Set in Perth between 1944 and 1964, Tim Winton’s novel is the saga of the Pickles and the Lambs, two families who share a large house in one of the poorer areas of the city. The Pickles inherited the house, which is haunted by the ghosts of badly treated aboriginal girls whose spirits have been trapped there until “love and new life” comes back to the house.

The Lambs, evicted from their farm in Margaret River, move into one side of the house. Their rent, earned from a grocery shop they set up in a front room, saves the Pickles from poverty, but also gives Sam Pickles money for gambling and Dolly Pickles money for drink.

The Lambs are quiet and industrious, but suffer on-going guilt about their son Fish, who suffered brain damage after nearly drowning.

Winton uses the families to describe the many social changes that occurred post World War II in Australia. The adaptation, by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo, summarises their lives in an epic play, usually performed on two consecutive days – or over an afternoon and evening. Adapting the “trials and tribulations” of both families for the stage must have been a daunting task. Directing and managing the resulting epic is just as daunting.

Ainslie Yardley has assembled twenty actors to present forty characters in her edited version of the play that runs, with two intervals, for about four hours. It’s a long haul for the cast, who have many costume and character changes, and the eleven backstage crew who manage several sliding flats, a boat, a tent and a lot of furniture on and off the stage in a multitude of scenes. Yardley and her cast and crew accomplish that long haul with enthusiastic energy.

Stage manager John Bailey and his assistant Gabriel Pope are to be congratulated for ‘corralling’ so many bodies and props backstage with smoothness and lack of fuss. Coordinating scenes changes and lighting cues is always tricky, but actors moving off stage in light can detract from character and effect. Apparent lack of that coordination on opening night may improve during succeeding performances.

Sam and Dolly Pickles, played by Madeleine Sheehy and Shaun Loratet, portray the less savoury aspects of family life. Sheehy’s Dolly is loud and flashy, covering her insecurities with drunken flirtations. Loratet shows how easily Sam gives in to temptation and despair.

Sophie Seaborn and Matt Kelly are Oriel and Lester Lamb. Seaborn uses a steady gaze and firm voice to show Oriel’s steely faith and righteousness. Kelly shows how Lester’s gentleness and caring balances Oriel’s severity.

Quick Lamb and Rose Pickles are the ‘stalwarts’ of the kids at One Cloudstreet. Through them the families’ stories are told most clearly. It is Quick and Rose who eventually bring the family together and free the house of its sad spirits.

Max Jackson is constantly in character as Quick, taking him from childhood to fatherhood in a very appealing performance. His Quick reaches out to the audience with sincerity and consistency.

Mya Pockran shows how young Rose bears the burden of her dysfunctional family, bolstering Sam’s depression, but disgusted by Dolly’s drunken disdain and overt adultery. Eventually she finds some self-respect and independence in work as a telephonist.

Marianne Gibney-Quinteros, as an older Rose, carries that independence into a relationship that takes her to the more sophisticated areas of Perth, but she evetually returns to Cloudstreet where she and Quick find each other, unite the family and free the house of its past.

Through it all, Fish Pickles hovers, a disturbed being who is the only one who is aware of ‘the ladies’ who come to him at the piano in the ‘windowless room’ at the top of the house. This is a difficult role that Josh Stojanovic sustains convincingly, his eyes always looking beyond the moment to watery places only he can see.

Like other companies, Glenbrook has extended the epic nature of the play into a production ‘package’. For a community theatre company that means extra organisation, coordination and a host of volunteers. For example, patrons are offered the opportunity of ordering a meal to be eaten in the long second interval. This is served in the adjoining hall where, under the curation of Robyn and Alan Pope, a collection of photographs donated by local families has been tastefully mounted and displayed. Along with a video of old news articles and advertisements, they depict weddings, christenings, family gatherings and the fashions of the twenty years during which the Pickles and Lambs inhabited number One Cloudstreet.

Ainslie Yardley and Glenbrook Theatre Company are to be congratulated for embracing such a major undertaking and doing it with such enthusiasm and efficiency.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Adam Fawcett. Lab Kelpie. Director Lyall Brooks. Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. 19-21 May, 2022

Reviewed : 19 May, 2022*

Tom is an AFL legend. Fit, muscular, toned, he embodies masculinity. He comes from Brighton, a wealthy background. Noah is a cleaner, sent by the agency for Tom’s approval. He is hesitant, shy, tentative, certainly a bit doubtful about taking this job. They are opposites it seems, so why does it feel so tense?

