Reviews by Joe Calleri, Melbourne Comedy Festival 2011

Please note: These 7 reviews are by Joe Calleri for the Herald Sun in April 2011. they are not my reviews. I thought you might be interested.  KH

WIL ANDERSON: MAN VS. WIL

Venue and Dates: Athenaeum Theatre until April 24, 2011
Reviewer: Joe Calleri on April 1, 2011
Stars: ****

Published in Herald Sun Online

 

It’s easy to like Australian comedian, Wil Anderson. He oozes charm, charisma, personality, and has a broad comedic range in his sell-out, rip-roaring show, Man VS. Wil.

Anderson directs his razor-sharp wit, rapid fire comedic delivery, keen intellect, and microscope-like powers of observation at a broad range of  subjects: the painfully and hilariously acute differences between American and Australian waiters’ service standards (guess who’s second best?); various types of addiction (real or imaginary, including shopping addiction); masturbation; religion; heterosexuality and homosexuality.

Highlights include Anderson’s life-long fear of horses, and his explanation of what NOT to do after you ride a horse for the first time. Another winner is his morning visits to a US Starbuck’s to be ogled by the gay men so he could feel better about himself.   

I learned plenty during Anderson’s show: the existence of Valium for cats (who would have thought?), and how to make a profit during a 14-hour long-haul flight. (a clue: it involves not sleeping).

But Anderson’s almighty swipe at embattled actor Matthew Newton drew the biggest applause. Anderson’s remarks remarks could be actionable outside the safe cocoon of his show.

It is the mark of Anderson’s skill as a comedian that he gets away with it with a wink and his trade-mark smile.    

-Ends-

ROBBINS, STILSON & MOLLOY

at the Melbourne Town Hall until April 24, 2011

Melbourne Comedy Festival

By Joe Calleri

Published in Herald Sun Online

April 22, 2011 11:57AM

VETERAN stand-ups Glenn Robbins, Mick Molloy, and Jeff Stilson presented a packed house with a 60-minute feast of exquisitely timed, genuinely laugh-out-loud comedy.

Robbins is your laconic, charming host, who delivers his own highly polished material, some involving audience participation, before introducing Stilson and later, Molloy.

US-born, now Aussie resident Stilson looks and talks just like all good American stand-up comedians. He chats about his large family - kids are like bikers in a bar just waiting to fight - married life, and our Aussie obsession with sport.

One hilarious gag compares the methods by which the tied Grand Final and tied Federal Election were resolved. He muses what would have happened if Bob Katter had decided the outcome of the tied Grand Final!

Last but not least, Molloy. Embroiled in heavy-duty litigation in Adelaide, the often self-deprecating Molloy presents much funnier on stage than his celluloid and television personas.

He admits, remarkably, to not owning mobile phones, computers, watches, or a car, before reeling off horror tales of those unfortunates – Ricky Nixon et al - who have fallen victim to their evil mobile phones.

This skilful trio offers audiences plenty of comedic bang for their buck. Recommended!

EDDIE IFFT – WHAT WOMEN DON’T WANT TO HEAR

HI IF BAR & BALLROOM, until April 24
Melbourne Comedy Festival

Reviewer: Joe Calleri on April 1, 2011
Stars: * 

Published in Herald Sun Online

 

Twenty minutes of Eddie Ifft’s vile, south of the navel stand-up was already too much. . Ifft’s foul-mouthed, toilet humour is better suited to a boozy, sleazy, buck’s night, or end of footy season festivities in a hot, tin shed – not an International Comedy Festival.

Ifft is an angry, not-so-young, sex-obsessed, American comic – imagine an even angrier version of Nicholas Cage.

Ifft lines up big, defenceless targets: Oprah Winfrey (”a big, fat lesbian”), and the Pope (tasteless joke about anal rape) to name but two. Ifft laughs that American audiences did not warm to his Pope joke. Some audience members found it hilarious. It’s incredible what some audiences will laugh at these days.

Madeleine Tucker's Unfashionable Windcheater Factory

Melbourne Comedy Festival

John Curtin Hotel

By Joe Calleri

Published in Herald Sun Online

April 15, 2011 4:42PM

RODNEY the Goblin, Zoran the Zucchini and Richard the Refrigerator walk into a photography exhibition featuring pictures of ears.

It’s not the opening line of a bad joke, but the opening scene of this execrable sketch show - that has no connection to the title of the show - focusing on the shambolic, embarrassing misadventures of the trio, and a Sleazy Couch, lemon-obsessed Cheese Grater, Optometrist, and Surgeon.

The performers screen three lengthy filler videos. A music clip features photos of ears and objects that sound like “ear” (beer, idea). The second shows optometrists throwing a discus during a lunch break. 

The third is a purported news story on the Toy Dinosaur Paralympics. I’m not kidding!

These young performers would be well advised to spend more time on writing and editing their material rather than producing silly movies.

I can’t imagine a target audience for this infantile drivel.  Adult audiences will cringe. Discerning toddlers and their parents will demand more for their entertainment dollar.

One star for the colourful costumes and brevity.

