Category Archives: Theatre Reviews

Let’s Dance

Form Dance Projects. Riverside Theatres, Lennox Theatre. 11-13 August, 2022

Reviewed : 11 August, 2022*

Photo : Heidrun Lohr

Form Dance continues to bring new and unusual works to Sydney audiences. The presentations in this program tick both boxes. One is more traditional, the other radically twenty-first century. Both link performance and technology. Both will have different audience appeal – and response.

Fall, Falter, Dance!

Alone on the stage Ryuichi Fujimura stands, microphone in hand, and begins his stories – stories with which so many performers can identify. Stories of inspiration and rejection, motivation and failure – and the determination to keep trying, keep moving on … dancing!

Though it is an oft’ told tale, Fujimura presents it in a different way. Fujimura the actor knows how to introduce humour – and pathos. Fujimura the dancer knows when to intersperse his words with carefully devised dance routines. Fujimura the performer knows exactly when to use stillness and silence. In words and movement, he expressively leads the audience through a range of emotional responses.

Fujimura uses a bare stage, a microphone, a dance bag and a backdrop screen on which the vacant eyes of his past loom above him. Directors, choreographers … audiences.  Screens and clever graphics have become synonymous with arts performances. Fujimura uses his screen to emphasise the harrowing distance between talent, hard work, and recognition in the arts.

This story is not new – but Fujimura, the way he tells it is different, at times raw, at times funny, at times sad. It is the story of dancer, but its appeal reaches into all areas of the arts. From dancers facing yet another call back, to actors waiting in the wings for yet another audition., to painters carrying their works from gallery to gallery in hope of a chance to exhibit. to all the talented people who just want a chance to have their talent recognised.

Beatstorm

Photo : Heidrun Lohr

Beatstorm is a different thing altogether. Described as a collision between a video game and a movement performance, its appeal is to the generations who have grown up with screens and buttons and fast-moving eyes and fingers. The best way to describe it is to use the words of the program – because they do it far more graphically:

“Motion capture devices trach and project two players into a virtual world in real time as they travel along a fast-moving path set to high-energy electronic dance music evocative of video gaming. In each level players must doge a barrage of obstacles and collect items by moving their bodies; there is a one-to-one correspondence of movement between the real and the virtual”.

See what I mean! It is far beyond the ability of someone who is not au fait with that world to try to explain or follow – but well and truly pertinent for those who identify strongly with the concentration, skill, speed and energy of Chris Chua and Nasim Patel, who demonstrated Chua’s incredible creation.

Chris Chua has a creative imagination, obviously inspired by his work in computer programming and his dance experience. Bringing them together in such a creative way is an inspiration – and one that will appeal enormously across generations. Imagine the possibilities when  Chua’s idea is picked up by a wily entrepreneur. Beatstorm arcades or academies? Beatstorm fitness gyms?  Beatstorm competitive events? The Olympics perhaps?

Beatstorm’s appeal is to the young and fit. It is not a ‘performance’ that appeals to the usual dance audience. It does, however, have appeal to those want to merge fitness, movement and the virtual world. That’s a commercial possibility that Chua should be peddling widely.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening performance

Improv Comedy Cagefight

Director David Crisante. Downstairs Chippendale Hotel. Monday nights until 28 August, 2022

Reviewed : 8 August, 2022*

Photo : supplied

Downstairs at The Chippo it’s a bit dark, but there’s a great vibe! And there are lots of people … mainly young  … except for one. That’s me! Why is this aged reviewer sitting among a crowd of energetic young actors on a cold winter night?  Because she loves improvisation!  Because she’s thrilled to learn about another impro venue in Sydney! Because she’s keen to see just what these young actors can do! And she isn’t disappointed.

The vibe mentioned before is infectious, fired by the enthusiasm and vitality of the teams waiting to perform and the expectation of their supporters. David Crisante’s novel improvisation competition has inspired a new wave of impro performers and followers – and  if each Monday night has been/is as fast-moving at this, he’s certainly come up with a winning idea.

Photo : supplied

Mixing sketch comedy and improvisation games, Crisante’s program gives 36 Improv teams  the opportunity to “strut their stuff” in six Monday competitions. The winners of each week will compete in the Grand Final on Monday 29th August – for a prize of $2000! Fancythat! Impro actors getting paid!

Each Monday six teams are each given 12 minutes to entertain … and impress the audience with their Impro skills: quick thinking, spontaneity, confidence, changing characters, confidence and trust in each other. With names ranging from Scary Strangers to Three Swissketeers to Slay to Eyebrow Maitenance, the teams use a range of places, situations and emotions suggested by the audience to develop a cast of rare and random characters in equally rare and far-fetched scenarios.

Photo : supplied

Everyone has fun – performers and audience alike. It’s what impro is all about. Everyone supports everyone else, inside each team, between teams, between teams and the audience. No one fails. If, in his case, there’s a prize at the end, it’s an extra bonus.