Under the deft direction of Lyall Brooks, Chris Asimos (Tom) and Mason Gasowski (Noah) face each other in this taut opening scene of Adam Fawcett’s carefully crafted play about whether to “come out” … and when …especially if you’re a footballer.

Fawcett draws his characters clearly and sensitively, their relationship developed in a series of skilfully written  scenes. Brooks directs those scenes perceptively, gradually accenting the tension that builds as the relationship strengthens. Designer Tom Backhaus tightens that tension with an incredible soundtrack that captures the mood of each scene and intensifies the effect into the scene that follows. It is a clever device, in the hands of an accomplished, creative musician.

Clever too, are the actors that inhabit the characters that Fawcett created. Both walk gently in the shoes of their character, sensitive to the shifts in the relationship. Their timing is impeccable, especially in poignant moments where expressive pauses emphasise apprehensions that remain unspoken.

Asimos finds both sides of Tom’s persona. The macho sportsman, one of ‘the boys’, fitting the title ‘the general’ shouted by his fans, and the ‘real’ Tom who has hidden his sexuality for years. But though he gradually opens up to Noah, he does so in secret, still not strong enough to face public exposure and the fear of vilification. His performance is contained and compelling.

Gasowski is equally compelling as Noah, becoming increasingly more confident in the relationship, yet wary of the deceit behind the secrecy. Gasowksi is a perceptive performer who uses silence, expression and gesture – shoulders drooping, hands wringing slightly, eyes downcast – as effectively as words.

Together, they find all the underlying implications in Fawcett’s script. With Brooks’ direction they physicalise the characters through tough scenes and many scene and costume changes, never losing their character, even as they clear props or move across a darkened set with Backhaus’ ingenious music hovering in the air around them as impelling as the dilemma that is dogs their relationship.

Adam Fawcett says he doesn’t know the answer to the question that dilemma raises – but his play makes the choices very clear. And Asimos and Gasowski give them depth and believability. This is a fine production. It has been carefully and caringly directed and has so much to say. What a shame it is playing for such a short run!

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book & Lyrics by Brian Crawley. Lane Cove Theatre Company. The Performance Space @ St Aidan’s – 1 Christina Street, Longueville May 14 – 28, 2022

Reviewed : 14 May, 2022*

Lane Cove is a small theatre company that constantly makes brave decisions. Violet  is another of their productions that raises social issues. Body image, skin colour, sexuality and feminism are all gently explored in a touching play that cleverly blends country, gospel, blues and rock music.

Violet is based on “The Ugliest Pilgrim”, a short story written by Doris Betts. Set in the 1960s, it follows the journey of a disfigured young woman who travels  from her home in Spruce Pine, North Carolina to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the hopes of being healed by a televangelist. It’s a strange story on which to build a musical, but Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley tell it simply and poignantly.

The 1960s was a turbulent time in America. The war in Vietnam, racism and treatment of women frame some scenes. Parental guilt and family resentment lie behind others. All are dealt with subtly in the script and Kathryn Thomas respects this in her direction and her judicious use of the small acting space.

A two-level rostrum becomes a greyhound bus and a gospel choir stage; a stool, a window frame and a bed are the only other props. On this minimalist set Thomas allows the characters to come to life through the natural dialogue, the moving lyrics of twenty songs and the emotional energy her cast of nine have invested in their performances.

Violet has carried a scar on her face since an accident with an axe as a child. The young Violet, played by 12-year-old Taylor Swan, appears in flash backs throughout the play, giving insights into the schoolyard taunts that she had to face. Swan handles these scenes well, especially when she accuses her father of never admitting responsibility for the accident. She has a sweet, clear singing voice that blends beautifully with the more mature voices, especially in “Down the Mountain” her duet with her father (Trent Gardiner) and “Look at Me” which she sings with her older self.

