, both dealing with prisoners on Death Row in America.

This Is A True Story  featured Wright as a hapless, confused, uneducated man awaiting the Death Chamber in Mississippi.  It is a true story, which made the experience more eerie and mesmerising as Wright, in the dim, cavernous space, tells his desperate tale.

Wright and Harrington receive a second accolade for the companion piece, Lorelei,  another true story. Anna Galvin  was luminous as Lorilei, a woman with a big heart who is trying to save from Death Row the paedophile (Wright) who murdered her son.

Wright receives more high praise for sheer audacity and good fun for Babes in the Wood,  (Playbox, OK) a political, absurd, rollicking good night out.

The Melbourne Theatre Company had several winners. Frozen  was another chilling story of a paedophile with compelling acting from Helen Morse,  Frank Gallacher  and Belinda McClory.  

Matt Cameron's  Ruby Moon  (Playbox) was another challenging play about a missing child.

Blue Room  (MTC) wins the sexiest play award for Marcus Graham's  impeccable performance while The Visit  (MTC) boasted the cream of Melbourne's older acting fraternity.

Bell Shakespeare  scored highly with its new Hamlet  while Love, Valour and Compassion  was an hilarious, sometimes poignant play about seven gay men. (Midsumma Festival OK)

Several individual performances merit a mention. Canadian actress, Marie Brassard  gave a consummate performance in the solo show, Jimmy,.  Jonathan Hardy  was hilarious and moving in Ron Elisha's A Tree Falling.  In Two,  another Elisha play, Bruce Kerr  and Anastasia Malinoff  created a rivetting relationship.

Kenneth Ransom  was captivating as a genuinely likeable and charming serial killer on Death Row in Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train.  (Red Stitch OK)

Jean Paul Hussey  was a human dynamo on stage in his solo work, Chocolate Monkey.

Another La Mama production, Below,  deserved far more attention than it received. It was a gripping, gritty and often funny tale with superb acting, writing and direction.

There were fewer clangers this year. The musical, Cabaret,  was not all we hoped it to be and Lisa McCune  was not up to the lead role.

There are those who disagree with my assessment of the script of Falling Petals (Ben Ellis - Playbox) It is a play that won awards but it is poorly constructed and inconsistent. The director and actors did their best to make it work but audiences were disappointed.

One Night in the Well,  at The Courthouse, was a messy trio of short pieces. The music and video designs were effective but the disparate elements were not sufficiently well integrated.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,  a theatrical dinosaur by Dance Encore Productions,  New Zealand,  took the award for outdated writing, choreography and jokes. However, the little kids participated cheerfully and were more tolerant than my two companions who left apologetically in a hurry at interval.

The War Against Short Trousers  was thin and dated political satire with predictable jokes peppered with the odd clever satirical moment. It was redeemed by a couple of good performances.

Another fringe show, Sideways,  about two low-level drug dealers. suffered from too much talk and too little space for silent stage action or comedy.

Given the news headlines these days, the fact that Death Row, paedophiles and serial killers featured this year is not surprising but it is disturbing. Strangely, they made some of the most gripping nights in the theatre.

By Kate Herbert

Kate's Theatre Wrap up for 2004, Melbourne, Dec 13, 2004

Theatre Wrap up 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

2004 was not a feast of fine theatre but there were some treats on the table.

One hit was John Bell's Servant of Two Masters, with the consummate clown, Darren Gilshennan as Arlequino. Virtuoso, Justus Neumann, performed The Last Days of Mankind, peopling the tiny La Mama with dozens of characters.

Brian Friel's compelling Afterplay was a perfect vehicle for the exceptional Lewis Fiander and Lyndel Rowe and The Cherry Orchard was a charming surprise at fortyfivedownstairs.

Twelve Angry Men featured a skilful cast in a marvellous play while Mel Brooks' The Producers was definitely the most fun.

