Category Archives: Theatre Reviews

Mr Bailey’s Minder

By Debra Oswald; Director Damien Ryan, Ensemble Theatre Kirribilli; 28 July – 2 September.

Reviewed : August 4, 2023

Photo : Prudence Upton

It’s nice to see Debra Oswald’s Mr Bailey back on a main stage – and who better to play the bad-tempered, drunken old artist than John Gaden! It’s a great role taking the character from cranky drunk to dapper recovered alcoholic to remorseful octogenarian and Gaden makes these transitions remarkably – as one would expect – but he does more than that!

He bases them in a sustained energy that inhabits the character, an energy that radiates in his eyes, in the way he watches, in distinctive movements and shaky gestures, in raised eyebrows or a sudden tilt of the head. This Leo Bailey is real. He knows what he’s done, the hurt he’s caused. He’s lived with his conscience for years, dulling it with drink and anger and bitter self-righteousness – alone in a decaying house built into a cliff.

That is until his daughter Margot (Rachel Gordon) who manages his dwindling estate, employs ex-prisoner Therese (Claudia Ware) as his ‘minder”.

Photo : Prudence Upton

Margot is hard. She’s learnt to be over years of hurt and rejection by Leo. As have all Leo’s children, his many wives and his friends. Though he is still regarded as one of the country’s greatest artists, he has been ostracised, and Margot has borne the brunt of his venom and spiteful accusations. Gordon plays that hardness well. She is remote, contained – the hurt and bitterness clear in her rigidity, her cold, controlled reactions to Leo’s accusations.

Therese, conversely, is sympathetic, disturbed by Margot’s lack of compassion. But then, Therese needs this job. She’s made a pact with herself to ‘go straight’ and this is her chance to prove herself. Ware shows all of that – as well as the empathy Margot has forsworn. She makes Therese spirited, determined, understanding … but always a little on edge, a little wary. There’s strength in her resolve – and energy in her youthful sense of fun.

She forges a bond with Leo based on mutual need. But she doesn’t take any nonsense! She makes that clear from the start and Leo is startled into accepting it, reluctantly at first, but Ware’s gritty resolve and no-nonsense attitude make her Therese hard to resist.

However, when handy man Karl (Albert Mwangi) arrives, sent by Margot to remove a mural to be sold to augment Leo’s finances, Leo manages to escape. Therese is distraught, and, caught in the middle of the ensuing mayhem, Karl gets involved. Mwangi plays this part with calm compassion and understanding. He stands back a little, offers advice warily but caringly – establishing a warm relationship with Leo – and a tentative rapport with Therese.

Between them they do a “deal” with Leo. If he gets off the booze and gets cleaned up, Therese will take him on outings. That’s when we see the dapper George! Charming, sociable and, eventually, remorseful. It’s also when we see a different depth of understanding in Therese. A realisation of Leo’s talent, an appreciation of Margot’s attitude.

Photo : Prudence Upton

Debra Oswald weaves their stories together in a plot that she says was fuelled by her “long-standing obsessions – shame, forgiveness, disarming acts of tenderness, the way parents can fail their children and how people might nurture each other in surrogate parent/child relationships.” That she covered all of that in this play is a credit to her ability to create characters and situations which are identifiable across time and generations.

Damien Ryan brings his similarly empathetic touch to the direction, giving the actors space and time to reach into the different layers of the characters and use them to develop the different ways they reach toward – or away from – each other.

I directed this play for a community theatre company in 2008 – and it has lost none of its relevance, or poignancy, or pathos all these years later.

Fade

By Tanya Saracho. National Theatre of Parramatta. Director Jeneffa Soldatic. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 29 July – 5 August, 2023

Reviewed : August 2, 2023

Photo : Phil Erbacher

Camila Pointe Alvarez sets a fast pace as newly employed writer in this funny but acidly insightful look at classism, marginalisation, sexism, bias and prejudice. While it’s set in Los Angeles, Alvarez’s character, Lucia, could be any migrant of different colour or religion or culture working in any white dominated organisation. Or any woman … or disabled person or …

Playwright Tanya Saracho uses humour and pacy storytelling to make her points. Lucia – and the office cleaner Abel – use her astutely written dialogue to explain the range – and effect – of condescension, underestimation, and pigeon-holing suffered by migrants as they try to make their way in a classist discriminatory society.

