Review: Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen

As published in the Sun Herald.


Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen
Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company
Until 29 August
Tickets $30-50
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 8/10


The days when children were seen and not heard died about the same time as the baby boomers started to have their first offspring.

Now their grandchildren are in their teens and this new generation will not only be heard but will be heard loudly.

The brazenly titled Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen, from the Belgian group Ontroerend Goed, proves that what seems like teenage anarchy is quite simply ritual – a ritual we have all experienced. Maybe it’s a ritual we wish we could have over again.

Entering the space to the sound of the 13 performers who are hidden behind the walls screaming and banging memories come flooding back of mad bus rides home in the back seat and playground antics.

To the guitar riffs of the Velvet Underground, the teenagers enter the stage in a frenzy of pubescent energy, filling the space with youthful celebration.

With balloons, plastic bags, bottles of water, cups, string, roller skates and other everyday props, a scene is created that may seem chaotic but is orchestrated with absolute precision by director Alexander Devriendt. What the group shows is less about what happens but is more about flourishes in mood and tone as you have moments of love, affection, playfulness, naivety, strength, leadership, loneliness and belonging.

A bell then goes off, the teenagers retreat and the scene is once again played out and your eyes are drawn to any action on stage you may have missed earlier.

Then it is re-interpreted again in a multitude of parades, giving you the time to appreciate how you can see in each young face the child being left behind and the adult coming into focus. Ultimately, however, you start to see a reflection of yourself in days gone past.

But this isn’t just teenage kicks. In a scene more Radiohead than Jose Gonzalez, the ensemble dive deep into the fear of drugs, violence and addiction. It’s a fear for ourselves, for them and, by default, our community. The play then returns to the youthful abandon it began with.

Ignore the Board of Studies and their tired syllabus because this is the type of theatre that every student and teacher in Sydney should be made to go and see.

For those in their teens, as much as for those who are older, it is a delicate and beautiful offering that captures the spring awakening of the next generation and reminds us what it was like to be young.

Review: Kafka's Monkey

Kafka’s Monkey
Sydney Theatre Company
Until 25 April
Tickets $30-$65
Bookings (02) 9250 1777
Critic’s Rating 9/10


During David Attenborough’s famous broadcast with mountain gorillas in Rwanda he turns to the camera and quietly utters: “There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than with any other animal I know.”

From the moment Kathryn Hunter enters the vast stage space, in ill-fitting top and tails and with the gait of a monkey to address the "ladies and gentlemen of the academy", you know there will be an exchange rarely experienced in the theatre.

Initially a 1917 short story penned by Czech writer Franz Kafka and adapted for the stage by Colin Teevan - Kafka’s Monkey is an address by a lecturer about her existence as an ape five years previously.

Taken from west Africa and incarcerated in the cramp hull of a ship, she stumbles across the idea of imitating her captors to gain freedom from her cage.

As she analyses her new environment within human society, flashes of confinement return as she feels increasingly isolated. It’s at this moment you start to share that isolation as you look around at your fellow audience members (species) and hear their guffaws, applause and feel their breath.

This production from London’s Young Vic and directed by Walter Meierjohann is a theatrical delight not just for its effect but for the astonishing versatility in the physical and vocal skill of Hunter.

It is a performance at its most adventurous and brings the face of humanity eye to eye with our inner primate.

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

Night's Dream Tragedy

A performer from Tim Supple's critically acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last week died suddenly in Sydney after completing a tour of Australian festivals.

The production which was described by The Guardian as "the most life-enhancing production of Shakespeare’s play since Peter Brook’s ... the kind of Dream that leaves you wishing you never had to wake up" the show had just completed tours to Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.

Due to travel through India after its Arts Projects Australia appointments, the performer was tragically found in his room after a celebratory night out.

The loss must be a huge blow to the very successful and tightly knit cast and crew of twenty-three who have been on tour for so many months.

My thoughts and wishes are with them and the performer's family.

"This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad."

Review: Township Stories

Township Stories
South African State Theatre


South Africa is a very special place. Set against its natural beauty is a society so starkly at odds with itself that any trip there is always emotionally profound. From the open-wide veldt to the bustling cities it is a place of contradictions, a place of extremes.

It is from the impoverished and over populated regions that this production, Township Stories comes from. Framed by a wall of sheet metal, a common sight in the townships, four stories are played out and intertwined.

The play opens up with a young girl running for her life. She screams and falls and picks herself up and is dragged back till finally she is found centre-stage murdered.

The local detective (Chuck Shisana) arrives with his colleagues to investigate. There is a serial killer on the loose who murders his victims with their underwear – the "g-string murderer".

Framing this is the story of schoolgirl Matlakala (Koketso Mojela) and her drunken father Dan (Molefi Monaisa). Matlakala runs away from home after fighting with her abusive mother and finds herself in the township with gangster Dario Sephai (Tshallo Chokwe).

With his violent past, Sephai is hauled into the station for questioning over the murders. But the detective is having problems of his own, and takes his rage out on the suspect. We soon learn that he lost his wife suddenly and consequently took his grief out on his son Thabo (Olebogeng Sebotha).

With sixteen actors playing over twenty different characters, this production is epic in its scale and Shakespearean in its tragedy. Scenes flow straight into the other and the mood created with its simply beautiful stagecraft is something to behold. From street scenes, to the bars, to the homes, you could be walking through the middle of Capetown or Johannesburg.

