Review: The Wider Earth, Sydney Festival

17 January, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

A production from the Queensland Theatre and Dead Puppet Society, depicting Charles Darwin's journey on the Beagle and his formulation of the theory of evolution.

There's much to admire about this play: the revolving stage that fluidly turned from interiors to exteriors, the video backdrop, and most of all the puppets.

All the animals are puppets - from pigeons and puppies through to tropical birds and, most impressively, a life-size, lumbering Galapagos tortoise. The puppets don't aim for realism but instead all have a wonderfully steampunky, skeletal air. I didn't feel they were always integrated well into the production, but they were really impressive.

I like the ideas in this a lot too, the way we see Darwin connect the theory of tectonic plates - a physical world that's constantly undergoing the act of creation - and his own burgeoning ideas about evolution.

So I liked a lot. I just didn't like… uh… the script.

Kudos to Tom Conroy as Darwin, a familiar face from the Sydney stage scene who did his best, but there wasn't much to work with. This felt very simplistic, with each character falling into quite a neat little box - the religious one, the skeptic, the scientist - they seemed like the ones adhering to some grand design rather than being allowed to live and breathe.

Good ideas, good design, lots of good elements, but this never came close to hitting the mark for me.

Trailer
Limelight Magazine

Review: Tree of Codes, Sydney Festival

9 January, ICC Theatre Darling Harbour

A contemporary ballet, choreographed by Wayne McGregor - supposedly an interpretation of Jonathan Safran Foer's experimental novella of which I know very little.

So let's begin with what I saw. It started in the total dark, from which lights began to emerge - attached to dancers, as we soon realised, outlining their bodies like constellations or, as they began to move, like fireworks. As a concept, it's great but as it went on I really just wanted to see the dancers - movement is one thing but shape and form, all those things were lost to the dark.

When the lights did come up, I was really thankful - the dancers of Company Wayne McGregor were excellent. I also found the set design by installation artist Olafur Eliasson alternately impressive and interesting - utilising mirrors, glass enclosures, reflections across the walls of the auditorium - and the music by Jamie xx quite powerful.

And yet, even at only 75 minutes, I also found this - a bore? I could admire most of the separate elements but when put together, with the rather repetitive and fragmented choreography that only rarely seemed to coalesce into moments of focus, I grew… a little sleepy.

Yes, I micronapped.

Was there a narrative? Was there a point? For me, this was less than the sum of its parts, let's say. Mileage clearly varies. There was a standing ovation at the end. Obviously, I didn't partake.

Shout out to the very congested scenes prior to entry thx to security check which then caused a fifteen minute delay to the start of the show. Props to the social media manager who replied to my snarky tweet so politely.

Shout out also to the ICC having not one but three different theatres, none of which are particularly clearly labelled. Props to Sydney Festival for having volunteers on hand to redirect people.

Tree of Codes program

Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes
Time Out review

Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Australian Ballet

11 December, Capitol Theatre

The story of Alice chasing the white rabbit down into Wonderland is now 150 years old, and so iconic that saying something fresh about it is pretty hard. And it's a challenge too adapting a story that relies so much on wordplay and on extreme transformations to the limited confines of a stage.

Christopher Wheeldon's ballet takes on these challenges and comes up with something that's mostly a delight. It runs too long at three hours (including two intervals) and there are some scenes that could stand some whittling down. But it tackles the metaphysical and just plain physical difficulties of telling this story and pulls them off beautifully; and the dancers and the choreography unfold the familiar story with a ton of charm and humour. Joby Talbot's music is quirky without being too cute - a really good match for the tone of the show.

The staging is spectacular, as lavish as any I've ever seen from the Australian Ballet, following Alice's journey through the most colourfully vivid and stylised sets - the tea party, the ugly Duchess's house, the courthouse of cards, the Red Queen's garden. These were combined with video backdrops and interstitials were used brilliantly to create the illusion of Alice's interdimensional journeys and physical transformations - down the rabbit hole, under water, small as a mouse, large as a house.

