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

Review: Rice, Griffin Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre

24 July, Griffin Theatre

Nisha is an executive at a rice company, and Yvette is the cleaner who encounters her working late in the office every night.

At first, the two women seem to be a study in contrasts. Nisha is Indian-Australian, young, ambitious, sleekly corporate, from a large and loving family. Yvette is Chinese-Australian, a middle-aged single mother, with a string of failed small businesses.

But the two women form a complicated connection, linked by their commonalities - as two women trying to get ahead in their careers, as women from migrant families, as mothers or daughters.

Thankfully the plot doesn't force their connection to be more than it can be, and neither does their exchange of advice lead them to all the answers. The play ends on an open note, narratively, but resolved enough emotionally that I left the theatre feeling satisfied.

The two performances from Kristy Best and Hsiao-Ling Tang are broadly drawn, to match the feeling of a slightly heightened reality in the script. It didn't always quite work for me, there's some real quality variance with the multiple character switches each is required to do, but their energy and rapport carried it through for the most part.

Also to their benefit is that the play is short and snappy, 85 minutes with no interval. I mean, I honestly think they could've shaved off another 10 min with no detriment or even improvement, but I think that about almost every play so...

Originating from Queensland Theatre, and written by a Melbourne playwright, this play feels really grounded in Sydney. I'm not sure if they just changed the references, or if it was set in Sydney all along - but they really got those namedrops note perfect. (The Establishment for drinks with 'the girls', food trucks in Marrickville, a highrise at 301 George St...)

And it's great, honestly, to see another play about and starring Asian Australians. I think I've seen more Asian Australians on stage this year then I did in the entirety of my previous Sydney theatre-going life. Seeing even a little bit, a little corner of my own life experience represented on stage has just viscerally felt really satisfying.

Contains copious theatrical haze (to relatively little effect).

Link:
5 Questions with Kristy Best and Hsiao-Ling Tang
 

Presented by Griffin Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre
By Michele Lee
Director Lee Lewis
Designer Renee Mulder
Lighting Designer Jason Glenwright
Composer & AV Designer Wil Hughes
Associate Sound Designer Tony Brumpton
With Kristy Best, Hsiao-Ling Tang

Review: SHIT, A Dee & Cornelius/Milke Production

18 July, Seymour Centre

The three women of Shit swear, fight, sleep around, shout, act 'unladylike'. They're the ones that society has given up on or never cared for in the first place. They're the ones that make other people get off the bus or cross the street - and as they say it, they pointedly stare out at the audience...

As they swagger across the stage, fragments of their stories emerge - growing up in foster care or with neglectful parents, unloved, abused, beaten up. But it's not played as tragedy. Instead the play shows off their defiant bravado, them vs the world. Fast and funny for most of its length, the contrast to the moments of pathos make those dark parts feel all the more real.

Billy, Bobby and Sam challenge what it means to be a woman and to be one of the have-nots. Peta Brady, Sarah Ward and Nicci Wilks all turn in great, physical, unapologetic performances. The simple, clean staging choices let their characters take the spotlight.

I don't know that the play ever pushes that discomfort of that initial stare out into audience as far as it could. But it doesn't provide pat answers or endings either.

And can I applaud the runtime? ONE HOUR, NO INTERVAL = PERFECTION.

 

Link:
Kevin Jackson
Suzy Goes See
 

Written by Patricia Cornelius
Director – Susie Dee
Producer – Laura Milke-Garner
Set & Costume Designer – Marg Horwell
Lighting Designer – Rachel Burke
Composer – Anna Liebzeit
Production/Stage Manager – Bec Moore
Cast – Peta Brady, Sarah Ward and Nicci Wilks

Review: Australian Graffiti, Sydney Theatre Company

10 July, Wharf 2

Teenage Ben's family has been on the move his entire life, starting in Sydney and moving steadily westwards, opening Thai restaurants in every place they go. But in this latest sleepy country town, there's no customers and no one cares. When graffiti appears on the local Baptist church, the town's apathy turns to hostility, and the they start questioning whether they should stay or go - maybe even go back to Thailand.