That older Violet is played perceptively by Chelsea Taylor. She shows an insightful understanding of the character in a very realistic and but understated performance. She has ‘contained’ Violet’s past, understands the decisions she has made, and clearly shows the practiced confidence and optimism with which she faces the long journey to Tulsa. Taylor has a carefully modulated voice which she uses expressively in her songs – especially “Lay Down Your Head”, and her duets with Flick, Monty and her father.

Lindford Gilmour plays Flick, the young, coloured soldier Violet meets on the bus. Gilmour is an experienced performer who uses his strong voice effectively, especially in “Let it Sing” and the more moving “Hard to Say Goodbye”. The Flick he portrays is gentle, considerate, self-reliant, a strong person who carries the burden of racism and underprivilege with quiet strength.

His fellow soldier, Monty typifies the confident, privileged ‘boy next door’ who is unaware of his over-confident brashness. Tommy Green finds all of this in a buoyant performance. His Monty is bright cheerful, and almost, but not quite, too self-assured. He has a strong voice which blends well with those of both Taylor and Gilmour.

Trent Gardiner brings a wealth of experience to the role of Violet’s father, a widower with the burden of bringing up his daughter alone. Gardiner shows the weariness and weight of this in a moving performance, especially in a scene with young Violet and when he sings “That’s What I Could Do”.

Ten smaller roles are played by the remaining four performers. Though small, the roles are quite challenging  because of relatively quick character changes and the diversity of age and background the actors need to establish – and the different songs and musical genres they perform.

Miriam Rihani is both a nosey old lady and a hotel hooker, while Lucy Koschel is a vigilant hotel receptionist and a music hall and hotel lounge singer. Sam Howes plays a dodgy, flamboyant preacher, a bored Greyhound bus driver and a radio singer.

Isaac Downey takes on four different roles. In one he plays an awkward teenager trying to chat up young Violet. Not an easy task, especially considering the age – and height – difference in the two performers, but Downey does the gawky ungainliness very well.

All four come together with Gardiner, Green and Gilmour as enthusiastic gospel singers.

Musical director, Stephen Dula, on keyboard leads a small band that moves from genre to genre and tempo to tempo with practised ease. In such a small space, the musicians are very close to the action, which makes it difficult to hear some of the more gentle, haunting numbers. Thankfully the company does not allow that problem to affect the decision to mount productions such as this.

Violet combines thought-provoking drama and musical theatre most effectively. Thomas, Dula and the cast make it work just as effectively.

Also published in Sydney Arts Guide.

*Opening Night

Book by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb. Music by John Kander. Blackout Theatre Company. Pioneer Theatre Castle Hill. 13 – 22 May, 2022.

Reviewed : 13 May, 2022*

Chicago isn’t just a musical! It’s an adaptation of a play that’s based on real characters and real crimes that really did occur in Chicago in the 1920s. Crime reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins wrote the original play in 1926. Accused murderers Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner were the “celebrity criminals” on whom she based Roxie and Velma. Both were acquitted of all charges after being represented by lawyers William Scott Stewart and W. W. O’Brien, who became Billy Flynn in her play. After her death in 1969, her estate released the rights to adapt the play to Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb and composer John Kander.

What a context for a musical! Crime and corruption in the “Roaring Twenties”! Speakeasies, jazz and the Charleston! Between them Fosse, Ebb and Kander created a musical extravaganza that that has been delighting audiences – and performers – since 1975.

“Chutzpah” defines the mood of  Chicago. It’s bold and brassy. It gives the performers a chance to “strut their stuff’ with a bit of impudence and nerve – and director Jordan Anderson, with choreographers Daniel Lavercombe and Kim Shelly, give their cast every opportunity to do so. Coming on the back of a Covid-cancelled production of The Boy from Oz, their production brightens the mood with cheeky, chintzy costumes, lots of high kicks – and the jazzy, bright beat of the 1920s played by a thirteen-piece band led by musical director Koren Beale.

Fiorella Bamba, as Velma Kelly, opens the show with the ever-popular “All That Jazz”.  Bamba is a highly qualified and experienced performer who radiates an energy and pizzazz that is sustained throughout the production. Her Velma is sassy, brazen, defiant – and provocatively appealing.

