By Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis. Black Ink Theatre Company NZ. Sydney Festival. Director: Justin Lewis. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 17-22 January, 2023

Reviewed : January 18, 2023 *

When you’re on your final journey, hovering between paradise and hell, haunted by the mistakes you made in the past, you don’t expect to be continually vexed by a vindictive vulture. But as vultures play an important part in Indian mythology – and Parsee sky burial customs – it’s not unsurprising that playwrights Jacon Rajan and Justin Lewis conjured a belligerent, feathered scavenger to make their hero Kutisar’s final journey even more confusing – and more amusing.

Justin Lewis directs this unusual and very complex performance from New Zealand’s multi-award-winning Indian Ink Theatre Company which Rajan and Lewis established over 20 years ago. Their aim was to create theatre “that is beautiful, funny, sad and true”, to create characters “who live large in our imaginations”.  The company’s website explains their aim to produce works that blend “western theatrical traditions with eastern flavours and has been critically acclaimed for its use of live music, heightened theatricality, humour, pathos and great storytelling.”

Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream – and Kutisar and his belligerent vulture – certainly do all of that.

Jacob Rajan plays the ageing Kurtisar. His illusions begin as he lies dying. He’s disturbed by the ringing of a telephone, hears it go to voice message and realises it’s his own phone. He becomes agitated but when he tries to escape, erratic music forces him to dance wildly. Accepting this confinement, he begins to confront – and create – the characters that haunt him. He becomes himself as a young man selling chai in Mumbai; his girlfriend Meera, in her ice cream shop; a strident Parsi religious; Rao, Meer’s aunt; and an ardent authority on vultures.

Rajan creates each of these characters clearly and effectively, conversing with them in a constant, often hilarious series of interchanges. Each character is distinct, each is recognisable through telling gestures and vocal nuances. Each has dimension and depth. It is incredible to watch Rajan move between them, seemingly effortlessly, but with total control and clarity, yet still sustaining an energy that radiates from the stage and is infused by the humour that the playwrights have suffused into the dialogue.

Lewis directs with tight blocking that allows Rajan’s energy to be sustained through a very spirited and challenging performance. Only when confronted by the vulture does the momentum of the performance slow. It is in those moments that Kurtisar really faces his fate – and the fate of the vultures themselves.

Puppet maker and puppeteer Jon Coddington manipulates the feathered creature who returns again and again to plague Kurtisar. Awkward but wiley, as many scavengers are, Coddinton’s vulture swoops low and lands gracelessly, its big feet clawing, its pink neck stretching towards Kurtisar, its beak opening threateningly. Rajan and Coddington work cleverly together to create a relationship that is both touching and decidedly grim for both man and bird – and perhaps for much of the culture that Kutisar is remembering.

David Ward’s sound effects – music, ringing phones, knocking, the tapping of the vulture’s beak – are carefully synchronised by Adam Olgivie with a precision that is not often quite so evident to an audience. It is that exactitude, that meticulous attention to every detail that makes this production so absorbing – and enchanting. It moves so quickly, yet there is no moment when the timing isn’t precise, or where the tight energy lags. This is a production where director, actor, puppeteer, sound and lighting designers and operators work precisely together to create a performance that is one of a kind.

Indian Ink productions have a history of awards from New Zealand and from the Edinburgh. Festival. No wonder if Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream is a gauge of their creativity and vision – and the quality of their productions

It’s one of the blessings of the Sydney Festival that we have productions such as this coming to Australia – and to our western Sydney stages. Do try and get to see this one while the chance is there!

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Giacomo Puccini. Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Jan 12 – Mar 11, 2023

Reviewed : January 12, 2023 *

Though Giacomo Puccini set La Bohème in the busy, artistic Latin Quarter of Paris in 1896, director Gale Edwards saw how easily it could be transposed to Berlin in the1930s during the final licentious years of the Weimar Republic. That was a Berlin alive with street theatre, cabaret, jazz, innovative art, Bauhaus architecture … and very probably hopeful artists struggling to make a living, just like the artists Puccini created in La Bohème.

