BelleKat Productions. The Evan Room, Panthers Penrith Leagues Club 19th August, 2023. The Wintle Theatre @ The Juniors, Kingsford 29th October.

Reviewed : 19 August, 2023

‘Tis not often one gets the chance to see genuine cabaret, Moulin Rouge style! Think high kicks, seductive showgirls, sultry singers and a smidgeon of suggestive innuendo! And you don’t have to go to Paris to see it! Last Saturday it played to a rapturous audience at lovely downtown Penrith. In October it moves to Kingsford.

Decadence is cabaret in the “grand style” – but it’s happening right here in Sydney, produced by a local company. Led by musical director Meera Belle and artistic director Katrina Prichard-Stutz, the cast of seventeen performers dance and sing their way through 50 years or so of music, including tributes to The King and Neil Diamond. There are miraculously quick costume changes – all sumptuous and sparkly, some really elaborate, some barely there at all!

There are fans and feathers, bling and balloons, high kicks and pert poses – even a jazzy jive number! But the best thing about it is that it’s giving older students from a two local studios the motivation to keep dancing, keep singing and keep honing their performance skills.

All over the country thousands of girls – and a smaller number of boys – learn to dance. Ballet, tap, hip hop, contemporary, jazz, lyrical, musical theatre, they are all there for the trying. Some kids do one or two, some try them all. And over the years they practise, learn routines, take part in exams and rehearse again and again for hundreds of eisteddfods and studio concerts.

But what happens when you’re too old for eisteddfods, too mature for the studio classes … but still want to dance and sing.

Some stay on at the studio as tutors – or open their own studios. Some audition for musical theatre productions. Some are lucky enough to get into a chorus, or, eventually, land a leading role. Some move on from there to the uncertain world of the professional stage, auditioning around the country for larger, paid roles that can last a few months, or, if the show is touring, for maybe a year.

Some chance a different stage and move overseas. Such was the case with Meera Belle and Katrina Pritchard-Stutz..

Meera Belle began her career as a contemporary singer but moved to the United Kingdom to retrain in opera at the Royal Norther College of Music. She made her debut at the Royal Albert Hall and spent many years performing at international music events such as he Glastonbury Festival and the luxurious ballroom of the QE2 ocean liner. Meera has written, directed and produced several cabaret and jazz ensembles including “Close to You: the Karen carpenter Story”, The Starr Sisters and Bossababy.

After studying ballet full-time at the Australian Academy of Ballet, Katrina Prichard-Stutz left home at seventeen to pursue her dreams. She started on the stages of Australian casinos, then moved overseas where she spent 25 years performing in Spain, the Canary Islands, South America and Asia. She then joined the famous Moulin Rouge touring in their show “Formidable”, then moved to the Folie Russe, the Cabaret show of Prince Rainier of Monaco before moving to America and designing costumes for the Caribbean Cruise lines and Artists in Circus.

What do two such talented and experienced performers do after such stunning careers? They return to Sydney and set up their own studios!

Meera’s Pitch Perfect Vocal Studio has been operating since 2017. Here she teaches students of all ages to sing – or hone their already experienced voices. They work across a range of styles from rock, pop, and jazz, to classical and Musical Theatre.

Katrina returned to Sydney and retrained in Classical Ballet method, became Licentiate Classical Ballet teacher and gained a Diploma of Musical Theatre. With that and a Diploma of Business, and Cert IVs in Training and Management and Training and Assessment, she then opened Kreative Kats & Greater Western Sydney Academy of Classical Ballet & Musical Theatre.

Strangely both chose the town of Richmond NSW– and it was there that they met and discussed their interest in

producing shows that would be a “performance outlet” for their older students.

Out of this came BelleKat Productions. Their goal was to produce “authentic Cabaret” – and that’s just what they are doing!