Photo : Phil Erbacher

Lucia is voluble, outspoken, easily excited, and Alvarez plays her with increasing energy and drive. She moves fast, talks quickly, reacts emotionally. But she is resolute, unwavering in her determination to resist and overcome the ‘categorising’ of her new boss.

Abel, played by Casper Hardaker, veils his background almost stealthily. He is quiet, watchful, distrusting. Hardaker makes him wary, alert but disguises this with a laconic deliberateness, diligently doing his job, and almost hiding his constant caution.

Director Jeneffa Saracho uses Lucia’s energy and Abel’s restraint to paint a vibrant picture of the migrant experience – and how people react to it. Like Lucia, some rise up and find ways to work around it, sometimes surreptitiously. Others, like Abel, have tried that, and suffered, and now have valid reasons to lie low.

Alvarez and Hardaker play off each other expressively. Alvarez is a whirlwind of energetic reaction and emotion. She rants, sobs, collapses, rises determinedly. She’s impossible to resist – as her boss and another writer eventually realise.

Photo : Phil Erbacher

Abel sees that strength, and eventually succumbs to her persuasive, caring friendship. He shares aspects of his life he usually hides, becoming more open, trusting – unfortunately.

The relationship between these two characters is forged skilfully by the playwright. Her dialogue builds both characters deftly, Lucia’s emotional outbursts balanced by Abel’s quiet interest and growing trust and confidence.

Alvarez and Hardaker work in harmony, creating a bond that Saracho builds into a climax that is somehow both disturbing and, disappointingly, predictable. There is fire in this story, a fire that Soldatic fuels by setting Alvarez a pace that seems even more frenetic when compared with Hardaker’s slow, studied movement and quiet introspection.

Photo : Phil Erbacher

They work in harmony on a compact set designed by Melanie Liertz. Lucia works in her office. Abel drags his vacuum cleaner along the corridor outside and ‘hides’ to make phone calls in his storeroom across the way, visible through the scrim walls that also serve as a screen for subtitles that flash (at times too quickly) to translate short bursts of Spanish.

This is a play that says much about society – in the way that theatre does so well. Through characters that are real and identifiable; through words that are carefully chosen and bitingly effective; through direction that is astute and precise; and through acting that is perceptive, intelligent and acerbically real.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

Les Misérables

Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. Packemin Productions. Director Luke Joslin. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. 28 July – 12 August, 2023

Reviewed : 30 July, 2023

Photo : Grant Leslie

Why go to see another production of Les Mis by Packemin? Same director, same musical director, same leading stars? Same show?

Well, No! It’s not! It’s still Les Mis but it is a little different.

The set is different. So are the costumes. And director Luke Joslin has looked more deeply into Victor Hugo’s philosophy to frame his vision. The result is a production that captures Hugo’s reason for writing Les Misérables in the France of 1862 – “as long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless”. It feels more real, more compelling … and in the world today, even more relevant.

The set, from CLOC Musical Theatre, gives Joslin the chance to realise that slightly darker vision for this production. High, dark flats enclose the stage, looming above the action and moving to create different angles and perspectives that allow for some spectacular lighting effects from designer Tom Wightwick. Costumes too, are a little different, not exactly sombre, but toned to be more in keeping with the mood – except for the Thénardiers, who are more colourful, and even more raunchy and raucous!

Photo : Grant Leslie

This set also gives Joslin the chance to innovate a little, resulting in some very special moments which, should I describe them, would spoil their poignancy. It is enough to say that the pathos of “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” casts even more moving “phantom shadows”.

On this set, Joslin directs with a perceptive eye. He concentrates on distance and angles that give slightly different dimensions to the characters, especially Valjean and Javert. He sets them often in profile, still, the distance between them fixed as tightly as the friction in the words they sing.

Daniel Belle and Robert McDougall know those words and their characters well, but there is a different edge to the despair Belle gives to Valjean; a different malice in McDougall’s vengeful Javert. This makes the contrast between them stronger. It emphasises Joslin’s belief that Les Mis “asks what it means to be forgiven and what it means to be unforgiving”.

New to Packemin is recent Brent Street graduate Courtney Emmas, who plays Fantine. Her Fantine is a little darker, a little more damaged. It echoes in her voice and shows in the tautness of her actions. With Joslin’s guidance Emmas finds a colder, more feminist Fantine that makes her decision to release Cosette to Valjean’s care seem a little harder for her.