Star rating: *

LISA-SKYE IS NOT LIKE OTHER BOYS

PONY BAR, 

until April 23, 2011
Melbourne Comedy Festival

Reviewer: Joe Calleri on April 3, 2011
Stars: **
Published in Herald Sun Online

 

S.O.S Wendy Harmer, Denise Scott, or other experienced comediennes. Goth stand-up, Lisa-Skye, shows great potential but desperately needs mentoring!

Skye is charming with a cheeky smile but suffers badly from nerves. She reminds me of a chef using every ingredient in a soup to make an unpalatable mess.

There are clever audio-visuals, songs to metronomes, bonboniere and her slide show about what makes a woggy house was a ripper.

But she covers too many topics. Many should be amputated from the routine, including peculiar discussions of snakes eating burlesque performers and how to handle tarantulas.

Lisa-Skye has a diamond mine of potential show material, yet we only received the cubic zirconium version.

She could go further with the Greek father who only uses cash; the manly brother who shoots innocent animals in the face; her fear of marriage and children; to her years working at a phone dating line.  More of that, please!

- Ends-

HANNAH GADSBY - MRS CHUCKLES

Melbourne Comedy Festival

SWISS HOUSE, until April 24, 2011
Reviewer: Joe Calleri on April 1, 2011
Stars: ** 

Published in Herald Sun Online

Tasmanian-born, gay stand-up comic, Hannah Gadsby, warns us that adrenaline makes her sleepy, so, in her comedy, she never gives 100%, but rather, 60% to 90%.

That is precisely the problem with Gadsby’s show. It’s close, but no cigar. The routine is a rambling, time-shifting travelogue through Gadsby’s life in Tasmania and Canberra but it suffers from a serious lack of self-editing.

The show could be a successful 20 minutes , but Gadsby lacks the comedic fire-power to captivate us for 60.

The understated Gadsby studied at the Woody Allen school for self-effacing, self-deprecating, self-referential comedians.

Her show contains some genuinely funny moments. The bookish-looking Gadsby (think KD Lang with Harry Potter glasses) talks about three talents that got her out of trouble at high school: whistling her esses; speaking like Donald Duck, and throat farting. Charming!

Gadsby contemplates her deathbed words and settles for “Oh, no.” If only Gadsby had kept those words in mind while culling her routine.

- Ends -

But, it’s Ifft’s tediously persistent obsession with the most sordid aspects of sex – sex toys, multiple sex partners, threesomes, pornography, unusual sexual positions, and anal sex – that were genuinely unfunny and a big turn-off.

This show is not for those with delicate dispositions so, if it’s subtle, witty, and intelligent humour you seek, look elsewhere.

- Ends -

CATHERINE DEVENY – GOD IS BULLSHIT

TRADES HALL, until April 24, 2011
Melbourne Comedy Festival

Reviewer: Joe Calleri on April 2, 2011
Stars: *
Published in Herald Sun Online

If you are a card-carrying atheist, detest organised religion (especially Catholicism), believe the Bible is a weapon of mass indoctrination, and think Cardinal Pell is a buffoon, then catch Catherine Deveny’s  “God is Bullshit” lecture/vitriolic diatribe.

An unfunny, 5-minute rant about Deveny’s reversion from Catholicism to atheism at 38, stretches to an agonising hour. I didn’t laugh once during this turgid show and nor did the audience around me.

Skilled comics can be hilarious about religion, but Deveny lacks charm, subtlety, any real connection with her audience and labours under delusions that she is funny.

Her anti-religion rants are no more meaningful and insightful than those of the religious zealots she loathes.

The only highlight was Deveny’s screening of excerpts from an actual Q&A episode featuring famous atheist, Richard Dawkins (Catherine’s idol), butting heads with Fundamentalist Christian, Senator Steven Fielding.

Deveny’s de-baptising routine is plain offensive. She exhorts the audience – who follow like sheep - to recite lines to de-baptise themselves.

Catherine, if there is a Comedy Hell, your accommodation awaits. But, since you don’t believe in Hell, it’s off to limbo with you!

-Ends-

Funk It Up About Nothing, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, March 3, 2011

 Funk It Up About Nothing
Based on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare 

By Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Drum Theatre, Dandenong until April 2, 2011

If your kids (or you) can’t wrap their heads around Shakespeare’s language, Chicago Shakespeare Theater could open the door to a new understanding of the Bard. Funk It Up About Nothing is a funked up, rap version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

The structure and narrative of Shakespeare’s original, romantic-comedy is recognisable but the poetry is cleverly reconstructed into rhythmic, rap rhymes and set to a percussive, throbbing, electronic, hip-hop beat (DJ Adrienne Sanchez).

The classical characters from 16th century Messina transform into contemporary, urban, American personalities. Don Pedro (Postell Pringle OK) is a hip-hop star on tour with his crew They chill out at old Leonato’s (GQ) mansion where MC Claudio (Jackson Doran OK) falls in love with Leonato’s ditzy daughter, Hero (Jillian Burfete OK).

The strutting playboy, Benedick (JQ), spars verbally with sassy Beatrice, known as MC Lady B (Ericka Ratcliff OK). Despite mischief at the hands of the villainous Don John (GQ), the play ends happily with two marriages.