Those struggling artists – Marcello, a painter, Rudolfo, a writer, Colline, a philosopher and Schaunard, a musician – live in a gloomy atelier, where Marcello is painting The Parting of the Red Sea on the vast walls. It is winter, so cold that Rudolfo uses the pages of his latest story to light a fire. Schaunard arrives home with money (earned by playing his violin to a dying parrot) and some food, so they celebrate accordingly.

When their landlord Benoit arrives demanding overdue rent, they ply him with wine until he drunkenly confesses to an adulterous adventure. At this, they indignantly hunt him outside, share the rent money and set off for the Café Momus.

Rudolfo, fortuitously, stays behind and meets Mimi, who knocks on the door in search of a match to light her candle. They fall in love and eventually join the others, where Marcello re-ignites his love for the beautiful, flirtatious Musetta.

Café Momus gives Puccini, and designers Brian Thomson (set) and Julie Lynch (costumes) the opportunity to introduce a colourful market place of interesting characters and a change of tempo. In the busy square outside the café, hawkers flaunt their wares to interested shoppers – ‘Aranci, datteri! Caldi i marroni (Oranges, dates! Hot chestnuts!)’ –  and children flock around Parpignol the toy seller. This scene is alive with glittering costumes, beautiful voices and bright music, especially Musetta’s risqué waltz, “Quando m’en vo (When I go along)”.

Passion and jealousy constantly divide and re-unite the lovers until, at last, they are together again, remembering their past happiness.

La Bohème is the consummate story of love found, love lost, and love regained. But this is opera, and unfortunately it is de rigueur for the ending to be unhappy. So, sadly, Mimi’s persistent illness eventually weakens her, and despite her friends’ comfort and Rudolfo’s reignited love, she succumbs to consumption and her beautiful voice quietly fades away.

This final scene is always desolate. In this production revival director Shaun Rennie and lighting designer John Rayment extend that image. With the high garret walls looming above her, Mimi lies on a low mattress centre stage. Rudolfo kneels at her side. When the others leave to give them some moments alone, Schaunard remains at the door, where light from the street throws his tall, protective shadow across the room shielding the lovers as they recall their former happiness and dreams.

Diminutive Karah Son returns as Mimi, with Iván Ayón Rivas as an adoring Rudolfo. Haotian Qi is a lithe, expressive Marcello and Julie Lea Goodwin reprises her sexy, provocative performance as Musetta. Alexander Sefton is a strong, confident Schaunard, and Richard Anderson returns as Colline. Andrew Moran is a very easily duped Benoit and though Benjamin Rasheed will play Parpignol in future performances, Tomas Dalton stepped very professionally into that role on opening night.

Puccini wrote to bring out the very best in the voices of his characters. Long, ringing notes tell of love and joy, heartbreak and delusion. Duets harmoniously bring lovers together – and draw them, pitifully, apart. The music of La Bohème is as well-known and loved as the characters and their stories, and in this production the Opera Australia Orchestra and conductor Michelangelo Mazza make it very special, particularly during the last sad moments of the production.

Picture Mimi’s very last breath, her hand falling limply. Picture Musetta, Marcello, Schaunard and Colline in a carefully blocked freeze of despair. Picture Rudolfo suddenly realising why. Then hear the orchestra come together with those last, crashing notes that explain more clearly than any words the complete desolation that he feels.

Gale Edwards and Shaun Rennie bring more than singing and music to this La Bohème. Moments are carefully and theatrically staged. There is depth in the acting as well. Iván Ayón Rivas and Haotian Qi establish the bond of good friends in the opening scenes, and the camaraderie of the friends as Schaunard and Colline return is as warm and uplifting as their singing. Julie Lea Goodwin is always expressive, and her Musetta is believably spirited. So too are the patrons and hawkers outside Café Momus, especially a very cheeky, pushy photographer!

Opera Australia continues to thrill as it uses new energies and technologies to augment the magical beauty of music that surpasses time and change.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Nathan Maynard (pakana) and writer Jamie McCaskill (Māori). Directed by Isaac Drandic. Performing Lines TAS/ Sydney Festival. Drama Theatre. Sydney Opera House. 7-8 Jan, 2023.

Reviewed : 6 January, 2023*

Hide the Dog is a story about two children, two nations and a lone native dog. It’s a story about the “celebration of adventure, friendship and the power of culture”.