Quite simply, this production is worth every penny and worth the drive to Wollongong if you are in Sydney. But it’s not a tourist journey. It’s an intense piece that challenges the way you see things and forces you to consider your position and your point of view. As one character says at the very end ‘it’s all relative’.


Merrigong Theatre
Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
www.merrigong.com.au
Until 23 Feb $19-52

The Power of Theatre

In October 2005 I took a flight from Sydney to Melbourne to see a show presented at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. From the moment I had laid my hands on the glossy programme, this one show was a stand-out and the single reason that in a matter of an hour I booked a plane, a hotel room and a ticket for one.

And I wasn’t alone. When many lovers of theatre had heard that Theatre de Soleil’s epic Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees) was to have a run at the Royal Exhibition Building in the beautiful grounds of the Carlton Gardens, phone calls and emails darted through the wired cities with plans afoot to head to Melbourne.

After the presentation of The Flood Drummers at the Sydney Festival in 2001, many were head over heels in love with the stunningly unique work of Ariane Mnouchkine’s theatre troupe.

While audiences in Sydney were being wowed by The Flood Drummers, Artistic Director Mnouchkine was out each day, heading to Villawood Detention Centre to interview refugees caught within the web of international political opportunism.

Mnouchkine’s new found passion for the rights of refugees had been first sparked after meeting other refugees, usually from the Middle East, who had been interned at the French Red Cross camp in the small village of Sangatte in France.

In an interview with the New York Village Voice, she said that people she met “came from the Middle East and the Far East, and the French Red Cross set up a centre so people wouldn't have to sleep on the street. It was very controversial because the British said we were helping the refugees get to England, which resulted in the French police trying not to let the people out of France. I asked permission to go and see this place, with someone of Iranian background, who became one of our actors. I had to explain that I wasn't a journalist who could help them in the way they'd come to expect from journalists, that I was mainly interested in hearing about their lives. They said, 'Yes, but what can you do about our lives?' And I said, 'I can't really do anything but tell the stories.'"

And so, the seed for Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees) was born.

Attending the seven hour show in Melbourne was a physically and emotionally exhausting experience like no other. Beginning with some projected written correspondence between Mnouchkine and a young female refugee the stories of loss, hope and dislocation start.

As Alison Croggon of Theatre Notes explained in her beautiful letter to the director, it was the stories of "voyagers which you and your company collected and shaped into this work of art. They are the stories of human beings in exile - Kurds, Afghanis, Russians, Chechnyans, Bosnians, Africans... there are so many wars, after all, and so many famines of different kinds. And you know that as well as being full of grief and love and generosity, human beings can be murderous, cruel, weak, ignorant and stupid. That they might be cruel or stupid doesn't mean that they might not be also victims of forces beyond their control. We still hold an idea of victimhood as entitlement, which is linked to the "deserving poor", the dichotomies of good and evil. But a person might be wicked, and still suffer.”

Last night, I met young man at a political forum. He was an Iraqi refugee. His father was Iranian and his mother was Iraqi. With tensions escalating between the two countries, his mother was accused of spying for the Iranian government merely because she was a Shiite. Suddenly this family were in danger.

He told me his story in a dim corner of a rowdy bar and explained the steps they took to get out of harm’s way. Suddenly images of Mnouchkine’s show came surging back.

The images of leaky boats, of people stranded on board and images of detention centres in the middle of no where.

He told me of the torture techniques employed by the Australian authorities and the mind games played by immigration officials. And again, scene by scene, the true stories that had informed Mnouchkine to create her epic theatrical masterpiece jolted me out my chair.

And again I got uncomfortable, as though I just couldn’t hear it all again. But scarily I realised that I had put my feelings about Tampa, children overboard and Woomera in the back of mind. Last night they came streaming back. Last night I remembered why I could never ever vote for the Liberal Party today.

All quiet on the western front… again.

My apologies to all for dragging my feet to update the blog. I am currently juggling the beginnings of a new contract as well as trying to still find moments to sneak off to the theatre.

Consequently the blog, my poor blog has suffered.

Mentally, I am also gearing up for the Sydney Festival. One of my favourite, favourite events. There is something about a festival that makes the air smell sweet. And whether you are in Sydney, Melbourne, Berlin, London or even my dear Ljubljana, a festival is always a magical experience.

I think it’s the feeling of an international focus, it’s the people on the streets, it’s the fiesta, it’s the summer time.

The launch last Thursday evening at the Opera House gave an insight into what a great festival it will be again this year. There is something about the combination of Artistic Director Fergus Linehan and General Manager Josephine Ridge that creates a great synergy for the festival. They are probably the most friendly and approachable in the game.

The whole festival atmosphere certainly took the arts journo’s from all the major outlets with it, as we all ended up drinking late night cocktails at some Circular Quay bar to the sound of salsa music. And on a school night too.

I was even luckier to have captured some of the festival spirit only the week before. As you may know, I managed to pop down to Melbourne and catch the last gasps of MIAF. Due to some enormous Singapore Airlines plane taking off and an associated publicity stunt coupled with a few thunder storms in Sydney, I managed to miss a show on the Friday evening. But I did catch the fiesta at the Spiegeltent later that evening, befriending an ensemble of Catalan artists from Teatre Lliure who were performing in the show European House.

Coincidentally, their show was the one I was attending the following evening at the Arts Centre. And I have to disagree with Alison Croggon’s review to say that I absolutely adored the show.