The rhyming dialogue is clever and funny, the cast versatile, and the stylistic blend of rap, physical clowning and comic wordplay creates an entertaining show to appeal to teenagers.

Although, for the first 20 minutes, the music was so loud that the dialogue was inaudible, this is Shakespeare to make you dance, clap and shout.

Stars: ***1/2

The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, 20 March, 2011

The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Regent Theatre****

 

Produced by Lunchbox, David Atkins & Really Useful Group, Regent Theatre, March 20-27, 2011 then touring nationally.

 

• Reviewed by: Kate Herbert
• Also published at: www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/arts
• March 23, 2011 10:39AM (reviewed March 20)

Nobody can argue that Andrew Lloyd Webber is a prolific composer of successful musicals. This tribute concert show travels through his most memorable music theatre repertoire.

Directed with flair and simplicity by Stuart Maunder, eight Australian singers perform hits from Evita, Phantom, Sunset Boulevard, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Love Never Dies and others. Although it does not have all the bells and whistles of a full production, the singers are backed by a superb band lead by Guy Noble, and enormous video projections replacing a set.

It’s worth the price to hear Michael Cormick’s thrilling renditions of The Music of the Night, The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard. His voice is hypnotic and rich with an extensive range and exceptional control.

Trisha Crowe’s pure classical tones, impeccable technique and pert appearance are perfect for Christine’s songs from Phantom and Love Never Dies. Alinta Chidzey is a sassy vocal and physical presence while Delia Hannah’s Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and Memory from Cats, are emotional.

Lloyd Webber’s greatest hits have a common dynamic arc, moving from intimacy and control to soaring, emotional, fortissimo high notes at their end.

There is plenty to thrill the senses of fans – and the show is a great prelude to the opening of Love Never Dies in May.

THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER

Stars: ****

 

Howie The Rookie , Red Stitch, March 18, 2011

Howie The Rookie  

HOWIE THE ROOKIE, Red Stitch Theatre, until April 16.

• Kate Herbert
• From: Herald Sun
• Published: March 29, 2011 12:00AM 
• Reviewed March 18, 2011

Award-winning play is dark and dangerous

THE streets of Dublin are dank and dangerous and the characters violent, unpredictable and hilarious in Mark O'Rowe's award-winning play Howie The Rookie. 

 The language is Irish vernacular, lingering between offensive vulgarity, comedy and lyricism. O’Rowe’s writing is thrilling and inspired, using language to conjure a vivid, poverty-stricken, urban landscape and a parade of eccentric characters.

Director, Greg Carroll, and his two actors (Paul Ashcroft, Tim Ross) make this a fine, compelling and challenging production, with muscular, barely-contained physicality and poignant performances.

Two tough, young men, members of Dublin’s underclass, shock, horrify and entertain us with their gritty stories that tilt between comedy and tragedy. Each is alone on stage.

Ashcroft gives a powerfully physical and sympathetic portrayal of The Howie Lee, a street thug in pursuit of a fight, booze and girls. His wild violent rampage turns into a family tragedy.

Ross plays The Rookie Lee, a handsome rogue who finds himself pursued by both Howie and his pals and a Dublin crim. The lives of Howie and the Rookie collide over two nights in perilous ways that neither could predict. The play is intense, brutal and not for the timid – but you must see it.

Stars: * * * * 1/2

Review: Howie The Rookie, Red Stitch Actors Theatre

• From: Herald Sun
• March 25, 2011 2:22PM

THE streets of Dublin are dank and dangerous and the characters violent and hilarious in Mark O'Rowe's award-winning play, Howie the Rookie.

O'Rowe's writing is thrilling and inspired, using language to conjure a vivid, poverty-stricken, urban landscape and a parade of eccentric characters.

Director Greg Carroll and his two actors (Paul Ashcroft, Tim Ross) make this a compelling production with muscular, and poignant performances.

Ashcroft plays The Howie Lee, a thug in pursuit of a fight, booze and girls whose wild rampage turns into a family tragedy.

Ross plays The Rookie Lee, a handsome rogue who finds himself pursued by both Howie and his pals and a Dublin crim. Their lives collide over two nights in ways neither can predict.

Intense, brutal and not for the timid, Howie The Rookie is a must-see.

THEATRE

HOWIE THE ROOKIE, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, until April 16

Stars: 4.5

Cantina, by Strut & Fret Production House, March 16, 2011

Cantina ***1/2

by Strut and Fret Production House

Famous Spiegeltent, Arts Centre, March 16 to 27, 2011

Reviewed by: Kate Herbert on March 16, 2011

The stage is a dangerous place in Cantina. This circus-cabaret blurs the line between passion and violence with extraordinary and skilful acts that often verge on the sado-masochistic with their combination of seduction and aggression.

Five physical performers (Chelsea McGuffin, Mozes, David Carberry, Daniel Catlow, Henna Kaikula OK) collide in what could be a late night, 1920s, honky-tonk bar with a musician playing ukulele and pianola. Dance blends with acrobatics; there is a seductive but brutal apache dance duet and a couple of tough and ferocious dance-fights between two men.

