Mama Africa, March 22, 2006

 Memories of the Struggle  
by Mama Africa Theatre Company (South Africa)

Commonwealth Games Arts Festival

Federation Square and Central Lawn, Alexander Gardens, until March 26, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 22, 2006

The teenagers in Mama Africa Theatre Company from South Africa, come from Kliptown and disadvantaged circumstances. Their show is a celebration of their youth, their energy and their commitment to use their talents to tell stories about the painful struggle of Africa.

The show is a mixture of song, dance, character and ingenious but simple design.

With hand-held signs, they set the time and place of various moments in the African struggle.

At the opening, a young girl calls, “I’ve lost my youth! I’ve lost my innocence!” Their song, Where are the Flowers, is a lament about lost joy, lost land and – yes - lost innocence.

These young people are passionate and delightful. Their dancing and singing has a wild and joyous edge and their characters are charming and funny as well as evoking more the more difficult times of the past in Africa.

The group performs under difficult circumstances without any microphones in an outdoor location. This means that some of their dialogue is inaudible but their vitality and their message gets through nonetheless.

By Kate Herbert

East by Steven Berkoff, March 22, 2006

East by Steven Berkoff

La Mama at Courthouse Theatre, Wed to Sun 8pm until March 22 to April 1, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 22, 2006

Steven Berkoff once said that, when actors read an early script of East, its graphic language shocked them and this prompted him to rewrite it into verse.

It is the collision of the verse form and Elizabethan language with the East End cockney dialect, songs and characters that makes this play so potent.

Any production of a Berkoff play suffers comparisons with Berkoff’s own idiosyncratic performance style. The script itself demands heightened characters, a broad physical style, a capacity to deliver verse and vocal acrobatics. East demands enormous versatility from an actor.

John Bolton certainly directs this production with great imagination and an emphasis on grotesque characterisation. The direction is sleek and the frequent segues between scenes are seamless.

Each of the cast, all recent graduates from VCA School of Drama, is energetic and creative in his or her character interpretation. However, some roles cry out for an older actor, particularly that of the father.

Andre Jewson is a capable actor whose strengths are evident but his youth reduces the impact of Dad’s raving outbursts.

The two Bovver Boys, Mike (James Ballarin) and Les (James Re), are the pivotal roles and set the tone for the entire play. It is their violent and sexual antics that are the focus of the action.

Ballarin and Re capture the physicality of the Bovver Boys and perform with great vigour.

Sarah-Jane St. Clair, as Sylv, the closest target of their misguided sexual aggression, embodies her sultry, provocative and street-wise nature.

Simon Morrison-Baldwin plays Mum in drag with appropriate resignation to her lot. If the role is not to be played as a jaded middle-aged woman, a young man in drag is probably a good choice.

The play is not a linear narrative but rather, the characters self-narrate episodes in their lives in East End of London. Their dialogues, monologues and ensemble scenes highlight the embedded violence, prejudice and desperation of their daily interactions.

The characters are grotesque as is Berkoff’s language. The audience is confronted by sexually explicit language and ferociously lurid and sickeningly violent imagery.

What remains at the end of the play is a sense of the pointlessness and tragedy of these wasted lives. There is little or no love in the family life. There is a joylessness in the sexual relationships and deep-seated anger and frustration in the violence.

By Kate Herbert

The Wave by Ellis & Bheki (South Africa), March 21, 2006

The Wave by Ellis and Bheki (South Africa)
 Commonwealth Games Arts Festival

Fed Square Amphitheatre and Alexander Gardens Palm Stage until March 23, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 21, 2006

Ellis and Bheki, from South Africa, perform The Wave outdoors in the enclosed space of the Fed Square Amphitheatre. It is an intimate story-telling show so they invite the audience to sit close on the ground around their performance arena.

They wear microphones so we can hear their lyrical stories stimulated by the Asian Tsunami.

The pair shifts between telling the story as themselves and from the perspective of two elephants sent to clean up the aftermath of the wave.

Their physical portrayal of the elephants is inspired and stylised. They move as if in a dance, the lumbering elephants transformed into graceful movers, trumpeting with huge horns and howling when injured.

As they search for human bodies, one (Ellis) finds his mahoot, the man who tended his injured leg after he was captured by hunters then trained him as a tourist ride.

The other elephant (Bheki) tells how he was hunted and transported to the Singapore zoo from Africa and how, in his anger, he killed a keeper. He, too, was rescued and now helps in the clean up after the Tsunami.

