Grey Arias REVIEW 2 April 2023 ****

COMEDY /THEATRE

Devised & created by Adrienne Truscott & Le Gateau Chocolat (UK/USA)

At Malthouse Theatre, Beckett until 16 April 2023

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:**** (4)

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, on Sat 15 April 2023. KH

Le Gateau Chocolat, Adrienne Truscottin Grey Arias, photo by Tamarah Scott

Take a grab bag of explosive social issues, a plus-size, gay, black, English-Nigerian, operatic drag diva (Le Gateau Chocolat) and a cis, white, female feminist, comedian and performance artist from the US (Adrienne Truscott), then whack them into a blender with Madama Butterfly, and you have Grey Arias.

 

Gateau and Truscott are magnetic and charismatic in totally different ways. Their on-stage personae and differing performance styles manage to both collide and complement each other, resulting in one astounding and bizarre duo.

 

They are friends and award-winning artistes in their own right. Both walk a fine line between provocative and offensive, and audiences that don’t know their work may feel affronted, shocked or just plain confused. The show’s content is confrontational, transgressive and insightful while their performance style is casual and chaotic yet, paradoxically, still finely tuned and complex.

 

The glorious music and questionable narrative of Madama Butterfly are threaded throughout Grey Arias. The beauty of Puccini’s score becomes tainted as Gateau characterises the central character, Cho Cho San, as a 15-year-old rape victim. ‘Why do they perform it?” Truscott demands. ‘Because the music is so beautiful,’ replies Gateau, simply and unemotionally.

 

Their interactions are oppositional, riddled with intentionally unanswerable rhetorical questions and political ‘grey areas’. They shift between comic banter and political debate. At times, their dialogue resembles a philosophical, almost Socratic argument, with Gateau playing the teacher with Truscott the wide-eyed pupil at his knee. There is definitely a status difference between them in this performance, particularly when Gateau challenges Truscott about casual racism.

 

They set traps for each other; Gateau relishes seeing Truscott squirm when she crosses his blurred lines about gender, race and plenty of other issues. Meanwhile, audience members search their conscience and memory for their own instances of casual racism and other deviations from political correctness in this period of Wokeness.

 

There are frequent triggers for both performers and trigger warnings for the audience. They each confess personal experiences of rape, challenge each other and the audience with references to racism, both casual and overt, nudity, childhood dreams, musicals and operas (Truscott confuses the two to great hilarity).

 

Gateau, dressed in kimono and wild wig, entertains us with operatic arias and snippets of pop songs and, despite Gateau persistently stopping her singing, Truscott finally gets her chance to play Annie singing Tomorrow, a childhood dream of which she was cheated many decades ago.

 

A witty, revealing and eccentric visual element is the rear projection of the pair’s text messages to each other, that expose their burgeoning ideas and disagreements about this show and even their communications and thoughts during the performance.

 

This extraordinary collision of Gateau and Truscott in Grey Arias is brazen, audacious, mischievous and not to be missed.

 

by Kate Herbert

Kate Herbert Arts Weekly REVIEWS 3MBS Sat 1 APRIL 2023

Listen to my 3 reviews on Arts Weekly, 3MBS radio today, Sat 1 April, 2023. 

Click on link below. It's about 7 minutes. I review:
Not Like Other Ghouls by Alice Tovey (Comedy & songs, part of Comedy Festival)

WAY by Sally McKenzie (about homeless women over 55)

and briefly, Where There's a Will by Christine Croyden (Siblings war over a will.)

 

Where There's a Will REVIEW March 29 2023 **

THEATRE

Written by Christine Croyden  

At La Mama HQ until Sun April 9, 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ** (2)

This review was only published on this blog after the season of the play finished. I presented a very brief comment on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, on Sat April 1, 2023. kh

Annie Wilson-Stanford, Maureen Hartley Natasha Broadstock-pic Darren Gill

Christine Croyden’s new Australian play Where There's A Will, directed by Sara Grenfell, has a promising premise of three sisters in a dispute over their mother's will. However, the production fails to deliver on its dramatic potential.

 

Those who have experiences sibling rivalry over a will may identify with this story. Croyden’s writing has its greatest effect in the calmer, more dramatic moments such as
as Carla.

 

It aims, it seems, to be a black comedy, but it straddles a line between family drama and Keystone Cops with its manic slapstick and broad characters, with mugging (face-pulling), broad gestures and loud voices replacing genuine comic acting.

