By Rainbow Chan. Director Tessa Leong. Contemporary Asian Australian Performance, supported by Sydney Festival. Riverside Theatres Parramatta, NSW. 23-26 Jan, 2025
Reviewed : 24 January, 2025
Photo : supplied
The Bridal Lament was a public performance of grief, a ritual where Weitou brides expressed their bitterness about arranged marriages and patriarchal rule. As such, its message reaches across cultures and generations. Rainbow Chan learnt of the ritual in her search to find out more about her Weitou heritage … and the result is a moving song cycle that reveals the multi-disciplinary artist’s incredible ability to draw past and present together through music, movement and storytelling.
The Weitou, from Southern China, were early settlers of Hong Kong and the New Territories. In 1996, as the British handed over the island of Hong Kong to China, six-year-old Chan, like many others, left with her parents for Australia, not realising that the move was to be permanent. Years later she returned in a bid to learn more about her Weitou heritage, the folk music, the stories and the traditions. From this came the discovery of The Bridal Lament and other forms of covert feminist protest against patriarchal control and repression.
Photo : supplied
Because in Weitou only men were taught to read and write, the women shared their stories orally. It was on an old CD that Chan found a recording in Weitou that described the Bridal Lament and the way young girls spent the night before being handed over in an arranged marriage.
With her mother’s voice reading the story in Weitou and series of projections, Chan explains how they passed the night with female relatives, weeping about their loss of freedom and the families and friends they would leave behind. Then, come morning, how they would pack their possessions into a trunk to be presented for the approval of their father-in-law.
Photo : supplied
Chan’s gentle interpretation of the ritual in song and dance loses none of the oppressive implications of the tradition. They are there in tense sinuous movements and vocals that are lightly tight and strained. But her story doesn’t dwell on that. More it celebrates the importance of knowing about such traditions, listening to the memories of the elders and keeping stories alive.
Rainbow Chan is an award-winning, multi-talented artist. She is small, lithe and moves with incredible grace. She reaches across any cultural bounds through the universal forms of music and dance, and a gentle honest smile that seems to say “Let me share this with you. It’s important. You will understand why if you watch and listen”.
By Giuseppe Verdi. Opera Australia. Director: Sarah Giles. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. 23 Jan – 27 Mar, 2025
Reviewed : 23 January, 2024*
Photo : Guy Davies
La Traviata – The Fallen Woman – is the story of Violetta, a courtesan dying of consumption and her adoring Alfredo, who forsakes his noble family for love, only to lose Violetta when his father convinces her that she should sacrifice their love to sustain the social position of the family.
Verdi used music to express his compassion for the frailties of characters such as these, and the society in which they moved. His operas are more than stories. In La Traviata, as well as a tragic love story, he introduced themes of money, social class, exclusion, gambling, and illness – all of which are expressed sensitively in the music as well as the lyrics.
Photo : Guy Davies
Director Sarah Giles highlights this with her interpretation of the prelude. Here Verdi used the high, delicate notes of the violin to introduce the tragedy of his heroine Violetta’s failing health and her dissatisfaction with her life as a courtesan. Giles sets Violetta rising slowly from her bed and her recumbent paramour Baron Douphol and striving to defray the debilitating effects of her illness. In an adjoining room, early partygoers in stylised positions and small, slow, almost robotic gestures depict an image of the life she has chosen. Giles’ directions are as symbolic as the music – her deft touch gently suggesting the fragility of the society that Verdi’s opera will describe.
Conducted by Johannes Fritzsch, the orchestra then leads into the party where Violetta will struggle to be carefree and gay – and where she will be introduced to Alfredo ,who has loved her from afar for a year, calling every day during her illness to in enquire of her health. As Alfredo sings the rousing “Brindisi”, a toast to the fleeting pleasures of life, Violetta succumbs to the promise of his love and the hope of some joy in the last months of her life.
Samatha Clarke brings belief as well as her impressive voice to the tragic Violetta. There is not a moment when the audience cannot see how her pain and frailness overshadow her happiness – even when she sings the beautiful “Sempre Libra” (Always Free). Giles’ direction ensures every gesture or expression accentuates the emotional range of her voice and its incredible power. Clarke’s Violetta finds both the tragedy and the humanity of Verdi’s heroine and the vocal possibilities his music demands of her.
Photo : Guy Davies
The Alfredo depicted by South Korean tenor Ji-Min Park is determined and understanding. Park uses his voice to highlight the depth of his feelings for Violetta, especially when she accepts the reality of his love – and when he realises that she has left him. He stuns with his vocal control and his ability to move from gentleness to driving anger and frustration – and, eventually, to despair.
Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Gemont, is played by the very popular José Carbó. Carbó brings a wealth of experience to the role, finding both resolve and calmness in his approach to Violetta – and compassionate understanding of the depth and fragility of her love. The grief he expresses in “Piani, piangi” (Weep, weep) is spellbinding – leaving the audience holding its breath during the last impassioned notes.