Garth Saville and Emily Kimpton are the lewd, lascivious Thénardiers. The change of pace these two bring is always welcome, and Saville and Kimpton make the most of the avarice and cunning of these two mischievous characters. Their colourful costumes and coarse boisterousness in “Master of the House” bring bright respite – until their abusive treatment of little Cosette dulls the brightness.

Photo : Grant Leslie

At the Barricade Marius (Brenton Bell), Enjolras (Tom Kelly) and their friends “raise the flag of freedom high” in a turmoil of song and farewells and gunfire. Sound effects (Chris Neal) and Tom Wightwick’s flashing lights raise the frenzy of this scene (and keep the operators busy) until the battle is lost and “these people’s heroes” are no more.

This scene is always exciting, and Tom Kelly leads it in this production with the strength of a powerful voice and the fiery fervour of rebellious youth.

Photo : Grant Leslie

Brenton Bell finds a different passion as Marius. The Marius he plays in this production is gentler, more introspective, more youthfully naïve. He shows that naivety as he falls so quickly in love with Cosette – and his innocent acceptance of Eponine’s love. He shows his gentleness in his expressive voice and face as he holds Eponine keeping her “close” … until her “night is over”.

Georgia Burley reprises her 2020 role as Cosette. With the memory of her life with the Thénardiers erased by the shield of Valjean’s protection, Cosette is gentle and accepting, but lonely and inquisitive. Burley finds all of this in a quiet, giving performance.

That gentleness contrasts sharply with the Eponine created by Daniella Delfin. Delfin fuses the harshness of Epinine’s background with the strength of self-belief and awareness – and the power of unrequited love.

Together they epitomise the two sides of the Revolution: Cosette’s “castle on a cloud” and Eponine’s miserable life on the streets.

Six young performers play “little” Cosette and Eponine, and the daring young Gavroche. They take the stage confidently and must relish this opportunity to work with such a professional and supportive cast.

Photo : Grant Leslie

That cast is made up of forty-one talented and highly trained performers who play a range of characters that move seamlessly from the streets of Paris to Valjean’s factory, the Thénardiers’ inn and the barricade. Every character is strong and believable. Their ensemble work is tight and tense. Whether singing or dancing, they show the power of diligent rehearsal. Their musical director, Peter Hayward, guides them and his orchestra with a very experienced and caring hand.

Les Misérables returns to Riverside with all its usual power and passion. Alain Boubil’s  adaptation of Victor Hugo’s story, Claude-Michel Schönberg’s music and Herbert Kretzmer’s compelling lyrics reach over 160 years to take us back to a time of tumult and social unrest, so different to today ….  Or is it? “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”  …

Don’t miss this production – that is, if you can get a ticket!

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

 

Black Panther – in Concert Live to Film

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The Concert Hall Sydney Opera House. 27, 28 29 July, 2023

Reviewed : 27 July, 2023

Photo : supplied by Marvel Studios.

The giant screen looming high above and behind the orchestra is bright with the brilliant costumes of the female warriors and the blue and gold title of … Black PANTHER. The Concert Hall hums with a different buzz. It’s not your usual SSO audience. There are more families, young couples, hipsters, groupies – all MARVEL fans, all chatting in expectation … and many eating popcorn!

That’s Sydney Opera House! A place where you can expect the unexpected! Like internationally acclaimed film conductor Anthony Parnther, who conducted the original orchestral recording for Black Panther. And Massamba Diop, master of the Tama, the talking drum. Diop, who featured in the original soundtrack of the movie, has taken the voice of the Tama around the world.

Photo : supplied by Marvel Studios.

With Parnther and Diop warming the audience – the former with his mellifluous voice, the latter with his cheeky smile, flickering fingers and unbounding energy – and the stage filled with the musicians of the SSO, their faces expectant, their instruments shining and twinkling in the lights, the atmosphere is even more electric.

The house lights dim, Parnther raises his baton … and this extraordinary experience begins, extraordinary because there is so much at which to wonder.

