What is your favourite swear word?
Christ!
What are you wearing?
Shorts.
What is love?
Handing over the TV remote without a fight.
What was the last show you saw, and how many stars do you give it?
Waiting For Godot, 2 stars!
Is your new show going to be any good?
Not to put too fine a point on it but, Christ yes!
Felix Williamson is starring in Cruise Control, part of Ensemble Theatre’s 2014 season.
Show dates: 26 Apr – 14 Jun, 2014
Show venue: Ensemble Theatre
Venue: Eternity Playhouse (Darlinghurst NSW), Apr 4 – May 4, 2014
Playwright: Tom Murphy
Director: John O’Hare
Actors: Patrick Dickson, Kim Lewis, Maeliosa Stafford
Image by Wendy McDougall
Theatre review
O’Punksky’s Theatre’s current production of The Gigli Concert at the Eternity Playhouse is the company’s fourth staging of the Tom Murphy work. Over the course of 16 years, their relationship with the play has developed into something remarkably complex and outstanding in its sophistication. This is a story about the madness that we encounter in our lives, its varying manifestations, and the degrees at which it rears its head. It is also about opera.
Expression through music is used in the production in a fascinating and original way. Director John O’Hare plays with the relationship between music and personal spirituality, and works with it as an instrument of salvation for the play’s characters, and in his staging, a mechanism for storytelling. O’Hare explores bravely, the effects of and experiential reactions to operatic music, almost as an antithesis of the spoken word. Psychoanalysis is a central theme in The Gigli Concert, but it experiments with a departure from incessant talking, and creates a space of meaning with music that reaches beyond everyday language.
O’Hare’s creation is multi-layered, and thick with ideas and intelligence. The show runs the risk of being too intellectually dense in parts, but it is a show that is careful to hold its connection with its audience. It goes on various imaginative flights of fancies, but O’Hare always intends on bringing us along. Along with his actors, he has created a show that is keen to challenge and also to entertain.
Maeliosa Stafford brings with him extraordinary presence, and a brilliant sense of theatricality. We almost expect him to break into arias at each appearance, with a fascinating and dominant energy, keeping us on the edge of our seats for what he wishes to unleash in every scene. His characterisation is consistently strong but also unpredictable, resulting in a portrayal that is full of colour and charm.
JPW King is played by Patrick Dickson whose work is detailed and solid. There is a thoroughness that can only come from extensive study and deep understanding, and Dickson’s performance is infallible. When an actor is in complete control, we get swept away in his confidence, open to all that he wishes to share. There is also an air of whimsy to the leading man that keeps us endeared, and keeps the play effervescent in spite of its frequent darkness.
The Gigli Concert shows us two men and their individual madness. We see them dealing with issues from different perspectives, but the universality of their stories keeps us engaged, and we understand them through the knowledge of our selves, and through the prism of our own madnesses. We achieve a greater understanding of life, and of the nature of human navigation through this incredible and absurd landscape.
Venue: Seymour Centre (Chippendale NSW), Apr 8 – 12, 2014
Playwright: Alexandra Howard
Directors: Alexandra Howard, Kate Clark
Actors: Alexandra Howard, Samuel Doyle
Theatre review
Art should be created by anyone who has the desire to do so. Some would argue that the artistic process can sometimes be found in a vacuum, but performance, by definition, requires an audience, and this in turn implies that communication occurs, and the presence of that audience is often taken into consideration by the artist.
Wonderland is written, directed and performed by Alexandra Howard. It is a personal work by a very ambitious young woman about love and romance. She digs very deep for her creation, and there is a strong sense of catharsis about her expression, but its intensely introspective approach makes connection difficult. Howard is earnest, but she is also highly idiosyncratic. Without a greater effort to understand how her work is read, she often leaves us high and dry, and frankly quite uninterested in the show’s two characters or what they have to say.
Max is played by Samuel Doyle who shows surprising conviction and confidence. He works intelligently with the strengths and weaknesses of the script, and finds moments of drama to give the production some much needed variation in tone. There is no doubt that his potential is clearly on display, and would benefit from stronger direction and a more interesting story.
Memories of young love usually fades with time and maturity. It is easy to forget the range of emotions that comes only with youth, but they are represented in Wonderland. Sophistication and humour, however, are not often found in the young, and in the theatre, they are indispensable.
What is your favourite swear word?
F#$%ING…. that’s fishing right? 😉
What are you wearing?
Yoga gear; lime green Lululemon singlet top and 3/4 length black leggings.
What is love?
Sing it, “baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more!” Ah, good old Haddaway said it best in 1993 with this dance track. I believe love is multi-faceted. It can take on different forms of love like friendship, family, or a committed relationship, but ultimately it involves listening from your heart and acting out of loving kindness to the other or even to yourself.