European House is boldly advertised as a prologue to Hamlet from the moment the show begins. Facing us is a three story dolls house view of a contemporary home. The kitchen, the lounge, the study, bedrooms, bathroom and garden. It is a voyeur’s view that harks back to something out of Rear Window.

From the moment that the family arrive home from the funeral (of King Hamlet) the beautiful depth of this production digs out a movie-like contemporary tragedy as the fathers death grips the household. The maid quietly goes about her business without making a sound, young Hamlet breaks down while his dear friend Horatio gives him a shoulder to cry on and Gertrude sits silently in her room overwhelmed by sorrow. Until, slightly into the play the house blacks out and King Hamlet’s shadow appears in a red light of the master bedroom.

Purists will dislike European House, but for this audience member it showed the way Shakespeare can be transcend so many forms. It is like discovering Kurosawa, Kozintzev or West Side Story.

This moment dawned on me as the cast stopped in their tracks to the domestic drama and as one faced the audience and starting mouthing the words to ‘No surprises’ by Radiohead.

This is my final fit, my final bellyache with

No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please

Such a pretty house, such a pretty garden

No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises please (let me out of here)

It was a beautiful anthem for Hamlet and it was supported by the quintessential video clip image that should have made this compulsory viewing for every high school student in the country.

Bring on the Sydney Festival. But I, sure as hell, want as many alarms and surprises as I can get.

Allocation Exhausted

UPDATE: For the latest in Sydney Festival news please CLICK HERE for my live blog.


Just hours after launching the Sydney Festival 2008 programme, the headline act Bjork has already sold out. Is this a sign of things to come for the ever popular Sydney Festival?

This, Fergus Linehan's third year at the helm, looks to be the most successful festival programme yet and is an exhilarating foray into a musical wonderland and a spectacle of dance.

Breaking with the tradition of exclusivity, Linehan has dispensed with the conga-lines of security buffoons and invited the entire city to the opening night festivities. There'll be no door list for this event.

Kids will be invited into the central plaza of Martin Place for festivities as they write down their 'hopes and dreams for Sydney in the year ahead'. These hopes and dreams will then be broadcast on massive projections throughout the night, reminding us all of our inner innocence, our inner faith. The Place will then transform into a massive outdoor dance venue to the beat of DJ's and local and international musical acts.

The evening will crack along as Brian Wilson and Paul Kelly stage a huge free concert in the Domain. This will be coupled by live bands pumping out salsa, tango, jive under the trees in Hyde Park. Macquarie Street will upstage St Mary's cathedral as three couples from a Sunday Telegraph competition will walk up a red carpet aisle with 20,000 onlookers.

Now, that's an opening night. "Welcome, welcome, welcome."

The programme for this year's festival is really a salute to two distinct areas, Australian Dance and Indigenous Arts which are both represented proudly and with attitude.

For the last couple of years there have been grumble-grumblings from the local community about the lack of Australian content. This year makes amends and Linehan has programmed a thorough series of events that appropriately showcase what many consider to be the real export of Australia's performing arts.

At the apex of the dance programme is the About an Hour series, which returns once again to the Sydney Opera House. It will include the new work from Chunky Move, a contemporary story from Stephen Page, Lucy Guerin's Aether, Kate Champion's The Age I'm In, Shaun Parker's This Show Is About People and the last choreographic work from Tanja Liedtke Construct.

Coupled with three works from Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato and the Compania Nacional De Danza who last came to the Sydney Festival in 2001, this should be a treat of a festival for those who like a bit of toe-tapping.

On the Indigenous front, Linehan has brought together a beautiful programme that cuts across the artistic boundaries of classic Australian musical ballads, urban rock, physical theatre and South Australian story-telling.

For many the Kev Carmody retrospective concert at the State Theatre will be an event not to be missed. Especially when you have a line-up of singers such as Paul Kelly, Dan Kelly, Tex Perkins, Clare Bowditch, The Drones, Missy Higgins, Steve Kilbey and Sara Storer all singing the classic anthems from Carmody's prolific and beautiful career.

The Black Arm Band will also burst out onto the Indigenous stage, but this time at the Opera House with a concert that will feature the stunning vocals of Ursula Yovich (I saw her pick up the microphone late into the night at a party a few months ago, and I implore you to believe the hype... she is awesome), Archie Roach, Bart Willoughby, Emma Donovan, Ruby Hunter, Dan Sultan and again Kev Carmody.

In association with Company B, the festival will also be presenting BIG hART's Ngapartji Ngapartji which when translated from the local South Australian dialect means "I give you something, you give me something." Central to what is billed as a beautiful theatrical journey is the belief that this country must do more to protect and promote local indigenous languages. So watch as the theatrical journey then becomes one of shared cultures and a beautiful candle for honest reconciliation.

The central focus of this year's festival is well and truly music. You are already too late for Bjork, but don't despair because there is also Beach Boy musical visionary Brian Wilson, Sufjan Stevens, Fourplay, Martin Craft, Mice Parade, Joanna Newsom performing with the Sydney Symphony, The Triffids, slam poetry and afro-pop acts from South Africa, the Finnish Iiro Rantala Trio, Pink Martini, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Meow Meow, and my pick of the musical genre - accordion-playing revolutionary Kimmo Pohjonen.

Then of course the is the usual crazy fiesta at the Hyde Park Barracks Museum and the Beck's Festival Bar with acts such as De La Soul, Mudhoney, Amp Fiddler and Spank Rock.