  • How often have they rehearsed?
  • How well must Parnther and Diop know both the script and the score?
  • How patient are the musicians as they wait and watch for Parnther’s baton to rise, and his fingers and face to convey mood, tempo, volume?
  • How do the voices and sound effects of the movies not distract them?
  • How many of the audience are watching the orchestra as well as the screen?
Photo : with permission

They certainly appreciate the talent of Massmba Diop. How could they not! If they are watching carefully, they will see how closely he follows the score, listens to the soundtrack, reacts to the words, rocks or sits forward, taut as a spring, always ready. And if they can see his face, they will see the smiles and the concentration and the passion for his art.

The score was composed by Academy Award winner Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson – Creed, Creed II, Venom, Tenet, and … Oppenheimer. The director of Black Panther, Ryan Coogler, wanted a musical score that grew with the pace and development of the film, and he turned to Göransson.

Photo : supplied by Marvel Studios.

Accordingly, Göransson immersed himself in the music and culture of Africa. One of the “key components” of the soundtrack is the talking drum, unique to the region, but known by different names across the continent. Massamba Diop explains that the taking drum is “like a voice. They breathe, they talk, they say words like a human being”.

It certainly said words to the audience last night, especially when Diop played to them at the end of the film. Their appreciation of him and Parnther and the orchestra – and the movie of course! – was loud and resoundingly vociferous! What a special night!

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

Perceptions

FORM Dance Projects. Dance Bites 2023. Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 20 -22 July, 2023

Reviewed : 20 July, 2023*

Photo : Heidrun Löhr

Spanish-Australian dancer Pepa Molina returns to Riverside in this fascinating performance based on interviews with the elderly Spanish community at a Spanish speaking aged care facility in Sydney.  That research revealed a range of perceptions about Flamenco that involved “superstitions and cliches that are traditionally linked to the artform and that are common to everyday life in Andalusia, Spain”.

Molina took those ‘perceptions’ to Spain and worked with an international team on several iterations that eventually evolved into this production that synthesises memories and insights in movement and music.

Perceptions brings a little taste of Spain to Sydney – a taste that director/choreographer/performer Jesús Fernández says links “facts, events, traditions, culture, objects, changes that surround us.”

Bringing all of that together may seem impossible, but Molina and Fernández do so in a stunning performance that crosses the barriers of time and distance, a performance that is fast and precise – and just a little wild and sensual.

Photo : Heidrun Löhr

All the fleet footwork, hand clapping and clicking castanets one expects of Flamenco are there in energetic intensity, perfectly timed precision and strong, controlled movement. But there is also a sense of rejuvenating renewal – a sense that traditions will always continue,  energised and revitalised by each new generation.

Accompanied by singer David Vázquez and Guitarists Marco van Doornam and Paco Lara.

Molina and Fernández move with energetic vivacity tempering their meticulous control with moments of humour – a slight smile, a cheeky wink, a raised eyebrow – that reinforce the physical and sensual appeal of this very special artform.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

* Opening performance

Off The Record

By Chris Aronsten. New Theatre, Newtown. Director: Jess Davis. 11 July – 5 August, 2023

Reviewed : 16 July, 2023

Photo : Bob Seary

Political and business leaders all over the world seem emboldened more than ever to lie and act corruptly because there is so little accountability.” Chris Aronsten, playwright.

The bravado of those thus “emboldened” – and the difficulty of exposing them – is the basis of Aronsten’s play, but it covers much more than that. Cover-ups, pay-offs, injustice, introspection … all are incorporated in a script that is tightly written and characters that are decidedly real. It is a script that director Jess Davis says reiterates “the importance of stepping back and prioritising oneself …in a world full of injustices, anger and unfairness…”

Davis and her cast take Aronsten’s expertly pared back characters through scenes that are carefully conceived to expose not only corporate corruption and conceit but personal failure, employee vulnerability and the powerlessness of those unable to defend themselves. Davis’s respect for such concise writing is evident in a production that is taut, with the pace determined by crisp, economic dialogue, quick short scenes, and tense action.

Photo : Bob Seary

The cast sustain that action on a set that is skilfully designed for quick scene changes under atmospheric lighting and sound effects. David Marshal-Martin’s set is wide and spare and bright. Framed by a curved, high screen and translucent artworks suspended at different levels above the stage, it takes the cast smoothly from a sound studio to a green room, a hospital ward, a living room, a bus.

Mehran Mortezaei (lighting), Verica Nikolic (vision) and Scott Gabutto (sound) work creatively together to delineate the scene changes and match and augment the tone and tempo of the action. This is a fine example of a creative production team working closely together to realise a clearly defined vision.

