Review - Hir

Hir – Review – SSandow

Red Stitch Presents:

HIR

By Taylor Mac

Directed by Daniel Clarke

Assistant Director – Thomas Quirk

Set and Costume Design – Adrienne Chisholm

Lighting Design – Richard Vabre

Sound Design - Ian Moorhead

Cast:

Belinda McClory – Paige

Ben Grant  - Arnold

Jordan Fraser-Trumble – Isaac

Harvey Zaska-Zielinski – Max

30 January to 4 March 2018

Hir is a real shocker.  It is hugely entertaining, hysterical, disturbing, bewilderingly, disorientating, yet, satisfyingly orientating - all at the same time.  It is a timely immersion into a kitchen sink dramatization (pardon the pun) of changing social sexual mores and, as such, offers a cathartic journey for the audience. 

This play by the iconic Taylor Mac is like a hot potato – risky to handle.   It is ultra immediate and addresses the changes in gender politics and lived changes in gender that are all around us.   The personal is still political and perhaps even more so then in the early 70s.

Chaos reigns on a marvelous wacky colourful set by Adrienne Chisholm. 

Instead of maintaining the status quo and nurturing her husband Arnold (Ben Grant) after his debilitating stroke, Paige (Belinda McClory) inverts expectations of a caring wife.   She takes a frenzied ‘quasi-feminist’ route in unleashing upheaval in her family’s home.  In conjunction with this her adolescent daughter Max (Harvey Zaska-Zielinski) is swapping her gender requiring the use of hormones, the growth of facial hair and the adopting of new personal pronouns.  And Paige’s dishonorably discharged soldier son Isaac (Jordan Fraser-Trumble) returns from war, presumably in search of solace and healing, to an unrecognizable home.

Though out this romp are heaps of metaphorical rabbit holes and a number of hand grenades; some of which are thrown and some, unexpectedly, are not.  Every now and again there is a pervading sense of doom - then suddenly everything is back on track and kind of ok or a bit less ok - but making more sense.  As audience we are totally engaged with the excellent acting and twists and turns in the expose of the characters, unfolding of complications and nuances of the predicament.

Director Daniel Clarke’s casting is excellent. One can sense he and his actors have just ‘bitten the bullet’ and run with this vital volatile work.  A masterpiece of our times classily presented?  I think so!

McClory is masterful.  Her Paige subversively defies convention with, at times, the playful unreasonableness of a petulant child.   This contrasts with the weighty seriousness of old social patriarchal conventions and expectations.  We know what they are - only too well.  And we know the real and or implied violence intrinsic to maintaining these precepts.  The stakes are pretty high and at any point things could get nasty.   

Ben Grant, as the long-suffering Arnold, perceptively conveys an intellectually damaged man who is at the mercy of his pugnacious wife.   Delightfully contrasting this, at times, with a sparkle in his eye, he conveys an acute awareness of his predicament.  Moments when Grant quietly expresses Arnold’s elusive thoughts are wicked magic.

In his initial entrance Jordan Fraser-Trumble’s meth addicted damaged soldier son Isaac maybe needs to bring more of the military in with him.   However this is a bit of a quibble from me and could seem petty.   Especially because as Isaac he claims his territory beautifully in the second act.

Harvey Zaska-Zielinski’s Max is very true to type as a transgender actor in the title role.  Another quibble - I would be really interested in seeing a little more of the teenage girl in his interpretation.

There are many memorable moments in this production that suggest how we support, effect and motivate each other is central to our wellbeing.  On the whole Hir is full of compassion.  I left the auditorium with a spring in my gait and a renewed fascination with what it is, and will be, to be human.

Expect this show to sell out quickly.

Delightfully, the opening night evening commenced with Mama Alto singing sultry love songs in the Red Stitch courtyard.  Very special!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - The Waiting Room

Melbourne Theatre Company Presents:

The Waiting Room

By Kylie Trounson

Director – Naomi Edwards

Set Designer – Dayna Morrissey

Costume Designer – Chloe Greaves

Lighting Designer – Richard Vabre

Composer and Sound Designer – Russell Goldsmith

Video Designer – Michael Carmody

Cast:  Kate Atkinson, Brett Cousins, Belinda McClory, William McInnes, Sophie Ross and Greg Stone

Fairfax

15 May to 27 June 2015

If nothing more The Waiting Room is a lyrical homage by playwright Kylie Trounson to her father IVF pioneer Alan Trounson.  Our collective social history and Kylie’s personal history, in relation to the development of IVF, is placed under the microscope and framed by the music of the era.  Over all the script is drawn with sincerity and the production full of humanity.

It is a kind and generous work that looks at the good-natured openhandedness and hard working commitment of the scientists in progressing our ability to deal with infertility.  Although it touches on the down side and controversy it treads lightly there.   It is not so much a play describing conflict as a work describing the personal perseverance of a number of characters.

Relationships are tempered with sensitivity and understanding this work is way more about people than ethics.

The Waiting Room’s structure, informed by a feminine libidinal economy, is fashioned like many chains of a necklace, vignettes and scenes follow each other linking and interlinking - creating meaning.    Kylie Trounson uses a most interesting conceit of having the playwright talking to the audience as if she is still mapping out and writing the work.  This suggests an enduring control over the material and her perceptions of her own experience with in it.

The short scenes are mostly presented in quick and mostly efficient succession displaying quite some slickness in the Direction by Naomi Edwards. 

A very strong and competent troupe of actors move deftly both physically and from character to character and, in some instances, from realism to delightful and funny ‘magic realism’.

Sophie Ross plays Kylie Trounson as a comfortable and genuine young woman.  While Greg Stone morphs into a liberal, gentle and loving father with great, sense of humor in his portrayal of Alan Trounson and, charm as Eros.  

Sophie Ross and Greg Stone - photo Jeff Busby

There are memorable moments of pathos such as William McInnes shuffling around PJ’s and slippers with his back to the audience representing Carl Wood in an advanced stage of dementia.  Belinda McClory, such a consummate and strong actor, convincingly represents the heartbreak of a ravaged young woman unsuccessful in conceiving through IVF after numerous traumatizing attempts.

Much in life is unsure and much is only achieved by dogged determination.  So much has changed in the last four decades.  I remember a time when one was expected to accept ones lot in life.  When in nice middle class company a child only, ideally, came with a successful and satisfactory relationship.  When everyone seem to be desperately trying not to get pregnant.  But science, feminism and perceived individual rights have changed all of that.

There are some fabulous laughs pertinent to the era that is being examined and heaps to think about in this satisfying production.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)