Hyde Park will also be transformed into a Festival Garden with Sydney Arts Journo's favourite summer watering hole the Famous Spiegeltent making a welcome return bringing acts like La Clique with it. Next door in the garden will be the Cirque Ici Tent where Johann Le Guillerm will perform mad circus performance nightly with two electro-acoustic live musicians.

For the theatre set, this is not really the festival for you. Previous years have delivered a feast of the text based magic, but apparently Linehan couldn't find appropriate acts for this years festival. Despite this, there are two shows coming from the National Theatre of Scotland - Black Watch, which tells the story of Scotland's iconic 300-year old Black Watch Regiment and how it has a head on collision with the new 'war on terror'.

The NTS will also present at CarriageWorks, Aalst, a show developed with the Belgian theatre company Victoria. Based on a true story, it is a domestic theatrical journey which follows the trial and conviction of a husband and wife who murder their infant daughter and young son.

My favourite theatrical rebels and theatre-event convention breakers, Urban Theatre Projects present another show this year The Last Highway. Performed in a service station in Bankstown the show will centre itself on the characters that come in and out of the station - sex workers, taxi drivers, shift workers and no doubt your token hoon in his pumped up noise machine.

The stunning and magical James Thieree, nephew of Charlie Chaplin, also makes a very exciting return for the third year in a row with Au Revoi Parapluie. If his previous two shows are any guide, this will be a theatrical delight.

The rest of the festival is made up of all the usual free outdoor events, domain concerts and quirky events made to get everyone in Sydney at least touched by this beautiful event. The pick of them for me is Haircuts by children, where local ten year olds will offer free haircuts at salons in Parramatta and Darlinghurst. The bill says 'after a team of children participate in a series of training workshops with local professional stylists, everyone is invited to get a free haircut.

But, if I was you, I'd get in early. This festival is going to capture a city and send ripples of creativity into a state of mass fiesta... and without a doubt the ticketek website will be in a constant state of 'Allocation Exhausted'.


Sydney Arts Journo Festival Picks

Theatre
Black Watch - National theatre of Scotland
James Thieree - Au Revoir Parapluie
National Theatre of Scotland - Aalst
Ngapartji Ngapartji at Belvoir St
Urban Theatre Projects - The Last Highway

Dance and Performance
Nacho Duato and the Compania Nacional De Danza
Lucy Guerin - Aether
Cirque Ici
La Clique at the Famous Spiegeltent
Tanja Liedtke - Construct

Music
Sufjan Stevens
House of the Holy Afro - Third World Bunfight
Pink Martini
Chromeo
Kimmo Pohjonen

My Island Home

My Island Home is a snapshot of modern Australian cultural excellence - a celebration of a confident nation rejoicing and showcasing the wealth of talented performers that call the earth’s largest island “home”.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House for the APEC Australia 2007 Gala Cultural Performance. Sydney is a truly global city with two defining icons – the world heritage listed Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Tonight’s performance provides a snapshot of modern Australia and features over 200 young performers and famous artists showcasing the very best of contemporary Australian performing arts.

The Asia-Pacific is a region that has emerged as the fastest growing and most dynamic in the world, and tonight’s performance embodies this spirit. It spans a diversity of genres, including classical and indigenous music, modern dance and musical theatre, and traditional ballet and opera.

‘My Island Home’ takes us all on a journey through a diverse programme sharing Australia’s cultural heritage with our friends from around the Asia-Pacific region.

The Hon John Howard MP
Prime Minister of Australia

So, what did our international guests enjoy last night during the APEC Australia 2007 Gala Cultural Programme?

The evening got off to a bang with conductor Andrew Greene leading the Australian Opera & Ballet Orchestra in the main title theme from the film The Man From Snowy River.

Yes, that's right - The Man From Snowy River. Isn't it astonishing that we had to travel back to 1982 to find a film worthy of playing the main theme from.

To give you some perspective, the equivalent would be the US getting the New York Symphony Orchestra to play Gandhi or ET to display their cultural might in 2007. But wait - it does get better.

This was soon followed by, as promised, You're the Voice (1986) performed by soloist Robert Adam and an array of kids from Gondwana Voices and the Sydney Childrens Choir. The John Farnham retrospective was swiftly followed up by the 'Somewhere Medley'.

What, may you ask, is the 'Somewhere Medley'?

Well, let me tell you...

Picture, if you will, six singers (Sophie Carter, Amelia Cormack, Ben Lewis, Alexander Lewis, James Millar and Christina O'Neill) centre stage in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

The lights come up on young Sophie, Amelia, Ben, Alex, James and Christina who earnestly look into the crowd. Picture if you will, the world leaders - Vladimir Putin, George Bush, Hu Jintao, Shinzo Abe, Gloria Arroyo looking back. The sextet then slowly start singing Somewhere Out There:

Somewhere out there, Beneath the pale blue night, Someone's thinking of me, And loving me tonight. Somewhere out there, Someone's saying a prayer, Then we'll find one another, In that big somewhere out there.

After polite applause they then get a little more serious and tackle that ever-faithful anthem of earnestness Over the Rainbow:

Somewhere over the rainbow, Way up high, There's a land that I heard of, Once in a lullaby.

The song trails off as the performers transport the world leaders to Oz... yes that's right Toto, to Oz!

The audience by this point must be wishing that if they click their heels they are transported somewhere... please god... anywhere!

