Review - Germinal

Melbourne Festival Presents:

Germimal

Conception and Direction

Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort

Performers

Arnaud Boulogn

Beatriz Setien

Antoine Defoort

Halory Goerger

And the voice of Maillard

Technical Conception – Mael Teillant

Technical Direction – Colin Plancher

Malthouse Theatre

19 – 22 October 2017

Germinal is marvelous festival fare – an exceptional experience.  It is just the sort of show that stretches expectations and delivers the completely unpredicted in a totally unique way.  One gasps and laughs with surprise whilst being charmed by the whimsical nonsensicality of the experience.  And yet all the time the reasoning of the whole seems to be based on the perfectly rational.

Do take your glasses if you are a little short sighted because the written word, projected onto the back wall, is an integral component as is the distinctly French philosophical approach.  Most of the spoken language is French though the initial set up is in English.

This work professes to be about working with time and space.   It is sparse and focused and allows for a variety of interpretations. 

Everything starts in the very dark void of the black box of a neutral stage space.  Four actors of apparently equal status work together, all are integral to outcomes.  They initiate, communicate, share, negotiate, contravene, create, respond and cooperate as individuals.  It is evident that they know each other well although they appear unsure of how to interpret the place and situation they find themselves in.  And everything seems to be based on the premise that they, and we with them, are moving into the unknown.  Ideas are explored, offers are made and accepted and built upon.   Then wacky things happen.  Nothing can be taken for granted.

This show is the perfect reminder that the courage of venturing into the unknown is a visceral launching point for making art.

Suzanne Sandow

Review - Heart is a Wasteland

Heart is a Wasteland

Written and Produced by John Harvey

Direction – Margaret Harvey

Cast

Aaron Pederson

Ursula Yovich

Anna Liebzeit

Dramaturgy – Mark Pritchard

Production Design – Alison Ross

Lighting Design – Lisa Mibus

AV Design – Desmond Connellan

Musical Direction and Sound Design – Anna Liebzeit

Sound Design - Steve Stelios Adam

Songs by Lydia Fairhall

Stage Manager – Ainsley Kerr

Malthouse Theatre

The Beckett

29 June – 16 July 2017

John Harvey’s play Heart is a Wasteland is a testament to the healing power of falling in love.  It is a delightful romantic comedy grounded in a rich contemporary indigenous context.

Commencing with the best welcome to country ever, flying in from the West, it is a very finely tuned work throughout.   This is a confirmation of the high degree of skill of all who have created and work on it.   It is a co-production with Brown Cabs and made with the support of Footscray Community Arts Centre.

Although an indigenous story, in a unique setting, it is the universal story of finding love.  In this instance through risking all in a half intoxicated state in a fairly ordinary bar – not an uncommon story.  Raye (Ursula Yovich) is an independent Country singer doing a tour through South Australia and Central Australia to Darwin.  She hooks up with Dan, a miner, who is a beautifully fleshed out with a rich and interesting characterization by Aaron Pederson. 

Ms Yovich has a delightful stage presence and sings like an angel.  She brings sense and gusto to some very meaty contemporary, politically sensitive chunks of dialogue.

The whole is staged (Alison Ross) simply on a minimalist set and scenes are changed through the use of projection on a wonderfully textured screen/back wall.  Sound (Steve Stelios Adam) is used to great effect.   Ms Yovich’s sings several poignant songs by Lydia Fairhall.  Guitar accompaniment is most skillfully provided by Anna Lievzeit.

This most enjoyable heart-warming theatre is well worth braving the cold to get to.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - The Government Inspector

Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir Present

The Government Inspector

By Simon Stone with Emily Barclay; devised with the cast

Featuring a short musical by Stefan Gregory

Inspired by Nikolai Gogol

Directed by Simon Stone

Set Design Ralph Myers

Lighting Design by Paul Jackson

Sound Design and Composition by Stefan Gregory

Choreography by Lucy Guerin

Costume Design by Mel Page

Cast: Fayssal Bazzi, Mitchell Butel, Gareth Davies, Robert Menzies, Zahra Newman, Eryn-Jean Norvill and Greg Stone.

Merlyn Theatre until 23 March 2014

This work, inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s exploration of fraudulent behavior as depicted in his play The Government Inspector, bares little resemblance to the original.  It could be described as a work in Three Acts.  But don’t let that put you off it is short and crisp and there is no interval. 

In Act One everything falls into strange disarray through a number of over the top events that are hilariously presented in a sort of matter of fact, yet, theatrical manner by a team of actors in search of a  …. solution.  

In Act Two a risible attempt to salvage the situation results in the farcical employing of a much-lauded Avant Guard Theatre Maker from Russia.   Subsequently a somewhat neurotic and kooky image of Theatre Making is most amusingly portrayed whilst some of Theatre’s sacred cows are shamelessly lampooned. 

And then the shorter, but deliciously lit (Paul Jackson), Third Act ‘a short musical by Stefan Gregory, with stunning choreography for actors by Lucy Guerin, amalgamates with panache and charm. 

Well it all goes something like that – and is a kind of well-managed intricately performed mania that has one brimming with laughter.

Everything old is new again and anything seems to be up for grabs.  Australian Theatre Making is satirized so is our reverence for obscure and ambiguous imported ‘Festival’ productions.  The actors parody themselves.   And this, as we heard in the talk after the show (Tuesday 11 March), can be a challenging and confronting enterprise.  Even the washing machines that comprise one of the sets had been seen on a Melbourne Mainstage a few short years ago. 

This work is loaded with delicious absurdities such as actor Greg Stone not being able to find his pants to take the stage as The Governor/Emperor - wearing new clothes.  This could be a metaphor for the risk all actors and creatives were taking on pulling such a chancy flight of fantasy as to entertain an audience without actually having a play.

Zarah Newman stuns with the beautiful characterization of a Hispanic cleaning lady and Gareth Davies creates an hysterically funny character of a Russian Director.  Every member of the ensemble shines in this enterprise.

The talk after the show, mainly facilitated it appeared for School Audiences, was very informative.  Marion Potts spoke at length about the situation Malthouse found itself in after losing rights they were sure they had to The Producers.  All actors talked about their work in a way that highlights their courage, commitment and the capacity to collaborate at a very high-level.   I was struck by a sense that such adventurous work, requiring availability and vulnerability would also require recurrent resilience.

Director/Co-Writer Simon Stone has the knack of invigorating Theatre, enlivening actors and recharging audiences.  Perhaps this is due in part to the intrinsic sense of risk that pervades his productions.

Catch it if you can get a ticket!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Wild Surmise

Malthouse Theatre Presents

Wild Surmise

Based on the verse novel by Dorothy Porter

Devised by Jane Montogomery Griffiths

Directed by Marion Potts

Set and Costume Design Anna Tregloan, Composition and Sound Design Jethro Woodward, Lighting Design Paul Jackson, Assistant Director Adena Jacobs

Performed by

Humphrey Bower

Jane Montgomery Griffiths

Malthouse – until 2 December (best check)

Wild Surmise is a testament to how poetry and heightened poetic images and metaphors can encompass, and when delivered with insight, express emotions with a visceral impact.  Jane Montgomery Griffiths has the power and mastery, as an actor, to deliver deeply felt longing and yearning that is capable of truly touching an audience, as does Humphrey Bower.

Like her also stunning performance piece on Sappho this adaption of Dorothy Porter’s work is exquisitely staged.  Anna Tregloan has created a mirrored set, that can, poignantly and tellingly, deliver three reflections of its two variously suffering and alienated occupant characters.

This is the story of a seemingly irretrievable communication breakdown in the twenty-year-old marriage.  She (Jane Montgomery Griffiths) is a scientist and deeply passionate about her work.  And he (Humphrey Bower) perhaps, one wonders, to be supportive of her endeavors, is a tertiary teacher of poetry who has grown desperately and bitterly weary of his students.   As these two grow disenchanted with each other she is being swept off her feet by a young lover and he is discovered to be ill with cancer.  As her passion grows outward his life fades and folds in on itself.   We, witness it, as a real and organic human juxtaposition, set on a contrastingly shiny polished surface - seemly representative of how we live our busy modern lives.

Sound by Jethro Woodward is subtle and so effective.  It creeps in quietly and manipulates and enhances the mood.  Lighting by Paul Jackson cleverly works the mirrors to the best effect.

All-in-all I was left with the pervading sense that even when we don’t feel love we can still actually be, unfeelingly, loving those with whom we have an intimate bond.  That even through the really difficult times there can be a thread of a deep connection  - an almost un-severable tie.  Therefore best to be kind and nurturing if at all possible specially when facing death. 

This is extremely well constructed theatre that is moving and thoughtful, and beautifully melded and managed by Director Marion Potts. 

Rewarding!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whisper)

Review - Before Your Very Eyes

Before Your Very Eyes

Presented by COMPO / Gob Squad

For Melbourne Festival

Concept, Design and Direction

Gob Squad (Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastain Trost, and Simon Will)

Performers: Martha Balthazar, Spencer Bogaert, Faustijn De Ruyck, Gust Hamerlinck, Zoe Luca, Jeanne Vanderkerckhove and Ineke Verhaegen, Voice Over – Rigley Filey, Camera – Philippe Digneffe, Pol Heyvaert and Gob Squad, Video Post Production – Mile Chalcraft, Koeneel Coessens, Sarah Michelle Harrison, Anna Zett and Gob Squal

Before Your Very Eyes rewards with the sheer entertainment of watching beautiful young, energetic, professional actors at work, to say nothing of the interesting perspective it throws onto the art of living, by looking at it through young eyes.  

On a set that has been likened to a fish bowl, after a lively warm up and introduction, under the guidance of a neutral style female voice-over, seven young feisty charismatic actors dress up and ‘act’ growing up.  They seem to work as if in a game without guile or pretense and each child has a very strong ‘stage presence’.

Masterfully, three or so years ago when this part of a three-tiered project commenced, the creators had set aside considerable recorded footage of the youthful participants so as to be able to incorporate it in future performances.  The payoff, of this, is now. The younger children interview their older selves.  There is often something profound about the probing questions of a child to an adult.  In their concern for a child’s piece of mind an adult will perhaps censor or moderate their responses.  There is something almost mind boggling about the questing of the child actors to their older selves who are guised in the characters of their ‘interpreted’ mature adult selves.   

Very strikingly we are watching lively energetic performers who do not seem to have inflated egos and are not posturing.  What could have been a voyeuristic experience is not, particularly, because of the forthright commitment of the performers and their representation of themselves and thankfully they are not in the least sexualized.

This is one of three shows that I choose from a restricted list this year although I did see others.  All three After Life, We’re Gonna Die and this Before Your Very Eyes are really about what we value in life.  They all discuss death or and dying in an open way leaving space for ones own take, interpretation and thought processes.

Demanding but Satisfying Theatre.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)