In The Next Room, Sarah Ruhl, MTC, April 15, 2011

In The Next Room,  MTC

• Kate Herbert
• April 15, 2011 12:11PM

IN The Next Room, by Sarah Ruhl, is an insubstantial script screaming for savage editing. 

What saves this production is the cast and director, Pamela Rabe, who make silly dialogue and a repetitive story entertaining.

Let's not be coy. Ruhl's play is based on 19th century doctors who treated women for hysteria by using electric vibrators on their private parts to stimulate the euphemistic ``paroxysms'.

The clinical, repressed Dr Givings (David Roberts) treats the depressed Mrs Daldry (played hilariously by Helen Thomson).

Initially buoyant,  Mrs Givings (Jacqueline McKenzie) becomes curious about the cause of howls emitting from the next room.

The play is a mutant of Ibsen's A Dolls House, with a nave woman who, after years of happy marriage to a straitlaced man, craves love and liberation.

The script never decides on a style. It begins as a Victorian comedy of manners with gorgeous costumes and set. It lurches in ungainly fashion into farce with innumerable entrances and exits and confused relationships. Then comes a pulp romance novel with sighing and weeping, secret liaisons and unrequited lovers. Finally, it tumbles to its unsatisfying end as melodrama.

It is difficult to ascertain Ruhl’s intention apart from making obvious points about repression being bad, humans needing sex, love and communication, and integration of body and mind being essential to mental and physical health.

There are laughs in the first half but scenes repeat themselves and the play needs 60 minutes edited.

 IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY, MTC Sumner Theatre, Southbank, until May 21, 2011

Stars: * * 1/2

Doctor Zhivago, Music by Lucy Simon, April 14, 2011

 Doctor Zhivago

Music by Lucy Simon; Book by Michael Weller; Lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers

Her Majesty’s Theatre, venue, until May 22, 2011

Stars:***

The gestation of a new musical is never easy. Doctor Zhivago is not a jukebox musical with ready-made popular songs (Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages), nor an adaptation of a movie musical (Mary Poppins, Hairspray). It is, like Les Miserables, an adaptation from fiction.

Although there is much to recommend it, Doctor Zhivago needs development before it is fully formed.

Lucy Simon’s score features some rousing chorus numbers, passionate duets and soaring solos. Des McAnuff’s deft direction keeps the action moving and Michael Scott-Mitchell’s monumental design is impressive.

As the sensitive, idealistic poet, Yurii Zhivago, Anthony Warlow’s rich, warm, resonant voice is always thrilling. His duets with Lucy Maunder as Lara, At The Edge of Time and Now, are passionate. When he sings, the show comes to life.

Martin Crewes is fiery as Lara’s bolshevik husband, Pasha, Taneel Van Zyl has warmth and ardour as Tonia, Zhivago’s abandoned wife, and Bartholomew John is authoritative as the bourgeois villain, Komarovsky.

The chorus numbers provide some dramatic moments, such as the powerful battlefield anthem, Forward March For The Csar. Love Finds You is a stirring, beautifully harmonised quintet by Warlow, Maunder, Crewes, Van Zyl and John. It highlights the core narrative about three men who love Lara and two women who love Zhivago.

Michael Weller’s adaptation effectively contracts Boris Pasternak’s expansive 1958 novel about love and revolution into under three hours. It is no mean feat incorporating the Russian Revolution and First World War with a love story spanning several decades.

However, there are significant flaws. Maunder is miscast and uncomfortable as Lara, lacking the character’s essential passion, sensuality and dark side. She looks in pain rather than in love as she claws at Zhivago’s chest. Van Zyl appears more appropriate casting for Lara.

The onstage relationship between Zhivago and Lara lacks chemistry, craving a palpable sexual tension to convince us of their magnetic attraction across vast distances and decades.

One can’t help feeling that Simon’s musical style is derivative and repetitive. Korie and Powers’ lyrics, although telling the story clearly, employ contrived rhymes. The narrative keeps Lara and Zhivago apart until the latter half. Although this reflects the novel, it leaves us without an effective dramatic and emotional arc for the primary relationship.

Musicals evolve over time. If Zhivago reaches Broadway it could be a whole new creature.

