By Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe. Soft Tread Productions. Director Andrew Worboys. Seymour Centre. 8 November – 17 December, 2023 and touring.

Reviewed : 12 November, 2023

Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe are looking back on another year with their usual perspicacious percipience, pertinent parodies and just a little poignant plaintiveness! They satirise prominent politicians with punchy pride, bi-partisan prejudice and intense irreverent irony. And if you find that little lot of alliteration laborious,  imagine writing a whole sketch of it! In fact, imagine planning a program of sketches satirising people and politics – and performing them perfectly!

Ok! Ok! I’ll stop!

Deciding who and what to satirise must be tricky – deciding how to go about it even trickier. Because revues aren’t just ‘lampooning’. They are performances. Each sketch is based on astute observation and wise judgement. Each has a beginning, a middle and a clever end. Because the material is topical, it’s relevance is short-lived, so it must be written quickly. Because it’s political, it must be selected judiciously and written with wit, wisdom, and judicious restraint. Because it’s entertainment it must have variety, pace and universal appeal. Because it’s ‘revue’ it must also be funny!

That’s a lot to ask, but Biggins and Forsythe, with Phil Scott, have been meeting all those requirements in their Wharf Revues for years. They choose their subjects shrewdly. They are astute, clever writers who know their audience, know what appeals, know how far they can go. They know the importance of variety in form and style and presentation. They also must be prepared to suffer the “slings and arrows” of outraged pollies, their follower … and critics.

Revues require skilled, experienced actors who can impersonate, create caricatures, make quick character and costume – and sing and dance! Biggins and Forsythe meet all those requirements, as do Mandy Bishop and David Whitney who join them in this 2023 revue, Pride in Prejudice. With Andrew Worboys in the director’s chair and at the keyboard, they take the audience on a risqué romp through the year, with nods to Canberra, Washington DC, Moscow and the South Pacific.

The production is precisely planned, meticulously rehearsed and performed with the energy, pace and clarity that is essential in the delivery of satirical material. Every word and note in satire counts. Every walk, stance and gesture is significant. Every character – and there are many – must be recognisable without being too offensive.

That said, Biggins, Forsythe, Bishop and Whitney perform a plethora of characters, beginning in true BBC “bonnet drama” style with a send up of Jane Austen. Biggins, as Mrs Bennet, delights with gems such as decrying the local priest, ‘Cannon Fodder’, offering “gluten free communion wafers”. It is a great start and the sketches that follow are many and varied, including …

A double spoof on the ABC’s Q&A and the musical “Avenue Q”, with puppets of Hannah Gadsby, Mark Latham and Peter FitzSimons fielding the questions. An excellent, energetic impersonation of Groucho Marx singing a parody of “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” to Senator Lidia Thorpe, and David Marr leading a biting “Livid Festival” discussion on Robodebt.

Coming under fire were the lack of ladies in the coalition, the intricacies of the Westminster System, and government inaction on numerous issues.

Donald Trump and Rudi Guiliani appear sporting prison stripes and chains; the late Queen appears in a dream to Charles Rex; and Costa Georgiadis decries every pesticide imaginable and their effect on a sad list of extinct species.

Serious moments such as that are special in the work of these writers. This year, as well as the environment, it is the Referendum that brings a serious hush. Sung to the tune of “Bad Moon Rising’, Forsythe’s tribute to the lost Voice is moving in its words and haunting harmonies.

The Revue wouldn’t be the same without a parody on a musical. This year, predictably, it is South Pacific, starring President Biden, Caroline Kennedy (both beautifully caricatured!) and a diplomatic adviser who elucidates alliteratively!