What was the last show you saw, and how many stars do you give it?
Just saw a comedy on Friday night last week, Heaven Help Us at the Bordello. It was fantastic! Clever witty writing with a solid cast. 4 out of 5 stars.
Is your new show going to be any good?
Is it? Well… you’ll just have to come check it out for yourself and see! You’ll never never know unless you do. Personally, I think it’s going to be FAB!
Monica Sayers is appearing in His Mother’s Voice, from Bakehouse Theatre Company.
Show dates: 30 Apr – 17 May, 2014
Show venue: ATYP
What is your favourite swear word?
I’m rather partial to ‘bugger’. It’s plosive enough to vent, but doesn’t upset my mother too much.
What are you wearing?
Two dollar jeans from the Salvos. And socks.
What is love?
I think Love is about you, not about me. It is often confused with passion. Love can’t be neatly summarised in a short answer, so for a full definition I recommend you come and see Lies, Love and Hitler.
What was the last show you saw, and how many stars do you give it?
I am totally opposed to the notion of giving stars. It implies that I sit in judgement and that I think you should listen to my opinion. I don’t want that kind of responsibility.
Is your new show going to be any good?
Absolutely. Five stars. What are you waiting for?
James Scott is appearing in Lies, Love and Hitler, with Canberra Academy of Dramatic Art.
Show dates: 15 Apr – 3 May, 2014
Show venue: The Old Fitzroy Hotel
Rehearsal images above from Cough, by Unhappen.
At 107 Projects, from Apr 10 – 20, 2014.
More info at www.unhappen.org
What is your favourite swear word?
Nuts. Started using it while reading Raymond Chandler. Try it, it’s fun.
What are you wearing?
Paint.
What is love?
Love is all you need. Love is all there is, the alpha & the omega. Love is what will be left at the end.
What was the last show you saw, and how many stars do you give it?
Warhorse, 3.5 stars.
Is your new show going to be any good?
5 stars.
Gordon Burns is set designer for O’Punksky’s Theatre’s The Gigli Concert, from Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s 2014 season.
Show dates: 4 Apr – 4 May, 2014
Show venue: Eternity Playhouse
Venue: Wharf 1 Sydney Theatre Company (Walsh Bay NSW), Mar 31 – May 3, 2014
Playwright: Marius von Mayenburg (translated by Maja Zade)
Director: Sarah Giles
Actors: Andrea Demetriades, Glenn Hazeldine, Rebecca Massey, Tim Walter
Images by Lisa Tomasetti
Theatre review (originally published at auditoriummag.com)
Life is what you make of it, and in Perplex, life is a comedy no matter what shape our circumstances may take. Marius von Mayenburg’s script is a mischievous existentialist meditation on middle class life, and a work that uses the stage as a laboratory to examine wide ranging beliefs about the nature of being human and our various theological conceptions of what occurs beyond.
Mayenburg’s writing is also interested in narrative construction, and how stories are told in ultimately predictable and typified successions. Things have to make sense, and Perplex exposes our ravenous need for logic in both life and narratives, to be farcical. There are no real characters in the play, only actors who use their own names, playing different scenarios that are only momentarily coherent, before subtle shifts in time and space bring everything into disorientation and a new scenario emerges. It is a crucial point that despite these shifts of contexts, the actors attempt to portray basically the same selves. This elasticity of being brings into question the constitution of personal identities, and the congruity of fate and destiny.
This is a very funny show. Its absurdity allows for performances to stretch as far as the players’ abilities can reach, and fortunately, this is a cast of great talent and gumption. Andrea Demetriades brings with her a sense of the everyday person. She looks and feels like the person next door, without an overbearing star quality or flamboyant theatricality. Her presence is strong, but she sets herself apart with an ability to portray ordinariness, which sits perfectly with the show’s attempt at dissecting our daily realities. Demetriades’ sense of humour is understated but effective. She works consciously with her flashier cast members, often creating counterbalances to ensure that the jokes translate well.
Perplex‘s surrealness is not outlandish but it is thorough and insistent. Rebecca Massey embodies this quality strongest. Her creation is consistently bizarre, but always hidden just under the skin. She juxtaposes normalcy with its opposite, almost in deception. It is this simultaneous duality that gives her creation an enigmatic intrigue. Her characterisations are also the most fluid and unfettered, which makes her the most unpredictable of the cast. A crucial feature of the play is its dramatically shifting plot trajectories, and Massey manages them with great flair.