Niarra and Te Umuroa are best friends, but they are sad because Te Umuroa has to go back to New Zealand (Aotearoa) to learn more about his own heritage. They hide their sadness by teasing each other until they find a surviving Tasmanian Tiger hiding in their bush playground. Niarra explains that they will have to protect it before hunters come and take it away for “science”. As helicopters hover above them, they decide to sail their new friend, whom they call “Tigs”, in a canoe across the ocean to safety in Aotearoa.

Escaping the hunters is not their only worry. They also have to contend with Māori gods and palawa spirits who try to thwart them. One rises from the water on a huge iceberg-like rock; another dances around them brandishing a spear, shouting his name and, to the delight of the young audience, farting outrageously! Undaunted, the pair sail on into the scary dark ocean fog. They are separated for a while, and Niarra is visited by a tiny bird, the spirit of her mother.

Touching moments such as that, and the explanation of why they must let Tigs go to rest in the safety of the spirit world, are handled gently by Elaine Crombie, who brings her vast story telling experience to this tender tale that brings the mystic spirituality of two nations together.

With Crombie (Pitjantjatjara & Yankunytjatjara), the talented cast includes Tibian Wyles (Girramay & Kalkadoon), Reuben Butler (Kaitamariki/Tāwhirmātea), Tyler Wilson Kokiri (Māori), Najwa Adams Ebel (Birri-Gubba) and Poroaki Merritt-McDonald (Māori)

Māori designer Jane Hakaraia uses stunning projections to create background for the story – and a cunning combination of two canoe styles for the intrepid youngsters and their thylacine friend’s long sea journey.

Though it is only in Sydney for these two days, the production will go on tour to Perth and Tasmania in March but publicity suggests a “Full itinerary to be announced soon” – so fingers crossed that it will return. To other locations in NSW very soon.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine.

* Opening performance

Creator/Director: Craig Ilott. Musical Director/Soundtrack: Joe Accaria. The Studio, Sydney Opera House. 22 December, 2022 to 12 February, 2023.

Reviewed : December 22, 2022*

Disco magic is back! The glitter balls! The sequins! The misty smoke! The shine, the sparkle, the sexy shimmer – and the SOUND! Joe Accaria calls it Disco Delirium – the pulse and groove that swept the world in the 1980s – and Velvet Rewired brings it back with a beat that’s brassy, throbbing and definitely, delightfully delirious.

Flashy 80s fashion and classic disco songs see a down-hearted Country Mike (Tom Sharah) back in the place he once found joy. Can Velvet heal his broken heart? Read his damaged mind? Help him find that place free of judgment or discrimination that he found once before?

They certainly can! And they find fantastic ways to do it. But first and foremost they do it with Disco. Above the stage, Accaria operates the pulsing soundtrack while adding his own swinging, syncopated percussion. Surrounded by flashing lights and glitter ball glitters, his sequined headphones pulsate to the disco beats that resound around him.

And on stage, Sasha Lee Saunders and Jacinta Gulisano as the Sirens sing, shimmer and shake as they introduce The Diva, the much-loved, multi-talented, Marcia Hines. Hines’ magic is stunning and the roar from the audience follows her down the catwalk as she welcomes the sad young man back to her velvety realm of wild freedom, glitzy glamour and amazing acrobatics.

Led by Hula Boy, Craig Reid, who is also the resident director of the Australian tour, aerialists Beau Sargent and Harley Timmermans and roller-skating acrobats Sven and Jan bring breathtaking feats to re-wire the downcast young man – and thrill a pleasure-seeking audience.

Reid works world winning wonder with his multiple hoops – but mixes this with the naïve joy of a child revelling in its achievements. And his multiple lightning costume changes always amaze!

Sargent and Timmermans work alone at first, Sargent twisting himself precariously through a hoop high above the catwalk, Timmermans suspended by his hands on a rope that rises as he rotates himself into unimaginable positions. Later they work in unison on the ropes, legs and arms coiled around each other as they wind and spin.

On a taut circular stage, Sven whirls Jan faster and faster, high and low, her hair flying or she herself flying from a brace around his neck.

Book by Kevin Del Aguila. Music and Lyrics by George Noriega & Joel Someillan. GMG Productions. Associate Director: Nick Purdie. Sydney Coliseum Theatre, 16 Dec, 2022 – 1 Jan, 2023.

