Review: Silver

Silver
Belvoir Street Theatre
Until 25 October
Tickets $10-29
Bookings (02) 9699 3444
Critic’s Rating 6/10

As published in the Sun Herald


Welcome to the land of nightmares and dreams, where the imagination of a child could be illusion or reality. Silver, written and performed by Matthew Whittet, is a first-person account of a journey of a little girl who finds her way miles from home.

With the horror of Blair Witch Project and the charm of a European fairytale, there’s a great simplicity at work here in this production; but to my mind is over-simplified.

Theatre is the best place in the world to tell and hear a story but Silver would be just as riveting if it were read off the page.

Director Ben Winspear has split the already small downstairs space and has Whittet sitting plainly on a chair in front of only about 40 people.

There’s some novelty in the fact that Whittet is a charmingly good male performer telling the story of a girl's life but that’s about where it ends. Nick Schlieper does a good job with the lighting to create a mood at the beginning but it isn’t followed through with anything physical to carry that further.

If however, you’re up for a good romping tale with no bells or whistles, then this is the ideal production.

Review: Missing The Bus To David Jones

Missing The Bus To David Jones
Performance Space, Carriageworks
Until 24 October
Tickets $15-30
Bookings 1300 723 038
Critic’s Rating 9/10

As published in the Sun Herald


“He who dies with the most toys wins” was last week reported to be one of James Packer’s sayings. For the rest of us, the end of life is a little more than accumulated possessions and will most likely involve a nursing home.

These homes might be considered the unlikeliest place to find celebration or solace but in Carlos Gomes’s production, they contain the meaning to life.

Six characters enter an open space with simple furnishings, a television, a cushioned floor and soft music. Dressed in white they strip down and put on elderly clothes and take up residence. It’s just one of many beautiful moments as you witness the proximity of age and your own mortality.

Gomes has created an ensemble piece with movement, story-telling and short scenes after the group completed six months of observation and interviews in nursing homes across Sydney.

The result is one of the most celebratory pieces of theatre you will encounter. From the intricate hand movements of the performers to the sadness and humility of the stories, it will have you laugh and reflect.

John Donne said death was a slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men and this production shows why. This is a wonderful show. Take an elderly relative.

Review: The Bougainville Photoplay Project

The Bougainville Photoplay Project
Old Fitzroy Theatre
Until 31 October
Tickets $21-35
Bookings 1300 438 849
Critic’s Rating 7/10

As published in the Sun Herald


The first thing you realise while listening to Dr Paul Dwyer is how little many Australians know about the small island of Bougainville, its history or its people.

With the aid of slides, projections, videos and personal anecdotes, Dwyer takes us through his journey on the island in 2002 while researching restorative justice.

He explains that on the eve of his journey, he suddenly realises he’s following in the footsteps of his father, who worked on the island as an orthopaedic surgeon in the 1960s.

It’s a beautifully personal way to explain a place that, despite a beautiful landscape has been beset with a violent history – with questions even about the culpability of our own nation’s leaders: Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Gareth Evans.

Dwyer paints a picture of an island that has changed a lot since his father first arrived. But what is most touching is the way the character of these people has survived, with a genuine desire for reconciliation after 10 years of war, pollution and poverty.

Directed by David Williams and with video design by Sean Bacon, this is a production of simple and earnest story-telling.

Review: Ollie and the Minotaur

Ollie and the Minotaur
Downstairs Belvoir
Until 3 May
Tickets $23-29
Bookings (02) 9699 3444
Critic’s Rating 7/10


Ollie and the Minotaur opens like a fresh sea breeze of familiarity as old school friends Thea, Bec and Carla come together for a coastal weekend reunion.

It’s the type of weekend based on simple pleasures we’ve all had – lie in the sun, get drunk, relive your youth and maybe listen to Gen X anthems like Pump Up The Jam for good measure.

The dominant Thea (Wendy Bos) and the more retiring Bec (Sarah Brokensha) arrive first and from the first moments a pecking order of their status is established. Advertising executive Carla (Adriana Bonaccurso) is not far behind them as she quickly dons her sunnies and starts ordering young Bec to fix her a gin and tonic.

From Shakespeare to Chekhov, the dramatic potential and tension provided by three women on stage has been used by the greats of the stage.

Ollie and the Minotaur is no different. The three talk about boys, dance and yell madly but the innocence of their get-together unravels as a dark secret between the three opens a Pandora’s box.

It’s here that the dramatic tension lifts off and takes what could be a very ordinary plot into a complicated and more sinister world.

Working with three quite wonderful performers, playwright Duncan Graham has grabbed that tradition and developed a story that is engrossing and, when it reaches the end, very disturbing.

Director Sarah John allows the story to be told with a respectful simplicity and allows the gifted actors to deliver what is a sharp, realistic and well-crafted new Australian play.

Review: The Man From Mukinupin

The Man from Mukinupin
Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
Until 17 May
Tickets $34-$56
Bookings (02) 9699 3444
Critic’s Rating 7/10


With its musical numbers and classic country setting, The Man from Mukinupin by Dorothy Hewett is like a timeless travelling caravan show conjuring up a pre-World War I environment with good yarns, romanticism and bush heroism.

Written in 1979 and set in the drought stricken wheat belt of Western Australia, the play takes us back to the Edwardian years as white settlement spreads out across the land.

In the town, where people are "muck’n up", Polly Perkins (Suzannah Bayes-Morton) and shop boy Jack Tuesday (Craig Annis) are teenagers smitten with each other much to the chagrin of her parents, Eek (Max Gillies) and Edie (Kerry Walker).

The old black-clad couple fancy the travelling lingerie salesman Cecil Brunner (David Page) as a far more appropriate (and wealthier) match for the beautiful young Polly. All this is while the nosy Hummer sisters (wonderfully played by Roxanne McDonald and Valentina Levkowicz) look on.

When travelling actors Max (also David Page) and Mercy Montebello (Amanda Muggleton) blow into town with a melodramatic show of Othello, young Jack gets a taste for the wider world - threatening to leave the besotted Polly.

The fun loving game of youthful love and innocence slowly erodes as the war approaches.

Introducing doppelgangers for each of the characters, Hewett shows another world over the rabbit proof fence where Jack’s mad brother Harry, Polly’s half-sister Lily and Eek’s star-gazing brother Zeek reside.

Hewett’s play is seen as one of the great works of Australian theatre along with Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Season at Sarsparilla and The Removalists.In some ways, the ex-Communist Hewett purges herself of everything she is unhappy with in her homeland – imperialism, ecological destruction and black-white relations. Director Wesley Enoch uses colour-blind casting mixing indigenous and non-indigenous actors as they double up and portray the two worlds.

With painted white faces the actors cover up their racial differences and give their characters a ghost-like feel in a world which is long forgotten.

Set designer Richard Roberts and lighting designer Rachel Burke have utilised the dreamlike effect with an eerily dim stage which allows actors to appear from the shadows of the space and float in and out of the action.

The ghost tone of this production, though fantastic and theatrical, flattens the emotional highs and lows, particularly the musical numbers. It meanders at times, lacking a tightness and pace for its 2½ hours.

Hopefully these moments will be ironed out because The Man from Mukinupin hasn’t lost its relevance after 30 years, in many ways getting better with age.

Review: Concussion

As published in the Sun-Herald

Concussion
Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company
Until 4 April
Tickets $25-$45
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 8/10


Like a Coen Brothers film, Melbourne-based Ross Mueller play presents us with a handful of characters with no apparent connection. Over the course of 90 minutes, Mueller cleverly brings them together, shifting between reality, fiction and the dark recesses of memory in a play of suspense and black humour.