As are the dancers and singers who back her in the opening number – and the songs that follow. Whether behind bars in “Cell Block Tango” or flourishing feathers behind Billy Flynn in “All I care About”, they are, as a chorus line must be, in the moment, in time, and, very important in this musical, in character and audaciously bold. As are guys in the male chorus, who, though fewer in number, depict the flashy ‘spivs’ of the era with energy and dash.

Emelie Woods plays Roxie Hart, who upstages Velma’s popularity with the persistent press and avaricious Billy Flynn. Woods is an accomplished performer who portrays the duplicity of Roxie’s character clearly –  and her crafty cunning – especially when she sings “Funny Honey” and “Me and My Baby”.

When Roxie and Velma come together the musical sparks fly!

Matron “Mama” Morton ‘presides’ over the cells of Cook County Jail, gleefully taking bribes from the prisoners to buy favours from the guards, the magistrates and the lawyers. Janina Hamerlok triumphs in the wicked power of this role. She is a highly experienced performer across all theatre forms, and so gives “Mama” the mischievous muscle and the full vocal power the role deserves.

Alistair Norris is the infamous Billy Flynn, holding the fortunes and future of his clients in his corrupt hands. Amos Hart, Roxie’s hapless husband, is played by Greg Thornton, who epitomises the easily duped, “cellophane”  simplicity of the character in an underplayed portrayal that is very effective.

Andrew Read surprises as a very confident and high-pitched Mary Sunshine, spreading “A Little Bit of Good” among the press gang who besiege the court.

Anderson and his creative team make this production a celebration of being back on stage. He has extended the atmosphere of celebration by taking the audience closer to the stage at cabaret style tables and connecting the performers more closely to the audience through the MC, played very effectively by Robert Hall.

Blackout has spared no expense or energy on this production, which should be a crowd pleaser for theatre-hungry north western Sydney audiences.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening Night

Form Dance Projects. Director: Sara Black. Riverside Theatres.    May 5-7, 2022

Reviewed : 5 May, 2022*

Hearing the heartbeat of her son for the first time led choreographer Sara Black to what became Double Beat, a movement piece based around the different rhythms of beating hearts as they react to the pressures affecting the people whose bodies they charge.

Composer Alyx Dennison recorded the varying heart beats from nine people, combined them with the sounds of birds and wild life, and compiled them into a sound track that reflects the multitude of emotions and reactions that affect the human psyche and are mirrored physically in the changing rhythms of the heart.

To this incredible composition, Black worked with performers Isabel Estrella, Samantha Hines and Sophia Ndaba to create a performance that explores the “the aural and physical responses … to the tempo of our changing natural world”. Working together through the  Covid-19 lockdowns, they created a descriptive physical narration of the different ways the body reacts to both external and internal stimuli.

Using a multitude of movements, from erratic convulsive paroxysms to almost deathly stillness, they explore the range of human emotions and reactions. The calm of contentment, the fitfulness of fear, the immobility of acceptance – all are reflected in a complexity of choreography that excites and confuses, stimulates and, sometimes, perplexes.

Together the performers tell this physical story on a space side-lit by Veronica Bennet to create merging shadows that bring the dancers together, then set them apart as they react to sound – and to each other. At times they are alone, writhing in fear, at others they are together, wrapping around each other, then, suddenly, pushing away, retreating to a safer space, yet looking back … and reaching out – to each other, and their audience.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Andrew Bovell. Theatre on Chester, Epping, NSW. Directed by Carla Moore. 22 April – 14 May, 2022.

Reviewed : 23 April, 2022

Things I Know to be True is a play about a family. An ordinary Australian family. It’s set in a suburb of Adelaide – but it could be in any suburb in any Australian city. Playwright Andrew Bovell understands ‘family’ – as did the actors with whom he worked as the idea for this play grew and flourished. They understood  about parents. How they work hard to support their kids, how they want them to succeed. They also knew about kids. How they try to be what their parents want; how they need to be true to themselves as well. They knew about secrets. The hurt that they can cause … but the need, sometimes to brave that hurt.

Bovell has captured all this in this beautiful play. Director Carla Moore describes it as “compassionate, tender … funny at times but also deeply moving”. She has chosen, in her production, to let it speak for itself. The play is realist. But Moore decided against a realist set. Rather she uses an empty stage framed by a lofty surrealist tree, its bare branches reaching into a clear sky, its myriad roots burrowing down, then encompassing the stage like the threads that connect a family and tie them tightly. Surreal too are the roses that symbolise the seasons in the year in which the play is set.