On this set Michela Noonan takes the character of Jenny though a storm of accusation and introspection. Jenny is a TV journalist who exposes the corruption and misbehaviour of a corporate executive, who of course “categorically denies” the allegation. As it happens, Jenny herself is not quite without faults – and the play unravels the over-confident self-assurance of those in the ‘higher zones’ at the same time as it explores the tenuousness and reticence of those of lesser power seeking justice.

Photo : Bob Seary

Michela Noonan is outstanding as Jenny. She takes the character from smiling celebrity to grim alcoholic in a series of challenging scenes that give her only seconds to move from one persona to the other. Shedding a jacket or picking up a handbag as lighting dims, she crosses the set, deftly taking her character through exchanges that expose her fallibilities and failings … and, eventually, her strength. Noonan takes this vibrant but flawed character through a range of emotional confrontations that lead to wild drunken sprees, near disasters and solemn self-analysis.

On stage for the full ninety minutes of this production, Noonan never loses the pace or energy that Davis sets, nor the depth or intensity of the character Aronsten envisioned.

Joe Clements returns to the New stage as confident, corrupt corporation head, Tony. Tony is not a pleasant character, and Clements gives him all the arrogant, puffy self-importance of the over-confident chauvinist. He defends the accusations of lesser, female employees with haughty denial and smarmy brashness. In private he threatens Jenny with his knowledge of her promiscuity and alcoholism. Clements tells much of his character in actions, in the way he sits, stands, gestures and scoffs dismissively.

Gina Cohen plays Ronni, a patient visiting Jenny in Intensive Care after one of her car accidents. Cohen obviously loves this role, especially Ronni’s quirky humour and down-to-earth egalitarian wisdom. This is a lovely scene and Cohen makes it especially memorable. Later she returns as Carol, Tony’s wealthy but distant wife.

Nadia, played by Belinda Hoare, is Jenny’s AA sponsor, who is as much therapist as support. Hoare’s Nadia keeps the requisite distance in her supportive role, but reaches carefully across the distance with understanding and consideration.

Photo : Bob Seary

Janine is the brave ‘whistle-blower” who breaks the news of Tony’s misconduct. Suzann James shows all the fear and misgiving one associates with such a role. She is determined, but terrified. Outraged when those she has championed take a settlement. Hoare shows all this in a naïve belief in justice, tempered by anxious hesitancy and, finally, in wide-eyed disbelief.

Chad Traupmann plays Jenny’s husband Peter, a writer, whom Jenny has almost discounted for years. Traupmann gives the role both pathos and tentative power as Peter, initially cowered by Jenny’s condescension gathers the strength to tell her he is leaving her. The character contrast in this short scene is well written – and cleverly directed. Later Traupmann returns to the stage in a short scene that shows his comic timing.

Jess Davis has given this Australian premiere the care and attention it deserves. She has used the set creatively, choreographing scene changes to sustain the pace and match the accelerating tempo of the script. Under her direction the cast moves naturally and believably, ensuring that Aronsten’s messages are clear – and that his characters are portrayed with evocative clarity in a production of which she, her design team and her cast should be justly proud.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus

Circa. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. 10-12 July, 2023

Reviewed : 10 July, 2023 *

Photo : Dylan Evans

What a great way to introduce kids to really clever circus – and classical music! The productions of Circa are renowned internationally not just for the talent and daring of the artists involved, but also for their theatricality and clever physical comedy. This production, aimed specifically at young audiences, combines each of those features performed with split second timing to classical musical pieces augmented by a piano accordion.

Two Circa artists show their fine acrobatic skills as they dance, balance, tumble and ride a trick bicycle while getting dressed in Restoration wig and costume! All that is interspersed with series of comedic routines that are ingenious acrobatic improvises on musical props … sheet music, a collapsing music stand, a collection of flying batons … and a moving spotlight!

Photo : Dylan Evans

Accompanying them throughout is a musician who intermingles his piano accordion with the recorded classical pieces, all the while supporting the action with wide-eyed wonder. The three work in perfect harmony and flawless timing, keeping the audience on edge with their circus skills – and entertained with intricate mimes and expressive grunts and guffaws!