Angela Hogan revels in her role as the fun-loving Flora – and the sassy blocking that Giles gives her, the other courtesans and their lusty lovers. Giles used Verdi’s ‘party’ scenes to inject a little risqué humour and suggestive cheekiness that emboldens the action and highlights the detail and splendour of Charles Davis’s elaborate Victorian costumes.
Metres of shiny, colourful satins, black lace, sparkling accessories and plunging necklines are matched with formal dinner suits decorated in ornate gold embroidery, sparkling beading and … in some scenes … white underwear and black garters! The cast must enjoy the richness and elegance of the costumes and the feisty action, as well as singing the rousing “Brindisi” and the folksy “gypsy’ and “matador” choruses at Flora’s party.
Photo : Guy Davies
Charles Davis’s set is cleverly stylistic – and a happy change from the projections and images that have prevailed over the past few years. Sliding dividing walls and a low proscenium complete with ceiling and a hanging light set the opening scenes in Violetta’s Paris “establishment”. Cunningly, they then become the living room of her country home, the garden beyond symbolised by a single tree before a vast, curved, brightly lit cyclorama screen. The effect of this set housed within the vast stage of the opera theatre seemed to accentuate Violetta’s loneliness, the hopelessness of her plight and echoing beauty of Verdi’s music.
This is a stunning production that brings contemporary colour and humour to a story that is especially relevant in a time where society is being challenged by retrogressive attitudes and deteriorating understanding and compassion.
By Brendan Cowell, Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz. Modern Convict Films. Carriageworks. 14 – 25 January, 2024
Reviewed : 16 January, 2025*
Photo : Daniel Boud
Is it the dream/ambition/goal/ of every actor – male or female these days – to play Shakespeare’s tragic hero Hamlet? And if so, has anyone ever been completely content with how they portrayed the Danish Prince? Or are they so haunted by imperfections they saw in their performance that they need to be committed to a specialist unit where aversion therapy is used to cure their persistent preoccupation with the prevaricating Prince – a Hamlet Camp!
A camp of rules and punishments, workshops and meditation, where a ‘Big Sister’-type therapist monitors their behaviour through hidden cameras and electric shocks are administered through implants in their necks if they quote too often from the play!
Only actor/writers like Brendan Cowell, Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz could come up with such a bizarre, funny idea, then develop it into an even more bizarre, funny, multilayered, complex script. Only three actors of their expreince and skill could perform it with the pace, tightness … and zaniness … it deserves.
Photo : Daniel Boud
Hamlet Camp is an actors’ play. The scenes move quickly. The dialogue is clever, perceptive, sharp, satirical. The relationship between the characters is forceful, knotted, tense. The action is fast, then still, then harried as the characters relive and vindicate their performances, react to the stinging shocks, stand on chairs, run through the audience, writhe on the floor, reach out to each other, then pull away.
It is a mesmerising production, culminating in a complicated, carefully rehearsed, frenzied piece of choreography performed in a space where the audience is close enough to feel the fever of the action – and appreciate the skill, energy and stamina of all three performers.
The play references far more than the challenges of just ‘being Hamlet’. It satirises the many different ‘visions’ of “Hamlet” the actor-patients have played. They have played the unhappy Prince with swords, with phones, with swords and phones, and with cameras. The cunning playwrights also pan directors, stage managers, stage effects, and theatre critics! Very cleverly with quick, astute references that are gently cutting and wryly funny.
Photo : Daniel Boud
Claudia Haines-Capeau plays the voice of the hidden therapist – and appears in the last few moments of the play. She also performs an interpretive dance as Ophelia, offering sprigs of rosemary (“That’s for remembrance”) to the audience as she floats silently around the stage in a short entr’acte after the unusual “curtain raiser” to Hamlet Camp.
Story telling is the forte of the theatre and Cowell, Leslie and Schmitz begin the production with three autobiographical poems.
Toby Schmitz’s Skip Retail Therapy takes us, among other places, to a bookshop and introduces the many different people whose browse its shelves – and his own personal frustrations. Schmitz is the reluctant vendor, caught in a series of part time positions, waiting for the next audition. He moves with grace and tells his story gently, with charm.
Ewen Leslie recalls his teenage acting experiences in his poem Ship to Shore. The audition, the waiting, the surprise of being cast in a TV series, the joy of missing school, then the horror of returning and being “recognised” and bullied. He recalls studying in Western Australia, waiting for roles, travelling to perform them but always being a little haunted by the memories of that first boyhood role. Leslie’s writing is rhythmic and his performance of his memories is beguilingly gentle.