Caesar (Terry Serio) is the city's last honest cop, who’s suffering concussion after a late night run-in with someone.

Word on the street (and in chat rooms) is that he beat up a homeless veteran. But Julia (Rachel Gordon), his lover and doctor and Katerina (Belinda McClory), his legal rep, tell him it isn’t so.

Throw in Caesar’s young son, Julia’s jilted ex husband and Katerina’s lover and the stage is set for a plot that twists, turns and unsettles with questions over what is the truth and who is making it up.

Directed by Brett Adam, Concussion is a wonderful and rare collaboration between Griffin Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company (the last being in 1994). Such a partnership needs to happen more often.

But despite the quality and skill of this new Australian play, the overall effect of it is diminished by Mueller trying to be that little too clever - adding in a conceit where the characters show an obvious awareness they are in a play.

It’s a shame because the plot, performances and design are tight enough to keep audiences guessing in a play that is yet another feather in the cap of excellent new Australian works.

To New York With Love

For those expat readers in New York, The Production Company - that little Australian theatre group based over there - are opening a new Patricia Cornelius play tonight.

They're an interesting group and have already produced plays by Ben Ellis, Lally Katz, Ross Mueller and Anthony Crowley.

The details are below. And if any of you get there, I'd be really interested to hear what the show is like.


The Production Company proudly presents the American Premiere of

LOVE
A new Australian play by Patricia Cornelius
Directed by Mark Armstrong

Starring:
Bronwen Coleman
Erin Maya Darke
Ken Matthews

March 20th – April 12th
8PM Wednesday – Saturday
3PM Sunday

Center Stage, NY
48 W. 21st Street, 4th Floor
(Between 5th & 6th)

Tickets $20 at TheaterMania
(212) 352-3101 or http://www.theatermania.com/

Producer: Mary Cross • Stage Manager: Jeff Meyers* • Scenic Designer: April Bartlett • Costume Designer: Deanna Frieman • Lighting Designer: Dan Henry • Sound Designer: Sara Bader • Dialect & Vocal Coach: Kohli Calhoun • Fight Choreographer: Noah Starr • Publicist: Katie Rosin and Kampfire Films PR • Accounting and Tax work provided by Cilibrasi & Associates

*Member, Actors Equity Association • Equity Approved Showcase

www.productioncompany.org

Playwriting Workshops, Development and Funding

The always reliable Bec Clarke created a brilliant note on Facebook yesterday which I feel compelled to cut and paste for all of you who haven't quite caught up with the rest of us twitterbug facers. 

It is a comprehensive list of nearly every possible workshop program, support service and funding source for playwriting for NSW residents. It's rather quite impressive when you look at it from head to toe, but the gaps between writing and staging are pretty clear. 

So here is the list in its entirety with an addition of the Performance Space and Griffin Theatre Company residency opportunities. If you can think of anything missed, leave it in the comments.


2009 Playwriting Workshops, Programs and Funding Deadlines

- Playwriting Australia two week workshop - Feb 27
- Malthouse Theatre - March 1 and Oct 1
- Merrigong Theatre - March 6, May 8, July 10, Sept 11
- OzCo New Work - June 3 and Nov 3
- Arts NSW - July 6 - Grants not outlined until May
- Hothouse Month in the Country - Feb 15 and Aug 15
- Bell Shakespeare - Mind's Eye - 2009 dates posted soon
- B Sharp - Open policy
- Next Stage - By invitation
- Vitalstatix - Women's Theatre Adelaide

- Performance Space - Residency 

- Griffin Theatre Company - Playwrights Residency


***PLAYWRITING AUSTRALIA
National Script Workshop
an intensive residential studio for the creative development of new works

The 2-week residential Workshop programme provides writers with the resources to progress to the next stage of creative development, without the expectation of an immediate performance outcome or the need to produce a performance-ready draft.

Eight writers are invited to develop a new work in its early stages of creative development in an intensive studio environment with directors, dramaturgs and an ensemble of actors.

The Workshop takes place annually in June/July and also features:
a public programme, delivering professional development outcomes to local artists and exploring issues in local theatre-making, and

a graduate programme offering young playwrights, directors and dramaturgs the opportunity to work alongside our senior company on their own creative development.
Submissions for the Workshop are invited annually in March from any interested writer and are assessed by a panel of experienced readers. There are no application or participation fees. Theatre companies are invited to propose projects for participation.

Applications open
Until 27 February
Runs
27 June - July 10 July


***MALTHOUSE THEATRE
In sending a proposal to the company, we ask for the following: One A4 page synopsis of the work, including why you want to work with the Malthouse on this particular idea or script. We are especially interested in what you believe a collaboration with this company will bring to your work and why. We would like to hear about the form as well as the content of your work, and how this engages with the theatrical medium. A one-paragraph biographical note of yourself (150 words maximum) and individual notes of similar length for any other artist involved. If the idea is already a developed text or has been substantially written, a 10-page extract, preferably the first ten pages, of the script or the equivalent in another medium (e.g., 5-min DVD).

All of the above should be presented in a 12-font single-sided format and postmarked no later than the due date. We will not accept faxed or emailed proposals. Proposals may include more than one artist. We ask, however, that individuals or teams send no more than one proposal. This does not preclude you from being named on several proposals. We will assume that any artist named has a commitment to the project in question. Please note that due to time and resource limitations we will not accept anything that sits outside these guidelines.

SELECTION
In receiving a proposal, the company will undertake the following:
A letter acknowledging receipt will be sent to you. Each proposal will be read or viewed internally by the artistic team and may be sent out for an external peer assessment. If the company has an interest in the project, we will notify you within three months of the receipt of your proposal. If you have not heard from us within this period, you may assume that your proposal has been read or viewed but has not been shortlisted for development by the company. Timelines for project development are dependent on the nature of the work, what it requires for production and the programming schedule at any given time.

Please note that due to time and resource limitations we make no commitment to provide feedback on proposals not shortlisted for development. If you wish us to return your proposal and support materials, please provide a stamped self-addressed envelope.

DATES
Deadlines for proposals are 1 March and 1 October of each year. All proposals should be sent to the following: Artistic Department, Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street, Southbank. VIC, 3006. 

ENQUIRIES
Maryanne Lynch, Dramaturge in Residence, (03) 9685 5111
admin@malthousetheatre.com.au


***MERRIGONG THEATRE COMPANY
Theatre Development Program
This program aims to foster professional theatre practice in the region by providing an identifiable and achievable path for emerging and established artists. Artists can apply for support to develop an idea to its first showing (for example a play reading) or to extend an idea through a dedicated development process (such as a script development or workshop).
Application dates for the Program in 2009 are:
• 6 March
• 8 May
• 10 July
• 11 September
Projects can take place at any time of the year. For more information on how to apply, contact Anne-Louise Rentell, Producer and Theatre Development Manager on either (02) 4226 3699 ext 110 or arentell@merrigong.com.au.


***AUSTRALIA COUNCIL – NEW WORK GRANT
Closing date: 3 June 2009
Decisions advised: September 2009
Projects may start: 1 October 2009
Closing date: 3 November 2009
Decisions advised: March 2010
Projects may start: 1 April 2010

New work grants support one-off projects that result in the creation of new contemporary theatre work. This can include a new production of an existing text.