A woman tightrope walks in high heels, stands on a man with stilettos and then balances on bottles atop the pianola. A contortionist with terrifyingly elastic bones and pivoting joints, totters about like a rag doll, twists herself into a pretzel and performs handstands balancing on tiny sticks.

A crazy, naked magician pulls a little, red scarf from unlikely places and then later spins by his neck from a rope. Throughout the show, the audience gasps audibly at remarkable and cruel routines, but the final handstand routine on broken glass is possibly the most alarming.

This is not a show for the faint-hearted. It is fierce, unpredictable and treacherous – and incidentally sexy and funny too.

Stars: ***1/2

Smoke and Mirrors, Spiegeltent ****

Smoke and Mirrors

Created by Craig Ilott  and iOTA

Spiegeltent, Victoria Arts Centre, until 25 Feb, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 12, 2011

Stars:****

Get on this crazy, rollercoaster ride that is Smoke and Mirrors and enjoy the trip. Conceived by director, Craig Ilott, and raunchy singer, iOTA, it is a collage of song, burlesque, vaudeville, circus, illusion and sideshow freaks. Leave your conservatism at the door because bits of this show transgress some boundaries of gentility.

This is the first in an ongoing programme in the Famous Spiegeltent. You can sip a wine, perch on a leather seat in a secretive booth and marvel at its velvet and brocade canopies, mirrored columns and cut-glass windows.

As host, iOTA has a commanding stage presence and powerful singing voice. He introduces a parade of eccentric characters and shifts from seductive to repellent, sexy to grotesque, vicious to melancholy.

Four acrobats perform dazzling feats of balance and strength. The trio, ThisSideUp (James Brown, Casey Douglas, Christian Schooneveldt-Reid), dressed in striped bathing suits as moustachioed, 1920s, musclemen poseurs, perform a hilarious, breath-taking, hand balancing routine. In another sassy, exciting act, they toss their female partner (Kali Retallick) like a piece of flotsam.

Queenie van de Zandt thrills us with her rich, effortless voice and a passionate song – despite being a bearded lady. Wayne Scott Kermond is a quirky, tap-dancing vaudevillian and Timothy Woon astonishes with his illusions.

Director, Ilott, links acts with original songs by iOTA and the antics of dancing bunnies – who are waiting to be pulled out of a hat presumably.

An Evening With Chekhov, La Mama, March 9, 2011

An Evening With Chekhov ***

The Bear by Anton Chekhov, The Bet adapted from Chekhov by Fiona Macys Marzo

 La Mama, until March 20, 2011

Reviewed by: Kate Herbert on March 9, 2011

Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov, with director, Constantin Stanislavski, changed the face of 20^th century theatre with his controversial, naturalistic style described as “scenes from country life”.

Chekhov is renowned for his pithy, short stories and his full-length plays. An Evening With Chekhov, directed by Olga Makeeva, features his short play, The Bear, a comic romance that could be the plot of a Russian sit com. It is paired with an adaptation of his quirky, short story, The Bet.

Daniel Frederiksen is both repulsive and attractive as Smirnov, the boorish, grain salesman who bullies his way into the home of the beautiful, reclusive widow, Popova (Fiona Macys Marzo) to reclaim a debt. Frederiksen brings a cheekily modern edge to Smirnov. His performance is dangerous and magnetic and he addresses the audience directly, breaking the fourth wall in a distinctly non-Chekhovian way.

The Bet has a disturbing premise. A young man (Brett Ludeman) makes a wager with a wealthy banker (Eugene Schlusser). If he spends 15 years in voluntary, solitary confinement, the banker will pay him two million roubles. The story forces the characters and audience to address the value of human contact, or earthly things, possessions, learning, books and money.

The two pieces provide an insight into Chekhov’s exceptional talent.

Stars:***

Café Scheherezade by Therese Radic, March 8, 2011

Café Scheherezade by Therese Radic

Based on the novel by Arnold Zable

At  fortyfivedownstairs, March 8 to April 3, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 8, 2011

For centuries, European theatre told stories that reflected or informed the experiences of the audience. Some of our most passionate, moving, contemporary theatre is about the tragic or joyful lives of real members of our community.

In Café Scheherezade, a play based on Arnold Zable’s novel, we peer like voyeurs through the windows of the real Café Scheherezade that was established in 1958 in Acland St. St Kilda by Polish immigrants, Avram and Masha Zeleznikow. The Café thrived and was a meeting place for displaced Eastern European Jews.

The characters in the play are based on real people, many of whom sat amongst us on opening night, making the experience more compelling. Director, Bagryana Popov, incorporates evocative Klezmer music (Ernie Gruner, Justin Marshall) and simple staging that recreates something of the atmosphere of the bustling café.

The play is most successful when telling the heart-wrenching tales of escape and loss of the elderly diners and owners. Marta Kaczmarek is luminous and detailed in her portrayal of stoical, cheerful Masha. Jim Daly captures the pain and reserve of the taciturn Avram, and Richard Bligh is riveting as the obstreperous Laizar.

These people changed the face of Melbourne and their stories are now embedded in our local history.