Although there were few good female mainstage lead roles, we enjoyed feisty Caroline O'Connor (Bombshells), a pert Christen O'Leary (Urinetown) and Nicki Wendt. (Memory of Water)

On the Fringe, Lyndel Rowe was deliciously underplayed as the ageing Chekhovian Sonya, in Afterplay, and Jenny Lovell was rivetting in Iron. (Red Stitch) The women in A Moment on the Lips deserve a mention.

Commendable male actors include Richard Piper (Daylight Atheist), Ben Mendelson  (Glass Menagerie) and Lewis Fiander. (Afterplay

From overseas, Talking Heads boasted superlative acting (Maggie Smith, Margaret Tyzack) and an impeccable script. (Alan Bennett) Ronnie Burkett's Provenance was magical puppetry and Ideas Men (Ridiculusmus) was sheer comic madness.

The year's biggest howler was David Williamson's Amigos with Anthony Crowley's The Frail Man a close second. Bell Shakespeare's Twelfth Night reduced the dark comedy to Benny Hill.  Some fringe shows felt like North Korean torture. (All's Well That Ends Well, Re-Stumping Suburbia, Goodnight Desdemona)

The most over-rated overseas show was XXX (La Fura Dels Baus) while The Buskers' Opera (Robert Le Page) and Vanishing Point (Philip Genty) were disappointing.

Kate's three top shows for 2004

Servant of Two Masters by Bell Shakespeare (Playhouse)

Afterplay by Stable Productions  (fortyfivedownstairs)

The Last Days of Mankind by Justus Newmann (La Mama)

Machiavelli, Machiavelli by John Upton, Dec 9, 2004

 Machiavelli, Machiavelli  by John Upton

La Mama, from Dec 9, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Machiavelli, Machiavelli, by John Upton, seems to be running on a path to a tragic ending for its solo character, Leah Hunt. (Libby Stone) Happily, the pessimism turns to a more cheering and optimistic ending for the protagonist.

In fact, Lean Hunt could be called an antagonist. She is certainly a provocative and gladiatorial character, an almost copybook local government Labour Party politician. She lost her local government election on a controversial platform of de-sexing stray cats.

On the way to tis up beat ending, Upton's play, rather confusingly, has several unintentional false endings where Leah looks about to give up the fight to survive.

It is a tall order to hold an audience alone on stage and Libby Stone looks a little uncomfortable in this production directed by David Myles.

 It is particularly noticeable in the scenes that involve flashbacks or the character talking to a second invisible character.

In some of these scenes reminiscing about a long past lover, a voice over by Leah as a younger woman or representing her thoughts is an awkward stage convention that leaves the actor looking like a shag on a rock. Some clumsy lighting changes do not help.

Leah is the outgoing Mayor and she is not happy about her election loss. She held the mayoral position for thirty years until this day and her entire world and identity are crashing around her. Even the cab drivers are no longer respectful. She drinks whisky, and babbles to her goldfish and her bird called Mr. Town Clerk.

We see her almost imprisoned in her cramped and untidy little living room, changing from dressing gown to street clothes.

She desperately seeks some acceptance of her change in status, attempts to understand the election loss and tries to find meaningful work in a fickle political world that seems to have abandoned her immediately.

Although stone works hard throughout, there is little light and shade in her performance of this evidently volatile and voluble local identity. What we crave is some heightened emotion, some compelling passion and despair to meet Leah's sense of loss.

 Upton has a strong sense of the petty bickerings and napoleon complexes of local government officials. His dialogue however, is not rivetting and the production lacks dramatic tension.

The play moves in fits and starts but thankfully finds its positive ending.

By Kate Herbert

True Adventures of A Lost at Sea by Kit Lazaroo, Dec 3, 2004

True Adventures of A Lost at Sea by Kit Lazaroo

Here Theatre

Trades Hall, Old Council Chambers,  December 3 to 19, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

The genre of Kit Lazaroo's True Adventures of a Lost Soul has a tang of magic realism. It is lyrical in its language, isolated in its location and mysterious, although not mystical, in its narrative.