Crisante is also providing classes in comedy before the show each Monday – and classes in communication on Thursday evenings. It’s all about skill building, developing creative thinking and confidence. David Crisante is passionate about this project. He is organiser, teacher, director, stage crew, lighting operator and encourager extraordinaire. His success is evident in the number of impro aficionados he attracts, the interest he inspires in his classes – and the audiences that fill the little space under the Chippo. See for yourself!

For more information – or to book tickets for Monday night performances try @improvcomedycagefight | www.improvcomedycagefight.com.au

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

* Heat 3.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Based on the novel by Harper Lee. Richmond Players. Director Matthew Barry. Richmond School of Arts;  5 – 20 August, 2022

Reviewed : 5 August, 2022*

Photo : Penny Johnson

This adaptation of a much read and studied novel revives Harper Lee’s characters and the town of Maycomb Alabama at a time when many of the issues it raised about the world in the early 1930s continue to plague society today. Racial prejudice, class, gender inequality, domestic violence, rape … and children losing their innocence at the hands of vicious perpetrators, continue to bloody our history.

It is opportune then, to mount an adaptation of the novel that, in the words of Lee herself “spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct…”

Photo : Penny Johnson

Director Matthew Barry sets the play outside Atticus Finch’s simple clapboard house. Light filters through translucent hanging fabric that suggests the epiphytic Spanish Moss that hangs from the branches of trees in the mid-Atlantic and south eastern states of America. It certainly sets the scene for a place where children might be frightened by a strange man who hides away in an old house, a father who punishes his daughter publicly and an accused man who is judged because of his colour rather than the truth.

Barry uses the floor and multiple entrances to the auditorium to extend the verisimilitude of town and courtroom scenes and involve his audience more closely with the Finch family, their neighbours, and the gossip and prejudices of their little town. Thus, Atticus (Matthew Barry) sits on a bench below the stage to read his newspaper – and hear the sheriff’s (John Courtney) whispered request that he represent Tom Robinson. Jean Louse “Scout” Finch (Leisel Hussey), her brother Jem (Luke Shiell) and their young friend Dill (Cooper Falzon) sit on steps in front of the stage to speculate about the reclusive “Boo” Radley. Locals gather at the side and front of the stage to watch the courtroom scene.

Photo : Penny Johnson

Looking back at that time in her youth is an older, wiser Jean Louise Finch (Alicia Brace), who introduces characters and connects events. At times she stands on the stage, at times she watches and comments from the floor of the auditorium. Brace is an older, wiser “Scout” who has lost the innocence and naïve curiosity of her young self and narrates the story with mature hindsight.

Taking on the role of director and actor is not an easy task, but Barry appears comfortable enough to ensure the action runs smoothly and the characters have the chance to develop clearly, especially the three young characters whose respect for and faith in Atticus come across so strongly. They are young, open, inquisitive and Hussey, Shiell and Falzon find all that youthful goodness and trust in very believable performances.

What a contrast is the character of Bob Ewell! Martin Crew is offensively malevolent as the cruel, violent man whose damaged daughter Mayella, played by Orana Keen, cowers before him as he berates and beats her publicly.

Norah Masige plays the Finch’s housekeeper, Calpurnia, who watches over his children and young Dill with a wary and caring eye. Masige brin

Photo : Penny Johnson

gs energy and the dignity of having been treated with respect to this role. She is especially strong later in the play as she comforts Rosa Robinson, played by Diana Renner, when she hears her poor Tom has been killed.

Benjamin Kanu takes on the role of Tom Robinson with a gravity that shows his fear, his despair about the Ewells’ lies and his respect for Atticus. Even in silence, Kanu has a strong stage presence.

Heloise Tolar, Emma Taite and Tamara Niccol are the women of the town. All three add depth to their small roles by watching and listening in character, as do Aurel Vasilescu and Ken Fletcher, especially as they watch and react to the trial scene. Sean Duff is distantly taciturn as Nathan Radley.

Peter Gollop doubles as Peter Framer and the lawyer, Horace Gilmer who leads the case against Tom Robinson in front of Judge Taylor played by Simon Peppercorn.

Atticus Finch draws his children and the townspeople together with wisdom and gentle advice. Barry finds this in measured reactions, kindly tones and the dignified reasoning of a man who observes, thinks deeply and is innately fair.

Richmond Players’ production reminds us that, unfortunately, the messages in Harper Lee’s novel are still relevant 90 years after the time in which it was set. Congratulations to Matthew Barry, his cast and his crew for having the courage to remind us of that.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening night.

Albion

By Mike Bartlett. Secret House, New Ghosts Theatre Company and Seymour Centre. Seymour Centre, July 29 – Aug 13, 2022.