Stars: ***

Dream Life of Butterflies MTC ***1/2

The Dream Life of Butterflies 

By Raimondo Cortese, Melbourne Theatre Company

Sumner Theatre, MTC March 5 to April 2, 2011

Reviewed by: Kate Herbert  on March 5, 2011

Stars: *** 1/2

We cannot live our sisters’ lives or control their choices. In Raimondo Cortese’s The Dream Life of Butterflies, people with siblings may recognise the frustration, repressed conflict, misunderstandings, pain, guilt and the willingness to forgive transgressions.

This two-hander is a gentle, naturalistic portrayal of the reconciliation between two very different, middle-aged sisters. Vanessa (Natasha Herbert), after a long, unexplained absence, visits her older sister, Zelda (Margaret Mills).

Cortese’s spare dialogue is littered with pauses. Heather Bolton’s economical direction emphasises the sisters’ discomfort with frequent, awkward silences, highlighting years of unspoken confusion and betrayal. The two rattle around in a vast, empty space, pacing aimlessly or perching on uncomfortable benches.

Their conversation divides in three parts, punctuated by Baroque harpsichord (Anastasia Russell-Head). It reeks of evasion, intentional and unintentional, as they plough through childhood memories until they reach the unsafe ground of Vanessa’s departure.

Herbert captures the recklessness of Vanessa, giving her a louche, restless, weightless quality that reflects her dislocated, gypsy lifestyle, and balancing Vanessa’s strange secretiveness with her brutal honesty. As Zelda, Mills is eerily contained and still, carefully observing her sister and avoiding confrontation for fear of scaring Vanessa into running.

As they sip vodka and become more certain, this tale of sisterly love, betrayal and abandonment unfolds.

Xanadu the Musical ***

Xanadu the Musical

Book by Douglas Carter Beane, Music & Lyrics by Jeff Lynne & John Farrar

 Xanadu Marquee, Docklands Drive, until April 2, 2011

Reviewed: Kate Herbert on March 3, 2011

Stars: ***

All nine Muses, the Ancient Greek demigods that inspire artists, do their darnedest to inspire Christie Whelan. What else explains the light, colour and charisma escalating 200% when she appears on stage in Xanadu?

Whelan is tall, blonde and gorgeous. She dances, sings, acts and has impeccable comic timing as Clio, the immortal Muse who comes to earth to inspire Sonny (Sam Ludeman), a struggling artist, then falls in love with him as the mortal, Aussie chick, Kira.

Without Whelan, Xanadu would be a forgettable show. There are a few memorable 1980s hits (Magic, Xanadu, Evil Woman) but the others are forgettable with lyrics that offer little to elevate what a thin script, sketchy characterisations and predictable story based on the 1980 movie with Olivia Newton-John.

The direction (Christopher Ashley) is unimaginative, the choreography (Kelley Abbey) repetitive. Jokes are infrequent and mainly directed at 80s bad taste. Whelan provides most of the big laughs with her comic delivery, detailed characterisation and hilarious accent switcheroo. Her ridiculously broad Aussie accent, with its vowels stretched to breaking point, tickled the audience.

Ludeman is well cast and in good voice as Sonny. Luke Alleva’s tap routine is a highlight while Susan-ann Walker and Cherine Peck are a comic double act as Clio’s wicked sisters and the chorus has some funny moments as parodies of a Greek chorus.

Apologia, MTC ****

 Apologia, Melbourne Theatre Company

• Kate Herbert
• From: Herald Sun
• March 01, 2011 12:00AM

Robyn Nevin is compelling and perfectly cast as the cool, dry-humoured, eminent Art historian, Kristen Miller, in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s family drama, Apologia. Kristen’s son describes her as, “opinionated, didactic, dictatorial”, and Nevin captures all of these – and more.

Beneath Kristen’s very English self-control and leftwing, academic snobbery, Nevin reveals her to be an ambitious woman who remains in secret turmoil about her choice to put her professional life before her children. Kristen’s family avoids the big, emotional issues until the night of her birthday. Now, all the murky, long-buried secrets explode to the surface when her sons challenge her about her apparent abandonment of them decades earlier.

Campbell avoids the play turning into soap opera by inserting an examination of Kristen’s political activism and the repercussions of feminism on women activists. He also includes Kristen’s enlightening analysis of Giotto, the Early Renaissance painter, of Ibsen’s radical play, The Doll’s House, and her view of artists as potential instigators of social change.

Kristen is a complex character: a humanist, academic, socialist. She is the core of the play around whom other characters orbit, accommodating her obsessions but, finally, challenging her worldview and choices so that  Kristen is compelled to present her “apologia”, her formal defence of her opinions and conduct.

She finds support in Hugh, her witty, camp, old comrade (Ron Falk). She abhors Peter (Ian Bliss), her banker son’s financial manipulation of underdeveloped African nations. 

She is shocked by Peter’s relentlessly cheerful fiancée, Trudi’s (Laura Gordon) blindingly simplistic, Christian ramblings and appalled by Claire (Helen Christinson) wasting her acting talent in a television soap opera. 