The Cheshire Cat was depicted with a giant puppet so impressive that the audience broke out into applause on its first appearance - it's that kind of show, reminding me very much of the spectacular spectacles and whiz-bang effects of the popular musicals that are usually staged at the Capitol - Wicked, Lion King and the like.

But the performers aren't overwhelmed by the production bells and whistles - Jade Wood was lovely as a determined Alice, with Brett Chynoweth doing great character work as the White Rabbit, Nicola Curry absolutely chewing through scenery with the greatest of gusto as the furious, ridiculous Red Queen, and Jake Mangakahia somewhat stealing the limelight as a slinky, sexy Caterpillar.

Narratively, this adaptation is faithful to the source though it adds a few flourishes to Lewis Carroll's story - most notably a framing story that tells of a nascent romance between a teenaged (rather than child) Alice and the young footman accused of stealing a fateful baked good, and ties that into the story of the Queen of Hearts and the knave who must lose his head.

Overall this version links the 'real' world much more strongly with Alice's dream world, with almost every dancer doubling up roles between the two worlds. There were always connections between the two, but this plays out more like the Wizard of Oz's "and you were there, and you were there, and you too!" than the strange other-ness of the Wonderland of the book. (There's also, I think, a much stronger suggestion of porcine baby slaughter? MAYBE? Can I just note in the book that the baby pig runs away...)

Visually, it draws from a number of famous Alices, most notably John Tenniel's iconic original illustrations which in turn strongly influenced Disney. The colour palette reminded me of the unfortunate Tim Burton movie at times, and the Mad Hatter is more Depp than Tenniel.

It's probably a little long to be totally ideal to a child audience, but aside from that I'd really suggest it to anyone, perhaps even more so to those who haven't been to the ballet before.

(The Australian Ballet site has some great photos, to get an idea of the visuals.)

 

Conductor: Simon Thew
Alice: Jade Wood
Jack/The Knave of Hearts: Jarryd Madden
Lewis Carroll/The White Rabbit: Brett Chynoweth
Mother/Queen of Hearts: Nicola Curry
Father/King of Hearts: Tristan Message (guest artist)
Magician/Mad Hatter: Kevin Jackson
Raj/Caterpillar: Jake Mangakahia
Duchess: Ben Davis

Review: Assassins, Hayes Theatre

18 September, Hayes Theatre

In Sondheim's "Assassins", a murderer's row of actual and would-be President-killers line up to take their shot. From John Wilkes Booth and John Hinckley, through to some less celebrated figures I was less familiar with - like Charles Manson acolyte Lynette Fromme, or factory labourer Leon Czolgosz - all of them get their turn.

I hear Hayes Theatre has been on a golden run of musicals lately - not that I would know, as I missed seeing the blockbusters like Calamity Jane (returning for a second run at Belvoir in 2018, which I'll try to catch) and was last here for The Detective's Handbook in May 2016.

This one at least was very good - a blackly funny production with great energy that builds steadily to a finale that felt epic. For the most part the show seems quite straightforwardly a revue, with each character taking their moment in the limelight to say their piece. But then the last act, when the final assassin takes the stage, caps the story so well - plotting-wise, it's so structurally complete and logical; and thematically, it pulls everything together in a most satisfying way, so that this idea of a time-hopping, anachronistic rogue's gallery turns from merely a framing device into the foundation of the show. Yes, I'm being super vague.

Set in a carnival sideshow, with everyone lining up to knock 'em down for a prize, "Assassins" holds up a funhouse mirror to the American dream. For every action a reaction; for every lofty promise, someone left outside in the cold. These people too, for all their rage and frustrations and twisted fantasies, are part and parcel of the American dream - the dark flipside to the myth that says anyone can become President of the USA.