Congratulations to Biggins and Forsythe. Their selection of topics and clever writing continues to amaze and amuse. Congratulations to all five performers on a performance that, as always, is fabulous, fast, funny and facetious.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

The Wharf Revue: Pride in Prejudice also tours in 2024 to:

• • • Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong: January 30 – February 3
    • The Pavilion, Sutherland: February 6 – 7
    • Capitol Theatre, Tamworth: February 9 – 10
    • Union Theatre, University of Melbourne, Carlton: February 13 – 24
    • Cessnock Performing Arts Centre, Cessnock: February 27
    • Riverside Theatres, Parramatta: February 29 – March 2
    • Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane: March 5 – 9
    • The Arts House, Wyong: March 12 – 13
    • Glen St Theatre, Frenchs Forest: March 14 – 28
    • Dubbo Regional Theatre: April 3
    • Civic Theatre Newcastle: April 5-6
    • Adelaide Festival Centre: April 8 – 13
    • The Glasshouse, Port Macquarie: April 16 – 17
    • Orange Civic Theatre: April 19 – 20
    • The Round, Nunawading: April 23 – 24
    • The Joan, Penrith: May 2 – 4

By Stephen Sewell. White Box Theatre in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre. KXT on Broadway. Oct 27 – Nov 11, 2023.

Reviewed : 5 November, 2023

The text in this latest work by Stephen Sewell is almost as dense as the lengthy treatise on the work of psychiatrist Jacques Lacan that is made available to audience members should they have the time or inclination to read it. After seeing the play, I decided to take that time in order to see if the information therein might change my ‘gut reaction’ to the production. It explained in some detail Lacan’s complicated theories about the development of ‘self’ – aptly described by some as “novel’, ‘complex’, ‘obscure’ and ‘enigmatic’ – and his methods of psychoanalysis, which shed light on some of the ‘clinical’ staging and blocking used by director Kim Hardwick.

However (and I know it is grammatically incorrect to begin a sentence thus) it would have been better had I used the reading time to write from the ‘gut’ because, though I now see how many of Lacan’s theories and practices have influenced Sewell’s writing, I still can’t see the need for the concentrated and intensely convoluted dialogue. All the ‘theories’ were there in the characters, their frailties, and their fraught relationships, but they were made heavy by trying to make them exemplify too many of Lacan’s “diagnostic categories”.

Don’t get me wrong, the cast handled that dialogue superbly and the tension they developed under Hardwick’s direction was tight and oppressive – almost as oppressive as the heavy red Persian rugs that enveloped the set. The overall mood of the production was one of despair, though lightness came in some humorous exchanges and the appearance of a ghost.

“Distance” was a feature of the production – distance between patient and practitioner, distance between husband and wife, distance between mother and daughter. Hardwick stretched the small transverse stage at KXT to make that distance taut and wired with tensions that kept the characters edgily wary of each other.

Helen O’Connor as Eve, the Lacanian psychoanalyst, carries much of the dramatic burden of that tension – in her consulting room and at home. O’Connor holds herself tightly throughout the long first act but becomes increasingly strained in both her seeming lack of empathy with her client, Sylvia, and her husband. She shows this in her stance, the way she holds her head, her fixed, guarded eyes. With Sylvia she sits out of direct sight and listens rather than asking questions – as Lacanian practice suggests – but her reactions to Sylvia’s words seem personal rather than clinical and detached. The reason is obvious later in scenes with her husband, Paul.

Paul, played by Noel Hodda, is gentle, forbearing but beleaguered by Eve’s lack of warmth and the distance she keeps between them. It is a difficult role and one Hodda plays well, continually reaching across the distances and taking Eve’s rebuffs with gentle understanding that hides growing hurt and dismay.

Louisa Panucci plays Sylvia. Confused, but erudite, she wants answers, but knows that Eve, as a Lacanian, listens rather than asks questions. And Sylvia is happy to talk … about her sex life, her friends, her relationships … but really she wants Eve to explain rather than let her find out for herself. Panucci finds all the frustration that Sylvia feels, her developing irritation, her continuing disappointment, her growing anger with Eve. It is a difficult role, filled with emotional ups and downs that Panucci handles skilfully.