Photo : Daniel Boud
In Storage, Brendan Cowell tells of divesting himself of “stuff” before leaving for England, of being isolated in a basement flat in London during the Covid lockdown where he wrote his novel “Plum”– and finding solace in revisiting his “stuff” in a storage unit on his return. Cowell gave his poem the same intensity and action of all his performances – and the comic timing of which he is a master.
They are, together, an unusual introduction to the wit and satire of the play that follows, yet each of the poems is an insight into the perception and intellect of the three men who envisaged, devised, wrote and performed the zany theatrical dissertation that is Hamlet Camp.
By J.B. Priestly. Genesian Theatre, Rozelle. Directors Ali Bendall and Mark Bull. 10 Jan – 22 Feb, 2024
Reviewed : 11 January, 2025*
Photo : Supplied
The Genesian Theatre Company celebrated “80 years of continuous theatre making” last year. In this, their 90th year they begin a new era as they move from the gracious old 19th century building in Kent Street that had been their home for many years to their new, purpose-built theatre in Rozelle.
The company has a history of producing many murder mysteries, so it is fitting that they have chosen J.B. Priestly’s 80-year-old classic mystery An Inspector Calls to launch their 2025 season … and show off the theatrical possibilities of their new home.
Though audiences might miss the brick walls and stained-glass windows of the old theatre, the new stage is perfect for a period drama set in a fire-lit turn-of-the-century dining room with velvet curtains, polished furniture, glittering glassware and spooky lighting and prop effects.
Photo : Supplied
Directors Ali Bendall and Mark Bull have chosen a rich colour palate for the set which is matched by Susan Carveth’s costumes. Lighting and sound designer Michael Schell returns to provide the atmospheric eerie music and ghostly lighting effects for this, his 170th production for the Genesians.
Written in 1945, but set in 1912, An Inspector Calls is more than a murder mystery, as it also encompasses what director Ali Bendall and Mark Bull explain as the “timeless themes of social responsibility, class inequality, and the inter-connectedness of human actions”.
Priestly uses the interrogation technique of the time-conscious “Inspector Goole” to expose how the unconnected but selfish, insensitive actions of each of the upper class Birlng family have led to the eventual suicide of Eva Smith, a young lady once employed in Arthur Birling’s factory, but “let go” following her part in a strike.
Bendall and Bull have ensured the blocking and timing is in keeping with Priestly’s writing, allowing the characters to establish themselves quickly and strongly in the first scene, so that their subsequent unravelling by the “Inspector” reveals their social flaws. They have chosen an experienced cast, who assume the stance, presence and speech of the time and the “class” they claim to represent.
Photo : Supplied
David M Bond plays Arthur Birling, an industrialist aspiring to greater things. Bond makes his Birling officious, self-important, even arrogant in his attempt to impress his daughter’s fiancé, the son of landed gentry and industry. He struts, poses, straightens his waistcoat, swishes his coat tails … and interrupts others condescendingly. Birling is the epitome of a haughty self-made man and Bond plays him well.
Sybil, his social-climbing wife, is played with similar haughtiness by Annabel Cotton. Cotton has a strong stage presence which she uses effectively to show Sybil’s conceit and over-confidence. This is especially evident in her foolhardy interview with the “Inspector”, where Cotton skilfully shows Sybil’s gradual disintegration as her own treatment of the dead woman is exposed.
Rebecca Liquorish plays their recently engaged daughter Sheila. J.B.Priestly makes Sheila a little more socially aware than her parents and therefore more susceptible to Eva Smith’s story – and her own contribution to the girl’s downfall. Liquorish finds that compassion and empathy in an impressive performance that shows Sheila’s strength of character – and a conscience and that contrasts sharply with that of her arrogant parents and her fiancé, Gerald Croft, played by Simon Pearce.
Pearce shows both the superiority of the entitled in Croft’s character as well as his inherent weakness. He makes the character a little condescending and self-righteous – which he allows to fall away progressively as his indiscrete involvement with the young woman is revealed in the presence of his fiancée and her parents. It is interesting to see his demeaning attempt to clutch back his self esteem in the final scenes.
Sheila’s younger brother Eric is played with intuitive genuineness by Harry Charlesworth. Charlesworth finds the naivety and gullibility of the character and his youthful susceptibility to emotion, especially in the intimidating hands of Inspector Goole.
Photo : Supplied
Goole’s formidable changes of approach and tone are carefully sustained by Vincent Andriano, who returns to the Genesian stage with another very taut performance. Andriano makes Goole imposing and edgy, constantly consulting his pocket watch as if haunted by some inexplicable constraint. He paces, then sits; he questions quietly, then erupts in in loud anger. He is relentless in his determination to expose the failings of each of his ‘witnesses’… and their guilty contributions to the awful suicide of the unfortunate Eva Smith.
