Grief and the Lullaby
By Patrick McCarthy
Director: Patrick McCarthy
Dramaturg(text): Raimond Cortese
Creative Producer & Dramaturg
(performance): Mark Rogers
Set Design: Andrew Bailey
Lighting Design: Lisa Mibus
Sound Design: Tommy Spender
Costume Design: Zoe Rouse
Performers:
Rebecca Bower, Dean Cartmel, Ryan Forbes and Ben Pfeiffer
Theatre Works
14 – 23 August
Greif
and the Lullaby is a very moving and insightful
work that slowly unfolds to make perfect sense.
All four actors embody complex individual characters with considerable
skill. The relationships portrayed are
very believable; at times robust and at times delicate, perhaps even fragile. There
is an ebb and flow between them and numerous naturalistic shifts of status that
feel particularly real and go a long way towards sustaining curiosity.
It is a work where, in the reviewing,
telling the story would completely negate its charm and destroy the inherent
suspense of the magic of the story clarifying and the integrity of what is being
experienced as it is discerningly revealed bit by bit. So the less said the better.
Set and lighting (Andrew Bailey and Lisa
Mibus – respectively) work well towards exposition particularly with the use of
a kind of light-box that is the interior of a house and perhaps symbolic of the
intrinsic core of the narrative. And
Bailey has created a fabulous side drop of a tempestuous sky that heralds a
wonderfully moody atmosphere.
I usually find that I am not a fan of
writers directing their own work. However
in this instance Patrick McCarthy is very successful in preserving the
appropriate distance from his own material to be able to maintain and uphold
objectivity. This could of course also
be due to the caliber of his two dramaturges; Raymond Cortese – text and Mark
Rogers – performance.
Exquisite Theatre.
Images:
Ben Pfeiffer, Ryan Forbes & Dean Cartmel and Ryan Forbes & Dean Cartmel
- Photographer: Deryk McAlpin.
(For Stage Whispers)
Virgins and Cowboys
By Morgan Rose
Director and Set Co-Designer: Dave Sleswick
Assistant Director: Katy Maudlin
Choreographer: Dale Thorburn
Set Co-Designer: Yvette Turnbull
Sound Design Liam Barton
Lighting Design Lisa Mimbus
Cast: Katrina Cornwell, James Deeth,
Penelope Harpham, George Lingard and Kieran Law
Virgins
and Cowboys is a surreal journey through the days
of young adult friendships and romances.
As a fascinating piece of writing that is way too long and drops into a
vague unfocused rant in this production.
Maybe the creative team just couldn’t find the text’s full measure and
do it the justice it deserved.
A very challenging work all round.
The more I think about the writing the more
I think of Lally Katz’s early work and I am wondering if in the Direction, as
well a kind of dreamscape it requires heaps more theatricality and changes of
focus and pace to pull off something that an audience could be substantially
entertained by.
I so hope I am not being too harsh?
I might have caught this show on a bad
night, for me, or the show or both. I
had so much trouble keeping focused on a work that wasn’t making any
particularly evident points. Oh except
maybe that wanting to have sex with virgins can seem a bit misogynistic and
sometimes maintaining friendships can feel a bit like treading water or
bouncing and catching balls. The actors
seemed unclear about what they were doing and why.
I question myself what was I missing? And I did have very vivid dreams about one of
my very early relationships so for me I will admit being totally touched on a
subliminal level.
I loved the standout performance of
Penelope Harpham who played Lane. Thank
heavens for that!
So all in all, for me, the experience of
watching Virgins and Cowboys was the
messy and sometimes confused experiences of young adulthood presented in a
messy confused way by actors who kind of knew they were at ‘sea in a leaky
boat’ – maybe? It didn’t look like they
were having fun to me.
That is not to say it wasn’t a totally
worthwhile experience for everyone involved as a process in learning what to
improve upon next time. And maybe that
is just a matter of having enough time to fully explore a text and its
possibilities.
Suzanne Sandow
(Not published in Stage Whispers)
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