• Creative development – supports the development stages of a new work, such as research, creative development workshops or commissioning a writer
• Production – supports a public performance of a new work and any stages leading up to it, where a presenting partner has already committed to the project
Applications for production grants must have a presenting partner involved in the project. A presenting partner is defined as anyone able to provide or raise the resources needed to present the work to the public, and could include (among others) venues, festivals, other theatre companies, local governments, museums or independent producers.

Applicants are advised to speak to theatre staff.

Applications can now happen online, after receiving a user identification number. Grant rounds will open for online applications six weeks before the advertised closing date. When a grant round is open it will appear in the online system. (The first time you log into system you will be given a user identification number. This number keeps means you can revisit your application as many times as you want before you submit it.)


***ARTS NSW
The 2010 Arts Funding Program Guidelines and Application Forms will be available for download by close of business, Friday 15 May 2009.

The Closing Date for applications to the 2010 Arts Funding Program is by close of business, Monday 6 July 2009.


***HOTHOUSE THEATRE (Month in the Country)
Annual closing dates – Feb 15 and Aug 15

Funded through Albury City, Arts NSW, Arts Victoria, the Australia Council, Myer Foundation and operated by HotHouse Theatre, A Month in the Country is a national arts resource to facilitate the creation of new Australian performing arts work. The initiative involves an on-going residential program that brings creative teams of writers, actors, directors, designers and other performing artists from across the country to Albury Wodonga during the creative development stage of a myriad of different projects.

Groups of artists from around the country will be supported to live and work in a large farmhouse and adjacent studio just outside Albury for periods of one to five weeks. The use of the farmhouse and studio is free and financial support for transport and living allowances is available.

HotHouse Theatre has created A Month in the Country as part of the company's philosophy of supporting independent artists with good ideas to move those ideas closer to a public outcome. Freelance theatre artists who do not have access to a company infrastructure or support often struggle in the early stages of project development. Even funded companies often have no space resources allocated to developmental stages of projects.

HotHouse Theatre welcomes projects which will benefit from an intense period of creative development in this quintessential rural Australian setting.


***BELL SHAKESPEARE (Mind's Eye)
Shakespeare provides us with an inexhaustible repository of ideas. There is a philosophical debate in almost every speech and a new piece of theatre in every image. More than any writer, Shakespeare has inspired artists to imagine and to create other worlds.

Mind’s Eye, Bell Shakespeare’s development arm, will harness the best of these ideas and allow them to be put to the test. It will demonstrate a commitment to innovation, recognising that creative risk is at the heart of our practice. It will allow artists to push the boundaries of their form, explore their connection to the contemporary world and enrich their work with ambitious ideas.

Mind’s Eye will give artists a safe platform from which they can perform daring feats.

Works developed within the Mind’s Eye programme can be initiated by writers, designers, directors, composers, choreographers or performers. These may be cross art-form, hybrid works and not strictly text based. It is an opportunity to engage with a broader circle of artists, providing important industry access and support. It prioritises strong creative development and rigour as a means of ensuring artistic vibrancy.

Mind’s Eye calls for submissions on an annual basis.
Submissions for 2008 closed on 29 September 2008, with over 30 submissions received.
Applications, selection criteria and terms and conditions for 2009 will be posted in February 2009.


***STC NEXT STAGE
Throughout the year Next Stage will invite a group of artists to participate in our inaugural season of Rough Drafts. These week-long creative developments will give theatre makers the opportunity to experiment: to try out new ideas, new ways of working and new collaborations. There will be an opportunity for you to attend a free, one-off showing at the conclusion of each week-long development. If you wish to join us at these showings, visit this website regularly throughout 2009, sign up for our email newsletter or become our friend on Facebook.


***RIVERSIDE THEATRE COMPANY
PLAYWRITING MASTERCLASSES
Three intensive workshops with leading Australian playwrights

Each playwright will deal with different aspects of the process and disciplines employed in writing for the stage. Courses are designed for established and emerging playwrights.

Debra Oswald and Christopher Hurrell
Saturday 4th April

Katherine Thomson
Saturday 20 June

Timothy Daly
Saturday 29 August

PLAY READING OPPORTUNITY
Following attendance at the Masterclasses the writers are invited to submit a play. Two plays will be selected to be workshopped and read in Riverside's BREAKOUT development program under the guidance of a professional director and actors.

Cost
$80 per workshop including light lunch, morning and afternoon tea

Location Raffertys Studio at Riverside Theatres
Corner Church and Market Streets, Parramatta


***B SHARP
Open Door Downstairs: If you have an idea or project you would like us to consider for inclusion in the B Sharp season, or for development within the B Sharp creative development program please feel free to contact us anytime to discuss the work. We’ve moved away from the open pitch process, and programming for the B Sharp season (in the form of a new twin season model) will continue throughout the year through ongoing conversation and collaboration. The programming timeline for the July – December 2009 will be March 2009 and for the first half of 2010 will be November 2009. The B Sharp creative development program, supports the development of new Australian work, which means you can also talk to us about projects that are still in the dreaming stages We hope to see the fruits of this program fill the Downstairs stage over the coming years!

Simply drop us an email or give us a call.


***VITALSTATISTIX (Women’s Theatre Co. – Adelaide) 
- Vitalstatistix exists to curate, support and produce, new, high quality, provocative and challenging live performance by Australian women, which engages and entertains a diverse audience and contributes to Australian culture. Vitalstatistix is a catalyst and incubator for the development of important, innovative contemporary arts practice in Australia. 


***PERFORMANCE SPACE
Residency Program

As part of Performance Space's commitment to supporting dynamic collaborative processes between artists, we offer a residency program for independent artists, artistic teams and small companies collaborating across disciplines, technologies and/or artforms to create new performative work. The Residency Program uses in-house resources to support both R + D and creative development of new work. 

***GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY
Playwrights Residency

Griffin offers key opportunities for emerging playwrights through its ground-breaking PLAYWRIGHTS' RESIDENCY.

Over 12 months, Griffin invites four playwrights the chance to build a lasting, working relationship with Griffin Theatre Company – and provides collaborating artists to work with towards production.

Griffin's Playwrights' Residency has been responsible for introducing playwrights such as Tommy Murphy and Caleb Lewis to mainstream audiences hungry for new work and new voices. The former resident playwrights' work included the award-winning Holding the Man, Strangers in Between and Nailed.

Griffin's Playwright Residency is a valued source of play development and plays a vital part in helping a new generation of playwrights find their voice.

In addition to financial assistance, workshops and professional development, all four playwrights feature and participate directly in Griffin's annual program, with Seasons, four short ten-minute plays presented throughout 2008, and a further four full-length plays presented as public readings.

All About Theatre

When was it? How long? It seems a lifetime ago. Lloyd always said that in the Theatre a lifetime was a season, and a season a lifetime.


And so the new year begins. As the final embers of the Sydney Festival slowly burn from our memory our theatres begin their programmes in earnest.

The coming few months has some treats worth looking at. From the alternative to the mainstages - from the underground to the spectacular - there's a little of something for everyone.

One such event which is quickly becoming a highlight in my calendar is the wonderful Imperial Panda Festival. It made such an impression last year that the City of Sydney has honoured its potential and thrown it a few grand. It was also the recipient of two nominations at the inaugural Sydney Music Art and Culture (SMAC) Awards.

It's a festival which is starting to capture an underground urban grit by profiling diverse, erratic and fearless performers. Using alternative spaces and galleries around the inner city, it attracts a young and hip crowd quite happy to plonk themselves on a milk crate with a plastic cup of cheap wine in their hand.

This year they open the festival with the premiere season of Kittenbone Bridge, a new play by Nick Coyle, which was first developed as part of the Wharf2Loud PUSH programme in 07.