Annie Byron plays Madeline, the ghost of Eve’s mother, a quiet, gentle ghost that is Eve’s own ‘Lacanian analyst’, who listens, sometimes quizzically but always sympathetically. The appearance of Madeline in the second act breaks the oppression engendered in the long hard scenes in Act 1, and Byron, drifting into the darkened set, drink in hand, brings a muted ‘mauve-ness’ that lightens the tension and shows another image of Eve. There is humour in the comfort of their ‘conversation’ and the succour Eve seems to gain from it.

The gentleness of that scene fades quickly as further confrontations between Paul and Eve – and Sylvia and Eve – lead to revelations that are unexpected … and though contrived, give some theatrical denouement to the production.

This play is about women and their feeling, frustrations and follies – but they are drawn out too analytically, too bleakly.

By William Kentridge. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. 2-4 November, 2023

Reviewed : 2 November, 2023*

William Kentridge creates across the arts. In drawing, writing, film, performance, music and theatre he creates works that transverses cultures and generations. His work is represented in museums around the world. He has directed operas in New York, Milan, London, Lyon and Sydney. And for three days he returns to the Sydney Opera House with his cross-disciplinary work, Sibyl.

The performance begins with a film The Moment has Gone, shown on a filmy white screen that stretches across the opera theatre stage. The film shows Kentridge at work on plans and drawings in his animation studio. Slivers of film map the process as works come into being from initial lines to faces, scenes, figures that grow and change, move, and sometimes disintegrate. Some lovely touches of humour in the filming, and the accompaniment by pianist and musical director Kyle Shepherd and four vocalists are symbolic of Kentridge’s ability to fuse art forms.

Shepherd and returns to accompany Kentridge’s chamber opera Waiting for the Sibyl, a Gesamtkunstwerk production combining music, dance, projections and shadow plays on a huge hand painted backdrop.

In Greek legends the Sibyls were prophetesses who made predictions about the future. In this production the ‘predictions’ are sayings and poems that are thoughtful, humorous and sometimes facetious comments about life and fate. They are sung in four Bantu languages and translated into English in large projections that are printed over pages of a dictionary.

The four vocalists – Ayanda Nhlangothi Zandile Hlatshwayo Siphiwe Nkabinde S’busiso Shozi  – are joined by vocalist and dancer, Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Xolisile Bongwana and dancers Thulani Chauke, Teresa Phuti Mojela, and Thandazile ‘Sonia’ Radebe to bring this amazing artwork to life.

The filmy screen rises and falls over several scenes. In the first Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Xolisile Bongwana introduce the Sibyl’s predictions – singing and swirling, while other performers sift through handfuls of paper and drop them to drift and litter the floor. Shadows play on the screen behind the dancer. In another scene chairs become the centre of attention – and humour. Technology and timing are come together here in a segment that pays homage to the zannis of commedia dell‘arte.

Music, dance, drawing, film, comedy and mythology are cleverly interwoven in this production that is thought provoking as well as being colourfully entertaining. Sydney is fortunate to have William Kentridge back in the Opera House with Sibyl, his ingenious combination of so many theatre and visual arts.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

* Opening performance

By Bob Booker. Bondi Theatre Company. Director Ruth Fingret. Bondi Pavilion Theatre. 25 Oct – 5 Nov, 2023 and Emanuel Synagogue 15 – 19 Nov.

Reviewed : 28 October, 2023

The 1960s was a special time for comedy albums. Comedians like Wayne and Shuster, Stan Freberg, Bob Newhart, Victor Borge, The Goons, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, The Goodies and Monty Python made LPs that entertained families around the world. Some of us remember them well, even still quote them!

Radio broadcaster Bob Booker was one of them. His album The First Family, a satire on President JFK and the Kennedy family, sold over 7.5 million copies and won multiple Grammy Awards. A demand for more resulted in another twenty-two albums, among them You Don’t Have to be Jewish, which was launched in 1965 and sold millions of copies.