The Price family, however, is very real. Bob and Fran Price have worked hard all their lives, Bob in the automotive industry, Fran as a nurse. Bob took retrenchment when the manufacturing industry began to fold. Fran is still working at the local hospital. Their three eldest children have left home but they keep them close. Pippa is married with two kids. Bob picks them up after school. Mark lives alone after a long relationship ended unexpectedly. Ben works in a bank. Their youngest child, Rosie is on a ‘gap year’ in Europe.

It is her unexpected return that upsets the equilibrium in what appears to be happy, ordinary family.

Bob Price is played by Ian Boland, who finds the steadfastness of a man who has worked hard, paid his way, is loyal and supportive – but who is finding early retirement a little depressing. “Sometimes I find myself in the shed wondering what to do next,” he says. Boland’s Bob is down to earth, straight, trusting – and is ‘floored’ when that trust is betrayed.

Fran Price is more complex, and Julie Moore realises the multifaceted dimensions of the wife/mother/carer that Bovell created in Fran. Moore is a perceptive performer who portrays the drive that keeps pushing Fran through years of hard work … and disappointments. She is the backbone of the family and will support Bob and her kids in any way – but that burden that has worn her down and left her a little prickly. It would be easy to make this character too hard, but Moore shows the fraility under the surface.

Freya Moore takes on a major role as Rosie. It is Rosie who introduces the family in a long monologue – and Moore carries this task ably, finding the delicate humour in the lines as well as the emotional turmoil she describes to the audience. Because she is the catalyst to much of the action, Rosie spends a great deal of the play on stage, watching and listening, and Moore does both well. Her love for her family is clear in her reactions, her expressions – and the growth that she makes over the play’s year.

Georgia Britt is Pippa, the eldest child, a teacher, a working mum, who’s a little jaded with life – just like Fran, with whom she has a love-hate relationship. Britt finds both the strength and bitterness written into Pippa’s character, and how they have affected her relationships with the other members of the family, and the decisions she feels compelled to make.

Jordan Andrews plays Ben. Brash, ambitious, Fran’s favourite, Ben is an enigma in the family – and Andrews shows his pushy self-confidence, his brassy arrogance – and the brittleness that runs beneath.

Giani Leon is Mark, who sees himself as the black sheep of the family – something no one else realises. This is a difficult role and Leon finds the intensity – and  anguish – of the character in a performance that is touching and moving.

Things I know to be True is about the things family members don’t necessarily know to be true … about each other, about how they will react when they find out, and about what will bring them together. It is, as I said,  beautiful play. Carla Moore and her cast have uncovered all of its nuances and the delicate complexities of its characters.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

Neil Gooding Productions. (Packemin). Choreographer: Amy Campbell. Riverside Parramatta – 22-24, April 2022 – then touring NSW and Queenslan.

Reviewed : 22 April, 2022*

It is Amy Campbell’s aim to make “art that entertains, enthrals and is accessible”. Leap is all of that and more. With Neil Gooding’s support, Campbell has ‘leapt’ into her imagination to create an exciting new production that surely achieves her aspiration.

If “art” is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination in a visual form” (Oxford dictionary), then Campbell has expressed it strikingly. She has fused traditional and contemporary choreography with skilfully ‘re-imagined’ classical music, played live on a stage hung with multiple tendrils of silvery foliage under luminescent lighting that is colourfully atmospheric.

And if that sounds over effusive, I make no apologies, because Leap “enthrals” via the complexity of the choreography and the textural tempos of the music. Just as the Toccato that opens and closes the production shows the skill and dexterity of the composer, so Campbell has devised a suite that explores and exposes her own skill, and the talents and expertise of the performers.

All ten dancers – Ashley Goh, Callum Mooney, Cassandra Merwood, Felicia Stavropoulos, Maikolo Fekitoa, Natalie Foti, Neven Connolly, Shontaya Smedley, Jervis Livelo and Ryan Ophel – are soloists in their own right, and they are given many opportunities to show that. But they also work together brilliantly in pairs or small groups, or as an ensemble, to tell the stories that Campbell and musical associate Victoria Falconer have synthesised into the intricate, composite piece of theatre that is Leap.

