Venue: Chippen Street Theatre (Chippendale NSW), Oct 20 – 29, 2022
Playwright: Wajdi Mouawad (translation by Shelley Tepperman)
Director: Anna Jahjah
Cast: Lucas Connolly, Kirsty Jordan, Cassady Maddox, Neil Modra, Adeeb Razzouk, Antoine Razzouk, Gerry Sont, Anthony White
Images by Mansoor Noor

Theatre review
In Wajdi Mouawad’s Tideline, we watch Wilfred carry the corpse of his dead father, through their ancestral lands, trying to find an appropriate burial plot. It is an abstract odyssey that we embark on, as Wilfred meets other people who contribute stories about their own dead fathers, through which we learn about legacies and the reverberations of those legacies, on people and places.

Mouawad’s writing is witty, with a spiritedness that director Anna Jahjah translates effectively for the stage. Some sections of the presentation can feel overly ambiguous with what they try to express, but we reach a satisfying conclusion nonetheless, where a poignancy takes hold, almost unexpectantly.

Actor Adeeb Razzouk is an earnest Wilfred, but also able to deliver comedic aspects when opportunities present themselves. Neil Modra’s conviction as the dead father, ensures that the show communicates logically, and the emotional intensity with which he approaches later scenes, helps us connect with the moving ideas of Tideline.

There’s probably nothing that makes us think more about life, than the death of someone close. In Tideline, it may even seem that it is the departure of a parent with whom one experiences conflict, that can really drive home a point, about existence. People are flawed, and they have children. Reconciling the fact that one will be failed, possibly repeatedly, by their own parents, is a big lesson to learn, but one that is entirely liberating.

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Venue: The Old 505 Theatre (Newtown NSW), Apr 23 – May 4, 2019
Playwright: Humberto Robles (adapted by Gaël Le Cornec and Luis Benkard)
Director: Anna Jahjah
Cast: Kate Bookallil
Images by Mansoor Noor

Theatre review
Frida Kahlo contracted polio at six, and at eighteen, a traffic accident further injured her body, causing a lifetime of excruciating pain, that would inform all of her work and legacy. In Humberto Robles’ one-woman play Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida, we see Kahlo trapped at home, alone with her thoughts and the constant state of torture that her body must endure. She talks about art, love, business and politics, offering an opportunity for her legions of admirers to feel as though at close quarters with the Mexican icon.

Performed by Kate Bookallil, whose jovial presence imbues the show with warmth, insisting that audiences regard Kahlo’s story with only open hearts. Her exuberance conveys a lightness to the character that has a tendency to ameliorate some of Kahlo’s struggles, but we engage with her nonetheless, always caring about our protagonist, and hang on to every word she says. Director Anna Jahjah’s spirited approach makes for a playful show, appropriately colourful, especially with its visual manifestations. There could be greater tonal shifts, for a more segmented presentation to help us better absorb the text, but Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida‘s strong statements about resilience and perseverance, bears an appeal that is universal.

Kahlo’s defiance is inspiring, powerful, and beautifully transcendent. We see her fighting to the death, and understand the depths of our individual capacities for hardship. Life is not fair. Although Kahlo did experience success late in life, she never had the privilege to see with her own eyes, the extent to which her work has reached, and touched, women everywhere. Our collective admiration would have empowered her in ways we can only imagine. We are all queens, when we raise each other up, and stay connected in mutual succour. If we are determined to leave no one behind, what we can achieve will truly be unprecedented.

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Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida 2019 Théâtre Excentrique

Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida 2019 Théâtre Excentrique

Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida 2019 Théâtre Excentrique

Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida 2019 Théâtre Excentrique

Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida 2019 Théâtre Excentrique

Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida 2019 Théâtre Excentrique

Frida Kahlo: Viva La Vida 2019 Théâtre Excentrique

Venue: Old 505 Theatre (Newtown NSW), Aug 22 – Sep 2 2017
Playwright: Rodrigo Garcia (translated by William Gregory)
Director: Anna Jahjah
Cast: Gerry Sont, Sister Ursuline
Image by Emma Lois

Theatre review
It is unlikely that one should lose sleep to something sacred. We worry about money, work, and all other things that feed the ego, but art and philosophy tend not to keep us awake at night. In fact, they can be relied on to offer the comfort that lulls us into slumber. Rodrigo Garcia’s 50-minute monologue I’d Rather Goya Robbed Me Of My Sleep Than Some Other Son Of A Bitch, is about a middle-aged man resisting the profanities of daily life that can so easily overwhelm our existence.

His two young sons, dreaming about visiting Disneyland, are the inspiration for his attempts at shifting focus onto a higher plane of consciousness. The importance of art and philosophy is all he wants to impart, and he stakes his entire life’s savings of 5,000 Euro on the exercise. Indeed, to be able to gift the best to your dearest, is worth every penny, even if all one gets in return is intangible.

The work is hugely passionate, almost hysterical in its desire to expound its anti-capitalistic ideals. Rarely overtly political, it talks little about what it rejects, choosing instead to delve fervently into its earnest and fantastical explorations, involving in part, the Prado Museum and a long cab ride. Director Anna Jahjah creates a sense of urgency appropriate to the writing, along with a whimsical optimism that helps open us up to the play’s intellectual provocations. Gerry Sont is effervescent as actor of the piece, a warm, likeable presence although not quite humorous enough for what is required. Live music by Sister Ursuline (cello and vocals) provides a romantic dimension, to the discussion of sacred versus banal, art against commerce.

The staging encompasses both the earthy and the ethereal. In being human, we are of the mundane, but also inseparable from the many greater realms that our minds allow. Social forces will insist on our compliance with regards all things pragmatic. Rules, regulations and bills will attempt to shape our lives in a certain way, but our spirit cannot be contained. As long as we understand that the capacity for imagination is real, then what we become, is beyond repression.

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