But worst for Kristen is her second son Simon’s (Patrick Brammall) total mental meltdown.

The performances are consistently strong, Jennifer Flowers’ direction cleverly unobtrusive and Campbell’s dramatic structure and dialogue cunningly wrought. But it is Nevin that is the still, dark pool at the heart of this storm.

-----

Stars: * * * *

APOLOGIA, Melbourne Theatre Company, Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, Until April 9

The Pavilion ***

The Pavilion by Nick Musgrove & Alexandra Lee

Chapel off Chapel, Feb 24 to March 5, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 24, 2011

Stars:***

You don’t need to be a cricket tragic to see The Pavilion, but it certainly helps to know a lofted cover drive from a reverse sweep and a wrong’un from a wide ball.

In this naturalistic, light comedy by Nick Musgrove and Alexandra Lee, directed by Tom Peterson, we are voyeurs in the clubrooms of the fictional Glendale Community Cricket Club. For 90 minutes we watch the Glendale eleven, who range from 16 to 60 years, career through their batting order in a match that could mark the end of their finals hopes.

The play’s structure follows the shape of the match. The dramatic action, punctuated by off-stage highlights on the pitch, plays out in the clubrooms where each lost wicket cues a new episode in the characters’ interactions. Although these avid, amateur sportsmen avoid discussing personal issues, these seep into the clubroom banter, revealing plenty about the individuals.

The provocative clown, Dave (Nick Russell) feels abandoned by best mate, Simmo (James Needham) whose loyalties now lie with his wife. Gambler, Alistair (Dylan Lloyd), places secretive bets between overs. Team captain, Martin (Paul Dawber), has a suspiciously low run rate and his secret affair damages the team’s morale.

Although this is not a theatrically imaginative script or groundbreaking production, it has a parade of diverse, recognisable characters, a few good laughs and it escalates to a final, satisfying, personal battle.

The End by Samuel Beckett ***1/2

The End by Samuel Beckett

By Malthouse Theatre

Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, Feb 22 to March 1, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****1/2

For the second time this month, my wish for 2011 is granted: an actor in an empty space in a show that focuses on the performer, acting technique and language – without technology. Hooray for actors!

Robert Menzies, deftly directed by Eamon Flack, stands alone in a stark, black box to perform Samuel Beckett’s novella, The End. Although not written for the stage, the 22 unedited pages of Beckett’s prose weave complex word pictures, evoking a vivid landscape filled with places and people.

Menzies’ sad, battered, clown face, scruffy hair and gruff, bleating voice conjure an old derelict wandering the streets, rambling and raving as his path leads him to his inevitable, predictable demise. The actor steps reluctantly into the space, fixes his bare feet deliberately onto a marked spot in the centre of the black floor and begins his story or, rather, his collection of scrappy memories.

The man is by turn angry, frustrated, demented, ranting, melancholy, but always confused and vulnerable.

This novella, written in 1946, incorporates elements of his later works: existential dilemma, obsession with age, death and the futility of the human condition. The old man in The End foreshadows the two hobo-clowns in Beckett’s most famous play, Waiting for Godot, and has echoes of Krapp’s Last Tapes and Endgame.

This is a hero’s journey towards death, played out by one of the forgotten and homeless people in an unforgiving city.

Motherhood the Musical ***

Motherhood the Musical by Sue Fabisch

By HIT Productions

Athenaeum Theatre,  Feb 17-27, 2011

Reviewerd by: Kate Herbert on Feb 22, 2011

Stars: ***

Ah, the trials of motherhood: nappies, crying babies, school runs, weight gain, sleep deprivation, weak bladder. Motherhood the Musical, by Sue Fabisch, is a collection of songs pegged together by scenes at a baby shower.

This show, directed by Terence O’Connell, is identification theatre. We all recognise these types.  Rebecca Moore is Amy, the hopelessly naïve, expectant mum viewing babydom through rosy glasses. She sings the romantic, I’m Having a Baby, interrupted roughly by the others who set her straight.

Barbara, played by rich-voiced, sassy Amelia Christo, is jaded and exhausted at home with three kids. She sings about whining kids in Mummy, Mummy, Mummy, but also delivers a moving ballad about her love for her son.

Versatile Ziggy Clements plays Brooke who juggles her law practice with family and sings about her obsession with bulk buying in Costco Queen. Trisha, played by Jacqueline Hoy, a frazzled, divorced mum, sings about her loneliness when her kids are away in Every Other Weekend.

The dialogue is cheesy, the pace loose in the sketches and some tunes sound like songs by The Wiggles but the audience of women roared at the cheeky, accurate lyrics.   

A couple of numbers are gutsy blues or rock tunes and the finale is a rousing, gospel song, The Kids Are Asleep, a celebration of that moment of peace and liberation for parents.

‘Tis A Pity She’s A Whore, Malthouse ***

‘Tis A Pity She’s A Whore by John Ford

By Malthouse Theatre
Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, from Feb 16 to March 5, 2011
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb16, 2011
Stars: ***

Modern adaptations of classical plays can be illuminating and theatrically challenging. However, Marion Potts’ production of ‘Tis A Pity She’s A Whore teeters on the edge of melodrama rather than penetrating the moral murkiness of John Ford’s 1633 Jacobean tragedy.