Reviewed : July 27, 2022*

Photo : Clare Hawley

Unlike many contemporary plays, (one act, no interval, 70 to 90 minutes in length) Albion is more a ‘modern classic’ – think plays Arcadia, August: Osage County, Hotel Sorrento, When the Rain Stops Falling. It is long (3 hours) and whilst not a ‘family saga’, it takes a family through memories, hopes, loss, failings and falling outs.

Mike Bartlett sets his play in modern Britain. Audrey (Joanna Briant) has sold her London home to buy ‘Albion’, an old seven-bedroom country home in Oxfordshire where she spent holidays in her youth. She aims to revitalise the estate and its gardens as a memorial to its original owner and ‘designer gardener’, and a place to scatter the ashes of her lost soldier son, James. In doing so, she uproots her tolerant husband Paul (Charles Mayer) and reluctant daughter, Zara, (Rhiann Marquez) from their happy life in London, and along with her son’s girlfriend Anna (Jane Angharad), instils them as part of her dream.

Photo : Clare Hawley

Bartlett uses the effect of Audrey’s single-minded determination to infer some of the political, social and economic instabilities of Brexit Britain and, ambitiously, the effects of changing attitudes to class, status, immigration, same sex relationships and the ethical possibilities of IVF. A difficult task indeed, but one Bartlett handles skilfully in words and relationships, extrapolations … and a little bit of caprice.

Lucy Clements acknowledges this with a directorial vision that allows the caprice to permeate the production. The garden, artfully created by designer Monique Langford, combines realism and imagery to suggest a lost past that may defy restoration. A tree trunk reaches high, its branches suspended above a rectangle of green lawn edged by narrow flower beds. Its Englishes-ness is as definitive as Audrey herself. Lighting designer Kate Baldwin enhances this with wispy, soft effects to which sound designer/composer Sam Cheng adds gentle birdsong – and some sounds that are a little less gentle, but startlingly effective.

Photo : Clare Hawley

In keeping with the changing colours of the garden, Langford and assistant costume designer Aloma Barnes accentuate the touches of eccentricity in the plot and the characters with costumes that mix contrasting colours, flashes of light and quirky accessories with more sombre, grounding shades. Paul’s grey beanie contrasts with Audrey’s ‘woman of the manor’ style – and her friend Katherine’s (Deborah Jones) quirky headdresses.

These production concepts provide a cunning vehicle for Bartlett’s characters to relate in an environment ruled by a dominant woman who allows her rigid resolve and conservative values to turn her daughter, her son’s partner, her oldest friend, her new neighbour and a small village against her.

Lucy Clements fosters the strain of those relationships in direction that uses carefully blocked distances and watchful stillness to heighten emotional response. Wherever the characters are, they are constantly aware of each other, aware of rising tension, attune to what might happen next – whether they are part of Audrey’s London ‘incomers’ – or the staff and neighbours who feel a long-time proprietorship of Albion and its gardens.

Photo : Clare Hawley

Briant’s Audrey is a powerful presence permeating the mood of the production with her uncompromising opinions, persuasive coercion tactics and careless classicism. It is not easy to empathise with this character, until Briant eventually shows a little of the loneliness that comes with inflexibility and intransigence – and how much she really appreciates the unwavering devotion of her husband … and, ultimately, her daughter.

Mayer’s Paul is a strong, quiet presence. He listens and watches patiently, stepping in only to avert an escalating argument. Marquez creates a Zara who fights her resentfulness with restless energy and eventual defiance as she leaves Albion to return to London with Katherine.

Deborah Jones makes Katherine a formidable figure. A recognised author, she is strong, approachable. Very aware of Audrey’s personality, she is prepared to accept her shortcomings – but only to a certain extent!

Photo : Clare Hawley

Anna, though not officially part of the family, is determined to fulfil the promise she shared with James before he left for his final tour. To do this, she accepts Audrey’s invitation to visit – and stays. Angharad finds Anna’s unyielding resolve as well as the raw, empty hunger of lost love.

Mark Langham and Claudette Clarke play the gardener Matthew and housekeeper Cheryl, who have been loyal retainers at Albion for twenty years. They are county folk, who know their place, but are used to being treated with respect – something that Audrey does not understand nor practise. Their hurt is manifested with quiet dignity until Cheryl dares to question Audrey.

James Smithers is appealing as Gabriel, the boy next door, who writes poetry and becomes increasingly confident as he develops friendships with Zara and Katherine.

Emma Wright is Krystyna, a Polish migrant whom Audrey ‘installs’ over Cheryl in the house. Eric Ebert is the next-door neighbour who is disappointed in Audrey’s decision not to open the gardens of Albion for a local festival. Ash Matthews appears as manifestations of James.

Albion the stately home establishes the time and place and background of Albion the play. Lucy Clements sees, however, that:

 “Despite Albion being so specific to its English setting, these politics and values have rung true for us here too. Above all, the play’s debate regarding romanticising the past feels even more loaded and relevant when staged in Australia”.