Circa never fails to awe and amaze. In this imaginatively planned and impeccably timed piece of acrobatic mayhem, they introduce young audience to two areas of the classical arts in a program that is awe-inspiring and uplifting!

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening Performance

All Sorts

Henry Lawson Theatre, Werrington. 8th, 5th and 22nd July, 2023

Reviewed : 8 July, 2023

Photo : supplied

All Sorts is as colourful and varied as the name suggests. It’s a collection of seven short pieces, some written by members of the company, all with a different take on some aspect of life – and some with a bit of a twist.

Programs like this give community theatres the opportunity to involve all those members who keep the company alive. The people who’ve supported the company over the years – on stage, backstage, operating lights, building sets, painting sets, sorting costumes – and waiting patiently for the right role … any role! … to come along.

Photo : supplied

Over 30 of those members are involved in this production, as well as three school students who are “learning the ropes”. Some have directed. Some are on stage. Some are working backstage. Others are operating lights or welcoming patrons front-of-house. It’s a busy scene. But that’s community theatre!

Eighteen are performing in the little vignettes that make up All Sorts – little snippets about life, and love … and cats!

In The Dancing Lesson by Connie Schindewolf, Krystyna Patynowska sits immobile as a dementia patient. When her daughter (Suzie Schwebel) hands her mementos from the past, Abbrielle Hooker and Jack Maidment act out the memories that are locked forever in her mother’s mind. There are sweet moments in this piece, including a loving ending.

Photo : supplied

Rebecca Fletcher, Clarinda Edwards, Holky Bramble and Rhonda Hancock take on four feline characters created by Rhonda Hancock, who seems to know just what cats really think as they twist raunchily around scratch poles, search for a new home, miss their kittens as they are taken away – or hiss and spit as they wickedly spew furballs on to a new rug!

In H.P. Lovecraft’s The Unnamable, adapted and directed by Mitch Rist, Nicole Madden and Adar Eyre play a writer and a critic who meet in a graveyard to dissect a piece of writing about a strange being who can’t be described, even after they have been attacked by it.

The eeriness of that piece is offset by Storytime, written by Sally Davies, and directed by Daniel Conway. Here Rhonda Hancock returns as a story teller – and Corina Thompson appears as the very cheeky Hungry Caterpillar – complete with odd socks and a penchant for underpants!

Photo : supplied

In Act 2, Nicole Smith directs Rebecca Fletcher and Ian Fletcher in Prick, written by Gina Cohen. Set at a funeral, this piece has several surprises – including a very satisfying twist! Saying any more at all would spoil both!

In One Night Stan by Adam Szudrich, directed by Clarinda Edwards, three women of different ages agree online to a date with a guy called ‘Stan”. Holky Bramble, Emma Tait and Heloise Tolar have a great time with these characters in a performance that requires excellent timing and comedic characterisation.

Photo : supplied

Similar fun occurs in the final piece, We Do Weddings, written by Nicole Smith and directed by Rosie Crossing, where Smith, Tayah Gulyas, Angela Pezzano, Nicole Madden and Amber Mai-Feeley are ‘up in the clouds’ in an absurdist heaven, complete with furry halos!

The company is having lots of fun with this production. It’s what community theatre does every now and again to give everyone a chance to stretch their skills in different roles and genres. And to show their audiences the many different people who make up their local theatre company.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

Skyduck: A Chinese Spy Comedy

Writer/Performer Sam Wang. Director Aileen Huynh. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. June 29 – July 1, 2023

Reviewed : 30 June, 2023*

Photo : supplied

Advertised as “Think Chinese Top Gun meets 007 with a J-Pop backing track!”, Skyduck is not your usual comedy. In fact, there is little that is ‘usual’ about this production – except for the fact that it is ‘theatre’ in the very broadest sense of the word. It uses a multitude of old and new theatrical devices, from puppets to projections, and plot, described as “a rollicking tale of international espionage”, mixes features of theatre of the absurd with commedia dell’arte and musical theatre.

As he takes his audience on the mission to steal the Skyhawk X-93, America’s “most prized flight simulation software”, writer and performer Sam Wang becomes a variety of characters speaking in variously accented English … and Mandarin … with sub-titles!

Photo : from website

Wang establishes the characters deftly, skilfully using changes of tone and pitch and facial expressions to differentiate each of the many characters he portrays – whether they be Chinese spies, an American agent or an Australian Aerobatics Squadron Leader.