There is pain and anguish in the elephants’ tales but the show is compelling for small children and adults alike, some of whom participate in the story.

By Kate Herbert

Strawberry by Fraser Hooper, March 21, 2006

Strawberry by Fraser Hooper (England)

Commonwealth Games Arts Festival

Fed Square Amphitheatre and Alexander Gardens Palm Stage until March 26, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 21, 2006

Fraser Hooper’s character, Strawberry, is an engaging and gentle clown that appeals to children and adults alike.

Strawberry works on the ground, at the level of the children, not on the stage. His entire show incorporates members of the audience, mostly children. He manages to work the audience without using any words, giving instructions to an entire crowd with a whistle and plenty of mimetic gestures.

The children who join him on stage are teased gently, given tasks such as holding and passing the juggling balls or setting up and playing the snare drum.

He gets mileage out of having several children hold up a pointed finger. With one, Strawberry pretends to pick his nose with the child’s finger. He uses another’s finger as a coat rack.

One child wears Strawberry’s coat and becomes a simple and ingenious coat puppet.

An adult pair plays clown badminton with Strawberry controlling the ball on a stick. A group of burly men engage in a tug of war with four tiny kids who win - with Strawberry’s assistance.

Strawberry is a subtle and charming clown for the whole family.

By Kate Herbert

Heartstopping by Third World Bunfight (South Africa, March 20, 2006

Heartstopping by Third World Bunfight (South Africa)

Commonwealth Games Arts Festival

City Square March 16 to 20, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 20, 2006

If you missed Third World Bunfight you missed a treat. 

Their first show, the House of the Holy Afro, was  “highly stylised Afro-Kitsch” incorporating a DJ, a club poet, House rhythms and African sound and dance.

Their second show was an outdoor performance installation, set against the backdrop of Collins Street. The six performers, stood or squatted on a wall at the edge of the City Square, each behind a microphone.

All wore white body paint evoking images of the Japanese Butoh dancers. This performance is almost static. The three women were seated, perched on the wall under hand-held umbrellas. The three men stand behind them, playing percussion. They accompany snatches of opera and African song with stylised gesture and slow-motion movement.

It is almost a meditative state and the lunchtime city audience was mesmerised.

The singing was resonant of the plains of Africa with songs that bled one into the other, some with the tones of a lament, others with the passionate beat of Africa. Apart from the minimal percussion, the six voices sang a capella, filling the Square with unfamiliar, warm and welcome sounds.

By Kate Herbert

Hello Again, March 17, 2006

 Hello Again 
Words and Music by Michael John LaChiusa by Halogen Productions

 Chapel off Chapel, Prahran, March 17 to April 1, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Hello Again, by American, Michael John laChiusa, is an exciting new musical with much to recommend it.

The concept and structure, comprising ten playlets, are based on Arthur Schnitzler’s groundbreaking 1900 play, Reigen, also called La Ronde. The same play served as a foundation for David Hare’s successful play, The Blue Room.

The show is designed like a circle dance in which ten characters meet as pairs in ten scenes about ten diverse sexual encounters. Each character plays one scene then moves on to a new partner.

Like Schnitzler and Hare’s plays, the focus is on sexual relationships between two people: seduction, passion, infidelity and unrequited love.

In Hello Again, unlike Hare and Schnitzler, the characters change decades as they change scenes so that all appear as two different versions of themselves in an anachronistic collision of realities. This change in era is initially confusing.

Everyone is seen in two relationships. Characters shift status, their power and sexuality taking on a different dynamic as they assume a new mask with another partner, in another reality, in another decade.

Shaun Kingma’s direction is intelligent and deceptively simple. A series of sheer white curtains create the changing architecture of each location. The presence and voices of other singers set up atmosphere and context in the background.

The ensemble is talented and each voice has a distinctive quality. A particular highlight was Monique Chanel Pitsikas as The Young Wife. She has a bright voice and compelling presence as she shifts from humour singing the hilarious duet, Some Other Life, with The College Boy (Chris Purcell) to poignancy when she languishes with her emotionally remote Husband (Barry Mitchell).

Jodie Harris is another rivetting performer playing the Nurse as both a naïve virgin and a deliciously sexy siren singing, In Some Other Life, with The College Boy.

David Spencer brings great dignity and regretfulness to The Senator singing, The Bed Was Not My Own, and Sophie Carter is suitably provocative and warm as The Whore.