Just type BelleKat Productions into your server and checkout show reel and more information.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

By Melvyn Morrow. Director Elaine Hudson. Hunters Hill Theatre. Club Ryde. 18 Aug – 3 Sept, 2023

Reviewed : August 18, 2023*

What a coup for Hunters Hill Theatre and director Elaine Hudson to stage this Australian premiere by Shout and Dusty playwright Melvyn Morrow! And to have Mr Morrow in the audience on opening night! It’s not often that a community theatre company realises such a double ‘coup’ – especially one which might be considered controversial!

Not when someone like Morrow is writing! He brings a lifetime of theatre credits to his writing – not just musicals, but satires such as The Mavis Bramston Show, scripts for Sons and Daughters and opera tributes to Peter Dawson and Dame Joan Sutherland. For the stage his many works include Her Holiness, a collaboration with Justin Fleming about Mary McKillop, Australia’s first saint.

Much of Morrow’s work involves intense research. As well, Pope2Pope reveals an intimate knowledge and insightful understanding of the Catholic Church – and an irreverent sense of humour!

Morrow mixes both in a bizarre plot involving a discourse between a still-living “retired” Pope and a recently appointed Pope. The former, a liberal pope, fostered social change and (shock, horror) the lifting of religious restrictions. The new pope is reactionary – very – and sees his first duty is to ‘gag’ the lips of his predecessor. And there’s a further twist: the liberal Pope is Australian; the new Pope is African!

As you see, Morrow sets the stage for a confrontation – a confrontation that is fragmented, firstly by a series of “apparitions” including papal figures from ages past, an underworld figure, and a priest imposter. And secondly by cunning criminal intent … which will not be revealed here!

Elaine Hudson sets the play in a plush Vatican living room designed by Brent Thorpe. An enlarged section from Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” illuminates the scene. Rich scarlet is the predominate colour – providing a velvety contrast to the white and gold papal vestments.

A heavy, ornately carved lounge centres the action – the pontification as it were!

Graham Egan plays the liberal Pope Emeritus John XXIV. Christopher Brown is his nemesis, Pope Pius XIII. Both actors bring age and experience to the roles. Egan luxuriates in the cheeky mischief Morrow has gifted this pope. Brown uses rigidity and disapproving, dark eyes to layer his censure. Egan reclines on velvet cushions; Brown sits stiffly. The contrast is clear.

Sharron Olivier plays Pope John’s housekeeper Sister Angelica – who caused some gasps from the audience when she lit a cigarette – just the first of her ‘un-sisterly’ actions. Olivier makes the most of this impious nun and the innuendo in her lines.

Anthony Hunt, David McLaughlin, Catherine Potter and Anthony Slaven play various roles including four reporters watching for the ‘white smoke’ that signals the election of a new Pope. They also play the various “apparitions” that augment the veracity of Morrow’s take on papal history.

Potter appears as a curiously ‘un-named’ woman … and a famous author; McLaughlin as an irreligious past Pope – and Saint Peter! Anthony Hunt is both a tall, empowered Pope-of-Principles, supporting Pope Pius – and an ex-digger who was a POW on the Burma railway, where there was no priest to support the dying. Slaven flutters as a winged apparition from on high – and a demonic apparition from a much lower place.

All ‘appear’ at appropriate intervals in Pius’ litany of John’s misdemeanours – and with their words show Morrow’s acquaintance with religious history – and his sense of humour.

Hudson ensures both are evident in this production that will pick up a little more pace as the run continues – and both Popes become more comfortable in their Roles and Robes! The play is thought-provoking without being too irreligious – and leaves one with the sort of satirical smile that lingers wishfully.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening performance

Adapted by Sue Smith, from the novel by Charlotte Wood. Belvoir Street Theatre. Director Sarah Goodes. 5 Aug – 3 September, 2023.

Reviewed : 10 August, 2023

Adele, Wendy, Jude and Sylvie have been friends for years. They always spend Christmas together at Sylvie’s beach house. But this Christmas is different. Sylvie has died, and her three friends have come to pack up the beach house – and all the memories it holds

Toni Scanlan  (Jude), Melita Jurisic (Wendy) and Belinda Giblin (Adele) work closely together in this adaptation about the ties that bind … and test … long friendships. Adaptor Sue Smith describes Charlotte Woods’ novel as “A story of three smart, funny, political women negotiating the past, the future, work, love, money, death –and each other.”