The sketches and songs on the album have been quoted for years. With the permission of Booker, now 92 years old, they have been collected and published in Australia by DSPress. They are still very funny to read. Some are very short; others are put to music. But all were written to be recorded on an album, not performed live, on stage! So the decision to do so required some courage, as director Ruth Fingret explains:

“Directing it for stage has many challenges not the least being that we have forty scenes changes … we’ve had to honour the original recording, while also aiming to provide a satisfying theatrical presentation of a script that was originally written simply to be heard”.

Forty scene changes! Imagine the changes of character and costume! This can lead to a backstage nightmare – especially when some of the sketches are only a page in length. But Fingret and her stalwart cast and crew have attacked the task with typical thespian fervour – and Jewish humour!

They move from sketches of two characters to sketches of six. They change characters constantly. They sing and move to modest choreography. They make mischievous eye contact with the audience. Most of all they make people laugh.

They laugh because the scripts are funny. They laugh because the cast understands and captures the right intonations and timing. They laugh because the characters depicted are universal so ‘you don’t have to be Jewish’ to recognise them.

The six actors work with speed and diligence to present over a hundred characters. Just remembering the order of their character changes must be difficult, let alone making so many costumes changes. But they work well together, establishing each character with a stance, a walk, a gesture or an accent. Geoff Sirmai, James Burchett and producer David Spicer (who slipped into the cast with seven days’ notice), play fathers, sons, husbands, lawyers, doctors, husbands even cowboys. Christine Greenough, Liz Hovey and Andrea Ginsberg play different mothers and daughters, brides, wives, gossips, even a gypsy.

They play these characters with energy, good timing, and obvious enjoyment.

This is especially so in some of the longer sketches. In The Ballad of Irving (the hundred and forty-second fastest gun in the west), Spicer leads with the others doing backing vocals and doing fancy footwork. The Reading of the Will is one of the best known of Booker’s scripts and those in the audience who knew it well weren’t disappointed by Sirmai’s expectant face as he waited to hear whether his brother-in-law would remember him in his will.

Greenough and Ginsberg’s timing in A Call from Greenwich Village makes the scene especially funny. Liz Hovey uses her Theatresports experiences to good effect, especially as The Gypsy Fortune Teller. James Burchett plays all the younger men and a very effective teacher of Yiddish!

Linking forty different scripts is difficult, especially as the content and contexts change as quickly in this production. Here the production team have come to the fore. Musical director and choreographer Aaron Robuck, design consultant Parish Stapleton and lighting designer Mehran Mortezaei work cleverly together to give the production needed continuity and colour. The set is utilitarian, with some quirky hand props. Live on keyboard, Robuck skilfully uses musical interludes to link or introduce scenes and Mortezaei picks up changes in ambience with subtle lighting effects. Mazel Tov!

The production pays homage to Booker and his clever, much-loved scripts – and introduces them to new audiences. The publication by DSPress also makes them available for future productions, and the possibility of linking them in different ways.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

Sadler’s Wells and Universal Music UK, Directed and choreographed by Kate Prince. Based on the songs of Sting. Joan Sutherland Theatre Sydney Opera House. 25-29 November, 2023.

Reviewed : 26 October, 2023

Message in a Bottle comes from the UK to make its Australian premiere as part of the 50^th birthday celebrations of the Opera House. Based on the music of iconic singer-songwriter Sting and choreographed by Kate Prince, it is an incredibly moving piece of dance theatre that pays homage to the millions of displaced people in the world today, refugees from harsh rule and devasting war seeking shelter and solace and a new, safe place to re-start their lives.