The band, conducted by Greg Smith and hidden in the mezzanine above the stage, plays superbly ranging in style from sultry ballads through taut tango and raunchy jazz numbers amongst numerous other styles.

Hello Again is a delightful new musical.

By Kate Herbert

From a Distance by Version 1.0, March 16, 2006

From a Distance by Version 1.0

 North Melbourne Town Hall, March 15 to 26, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 16, 2006

From a Distance by Sydney company, Version 1.0, has all the hallmarks of a devised production, many of which are effective and successful. However, the eclectic and sometimes scattered nature of a devised performance can interfere with the delivery of its core message.

Because there are so many voices, ideas and references focussed on the issue of what it means to be “un-Australian”, we witness a diffused series of vignettes that, although entertainingly presented, do not to make a strong or cohesive statement.

This is not to say that there are no moments of resonance, coherence or of theatrical interest. The production is engaging and the seven performers create a contemporary work with a movement base and a non-linear structure.

It does, however, look and feel a little dated, like a devised show from the 1980s.

The catalyst for the piece is the incident in the rowing final at the Athens Olympics during which Sally Rogers stopped rowing and collapsed in the boat prompting her team mates to threaten to throw her overboard.

The ensuing media feeding frenzy raises issues of being “un-Australian”. Who knows whether it was the team’s response or Rogers’ failure to complete the race that attracted this description and what, indeed, constitutes being “un-Australian”?

Version 1.0 incorporates verbal and visual extracts from the press about the rowing fiasco. We see the rowers’ uncomfortable press conference, a letter is read suggesting that the topic is in bad taste and we see projected images of news articles about other “un-Australian” events such as the treatment of refugees.

Also appearing on stage are activities that are considered unashamedly “Australian”: cooking on an electric barbecue, eating sausages in a roll with sauce, sipping beer or wine and ironing clothes. Are our  lives so banal?

Although sport is not portrayed directly on stage, repeated movement sequences make oblique reference to sports training and a woman works out on a rowing machine only to be repeatedly pushed off by a colleague. Dialogue from news articles and the press conference are reiterated.

The performers are capable and the show has amusing moments that become more threatening towards the final scenes.

Unlike the more ambitious Austral/Asian Post-Cartoon: Sport Edition by NYID in 1997, From a Distance is not a visceral, edgy and dangerous view of sports nor of the danger of prejudice and competition.

By Kate Herbert

Still a Hero by Nicky Marr, March 8, 2006

Still a Hero by Nicky Marr

 La Mama, Carlton, March 8 to 26, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on March 8, 2006

Cross-cultural relationships have often been the stuff of dramatic narrative. Racial conflict, family disapproval, cultural and religious differences and plain, old prejudice can cause relationships to founder.

Nicky Marr’s play, Still a Hero, attempts to reflect the challenge faced by Sherman (Keith Brockett), a Chinese-Malaysian international trader, and Monica (Tamara Searle), an Australian photographer of Irish heritage.

Their initial physical attraction is not enough to sustain them through the confusing period of adjustment to their cultural and personal differences and the real or presumed prejudices of their family and friends.

The concept has dramatic potential but the production has mixed success.

Marr’s dialogue is peppered with platitudes and the characters and relationships remain two-dimensional.

Director, Kelly Somes, with Nicky Marr as choreographer, introduces some abstract physicalisation of the relationship, but these interludes do not interconnect with the very static dialogue scenes. The production employs two disconnected styles and might benefit from the styles being interwoven.

Brockett and Searle are more comfortable and engaging in the movement-based sequences in the play. They never genuinely connect with the rather awkward dialogue so their characters remain superficial.

There are some comical cameos by Tim Stitz as a surly Chinese waiter, Sherman’s profoundly prejudiced Aunty Mei and Monica’s gay friend, Steve. However, these caricatures seem out of sync with the rest of the play.

Projected photographic images and a collage wall provide some interesting design elements but these fail to enhance the show are not integrated sufficiently into the fabric of the production.

The narrative seems uncertain of its direction. The cultural issues become lost early and the relationship is not adequately developed for us to have sympathy with its failure. Monica doubts Sherman’s fidelity because he has failed to mention his dead wife and the focus shifts briefly and inappropriately to Steve’s collapsed gay affair with a married man.

 The climactic scene, in which Monica is trapped in their burning house only to be rescued by the heroic Sherman, is depicted in such abstract movement that its dramatic purpose is almost missed.