There's a host of other new shows from groups including the Brown Council and Suitcase Royale. And of course the ever popular Erotic Fan Fiction evening returns - for those who last year experienced the perverse writing of Brendan Cowell and his account of the Australian Cricket team knocking it about in the sub-tropical heat of India will know what I mean. You can check out the Panda website HERE.

Griffin Theatre launched their 09 season a month ago and it contains some real gems. The highlight would have to be the show which opens this evening - Holiday from Ranters Theatre. I caught the premiere of it in Melbourne last year (thanks to the ever kind Alison Croggon who took me along) and I can't recommend it enough.

Holiday is a theatre experience which creeps up on you with a writing style which rarely graces the stages of Sydney. It is poignant, clever, funny and brutally relevant. And - it isn't verbatim theatre - hooray!

Speaking of which, surely 2009 must mark the end of verbatim theatre. Haven't we had enough already? I already have SBS at home, I don't need it my theatre as well do I?

I loved Damien Miller's The Modern International Dead which opened at the Griffin last year. In fact I loved it so much I think it represents the high note of locally produced verbatim theatre and now there is absolutely no reason to do it anymore. 

The rest of Griffin's programme for the year appears to be a well placed collection of local stories from around the country which I am really looking forward to. Their programme can be found HERE.

Even though Performance Space go into 09 with a new director and a new vision, the first few months of programming are part of the gradual handover from previous Director Fiona Winning. 

P Space kick off the year with a dance solo from the indefatigable Ros Warby and her show Monumental. Just have a quick look at the creative titles of her collaborators (Lighting Projection & Set Design, Music, Cinematography, Film Editor, Costume Designer, Costume Design Consultant, Black Hat, White Cap, Sound Design)  and you start to get a sense of where this show might be going.

Following on from the dance solo is the always brilliant Quick and Dirty extravaganza as part of the Mardi Gras Festival. It hasn't suffered from the move from Cleveland Street to Carriageworks (apart from the ever-restrictive, ever-suffocating, ever-ridiculous enforcement of the outside drinking policy - for the love of God, when are we going to get that sorted???).

Performance, puppetry and installation creators My Patricia Darling, dance force Splintergroup and young performers Team MESS also make a big appearance over the Summer/Autumn.

The mainstages also have a diverse array of productions premiering over the coming few months. Of particular interest is Baghdad Wedding which opens next week at Company B coming after a relatively modest opening at the wonderful SOHO Theatre in London, the new Marion Potts production of Venus and Adonis from Bell Shakespeare and STC, Travesties also at the STC and the new co-production between Griffin and the STC of Concussion. 

The independent sector is also getting into the swing of things. The Old Fitz kicks off its year with Cherry Smoke, a show from the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe and which is coincidentally also premiering in New York at the same time.  

Downstairs at Belvoir Street Theatre is their anti-Putin Russian play Ladybird which I profiled in depth last week. B Sharp will be launching the rest of their season in a few weeks. The New Theatre (who have finally, finally, finally got a new website) have also begun their year with a heavy Mardi Gras theme as usual. Last night they opened with the Tony Award winning play Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg. This is then followed by a production of the Herbal Bed and then the infamously funny Cosi by Louis Nowra. 

Amazingly, the TAP Gallery is still pumping away as one of the quieter and more alternative spaces. They have a pretty outrageous Mardi Gras show on at the moment called Vixen Noir in Sweet Deliverance: the perverted sunshine tour which follows the life of a sex goddess. There's even a warning to go with it - 18+, Sexual Content, Coarse Language and Nudity (thank god Mardi Gras is only once a year).

This is then followed up by another Mardi Gras show with a title of such originality, it'll take your breath away... Hard On. I don't need to explain it any further - but if you want to know more, go to the website. 

The Seymour Centre has a programme a little less ... a little less ... well, a little less something as they premiere Gutenberg! The Musical, another musical with an exclamation mark. I believe it is some type of a spoof, but I rarely understand in-house musical theatre community jokes.

But after Gutenberg! is a return season of The Beauty Queen of Leenane from the master director Maeliosa Stafford. 

So there's your next couple of months sorted. 

Anything else of interest, let me know.

 

Review: The Narcissist

The Narcissist by Stephen Carleton
Sydney Theatre Company and La Boite Theatre Company
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House


It is too simple to think of the narcissist as someone in love with himself. One can detest oneself intimately and still be a narcissist.

The diaries of Kenneth Tynan


The narcissist suffers from too much inner dialogue. The eye of one's consciousness is forever looking at one's own action ... The narcissist is not self absorbed, as much as one self absorbed in studying the other. The narcissist is the scientist and the experiment in one ... It is not love of the self but dread of the world outside the self which is the seed of narcissism.

Norman Mailer on Henry Miller


A play entitled 'The Narcissist' has the potential to be a fascinating study and commentary on our self-absorbed urban society. Even as a comedy, it could get its hands dirty and throw around seeds of thoughts and ideas that lift the lid on material possession, self-interest and the quest for solitude.

But The Narcissist by Stephen Carleton does none of that, avoids the big questions and delivers up a Brisbane based comedy that is far too light to really impress.

Political spinner Xavier (Sandro Colarelli) is trying to get a local candidate elected in a sudden bi-election somewhere in Brisbane. As a gay man he is prepared to forego a lot of his values for a clear political purpose and climbing what Mark Latham might have called the 'ladder of opportunity'.

In fact, the play makes the broad assumption that Xavier really has no values and is only interested in material and social gain. His apartment, where all the action plays out is decked out in a type of Andy Warhol series of prints with Xavier as the key subject. It is probably more vanity than narcissism, but in this play that doesn't really matter.

His friends are suitably selfish as well, providing a type of situation comedy feel to the play. Bronwyn (Andrea Moor) is the slightly alcoholic older single female handbag who comes in and out of the apartment and usually heads straight to the bar to pour herself another vodka and something.

Xavier's flatmate is the younger hetero, but effeminate, Satchel (Jonathan Brand) whose aspiration is to get onto the television programme that is king of all vanity, Big Brother.

To provide even more situation comedy, Xavier and Andrea set up a challenge for themselves - to 'bag a man' before New Year's Eve and to prove that they both still have it and are not getting too far beyond their middle age years.

Then in walks Jesse (James Stewart) an old flame of Xavier's from his university days. Xavier might have had a bit of luck for the challenge if not for the fact that Jesse is now getting married to Y'landah (Judy Hainsworth) who we are introduced to as an ultra-conservative Liberal Party voting Christian who is a compulsive truth-teller.

For some reason which I still can't work out, Jesse and Y'landah re-enter Xavier's life. Polar opposite people who have nothing in common and who have no ties or responsibilities. Add to the mix that Y'landah screams every time she hears the word brown (or anything associated with the colour brown) or gags when she hears anything to do with anal sex and you have a rather perplexing set of realities with which to frame the comedy.

By the second half not much changes apart from the fact that Y'landah isn't a compulsive truth-teller but is rather a compulsive liar who has made up her condition regarding the colour brown as well as her anal sex reflexes.

The central problem of the play is that the characters are under-developed to the point none of them can be a narcissist. There are elements of vanity, but if you want narcissism you would be better heading off to the local library and picking up a copy of Moliere's The Miser.

The central problem of the comedy is that the reality of the situations and the characters is far too thin to utilise that integral part of any comedy - the element of surprise.

All the performances are extremely able with not a single bad note from a very capable ensemble - and director Ian Lawson and designers Greg Clarke, Carolyn Emerson and Guy Webster do a great job transferring the play from Brisbane to the difficult space of the Drama Theatre.