Jude, who ran a top-class restaurant, has taken charge of the weekend, and is determined to get the job done rather than reminisce. Wendy, a celebrated academic, has brought her aging dog Finn, much to Jude’s disgust. Adele, a once-well-known actress, is out of work – but is determined to bring some cheer to the weekend.

All three are feeling the heat, and their age, and the uncertainty of the future. But they are strong women. Determined. Resilient. They’ve seen a lot of life and sustained the vagaries the years have dealt them. Age is just another thing they are facing together.

Designer Stephen Curtis uses the full stage to create the beach house. A circular wooden floor, a slatted walkway, a backdrop that shimmers at times with images of light shining through eucalypts. It’s a space where the women feel at home; where the old dog can step carefully, his nails tapping gently as he finds a spot to sit … and, with puppeteer Keila Terencio, watch and listen.

The dog and Terencio are intrinsic to the production. Sue Smith sees them as revealing another dimension: “the instinctive, the ineffable, the unknowable, the mysterious “… things that can’t be explained despite age and experience and apparent wisdom. As a dog owner it was hard not to identify with Wendy and her dependence on Finn; nor to appreciate the “life” Terencio, with puppetry and movement director Alice Osborne, injected into Finn’s movements – even his slow breaths when he was resting.

Scanlan, Jurisic and Giblin bring a wealth of experience and insight to their performances. They find the layers Wood and Smith have written into their characters and understand how they have had to negotiate life in a society that underrates the value and wisdom of those who are older, especially women.

Scanlan gives Jude the acumen needed to run a busy, popular restaurant. The Jude she plays has good judgement, makes considered decisions – and sticks by them. She is tolerant – to a degree – but is resolute. She holds herself tightly, always a little remote, contained. She takes part in some of the banter and recollecting – but always seems to hold back a little. Protecting herself perhaps … but from what?

The Wendy Jurisic portrays is a woman of intellect and intelligence, dogged just a little by the aches and pains of aging … and the hurt of loss. She plays her as a thinker, who is also understanding and perceptive. She knows her friends, reads behind their words and faces, helps when she is needed – but doesn’t always know how to help herself.

The relationship Jurisic establishes with Finn, a present from her late husband, is telling. She relies on his constancy. He is her confidant, he fills some of the spaces in her life – something Jude cannot understand.

Adele, however, understands completely. It’s part of her sensitive nature, her ability to empathise, her bubbliness – a bubbliness that she uses to cover the diminishing sense of self-worth that beleaguers actors as they age, and parts becomes scarce, and savings dwindle. Giblin finds all of this in a vibrancy that is infectious but brittle; an energy that is compelling but fragile; a brightness that doesn’t quire reach her eyes. A brightness however that lightens the present situation – and much of the past.

Roman Delo plays Joe Gillespie, a young director, whom Adele invites for Christmas – much to the concern of the others.  He tries Jude’s tolerance a little too far and she sees him off very effectively! It is a small role, but Delo gives it truth.

This is a very moving production which Sarah Goodes has directed with a wise and gentle hand, realising the strengths and skills of her cast and the insights they would bring to their characters. She has accented the warmth and humour Smith has injected into the dialogue, and emphasised the tender ties between the women with some delicate blocking and carefully timed pauses.

This is a play that women will love – as will the people who love them and put up with their humour and hubris as they (we) deal with growing old. It’s an adaptation that fans of Charlotte Wood will love, of which Wood herself has said:

“Watching the development of this play has been one of the great joys of my career. I could not have asked for a more brilliant combination of writer, director, actors and production people to bring my book to the stage.”

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

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

Reviewed : August 4, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reviewed : August 2, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

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

Reviewed : 30 July, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reviewed : 27 July, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

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

Reviewed : 20 July, 2023*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

* Opening performance

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

Reviewed : 16 July, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

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

Reviewed : 10 July, 2023 *

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

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

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

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

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening Performance