In many ways this felt like a very fitting companion piece to the recent NT Live screenings of Angels in America which too is so concerned with the hypocrisies and cracks and inequalities that are obscured by the myth of America - concerns that still seem very (extremely) relevant today, and in Australia.

There were great performances all around, all pitched at just the right tone to fit that funhouse theme. Perhaps I'd single out the actor who had to take on the demented, manic energy of self-deluded fraudster Charles Giteau, a role that seemed to walk a really fine line between pathetic and unhinged, and the actor in the role of John Wilkes Booth which in many ways binds the story together. I also really liked the actresses in the two major women's roles, of Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and housewife Sara Jane Moore. (Cast is listed below but I have no idea who played who, sorry.)

I admit that I did utter the most cliché thing as we left, i.e. "I didn't think the music was very catchy." SORRY, I know it's the most boring thing you can say about Sondheim! I did like some of the songs, but overall, I mean. Sweeney Todd is catchier?

At just under two hours, this was an EXCELLENT LENGTH, and excellent, thrilling entertainment. Very effective use of the small stage, and proof again that you don't need a massive budget or an STC-sized canvas or huge stars to make very good theatre.
 

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
ASSASSINS is based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr.
Director Dean Bryant
Musical Directors Andrew Worboys and Steven Kreamer
Choreographer Andrew Hallsworth
Set & Costume Designer Alicia Clements
Lighting Designer Ross Graham
Executive Producer Lisa Campbell
Starring Laura Bunting, David Campbell, Connor Crawford, Martin Crewes, Kate Cole, Bobby Fox, Hannah Fredericksen, Jason Kos, Rob McDougall, Maxwell Simon and Justin Smith

Review: Angels in America, NT Live

10 and 17 September, NT Live, Dendy Opera Quays

Set in 1980s America, under Reagan and in the midst of the AIDS crisis, this epic two-part play tells the story of urbane thirty-year-old Prior who is diagnosed with AIDS, and his lover Louis who can't deal with the reality of Prior's illness. Their lives intertwine with depressed Harper, who is married to Joe, a closeted gay man seen as a future potential star by conservative power player Ray Cohn. And then Prior becomes convinced he's seen an Angel...

I love this play for the way it draws these complex, often contradictory characters with compassion, and the way it's unafraid to talk about big ideas and tackle huge themes, mixing reality with fantasia as it questions the nature of the American dream. Running over six hours long - or over seven hours for this broadcast - it's a massive canvas which, when done well, feels vital and energised from start to finish. Though sadly, in the over twenty years since it premiered, it seems in some respects the world hasn't progressed very far at all.

My expectations were reasonably high for this NT Live production (filmed for international broadcast) of Tony Kushner's now-iconic play - it has quite the star-studded cast, featuring Andrew Garfield as Prior, Russell Tovey as Joe, and Nathan Lane as Cohn, and it's lavishly staged. The design is quite clean and minimalist, incorporating many moving parts - sets moving in and out and up and down, accentuated by neon. All the ingredients seemed to be in place for a great production of one of my favourite plays.

And yet, overall, it didn't quite hit the mark for me. I found the staging distracting at times, the way they broke up the stage into little mini-stages for the first half especially a waste of the large space.

The performances were solid as a whole, but I felt that most of them started at a high pitch, leaving the performers little choice but to stay at that pitch or to edge upwards into hysteria. Garfield, as the emotional centre of the play, isn't bad but seems to spend most of the play yelling or crying which grew wearying. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as nurse Belize probably comes off best by contrast, the grounding presence to the histrionics around him. Worst of all were the scenes when multiple conversations happen at once - these often felt like people just shouting over each other.

Mostly, I couldn't help but compare this production to the Eamon Flack-directed Belvoir St Theatre production of 2013 - my favourite production that year, and in hindsight one of my favourites ever. I connected so deeply to the performances by Luke Mullins, Mitchell Butel, Amber McMahon, and the rest; and I felt that they did so much with so much less, using one small stage to fantastic effect, achieving the illusion of multiple settings through simple prop changes and contextual framing.