The production lacks cohesion and coherence and the script does not challenge the issues arising in mixed race relationships with sufficient rigour.

By Kate Herbert

Edge: The Story of Silvia Plath, Feb 22, 2006

 Edge: The Story of Silvia Plath
by Paul Alexander

Athenaeum Theatre 1, until Feb 22 to 25, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 22, 2006

Angelica Torn is mesmerising as the fractured Silvia Plath in Paul Alexander’s play, Edge. She prowls like a caged animal on the cavernous and ruined stage.  The distressed, painted wall of the theatre is a fitting backdrop to Plath’s shattered life and tormented mind.

Plath comes alive, ironically, in these her last moments, as Torn narrates Silvia’s tortured life before her suicide; in despair, she put her head in the gas oven in her dingy flat in London while her children slept upstairs.

Edge is a perfect title for this edgy performance by Torn and the fraught state in which Plath lived and wrote her poems, an autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, and countless articles and journals. She was a formidable but fragile talent.

Writer and director, Paul Alexander, puts minimal stage action into the script or the production. Torn sits, writing at her desk or perched on a chair centre stage, talking to us about the death of her father, her relationship with her mother, her marriage to the celebrated poet, Ted Hughes, her suicide attempts, her perfectionism and her own exceptional talent as a poet.

For over two hours, Torn hypnotises us, just as Hughes worked his rough magic on Plath. She is a compelling presence as the ambitious, complicated and searingly self-critical Plath.

Words tumble from her lips in a torrent, as if Plath is unable to control her thoughts turning into speech. Torn uses a haughty Boston accent, precise, clipped articulation and a rapid arch delivery, almost dodging punctuation to express Plath’s galloping recollections.

As she self-narrates Plath’s life, Torn shifts into dramatic replays of the most pungent of Plath’s memories. We are hauled back into her childhood experience of her rigid disciplinarian father’s foolish death from treatable diabetes.

We see her first melodramatic suicide attempt when she hurls herself onto her mother’s bed, demanding they kill themselves.

We witness her violent electric shock therapy by a quack psychiatrist and then the milder, talking therapist who forced her to confront her dead father’s grave.

But most rivetting is Torn’s depiction of Plath’s relationship with Hughes. Her verbal description of Ted as a lusty, brooding, cruel, emotional thug and her physical portrayal of his violence combine to conjure an unhappy picture of the marriage.

Plath describes herself as “tragically brilliant”. She can also be intensely dislikeable, selfish and, perhaps, cruel. However, Torn makes her sympathetic and inspiring, playing her with an ironic eye on Plath’s own folly and fate.

By Kate Herbert

The Cheapest Hotel in Victoria, Feb 16, 2006

The Cheapest Hotel in Victoria 

by Kieran Carroll

 La Mama, Feb 16 to March 5, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 16, 2006

In The Cheapest Hotel in Victoria, three blokes spend a stingy holiday at the Fed Up and Had It Hotel in a mythical town in Victoria. It is a disaster for all sorts of reasons –like all their summer holidays for the last 18 years.

Kieran Carroll’s central idea is quirky and has potential to be a good comedy. The writing, although not as skilful, is reminiscent of Barry Dickins’ plays, incorporating Australianisms, anachronisms, nostalgia grumpy geezers, beer and grubby claustrophobic rooms.

There is plenty of effort from the actors but the performances are uneven, often strained and sometimes out of control. The direction (Carroll & Matthew Charleston) is awkward and lacks a clear vision to make the comedy and characters consistent and alive.

Jamie Robertson has some broad, comic moments as Des, a womanising beer-swilling oaf with an inflated view of his own magnetism.

Luke Doxy plays his absurdly conservative, nostalgic and repressed mate, Ray, who although he is only 27, pines for the heyday of past Liberal Party heroes, for tomato and cheese on Savoy crackers and Reader’s Digest.

Mal, played by Charleston, is the stitched-up, miserly holiday master. Every year, he chooses the cheapest hotel, the crumbiest room and rations the lads’ food, beer and fun. The only fun he allows them is the occasional dancing to the distant strains of Cold Chisel on the jukebox.

The three share a seedy, old, double bed mattress throughout the play. It is an absurd notion that would work better with stronger direction.

The production feels undercooked and uncomfortable, the writing sometimes overly adorned and the performers unsure of the style.