Which makes the power of the next song so relevant and cruelly ironic - none other than Somewhere from West Side Story:

There's a place for us, Somewhere a place for us, Peace and quiet and open air, Wait for us, Somewhere.

Let me take a short interval here by saying that this programme would have to be one of the most embarrasing elements of the entire APEC Forum. It could beat the Chaser team making their way past two security posts or even George W Bush calling APEC - OPEC and Australia - Austria or it could even beat the non-existent aspirational and non-binding climate change targets set by the forum...

To think that the staff and advisers from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet would serve this up can only be described as nothing short of bad taste that is utterly blind to the actual cultural activities in this country.

The programme was appalling. The Somewhere Medley for goodness sake! What on earth is a Somewhere Medley?

Let me be very clear about this. This programme of events must have been altered, changed and re-jigged until the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had officially approved it and I don't think that any blame could possibly be passed onto the exceptional artists involved.

And the world leaders and delegates and international media are told by the Prime Minister that this event is 'showcasing the very best of contemporary Australian performing arts'. You may as well have given the politicians and world leaders a lagerphone and a gum leaf. Here you go Skip!

The arts industry should be furious at the department for allowing this type of event to even make it onto paper. If I was an original composer I would be most particularly concerned at the complete lack of original Australian composition used in the gala. The amount of American and European content in this production is stupefying. And this is the ASIA-PACIFIC Economic Forum. You could be forgiven for thinking behind those security fences that cultural diversity in Australia is something you only find in restaurants.

There should be complaints made by the arts industry and multicultural bodies to express worry into how our culture is portrayed by this government on an international level.

With the activities of the Australia International Cultural Council now provided with $20.4 million of funds over four years through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, I hope to god that events like last night are not the norm in how we present the very best of contemporary Australian performing arts.

Let me concede at this point that it is oh-so-thankful that Artistic Director Stuart Maunder put in a bit of Bangarra Dance, Taikoz, Australian Ballet and Opera Australia to soften the blows - otherwise the entire affair could have gone down in history as the worst concert ever staged in the Sydney Opera House.

There's a time for us, Some day a time for us, Time together, With time to spare, Time to look, Time to care, Someday, Somewhere.

We'll find a new way of living, We'll find a way of forgiving, Somewhere, There's a place for us, A time and place for us.

Hold my hand, And we're halfway there, Hold my hand, And I'll take you there, Somehow, Someday, Somewhere...

By god, we better find a way. Somehow. Someday. Somewhere. Go on, readers, hold my hand.


As published on Crikey.com

Nicole Alexander: recalibrating Australian opera

As published in ArtsHub Australia.


Most things you read about Nicole Alexander are centred on how young she is. It's almost an obsession for writers. However, it's not really Alexander's youth that stands out but rather the passion and confidence she has for her work along with the belief she has for her productions that is most impressive.

It is so acute that it rubs off on you. If she decided not to pursue her career as a producer she could certainly make a big living as a motivational speaker standing in front of a hundred thousand people getting them all to rise to their feet.

Right now, however, she is motivated to get the Australian public to rise to their feet in the name of opera. Viewed by many as an antiquated art form, Alexander is determined to make it not only accessible to audiences, but also accessible to the young talent emerging from the recital halls of the Conservatorium of Music.

"I am critical of the fact that it's very hard for a younger performer to break into the industry even if they are as good as the older performers," she says. "I am trying not only to provide opportunities but also attract the attention of a wider audience from the established opera audiences.

"I really believe in developing younger performers and I don't think there is nearly enough opportunities for up and coming artists and that's been my whole thing. We have one national opera company and they are a great company, but there really isn't anyone in Sydney giving the opportunity. We have the most incredible talent here. It's quite disturbing."

Her newest venture is the opera Dead Man Walking, a multi-million dollar production that she has been trying to get off the ground for almost two years. Originally a book written by Sister Helen Prejean and then made famous by the 1995 film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, the opera is the debut of American composer Jake Heggie.

The pride with which she talks about this production shows that this is something very close to her heart, not only for its subject matter, but also its creative possibility. "I watched the film and then I read the book and when I heard that there was an opera I went and got archival copies of the DVD from the Adelaide and overseas productions. I just fell in love with the music. It's very romantic. It may be a modern opera but its not a-tonal, it's lyrical, it's got heart.

"The movie is one thing but to heighten the drama of it through music is just another thing. Dead Man Walking is a great conglomeration of different genres. There's pop, there's rock, there's opera, there's negro spiritual.

Putting this production together has been one of the hardest tests that Alexander has been through. "There were people when I started campaigning for this that said 'you will never get this up'. Two years ago we had a sponsorship launch and I said I am not going to stop till I succeed in this. I went and got a tattoo of Dead Man Walking on my hip and I said I am not going to stop till I get this up. It's about the piece, it's a work that's really important."

Talk about dogged determination. At first, the conservatorium trained singing graduate attempted to raise the funds to tour an American production to Australian capitals. She aggressively fundraised for a number of years till she exhausted the local philanthropy market. When that reached a dead-end, she changed tact. The result is an all-Australian cast in an all-new Australian production that hopes to tour overseas.

"When I couldn’t raise the funds," Alexander explains, "I went back to the drawing board. If we put together a brand new Australian production there must be an Australian producer out there that would get behind it. But I thought, cost-wise, it would be more effective to bring in a production but it's not the case at all.

