Review - What Rhymes with Cars and Girls

Melbourne Theatre Company Presents:

What Rhymes with Cars and Girls

By Aidan Fennessy

Music and Lyrics by Tim Rogers 

Cast – Johnny Carr and Sophie Ross 

Band – Tim Rogers, Ben Franz and Xani Kolac

Director – Clare Watson

Musical Director – Tim Rogers

Set Designer – Andrew Bailey

Costume Designer – Kate Davis

Lighting Designer Richard Vabre

Sound Designer – Russell Goldsmith

Fairfax Theatre Studio - 13 February - 28 March 2015

What Rhymes with Cars and Girls is a rich engrossing work in which all components come together with an inordinate sense of largesse and satisfying attention to detail.  It is a very impressive first major Directorial work from Clare Watson who gives what was intrinsically a boy’s story a good sense of balance. 

This show exudes a great spirit of cooperation between all creative artists.  It is great to see a new work, on opening night, on which, seemingly, all the groundwork has been done.  So all that remains is for performers to have an excellent time growing with the experience and audiences to happily relax and enjoy.

Tim Rogers, Sophie Carr, Xani Kolac, Ben Franz - photo Jeff Busby

The text – a love story, written by Aiden Fennessy, as inspired by Tim Roger’s 1999 Album of the same name, is full of gritty realism.    Each of the two protagonists describes the lives they live with funny and witty self-deprecating irony.  As audience, one becomes immersed in a very rocky love story that is engaging and so relatable to.  It has the power to touch raw and sensitive nerves.  Doubtless it has similarities to the real life experiences of many in the audience – maybe most poignantly to those who are forty-something.   There are plenty of opportunities to laugh and to squirm.  It does have a very 1990’s flavor that is certainly due to the music, but hey surely messy relationships, the urge to run, shattered hearts and total confusion are universal and timeless.

The two Actors, Johnny Carr as Johnno and Sophie Ross as Tash, work together as an evenly matched team.  They convey an organic and spontaneous chemistry as they sing, describe and act out aspects of their torrid and seemingly ill-fated romance.  The whole steps a little further into the future than Rogers’s (autobiographical) album and doesn’t end with quite the same sense of despondence that can lurk after listening to it.

Johnny Car and Tim Rogers - photo Jeff Busby

There is such a generosity of spirit evident in Tim Rogers’s work as Musical Director/Musician and his songs played with the assistance of the awesome Ben Franz and Xani Kolac are nothing short of sublime. 

Andrew Bailey’s Set Design openly allows for the free interpretation of spaces and places and strongly endorses particular venues such as a recording studio which would seem to be appropriate given that the whole work is predicated on a much loved album.

Is it a musical or a play?

Get to see it and decide for yourself you won’t be disappointed.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Blak Cabaret

Blak Cabaret

Presented by Malthouse Theatre and SummerSalt

10 – 22 February 2015

Concept and Creative Production – Jason Tamiru

Text - Nakkiah Lui

Staging – Matthew Lutton

Directing Consultant – Michael Kantor

Set and Costume Design – Chloe Greaves

Sound Design – Jed Palmer

Dramaturgy – Mark Prichard

Performers – Kamahi Djordon King as Queen Consitina Bush and Nikki Ashby

Musicians – Deline Briscoe, Emma Donovan, Kutcha Edwards, Bart Willoughby

Between the two rusting and one old brick facade of the Malthouse Courtyard, place an elevated stage and an exceptional sound system.  Then, as balmy evening is about to fall, add some of Indigenous Australia’s most glorious, honey and velvet voiced, musicians playing and singing their own songs - and this beautifully blended recipe will just ‘take you away’.  

But there is more, there is more – a crazy contemporary, wickedly provocative and sadomasochistic,

Kamahi Djordon King and Nikki Ashby - Photo Pia Johnson

big, black and beautiful Drag Queen – Queen Constantina – the monarch of a reversed colonialism demanding the audience’s allegiance at every turn.  Perplexingly she is at odds with the rich spiritual milieu set up by the musicians, and yet, this cabaret is not jarring, just crude fabulous fun, acutely funny and acerbic – full of irony and wit.   There are ‘no holes barred’ as Constantina obsesses over her ‘mutt’ and enthusiastically espouses rimming and fisting.  Pauline Hanson cracks a mention, as, more than once, does the popularity of the book Fifty Shades of Grey.

Nikki Ashby and Kamahi Djordon King - Photo Pia Johnson

Layer on layer - on the surface it is a clever, sharp and witty piece that inverts reality - pretty much successfully.  However this work, enigmatically, touches on the most vital, brutal and important issues affecting Indigenous Australians.  In that it is strong.  Conversely like a bare foot it treads softly, its heart is gentle and exudes the vast spiritual depth evoked by the music, songs and poems that call for understanding.  It is biting but not savage and maybe a testament to how, these clever Indigenous, Performance Makers have a foot in both cultural camps.  

The totally rich and mellow sound of Kutcha Edwards seduces whilst he also displays wicked vocal dexterity.  His voice blends divinely with those of Deline Briscoe and Emma Donovan and Bart Willoughby’s drumming is something to behold.  Kevin Gilbert’s poetry touches the soul.

The audience is targeted a bit so you may not want to sit up the front.  All in all it is a delightful way to spend a balmy evening under the stars. 

Great fun but not frivolous!

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - The Process

The Process

A Play in Five dubious Acts

By Ian Robinson

Director – Ian Robinson

Associate Director – Maggie Millar

Production Manager – Cherian Jacob

Stage Manager and Lighting – Sarah McKenzie

Cast:  Ezekiel Day, Jessica Muschamp and Sean Scully

La Mama – February 4 -15 –

Wed 6.30pm, Thu, Fri, Sat 7.30pm and Sun 4pm

The Process coherently shines a bright light on the outrageously inhumane way, we as a nation, are dealing with Asylum Seekers.  Perhaps it states the obvious and preaches to the converted but it is particularly accessible and has the power to galvanize.  At the very least it should prompt audiences to join Liberty Victoria who deserve much gratitude for sponsoring the play.

The work covers, in linier progression, the plight of an ‘illegal immigrant’, who, although having experienced unspeakable loss is optimistic that his human rights will be venerated in Australia, the country he is eager to pledge his allegiance to.  Compelling performer Ezekiel Day plays this character Rajoo Mahalingham with moving commitment.

It is a delight to watch Sean Scully’s refined underplaying of Immigration Ministers from both side of politics, the slightly left of center Gottileb Shortstraw and the slightly right of center Sly Moribund.  The names say it all really; this work is a rollicking parody fully of humour, highlighting the shamefully brutal treatment of desperate and courageous refugees by the powers that be.

There is a mix of acting styles.  Jessica Muschamp errs towards going over the top in her portrayal of the enthusiastic junior Lawyer Hope Springsey and bemused Psychiatrist Dr. Maddison Attar.  This could be seen as a mismatch with the sincere and naturalistic journey Day travels with Rajoo, and a contrast to Sean Scully’s more subtle interpretations.  However Muschamp’s parodying of her roles highlights the ridiculous irony in the callous and morally shocking way Rajoo’s future and very existence is potentially obliterated.

This commendable production by skilled veteran Writer and Director Ian Robinson has been beautifully managed by production team Cicero’s Circle.

Warning - the season is short – don’t miss it.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)