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 - Longing Lasts Longer

Penny Arcade

Longing Lasts Longer (USA)

Melbourne Comedy Festival

The Famous Spiegeltent at Arts Centre Melbourne

Until 3 April at 7pm Tuesday to Saturday and 6pm Sunday – 70 mins

Penny Arcade is back and her show at the Spiegeltent Longing Lasts Longer is surely the hot ticket of the Comedy Festival! But be warned it is for the thinking punter who enjoys confrontational ideas.  See it if you have a genuine interest in cultural change, adaptation, the curved balls life throws at us and you really do have a sense of humour because at times it is shockingly forthright.

Ms Arcade is a lively early sixty something – going on forty.  She is such a sincere entertainer who communicates from the heart, but, as a ‘gutsy gal who has been round the block a number of times’ she is not afraid to tell it like it is.

As a woman, who lived on the cutting edge of the sixties and seventies, Arcade, looks just like a cuddly cupie doll in a cute redress but don’t let that fool you - her show is full of keen insights and acute invective – she’s sharp. 

Over the past couple of decades Penny Arcade who’s real name is Susana Carmen Ventura has been presenting her amazing show Bitch! Dyke! Fag Hag! Whore! to lucky audiences all over the world.  And now Daniel Clarke has pulled strings to bring her to Melbourne for this year’s Comedy Festival. 

Ok this show isn’t for everyone.  It bashes away at some of our ‘holy cows.’  She is particularly offended by, and hostile about, gentrification.  She articulates some very strong and striking home truths about a number of things including male homosexuality.  She hammers Brisbane and suggests that Melbourne’s beautiful young women would ‘strut around’ in Ugg-boots, if you could strut around in Ugg-boots.  Really not in Australia’s cultural capital!

She expresses the deep disturbing horror of losing a huge number of friends to the AIDs virus and the humiliating difficulties of not being able to maintain an enduring romantic relationship.  She is nothing if not courageous and vital.

This reviewer found her show wonderfully affirming, deeply funny and insightful, and yes, - a bit like a motivational talk full of belly laughs and an anthem to gleaning wisdom as one ages. 

Other shows pale into insignificance.

Don’t miss it if you can get a ticket!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Footnote:  I feel like I was pulled backwards through a wringer to be totally affirmed.  This woman is amazing.