That may be so, but the Albion Clements has directed does stand fast in its English-ness. She and her cast and crew have created a little bit of England that rings clear and true. Perhaps that’s why she chose  ‘The World in Union’ as part of the music prior to the opening of the play! Though it’s oft’ regarded as the ‘Rugby Song’, it’s words suggest the tenor of Batrlett’s play:

We face high mountains
Must cross rough seas
We must take our place in history
And live with dignity

 

 

* Opening Night

Sydney International Ballet

Sydney Coliseum Theatre. West HQ. 16-17 July, 2022

Reviewed : July 17, 2022*

Photo : Nicholas MacKay

Ballet dancers from around the world flew in to join highly credited local ballet stars and an enthusiastic troupe of young dancers, to bring this international ballet extravaganza to the wide stage of the Sydney Coliseum. After the devastating effects of the last two years on live performance, it’s wonderful to see this extraordinary theatre, opened in December 2019 only months before the pandemic struck, realising its promise of bringing international performances and, hopefully, large cast musicals to “the greater west”.

The program features principal dancers from America, the UK, New Zealand and Australia – and young dancers who are making their name across Australian companies.

Photo : Nicholas MacKay

Hosted by Belinda Russell, the two-hour program includes performances from Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty and the Flame of Paris, a ballet set on the eve of the French Revolution – and being performed just two days after Juillet Quatorze (July 14th) France’s National Day!

The program features principal dancers from The Royal Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the State Ballet of Georgia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Dance Company and over thirty-five young dancers.

As well as classical works, there are some exceptional contemporary works including the World Premieres of Forest of the Mind, choreographed by Australian-based Jake Burden. Commissioned by the Sydney International Gala, this extraordinarily beautiful work by Burden “pushes the boundaries of classical dance and brings an edge to the choreography”. Another World Premiere is We Are Still Friends, created and performed for the Sydney International Gala by Davide Di Giovanni.

Australian premieres included Ashes, choreographed by Jason Kittelberge (USA), L’Effleure, by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (France), Berceuse by Penny Saunders (USA) and Balleverdi, choreographed by Australian based Wim Broeckx.

Photo : Nicholas MacKay

Among the performing artists were Natalia Osipova from The Royal Ballet, Misa Kuranaga and Julian Mackay from the San Francisco Ballet, Laurynas Vejalis and Mayu Tanigaito from the Royal New Zealand Ballet,  Laura Fernandez from the State Ballet of Georgia, Davide Di Giovanni from the Sydney Dance Company, Bryce Latham and Grace Carroll from The Australian Ballet, Victor Zarello, formerly of the Scottish Ballet and Sydney Dance Company and Jack Tuckerman, presently collaborating with Sydney Experimental Arts Ensemble.

This is a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the ballet world and an extraordinary chance for Sydney audiences to see world professional dancers in excerpts from works that are famous and very demanding. For the aspiring young dancers in the audience, it is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see pieces from so many ballets performed by such highly-trained and experienced dancers. From brilliantly executed classical pas de deux and a graceful, lone Dying Swan, to beautifully choreographed contemporary performances, this is a showcase of the world of ballet – one that it is hoped will become an annual event.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening performance

@niczeusmackay and @mackay.productions

Ugly Love

Written and directed by Lucy Matthews. Acoustic Theatre Company. Flight Path Theatre, Marrickville (NSW). 14 – 23 July, 2022.

Reviewed : July 15, 2022*

Photo : Katje Ford

Writing a musical play is ambitious. Getting it on to the stage can be difficult. Doing both yourself can be … challenging, testing, tiring  … especially during two years of pandemic-instigated illness and restrictions. But, if you are as determined and resolute as Lucy Matthews, it can also be exhilarating.

That exhilaration, that feeling of “we’ve done it despite everything, and we’ve loved it” shines in this production. Regardless of its title, there is a lot of ‘good’ love here. It glows in Matthews’ face as she greets patrons – and it shines from the actors and musicians who are bringing her production – and its complex messages about connections – to the stage.

Matthews’ characters tell their story in short, well written scenes that are elaborated in musical dialogues in a variety of genres. As director, she has chosen not to complicate the story with complex choreography, allowing the lyrics and the way they are sung give greater depth to the emotional dilemmas the characters are facing and the ‘ugly’ hurt of love – especially changing love.

Photo : Katje Ford

Ugly Love is a musical play that looks at love and polyamory through contemporary eyes. It looks at the predictability and ennui of any long-term relationship, the difficulty of discussing problems truthfully, the excitement of new love … and the quandary of a different sort of love. Matthews does all of this gently, without recrimination or moralising. She cares for her characters and their dilemmas, as she explains:

I spent four years trying to find an ending for the play. Initially, I wanted a happy ending, something that shines a light on the positive side of polyamory … Rather than trying to make it happy, I asked “what has changed?” Change isn’t happy or sad. It simply is.”