 

The relationship between the sisters is fractious, with Carla being the unfairly maligned and outcast older sister to Karen (Elizabeth Walley), the brusque, greedy protein shake entrepreneur, and Denise (Natasha Broadstock), the insecure, loud, whining, overeater and youngest sister.

 

The sisters’ dialogue is incessantly combative which leaves no room for light and shade, particularly when the dialogue is delivered with almost every line emphasised and underlined, with meaningful glances, sighs, grimaces and pauses that appear to be intended to express underlying emotion.

 

The acting is uneven and one of the most significant problems with the production is the grating overacting by Walley as Karen, and Broadstock as Denise. Their vocal quality is uncomfortably pushed, which makes the dialogue sound forced and unnatural; sometimes they resort to shouting. This overacting detracts from the play's intended emotional impact and makes it difficult for the audience to connect with the characters.

 

The actors themselves are not entirely to blame. Grenfell’s direction is awkward and unimaginative, the pacing is slow and meandering, there is a lack of dramatic tension, and the characters are not fully fleshed out so there can be little investment in their stories.

 

The play needs some rigorous dramaturgy to address some of its script issues. It needs a stronger dramatic structure, more nuances relationships and characters and a clear style. There is no effective climax to the plot apart from Carla lopping the agapanthus in mum’s garden with her shears, then freezing her sisters with her “Medusa stare”. This moments is not clearly staged and lacks the requisite heightened drama.

 

The final scene is unsatisfying, running past the play’s obvious ending and throwing away the resolution to the dispute between Carla and her the sisters in a single sentence from a now suddenly ailing Carla. This leaves the audience with a feeling of disappointment rather than resolution.

 

Despite having a viable storyline about warring siblings that may be familiar to some, Where There's A Will ultimately fails to deliver on its dramatic potential.

 

by Kate Herbert

Written by Christine Croyden
Directed by Sara Grenfell
Performed by Annie Wilson Stanford, Elizabeth Walley, Natasha Broadstock & Maureen Hartley
Set Design Christina Logan Bell
Lights Julian Adams
Sound Ryan Smedley
Stage Manager Katie Williams

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio interview on Arts weekly, 3MBS, on Sat April 1, 2023. kh

 

 

Not Like Other Ghouls REVIEW 30 March 2023 ***1/2

COMEDY

By Alice Tovey

At Malthouse Theatre, The Tower until 9 April 2023

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, on Sat 1 April 2023. kh

Alice Tovey photo supplied

Not Like Other Ghouls by Alice Tovey is a one-woman comedy and musical cabaret that's both hilarious and thought-provoking. The premise of the show is that Tovey is hosting a dinner theatre performance with multiple celebrity guests (Hamish Blake, Wil Anderson, Oshe Ginsberg) who, for various absurd reasons, don't show up. However, Tovey manages to keep the audience entertained and engaged with her witty banter, infectious energy, and original songs about her love of horror movies.

 

Tovey's humour is edgy and unapologetic, and she fearlessly tackles topics such as the gay scene and its obsession with B grade horror movies (Scream, Freddy Krueger) the Twilight saga, teenage angst, monsters, fears, “Big Gender” and we even hear Nicole Kidman voice from beyond. 

 

Her lyrics are dense and clever, and she effortlessly weaves them amongst her humorous anecdotes and stories. Throughout the show, Tovey's personality shines through, and her charm, sass and mischievousness keep the audience entertained.

 

In addition to her humour, Tovey also shares her struggles with anxiety, and her vulnerability and confessional honesty about her own experiences add depth and resonance to the performance. Tovey's versatility as both a comedian and a classically trained singer is impressive, and she manages to create a solo show that's both entertaining and meaningful.

 

The show is also visually inventive, with clever use of projections, lighting, voice overs and rapid costume changes that add to the atmosphere.

 

Not Like Other Ghouls is a brand-new show from Tovey so it will tighten up over the season, but I’d recommend it for anyone who loves smart, insightful comedy that's both hilarious and heartfelt. Tovey will leave you laughing, singing, and maybe even reflecting on your own fears and anxieties.

 

by Kate Herbert

Holding the Man PREVIEW until 1 April 2023

THEATRE

Adapted by Tommy Murphy from Tim Conigrave’s autobiography

By Taylor Made Productions

At Chapel off Chapel until 1 April 2023

Remaining shows: Sun 26 Mar, 4pm; Wed 29 to Fri 31 March, 8pm; Sat 1 April, 2.30pm & 8pm.