Reviewed : December 8, 2022*

Recreating animated characters as living beings is difficult enough if the characters are human. But animals? Big, upright, talking, singing and dancing animals! That calls for a great deal of talent and imagination – but costume maker Robert Allsopp and puppet designer Max Humphries had just that creative skill. Their original designs are stunning replicas of the movie characters and bring the caged animals of the New York Zoo to life in a production that is big, colourful, hoof-tapping fun!

The costumes are big too, but appear to be incredibly light considering the movement they allow. The features of each animal are carefully detailed – stripes, mane, the hippo’s tiny tail and ears – but retain the comic book images of the original animations. The faces of the performers, suitably and cleverly made up, give human attributes … and humour and charisma to their animal characters.

The penguins are puppets, cunningly operated by multi-talented puppeteers who sing and dance their web-footed friends through a variety of spaces and situations – including steering the ship that takes them to Madagascar.

Ten energetic performers and two faithful swings make up the ensemble. The pace they are set is fast with choreography carefully suited to the physical possibilities allowed by the costumes for some, and the flexibility of their manipulators for others. Together they bring the simple story of being “as free as the wind blows” to the live stage.

Former Titanium boyband member Andrew Papas plays Alex, a different kind of lion king, ruling from inside the cages of the New York Zoo. Papas is a practised performer. His confident characterisation reaches out to the young audience with genuine bobhomie and leonine appeal.

His relationship with Marty the giraffe, performed with suitable ‘cage-stuck’ yearning by Hi-5’s Joe Kalou, is established quickly and appealingly. Kalou’s expressive face shines through the make-up finding the sympathy of the young audience – and their parents. The Marty he creates is gentle, friendly but filled with an antipathy to restrictions that his young audience might understand.

Gloria the hippopotamus is playfully performed by Moniquewa Williams, who finds the equable nature of this particular hippo in gentle humour and a partiality for hip-hop! Light on her feet and expressively calm, Williams makes Gloria an audience favourite.

In this production Jack Stratford replaced Devon Neiman as Melman the giraffe, not an easy task as the animal’s long neck and head are attached to a stick which the actor operates by hand. It is fun to see his bespectacled face singing at shoulder height whilst he manipulates his neck and head via a double string arrangement on the stick.

King Julien, the ring-tailed lemur, is played Jonathan Martin, who makes this ground-loving lemur short but in command! The ring-tailed lemur is only found in Madagascar, so it is appropriate that King Julien welcomes the New York refugees to stay on his island and “Move it, Move it” with him and his sleepy pal Maurice.

The musical theatre version of Madagascar brings the animal characters to bright and tangible life on a comic book set that replicates the colourful illustrations of the movie. It’s lots of fun and short enough to sustain the interest of even very young theatre goers.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening performance

By William Shakespeare. Sport for Jove Summer Season. Director Sean O’Shea. Bella Vista Farm. 16 Dec – 30 Dec, 2022. Everglades Gardens, Leura. 7 – 22 Jan, 202.

Reviewed : 17 December, 2022*

The setting is wonderful. The high, open surrounds of a colonial farmhouse in Baulkham Hills. An outdoor stage framed by a garden of creepers and icehouse roses. Patrons picnicking on rugs or plastic chairs in summery December … or not!

Summer December it isn’t. The day has been cool, so we take a jacket. But the wind has come up, so we quickly grab a small blanket from the car. It’s not enough! Wiser patrons are wrapped up in rugs and scarves, some in all-weather gear. They’ve been here before! But none of us has anticipated the creeping cold or the brief shower of rain midway through Act 5!

Despite the weather, the vibe is wonderful. Happy Sport for Jove followers are excited to have them back with the Bard after two missed summer seasons. Families and friends are sipping and sharing snippets of news. Birds chirrup as they nest in the old trees that surround the homestead. Every now and then a bat squeals as it sets off on its night flight.

It’s an ideal setting for The Dream – especially a production directed as innovatively as this! One seldom expects productions of The Dream to be ‘straight’ these days, but director Sean O’Shea has incorporated twists that add some contemporary representative zing! None of the lines are changed – though one or two asides are added! – and all are articulated beautifully. But an innovative change in names – and a magical body swap – give O’Shea and his cast something more current to play with, and the opportunity to improvise ideas and clever bits of fun that add to the collaborative feel of the production.