This was a good, solid production that runs a tight 90 minutes and hit me right in the heart. I thought this struck a really good balance between realism and fantasy. Ben's relationships with his strong-willed, driven mother, the bickering couple who have worked for the restaurant forever, the (recently deceased) chef, and local girl Gabby all ring really true. The moments of fantasia - when the dead chef speaks to them from beyond the grave - work dramatically as well as speaking to the play's allegorical elements. Without hitting you over the head, this works so well as a lens, a view, on Australia's relationship with Asian immigrants. Specifically Thai, of course, but there's a lot here which I as an Asian-Australian found relatable.

As a story of immigration and culture clash, this isn't an entirely hopeful story. Their restaurant battered by rocks, Ben and his family are forced to make a difficult choice and to sacrifice relationships that are dear to them. Local girl Gabby turns on Ben but struggles to recognise that she too is an immigrant, that her people too were intruders once. There is a glimmer of hope at the end and I wasn't left feeling entirely downcast, but the lingering sense here is that there's so much more to be done.

The story also speaks a lot to the sacrifice of migrants for their children, specifically mothers, and their hopes and dreams for their children in the new world (for Ben's mother) as well as old (Nam, whose daughter has grown up in Thailand without her), that struck me right to the heart. I cried and I wasn't the only one.

Finally, I'm not Thai, but I am Asian, and there is still something really powerful about seeing even people similar to yourself on the stage. Between this and Chimerica, is this the most Asians on STC stages in one year ever? Hopefully this is part of a trend, not just a blip.

 

Links:
Q&A with playwright Savetsila
SMH interview

 

AUSTRALIAN GRAFFITI
By Disapol Savetsila
Director Paige Rattray
Designer David Fleischer
Lighting Designer Sian James-Holland
Composer Max Lyandvert
Sound Designer Michael Toisuta

With
Gabrielle Chan, Airlie Dodds, Peter Kowitz, Kenneth Moraleda, Mason Phoumirath, Srisacd Sacdpraseuth, Monica Sayers

Review: Cloud Nine, Sydney Theatre Company

5 July 2017, Wharf 1

Caryl Churchill's play is split in two halves - the first is set in colonial Africa, as a very Victorian family plays out a sex farce against a backdrop of violence; and the second is a century later in London, as the same characters play out a different version of their lives in a freer but just as complicated time.

In each half, the actors rotate between roles, and in the first half especially upend expectations by having, for example, a man play a woman, a black man play a white man, and vice versa.

For me, as an audience member, this was VERY much also an experience of two halves. I cannot express how much I loathed the experience of the first half. The archness of the humour just fell completely flat for me. I was gritting my teeth through every joke.

On the one hand, okay, I get that the play is trying to draw out the hypocrisy and the inequality of the period, the suppression of sexuality, the violence of colonialism.

But does it have to do it in a way that is completely unengaging? Either it's deliberate, which I OBJECT TO on artistic grounds because there is absolutely no need to make an audience suffer just to make your point; or it's NOT deliberate and oh my god they were actually trying to be funny...

The second half is a deliberate tonal contrast, much more in the vein of realism, with interiority to the characters (signalled by monologues! of course!) and drama and pathos along with the laughs. In this time, gay and lesbian characters can be out and live their true identities; divorce is a thing; individual freedom is here, and honestly it's worth it even if things are still very complicated.

This second half just worked so, so, so much better for me. The contrast to how much I hated the first half probably helped! And yes the way the play worked the contrast between 'then' and 'now' was great - but again, it wasn't at all necessary to play out the first half in that way to make that point.

For example the play The Pride does something very similar, by contrasting two lgbtq love triangles in the 1950s vs the 2000s, to much better and more elegant effect. And it didn't have to turn either period into a farce.

I admit: it's very possible that I also just hate farces. I mean. This is definitely true.