The theatre space at Flight Path is small, its intimacy lending itself to a production such as this. Though the space allocated to the musicians is small, the ‘cosiness’ is effective, especially in the cabaret scenes. It does have to be said, however, that in some numbers the volume of the music can overwhelm the vocals, a difficulty when the lyrics are a continuation of the story.

Matthews uses four actors to play the seven characters. This is an effective device, especially during a time when social distancing, mask-wearing and a nasty virus is affecting rehearsal schedules. It can, however, be challenging for an actor, especially if the roles explore similar aspects of a character type.

Lincoln Elliott faces this challenge playing three roles in Ugly Love. He plays Sam, married to Jess, Gus in a relationship with Jess’s friend Maddie – and James, a cabaret singer. At times he must move between the characters quickly, and he uses changes of costume and attitude to flag the changes physically. The predominant of these characters is Sam, and it is as Sam that Elliott is most engaging and multi-layered.

It is Sam’s marriage that begins to dissolve when his wife Jess is attracted to a woman and suggests that they should become polyamorous. Elliott takes Sam through a range of reactions and emotions – acceptance, loneliness, anger, despair, even a form of grief – all in a short time and often portrayed in song, challenging enough in itself, without having to morph to into a second and third character between scenes. Elliott is to be congratulated in sustaining the integrity of all roles.

LJ Wilson is Jess, torn between long love and new love, between vows and liberation, between security and change. Wilson finds all the ramifications intrinsic to these choices in a performance that is emotionally convincing and engagingly sincere. Whether in heartfelt scenes with Sam, or the diffident insecurity of the developing relationship with Lola, Wilson shows the turmoil that Jess faces – whether in tentative, poignant dialogue or song.

Photo : Katje Ford

Cypriana Singh plays Lola, the sexy cabaret singer-cum-barista who wins Jess’s heart. Singh is an accomplished performer who uses the stage confidently. The Lola she creates is self-assured yet empathetic, finding the gentle humour and understanding that Matthews has written into the character, in both the new relationship with Jess – and with “her other partner” Michelle, played by Madelaine Osborn.

Osborn is both Michelle – the conscientious, ambitious IT expert with whom Lola has a long-standing relationship – and Maddi, Jess’s best friend and confidante. Osborn makes the change between these roles smoothly. Both are clearly delineated and charmingly likeable. As Michelle, she is busy yet affectionate, loving but self-contained. As Maddi she is open, out-going, candidly blunt at times – especially when trying to deal with Jess, Sam, and her own faltering relationship with Gus.

Matthews brings these characters together in a production that is simply set, one that relies inherently on the ability of the actors to portray the emotional transformations that occur. Doing so in words and song works effectively, especially when the music – played by Dom Parker, Charlie George, Jhoan Sebastian Bonilla and Mike Mills – is such an integral and integrated part of the production.

There are twenty musical scenes in Ugly Love, including the title song, all of which progress the story. Some are emotional, some are amusing. “The Dating Song” is the one that stays in my memory. It involves all performers, is perceptively satirical and the was choreographed to enhance the satire.

Matthews has every right to glow!

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Top Coat

By Michelle Law. Sydney Theatre Company. Director: Courtney Stewart. Wharf 1. 30 June – 6 August 2022.

Reviewed : June 30, 2022*

Photo : Daniel Boud

Contrast and comedy come together in this perspicacious production that uses the ‘body swap’ genre to take a shrewd look at social order and the multitude of contemporary issues that stem from ingrained attitudes, classism and media representation and how that affects the way we treat others – be that someone who puts the ‘top coat’ on our nails; or the way we climb ruthlessly over others on the way to reach the ‘glass ceiling’.

In Top Coat Michelle Law – playwright, journalist, speaker – uses the theatre to make astute comments about the impact of white privilege across our society, from the beauty industry to the media. She explains this perceptively in her reflections about writing the play:

“I was also able to reflect on the impact that representation has on the lives of people of colour, and how the systematic racism stitched into the fabric of this country since colonisation has led to a largely monocultural media landscape controlled by white leaders who, despite their good intentions, often cause deep harm”.

Photo : Daniel Boud

These are weighty words – yet in her play Law skilfully uses the veil of comedy to depict situations that are sardonically real, and characters that develop through dialogue that judiciously reveals layers of inherent racist attitudes, perceptions of social status and the tokenism to diversity practised in the arts.

Proselytising is avoided by the fast pace dictated by the writing and the comedy that osmoses through every scene. Realistic characters are juxtaposed with comedic caricatures. And a realistic situation is upended by a strange, paranormal electrical intervention that is the thesis of the plot – namely two characters switching bodies and  having to negotiate each other’s life.