Imagine, for instance, that the four lovers were three men and one woman! Or that Titania and Oberon could change roles. Imagine that, rather than being mercurial, Puck is a mature housemaid, who’d never be fast enough to “put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes”. Imagine that Nick Bottom is, in fact, Nicole Bottom, and that Peter Quince is besotted with her!

Imagine too, that the actors who play Puck and Nicole Bottom are the only actors who play just one role. In fact, the four actors who play the lovers – Jade Fuda, Darius Williams, Rupert Bevan and Toby Blome – also play Titania’s fairies and the artisans. And they never miss a line or the fast costume changes. They all are convincingly confident, whether as thwarted lovers, languid fairies or captivatingly over-the-top artisans, and fill the stage with spirited but controlled energy.

Claudia Ware plays Hippolyta … and Oberon; and Jake Speer plays Theseus … and Titania. That’s the ‘body swap’ – and the way the actual change is made is a nice piece of direction.

Giles Gartrell-Mills plays Egeus and Peter Quince, and obviously enjoys the possibilities that the change from patrician to peasant presented.

Bishanyia Vincent finds similar possibilities as Nicole Bottom, adding feminine panache to the over-confident enthusiasm Shakespeare wove into the weaver’s Role – and her wide-eyed disbelief when under the spell of “love in idleness” was beautifully played.

As Puck, Wendy Strehlow brought the experience of a skilled performer who accepts the challenge of a twist that completely rotates the character. Her Puck shows the measured assurance of age as well as the acknowledgement of ‘station’, and her appeal to the audience is immediate. Strehlow uses pace and timing to great effect – and both were obviously just what O’Shea envisaged when he decided how Puck would be represented.

This production finds all the mirthful possibilities of The Dream and adds some avant-garde daring!  Hopefully real summer weather will return and make the remainder of the season – a little more comfortable for this enthusiastic cast who bare a little more than their talent in this happy, pacy interpretation of the Bard.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Sam O’Sullivan. Ensemble Theatre. Director Mark Kilmurry. 9 December, 2022 – 15 January, 202

Reviewed : 9 December, 2022*

“It’s Sydney. It’s Boxing Day. And it’s stinking hot. Grandad Stephen was the BBQ King and his adult children have gathered to honour his memory …”

Family traditions often outlive their raison d’etre. Sometimes it’s better just to let them go! But Peter is determined to honour his father’s legacy despite the heat, a bush fire burning not far away and the apparent indifference of the rest of the family.

The stage is set for a million possibilities and playwright Sam O’Sullivan makes judicious decisions about which to choose. In doing so he creates characters we get to know intimately, and a family where superficial bonhomie covers simmering bitterness and hidden hopes and decisions.

The style? Basically, realism with some comedy, some drama, some introspection, just a tiny bit of moralising … and a delightful touch of the absurd. It’s a crafty mix and O’Sullivan does it very cleverly.

In crediting the director Mark Kilmurry and cast in his writer’s notes – “The journey that this play has taken me on, with Mark and a wonderful cast of actors by my side, has been fascinating and joyful” – O’Sullivan highlights the significance of artistic collaboration in the theatre.

Kilmurry has nurtured that collaborative ‘vibe’ in his direction. It’s there in the authenticity of the characters. They feel like a family. They’re used to uncomfortable silences and brewing resentments that eventually boil over – and react accordingly. It’s there in the subsequent empathy that his cast establishes with the audience.

And it’s there in the continuity between the stage and technical designers and operators. Matt Cox (lighting) and David Grigg (sound) link the scenes effectively – and entertainingly – with particularly “Boxing Day” moments that O’Sullivan has built into the script. Towards the end of the play, those moments are linked guilefully to the plot.

Brian Meegan plays Peter, determined to carry on the tradition despite the apathy of the others. Peter is a successful small businessman, a wine snob. He and his second wife Val work together. Meegan makes him confident, seemingly in charge, but a bit touchy, especially when he finds out his daughter Jennifer has signed up to work as an unpaid  volunteer for a year.

