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