Winnie (Kimie Tsukakoshi) is a manicurist saving to afford her own salon, whilst constantly facing unthinking condescension and racism. Kate (Amber McMahon) is an acerbic executive at MBC, a television company. Kate is confident, pushy and blissfully unaware of her flagrant, insensitive discrimination. Their lives are as different as their workplaces – as they find when their bodies are magically ‘swapped’ – thus providing a perfect scenario for a clever playwright like Law to comment adroitly on racism, social structure, and representation in the arts industry – and for an intuitive director like Courtney Stewart to realise the staging possibilities that the scenario suggests.

With designer James Lew, Stewart has commissioned a set that moves as constantly as the action. Carefully braced flats on smoothy moving trucks are slickly manipulated by the cast and crew to depict a variety of scenes. They twist and turn, meet, join, then swing away again. They are bright and colourful, their ‘role’ in the play accentuated by designers Kate Baldwin and Michael Toisuta and their cleverly co-ordinated lighting and sound effects.

Photo : Daniel Boud

The choreography in this production depends on split second timing. The actors and stage crew work in synch. Costumes changes occur as pieces of the set are moved. The set becomes a ‘built in’ extension of the theme of the play. Actors and set, cast and crew move constantly together. If ever a play depended on ensemble work, this is one!

Kimie Tsukakoshi and Amber McMahon work skilfully inside Winnie and Kate’s skins to establish the ‘power shift’ that Law wants the audience to consider.

Tsukakoshi mixes deference with pique to show Winnie’s reaction to unthinking racism and arrogance. She moves lightly on the stage, clarifying her character with elegant poise and restrained irritation.

McMahon uses similar poise to establish Kate’s confidence and self-assurance. She works with impressive command to make Kate stridently haughty, over-confident, oblivious to the hurt her condescension causes.

As their roles are reversed, Tsukakoshi steps Winnie confidently into Kate’s shoes but with less ego and more understanding. And Kate, in Winnie’s shoes, finds just how intimidating condescension can be.

Comedic timing is essential in Law’s lines and Stewart’s direction – and both Tsukakoshi and McMahon make the most of every comic line and interaction.

Photo : Daniel Boud

As do the three actors who play the characters who people Winnie and Kate’s lives. Arisa Yura has the interesting task of playing Winnie’s fellow beautician, Asami – and Yura, the Japanese-Australian screenwriter at the television company, whose work is overlooked. She makes her ‘role swap’ via clever writing rather than “lights and drum rolls” and makes both roles distinctly different and yet, in keeping with the irony, suggestively similar. Clever writing – and clever characterisation.

John Batchelor plays several roles, each skilfully played to augment the satire that is intrinsic to Law’s purpose. He plays Kate’s pompous boss Barry, her partner Jeremy and several of Winnie’s clients. Batchelor’s experience across stage and screen is extensive, all of which is evident in the intricate changes he uses to make each of these characters very different – yet equally funny.

Matty Mills plays Marcus, the indigenous Business Affairs Executive at the Television company, as well as other characters that support the action. Mills too has an instinct for comedy – and timing – as well finding the various dimensions that Law manages to build into all her characters.

Top Coat brings together a cast and crew representative of a multicultural Australia that is seldom represented on the stage. The play is written, directed and designed by Asian-Australians. Two of the cast are also Asian-Australians. One is indigenous. That makes a distinctive comment about representation. It boldly investigates a host of complex social inequities, but does so in a way that makes us laugh – albeit uncomfortably.

“Ultimately, this piece demands a higher standard for the ways people of colour are represented in the stories we see on stage and screen … Top Coat gives us all an opportunity to find our way back to each other”. (Courtney Stewart, Director).

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Thai-riffic

By Nathan Luff, adapted from the novel by Oliver Phommavanh. An FEM Presents production. Director: Lisa Freshwater. Riverside Theatre. 28-29 June, 2022

Reviewed : 28 June, 2022*

Photo : Heidrun Lohr

Clutching their signed copy of Thai-riffic, excited children streamed into the Riverside theatre to see Nathan Luff’s adaptation of book about … well … identity. family, belonging, adjusting and accepting. All are there in this heart-warming story that begins as Lengy takes his first tentative but determined steps into Year 7.

Albert, the son of Thai parents who run a restaurant called Thai-riffic, has sustained some bullying in primary school and wants to make a new start in high school. He especially wants to escape his nickname, Bow-Thai. Imagine his concern when one of his classmates, Hayley, is from his primary school! Fortunately she understands and agrees to call him Lengy, which is how he introduces himself to another student, Rajiv, as they meet outside their English classroom.

Photo : Heidrun Lohr

So begins Lengy’s quest to ‘be Australian’ – a quest that is thwarted when their English, Mr Winfree, teacher sets a group assignment on ‘Another Culture’. Rajiv, who is obsessed with Thai food convinces them to study Thailand – and all Lengy’s plans go awry.

Through humour and physical theatre, Luff and his creative designers bring Oliver Phommavanh’s book to life. High flats that frame the stage become the backdrop for three projectors that provide a panorama of the locations: the restaurant, a shopping precinct, the school room, the screen on which Lengy talks to his mother on face time – and bright animations that cover some scene changes.