Classical and contemporary dance can work together in so many ways, despite what ‘purists’ might say – see Hamilton, see the Australian Ballet’s next production Kunstkamer.  Both are dependent on symmetry and precision. Both reach specifically to the audience in their own way. Put them together to much loved music – Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov – that has been tweaked, re-envisaged then played by four modern virtuosos, and you have an exciting theatrical fusion of movement and sound that transcends traditional expectations, and is totally “accessible”.

Add a dramatic set and a spectacular light show designed by Richard Neville of Mandylights, and the production becomes even more exhilarating. Imagine successive curtains of hanging cord threaded with pieces of silvery foil, shimmering and reflecting. Imagine them refracting the beams from multiple strips of coloured light angled above and behind. It’s hard to describe the real effect but it is breath-taking – and adds contour and counter-point to the movement.

This awe-inspiring production moves out of Parramatta after 4 days into a three month tour, taking the cast and musicians north along the NSW coast from Wyong to Grafton, then on to Queensland, culminating in a performance in Mackay on 2^nd July.

What a great opportunity for audiences starved of live entertainment for two Covid-long years to see a production that literally sparkles in so many ways.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening Night

Tour details

• • • Parramatta (NSW) – 22-24 April
    • Wyong (NSW) – 27-29 April
    • Newcastle (NSW) – 7-8 June
    • Port McQuarie (NSW) – 10 June
    • Grafton (NSW) – 14 June
    • Gold Coast (Qld)- 17-18 June
    • Sunshine Coast (Qld)- 22 June
    • Toowoomba (Qld) – 24 June
    • Maryborough (Qld) – 26 June
    • Bundaberg (Qld) – 28 June
    • Rockhampton (Qld)  – 30 June
    • Mackay (Qld) – 2 July

Circa. Theatre Royal, Sydney. 20-24 April, 2022

Reviewed : 20 April, 2022*

Circa continues to extend circus beyond the ‘big top’. The thrills are still there – the amazing feats, the incredible strength and control – but Circa extends them and turns them into theatre. With this production it goes a little step further because Peepshow, as its name suggests, is just a little bit naughty and even quite cheeky! It’s cabaret on the move … and up in the air!

As well as the advertised “teetering towers of balanced bodies, extreme bending, beguiling burlesque, and devilishly precarious aerials”, Peepshow entertains on multiple planes! Under the direction of Yaron Lifschitz, it combines dance and circus in beguiling theatricality that thrills – and titillates.

Lifschitz, billed as a “circus visionary”, has created a program that ventures into the bizarre extremes of burlesque. He has combined group acrobatics, hand flying, rope, balancing and tumbling, with clowning and contemporary dance, and creatively choreographed them to an eclectic range of music that varies the mood and determines the split edge continuity that is intrinsic to the production.

Discipline and concentration are vital to all performance work, especially circus. When that is combined with developing an intimately suggestive relationship with the audience, the demands on the performers are even more challenging. Each of the eight performers in this very complex piece of theatre meets that challenge with … flying colours! Every sequence, every routine is perfectly timed, each smoothly executed. Every contact with the audience is subtly defined, cunningly intimated – or cheekily flaunted!

For those who just expect the spectacle of the ‘high wire’, Peepshow goes far beyond expectations. Whilst it amazes as only the tightly controlled mastery of circus acrobatics can, it adds the cleverness of suggestive play that becomes risqué – even, perhaps to some, a little shocking! It mixes circus, dance and acting in a production that is breath-taking, diverting and even a little erotic.

Peepshow shines in every way. It sparkles in colourful sequins and shimmers before a silvery backdrop lit by multiple shadowy light effects. But most of all it radiates in the stunning feats of the incredibly fit, highly trained, and theatrically talented performers … and their imaginative director.

First published in Stagewhispers magazine.

*Opening Night

Victorian State Ballet. The Concourse, Chatswood. 9 -10 April, 2022

Reviewed : 10 April, 2022

Each year the Victorian State Ballet brings a production to Sydney for three performances. This year it was Cinderella, performed by a corps of 25 dancers – supported by 40 young dancers, chosen from over 70 aspiring local ballet students.