Charles Ross, One Man Lord Of The Rings, April 12, 20

Charles Ross in One Man Lord Of The Rings

• Kate Herbert
• From: Herald Sun
• April 12, 2011 4:33PM

Charles Ross in One Man Lord Of The Rings at the Victorian Arts Centre until April 10, 2011

IT IS nothing short of miraculous to witness Charles Ross recreate the entire Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

Peter Jackson had CGI, a huge cast and mega-bucks for the movies. Ross is alone on an empty stage, dressed in black and assisted only by a headset microphone and evocative lighting.

The gods of theatre grant my wish to see an actor transform before my eyes, people an empty stage with dozens of characters, create a soundscape with his voice, enthral his audience and transport us to other places and times with nothing but his exceptional skill and our imaginations.

Ross careers at breakneck speed through Tolkien’s narrative, recreating The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King in an hour. 

As Ross says in his chatty, humble interludes, it helps to know the films. With consummate skill, Ross tells the stories through action and dialogue, injecting occasional sardonic asides about inconsistencies in the movies.

His dramatic structure and pacing are impeccable and Ross’s physical and vocal virtuosity are thrilling. 

With instantaneous, subtle shifts of posture and vocal tone, he conjures Tolkien’s mythical personae, each Middle-earth locale, the music and visual effects. We see whining Frodo, fawning Gollum, puppyish Sam, elegant Gandalf and evil Sauron. Legolas’ silky blond hair becomes a comical obsession and the mutant orks are gruesomely real.

The result is hilarious, astonishing and atmospheric, and his metamorphosis is inspired. 

Star rating: *****

Baal, Malthouse Theatre, April 8, 2011

Baal, Malthouse Theatre **

• Kate Herbert
• From: Herald Sun
• April 08, 2011 11:06AM

IT rains on stage in Baal. A lot. And when you're admiring the plumbing instead of the show, something is amiss.

The cast has talent and works very hard in this adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's little-performed first play (1918).

This production, directed by Simon Stone (Thyestes) and translated by Stone and Tom Wright, does little to redeem its reputation with an uninspired adaptation.

Stone makes it relevant and contemporary, placing Brecht's dissolute anti-hero in urban 21st-century settings and using modern language and music.

In this production, Baal (Thomas M. Wright) is a pop idol, a guitar-wielding thug with a conga-line of fawning fans. But this Baal lacks the dangerous magnetism of a successful villain.

There is plenty of youthful flesh on show -- the cast is frequently partially or fully nude -- and it's a lurid piece with sexual references, simulated sex between men and women or men and men, violence, screaming, boozing, swearing, madness and death. Not too cheerful but also not managing to shock or disturb.

This production commits the worst sin -- it's dull, lacking subtlety, substance and intensity, cohesion and clarity.

BAAL, Malthouse Theatre, until April 23, 2011
 

Stars: * *

Honestly, Felicity Ward, Comedy Festival, April 7, 2011

Honestly

• Kate Herbert
• From: Herald Sun
• April 07, 2011 1:54PM

Honestly at Melbourne Town Hall, Portico Room, until April 24

THERE is a persistent edge of hysteria in Felicity Ward’s stand-up show, Honestly.

Her wiry frame vibrates with barely contained energy. It is no surprise when she says she has a severe anxiety disorder and depression.

There’s nothing funnier or more common than a depressed, anxious comedian – honestly. Ward never misses opportunities for gags about her shortcomings. She is a skinny smoker who, she quips, looks like a junkie and she milks that for all it's worth.

Ward collects funny shop titles and was overcome with excitement when someone called out, “A photo shop: Some Day My Prints Will Come”.

Two audience members participated. Paul back-announced himself with, “Welcome Paul, professional sports gambler and winner of the 2011 punctuality award.”

If you’ve always wanted to sing on stage, volunteer for the karaoke duet. You’ll sing over Ward’s sampled backing track, into her iPhone. It has an Autotune App (creates weird vibrato to disguise bum notes). You’ll sound like Cher singing Do You Believe in Love.

Ward grabs us by the scruff of the neck, shaking us until we laugh out loud. “Make my mother proud”, she quips, then laments, “What am I doing with my life?” 

Star rating: ****

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.

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Stars: * * * *

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