But it is the conceit of play that is the problem and when you come to think of it, Mark Latham would be a far more interesting (and probably hilarious) subject matter for a real play about narcissism.



Until 4 October 2008
Tickets $28-$77
Bookings(02) 9250 7111
www.sydneyoperahouse.com

STC opens the gates

The atmosphere at Monday night's Sydney Theatre Company 2009 season launch shows how quickly Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett are changing the energy of the place.

With hordes of young actors, independent theatre artists, professional performers and a smattering of celebrity it was one of the most lively and convivial evenings I have had at the Wharf for ages.

There was a great sense of excitement in the air, with even a sense of relief, that a new administration and a new direction was taking over. The Artistic Directors made the deliberate point that they want to open the place up, making it more the SYDNEY Theatre Company than its previous incarnation.

There was such a great cross section of people there from all across the industry that you got the sense that Upton and Blanchett are really blowing away the cobwebs. They even had Youth Group playing at the end of the night. Everytime someone said to me 'they're a bit loud aren't they?' I was filled with just a little glee.

The evening started with a short speech from the AD's followed by Jonathan Wikipedia Biggins dryly comparing short speeches from the cast and crew of each of the shows lined up for next year.

It's an unusual season and not what I was expecting at all. But it does go hand in hand with a certain approachability and lightness that Upton and Blanchett are trying to introduce into the theatre company.

They have divided up the season into what they have branded 'Main Stage', 'Next Stage' and 'Back Stage'. It sounds almost as good as a flirtatious night out on Oxford Street but the new STC version is all about opening up communication channels and bringing emerging and burgeoning artists together with those that are established.

Kicking off the season is David Williamson's The Removalists. This will definitely give the box office a good old kick along with subscribers who love their dose of Williamson and those HSC students studying it next year. Directed by one of my favourite directors currently around on the local circuit, Wayne Blair, it will appeal to a wide range of punters.

This is then followed by Travesties, a UK import from Tom Stoppard who wrote the play in the early 1970's, reviving it and re-writing it in 1993. I can hear the collective sigh of relief from many of you saying 'Well, thank god it isn't another David Hare piece'. The play, which looks at 'revolutionary artists', has had a solid amount of re-mounts to justify a new STC version which will be directed by Mr Ralph Cotterill.

The Wonderful World of Dissocia by Scottish playwright and director at the National Theatre of Scotland, Anthony Neilson, is another UK import and is the type of programming that wouldn't be far removed from a Fergus Linehan Sydney Festival event. First produced at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004, this is fantasy theatre at its best. And if director Marion Potts can pull of a new version it should be one of the picks of the season.

Andrew Bovells' When The Rain Stops Falling quickly follows and is a work, as the title suggests, that delves into the world of the environment. Loosely based on the fantastic Tim Flannery history The Future Eaters, this is a direct import by Brink Productions that first premiered at the Adelaide Festival earlier this year.

My esteemed colleague at The Guardian Lyn Gardner called the next production as the most "blissfully funny and touching evening I've had in the theatre for ages". Elling which started off as a cult book in Norway to then become a film and then a play seems to have that quality of simple quirky story telling. It will be Pamela Rabe's second occasion as director.

Martin Crimp is featured next and many people I know are big fans of this UK playwright. His latest play The City will have its Australian premiere after a very successful opening earlier this year at the Royal Court. Directed by Benedict Andrews this is the other side of the coin to his earlier work The Country and confronts the ever present angst of urban life.

Poor Boy, a co-production with the Melbourne Theatre Company, follows next and sounds like it could be an interesting night, especially those that are fans of Tim Finn. Aimed at your 30-45 year old demographic (as much of this season is) it features original songs and lyrics by Finn which are framed by playwright Matt Cameron and director Simon Phillips.

Tommy Murphy's Saturn's Return makes a mainstage comeback after a first successful run at Wharf 2 (and playing now). I have heard very mixed reports on the play from a wide variety of people whose judgement I value but obviously Blanchett and Upton think it deserves another crack. It will be directed by everyone's favourite David Berthold.

The next production seems to be the one that many are chattering about as Blanchett opens the company up further and flies Liv Ullmann to direct Tennessee Williams' masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. There was a very strange comment in an article by Joyce Morgan yesterday that said 'Blanchett is confident Ullmann's production, which will tour North America, will shake off the shackles of the famous film that so often overshadows the original play'. I have no idea why you would bog yourself down in trying to shake off those (rather quite excellent) shackles but here's hoping that Joel Edgerton doesn't try to do a Marlon Brando. This should be a good meaty show.

French playwright Yasmina Reza is then up in what is a big return for Gale Edwards as director. God of Carnnage is Reza's 2006 play which first premiered in Switzerland but wasn't produced in English until last year. Reza is a very popular playwright in Europe and I saw much of her work at the National Theatre of Slovenia while I was living there. Always interesting and always amusing and always with that typical French insight, starring Jeremy Sims I am quietly looking forward to this show.

The Wharf Revue is next. No need to elaborate.

The Mysteries: Genesis is then next and marks the start of the new Actors Company, herein known as The Residents. From the little information provided about what the Residents will be it appears to be a much better and fluid version of the first. Indeed, it will hopefully be more in the spirit of what an 'ensemble' really is - a pool of people you draw from on a project by project basis. Performed at CarriageWorks and directed by Matthew Lutton, Andrew Upton and Tom Wright this look like being quite an epic production. As a big supporter of Lutton and Wright, this appears (on paper) as suitably ambitious.

The final show is literally an unknown and has already provoked an angry response from some grumpy STC subscriber in the Herald today;

Sydney Theatre Company's star-struck obsession with famous names has hit a new low in its season next year.

Subscribers are being asked to put down money sight unseen for an untitled play (sorry, "project", which sounds so much more Hollywood). No cast is announced, not even excellent regulars such as Peter Carroll or Pamela Rabe. There are no clues to what it is about, not even whether it is a comedy, drama or musical.

We are supposed to pay, more than a year in advance, solely on the name of a Hollywood film director, Steven Soderbergh, with no theatre credentials.

Sydney theatre-lovers are entitled to more than a blatant excuse for others to rub shoulders with the rich and famous.

Peter Deegan, Erskineville

Maybe the STC should have asked Peter from Erskineville to come to the launch on Monday, because if that is anything to go by, next year's season appears to be populated by a healthy mix of the new, the established with just a little celeb shenanigans.

And besides we've seen Peter Carroll and Pamela Rabe all year. It's good to have a bit of a break.

Berkoff and a slight bit of rudeness

It was getting towards the end of Steven Berkoff's rough and ready speech on Monday night at the Seymour Centre, when a figure appeared from the back row, making his way down to one of the Q&A microphones.

Berkoff was thrown upon seeing the man. With matted hair, large black clothes and a touch of grime, it looked as though he had walked in off the street.

"Awwrriiigghhht, mate?!" Berkoff barked to the figure as another more cleanly kept audience member asked a stumbling, mumbling blah blah blah question from the other side of the auditorium.

As the figure situated himself firmly in front of the microphone and patiently waited for his turn, Berkoff turned to the compare and asked, "Who is this geezer?!"

It was an amazing scene, particularly for a man who had proclaimed at the very beginning of his speech that part of the joys of the arts is we want to see, hear and experience the 'madmen, the lunatics, the deviants and the fringes of society'.

For finally it was the geezer's turn and sure enough, the man opened his mouth delivering a most eloquent question to the rattled thespian, despite his less than clean attire.