When the material is as good and complex as this, and also as long and challenging as this, a million bells and whistles don't help or enhance if the fundamentals aren't all there.

The NT Live staging is not at all a bad production, I really want to say that, and if this is your opportunity to see Angels in America then by all means take it! It's a play worth seeing, for sure. But I'd then encourage you to seek out other takes.

I also want to lodge my strongest objection to NT Live's practice of framing its products with talking heads introductory content and interviews with cast and crew, even down to having part 2 preceded by a "previously in Angels in America" clip. This is SO UNNECESSARY on so many levels. Firstly we are already here, we don't need to be sold the product again - DID U KNOW people go to the actual live theatre all the time, and don't need to be spoonfed every little thing before it starts? Secondly it rips away the illusion that we are at the theatre at all. Thirdly, please, this thing is already over six hours long, why are you padding it out with even more content? NT Live, please take a leaf from Globe Shakespeare or the ballet companies - just show the thing as it is, no need for extra nonsense. Much like the play itself.
 

Links:
What can Angels in America teach us about the marriage equality debate?
Oral History of Angels in America
 

2017 NT Live

Cast:
Stuart Angell (Angel Shadow), Mark Arnold (Understudy Roy Cohn), Arun Blair-Mangat (Understudy Belize), Susan Brown (Hannah Pitt), Laura Caldow (Angel Shadow), Andrew Garfield (Prior Walter), Denise Gough (Harper Pitt), Kate Harper (Understudy Hannah Pitt), John Hastings (Understudy Joseph Pitt / Louis Ironson), Claire Lambert (Angel Shadow), Nathan Lane (Roy Cohn), Amanda Lawrence (The Angel), James McArdle (Louis Ironson), Becky Namgauds (Angel Shadow), Mateo Oxley (Understudy Prior Walter), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Belize), Russell Tovey (Joseph Pitt), Paksie Vernon (Understudy Harper Pitt), Stan West (Angel Shadow), Lewis Wilkins (Angel Shadow).

Production team:
Director: Marianne Elliott; Set Designer: Ian MacNeil; Costume Designer: Nicky Gillibrand; Lighting Designer: Paule Constable; Choreographer and Movement: Robby Graham; Music: Adrian Sutton; Sound Designer: Ian Dickinson; Puppetry Director and Movement: Finn Caldwell; Puppet Designers: Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes; Illusions: Chris Fisher; Aerial Director: Gwen Hales; Associate Director: Harry Mackrill; Staff Director: Miranda Cromwell; Fight Director: Kate Waters; Dialect Coach: Hazel Holder; Company Voice Work: Jeanette Nelson and Charmian Hoare; Associate Set Designer: Jim Gaffney

2013 Belvoir

By Tony Kushner
Director Eamon Flack
Set Designer Michael Hankin
Costume Designer Mel Page
Lighting Designer Niklas Pajanti
Associate Lighting Designer Ross Graham
Composer Alan John
Sound Designer Steve Francis
Assistant Director Shelly Lauman
Fight Director Scott Witt
American Dialect Coach Paige Walker-Carlton
Stage Manager Mel Dyer
Assistant Stage Manager Roxzan Bowes
Special thanks to: Reuze Vintage

Paula Arundell
Mitchell Butel
Marcus Graham
Amber McMahon
Luke Mullins
Robyn Nevin
DeObia Oparei
Ashley Zukerman

Review: My Fair Lady, Opera Australia

September 2016, Sydney Opera House

With this Julie Andrews-directed production returning for another season, this time at the Capitol Theatre, I thought I'd go back and look at some of my notes from last year's initial run...