Charleston uses an unfortunate, mouth-twisting characterisation that makes much of his dialogue incomprehensible. Doxy’s understated delivery is a good choice and Robertson has some broadly comical moments playing Des’s roguishness and machismo.

The fourth character, Mr. Barnstormer, (Nial Carroll) is like something from a Ionesco absurdist play, but Carroll’s timing and delivery are awkward.

The final appearance of the publican, dressed as a World Championship wrestler could be funny, but Domenic Phelan overplays the role by shouting.

The political and social references in Carroll’s script certainly have comic potential but this production needs some tightening.

By Kate Herbert

An Inspector Calls, by J. B. Priestley, Feb 9, 2006

An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley 

Royal National Theatre

 Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, Feb 9 to Feb 26, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb , 2006

An Inspector Calls is a thrilling and atmospheric theatrical production. Dirctor, Stephen Daldry’s, inspired vision elevates J.B. Priestley’s 1945 mystery to a new level of innovative, contemporary theatricality.

Priestley, a confirmed socialist, wrote a morality play that challenged the rights and pretensions of the English upper class and highlighted the powerlessness of the impoverished.

The enigmatic, dogged Inspector Goole (Pip Donaghy) arrives unexpectedly at the opulent home of Arthur Birling (David Roper), shattering their celebratory dinner party with his investigations into their involvement in the suicide of a young woman each of them exploited.

Daldry directs the virtuoso cast with attention to detail. Each moment has delicate nuances. The play is as much about the space between words as it is about dialogue. We see each thought; every pause colours the moment with emotion, questions and suspicion.

Dramatic tension rises as the ruthless inspector interrogates characters, peeling away their veneer of civility, status and control.

Ian McNeil’s startling design is a phenomenal feat of engineering. Stephen Warbeck’s music is haunting and penetrating and Rick Fisher’s lighting is evocative.

Daldry’s production is layered with metaphor. We see the cracks in the class system, both physically and metaphorically. The stately home cracks open to reveal a lavish, claustrophobic interior, echoing the shattering of the characters’ fragile outer shells.

Rain drizzles on stage, resonating with the despair of the victims. A poor child watches, peering through windows, always an outsider. A shabby group stares mutely, witnesses to the downfall of their oppressors.

The cast’s timing and delivery are impeccable. As Inspector Goole, Donaghy finds a relentless, terrier-like quality and balances blazing rage with cool irony. Emma Darwell Smith shimmers with a startled fawn naivete and a burgeoning awareness of her unwitting crimes.

The family begins to examine its formerly unseen conscience. Sandra Duncan shows the crumbling of Sybil Birling’s stately haughtiness and Roper blusters and bellows suitably as Arthur. Mark Healy portrays the decline of Gerald Croft’s arrogance into despair and Mark Field shifts Eric’s drunken giggling into outrage. Diana Payne Myers,as Edna, is the perfect silent servant.

Some audience might struggle with the subtlety, slow deliberation and allegorical nature of the play but this is a magnificently crafted piece of theatrical genius with a director’s enthralling vision alive in every moment.

By Kate Herbert

Rent, Feb 8, 2006

Rent 

Book, Lyrics and Music by Jonathan Larson 

Stella Entertainment

National Theatre, St. Kilda, Feb 8 to Feb 25, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 8, 2006

When Rent opened, it was the first new, successful rock musical for some time. It hit the New York stage with a bang in 1996, winning four Tony Awards.

Rent has a compelling rock score by Jonathan Larson who also wrote the book and lyrics. Stella Entertainment, a high-level, amateur music theatre company, stages the first major production of Rent in Melbourne since the premiere.

Larson lived a tragic life similar to that represented in his show, Half of his impoverished, main characters live with the AIDS virus. Larson himself died from AIDS shortly before the premiere of his show.

His turn of the millennium, New York Boho culture, echoes that of Puccini’s La Boheme of the 19th century. There is even an ailing Mimi (Jessica Featherby) who arrives asking Roger (Cole Rintoul), the songwriter, to light her candle.

The singing in this production is skilful and accompanied by an accomplished onstage band with musical direction by Andrew Leach.

Peter Fitzpatrick’s direction keeps the relationships and emotional journey focal There are, however,problems with some unimaginative staging of the chorus and some awkward abstract movement sequences that pull focus from the central characters.