Tickets: https://chapel.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/94974

 L-R Declan Clifford, Jack Stratton-Smith,  Photo by Cameron Grant, Parenthesy

From MEDIA RELEASE

"Based on Timothy Conigrave's original autobiography documenting the 15 year love affair, Tommy Murphy adapts the story of star crossed lovers and encapsulates a celebration of love that speaks across cultures, identities, and generations. Holding the Man captures the raw emotions that we experience as we cling to love in the face of death, strive to live with purpose, and discover the fundamentals of what it means to be human."

 

WAY REVIEW 23 March 2023 ***

THEATRE

Written & performed by Sally McKenzie

At La Mama Courthouse until April 2, 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

This review is published only on this blog. I'll give a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, on Sat 1 April 2023. KH

Sally McKenzie in WAY pic by Darren Gill

In her solo play, WAY, Sally McKenzie embodies four older women, all of whom face straitened circumstances and find themselves without a home and facing alarming financial hardship.

 

WAY, written by McKenzie and directed simply and deftly by Sean Mee, traces the path of Lyn, a documentary filmmaker who struggles to find funding for her film about women over 55 who become homeless. In some cases, when one little thing goes wrong in their lives, it can lead to a cascade of adverse consequences. McKenzie is committed to telling their stories, honouring their trust in her and helping to change the circumstances of these and other homeless women.

 

With just a change of voice, posture and cardigan, McKenzie shifts between Lyn’s three interview subjects, each of whom travelled a different path to homelessness but all of whom experience fear, shame and a loss of identity and dignity. They have become invisible.

 

Lily is fragile, birdlike, suffers with ADHD, sleeps in a phone box, craves order and cannot manage the detail of everyday life much less dealing with housing offices; Maysie sells items she finds dumped outside homes in Toorak and is saving to move to a tiny house; Zahra was a well-heeled lawyer with a flourishing practice and plenty of financial assets but, after a damaging marriage, she slid into gambling and lost everything.

 

Meanwhile, Lyn is fraught when she loses her casual teaching hours, cannot secure film funding and cannot pay her rent. Her obsession with finishing her film leads her to borrow money from her elderly mother. It’s all downhill from there.

 

Performing on a set of just boxes and phone booth and an upstage projection screen, McKenzie is a versatile and capable performer who captures the vulnerability, isolation and shame of these women who have fallen on hard times for so many reasons. Her entire persona changes as she shifts between characters. McKenzie does not spend time making us weep. Rather she wants to make us think and act - a very Brechtian sentiment.

 

 

The script draws on real stories and facts about the housing crisis for older women in Australia. It is moving and impassioned and detailed. A niggling problem is that characters unnecessarily repeat their dialogue, and the script needs some editing to tighten it and remove this extraneous dialogue.

 

WAY certainly achieves its goal of raising awareness about this burning issue of women who find themselves homeless, without easy access to personal support and financial and housing solutions. It will make you think and, perhaps, want to take some action.

by Kate Herbert

 

Written by Sally McKenzie

Directed by Sean Mee

Performed by Sally McKenzie

Sound Design by J. David Franzke

Lighting Design by Clare Springett

Produced by theCoalface

Arts Weekly Radio REVIEWS Made in China 2.0, Bernhardt/Hamlet, & Juliet Sat 11 March 2023

Here's my radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 11 March 2023. I review:

 

 Made in China 2.0 (Malthouse), Bernhardt/Hamlet (MTC), & Juliet (musical).

 

I think the broadcast dropped out for a few seconds twice during China & Bernhardt. If so, persevere. k

 

 

& Juliet REVIEW 9 March 2023 ****1/2

MUSIC THEATRE

Music & Lyrics by Max Martin & friends, Book by David West Read

Regent Theatre Melbourne from Feb (Bookings currently available until 14 May 2023)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:****1/2

Problem, Can't Feel My Face - Lorinda May Merrypor with Original Australian Company & JULIET. cr Daniel Boud

If you take out the word “Romeo” from the title of Shakespeare’s famous romantic tragedy, you get simply & Juliet. In this time of shifting the focus from “the white male patriarchy”, it was only a matter of time before Romeo, and in fact, Shakespeare himself, were relegated to minor characters in their own play.