A guilt that does not last long once Goole leaves and Mr and Mrs Birling and Mr Croft start to question his identity and the authenticity of his accusations … until a phone message and a knock at the door re-introduces the maid Edna, played by Meredith Blee, who announces another Inspector is at the door …
Bendall and Bull have given this production the thought and time needed to realise the intrigue and social comment in Priestly’s very carefully constructed script and develop the seeming strengths and underlying frailties of his characters. The action is tight, the performances strong, the atmosphere tense.
By William Shakespeare. Sport for Jove Theatre Company. Director: Samantha Young. Bella Vista Farm. 19-29 December, 2024
Reviewed : 21 December, 2024*
Photo : Karla Elbourne
Much Ado is one of Shakespeare’s witty comedies where, once again, the Bard contemplated the vagaries of love, jealousy, greed and social class in a typically complex plot that twists its characters into dissembling, plotting, being hoodwinked and begging forgiveness. Put this in the hands of a clever director with a lively imagination and a small cast on an open-air stage and it’s amazing what can be achieved.
Samantha Young’s Much Ado is bright, fast, a little bit quirky – and thoroughly entertaining. Seven actors play fourteen roles in a production that has the audience involved (literally at several moments), amused – and even a little bit in awe of the quick character changes, the credibility of every character and the comedy that Young has infused into the production.
Photo : Karla Elbourne
High on a grassy hillside, Bella Vista Farm lends itself to a rural vision, and Young sets the play in 19th century Australia. The set, designed by Damien Ryan, is the verandah of a split timber slab hut with a galvanised iron roof … and a tank stand. Nestled in the yard of the original two-storey farmhouse and surrounded with grapevines and roses, it is the perfect setting for a play that involves deception, eavesdropping and some fast character changes.
Shakespeare had varied ideas about love, usually expressed through more than one relationship in every play. In Much Ado there are the young, besotted lovers, Hero and Claudio – and the less enamoured Beatrice and Benedick, whose relationship is fraught based on a previous deception which Beatrice explains in the lines:
“Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one. Marry, once before he won it of me with false dice.”
This gives rise to the parrying between the two that Shakespeare used to comment on damaged love – and continues to give so many actors the opportunity to throw his witty, barbed, much quoted lines at each other.
Photo : Karla Elbourne
Megan O’Connell and Jay James-Moody do so brilliantly, finding the pace necessary for their battle of words yet losing none of Shakespeare’s ingenious choice of words and phrasing. O’Connell plays a Beatrice who is urbane, wise, self-possessed, respected – and protective of her cousin Hero.
Jay James-Moody plays a Benedick equally respected among his soldier friends. Sworn to bachelorhood, James-Moody makes Benedick charmingly affable – so that his witty, condescending parrying with Beatrice causes mirth from Claudio and Don Pedro. James- Moody is a consummate performer who brings a different jauntiness and dash to the role.
Both he and O’Connell have excellent comic timing, as do the other five performers.
Leilani Loau plays a female Leonato, confidently in control of her domain and proud and caring of her daughter and niece. Loau uses the stage – and the audience – effectively, especially when doubling as the ‘Night Constable’ Dogberry, who moves among the audience, one of whom becomes a continuing reference in the final, funny scenes. Here, Loau uses hesitant timing that finds the humour and nuance in Shakespeare’s lines.
Ellen Coote plays both Hero – and Borachio, the wretch who schemes to make Claudio believe Hero has another lover. Coote moves easily from guileless and honest Hero to devious, money-hungry Borachio with apparent ease. Her Hero is light of foot and naively transparent – her Borachio is brash, loud and somewhat vulgar.
Photo : Karla Elbourne
Toby Blome plays the naïve young soldier Claudio, as well as Conrade who is Borachio’s off-sider in crime, and Hero’s maid, Ursula. As Claudio, Blome shows the young, emotional soldier who falls in love easily – and is just as easily duped by Borachio and Don John. As Conrade he is a follower rather than a leader. As Ursula his is a tall, ungainly but endearing attendant.
Don Pedro is played with effective status and command by Mandela Mathia, but it is as the Friar that Mathia endears himself to the audience, moving among them with blessings and good wishes as he makes his way on to the stage.
Don John on the other hand is devious and Ziggy Resnick makes him slippery and sly, almost sliding in and out of scenes – very different to Margaret, the other character played by Resnick. Here Resnick is cheerful, open, full of life.
Samantha Young has given her cast the opportunity to use their varied talents to play contrasting characters in one long, fast moving, demanding production. Even James-Moody plays a second role, the musician Balthazar, whom he makes a little self-effacing and naïve – once again a contrast to Benedick’s confidence.
Photo : Karla Elbourne
Young’s direction enhances the comedy in the play with moments of clever humour. Benedick hides in the grapevine and under the tank stand as he eavesdrops on the story of Beatrice’s love for him. Beatrice hides under a blanket on a cane chair then in high in the tank as she eavesdrops on the story about Benedick’s love for her. The funniest costume change occurs when Mathia is ‘caught’ having to change from priest to prince mid-scene.