The choreography (Roman Berry) and dancers are capable but their costuming as painted cat-like or ghostly spirits, distracts from the urban grunge style of the show. When Angel, the transvestite victim of AIDS, returns after death as a guiding spirit, his absurd, grey tutu outfit ruins the poignancy of the scene.

Paul David Watson, as the narrator and aspiring film-maker, Mark, has a simple, charming style and bright voice.. As Roger, Cole Rintoul’s voice captures the lament of the faded rock songwriter and AIDS victim,

䘀eatherby is raunchy as the young heroin addict, Mimi, and Phillip Haby gives resonance to Collins, the Philosophy lecturer. As his transvestite lover, Angel, Adrian Li Donni has a pure tone and vibrant presence. The fine voices and professionalism of Jessica Enes (Maureen) and Erin Keleher (Joanne) give substance to their roles. Keep an ear out for the soaring voice of featured soloist, Natalie Calia

Rent is sung through and, sometimes Larson’s recitative becomes dreary and awkward. The chorus numbers are effective, particularly the rousing La Vie Boheme and the very singable and moving song, Seasons of Love.

Larson’s narrative bumps along uncomfortably in the final half hour and his characters’ urban, squatter, anti-establishment attitudes pall, but the music and singing is terrific by this young company.

By Kate Herbert

Delicacy by Julian Hobba, Feb 1, 2006

Delicacy  by Julian Hobba 

 Trades Hall, Carlton, until  Feb 4, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 1, 2006

Delicacy, written by Julian Hobba, is a compelling piece of theatre for all sorts of reasons, including the performances, direction, writing and design.

However, it is the subject matter that makes it a peculiar and disturbing experience. This two-hander is based on the true story of a German man who wanted to eat another man and found a willing victim on the internet.

One would expect the cannibal to be Hannibal Lector come to life but what makes the play even more bizarre is the fact that Denny (Luke Mullins) is a passive, weak recluse and his victim, Neil (Paul Denny), is a brute.

Hodda cunningly constructs the story and dialogue so that the world of these two men seems almost banal in its domesticity prior to the moment that blood starts to run.

For most of this short play, we watch the submissive Denny preparing his mother’s special recipe as a final dinner for his belligerent companion, Neil, who sits at the dinner table slavering over internet pornography.

Their actual purpose is veiled until quite late in the play and we could be watching two dysfunctional friends in a typical evening at home. They discuss work, Denny’s late mother, Neil’s wife, the internet. There are only cryptic references to their cannibalistic pact.

Much of their interaction is funny. If one did not know the true story, or anticipate the horror, this could be a light comedy. But the atmosphere turns on a sixpence when Denny, sick of Neil’s delaying tactics, demands Neil leave which, in turn, compels Neil to raise the stakes and bring forward their bloody deadline.

Mullins is rivetting as the subservient Denny. He plays him with a dainty physicality and effete subservience, pacing like a silent servant around his kitchen. As Neil, Paul Denny manages to combine a brutish power with a charming and sensual physicality.

Hodda makes these men real and believable. We have some small insight into their fractured pasts, their daily worlds, disturbed psyches and appalling obsessions.

Director, Wesley Enoch, keeps the pace steady and the mood light until the dreadful turning point. Anna Cordingley’s design provides the ordinariness of a well-equipped kitchen but we are aware of the knives and iron pots that await their intended use.

Delicacy is a very clever play. If you are squeamish about blood, shut your eyes here and there.

By Kate Herbert

The True Amazon Adventures of Roger Casement, Jan 25, 2006

 The True Amazon Adventures of Roger Casement

by Andrew Shaw

La Mama, Jan 25 to Feb 12, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 25, 2006

The True Adventures of Roger Casement, by Andrew Shaw, has an interesting central premise but the writing and production are flawed.

Sir Roger Casement (Eliot Summers) was an Irish Protestant, British Consul-General to South America and a renowned humanitarian. He investigated atrocities perpetrated by British in the Amazon then shocked the government by joining the 1916 Irish uprising.

When he was captured, his diaries, detailing his illicit homosexual affairs with Brazilian boys, were discovered. His reputation was irreparably tarnished.

Shaw’s play is based on the supposition that the diaries were forged to discredit the Irish hero. In Shaw’s version, Foreign Office officials force a young homosexual (Mike McEvoy) to write a false and lurid dairy.

Shaw’s script is at its best when spare and sardonic. It is let down with informational and expository dialogue loaded with facts about Casement, rubber plantations and British imperialism.