A multi-talented artist, Wang writes, builds his own props, acts, sings and dances. He uses movement to augment the differences in his characters – and includes some comedic choreography! In the course of the performance he uses machines, ping pong balls, video images, suspensions … and a glitter ball! All add to the bizarre story he has concocted, which includes a plethora of references … including Pine Gap, the barrel roll from Top Gun”, an AFL Grand Final and the 2000 Olympics! It’s laugh-out-loud funny – but also incredibly clever!

Wang is lithe, nimble and dexterous – all of which are essential to sustain the pace and energy of this ingenious example of contemporary theatre.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening performance

Dumb Kids

Playwright: Jacob Parker. Legit Theatre Company in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre Co. Director Sophia Bryant. KXT on Broadway. June 23 – July 8, 2023.

Reviewed  June 26, 2023*

Photo : Phil Erbacher

There is a wealth of fine new young voices in the arts. Whether in words or music, they are making themselves heard. They are open, intelligent, articulate, talented and courageous – because they break boundaries, lift taboos. They don’t preach, or moralise! They say, “This is how it is. This is how we are dealing with it. We want to share it.”

Jacob Parker’s characters says all of that in this cleverly crafted play. They are, however, not the Dumb Kids written off by older generations. They are real. They work hard at expressing and negotiating all the perplexing complexities of who they are and how they feel. Director Sophia Bryant saw this when she first read the play.

“The writing style thrilled me,” she says, “the content mattered, and the characters genuinely felt like my friends. This show was about young people having agency in the stories they wanted to tell about themselves.”

Photo : Phil Erbacher

Ten young actors transform into a group Year 11 students who meet in a local park to plan their formal. They’re away from school so they can be themselves, be free. Some of them are straight, some of them aren’t. But they work together, caring, compassionate, helpful – sometimes a little too helpful, even manipulative.

The park, designed by Benedict Janeczko-Taylor gives them space to move. He uses the full KXT stage, and four entrances to it to establish a playground area in the park. The ‘props’ – a balance beam, a monkey bar, a slatted bridge, a wooden seat – are cunningly minimised to provide varying levels and places to confide. Painted in bright green paint, they imply the freedom of open air – a feeling heightened by intermittent birdsong, part of Christine Pan’s perceptive sound design, and reinforced by Thomas Doyle’s subtly suggestive lighting.

Bryant and her cast understand the characters Jacobs has created. The have found their individual qualities and vulnerabilities in ten very intimate and convincing performances. They find the humour Jacobs has woven into his carefully worded and punctuated dialogue. They see the importance of his short sentences, interspersed with familiar idiom and quotes. They understand his self-conscious hesitancies and uncomfortable pauses.

From this they have developed young people that are maturing, questioning, increasingly open, but because of that, susceptible, sensitive to criticism or tactless humour – or unconsidered manipulation. They relate as close friend in a hierarchy that Jacobs has established skilfully in the dialogue and Bryant has reinforced in astute blocking and canny use of the “playground props”. They look up to others on the monkey bar. Hesitate beside another on the balance bar. Or watch from behind a pole. At times, guided by movement co-ordinator Emma Van Veen, they group together in slow motion choreography to retreat from something difficult; or dance exuberantly to share something more exciting.

Photo : Phil Erbacher

Every actor makes the character they play real and, heart-breakingly at times, believable. They use specific gestures and expressions that are intrinsic to each – and that show their strength or frailty, their sense of fun … or their fear. To single them out would take far too many words – and risk the chance of missing something important in their characterisation – or giving away too much of the of Jacob’s carefully developed plot. But their names are important. They are … Fraser Crane, Ryan Hodson, Mym Kwa, Oli McGavock, Lou McInnes, Dominique Purdue, Connor Reilly, Rachel Seeto, Kate Wilkins and Angharad Wise. Together they are Jacob Parker’s not-so-dumb Dumb Kids.

A play such as this needs discerning direction. It needs consideration and care. It needs space and time, especially in the final days of production. So often independent theatre companies have only a few days to move into a theatre, build their set – and re-establish their blocking, movement, sound and sight cues. bAKEHOUSE and KXT give them that time. Time to feel at home in the space and with the set; time to feel comfortable and in command. Time to ensure that opening night sees a production that is polished and refined … as Dumb Kids certainly is.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Performance