There are subtle sight gags and intuitive blocking that keep the action moving without detracting from the plots or the characters or the ingenuity of the words. It is this sort of insightful, bold, contemporary direction and acting that makes Shakespeare’s comedies relevant for each new generation.
By David Gieselmann. The Other Theatre in Association with bAKEHOUSE. Director Eugene Lynch. KXT On Broadway. 7 – 21 Dec, 2024
Reviewed : 11 December, 2024*
Photo : Justin Cueno
Billing The Pigeons as a “fierce, black Christmas comedy” understates the play and certainly the direction of this strange comedy. “Fierce” it is, and certainly “black”, but it’s also loud and furiously fast. Some scenes are so fast that they appear chaotic. Nine actors rushing around the stage, shouting at each other, weaving around each other, passing slips of paper that are held for a moment then passed overhead to be caught by someone else. It is chaos that is impeccably timed and meticulously rehearsed.
The play is a farcical satire set at an office Christmas party. The characters include a long serving but jaded manager, (Mark Lanham) his strident Italophile wife, (Kath Gordon), their Scrabble-loving son (Jackson Hurwood), his horny date, (Micaela Ellis), the office bully (Kandice Joy), the assistant manager dealing with the bullying (Andrew Lindquist), his angry, loud-mouthed, ambitious wife (Lib Campbell), a psychiatrist who preys on his patients (Tel Benjamin) and a Phone/singer/priest (Dominic Lui).They argue, accuse, shout, and move with an intensity that is exhausting – for them and the audience.
Photo : Justin Cueno
But why Pigeons? Perhaps playwright David Gieselmann saw his characters as caged birds unable to move freely, or a flock of feeding birds suddenly disturbed and taking off in a mad flutter of wings. If so, then Director Eugene Lynch and choreographer/movement director Cassidy McDermott-Smith have realised that image in the manic first scene of this production – and the tense agitation and bickering of the scenes that follow.
Lynch has kept the action tight, the timing and the blocking exacting. The characters are distinctly defined despite quick rapid-fire dialogue and short intertwining scenes. Every member of this cast is totally committed. They must be, because they are dependent upon each other to sustain the pace of movement and dialogue that Lynch requires – and the intricate patterns of the choreography that McDermott-Smith has prescribed.
Singling out cast members would take away from the power of their collaborative unity and the different ways in which they relate to each other. Some scenes are intense. Others are weirdly, gently funny. Whether involved in a short scene or frozen trance-like, each actor is in every moment, ready to move or react or shout – or hide in a cupboard. No one can afford to relax or lose concentration in this production.
Photo : Justin Cueno
Designer Lochie Odgers has contained the action between two office wall. As the atmosphere becomes even more fraught and intense in the final scenes, the walls move in, forcing the action into an increasingly claustrophobic space where the actors are forced even more closely together.
Eugene Lynch has brought Gieselmann’s comic farce even further into the growing tenseness of life in the twenty-first century, at work, at home, even at the office Christmas party! His production is a wild ride that’s noisy, confusing, precipitous, fast – and a lot of riotous fun!
Music and Lyrics by Richrd M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Adapted and arranged and additional music by Will Van Dyke/ Book and additional lyrics by Cheryl Davis. Based on the stories by A.A. Milne. Produced by Fantasia Showstoppers at Kuyper Christian School, Kurrajong, NSW. Directors Alana Kenn and Lani Micsko. December 6 – 8, 2024
Reviewed : 8 December, 2024
Photo : David Catterall
Fantasia Showstoppers, formed in 2020, is a theatre company for young people based in Richmond NSW. Nestled at the foot of the Blue Mountains, Richmond is home to a thriving community who support the many arts-based organisations in the area. One of these is Fantasia Showstoppers. Overseen by talented directors David Catterall and Jake Elston, the company provides training, performance opportunities and directing experiences for young people from ages 8 to 18.
Weekday lessons in drama and musical theatre during the year, as well as holiday workshops, culminate in carefully directed and choreographed productions of Disney junior shows like Shrek and Aladdin. No detail is spared to make these productions real theatrical experiences for the young casts. Costumes, lighting, set, music, publicity – all are as meticulous as they would be for an adult production.
Photo : David Catterall
Through these productions the young actors also learn about theatre etiquette, backstage and dressing room protocol, make up, care of costumes – and the importance of collaboration and compassion when working as an ensemble.
The most recent production, Winnie the Pooh -Kids, gave the youngest members of the company a chance to strut their stuff! Performed in a small school hall in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, 25 young people from ages 5 to 14 brought A.A. Milne’s characters to life in five colouful performances over a very busy weekend. From final rehearsals early in the week, including a publicity ‘gig’ in a local hardware warehouse, the cast moved to a ‘red carpet’ photo op before their Friday opening night performance, followed by two performances on both Saturday and Sunday.