Val is played by Aileen Huynh, who makes the most of Val’s different opinions and pushy bossiness. She relishes Val’s directness, her ability to control the family ‘action’ – and the irritating imperiousness that O’Sullivan has written into this character.

That directness is not appreciated by Jennifer, played with careful nonchalance by Harriet Gordon-Anderson. As daughter and niece, Jennifer is loving, understanding but her indifference to her step-mother is shown silently, in disbelieving expressions. Gordon-Anderson is often a quiet presence on the stage, but she watches, and listens – and the audience is acutely aware of her every reaction.

Danielle Carter plays her aunt, Connie, who is has strong, well-founded opinions about politics, climate change, social issues – usually the opposite to Val’s. This makes for some interesting banter – and comic moments. Carter brings verisimilitude to this role. She finds the different dimensions of the character, especially in her understanding relationship with her husband, Morris, despite their separation.

Morris is played by Jamie Oxenbould, who delights the audience with his interpretation of this gauche, easily influenced but very gentle character. Oxenbould shows the frailty of this character in hesitance – hesitant entrances, hesitant responses, hesitant exits – except when worrying about his bees who have ‘absconded’ from their hive.

Those bees add philosophical layers to the plot – and the “touch of the absurd” that takes this play beyond realism. O’Sullivan is a clever writer who knows how effective a creative twist can be.

Boxing Day BBQ is an interesting play, skilfully written and deftly directed. Its characters are real, tangible. The plot is multi-layered and very carefully developed.

What a great way the Ensemble has chosen to end 2022! A play that could become an Australian classic and an adaptation of A Christmas Carol that cleverly combines two literary classics – and both playing over the holiday season!

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Concert Hall Sydney Opera House. 8, 10 and 11 December, 2022

Reviewed : 8 December, 2022*

What a sound! The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Orchestra led by the inimitable Brett Weymark bringing Handel’s magnificent Messiah back to the Concert Hall of the Opera House!

What a sight! The shining, intent faces of 523 choristers and 27 musicians following the Weymark baton!  What a thrill to hear soprano Lorina Gore, mezzo soprano Ashlyn Tymms, tenor Nicholas Jones and baritone Morgan Pearse sing the arias and duets – and smile as the choirs rise to sing the choruses.

What a thrill to be part of the enthralled audience rising to its feet – as tradition dictates – for the inspiring Hallelujah Chorus!

The tradition of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus began, it is said, when King George II was so ‘dazzled’ when he heard it for the first time, that he rose to his feet. When the King rose, so did everyone else! And so the tradition continues.

Messiah at Christmas – that too is a tradition. But it was originally written to be performed at Easter. It was Easter when it was first performed, on 13^th April 1742 in Dublin, Ireland, 280 years ago. It wasn’t until the 1790s that it began to be performed at Christmas – and that was in London.

Though Messiah traces the life of Jesus Christ, many of the words of the libretto were taken from the Old Testament. It is believed the librettist, Charles Jennens, did so to prove that the story of Christ was completely foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament.

For example, the chorus “For unto us a child is born” comes from Isiah (9:6); “Rejoice greatly … He is the righteous Saviour” comes from the prophet Zechariah (9: 9-10); and “I know that my Redeemer liveth” is from the prophet Job (19: 25-26). All written many, many years before the birth of Christ.

And yet Messiah was criticised as being “sacrilegious and heretical” by some, especially if being performed outside “proper places of worship”. Conversely, when Handel scheduled a performance in Westminster Abbey, some members of the clergy declared it sacrilege for a “public entertainment” to take place in a consecrated church. Poor Handel!

Messiah has a charitable history. That first performance in Dublin was a benefit performance for charity. It raised £400 and freed 142 men from debtors’ prison. From 1750 Handel himself directed annual charity performances at London’s Foundling Hospital. He even left a copy of the score and performance parts to the Foundling Hospital on his death in 1759.

Easter-time performances of Messiah continued each year at London’s Foundling Hospital until the 1770s. That’s why conductor Brett Weymark, when in London, always walks past the Foundling Hospital in Bloomsbury “as a kind of cultural homage” to this work that “is about more than the notes on the page”.