This is not to say that it lacks theatrical merit or that some audiences won’t love its bold, economical style, musical elements and contemporary references. The cast is reduced to nine and the sub-plots all but eliminated. A single, modern punk (Chris Ryan) boasting about his sexual conquests replaces the foolish suitors.
 

Because of the savage editing and reduced cast, too much of the flesh of Ford’s play and too many characters are missing making the story confusing and incoherent. By stripping characters and sub-plots, the breadth of the moral decay, hypocrisy and corruption of this 17th century society is lost. It rushes to its bloody end and we feel we have missed something important.
 

Potts takes risks with her collage of styles and some are successful.  Soprano, Julia County, adds a romantic, emotional layer as she glides above the ghastly, earthly events. Anna Cordingley’s three-level set is a metaphor for the multiple levels of morality and status. Her backdrop, in the roiling style of a Mannerist painting, is a highlight.
 

Ford’s play is always considered controversial. The children of Florio (Richard Piper), the virginal Annabella (Elizabeth Nabben) and her brother, Giovanni (Benedict Samuel) have an incestuous relationship. Annabella’s tutor, Putana (Laura Lattuada), approves the affair. When Annabella falls pregnant, she is hurriedly married to Soranzo (John Adam) who abandons his vengeful paramour, Hippolita (Alison Whyte), who is then betrayed by Vasques (Anthony Brandon Wong).

There are some strong performances particularly from Adam, Nabben and Whyte, although the acting is uneven. After oodles of sex, murder and revenge the stage is littered with bloodied bodies. Ultimately, this production favours form over substance. The idea is interesting but the execution only partially successful.

A Behanding in Spokane, MTC ***1/2

A Behanding in Spokane 

By Martin McDonagh, by Melbourne Theatre Company

 MTC Sumner Theatre, Feb 10 to March 1, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 10, 2011

Stars: ***1/2

Martin McDonagh says his black comedies walk the line between comedy and cruelty. His newest work, A Behanding in Spokane, combines his signature, laugh-out-loud dialogue and situational absurdity with blatant and latent violence. The stage is a dangerous place for his characters.

It is a revenge comedy: a hand for a hand instead of eye for an eye. Decades earlier, the brooding, racist, Carmichael (Colin Moody) was behanded (his hand cut off) by rednecks who waved goodbye to him with his own hand.

For 26 years, the obsessed Carmichael fruitlessly scours the country for his lost hand. A couple of chancers, Toby (Bert LaBonté), the black marijuana dealer, and his dim-witted girlfriend, Marilyn (Nicole da Silva), try to con him by selling him an aboriginal hand stolen from a museum. All hell breaks loose and they face the wrath of Carmichael.

The play has some of the classic elements of McDonagh’s style. A group of eccentric, flawed characters are trapped in an isolated, claustrophobic location, in this case, an Arizona motel room. Cruelty and violence collide with banal conversations and peculiar obsessions. The outcome is unpredictable and the situation dangerous.

Moody is compelling as the dour, volatile, surly Carmichael. Although the other characters appear to be too clever, clean and middle class, LaBonté captures the weakness and bravado of the frightened Toby, da Silva is suitably dim as his gal and Tyler Coppin is funny as the weird, reluctant receptionist.

Peter Evans’ production needs to escalate to an explosive ending. The pace is too slow in the final scenes – but that could be in the writing. Strangely, these American characters have the style and language of McDonagh’s Irish characters but they lack the credible, dim edginess of the quintessential American criminal.

This script is not as successful as McDonagh’s six early plays set in isolated, western Ireland. It is a one-gag story that needs either to be unleashed and dive further into absurdity and chaos, or to be harnessed into a shorter play. If you want to see a classic McDonagh, see the movie, In Bruges. It is brutally funny.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover ***

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Adapted from D.H. Lawrence by Glenn Elston, Australian Shakespeare Company

Rippon Lea, Feb 8 to March 17, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

Novelist, D. H. Lawrence, would be delighted by the amount of naked, youthful flesh and blatant sexuality in Glen Elston’s adaptation of his erotic tale about adultery and lust between the cultured Lady Chatterley (Hannah Norris), and the rough-handed game-keeper, Mellors (Jamieson Caldwell).

The two actors gambol audaciously outside the Rippon Lea mansion, tearing their clothes off amongst the trees, capering sensually on tables and beds or under a rainstorm. Caldwell’s lean musculature and Norris’s pale flesh glimmer in the fading twilight.

As a student I was obsessed with every luscious and scandalous novel by Lawrence and Lady Chatterley’s Lover was his most controversial. Connie is bored in her sexless marriage to the pompous Sir Clifford (Soren Jensen), a wheelchair-ridden invalid while Mellors, a former army lieutenant, lives alone after the end of his marriage to a carping harridan.

Elston’s adaptation incorporates Lawrence’s passionate, provocative language as well as the electric, highly sexualised physicality of his characters. Caldwell is deliciously wicked, seductive, ironic and physically abandoned as Mellors and Norris captures the vibrating, wide-eyed need of Connie.

Several minor characters provide narration to fill the gaps in the story but the balance between narration and scenes is not quite right. The first scenes that set the background could happily be excised or condensed. The play really gets going when Connie and Mellors first meet.

This is a cheeky, robust production and who could pass up sensuality on the lawns at Rippon Lea with a glass of wine and a picnic hamper?

Ruben Guthrie ***1/2

Ruben Guthrie by Brendan Cowell, Red Stitch Actors Theatre

 Rear 2 Chapel St., St Kilda Feb 8 to March 5, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 8, 2011

Stars: ***1/2

The stage is a dangerous place in Brendan Cowell’s play, Ruben Guthrie. As Ruben, Daniel Frederiksen is a totally out of control drunk, so all the danger is in the bottle – or, rather, bottles – that surround him, imprisoning him in a world of expensive and deadly booze.

Ruben Guthrie is the Creative Director and golden boy for a slick advertising agency. He fuels his fertile imagination and compelling ad campaigns with grog, recreational drugs and ego. When his young, glamorous partner, Zoya (Anna Samson) dumps him because of his boozing benders, Ruben is forced to confront his addictions and assess whether his talent lies only at the bottom of an empty vodka glass.

At intervals, Frederiksen addresses us directly as his Alcoholics Anonymous group. We stagger with him through his Twelve Steps. We witness his appalling behaviour toward Zoya and the next lover, Virginia (Erin Dewar), a scrambled, recovering addict. We listen to the horror stories of his drunken escapades leaping from a roof or strangling a stranger. We observe the pious, psycho-babble that accompanies such recoveries.

Cowell’s writing is audacious, contemporary, hard-edged and fast-talking. The dialogue is well-observed, shifting from bold and funny to moving and sensitive. The structure follows Ruben’s recovery period, taking us along on his dizzying rollercoaster ride. The second half becomes a little unwieldy, with too many characters and some awkward, abstract scenes during Ruben’s relapse into booze.

However, the social observations are incisive, facing addiction in the affluent, commercial world rather than on a grimy street. Frederiksen is compelling as Ruben, managing to be both charming and repellent and a talented cast supports him.

Invisible Atom by Anthony Black *****

Invisible Atom by Anthony Black

By 2b Theatre Company

Where and When: Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, Feb 4-13, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***** (Yes, 5!)

Invisible Atom is a testament to the power of the actor. For most of the hour, I sat gaping at Anthony Black’s exceptional skill and the inexorable narrative unfolding in his poignant, ironic human tragedy. It is an epic tale of a man’s journey from security toward an inevitable, personal calamity.

Black is alone on a small, elevated stage that he peoples with a parade of complex, credible characters. With taut direction by Ann-Marie Kerr, he uses classic theatrical devices to create his story.

Under a stark light, two walking fingers create a tiny, man-puppet; a metaphor for man’s insignificance in the universe.  He adroitly shifts characters in a blink by lowering or raising his spectacles, flicking his trench coat, tilting girlishly, changing accents, raising pitch or blurring vowels. It is consummate acting technique and delicious to behold.

The compelling Black self-narrates as Atom, a man drowning in an existential crisis. Atom was a successful stockbroker with an expensive house and car, a loving girlfriend and a young baby. After a bomb kills his colleagues he questions his life and begins his disastrous, downward spiral into despair.

This is not only splendid performance, but it has equally elegant, inspiring writing by Black. The production is atmospheric, hilarious, often distressing, but features gob-smackingly skilful acting.

Skin Tight, Feb 2, 2011 ***

Skin Tight 

By Gary Henderson, SaySIX Theatre and The Groundswell Division

Where and When: fortyfivedownstairs, until February 2 to 20, 2011

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

Skin Tight is a fierce, emotional short play by New Zealand playwright, Gary Henderson, depicting a couple in a passionate, violent, sexually charged relationship. It has a visceral physicality making the stage a sexy and dangerous place.

It begins with a jolt; the young couple hurl themselves bodily at each other, falling to the ground, wrestling violently and erotically in piles of discarded clothing.

The play is like a time a capsule of the relationship between Tom (Michael Whalley) and Elizabeth (Holly Shanahan). They drag up memories, make confessions, taunt and tease, attacking physically and verbally and even using knifeplay in a disturbing scene. Their passionate physicality is underscored by crackling, 1940s gramaphone music and percussive, electronic sound (Jared Lewis).

The past collides with the present and the future is dimly ominous. Henderson’s writing cunningly misdirects us to make assumptions about the couple’s relationship, circumstances and particularly about their age. They look young but slowly we discern the truth.

In this production, directed by Justin Martin with choreography by Tom Hodgson, the balance between dialogue and physicality is unstable. Whalley and Shanahan give committed, impassioned performances but their physicality feels disconnected from the dialogue. Their emotional detail is much clearer in the choreographed scenes than the spoken.

Henderson’s script craves more nuanced performances, more detailed characterisation and layering of pain with pleasure, youth with maturity. However, this production goes some way in exploring the pain, longing, passion and underlying despair of Tom and Elizabeth.

By Kate Herbert