Good cast including some familiar Sydney theatre faces. Good production, though I hated the lightbox set which stood in for the interiors. Just wish the two halves were more - even a little bit! - equal in their impact and power.

 

Link:
Kevin Jackson

 

Director Kip Williams
Designer Elizabeth Gadsby
Lighting Designer Alexander Berlage
Composer Chris Williams
Sound Designer Nate Edmondson

With
Matthew Backer, Kate Box, Harry Greenwood, Anita Hegh, Josh McConville, Heather Mitchell, Anthony Taufa

Review: The Rover, Belvoir St Theatre

1 July, Belvoir upstairs theatre

An adaptation of the 1677 play by Aphra Behn - one of the first professional women playwrights and writers in the English language. This battle of the sexes is set in Naples during Carnival, as a two Spanish sisters, a famous courtesan, and British military officers chase one another around in a comedy of mistaken identity, betrayal, and love, from time to time breaking the fourth wall for comic effect.

Framed by an opening monologue from the playwright - which I have no idea if exists in the actual text, so clearly I need to read this play sometime - as being from a woman's point of view rather than a man's, and promising bawdiness and humour, this pretty much fulfills the brief.

Not all of the women get their happy ending - courtesan Angellica's constancy goes unrewarded, and who knows if impetuous nun novitiate Hellena will keep her man - but each of them gets a voice and a say. I really liked the actresses for all three, with Angellica in this play stepping out like a cross between a movie star from a Fellini movie and Emma Stone.

The men are various degrees of foolish, most notably Toby Schmitz - recently of Black Sails fame, known to the Australian theatre scene for much longer, and it was good to see him back! - as the titular 'rover', Willmore, who can't keep it in his pants and lies at every turn, even to himself.

The plotting reminded me a lot of Shakespeare's comedies, but even faster and funnier - the comic timing of the cast was almost always spot-on, even in this first preview night. Three hours went by so quickly - I'd recommend this.

 

Link:
The Rover’s Kiruna Stamell: there’s a lack of work for disabled actors in Australia

 

CAST
Gareth Davies
Andre de Vanny
Taylor Ferguson
Leon Ford
Nathan Lovejoy
Elizabeth Nabben
Toby Schmitz
Nikki Shiels
Kiruna Stamell
Megan Wilding

Writer Aphra Behn
Director Eamon Flack
Set & Costume Designer Mel Page
Lighting Designer Matt Scott
Composer & Sound Designer Steve Toulmin
Dramaturg Charlotte Bradley
Choreographer Cameron Mitchell
Movement Director Scott Witt
Associate Designer Chloe Greaves
Personal Assistant & Access Support Worker Kerry Stamell
Stage Manager Luke McGettigan
Assistant Stage Manager Jennifer Parsonage

Review: 1984, Sydney Theatre Company

28 June, Roslyn Packer Theatre

A touring production of the Alemeida company's critically acclaimed version did little to nothing for me. I'm going to be in the minority here but I found this in turn uninteresting and frustrating.

There was famously a run on hard copies of 1984 in the USA following last year's election results, and I thought this production came along at a timely moment. But the things which make Orwell's 1984 more relevant than ever - ideas about doublethink, and propaganda, and the numbed and indifferent masses - are the parts which are given the shortest shrift in this play.

I found the first half boring, and the choices quite boring - ah so we're surveilling Winston and Julia, just like Big Brother, gosh maybe we ARE Big Brother. Cool cool cool but I didn't come to the theatre to watch screens. I think the decision to show the surveillance from the start, rather than reveal it as in the book, also takes away the tension and the surprise of that plot point.

The acting and staging just felt super flat overall, and the second half of the play is basically just torture? Very effective use of lights and sound to disturb and disrupt, kudos to the production team. But the whole thing is so clumsily done. Like being struck with a blunt instrument.

I find the book itself to be flat in affect, more about the ideas than the narrative. If you are going to translate that to theatre then you need to, I dunno, discuss and present those ideas in an interesting way maybe? Or bring some affect? This production is about creating effect, but without lasting impact. At least that's how it felt to me.