"So I took this to Andrew McManus who I had done some work with in the past and he was very interested in taking this on. For rock-n-roll producers their philosophy is that you don’t have to treat classical music the way you are 'meant to'. You must think outside the square. Just because Opera Australia will produce events a certain way - we don't have to".

This attitude is central to what sets Alexander apart from the opera establishment. It is a risk-taking conviction to produce work that not only incorporates the talent of new and emerging artists but to also bring together the skills of people who wouldn't normally be involved in an opera production.

Nigel Jamieson, whose latest success was Honour Bound, a physical theatre show that explored David Hicks' five-year incarceration in Guantanamo Bay is the director. New Zealand opera pin-up Teddy Tahu Rhodes who adorns the hero-image of the marketing collateral takes the lead role of Joseph de Rocher. Hayden Tee, a familiar face on the Sydney cabaret circuit also makes an appearance, as well as Australian Idol celebrity Anthony Callea. Put radio personality Alan Jones into the mix as the para-legal character and the show is a marketing managers dream.

Alexander talks of Jones with a great deal of affection. "Alan has been a fantastic patron who has helped raise money for our trust over the last couple of years. He has been an amazing supporter of the project from day one and he feels so strongly against the death penalty the he wanted to be involved to make people aware of this".

It's clear that Alexander wants to open up her preferred art form to a wider and more appreciative audience, particularly when it comes to serious social issues. "We need to continue to develop our audiences for the future otherwise we aren't going to have an industry. We also need to be putting on works that open up discussions about things that we are facing as a society. Capital punishment is relevant to what's happening in Australia right now. The Bali nine, the hanging of Van Nguyen. We're having to deal with this issue at the moment even though we don't impose the death penalty. It's something that we have to face. We should discuss it."

Her point of difference is also ensuring that the seasoned professionals are teamed up with the young talent of the country whom Alexander is totally dedicated to. "Not only do we have the cream of the cream in terms of the best performers in the country, we also have a cast of 15 children between the ages of 7 and 10. We have a very talented 16 year old who played Escamillo in my production of Carmen as well as a mix of older and younger singers straight of the conservatorium."

Alexander has found a rare niche in the performing arts. With that space now filled by her ambition and drive, the only thing left is to continue ensuring the longevity of her love of opera and to keep audiences coming back. And no one will be able to tell her otherwise.

"There are so many people that are put down in industry and give up. But it's so important to not to listen and to just keep going. Particularly in opera, otherwise it just won't evolve."


Images: Top - Nicole Alexander, Bottom - Teddy Tahu Rhodes

So much excitement in a link...

I am not going to even write anything about this... The excitement speaks for itself...

Go here.

Arts Journalism Simplified

Some of the things that arts journalists write in Sydney beggar belief.

In today's Sydney Morning Herald, Bryce Hallett and Valerie Lawson wrote a wrap-up story of the Sydney Festival. Overall it was a relatively straight forward article - the festival was a success, it made such-and-such profit, wasn't that show wonderful, shame about this and that etc etc.

Then, in a little corner of the article, the Herald decides to put a little box of festival 'Hits' and 'Misses' entitled The Wash-Up. (Does anyone have any idea what exactly The Wash-Up means?) And under 'Misses' is the wonderful production of Seemanslieder. This was a production I loved. So many of my colleagues loved it. Sure it wasn't for everyone - but a 'miss'???

I quickly refer back to the SMH review by John Shand. What was it he said about Seemanslieder?

"It was daring, funny, surreal and poignant..."

Suddenly Hallett and Lawson decide to then earmark the production as something else, saying:

"It has always been Linehan's aim to make the broad-based festival intelligent, accessible and fun but he is not sure why audiences embraced an event that was not all plain sailing, as Christoph Marthaler's lengthy mosaic Seemannslieder testified. One reader took issue with the Herald's review and called the performance 'a dog'."

Indeed, I remember reading that letter. Took a cursory glance at it and thought that Seemanslieder certainly wasn't for everyone and what a shame that the said letter writer didn't appreciate the magic of the production.

From there, Hallet and Lawson decide to call Seemanslieder 'slow, studied and interrupted by audience walk-outs'. Surely, after years reporting on the arts, they should be aware that some performances are not always for everyone.

There were some events that many championed that I disliked. But that hardly warrants the tag of a 'miss'. Thankfully for us, Fergus Linehan is the festival director and a little more measured in branding events in such simplistic terms as a hit or a miss.

Review: Uncle Vanya (Дядя Ваня)

Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
Sydney Festival
Sydney Theatre - 23 January 2007


Recently, I was discussing with a Russian friend of mine the great canon of work in Australia theatre. I asked him at one point whether there was a translation of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.

Wryly, he looked at me and said "Why? We have Chekhov."

Indeed.

And this week, Sydney audiences have the most glorious fortune of being able to have a bit of that Chekhov for ourselves - Uncle Vanya. And it is a Chekhov in the most dazzling light of intricacy and understatement. It is a breath-taking journey that captures human emotion in an almost photographic way.

Declan Donnellan on Checkov said he "clearly sees the distance between what we want to say and the meagre words we have to say it". The power of this notion is gently placed on your shoulder over three hours. It tends you. It holds you until the final moments when it makes your hair stand on end as you slide down into the plays despair.

Russian theatre, so steeped in the traditions of Stanislavsky, make the newer acting techniques appear so infantile. The staging of this production, the seemlessness, the performances, it is all so intricate, that from one scene to the next, you are always unsure of how they got there.