Berkoff was undone. He had been shown up in his own game - for theatre is about illusion, is it not?

It was characteristic of his speech as a whole. Gaping big holes of inconsistencies and contradictions but the man is still as passionate, as out-spoken and as inspiring as he ever was.

Upon seeing him he appears a lot larger and a lot rounder than you generally see in promotional shots of him but those trademark ears and small round head are unmistakeable. And so to is his voice which traverses that wiry bridge often found in British actors between educated RP and the working class familial.

The topic of conversation was risk, limitations and boundaries of the arts. Central to his rough thesis was that there should be absolutely no limitations on the arts or on artists.

Using Bill Henson as a starting point, he railed against those that impose censorship due to what he called 'merely a matter of taste'.

He argued that the same people who call for limitations on the arts are one and the same with those that call for limitations on science and scientists - the fundamentalists, the religious right - they are, to him, more similar to "fascists" than anything else.

Exasperated, he asked the very simple question - why would you put limitations on science and why would you put limitations on the imagination.

It is clear that the man despairs for the world and is totally outraged at what is going on in the United States ('something like 3000 schools teach creationism! It's unbelievable') and he despairs for those within society who put limitations on what we can and can't see. They are, to his mind, the 'limited' ones.

Despite this, it was interesting to note his total intolerance to violence being shown on stage and screen. Targeting Quentin Tarantino he yearns for theatre and film to rediscover its unique ability to escape realist interpretation and to find more creative ways to use symbols. He particularly dislikes realist violence on the stage and draws inspiration from the ancient Greeks who would keep the violence off-stage (ob-scene).

The most interesting part of the evening was when he was asked a question from the audience about the state of Australian theatre. To his mind he doesn't understand why we don't put on the classics with more of our flavour, style and unique outlook on the world.

This particularly struck a chord with many in the audience.

All this constant effort, particularly from the Independent sector in Sydney to ALWAYS put on new work probably needs to be re-thought and more effort placed on re-discovering the classics and opening up the channels of our unique culture.

At the moment, the best theatre in Sydney is from the ones that are delivering productions with simplicity. The ones that honour the words, the ones that listen to the tone and the ones that tell the story. But above all, by those that are passionate about the play and who disregard the critics and the bondage of marketing.

There are four types of theatre productions prevalent in Sydney that are like a blanket of Beijing smog making us all choke and splutter; productions put on because theatres believe that is what 'we want to see', plays put on by actors (aka 'audition theatre'), productions with a design budget that outnumbers the amount of words in the script, and productions putting on new Australian work just for the sake of it.

The amount of times I see directors forgetting the simple process of directing actors and directing the action is too often to be healthy. So wrapped up in a new Aussie theatre piece or bogged down by the design, they forget the beautiful theatrical simplicity of actors in space telling a romping good tale.

If only we had a passion to really get our hands dirty and pull out the stops on a bit more Shakespeare, a bit more Moliere, a bit more Beckett, a bit more Shaw, a bit more Ionesco et al and it might give us the time to discover that simplicity again, worry less about creating a 'good script' and get the story telling out there.

Recently Barrie Kosky had one of his rants in The Australian that also touched on some of these issues;

"I think one of the hardest things for a young director to develop is the skill to be able to create with your own voice," he says. "To be able to take the idea and create mise en scene that is truthful for you and is in your voice." He believes this cannot be taught or given. "You either can or you can't, but you can only find this voice through risk, through experience and through intellectual rigour and brutal self-criticism." All of which is lacking, he believes, in Australia's theatre scene.

I can already hear the moans and groans of the local industry. "More cringe, more Kosky rants, leave us alone".

But the man is right. For Sydney at least.

"The problem is director drought. Ask any of the good actors or designers in the country," he says soulfully. "(Most) directors have no idea about space; no idea about the actor's body; no idea of rhythm; no idea of the contrapuntal movement of body, sound, light and image; and no idea about why the f..k they want people to buy a ticket and sit through an evening of their work."

A lot of directors in Sydney behave like wanna-be designers, or worse, film directors. All that realism placed on the stage with scant regard to what is actually happening with the actors. They spend most of their time worrying about the effect rather than the process. It drives me to despair.

Which is part of the beauty of Berkoff's work. It's simple and it explores the magic that can be delivered with the human and people in space. It draws its theatricality from the physical, not the mechanical and quite frankly, we want a bit more of that don't we?

Review: Manna

Manna
an ear play for five voices by Dan Spielman
Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company


It is right and proper to declare in this review that I didn’t make it through the entire performance of Manna and had to leave around twenty minutes before the curtain call.

As a way of beginning, it is interesting to see how abstract performances like this are documented in the media and in online forums, to which I am going to dedicate this review with a slight taste of my own thoughts.

The reviews have been generally positive, particularly Mark Hopkins in the Sydney Morning Herald. Unfortunately, I am one of those people that never really understands what Hopkins says in his reviews, but I gathered from this he was very supportive of Manna;

“The recurring context is that of dislocation, mostly by war: the ordinary order of things interrupted, fractured. Characters mistrust their own bodies, domestic rituals become sinister, and easily disturbed. Jagged fragments of sentences give way to music, the sound-scape providing an ever-changing context for new meaning to be constructed from repeated phrases and words.

“Indeed, for all its post-modern elements of non-linear narrative and multiple perspectives, Manna has a refined and unified aesthetic: an acute and explicit sensitivity to sound, light (design Emma Valente) and space is evident in both the production and performances.”

Manna is what writer Dan Spielman calls ‘an ear play for five voices’. And in so many ways it is an ear play that is might be better suited to a live recording rather than bodies in a space.

The whole ‘ear play’ thing has in fact distracted a lot of the reviewers with Jason Blake of the Sun Herald dedicating almost his entire review to the imagery;

"Actor-poet Dan Spielman and sound designer-director Max Lyandvert lay on a feast for the ears in Manna. For the eyes, however, it’s slim pickings."

But part of me feels that the lack of experience in the rehearsal room to deal with the text dramaturgically and directorially pull back its full potential. The opening moments of the show was beautiful with Gertraud Ingeborg taking the stage in front of a mirror, a face of reflection gently preening herself and her hair.

But after that it was all a little lost and confused.

Theatre Notes has been having a little debate about Manna, ironically with only a couple of people seeing it.

margaret d said of the production, “At least you are in London Alison and a long long way away from the train wreck that is "Manna." Saw it on your word and have never seen a bigger squandering of resources for no purpose.”

This is quickly followed up by Frank who pulls out the big guns and has a most magnificent rant;

“It is full of Max L directorial trademarks [based on the two previous shows of his I have witnessed]. Actors talk into microphones and leadenly intone their lines with a po-faced monotony of rhythm that matches the physical constraints straining their necks towards mics suspended from the rig impose on them. Max likes to put a transparent/opaque physical barrier between his audience and actors. Is he inserting a fourth wall? In the last two shows it was a perspex sheet - this time a lacy drape. Does it mean anything? What am I missing?

“In “Manna” I couldn't detect narrative or image continuity of any sort. There didn't seem to be repetition or accumulation of any theme - not helped by it being difficult to understand the words sometimes. It seemed to be a series of disconnected fragments of odd phrases with the deliberate avoidance of the sort of theatrical devices that might engage or hold the audience. I concentrated hard, but this dull, grey theatrical mush switched my brain off and my major emotional response was a slowly growing pity for the actors forced to endure the early giggles of the audience behind me and the restless silence from all of us for the length of the endurance test.

“Can anyone enlighten me on these techniques? What’s the story about the 4th wall?”