 

& Juliet is a jukebox musical that works better than other jukebox musicals because the 20+ pop songs, all astonishingly co-written by Max Martin, are cunningly incorporated into the new narrative (book by David West Read) which is based on Juliet surviving her formerly tragic Shakespearean end, surviving Romeo to go on and “live her best life”, make her own choices, reject parental control (which she has already done in Shakespeare’s play by marrying Romeo secretly) and travel to Paris with her new pals, gender-fluid best friend, May (Jesse Dutlow), and her brassy nurse, Angelique (Casey Donovan).

 

Meanwhile, Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway (Amy Lehpamer), urges him to give Juliet a new start in an independent life; Anne essentially dramaturgs the new play, teasing her husband with her novel ideas. 

 

This Australian production, deftly and lovingly directed by Luke Sheppard, is a vivid spectacle, with electrifying and pulsating choreography by Jennifer Weber, and performed by a youthful and diverse ensemble that is deliciously enthusiastic and ecstatic to be on stage. (Seven of the cast are debutantes in professional performance and had their own fan club on opening night.)

 

As Juliet, the multi-talented Lorinda May Merrypor is ebullient, vivacious and holds the stage with her bold presence and versatile voice. As Anne, Lehpamer is magnetic and her vocal range and control are exceptional, as always. Rob Mills as Shakespeare, finds the lightness and fun in the character as he lurks around the fringes of the narrative, trying desperately to maintain control of his play.

 

The set design by Soutra Gilmour is an audacious blend of Shakespearean, Parisian and West End with its neon signs, one of which cleverly transforms from “Romeo and Juliet” to simply “& Juliet”.

 

This appears to be a show that will appeal to 14 to 26-year-olds. (The 20ish young man beside me said he thought he was the target audience) but it will appeal to any audience that wants an effervescent musical to distract from the everyday – and you can get up and dance in your seats at the finale.

 

by Kate Herbert

 

& JULIET 3-Rob Mills & Cast -Credit Daniel Boud 

Cast

Lorinda May Merrypor Juliet

Amy Lehpamer Anne

Rob Mills Shakespeare

Casey Donovan Angélique

Hayden Tee (he/they) Lance

Blake Appelqvist (they/them) Romeo

Jesse Dutlow (they/them) May

Yashith Fernando (he/him) Francois

Georgia Anderson (she/they) Susanna

Jordan Koulos (he/him) Richard

Sarah Murr (she/her) Lady Capulet / Nell

Coby Njoroge (he/him) Augustine

 

Creative Team

Max Martin Music & Lyrics

David West Read he/him Book

Luke Sheppard Director

Jennifer Weber she/her Choreographer

Soutra Gilmour Scenic Designer

Paloma Young she/her Costume Designer

Howard Hudson he/him Lighting Designer

Andrzej Goulding Video & Projection Designer

 

Bernhardt/Hamlet REVIEW 8 March 2023 ***1/2

THEATRE

Written by Theresa Rebeck, by Melbourne Theatre Company

At Sumner Theatre, Southbank, until 15 April 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present an audio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS on Sat 11 March 2023. KH

Charlie Wu, Tim Walter, Kate Mulvany, John Leary in Bernhardt/Hamlet_photoPiaJohnson

 

Sarah Bernhardt was perhaps the most famous French actress of the late 19th and early 20th century. She was renowned for her mellifluous, entrancing, almost musical speaking voice and her charismatic,  presence as she posed, gestured and declaimed, delivering dialogue in the histrionic acting style of the period. Hers was no truthful, Method acting.

 

At the time of this imagined episode in Theresa Rebeck’s play, it is 1899 and Sarah is 55 and no longer able to play the ingenue roles that made her so famous, such as the ailing, and histrionically dying, Camille that sent audiences into paroxysms. (Her fans were known as ‘saradoteurs’, Sarah doters, i.e. those who dote on Sarah.) To recoup financial losses and make a splash, she decides to play Hamlet, perhaps the most famous and most notoriously difficult of Shakespeare’s male characters. A woman playing this role in 1899 was outrageous.

 

Kate Mulvany – who very successfully inhabited Richard III a few years ago – may not have the melodic voice and magnetism of Bernhardt, but she captures her ambition, vision, drive, larger than life personality, her compulsion to maintain her celebrity and her hearty appetite for sexual adventure, although the seductiveness and charisma is lacking.