But then you are overwhelmed by the sheer weight of what each of these characters say and the weightlessness in which they stage it. This production of Uncle Vanya is the best theatre you will experience.

I wish I could better phrase my feelings on last night's performance, however, I have been so forcefully reminded that the distance between what we want to say and the meagre words we have to say it makes that almost impossible.


Photo Credit: Prudence Upton, courtesy of the Sydney Festival

Review: The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac

The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac
Sydney Festival
The Studio, Sydney Opera House - 19 January 2007


To get to the Sydney Opera House for a 'performance art' drag piece by American Taylor Mac, I happened to walk past the Hon. Brendon Nelson, Australian Minister for Defence, having a late night Chinese supper around a lazy susan.

It was slightly surreal. The sun was setting over Sydney Harbour on a warm summer evening, and my mind flickered as I looked at the honourable member thinking of his department's woes in that little theatre of war in the Middle East.

"Enjoying your dinner Minister?"

The surreal then became a little more strange as I took my seat to watch Taylor Mac dress and 'deconstruct' his take on the War on Terror.

I wish that the Minister had been there, sharing this experience among the hearty crowd that guffawed and applauded the beautiful cynicism of the show.

Everything that Taylor Mac does in his show has the aim to break conventions of theatre performance and political satire. He isn't your typical Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Perfect eyeshadow and makeup is replaced by clown like lines and layers of glitter. Immaculate frocks are replaced by misfitting outfits, put on backwards, upside down and inside out. Oh, and he sings his own songs. He's more Jack Smith than Liza Minnelli.

If the minister had had the proper advice, he could have been there to see what is obviously the direct result of what happens to a person when their country is up to their neck in violence and extremism. A country where influential groups actively protest against abortion and homosexuality and yet gleefully support war and the death penalty. It really is mind-boggling.

As much as Taylor Mac made jokes about unattended baggage, terror alerts and the Iraq War, it is obvious that the position that the US finds itself is taking its toll on its more moderate citizens. Even an intelligent and charming performer like Taylor Mac.

His last song 'There is nothing to fear, but fear itself' wrapped up a show which could be seen as a call of desperation. A protest which demands some sense in a world that feels as though it is spinning out of control. The Beast of Taylor Mac may very well be called the Beast of Burden of Taylor Mac.




Photo Credit: Prudence Upton, courtesy of the Sydney Festival

Review: Eh Joe

Eh Joe by Samuel Beckett
Sydney Festival
Parade Theatre - 18 January 2007


Eh Joe, the only piece written by Samuel Beckett specifically for television, could be one of the first texts that flags the coming of reality TV.

I am loath to compare Beckett to reality TV, but Eh Joe has all the elements that intrude a viewer on the ugly life of an ordinary person. Written in 1965, this production from the Gate Theatre Dublin directed by Canadian film maker Atom Egoyan, brings to the stage the ultimate in invasive voyeurism.

A man is alone in his bed-sit. He checks the windows, the doors, the cupboard. He is alone with his mind. Not even a draft will enter his room as he closes the curtains to the world and sits alone on his bed.

Then a voice, a female voice from his past, begins. The audience is then left alone with the words, as a camera off-stage projects his face onto a scrim and we are left to watch and listen, seeing every detail of his eyes, wrinkles, mouth, beating chest.

It's uncomfortable hearing the words of the woman in Joe's mind. Horrific imagery is followed swiftly by castigation as she reminds him of the past and his loneliness.

Like reality TV it was an offensive experience of intrusion. I didn't want to hear this verbal assault with all of those people around. The slightest noise, a chuckle, a wrapper, a cough constantly reminded me that I wasn't alone, and neither was Joe.

Theatre is the great art that brings people together to collectively share an experience. But sharing gives the idea of something positive encountered by a group. For the first time in my theatre going life, I didn't want anyone else to be sharing this with me. I wanted to be alone, just as Joe, and I didn't want to be reminded so starkly that life is the people in it - otherwise it's just the 'silence of the grave without the maggots'.



Photo Credit: Prudence Upton, courtesy of the Sydney Festival

Review: Seemanslieder

Seemanslieder/Op hoop van zegen
Sydney Festival
Sydney Theatre - 10 January 2007

By securing Cristoph Marthaler's Seemanslieder for the Sydney Festival, Fergus Linehan has again presented a theatrical masterpiece. Unknown to many Australians, Swiss director Marthaler is well known in Europe as a controversial figure developing a theatre that is thematically challenging and abstract. Michael Billington of the Guardian calls Marthaler's work "pessimistic and anarchic... a Marxist of the Groucho tendency."

Produced by the Flemish company NT Gent, Seemanslieder is a meditative spectacle that sinks the audience into the water to float, to watch and to reflect. But you have to work at it though. There’s a tendency for Australian audiences to expect pragmatic performance and there’s a tendency for mainstage Australian theatre makers to satisfy it. This makes Seemanslieder such refreshing theatre.

Walking into the Sydney Theatre you are welcomed by a working waiting room stained with the breath and oil of a hundred people waiting for those gone to the sea. A waitress stands at a bar, a man at a piano, women waiting on benches and men loitering.

One by one, the characters shift and change, entering the space with a fluidity that can only come from the familiarity of waiting. For each of the characters waiting is someone you know and as soon as you recognise this, the better the journey.