Choreographed and directed by Kate Prince, the twenty performers tell in interpretative dance the story of a family of four living in a gentle, happy community that is beset by civil war. Forced to flee, they wander for a time ultimately finding shelter in a refugee camp, before risking a perilous journey in an open boat where their “anxious eyes, search in darkness, with the rising of the sea. Incarcerated in a detention camp, watched over by heartless guards, they wait for years hoping “one day we’ll sing our freedom”. Time and loneliness haunt them, until, finally they are given a new chance in a safer land to “lie in fields of gold ”.

Their saga of fear, loss, survival, hope and love is told clearly through the simple clarity of Sting’s beautiful lyrics, with his music providing the various tempos for choreography that includes contemporary hip hop/street dance styles with breaking, locking and popping. Produced by ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company, it is fast, powerful, mesmerising and emotionally expressive.

Though the themes of interpretative dance are clear, it is sometimes a little difficult to follow the intricacies of the story. Not so with Message in a Bottle. Each song introduces a new chapter to the story, with the dancers adding graphic imagery and emotion through movement and dramatic, descriptive physicality. Using columns of side lights, fixed spots and some moving spots, rather than lighting from the front, designer Natasha Chivers highlights the complex sophistication of the movement and the transition from one scene to the next.

Set designer Ben Stone is similarly subtle, realising that the suggestion of a scene is sufficient – but making those suggestions perceptively poignant.  A circular mat is centred for a wedding celebration, then moved, as war rages to receive the sand that bleeds from “a little black hole in the sun”. Bed rolls carried by the asylum seekers become the sides of their crowded boat, and a live wall with images of increasingly large waves crashes behind them. Moveable frames become their detention ‘prison’ backed by images of barbed wire on high walls.

The twenty dancers –  Oliver Andrews, Lindon Barr, David Cottle, Deavion Brown, Harrison Dowzell, Nestor Garcia Gonzalez, Natasha Gooden, Lizzie Gough, Anna Holström, Megan Ingram, Ajani Johnson-Goffe, Daniella May, Dylan Mayoral, Lukas McFarlane, Robbie Ordona, Lara Renaud, Hannah Sandilands, Jessey Stol, Steven Thompson and Malachi Welch – bring Kate Prince’s production to Sydney for four short days. If you love dance, especially contemporary dance, try and see this production.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

By Shelagh Stephenson. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Directed by Rachel Chant. 20 October – 25 November, 2023

Reviewed : 25 October. 2023*

The title of this play by Shelagh Stephenson is based on the premise that no matter how much a water solution is diluted, the water will retain the ‘memory’ of the substance that has run through it. In some ways our memories are similar – but, as director Rachel Chant explains: “Memories are an act of subjective re-creation, altered and reconstructed to aid our own survival. No two recollections will be the same”.

In The Memory of Water Stephenson brings three sisters together to organise their mother Vi’s funeral. Naturally they begin to reminisce, and Stephenson uses their different perceptions of the past to show “the slipperiness of memory and the heightened, contradictory emotions that are released when you lose a parent”.

That it is a comedy is testament to the fact that families are funny, that even in difficult situations, memories evoke a host of nostalgic reactions, some of them sad, some of them contentious, some of them hilarious. It is the latter on which Stephenson – and Chant – concentrate, but not at the expense of poignancy nor tenderness.

The play takes place in the mother’s bedroom and designer Veronique Benett establishes the tone of the production with a set that is painstakingly pink, and plush, and prissy! The cupboards above the bed are stacked with paraphernalia – boxes, make up cases, a set of hot rollers! Trinkets clutter every surface, the satin quilt cover shimmers pinkly and a green velvet curtain covers the window and keeps out the cold, wintery Yorkshire night. The detail is fastidious and the changes in mood are fittingly intensified by Kelsey Lee’s mellow lighting.

The set reflects Vi’s personality and Chant uses it effectively, symbolically centring on and around the bed which is set on a double plinth.