 

Mulvany’s Bernhardt is brash, bold, often bullying, although the play also explores her vulnerability and trepidation. In Rebeck’s play, Sarah’s doubt, uncertainty, and almost paralysis in the face of playing the enormous role of Hamlet, is an echo of Hamlet’s own procrastination, self-doubt, confusion and self-examination.

 

Although, in reality, Bernhardt engaged Eugène Morand and Marcel Schwob to write a French translation of Hamlet for her, in Rebeck’s play, she enlists (bullies and charms, more like it!) the enamoured Edmond Rostand (Charlie Wu), the celebrated playwright, and writer of Cyrano, to write a new version of Hamlet that ditches Shakespeare’s poetry because Sarah finds it too wordy. Do I hear screams of horror?

 

The most successful and compelling moments in this production are extracts from Shakespeare and Rostand. The first is when Mulvany performs the famous soliloquy, “Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I”, the second is Marco Chiappi’s poignant and riveting depiction of Hamlet’s father’s ghost, and the last is Chiappi delivering a poetic excerpt from Rostand’s Cyrano.

 

In her first directorial role for MTC since becoming Artistic Director, Anne-Louise Sarks steers the production effectively, with the often-witty dialogue moving swiftly and the quirky characters engaging the audience. The evocative set design (Marg Horwell) is cunningly modular, with small set pieces moving on and off stage and a spectacularly vivid representation of Sarah’s exotic salon.

 

However, the casting does not do the play any favours, and the script itself sometimes labours with characters discussing the difficulty, intricacies and complexities of performing Hamlet and the struggle to deal with the poetry without annihilating Shakespeare. The pace of the production slows when the action does not advance and the play spins its wheels, but thankfully, finally arrives at a resolution.

 

By Kate Herbert

 

Tahlee Fereday, Kate Mulvany, Marco Chiappi Bernhardt/Hamlet_photoPiaJohnson

Kate Mulvany Bernhardt/Hamlet_photoPiaJohnson

CAST

Constant Coquelin Marco Chiappi

Lysette Tahlee Fereday

Louis John Leary

Maurice William McKenna

Sarah Bernhardt Kate Mulvany

Francois / Worker Dushan Philips

Raoul Sahil Saluja

Alphonse Mucha Tim Walter (poster designer)

Edmond Rostand Charles Wu

Rosamond Izabella Yena

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Director Anne-Louise Sarks
Set & Costume Designer Marg Horwell
Lighting Designer Amelia Lever-Davidson
Composer & Sound Designer Joe Paradise Lui
Fight & Movement Director Nigel Poulton
Voice & Text Coach Geraldine Cook-Dafner
Voice & Text Coach Amy Hume
Associate Set Designer Jacob Battista
Costume Associate Sophie Woodward
Assistant Director Tasnim Hossain
Intimacy Coordinator Amy Cater
Assistant to the Fight Director Tom Royce-Hampton
Fight Captain Tim Walter
Assistant Fight Captain John Leary

Stage Manager Whitney McNamara

Made in China 2.0 REVIEW 2 March 2023 ****

THEATRE

Written, co-directed and performed by Wang Chong

Malthouse Theatre

At Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, Southbank until 19 March 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****
This is not a review in the traditional sense, although I've given the production stars.

This print comment will be published only on this blog. I’ll do a radio comment on Arts Weekly 3MBS on Sat 11 March 2023. KH

 

Wang Chong_Made in China 2.0_credit Tamarah Scott

 Made in China 2.0 is the second production presented in Australia by Wang Chong, a Chinese theatre director, writer and performer. The first was Little Emperors in 2017, also at the Malthouse, written by Chong with Lachlan Philpott.

In this unusual, solo performance, co-directed by Emma Valente, Chong begins with a casual, direct address to the audience that reveals him to be, a charming, ebullient performer as he talks engagingly about his development as a theatre artist and his life in art. 

What follows is a sometimes surprising, often harrowing but always enlightening representation of his risk-taking theatre style and his personal views on art and life.

Chong is magnetic and his theatrical style is challenging and will leave you with plenty to think and talk about on the trip home - and perhaps for days after.

I am unable to discuss the specifics of this production, so this is not a review as such. You’ll have to see Chong's charismatic performance to judge it for yourself.

By Kate Herbert

 Credits

Wang Chong – writer performer, co-director

Emma Valente -co-director, production designer

Emma Lockhart Wilson – co-designer

Wang Chong_Made in China 2.0_credit Tamarah Scott