As part of their Youth Ballet program, the Victorian Ballet invites young NSW dancers to audition to participate in the production. Dancers from studios all over Sydney and beyond take part in auditions. This year 28 were chosen to play Cinderella’s fairy friends, and 12 were singled out to play the young Cinderella, the young stepsisters and the young prince at one or other of the three performances. What a great experience for young dancers! Apart from the thrill of performance, they learn new choreography, wear spectacular costumes, watch professional dancers in rehearsals and learn the special discipline of being part of a major ballet production.

Congratulations to Vic Ballet for the idea – and the extra organisation such an initiative takes. It is much appreciated by the ballet students – and by their parents whose pride is evident in every performance.

Choreographed by Michelle Cassar de Sierra to the original music composed  Sergei Prokofiev, and directed by Martin Sierra, the ballet follows the fairy tale Cinderella’s nasty treatment at the hands of her stepmother and stepsisters. After their refusal to let her attend the ball, her fairy godmother intervenes, providing her with a ball dress, silver slippers and access to the ball where she meets the prince. Unfortunately, she has to leave at twelve and loses one of her slippers which the prince finds and uses in his search for the young woman with whom he has fallen in love.

It’s a well-known old story and the music allows for some beautiful dance sequences – as well as some funny behaviour by the petulant step sisters. In the Sunday afternoon performance, Cinderella was performed by the very elegant Elise May Watson-Lord, with her Prince played by Tynan Wood. Both danced with great poise and dignity, perfectly executing leaps, lifts and pirouettes .

Her stepmother was Sera Schuller who danced – and acted – with similar assurance and character. Elise Jacques and Lucinda Worthington-Shore were cheekily bewitching as the stepsisters. Both are accomplished dancers who can also act, difficult when the acting involves having to pretend to dance ‘badly’ as well.

As always, the costumes were stunning, especially the elegant ball gowns, where the drape of circular skirts contrasted with the tulle of the fairies. Another contrast was the choreography of the “clock” sequence where, under red lights, the movements became mechanical and brisk.

These productions are wonderful opportunities for ballet lovers, young and old, to see productions a little closer to home at a reasonable cost.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

By Peter Cook. Director: Caroline Stacey. Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. 7-9 April, 202

Reviewed : 8 April, 2022*

Breaking the Castle premiered in Canberra in 2020 and had a short season in Melbourne in 2021. This season in Parramatta is short too. A pity, because it means far too few have seen this extraordinary piece of theatre that looks closely into addiction – how it gains power, how it holds power and how hard it is to break that power.

Written and performed by Peter Cook, it follows an actor’s gradual submission to the temptation of turning to alcohol and drugs via the debilitating effects of depression and anxiety caused by failed auditions, incompetent directors, unemployment, family problems …

It describes the highs and the lows and the need for bigger highs. It explores the loneliness, the need to belong, even though that means being dragged further into despair. It wades into even murkier depths: the temptation to give in to self-harm, even to end life completely …

It follows, too, the long road to recovery – the pain of therapy, the drying out, the temptation to give in, the exultation of success, the awareness of how easy it is to regress.

As an actor, Cook knows how to reach the audience without preaching. His message is clear – and he explains in concisely. This is what can happen. This is how it does. This is what it feels like. This is why it’s so bloody hard to give up.

Cook is an athletic performer. He moves quickly from one scene to another, using the levels of the large, raked rostrum and small piles of related paraphernalia that are judiciously spaced around it to take the audience with him from King’s Cross, to waiting for an audition, to a therapy clinic in Thailand. He is never too long in one scene, never takes too long to explain but does so unambiguously.

Sound and lighting punctuate the production. Lights spotlight him in some scenes, wash over him as he lies prostrate on the stage in others. Music breaks a moment, introduces another. Actor and technicians work in perfect time, despite the many scenes and varied effects. This work has been carefully rehearsed to ensure perfect continuity.

Breaking the Castle has a strong, potent message. It’s well written, creatively directed and powerfully performed. Hopefully ACT’s The Street Theatre and Peter Cook will take it to more and bigger audiences.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening night of current production