This Opera Australia production is quite by-the-book, with charming performances all around and some good stage and costume design. If you have seen the movie, or in fact any production of this, there's nothing here to particularly surprise. Then again – I guess every production is by the book because what can you possibly change? The songs and the characters in and of themselves set the era and the place very firmly. If you're going to update, well - I mean, you end up with something like Educating Rita, don't you?

Seeing this brought back memories of watching the 1964 movie on video as a child, on repeat, back when I really did think Higgins and Eliza would marry at the end. Now I'm really glad she doesn't, and certain that he never will - it's overall more satisfyingly read to me as a platonic friendship.

That said I wish we knew more about what happened afterwards. On what terms can a man and woman live together in Edwardian London, if they are not relations? I mean NO WONDER everyone thought she was a kept woman. But I really want to believe her statement that she doesn't want romantic love from him, but friendship and respect.

Apropos of nothing - this would run as an interesting double bill with Hitchcock's Vertigo, which also involves the transformation of a woman to suit the ideals and goals of a man – except that Judy loses herself, her identity and eventually her life, whereas Eliza in the end asserts herself, challenges Higgins, changes him as much as he changes her - or at least I choose to believe it's so.

 

BOOK & LYRICS Alan Jay Lerner
MUSIC BY Frederick Loewe
ADAPTED FROM George Bernard Shaw's play and Gabriel Pascal's motion picture Pygmalion

DIRECTOR Julie Andrews
CHOREOGRAPHER Christopher Gattelli
SET DESIGNER Oliver Smith
COSTUME DESIGNER Cecil Beaton
SCENIC SUPERVISION Rosaria Sinisi
COSTUME RECREATION John David Ridge
LIGHTING DESIGNER Richard Pilbrow
SOUND DESIGNER Michael Waters
HAIR AND WIG DESIGNER John Isaacs
MAKE-UP DESIGNER Rick Sharp
MUSICAL DIRECTOR Guy Simpson
ASSOCIATE SCENIC SUPERVISOR Naomi Berger
ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGNER Michael Gottlieb
ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER Stephen Bienskie
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Karen Johnson Mortimer

PROFESSOR HIGGINS Alex Jennings
ELIZA DOOLITTLE Anna O'Byrne
ALFRED P. DOOLITTLE Reg Livermore
MRS. HIGGINS Robyn Nevin
FREDDY EYNSFORD-HILL Mark Vincent
COLONEL PICKERING Tony Llewellyn-Jones
MRS. PEARCE Deidre Rubenstein
KARPATHY David Whitney

Review: Swan Lake/Loch na hEala, Sadler's Wells and Sydney Opera House

31 August, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

This touring Irish production from writer, director and choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan is an adaptation of Swan Lake, mixing theatre with contemporary dance in a modernised setting; and rather than Tchaikovsky, the music is by Dublin trio Slow Moving Clouds.

In this retelling, Jimmy (Alexander Leonhartsberger) is a depressed thirty-something grieving his father and the loss of their ancestral home, while his disabled mother frets over his single status. Fionala (Rachel Poirier), the swan, is the victim of an abusive priest played by Mikel Murfi, in one of several roles, binding the story together as the narrator and Rothbart analogue.

I came for the dance but it was the story choices and the narrative moments that really worked me. The modern update, blending melancholy realism and myth, is very effective.

I also really liked that this adaptation gives a true backstory to Fionala/Odette - my usual complaint about Swan Lake is that it gives too much time to the prince, who is frankly the least interesting. In the traditional version his story is the overarching thread; this version can be more truly said to have dual storylines, intertwined, as much her story as it is his.

The dancing, surprisingly, was the least interesting part for me. Aside from a rhapsodic, freewheeling dance at the end with the whole cast and the stage awash in feathers, I found the choreography only… adequate.

Not my favourite version in my quest to see All The Swan Lakes, and gosh I miss Tchaikovsky, and the traditional choreo to be honest - but a show worth seeing. And only 75 minutes! PERFECT.

Content warning: haze, smoke, feathers?, sexual violence