Max L (as in Max Lyandvert) is probably better known for his sound design skills rather than his direction. In fact, I think this show is a testament to why. Combining a text by Dan Spielman who is not only a highly regarded actor but an accomplished poet in his own right, Lyandvert knows exactly how to frame the text around a sound-scape of beautiful music and sounds. But the distance between what was being said on stage with what was shown and the sounds surrounding it was just too far apart and disjointed.

There are so many beautiful images within the show, (and with the stunning vocals of Jamal Rekabi) I could have been quite content with those two elements alone, but in many ways, this show made me pine for that time when Bogdan Koca was off down at the Pilgrim Theatre, displaying his Polish art performance theatrics despite the relative conservatism of what was happening in other theatres around the city.

Manna is certainly an adventure, but there are moments when you can happily shut your eyes and fill in the rest with your own imagination and in that way, Manna is quietly intriguing.


Lyrics and Text by Dan Spielman Director, Composer and Sound Designer Max Lyandvert
Visual Artists Kate Davis, Marisa Purcell Lighting Designer Emma Valente With Boris Brkic, Gertraud Ingeborg, Max Lyandvert, Dana Miltins, Jamal Rekabi, Jayne Tuttle


Until 12 July
Bookings 9250 1777 or http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/performance.asp?pID=252
$20 web tickets available

Image: Jayne Tuttle, Dana Miltins, Jamal Rekabi, Boris Brkic & Gertraud Ingeborg
PHOTO BY HEIDRUN LOHR

Review: Salome

Salome in Cogito Volume III
The Rabble

It has been so long since a show has divided audiences as vehemently as this one did on opening night. And with all the soap opera type of theatre going on at the moment it is a big and beautiful breath of fresh air.

Many audience members were ready to walk out they were so disgusted with this production. In fact one member was ready to put a call through to DOCS.

For this reviewer it is when you see this happening that you know that theatre still has a power to move and to shock. A power that many think is long lost.

But The Rabble have done it again. Bigger, better and more brilliant than their previous outing at CarriageWorks.

This time they take on the story of Salome, the step-daughter of Herod. The story goes that she danced (the dance of the Seven Veils) for Herod who was so taken by it that he promised her whatever she wanted.

“And the chance came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast to his lords, and the high captains, and the chief men of Galilee; And when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and did a dance, Herod and those who were at table with him were pleased with her; and the king said to the girl, Make a request for anything and I will give it you. And he took an oath, saying to her, Whatever is your desire I will give it to you, even half of my kingdom. And she went out and said to her mother, What is my request to be? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. And she came in quickly to the king, and said, My desire is that you give me straight away on a plate the head of John the Baptist. And the king was very sad; but because of his oaths, and those who were with him at table, he would not say 'No' to her. And straight away the king sent out one of his armed men, and gave him an order to come back with the head: and he went and took off John's head in prison, And came back with the head on a plate, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother.”
Mark 6: 21-28

For centuries, Salome was a figure of sinful lust – a femme fatal which then lead to 19th Century French novelist Flaubert using her as inspiration for a short story. Famously, Oscar Wilde then wrote a play about her and Richard Strauss an opera.

This is the second production that The Rabble have presented in the enormous and cavernous space at CarriageWorks. Bringing together all the literary influences of this mysterious female character, The Rabble have shown that this character can still divide audiences in a brutal way.

But it is not so much the literary history of the character that shocks, but rather the dark and adventurous playfulness they use to portray her. The staging, the grotesque characters, the props, the madness. It is all so wrong but at the same time it is deliciously just right.

With barely any words spoken, five actors play out the tragic story with absolutely stunning theatrical images, a soaring sound track and a creativity that is desperately needed in our oh-so dry theatrical landscape of kitchen sink drama and tame theatre adventures in Sydney.

By using the enormous depth and breadth of the space they create an atmosphere that wouldn’t be too removed from a freakish goth museum. In its presentation it has the smell of Castellucci, but The Rabble have enough talent, originality and delightful humour to easily get away with it.

This play is certainly not for everyone, but if you like your stories and your humour dark and strong, then Salome is the thing to see.

Until 17 May
$20-30
CarriageWorks
245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh NSW 2015.
http://www.carriageworks.com.au/
http://www.therabble.com.au/

Photo credit: Brett Boardman

Review: Colder

Colder by Lachlan Philpott
Pussycatomoko and Griffin Stablemates


From within minutes of Colder starting, I knew that this was not going to be a show for me. Try as I may over the course of its 80 minute duration to warm to it, I only came to dislike it more and more.

The plot of this new play from Lachlan Philpott is described on the Griffin Theatre website with the following;

"A young boy is separated from his mother and goes missing in Disneyland. Adrift in the artificial world of giant mice and noisy parades, nobody can account for what happened in the seven frantic hours before he's found.

Years later his life seems normal; stable; happy. But something about that day haunts him. Something about that day remains unresolved. And then, he disappears again…"

It's quite a riveting description for a synopsis, and indeed in the lead up to its world premiere last night it has already won the R.E Ross Trust Award and was short-listed for the 2007 Griffin Award as well.

But the appeal of this play is totally beyond me.

Not only did I have no idea what was going on throughout the show, I was utterly perplexed by the form in which it was delivered to the audience. Re-reading the website this morning I was taken aback when I saw the words 'and then, he disappears again ...'

Did he? I don't remember that.

But, forgive me, I am starting at the end and ignoring the beginning.

The play begins on a simple and clean set with Disneyland music playing over. Two chairs sit amongst a few towers of clear Tupperware which contain objects that later appear in the play. A middle aged woman is placed in the middle, grabs some wool and two needles and goes and sits in the audience to knit.

From there I was totally lost.

Six actors then deliver some prose that is sort of like a long monologue mixed in with some intermittent dialogue between the lost and found boy, his gay lovers, his girlfriend, his mother etc.

The actors move in and out of the space, in between the Tupperware, removing objects from the Tupperware speaking in unison like a Greek chorus to the audience. And after 80 minutes it then finishes.

The actors and the production team do an admirable job with a script that needs an enormous amount of work. One of the problems is the actors are forced to constantly describe what is going on and what the atmosphere is like. It is raining... I am standing... etc

As someone mentioned to me last night - "I am from the old-school of theatre, I want to be shown not told."

My reply was, of course - "But that's not the old-school of theatre, that's just common sense".

Which brings me back to its recent successes prior to performance. Off the page, it must read brilliantly and with all the descriptive phrases allow the reader to conjure up an image of what the play may or may not look like - somewhat like a novel.

But on the stage, in a form that isn't read and is delivered live, it stumbles and trips over without any impact at all.

And if anyone can tell me when he disappeared again, kindly let me know. I must have missed that bit.


Until 24 May
$22-29
griffintheatre.com.au
10 Nimrod Street Kings Cross

The Serpent's Teeth

This is not a review but merely some thoughts before I go off and see this production again.

But until that happens, I encourage you all to see Daniel Keene's new play at the Sydney Theatre Company, The Serpent's Teeth.

I was going to resist looking at what the blogosphere and my fellow critics were saying until I had returned, but curiosity got the better of me.

All of them have written quite tepidly about the production and one from my own newspaper totally missed the shocking beauty of the two plays. But criticism is so damn subjective isn't it?

It's the type of play that you have to sit with for a few days, a few weeks at the very least. To get perspective on what the STC have delivered in a short few words over night is damn impossible in my mind. Criticism is so subjective.