The waiting is then explored. Through a mixture of traditional, choral and popular song, Chaplinesque physicality, literature and storytelling, the characters tell you tales of lost ones, of lost hope and the force of nature upon their community.

Primarily set in the late 1950's, reminiscent of the time that the dyke's broke and flooded Holland, the text and music also show the power of the ancient sea with Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, Joseph Conrad and Herman Heijermans’ Dutch classic, Op Hoop Van Zegen (God Help Us).

The characters, the music, the text fill the space, using every corner of the stage, the walls, the nooks and cranny's creating a piece that is the essence of ensemble. And for two and a half hours it envelops you, sucking you in.

If you find yourself seeking conventional theatre you will miss the simple beauty of the music and stories of Seemanslieder. The detail in which Marthaler presents these everyday people is stunning in its celebration of the ordinary and all of this makes it extraordinarily moving.

Also published on NT Gent.

Feature article about Cristoph Marthaler here and here.

Photo Credit: Pile Deprez

A Swiss Must Sea

I don’t make the sort of theatre that’s intended to change the world. I would never be able to do that. I want to awaken something in people.
Christoph Marthaler


I knew of Christoph Marthaler’s reputation through years of sniffing around the great festivals and theatres of Europe, but his productions have always eluded me. Who was this man that made theatre through music? Who was said to create a performance atmosphere entirely unique in Europe today? I could hear the standing ovations from Paris to Berlin to London but I never seemed to catch him. Finally, a 30 minute walk from where I live in inner city Sydney, Marthaler will present his latest production as part of the 2007 Sydney Festival. I'll get to meet his work, with the rest of Australia, for the first time.

The arrival of Marthaler’s epic Seemannslieder to Sydney shores marks the latest instalment of great theatre makers on festival shores - following Artistic Director Fergus Linehan's previous exports, Cheek by Jowl’s Twelfth Night and Robert Lepage’s The Andersen Project.

There is often a mythology around the great theatre directors of the world, from Brook to Donnellan to Mnouchkine to Lepage, their influences span far and wide. Marthaler, sometimes dubbed the "bad boy of the Swiss theatre", is no different.

His Seemannslieder, which means Sailor Songs, brings to life the stories of a Dutch port town based on Herman Heijermans’ classic, Op Hoop Van Zegen (God Help Us). The production explores the lives of everyday people that live on the dykes of Holland. All of them are subject to the powers of nature, at the whim of their environment and the sea. It is women waiting for their men to come back. It is men lost to the sea. Using Joseph Conrad and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman as a backdrop, Marthaler has created a theatrical event that could be called a meditative spectacle.

The characters in the production, says dramaturg Paul Slangen, are “between two worlds...they are imprisoned between past and future, but have no clear view of the situation they find themselves in because it is constantly changing. While the ship is making its journey, all that remains for them to do is to amuse themselves with each other and kill time while waiting for things which may never happen and take their leave from a past that may after all remain in their lives.”

As with many of life (and art's) important decisions, the original concept for Marthaler’s Seemannslieder was borne in a pub. The director was chatting with his good friend Johan Simons, a director from Holland, and a deal was struck - if Simons came to Marthaler's home turf of Switzerland, he must create a production based on the mountains. Johan agreed, but only if the Swiss director would reciprocate the offer by travelling to the Netherlands to make a production about the sea.

Marthaler is in fact renowned for hanging out in pubs, and similar spots where he can observe 'the lives of the lonely'. Stefanie Carp, another dramaturg on Seemannslieder, says Marthaler considers himself a director of the ‘meantime’, where “something has concluded and something new has not yet begun.” Adds Slangen, "He deliberately seeks out unspectacular places where time seems to stand still and the same rituals are eternally repeated. Nothing ever happens until one single incident for a moment changes the room into a place full of vitality and energy." This is the essence of his theatre.

Seasoned Flemish actor Chris Nietvelt worked with Marthaler for the first time when she joined the cast of Seemannslieder. She calls it the most unique experience of her career. “It was the ultimate, how do you say, ensemble. For the first time, I realised what it is to function as a group.”

Nietvelt was able to give some insight into the intricacies of Marthaler's working method. He puts his performers through their paces with two hours of singing each day, pausing to prepare them elaborate meals. Rehearsals consist of improvisation with extracts of the script using props. Through improvisation the actors are encouraged to discover characters in small interactions and scenarios. For ten weeks they discover stories on a set created by long time Marthaler collaborator Anna Viebrock, using a mask, an umbrella, a coat - anything that is in the room. For ten weeks that is all they do.

A former oboe player for orchestras in Zurich and Paris, Marthaler believes that music is key to process and product alike. Says Nietvelt, "He is always working with music. He’s not in the text, but he’s looking for the music in the words. Bringing an atmosphere where you float with the rhythm of intensity."

Three days out from opening night with a range of improvised five minute scenes and countless songs, Marthaler produces a large script with the production order. Using the setting of a pub, a passenger terminal and a ship, the show intricately links the stories of the characters through song and physicality. This is the first time that the actors have any idea of how the production will look and feel.

Audiences in France, Germany and Holland, where Seemannslieder has previously moored, have been overwhelmed. Nietvelt says crowds immediately recognise themselves and people they know in the production. “They are people waiting, people longing, people who have lost things. You can recognise all of them”.

For many, Seemannslieder (performed, somewhat appropriately, on the edge of the city's harbour), will be the theatrical highlight of the Sydney Festival.