They played to excited, supportive, full houses on each of those performances. They sang clearly, including some nice harmonies, and danced with energy and control. Their characters were also clear. A frustrated Pooh Bear (Talia-Jayne Lawler) and his hungry Tummy (Teegan Reece) were joined in their search for “hunny”, by his wide-eyed, innocent friend Piglet (Henry Cassim) and their exuberant, bouncy mate Tigger (Kirra Shelton). When they found a strange note from Christopher Robin (Jack Darlington) which neither Rabbit (Charli Terry), Kanga (Indi Robinson) or Roo (Isabella Stoddart) could decipher, they went with the long suffering Eyeore (Cierra Gonzalez) to ask the advice of their wise friend Owl (Xavier Billett).
Photo : David Catterall
In his ‘wisdom’, Owl interpreted Christopher’s misspelt “back soon” to be a monster called a “Backson” who had captured Christopher Robin. This resulted in a challenging song and dance routine where Owl described the dreadful “Backson” and the things it might do. Pooh and Piglet dug a hole to catch the “Backson” but managed to catch all the creatures of the Hundred Acre Wood! All ended happily however. They found Christopher Robin and celebrated with a picnic – and plenty of “hunny”.
It was the culmination of bi-weekly rehearsals over only six weeks where they learnt the songs, the choreography and developed their characters, all of which, except for Christopher Robin and the show’s narrators, were animals! So characterisation, costumes and specialised make up added to the theatre experience.
Whilst these performances are short, they demand a lot from the young cast. As well as energy, focus, timing and pace, there are the responsibilities of working as an ensemble, being supportive of each other – and caring for costumes and dressing room areas.
Photo : David Catterall
All of this is central to the creative aims of this young, very professionally run company – and the parents who are called in to assist with fundraising gigs, making costumes, working backstage, front-of-house and as chaperones in dressing room areas. Naturally, the company requires that everyone in volved follows all the protocol required for working with children.
Fantasia Showstoppers offers artistic opportunities for young people to develop their talent and social skills – and as they mature, gives those who are interested opportunities to direct and choreograph, stage manage and operate sound and lighting. Its aims are wide and all-embracing and are obviously inspiring a strong local following. The production team of sixteen creatives and volunteers behind this production is an indication of the talent, commitment, enthusiasm – and professionalism – of this relatively new but lively youth theatre company.
Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Benjamin Northey. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Concert Hall Sydney Opera House. 5-8 December, 2024
Reviewed : 6 December, 2024
Image of SSO: Jay Patel
It’s a hot early summer Sydney evening and from Circular Quay to Tubowgule – Bennelong Point – everything’s abuzz. Friends are meeting, eating, celebrating. Visitors are taking photos. Excited fans sit outside on the steps the Opera House, the white sails hovering above them as they wait for the Crowded House concert to begin. Devotees make their way to one of the five venues inside. The ballet in the Joan Sutherland Theatre. A play in the Drama Theatre. Magic in the Playhouse.
It seems there is something for everyone – even lovers of movies and music! Because in the Concert Hall there is a screening of the 1999 movie Home Alone, with John Williamson’s brilliant score being played live by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by the very vivacious Benjamin Northey. As a special treat the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs will join in after intermission to sing the Christmas songs in the final scenes of the movie.
Image from film promo
No wonder the crowd that is filling the Concert Hall is a mixture of generations! These special “In Concert” screening are becoming very popular – and this one is a wonderful lead into the holiday season. Sure, the movie is set in a snowy winter in Chicago, but as Northey points out before he introduces the tinsel be-decked orchestra, we’re used hearing and singing about white Christmases! Then, as the lights dim, he turns and raises his baton. The big screen behind the orchestra lights up and the overture begins!
What a treat for the audience! Over 5000 of them! Families, young couples, older couples. A multicultural, multigenerational audience from all over Sydney coming together to see a movie favourite filmed 25 years ago … but made extra special by the music of the 71 musicians of the SSO and 65 singers of the Philharmonia Choirs. It’s quite an exceptional experience.
The rapt atmosphere leading up to the first few notes of the overture only becomes more electric. Even at “Intermission” the buzz is just as happy as children (and adults!) settle back down with more popcorn for the slap-stick comedy and gentle family re-connections of the second half of the film.
Image of SSO : Craig Abercrombie
It is wonderful to see their appreciation for the orchestra – and the joy on the faces of the musicians as they respond to the applause. It must be a strange experience for them to sit waiting between scenes for their orchestral or choral cues. As the audiences watches the movie, they sit quietly watching the conductor for the signal to begin the musical interludes that enhance the dramatic and emotional moments – and, in this movie, the comic pace of the action.