Wide doors on stage right open to reveal extra scenes – a supermarket, the restaurant kitchen – a clever device that adds depth to the production and is ideal for touring. The only props on stage are a table, some chairs, a letter box – and the soft toys that are integral to Mr Winfree’s teaching method.

Photo : Heidrun Lohr

Theatre for young people needs to be fast, colourful and relatively uncomplicated. Nathan Luff ensures this in his script – and Lisa Freshwater confirms it with deft direction and a very energetic and enthusiatic cast.

Marcus Rivera plays Lengy’s father – and grandmother! Kate Betcher is a very conscientious Hayley and Nate Jobe a very enthusiastic Rajiv. Simon Van de Stap is the very ‘innovative’ Mr Winfree – and Euno Orate is ingenuously believable as Lengy.

The action is fast, physical and funny. Costumes are colourful. Puppetry adds charm and humour to the production. Phommavanh’s story comes to life with messages that are clear without being laboured or ‘preachy’.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Reunion Day

A play by Peter Yeldham. Play reading at the Australian Film, Television & Radio Theatre, Entertainment Quarter, Sydney. 26th June 2022.

Carol Wimmer reports on the history of this Australian play, banned in the 1960s, and its recent re-discovery.

26 June, 2022

The cast at the reading of Reunion Day

Twelve professional actors meet in a small theatre on a Sunday afternoon to take part in a play reading of an Australian play written 60 years ago. A play that has never been performed in Australia … yet was filmed and broadcast by the BBC back in 1962! With an Australian cast including Ron Haddrick and Ray Barrett! There’s got to be a story there!

There certainly is – and it involves censorship and political interference. In Australia! Fancy that!

Australian theatre and television in 1962 was fairly conservative. There had even been some adverse reactions to Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year. Yet today both plays are regarded as harbingers of the ‘new wave’ in Australian drama. Not so the BBC’s production of Peter Yeldham’s Reunion Day. The Liberal Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, objected to some characters and language; the Chief Censor C.J. Campbell felt “the language may be all right for soldiers but it is all wrong for a suburban sitting room.” Frank Packer, who owned the television network TCN9, felt it would offend the RSL.

So the film languished and was eventually erased. All that remains today is the script, some photographs – and Peter Yeldham’s papers – which were publicised by Susan Lever in a paper which hailed Reunion Day  as “an important part of our cultural history”. Historian Stephen Vagg picked up on her article, read the play, and between them, 60 years later, on Sunday 26th June 2022, in a small studio in the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, the play was, fittingly, ‘revived’.

Reunion Day is set in Sydney. It’s Anzac Day and old mates from a battalion that served in New Guinea meet, as usual, to march – then to have a few drinks. The characters Yeldham created were typical of the many young men who served in the Australian forces in World War II. Men from different backgrounds, thrown together as fellow soldiers to face a cruel enemy, and witness unimaginable destruction. Some would never come home. Those who did would drift apart to different lives, different professions – until Anzac Day each year, when they would meet to revive old stories, remember old mates – and have a beer … or two.

These were Yeldham’s characters, typical of returned soldiers in towns and cities all over the country, and yet no one had heard their voices until director Denny Lawrence brought them to life with his very well-known and accomplished cast.

Sydney Morning Herald, May 28, 1962

Brandon Burke, John Derum, Huw Higginson, David Lynch, Christopher Stollery and John Stone play the soldiers who have been meeting together annually. Colin Moody plays their commanding officer, whom they haven’t seen for years. Paul Bertram is a tipsy interloper who brings a bit of light relief.

Deborah Galanos, Sarah-Jane Kelly, Tilly Oddy-Black, Laura Gabriel play the women in their lives. Though the women’s roles are small, they reveal Yeldham’s perceptive ability to suggest feminine strength, understanding and humour.

The scenes are clear, the dialogue economic. The plot concentrates on relationships which are deftly developed – and this reading, in the hands of such accomplished actors, extoled a play that, in the words of Denny Lawrence, “has unexpected resonance for today’s audience because of its depiction of veterans. The issues faced by returned servicemen from Iraq and Afghanistan are not too far removed from those of the characters in Reunion Day.”

In the audience, Peter  Yeldham’s daughter Lyn and son Perry saw their father’s play for the first time. They will be able to take a recording of it to Yeldham, who at 95, was too frail to make the reading. What a gift for him to see his words finally played on an Australian stage

Listener-In-TV-21-27-April-1962-UK

Ron Haddrick’s wife and family were also in the audience. The Haddricks left the UK in December 1961, just after the play was filmed ,so never actually got to see it on air. They too must have been thrilled to see this revival reading.

Author, Peter Yeldham. Photo : Peter Yeldham.