Tim Walter provides the cerebral element of the quartet. In the production’s more obvious moments of intellectualism, he is the mouthpiece for Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche and Plato. The decision for Walter to appear completely naked for two lengthy sections discussing Evolution and the Allegory of the Cave, is an interesting one. The play is determined to restrict the impulse that may give excessive gravity to any of the big ideas it may conjure. Everything must reveal its shortfalls and temporalness. Walter’s commitment and focus is commendable. He is clearly an actor in control, with an excellent understanding of the economy of movement, which reaps maximum results with minimal (but well considered) effort.
On hand to provide all the show’s fortissimo quality of madness is Glenn Hazeldine. His penchant for physical comedy, and instinctual connection with the audience makes him an irresistibly funny actor. Slapstick is not to everyone’s tastes, but when deftly executed, it becomes disconcertingly amusing. Hazeldine knows how to create laughter, but more to the point, he understands emotions. A highlight of his performance comes after an exceptionally unorthodox sex scene when the entire theatre is in dizzying heights of fitful hilarity. Hazeldine dissolves from mania to depression before our eyes, while we have yet to catch our breath. His tears are flowing even before our laughter has subsided.
It must be noted that this an ensemble of impressive unity. The balance they achieve in supporting each other’s strengths, and the incredible comfort at which they encompass different personal approaches to humour, are the reasons for the production’s success at enthralling its audience, especially considering the lack of, or perhaps “non-sense” brand of narrative.
It might not be clear whether director Sarah Giles could have achieved as funny a show with a lesser cast, but there is no doubt that the clarity at which Perplex‘s big existentialist questions are communicated, affirms the strength of her faculty and vision. It is tempting to lose oneself in an absurd, surreal and illogical wilderness that delivers only entertainment and jubilance, but Giles’ work here fastidiously unearths the true and central essence of the scripts ideas and themes.
The show ends with a song, sung in the style of Kurt Weill. It is a tribute and acknowledgement of course, to the work of both Weill and Bertolt Brecht. Indeed, the Verfremdungseffekt features heavily. We laugh because we are made to see the normal and the familiar in different lights. It is how we live that is on show, and it is the subversive way we are made to look at ourselves that tickles. Perplex might not inspire much talk about politics and governments, but it is nonetheless entirely about our social selves. Sydney Theatre Company’s take on the “epic theatre” might just be applauded by Brecht in heaven, even if God is dead.
What is your favourite swear word?
Gawd.
What are you wearing?
White jeans and t-shirt.
What is love?
Love is God.
What was the last show you saw, and how many stars do you give it?
Romeo & Juliet. My daughter played Juliet at Cranbrook school last week and it was great. 5 stars, best school production I’ve ever seen. Last professional production was Waiting For Godot, 5 stars there too.
Is your new show going to be any good?
Our show is going to be great, I’m so excited to be a part of it!
Kim Lewis is appearing in O’Punksky’s Theatre’s The Gigli Concert, from Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s 2014 season.
Show dates: 4 Apr – 4 May, 2014
Show venue: Eternity Playhouse
Venue: King Street Theatre (Newtown NSW), Mar 27 – Apr 5, 2014
Playwrights: Jane Bergeron, Carrie Ann Quinn
Directorial Support: Luke Mullins, Anna Kamarali
Actors: Jane Bergeron, Carrie Ann Quinn, Frances Attard, Morgan Davis, Shane Waddell, Samantha Stewart
Theatre review
Possessions is about the aristocratic Mancini sisters, Hortense and Marie, from 17th century Italy. The script is based on their memoirs, published in an era where female memoirs were a revolutionary concept. There is a distinct appeal in featuring unusual historical figures, especially ones who had broken moulds and lived extraordinary lives, but it can be a challenging task finding a way to relate past stories of nobility to our modern times.
Often, comedy is the key to telling courtly tales. Absurdities abound and it is natural to respond with incredulity and humour. Those lives are so thoroughly alien to what we experience today, that laughter is the most direct reaction. The production is consciously directed towards finding comic elements in the Mancinis stories, and significant effort is put into creating a Black Adder type tone to the proceedings, but the performers’ skills seem to lie in areas other than comedy, such as melodrama and musical theatre. Fortunately, both Jane Bergeron and Carrie Ann Quinn both have opportunities to showcase these skills in the concluding scenes, even if they do appear too late.
There are a number of instances where an actor plays herself and interacts with a Mancini sister across time and space. These moments suggest the feminist theme, but they are fleeting. We do sense in the play’s undercurrent, the creators’ interest in the evolution of women’s statuses, but they miss the opportunity to explore and expound things further. The production needs a certain aggression. The Mancinis’ story develops to a point where the women are forced by circumstance to show courage and conviction. In order to progress, they found a belligerence to push their lives forward, and that seems to be the lesson we have to learn from many who have left their mark.
Suzy Goes See 