Speeches about the ethics and politics of homosexuality in 1916 are informative but make clumsy dialogue. Great dexterity is required to integrate fact into theatre. Less is more.

Director, Robert Reid, struggles to find a consistent style and form. His actors wear grotesque white face as well as wearing flesh-coloured half masks that are removed too frequently. The intention of the masks is unclear; do they represent the past, the reflective moments or perhaps unspoken thoughts?

Intermittent tableaux create physical imagery but the changes between them are too long. There is even a child-sized puppet that is from a totally different style.

The acting in the show is very uneven but there are a few performances worth noting. Michael F. Cahill is often commanding and comical as Smith, the Foreign Office bully-boy.

McEvoy captures a fey romanticism in the young bureaucrat, Thomson and Simon Morrison-Baldwin has presence as Pepe.

Summers is best as Thomson’s secret lover but lacks gravitas as Casement and stumbles over the wordy dialogue. Robert Lloyd seems uncomfortable as Delaney and Liz McColl, as Mrs. Potter, aims for the grotesque but ends up overacting.

Two of the better scenes come in the last moments of the play. The trio of bureaucrats checking the false diary is simple and effective and, in the final scene, the fantasies of young Thomson interlink successfully with the tale of Casement and his lover (Tobias Manderson-Galvin).

This idea has merit but the pace and style of the production need some attention.

By Kate Herbert

Seriously. Pet Shop Boys. Reinterpreted, Jan 25, 2006

 Seriously. Pet Shop Boys. Reinterpreted 
Music by Neil Tennant & Chris Lowe
Produced by David Knox, Dean Lotherington and Shaun Miller 

Chapel off Chapel, Prahran,  Jan 25 to Feb 12, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 25, 2006

Seriously is just what the subtitle says: a reinterpretation of songs by The Pet Shop Boys. Director, David Knox, with Musical Director, Dean Lotherington, creates a compelling evening of cabaret, song, some drama and an excellent five-piece musical ensemble.

The show incorporates innumerable hits by The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. The musical duo always had a significant gay following but the romantic and passionate lyrics are always ambiguous, allowing the heterosexual fans to relate.

Lotherington’s inventive arrangements are interpreted by five singers: Maria Mercedes, Tania Doko, David Gould, Paul Ross and Anthony Costanza.

The list of songs is lengthy: Seriously, Flamboyant, Domino Dancing, Jealousy, You Only Say You Love Me When You’re Drunk, Miracles, Love Comes  Quickly and more.

Knox cunningly provides a simple dramatic scenario for each song. This convention allows the singers to communicate an emotional intention through the lyrics rather than simply singing the song. They play all kinds of love stories ranging from new romance to eyes across a crowded room, separations, infidelities and love lost.

The stage design (Jeremy Smith), with huge sheer white drapes and a white chaise, gives a light, open and flexible space for various moods and interpretations.

Words such as Suspicion, Reaction and Infidelity are perhaps too obviously projected onto the curtains. The lyrics, music and singers give us sufficient information.

The opening Prologue allows each singer a short solo song. Then, the quintet sings a passionate, cleverly arranged version of Red Letter Day that is reprised as a rousing finale.

Ross and Costanza do a charming duet of separated lovers in Send Me An Email To Say I Love You. Costanza and Mercedes warmly sing a parting friends story in You’ve Got A Home Here and Mercedes gives a moving rendition of So Sorry, I Said. Costanza’s bright voice is perfect for Miracles.

Gold’s consummate vocal skill and velvety bass baritone lends weight and style to the entire show and his I Can’t Say Goodnight, is a highlight. Doko’s sultry version of Rent is perfectly suited to her smoky voice.

What Have I Done to Deserve This, sung by all five, is a complex arrangement that gives a new edge to this hit song.

The show is a rich tribute to the 80s duo.

By Kate Herbert

Keating! The Musical, Jan 19, 2006

Keating!  by Casey Bennetto  

Drowsy Drivers & Li’l Gem Productions

Trades Hall New Ballroom,  Jan 19 to 28, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

(See also in this blog, review of later production Feb 13, 2008)

 

Has nobody noticed that we finally have the totally original, cunningly written and scored new Australian rock opera just begging to be taken to the main stage? Where are all the big producers?

Keating! is an inspired musical and political satire. Writer, Casey Bennetto, is not only a big-voiced rock singer, but he constructs an intelligent narrative based on the rise to Prime Ministership of Paul Keating and memorable tunes with devilishly clever lyrics.

