Venue: Sydney Opera House (Sydney NSW), Mar 2 – 30, 2024
Playwright: William Shakespeare
Director: Peter Evans
Cast: Ahunim Abebe, Isabel Burton, Mike Howlett, Matu Ngaropo, Ella Prince, Richard Pyros, Imogen Sage, Laurence Young
Images by Brett Boardman

Theatre review
Struck by jealousy, king of fairies Oberon casts a spell to cause mischief, and chaos quickly ensues. Meanwhile, further commotion arises from the play-within-a-play, “Pyramus and Thisbe” being attempted by a group of Athenian tradesmen. Director Peter Evans’ version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream places almost equal emphasis, on those two parts of the narrative, for an unusual experience of the Shakespearean classic.

Furtherly unconventional, what is often considered one of the Bard’s most exuberant works, is given the moodiest of treatments, featuring unmistakably macabre sounds and music by Max Lyandvert, and distinctly melancholic lights by Benjamin Cisterne. Although contentious in terms of their resultant effect, the staging bears a polish and stylishness that is unequivocal. Set and costume designs by Teresa Negroponte too, are elegantly rendered, in this unexpectedly serious incarnation of a show involving endless hijinks and shenanigans.

The cast thankfully invests in the true essence of the piece, bringing great ebullience and whimsy, each actor commendable with their respective inventiveness and commitment. Matu Ngaropo as Bottom, and Isabel Burton as Helena, are particularly memorable, both demonstrating exceptional acuity in the details they are able to find, for the performance. It is an outstanding ensemble we have the pleasure to encounter, extraordinarily well-rehearsed, and remarkable with the chemistry they harness.

By show’s end, we are gifted a feeling of resolution and harmony, one derived from a realm that we understand to be fantastical, or indeed magical. Only some of us can access that world of sylphs and spirits, but for all, there is the theatre inviting us to transcend the mundane, and become enchanted by something higher, even if only for a short sojourn.

www.bellshakespeare.com.au

Venue: Sydney Opera House (Sydney NSW), Oct 24 – Nov 19, 2023
Playwright: William Shakespeare
Director: Heather Fairbairn
Cast: Keith Agius, Isabel Burton, Alfie Gledhill, Amy Hack, Garth Holcombe, Mike Howlett, Tomáš Kantor, Chrissy Mae, Ursula Mills, Jane Montgomery Griffiths
Images by Brett Boardman

Theatre review
In Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare’s comedy is based largely on the absurd and abhorrent idea of love and sex between people of the same gender. We are meant to laugh at Olivia being in love with Viola, and Orsino with Cesario, but many of us today no longer wish to participate in that cruel charade, of ridiculing something we know should be cherished and honoured. Director Heather Fairbairn too rejects that obsolete perspective, and in her rendition subverts Shakespeare’s tired tropes to make a statement about queer autonomy and acceptance.

Fairbairn’s production is endlessly vivacious and amusing, marvelously playful and imaginative with its characters and their hijinks. Each scene is rigorously explored, to ensure that we are kept entertained, even when the text proves tedious. A set design by Charles Davis cleverly concentrates the action into the stage’s middle, where along with Verity Hampson’s lights, great energy is channeled, creating a dynamic focal point. Davis’ fashionable costumes are a delight, as are Hampson’s illumination, especially at moments of heightened drama. David Bergman’s sounds are sophisticated and rich, particularly enjoyable when they nudge us into surreality. Songs by Sarah Blasko are an unequivocal highlight, extraordinarily beautiful with what they add to the presentation.

Sung mostly by Tomáš Kantor, who impresses not only with their remarkable vocal talents, but also with their physical agility and mischievous humour. Isabel Burton and Alfie Gledhill play the twins at the centre of all the shenanigans, intriguing with the meanings they inspire in terms of the performance and experience of gender. Duke Orsino and Countess Olivia are portrayed by Garth Holcombe and Ursula Mills respectively, both alluring and admirable with their commitment to elevating some of the more inane elements of the writing.

Undeniable star of the show however, is Jane Montgomery Griffiths, who as a female Malvolia brings immense amplification to both the comedic and tragic aspects of the lovelorn steward’s narrative. The humiliation she suffers under Shakespeare’s pen is given significant magnification, so powerfully depicted at a key moment of chastisement, that we almost feel as if she embodies the vengeance due to every queer and every woman degraded in his hallowed oeuvre. Griffiths’ turn as Malvolia is breathtaking, if only her castigations could become a reckoning truly monumental, beyond the confines of this singular instance of theatrical pleasure.

www.bellshakespeare.com.au

Venue: Sydney Opera House (Sydney NSW), Aug 17 – Sep 17, 2022
Playwright: William Shakespeare
Director: Janine Watson
Cast: Joseph ‘Wunujaka’ Althouse, Julia Billington, Giema Contini, Skyler Ellis, Felix Jozeps, Alex King, Leilani Loau, Ella Prince, Lauren Richardson, Maitland Schnaars
Images by Brett Boardman

Theatre review
In Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors, two sets of twins cause mayhem in the Greek city of Ephesus, through a series of events involving mixed identities and wild premises. It may be a relic of a play, but centuries on, it still provides an opportunity for theatre makers to present something frolicsome and mirthful, for audiences of any description. In the right hands, it may even demonstrate the changes that have occurred in our cultures over this half a millennium, for it is through adaptations and interpretations, that we may observe our evolution, reflected in the artistic choices being made today.

On this occasion, director Janine Watson applies a correspondingly frivolous 1970s disco aesthetic to the staging, but it is the queering of characters and relationships in the story, that forms a constant reminder, that we are indeed living in the twenty-first century. There is an unmistakeable vigour to Watson’s work, with a love for the immediacy of the live format, that truly shines. 

The cast is given plentiful space to wreak havoc, and their mischievousness is resolutely centre stage. Skyler Ellis and Felix Jozeps are the twins named Antipholus, both performers energetic, passionate and effortlessly charismatic. The two servants named Dromio, also twins, are played by Julia Billington and Ella Prince, both inventive and captivating, who turn their parts resoundingly non-binary, for a show memorable for its subtext of gender dismantlement. Giema Contini and Joseph ‘Wunujaka’ Althouse are flamboyant siblings Adriana and Luciano, eliciting some of the biggest laughs with a wonderful camp approach to their humour.

Hugh O’Connor’s set and costume designs are pop infused, colourful manifestations of a lurid fantasy world, in which common sense takes a back seat. Along with lights by Kelsey Lee, this production of The Comedy Of Errors is relentlessly vibrant, in a way that proves visually satisfying. Music and sound by Pru Montin too are not particularly subtle, prominently featuring hits from the disco era that remain gloriously euphoric.

Beneath all the rambunctious activity, lies a central guiding principle of authenticity. The production’s theme is declared with great pride in neon, “Find Yourself”, which must certainly refer to the discovery of one’s purest identity. Even if Shakespeare represents the diametric opposition to one’s own values, it can never be discounted that it is sometimes the very notion of an antithesis, that helps one uncover the truth.

www.bellshakespeare.com.au