These elements contribute to both the successes and failings of the play.

A young girl, Ollie Fletcher, (Hanusin) believed drowned, washes up on the shores of her home, a mythical coastal town in 1852. She is found by Constable Dougal Morris (Amor) and cared for by him and his wife, Dido. (Zemiro)

Her father disappeared in the same boating accident but initially, Ollie has no memory of that day nor of where she was for forty-two days.

What unfolds is a peculiar fairy tale like story; her unbelievable emerging memories of being taken and cared for by an underwater creature.

What follows is a series of mythical events, odd characters. Her story is doubted, then evidently proved and finally shattered by scientific evidence.

The production has strong performances from all four actors (Julia Zemiro, Lliam Amor, David Adamson, Fanny Hanusin OK) in a very broad, sometimes comical style.

Zemiro plays the brusque, ambitious and unloving Dido, with flair and humour. Amor has terrific comic timing and is aptly bemused and warm as her long-suffering husband.

Adamson is amusing as the eccentric and disaffected doctor Rufus Plank and Hanusin, although awkward with the dialogue at times, is peculiarly interesting as Ollie.

Oddly, we have no sympathy for anyone except perhaps the kindly Constable Dougal.

We witness actors both on state as characters and off stage perched on a bench observing the action.

Director, Jane Woollard, has the actors create an evocative live soundscape with vocal sound effects, the air pump of piano accordions and scrubbing brushes on Amanda Johnson's wonderfully assymetrical wooden table.

Intermittent onomatopoeic language echoes ocean and wind.

The rhythm of the play is fractured and the very domestic and the mystical scenes need to be dovetailed together more convincingly. The genre seems muddled.

The story is a fanciful and light myth but it lacks any real resonance. We wait for the tale to reflect our world. Perhaps it does in its shattering of people's dreams and the manipulation of the weak.

LOOK FOR:  Live soundscape.

By Kate Herbert

Descent Five: Mata Galup by Robert Reid, Dec 1, 2004

 Descent Five: Mata Galup 

by Robert Reid  Theatre in Decay

Where and When: Theatreworks, December 1 to 12, 2004

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on December 1

The title of Theatre in Decay's new production, Mata Galup, translates from Indonesian to, 'the darkening of the eye'.

It suggests revenge, and makes it an apt epithet for Robert Reid's play depicting a view of the global aftermath of September 11.

The play is part docu-drama and part domestic soap opera. It is the news documentary components that are most successful.

Reid present in radio news style, a series of voice overs with facts from the past three years since September 11.

There are some captivating images in this production, directed by the writer. Members of the large cast o extras appears as a team of scientists, wrestling with an enormous replica of the Doomsday Clock that looks like the face of Big Ben.

They stand silently holding lit candles in a vigil for victims of September and they are a crowd of dancers falling to the floor dead in the Bali bombing. They enter in stark white chemical hazard gear to combat the anthrax scare.

There are some striking puppets including a small figure waking in its bed on the morning of the Twin Towers strike. There is a giant George Bush head spouting garbled rhetoric and giant metallic war birds. A solo martial artist flails a sword in a magnificent dance.

The problem is that most of these images are so fleeting that their dramatic impact is wasted. There is great potential for powerful political commentary using solely the imagery and movement. These images end up being fleeting or superficial and comical.

To give these images more weight and time world provide a more compelling visual story than the shallow domestic drama of Micky (Elliot Summers) and Elishaba (Miranda Nation).

The death of the pair's dysfunctional relationship runs parallel to the global story of terrorism and mounting fear. Micky works away from home on train engines or on oil rigs. Elishaba whines about his absence and works in a café until she falls pregnant.

A micro domestic story could act as counterpoint to the macro political drama but this one does not amplify the global situation in any significant way. The whole play lacks a cohesive through line and a dramatic arc. The dialogue is thin and the acting of the two leads is unimpressive.

Mata Galup is a great idea with some smart images but it lacks a clear vision.

By Kate Herbert