“In Concert” screenings require sound re-mixing and special film preparation. Technology like this keeps bringing new ways to bring the arts together – and this particular technology brings a new way to appreciate the music that enriches screen productions, the composers who write it, and musicians who perform it. Bravo Film Concerts Live for making these productions possible – and Sydney Symphony Orchestra for bringing them to us!
By Geoffrey Atherden. Hunters Hill Theatre. Director Jasper Kyle. Club Ryde. 22 Nov – 8 Dec, 202
Reviewed : 24 November, 2024
Photo : Kris Egan
Moving a popular television series like the ABC’s Mother and Son from the screen to the stage is never easy, especially when the characters involved were as clearly defined and well-loved as Arthur Beare and his ageing mother, Maggie. However, if the adaptation is done by the original writer, who also writes for stage, there’s a chance that the move will work! In this case, it does!
In his adaptation, first produced in 2014, playwright Geoffrey Atherden has taken Arthur and Maggie firmly into the twenty-first century, where dementia is affecting more and more of our population … and there are more and more things to cause the confusion that made Maggie’s character so lovable.
Photo : Kris Egan
In his foreword to the script, Atherden wrote: “Back in the early 1980s there were no mobile phones, no internet, no Skype, no personal alarm systems, none of the bits of technology that we take for granted but which can be very confusing for someone who is already confused”. There was also no respite care available and less home care assistance for carers. All of this Atherden used to update his original story to about the challenges of caring for a loved one with signs of dementia.
The play still follows the basic story line of the series. Arthur lives with his ‘forgetful’ and unappreciative mother Maggie who favours her other son, Robert, the “much too busy” dentist who is very manipulative. Life is easier because of technology – for example, Maggie has a mobile phone and iPad and talks to her grandchildren on Skype. But it is also more complicated. Mobile phones get lost. Scam phone callers try to con those who are less aware. A personal alarm system can be confusing. And wily older citizens can be very good at tricking dementia assessors!
Photo : Kris Egan
That technology also drives the play. Director Jasper Kyle and his creative team have worked carefully together to record the many lighting and sound effects, sound recordings and video recordings necessitated by the script – and to integrate them into the scene changes without losing continuity and pace. Many of those changes are more ‘filmic’ than ‘theatre’, yet Kyle has found ways to make them as seamless as possible.
The set, cleverly designed by Wayne Chee, allows room for the Beares’ living room to accommodate a quick change of scene to a dentist’s reception area and the lounge of an aged care facility. Two screens allow Maggie to Skype with her grandchildren – and watch TV. Any of the scene changes could be problematic, but Kyle, his team – and his skilfully directed cast – manage them deftly.
Playing the character of Maggie Beare, created originally by the inimitable ‘Grande Dame’ of Australian theatre Ruth Cracknell, could be daunting, but Christine Rule does so with courage, charm and comedic control. With gentle deference to the characteristics created by Cracknell – the hesitancy and wiliness especially – Rule makes the character a little more lively, more techno-aware, more colourful. It’s a challenging role made more so by many scene and costume changes, and multiple sound cues, but Rule manages all with aplomb.
Brenton Amies plays her much-put-upon son, Arthur, created originally by Gary McDonald. Amies brings his own sense of timing and humour to this character, using pause and wry expressions to comic effect – offset by real caring concern that endears his Arthur to the audience. As opposed to his brother Robert.
Nicholas Richard plays the brash, selfish Robert with confident ease. The Robert in this adaptation is just as manipulative as that played by Henri Szeps in the original series, but Atherden has made him more arrogant, non-caring and definitely more deceitful. Richard accentuates all these offensive traits making Robert a very unlikeable character.
His wife, played by Harsha D’Souza, is wise to his adulterous behaviour due to finding his second phone and the photos therein – giving Atherden the chance to include a different humorous situation – as well as a telling comment on the distasteful and incriminating use of technology.
Tida Dhanommitrapap plays Arthur’s new girlfriend, Anita, who is also a carer, in this case of a disabled brother. This is a clever twist that allows Atherden to include the complications faced by carers in managing their own personal relationships.
Photo : Kris Egan
Ross Alexander plays Steve, come to “assess” Maggie’s dementia. Joan Rodd is Monica, whom Maggie meets in the foyer of a respite facility. This little scene is a lovely take on how older women might consider modern dress codes, but is firmly based on 2014 fashion rather than the present!
Wes Egan and Niamh Farrell play Robert’s children, who only appear on screen in ‘conscience’ calls to Maggie.
Jasper Kyle’s production of Mother and Son is smooth and entertaining – perpetuating the lovable characters from the television series in a twenty-first century setting with contemporary problems, contemporary portrayals and contemporary colour. A gentle, thoughtful comedy that brings Hunters Hill’s 2024 season to a close.