Perhaps this seems like too much ‘history’ for a review, but an oratorio that is so popular, that is performed annually in so many places around the world – and that is known, even in part, by so many people – makes history. And today all those little anecdotes are available on line to pique the curious and add to the splendour and allure of this work that has charmed the world for 280 years.

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs bring that splendour to the Concert Hall again on Saturday and Sunday at 1pm. If you’re lucky there may be some seats available to hear these wonderful singers from all over Sydney.

If you’re very lucky – and very observant – you might even see a special ‘member’ of the Choirs. She’s a beautiful white Maremma dog who is trained as a mobility assistance friend. Her name is Jewel and she is just over 5 years old. If you look carefully you’ll even see she has a little black stage tuxedo. We watch Jewel every performance. She sits calmly through every performance, head on her paws. Her owner must be very proud of her. See if you can find her in the photograph.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Handel is not a mere composer in England; he is an institution. What is more, he is a sacred institution.” Messiah is not a mere oratorio. It too is an institution. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs have made it a special December institution for Sydney audiences.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Richard Greenberg. Corvus Arts Theatre. Director Jane Angharad. Meraki Arts Bar Darlinghurst. 17 November – 3 December, 2022

Reviewed : November 29, 2022

“Post Covid” Sydney is seeing some new, interesting and innovative arts venues. Meraki Arts Bar on busy Oxford Street is one of them. True to its name, it’s all about the arts. There’s an exhibition of art works on the ground floor, music on the first floor, and Corvus Arts production of The Dazzle tucked on the second floor. Every floor has its own bar, the décor is charming, and the pies and chips they offer are very ‘select’!

It’s a great initiative. A central location. A welcoming atmosphere. Small intimate performance spaces, ideal for a play such as The Dazzle where the audience is drawn inextricably into the strange relationship between two brothers and a rich, rebellious woman.

The Dazzle is loosely based on the ‘legend’ of the Collyer brothers who lived as recluses from the 1930s to 1947 in New York brownstone that, at their deaths, contained over 120 tons of collected rubbish and newspapers.

Greenberg’s story makes Langley Collyer a concert pianist, his brother Homer an Admiralty lawyer who has retired to tend his brother’s obsessive traits. As the play opens, Langley is fixated on the final note of his recital piece, Milly is fixated on Langley, and Homer is exasperated with their fixation! The atmosphere is tense, troubled. There is a strange lack of trust but also needy dependence between the brothers. Milly is oddly aware of this and plays to it bizarrely.

Using all the features of theatre of the absurd – pauses, repetition, dada-istic illogic, unfinished sentences – Greenberg’s characters exist in a self-created vacuum that becomes as fraught and oppressive as the collected rubbish filled that surrounds them.

Director Jane Angharad knows her play and has researched the possible frailties and psychological quirks of the characters carefully with her cast, then placed them on a set (Aloma Barnes) that is crowded with furniture, the piano and increasingly extraneous rubbish. Her blocking accentuates the distress of the characters, their anxieties, their disintegrating self-control.

Steve Corner, Alec Ebert & Meg Hyeronimus find all of that in performances that are as tightly contained as the script itself. It’s there in contorted faces, fixed eyes, clenched fingers, tense closeness, forced distance. Yet they are connected, reliant, clinging to the little control that remains of their lives.

Ebert finds the fragility of Langley Collyer in a tenseness that almost scary. His tight facial muscles, his incoherent repetition of phrases, his dependence on Homer are an internalised scream for help.

Corner uses the inferences in the script – deferring responsibility, then grasping to take it back, gradually relinquishing responsibility – show Homer’s fear of Lang’s dependence, his  realisation that he too is losing control. His gradual deterioration over the 100 minutes of the play is carefully directed and convincingly realistic.

Hyeronimus gives a performance that is beautifully controlled. She uses the proximity of the audience to show her fixed adoration for Langley, her dismissal of Homer, her need to control. She uses her eyes expressively in the opening scenes, but vacantly, feverishly in her final, diminished moments.

Under Angharad’s deft direction, they show how the human spirit can be misshaped and changed by the oppression of obsession and debilitating mental illness.

The Meraki Arts Bar theatre space is a perfect venue for this tight little piece of absurdist existentialism – and Jane Angharad and her cast and crew have used it perfectly.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine