Review - Scaramouche Jones

Arts Centre Melbourne Wander productions

Colin Friels 

in

Scaramouche Jones

By Justin Butcher

Performed by Colin Friels

Directed by Alkinos Tsilimidos

Set and Costume designer - Richard Roberts

Lighting Designer – Matt Scott

Sound Designer – Tristan Meredith

18 - 25 August 2018

Scaramouche Jones is a wonderful opportunity to see veteran actor Colin Friels convey a complex character with splendid insightful skill. 

 In a very short eighty minutes Friels captures and reels in his audience and entrances with stories of character the fictional clown Scaramouche, who has lived an exceptional life that highlights extraordinary events and happenings of the 20^thCentury. 

Too seldom now days we, as audiences, get the chance to watch our own ‘Theatre Royalty’ perform live for us.  In the intimate space of the Fairfax with his marvelously trained body and voice Friels is able to convey rich and detailed nuance that brings an audience to its feet for a standing ovation.

Last seen, last year, in Melbourne in The Faith Healer, an outstanding production from Belvoir Street, Melbourne Audiences are privileged to be able to watch Friels this year.

Friels does not seem to be ‘acting’ and certainly does not work with self-conscious flourish but rather lets Butcher’s very fine writing do its work through his well-modulated voice of resonant timbre.  

Son of a gypsy prostitute and an Englishman, the fictional, Scaramouche has lived a complex adventure.  He wears his seven white masks like the seven ages of man and gains each like a marvelous gem of wisdom honed through profound, challenging and yet at times tawdry experience.  There is much wonder, joy and many opportunities for laughter.

The set by Richard Roberts hints of circus and perhaps a ship.   To my mind it is a little dull, not that this is of great importance.  Although I am left with a nagging feeling that the space could be used to better advantage. Friels costume also by Roberts has a lovely understated elegance about it and is beautifully proportional clown costume.

The lighting changes on opening night were a bit clunky and obvious.  This is something that I believe I have experienced recently in the Fairfax and am wondering if technical difficulties are being experienced.

Small concerns aside, this is a splendid opportunity to watch, marvel at and support one of our seasoned ‘National Treasures’ in Colin Friels.

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)