Of course, there could be some resistance to a production that so clearly depicts Keating a social and cultural hero and John Howard as a manipulative megalomaniac.

The accomplished and versatile five-piece band plays fifteen songs ranging from ballads through reggae, blues, rap, rock and country. There is even a dark tango in which a villainous Howard (Bennetto) sings I Want Power.

A commanding Bennetto opens the show as Bob Hawke, the people’s PM, singing, “ I like beer and boots, not wine and suits.”

Mike McLeish enters singing cool jazz. I Do It In Style captures the essence of Keating’s charm, culture and Zegna suits. He even includes a Fred Astaire tap routine.

In Remember Kirribilli, a ballad of love’s betrayal, McLeish laments Hawke’s broken promise relinquish the leadership. But Keating takes Hawke’s Caesarian laurel wreath in It’s Time, a driving rock duet with Bennetto, then segues into a laid-back reggae Republican anthem, I Am the Leader of the Land.

McLeish and Bennetto rap as Keating and hapless Liberal leader, John Hewson. Bennetto incorporates scads of scathing Keatingisms, lifted directly from Hansard. I Wanna Do You Slowly is a sleazy song promising to beat Hewson in the election.

Alexander Downer appears in Frankenfurter drag in the hilarious I’m Too Freaky and Gareth Evans sings a gypsy prophet of doom then a love duet with Cheryl Curnow.

Choose Me is a funky blues duet between Keating and Howard who promises the electorate with lies and bribes that he “will make the pain go away”. Keating awaits the election result singing I’m Dreaming of the Light on the Hill.

Bennetto’s ingenious lyrics capture the fearful tenor of the country both now and then: “Give us back our bloody country, Nothing alien or scary, La di da or fairy, Just put it back the way it was before.”

Keating! is slick, exhilarating political satire. Imagine this show with a full chorus and band, choreography, a set and more actor-singers.

By Kate Herbert

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, MTC, Jan 18, 2006

 The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee 

Music and Lyrics by William Finn, Book by Rachel Sheinkin, Conceived by Rebecca Feldman

Playhouse, Victorian Arts Centre, Jan 18 until February 25, 2006

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 18, 2006

As witnessed in the documentary, Spellbound, Americans take their spelling bees deadly seriously. Australian children would never face words such as “omphaloskepsis” or “cleistogamy”. Try finding those in your spell checker.

The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is an uproariously silly and demented musical set at an annual county spelling competition. Six rather peculiar teenagers compete for a position at the national spelling bee.  

You might think there is nothing dramatic about a spelling competition but the stakes are high, emotions run out of control and the rules are ruthless. You would think their young lives depended on winning.

Of course, this very intensity is what makes it so hilarious to we non-believers. Every contestant is eccentric, ambitious, smart and a candidate for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

William Finn’s songs are diverse in style and lyrics are clever. The title song has the feel of a Broadway musical and Life is Pandemonium is a punchy chorus number. Bert Labonte’s funky voice makes The Prayer of the Comfort Counsellor a raunchy highlight.

The band, under the musical direction of Ian McDonald, plays impeccably.

Rachel Sheinkin’s dialogue is witty and in the style of a sit-com. Her best lines are delivered with relish by Tyler Coppin, as the temperamental word pronouncer and Vice-Principal, Douglas Panch.

Marina Prior proves she can play comedy as the prissy ex-champion speller, Rona Lisa Peretti.

The solo songs by each child demonstrate their insecurities, despair and ambition. It is this inner life that provides an emotional layer to the show.

We watch some of them overcome appalling parental pressure. Christen O’Leary is charming as Logaine Schwarzandgrubeniere, the lisping, left wing daughter of two gay dads. Natalie Mendoza as the multi-lingual smarty-pants, Marcy Park, delights us when she purposely misspells a word in order to escape the pressure of her perfectionism.

 David Campbell is in fine voice as Chip Tolentino,an ex-champ distracted, while spelling, by his hormones. Tim Wright is a joy to watch as weird little Leaf Coneybear.

Magda Szubanski had a field day playing the arrogant and overweight William Barfee with his nasal problems and no friends.

Don't panic, but they do invite four audience members on stage as spellers. They even got some of the toughest words right.

The show has the tension of a sporting event. Who will survive to spell another day. The Spelling Bee utterly enjoyable and completely goofy romp.

By Kate Herbert