It is exhilarating to see the STC produce this work and in so many ways it asks a hell of a lot of a mostly superficial Sydney audience. I can just see the production team saying to themselves - have a bite of this and see how you go.

The Serpent's Teeth dives deep and dark. It asks clear questions about grief, about death, about responsibility and about humanity. It is, above all, confronting.

Admittedly, I think one of the two pieces is a lot weaker, production-wise, than the other. But I have to go back and see it to make sure.

I don't think that I have had the need to see a production twice for a very long time.

I suppose what I am saying is, beware the critic that has a deadline on this one. There is a lot more than meets the eye...

Review: Ruben Guthrie

Ruben Guthrie by Brendan Cowell
BSharp at Belvoir Street

Unedited version of review published in The Daily Telegraph

It’s quite timely that Brendan Cowell’s new play, Ruben Guthrie should tackle the topical issue of drinking and alcoholism. In Cowell’s piece, however, it isn’t a rugby league player or swimmer that he takes aim at but rather the wealthy lifestyle of a young advertising whiz at the height of success.

It’s the typical story, Ruben (Toby Schmitz) has it all – the car, the supermodel girlfriend, the well paying job and the great apartment.

But part and parcel of his life is the celebratory and what follows is the socialising, the drinking and the party drugs. Sure enough, his girlfriend leaves and Ruben is forced to analyse his living.

Forced to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Guthrie ends up with a polar opposite view to his drinking, getting involved with an obsessed ex-junkie (Megan Drury). Ruben suddenly finds himself in between love, in between conflicting social attitudes to his drinking and in between his family.

Directed by Wayne Blair, this is a tight production that uses the intimate Downstairs Belvoir theatre with an inventive design that ensures the pace doesn’t drop. Cowell’s script, however, just isn’t interesting enough to keep you engaged.

Cowell clearly displays his skills in wit, which is appropriately displayed during fast paced and clever scenes at Ruben’s advertising workplace and with his father, excellently portrayed by Lex Marinos. But the plot is predictable and the female characters two-dimensional and it is here that Cowell’s normally excellent writing lets the audience down.


Until 11 May
$23-29
Bookings 9699 3444 belvoir.com.au
25 Belvoir Street Surry Hills

Review: The Kid

The Kid By Michael Gow
SBW Stables

Unedited version of review published in The Daily Telegraph

It's regional Australia and young people are fleeing the bush and making their way to the big cities along the east coast.

Dean (Akos Armont) and his sister, Snake (Emma Palmer) are part of the exodus, as they hunt down some compensation in Sydney for their sick brother Aspro (Andrew Ryan).

The three delinquents refuel at a small dusty town where they find the young and naïve opera lover Donald (Eamon Farren) who Dean immediately takes a shining too. Unaccustomed to rejection Dean promptly captures Donald and drags him to Sydney.

The four arrive to find monolithic apartment blocks, a bureaucracy that wouldn’t be misplaced in a Franz Kafka creation and religious cult follower neighbours Desiree (Yael Stone) and father figure (Mark Pegler).

Although penned over twenty years ago this 2008 production of The Kid places it amongst the scores of plays that are currently emerging from the post- September 11 theatres of Britain and the US which contain a deep apocalyptic mood.

This makes the play lose none of its relevance but a big red pen would not have gone astray to make it more contemporary with cuts to some unnecessary and long-winded scenes.

The direction by Tom Healy is tight, utilising the small and intimate theatre space along with an economical and diverse set design by Gabrielle Logan. The ensemble is beautifully cast with some veteran and very recent acting graduates with the highlight being the deeply moving performance by Yael Stone as the affected child of a cult family.

Ironically this play was written at the end of another conservative period of governance in Australia and the question has to be asked – where are the current crop of new writers after this recent government. Are they too shy – or do they have nothing to say?


SBW Stables Theatre
10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross
Date19 March 2008 to 26 April 2008
Tickets$36-$43
Bookings1300 306 776
www.griffintheatre.com.au

Review: Fearless N

Fearless N
Review
Theatre Kantanka

First published in The Daily Telegraph

Part of the experience of seeing a performance at the Newington Armoury in Homebush Bay is the journey. Set on the shores of the Parramatta River, this most unlikely arts precinct is a mix of the historic and the natural and now plays host to performance, visual arts and rehearsals.

In the middle of it all the group from Theatre Kantanka have taken over a large warehouse and transformed it into a 1930’s Bollywood film set. Actors are rushing past, the sounds of lions, monkeys and elephants surround you, sets are wheeled past and a director starts barking at you as though you are an extra on this film set.

The production revolves around the true and astonishing story of Perth born Mary Evans (Chris Murphy) who moves to India with her parents in her early years. After performing with traveling theatre groups she is picked up by local film makers who transform her into an unlikely hero of Bollywood cinema – Fearless Nadia – a Tarzan like hero who always saves the day.

Director Carlos Gomes and writer Noelle Janaczewska have created a modern day musical spectacular that delves into the glitz and glam of her Bollywood stardom. From big musical numbers with a brilliant score to filming scenes with real-time footage projected to the back of the stage to more intimate stories of her love.

This is an astonishing work that is a model for the creation of a musical theatre genre that doesn’t conform to the traditional and tired. But the spectacle, audience involvement and height of theatricality could soar even more such is the amazing story behind this unlikely heroine. Fearless N should be just the beginning of an amazing theatrical journey.

Until March 23
Newington Armory, Sydney Olmpic Park
www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au
02 9714 7888
$18-25

Image: An original Fearless Nadia film poster from Circus Queen

EXCLUSIVE: Van Badham new associate of Old Fitz

Now one of the Sydney's most respected playwrights, Van Badham has been appointed as Associate Artist in charge of development for the Tamarama Rock Surfers theatre at the Old Fitzroy.

Returning to Australia only recently after a string of successes in the United Kingdom including a stint at the Royal Court Theatre, the position will see one of the most successful playwrights made accessible to local artists and developing theatre companies. It seems as though the Old Fitzroy is taking off where a bunch of theatres in Sydney have dropped the ball.

Her appointment is a double whammy for TRS which also launches their 2008 season tonight.

Included in this year's programme are:

- A re-mount of Al Dukes' Brilliant Monkey which opens on 19th March. You can read my review from their first showing HERE.

- The Packer by Dianna Fuemanam, a one-man show which has already toured to Edinburgh, Melbourne and Auckland.

- The Jinglists by Melbourne comedy duo Allsop and Henderson and directed by Ansuya Nathan who returns to the Old Fitz after receiving a Mike Walsh scholarship.

- Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Suzie Miller which will premiere at an off site venue that is yet to be announced. Any work that involves alternative spaces always gets my vote of approval. Take the theatre outta theatre I reckon!

- Poster Girl by the new resident associate Van Badham and directed by James Beach. It has Badham's usual worldly approach and this time she directs her focus on the role of the media. Bloody journalists!

- Citizen Corps by Melissa Bubnic and directed by recent NIDA grad Jessica Tuckwell. I just pray that Tuckwell is dealing with a better text than the one she directed recently.

- Leaves of Glass by Philip Ridley and directed by Pete Nettell. After seeing Ben Packer's Mercury Fur at The Stables last year, I can't wait to see this play from the same writer.

It sounds like an interesting season which has, as with all TRS seasons, the chance to either sink or soar. But that's the risk when you have a majority of new plays premiering.

I must admit to not knowing much about many of the people involved in this year's season, but hopefully that will all change over the course of the season.

The launch is tonight at Will & Toby's on Oxford Street from about 7.30 (I think).

Image: The Old Fitzroy Hotel, home to Tamarama Rock Surfers.