Adapted by Sandy Rustin from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price. Henry Lawson Theatre, Werrington NSW. Director: Rebecca Fletcher. 15 – 23 Nov, 202.
Reviewed : 13 November*
Photo : Rebecca Fletcher
Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 film Clue, based on the Hasbro boardgame Cluedo, has become a cult movie – and a favourite of Henry Lawson Theatre’s Rebecca Fletcher’s family. No wonder that she grabbed the opportunity to direct Sandy Rustin’s stage adaptation Clue: On. Stage, which is just as whacky – and busy – as the movie!
Clue is murder mystery with the added absurd elements of farce – crazy characters, silly situations, puns and pratfalls – all of which occurs, like the board game, in the many rooms of a big house. That means multiple doors, possibly multiple bodies and in this case multiple gumshoe detectives.
Like any farce that also means multiple direction and design challenges, all of which Fletcher has met with skilful management, creative imagination and a lot of joy.
Six characters have been invited to a dinner party in the remote, mysterious Boddy Mansion – but they have been instructed to come as the colourful characters of the board game: Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard. They are met by Wadsworth, a creepy butler, Yvette a saucy French maid and a villainous cook – but no host! That’s because their host Mr Boddy is … a body!
Who has killed him? With what? And why?
All six characters admit to having been blackmailed by the corpse, so accusations fly, trust evaporates and mayhem ensues! Moving walls, hidden passageways, locked doors and more corpses result in a pantomime of crazy chases and comical collisions.
Photo : Rebecca Fletcher
Revolving rooms, opening and shutting doors and twelve actors chasing each other around the stage require planning, timing, much rehearsing – and loads of patience and good humour. Farce has to be fun for everyone – those entertaining and those entertained. And Rebecca Fletcher has achieved that difficult balance. Cast members report that they are “having a ball” – and the audience certainly are!
The stage crew may not agree! They have the task of revolving rooms set on wheels while actors are making their way through the done room to appear in another. And they do it multiple times! The continuity of the action, and the safety of the actors, are dependent on their timing and deftness. It’s a big responsibility and bouquets to those behind the scenes who move the scenes so smoothly.
Bouquets too to John Bell, Ken Fletcher, and Mike Rochfort who took on the task of constructing the set Fletcher had envisioned and the “countless weekdays” they gave up to do so.
And don’t think I’ve forgotten bouquets for the cast! Creating these crazy characters must have been fun; cavorting them around the stage, in and out of doors, along imaginary hallways, all the time taking care not to trip or topple, must have taken hours of rehearsal. But they have done it, will continue to do it for another weekend of performances – and seem to be having fun!
Alexander Smith is the arrogant Wadsworth, disdainfully greeting the guests and surreptitiously manipulating things. Smith uses his height and bearing to make Wadsworth haughty and condescending, establishing feelings of resentment and antipathy from each guest as they arrive.
Photo : Rebecca Fletcher
Tayah Gulyas is Yvette, the pert maid who fluffs her feather duster flirtatiously. Holly-Leigh Prophet is the scary cook, cleaver in her hand, evil in her eyes. Both meet untimely ends, but materialise later, along with Mark Prophet and Brianna Grima, in an ever-increasing squad of dodgy detectives.
Heloise Tolar is an elegant Miss Scarlet. In clinging crimson, she is a little snooty and aloof, but warily watchful. Tolar has a strong stage presence and uses comic timing to fine effect.
Professor Plum in plush purple is played by Elliott Prophet. Prophet makes him worldly wise but wide awake to any murderous mischief.
Neridah James is Mrs White, she of the many demised husbands. In a silver-white wig shining above her white pearl-backed stole and black gown, James finds smirking evil in this character despite her avowals of innocence.
Mitchell Rist plays a bumbling Colonel Mustard. Lost in this stylish group and unable to follow the twists of the conversation, he delights the audience with his misunderstandings and mistakes.
Mrs Peacock, played by Nicole Smith preens in shades of cyan, turquoise and cerulean, making her presence felt in sharp remarks and quizzical queries.
Lesh Satchithananda in his theatrical debut as the slippery Mr Green, surprises the other guests – and the audience – with his bizarre behaviour and strange outbursts.
Photo : Rebecca Fletcher
None of them is trustworthy. None of them is trusting. All of them are suspects. All of them are suspicious.
Put them together with a few corpses – two of them played by Aurel Vasilescu who spends a lot of time either lying on the floor or slumped in a chair! – some spooky music, a ready supply of weapons and a lot of energy and you have the makings of a farce. Making that farce work requires careful planning, clear direction, relentless rehearsal and tricky timing, and Fletcher and her cast are making it work well.
You have a few more chances to see that – IF there are any tickets left! Last weekend was a sell out, so be quick!