 

Links:
Kevin Jackson
The Guardian
SMH - how intense is it really?

 

Sydney Theatre Company in association with State Theatre Company South Australia and by arrangement with GWB Entertainment and Ambassador Theatre Group presents the Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and Almeida Theatre production

1984
By George Orwell
A new adaptation created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan

Directors Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan
Associate Director (Australia) Corey McMahon
Designer Chloe Lamford
Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers
Sound Designer Tom Gibbons
Video Designer Tim Reid

With
Molly Barwick, Paul Blackwell, Tom Conroy, Terence Crawford, Coco Jack Gillies, Ursula Mills, Renato Musolino, Guy O’Grady, Yalin Ozucelik, Fiona Press

Review: Hidden Sydney - The Glittering Mile, Vivid Festival

10 June, World Bar

Originally staged for Art & About, this cabaret show made its return for the 2017 Vivid Festival. This has such a great concept - a walk-through cabaret show, taking us to various spaces within the bar, in each one seeing a skit or a song about a different aspect of life in Kings Cross.

I found the concept more interesting than the execution, but it was very interesting and ambitious, especially considering its low budget. Like, don't go in expecting Sleep No More, it's a lot smaller and more structured than that. Good tho. The history of Sydney is just fascinating.

The most successful sections for me were the skit with the Les Girls drag queen and a homeless man; the monologue of the drug-dealing bartender (who served real shots to an audience member!); The Nevada skit from a brothel madam, giving a pep talk to the girls before the evening's work; and the monologue of Bea Miles, a homeless woman who recited Shakespeare and once took a cab all the way to Perth.

 

Link:
Hidden Sydney

 

Cast
NADIM ACCARI
JEREMY BRENNAN
RICHARD CILLI
GARY CLEMENTSON
PAUL DOWSON
GRANT GALEA
CALEB JAGO-WARD
BRENDEN LOVETT
MORGAN MAGUIRE
DAVID OUCH
DASH KRUCK
CHRISTA HUGHES

Original concept by Olivia Ansell in collaboration with Wendy Richards. ​
Executive Producers: Olivia Ansell and Wendy Richards
Director: Lucas Jervies
Writers: Trevor Ashley, Ray Badran, Nikki Britton, Benito Di Fonzo
Composer: Ben Fink
Designer: Hugh O’Connor
Lighting Design: Matt Marshall
Sound Design: Jed Silver
Research: Anna Messarati, Olivia Ansell and Wendy Richards
Publicity: Bruce Pollack Consulting
Venue Partner: The World Bar

Review: Nutcracker: The Story of Clara - Australian Ballet

17 May, Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House

Graeme Murphy's reimagining of The Nutcracker begins with elderly former Ballet Russes dancer Clara (Chrissa Keramidas), in her suburban Melbourne home in the 1950s as children play outside. After drinks with old friends, she becomes lost in a fantasia of the past - the traditional Nutcracker imagery blending with her own childhood (Amelia Soh as the young Clara), her prime as a ballerina (Ako Kondo), and her lost love (Chengwu Guo).

The second half of the ballet is a more straightforward biography of Clara from childhood through the Russian Revolution and then to her arrival in Melbourne, but with some elements of fantasia and ending on a lovely, poignant image of the three Claras together.

I really loved how this played with the traditional Nutcracker imagery and how it reversed the key trajectories - rather than a young girl looking forward on the cusp of adulthood, it's an elderly woman reflecting on her past. The story of Clara herself is so beautifully done and I love the three Claras, each of them so expressive and different.

Kondo is so stunning as ballerina Clara, and she's absolute magic with (her fiancee!) Guo in their paired dances. The production is also super pretty with lots of lavish costumes. A lovely production.

 

Choreography Graeme Murphy
Creative Associate Janet Vernon
Concept Graeme Murphy and Kristian Fredrikson
Music Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Costume and set design Kristian Fredrikson
Original lighting design John Drummond Montgomery
Film collage Philippe Charluet
With Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra in Sydney