Under the satin cover, the eldest sister, Mary (Michala Banas), wakes to ‘a visitation’ from a younger Vi (Nicole Da Silva) dressed in vibrant green satin, and sitting elegantly at the dressing table. Their hallucinatory conversation suggests that things were not always happy and this sets the tenor for the rest of the play as Mary and her sister Teresa (Jo Downing) and Catherine (Madeleine Jones) talk, argue, cry … and laugh.

Mary is a doctor who is deeply concerned about her patients – and deeply involved in a 5year relationship with Mike (Johnny Nasser) a celebrity doctor who is married with three children. Banas finds the acumen of the professional, the affectionate tolerance of the ‘big sister’ and the vulnerability of ‘the other woman’ in carefully judged and layered performance. Her immaculately timed pauses and the expressions that accompany them augment both the humour in her lines – and the devastating anguish she feels when a hope she has been clinging to for twenty-five years is cruelly crushed.

Teresa, the middle sister, who has spent more time with their mother runs an alternative well-being business with her second husband Frank (Thomas Campbell).  She is down-to-earth, organised, in control – except when she’s had a drink – and Jo Downing makes her busily caring and dependable – except when she’s had a drink! Then she becomes verbose, accusative, loud and wobbly. Her ‘wobbly’ is played very effectively by Downing who takes her there gradually through a slight slur, gradual increases in volume, more thoughtless reactions – and a delightfully natural slip off the end of the bed.

The youngest of the sisters, Catherine lacks the self-esteem of her older siblings – and Madeleine Jones plays her perfectly. Jones finds all of Catherine’s insecurities and attention seeking in a performance that is both funny and empathetic. Willowy and flexible, she gives Catherine an awkward but fluid grace as she paces sulkily, flings her arms expressively, as she wails about another failed romance, throws herself at the mercy of her sisters (who have obviously “heard it all before”), and turns for comfort to her brother-in-law Frank, who flees from her affection seeking approach!

It would be easy to believe that these three are sisters! Physically they are similar – and under Chant’s direction they have achieved that similarity of expression and gesture and reaction that is so often noted of female siblings, as well as the togetherness that comes from shared experiences and family jokes. Nowhere was this more evident than in a raucous scene that began with sorting their mother’s wardrobe – and ended with them parading on and around the bed in an array of colourful clothes and outrageous hats. The energy and pace of this scene was so carefully choreographed and meticulously rehearsed that it seemed spontaneous and absurdly natural.

Chant’s concentration on timing and pace ensured that naturalness and the depth that made the women – and Mike and Frank – so convincing.

As the ‘intimate observers’ in the play, Johnny Vasser and Thomas Campbell provide foils the sisters and deliver some delicious one-liners.

After an unexpected of entry, Vasser establishes both the intimacy and strained secrecy  of Mike’s relationship with Mary – and his wariness of her sisters, and though they voice their distrust clearly, he retains calm and taciturn, watching and always aware.

Campbell on the other hand, is one of the family, and hence the brunt of sisterly criticism and banter which he bears steadfastly and stolidly. Campbell has excellent comic timing and uses pause and pace to humorous effect – especially in his struggle to stop Theresa’s drinking, and in extricating himself from Catherine’s amorous attack.

Nicole Da Silva ‘s Vi ‘appears’ only for brief moments, almost drifting onto the stage, and wryly observing the effect of her demise … and highlighting her influence on her daughters.

The drawling vowels and missed consonants of the Yorkshire accent have been carefully schooled by dialect coach Linda Nicholls-Gidley and add to the veracity of the production, especially as the snowy winter is an intrinsic character in the play!

Rachel Chant has brought Stephenson’s play – first produced 27 years ago – to renewed, vibrant, funny, poignant life on a memorable set at the Ensemble. Sister siblings should see it together! (As one of four sisters, I know you’ll see yourselves!)