It was a privilege to be part of the small audience who witnessed this unusual performance – because performance it was! In the hands of those actors, every nuance in the dialogue was clear, every change in attitude, every alteration in tension. There is nothing in this play that offends – nothing that probably would have offended those of us who might have seen it in 1962 had it been aired – or produced. Perhaps this reading is just a beginning …

 

Written for, and published in Stage Whispers magazine, as a “History” item.

M. Rock

By Lachlan Philpott. Australian Theatre for Young People. Director: Fraser Corfield. The Rebel Theatre. 24 June – 17 July, 202.

Reviewed : 24 June, 2022*

Photo : Tracey Schramm

Valerie Bader brings Mabel Mudge, aka M. Rock, blasting back into the Sydney theatre scene in this happy, inter-generational play that is as inspirational today as it was in 2014. It’s a play about age and youth. About how often both are misunderstood, mislabelled. It’s a play about their dreams … and their right to dream them.

“It reminds us how vital it is for each of us to beat our own drums and let go and dance, however badly.” (Lachlan Philpotts, playwright).

Fraser Corfield, directing M.Rock for a second time. says: “Lachlan’s beautifully original and refreshingly comedic play intertwines the coming-of-age tales of two generations … and it does so in a way that honours both generations”.

Just as Corfield does in his direction. His respect for Philpott’s characters is obvious in the care he has taken with this production. He has chosen his cast well – and rehearsed them with the passion necessary to make sure each of the characters is real, warm and believable, even those that appear fleetingly. “The Chorus” played by  Bryn Chapman Parish, Masego Piso and Darius Williams, links the generations. They play a multitude of different characters, with different accents, and provide some cute sound effects. Their commitment, talent and their energy are essential in sustaining the pace and tempo of the production.

Photo : Tracey Schramm

It is they who physically transport the play from  Bankstown to a plane, to Berlin, to a taxi in Africa on Melanie Liertz’s very dark and funky stage. There are dark walls and different levels,  movable steps that hide a plethora of props. There are lights and smoke and haze – and a high DJ stage where Venus Guy Trap presides and keeps the beat thumping. It is a real ‘atyp’ stage, one that has space and possibility, a stage where Valerie Bader and Milena Barraclough Nesic can relax into the roles of Mabel Mudge and her granddaughter, Tracey.

Philpott’s “close relationship to his grandmothers” inspired his creation of Mabel. She is funny, concerned, loving, generous, supercilious. And like many grandmothers, she’s a bit outrageous! That’s part of the fun of being old – believe me! Her granddaughter Tracey accepts it as normal; her daughter Kerry doesn’t! It’s another generation gap thing!

Tracey finishes her HSC and takes off for a whirlwind overseas trip. When she’s not on the scheduled flight home and hasn’t kept in touch, Mabel sets off to find her!

She starts off in Africa, then moves on to Berlin, where she meets DJ Messerschmidt and begins a whole new phase of her life – clubbing, dancing and eventually taking over as DJ and becoming M. Rock.

Bader has played many strong women. She brings them all together in this wonderful role which she plays with charm, love, insight … and incredible energy. She makes the very most of every aside that Philpott has cleverly woven into the script – and that Corfield has blocked accordingly. Her transformation to DJ M. Rock is totally believable because of the character that she develops so strongly. It’s there in every wistful smile, every cheeky aside, every knowing nod – and she makes it her very own – for the second time around!

Milena Barraclough Nesic is a convincing Tracey. She finds all of Tracey’s ‘personas’ – the understanding granddaughter, the rebellious daughter, the excited new ‘traveller’, the inspired clubber – with youthful energy and mature conviction. She is expressive, physically adept and engagingly opens herself to Corfield’s vision of the emotions Tracey can convey.

It is too hard to cover all the many characters played by ‘The Chorus’. Each is essential to the action, some especially so.

Photo : Tracey Schramm

Bryn Chapman Parrish uses fine  comedic timing and a very expressive face to create some strong and contrasting characters, among them Kerry, Tracey’s mother (and Mabel’s disapproving daughter), Elvis, the German club follower who finds a place for Tracey in a crowded vegan ‘squat’, and a stern club bouncer.

Masego Pitso plays a similar variety of characters including an African woman Mabel visits in Kenya and Elvis’s blind grandmother in Berlin. Pitso has a haunting voice which brings depth to several scenes.

Darius Williams plays two taxi drivers – one in Africa, one in Europe – both incredibly funny and understanding, but it is as the sexy DJ Messerschmidt that he really come into his own!

All three portray the characters that jump the generation, cultural and social gaps that Philpott has made important in his story – and that Corfield has accentuated in his direction. The play is peopled with characters that are inclusive and tolerant and non-judgemental.

M. Rock is a perfect production to celebrate atyp’s new home and The Rebel Theatre. It is moving, funny, passionate – and a bit wild! Just like Tracey. Just like Mabel.

“M. Rock connects generations. And it does so through an understanding of qualities that are timeless – love, loss, laughter, adventure … and music.” (Fraser Corfield, director).

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.