*Opening Night

By Felicity Castagna. Adapted and directed by Priscilla Jackman. National Theatre of Parramatta. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 25 Oct – 3 Nov, 2023

Reviewed : 21 October, 2023*

Felicity Castagna writes about aspects of life that resound with ordinary people, especially ordinary young people growing up in the suburbs, away from the rarefied atmosphere of the CBD. Her characters come from different backgrounds, different cultures, from the Australia that is busy and varied, bubbling with hopes and expectations – and the strength that comes from overcoming disillusion and disappointment.

In Girls in Boys’ Cars, Castagna take her characters Rosa and Asheeka on a road trip in the style of Sal and Dean in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. The girls ‘borrow’ Asheeka’s boyfriend’s car and take off from Parramatta to explore New South Wales. They are young and brave – and brazen. They end up in the sorts of predicaments you might expect, but approach them with strength, determination … and grit.

Their backgrounds are different – culturally, socially, economically. Director Priscilla Jackman describes the complexity of their friendship as … “simultaneously toxic yet ferociously loyal, naïve yet ferociously courageous, co-dependent yet deeply liberating”.

In fact, like many friendships! Rosa is a reader, a thinker. Boys ignore her. Asheeka is more open, flirtatious. Her boyfriend Dan is macho, one of ‘the boys’ who hang out with them in the parking area at Maccas!

Jackman translates Castagna’s book into a play that captures the girls, the ups and downs of their journey, their excitement, and their problems. Production designer Melanie Lierty has created a set that suggests the momentum of the journey. Moveable screens, an adjustable table and stairs giving differing levels, cover changes of scene and place. Lighting designer Moran Moroney and sound designer Zac Saric add variations in mood and tone that blend with multimedia designer Mark Bolotin graphic images – huge maps, blurred photos, changing skies.

The production moves quickly, bolstered by busy cast members who move props and screens with speedy, practised choreography whilst also depicting the range of characters the girls meet along the way – and those they leave behind.

Ziggy Resnik and Nikita Waldron play Rosa and Asheeka. Their portrayals are strong and convincing, both finding the strengths of the characters, and the impact of their differences.

Resnik makes Rosa thoughtful and wistful, reticent but open to suggestion, with an energy that is tightly controlled, and comic timing that shows her sense of humour and insightfulness.  The Rosa they portray wants more, but needs the confidence of someone like Asheeka to take the lead. Once ‘on the road’, Resnik shows Rosa’s growing self-assurance to make decisions (some of them wrong), and the strength to face the challenges that result.

Expressive and intuitive, Resnik shows the little changes in Rosa as she learns more about herself.

Asheeka is a little more worldly wise and Waldron shows that in Asheeka’s physicality.. Nonchalantly leaning against a post in the car park, she seems almost insolent, but still a little unsure of the effect she is having on her boyfriend Dan. She covers any lack of assurance with a tilt of her chin or a flick of her hip. Asheeka is seen as a leader, but Waldron finds her underlying anxieties. There is much baggage that Asheeka carries – her culture, parental expectations – and Waldron shows that in secret moments of despair.

Together they travel the road of self-discovery, a point that Jackman makes poignantly final scene of the play, where the girls are alone, strong enough to be making their own way to find their true self.

The characters that people their journey – and establish each pace they visit or are ‘delayed’ – are played by Suz Mawer, Ella Prince and Alex Stamell, all of whom show remarkable energy as they move from character to character and manipulate the ever-changing scenery. Whether playing parents, or boys in the carpark, or police or corrective service officers, they find just the right stance, tone and expression that makes each character immediately recognisable and real. Managing the physical demands made on them by the director – and   the designer – is credit to their fitness and concentrated rehearsal.

Priscilla Jackman has stayed true to Felicity Castagna’s characters and the Parramatta that she writes about so clearly and lovingly.  Rosa and Asheeka show how places like Parramatta are full of thousands of “complicated and contradictory stories” that are rich and exhilarating. Jackman’s and her creative cast and crew show how theatre can bring those complications and contradictions to the stage in a “pulsating and contemporary Australian work”.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night