Reviews - Grief and the Lullaby and Virgins and Cowboys - FLIGHT - Festival of New Writing

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)

Reviews - Kindness and Yours The Face - FLIGHT: Festival of New Writing

FLIGHT:  Festival of New Writing

Kindness

By Bridget Mackey

Directors: Kate Shearman and Alice Darling

Designer: Yvette Turnbull

Lighting Designer: Sarah Walker

Sound Designer: Andrew Dalziell

Cast:  Maggie Brown, Tom Heath, Emily Tomlins, Rachel Perks

Kindness is a kind of absurdist, pretty ridiculous and at times hilarious look at the down side of the effects of the modern working environment.

In this slick production, on a smart and stylish set by Designer Yvette Turnbull, that feels like an office foyer, four individuals come and go and interact or barely interact through talking to/at each other.    Throughout they all seem to exposing hang-ups, quirks and fixations in a bland environment where everything even their wacky ticks of behavior become monotonous. 

There is the boss who is cold and disinterested, the strange very old unwashed woman who quietly creeps in and out and the co-workers who finally hook up.  Generally interaction appears restrained and pretty much hit-and-miss and has the musicality of an almost agitating repetitive rhythm.  

Nothing is fully explained for example what positions the workers have or what they are doing.  People come and go and hook into fairly meaningless conversations and then exit.  One assumes that all characters except the old woman do actually do a days turn of work.

And why the old woman is there at all?  Perhaps she is homeless and creeps in for warmth and safety and comfort. 

None of the characters are particularly likable.  They all seem to have dropped any guise of being personable and cheerful.  And they are all pretty much glibly expressing their pent up neuroses in the ‘liminal space’ of the office foyer.  They are mostly niggling and evasive in their communication and too caught up in themselves to be interested in each other.  

A clear clean work generally that did suffer from some garbled dialogue on the first night but one that is bound to grow in meaning, depth and expressiveness through its run, for what is guaranteed to be an appreciative audience.

Images:  Emily Tomlins, Maggie Brown, Rachel Perks & Tom Heath and Rachel Perks & Tom Heath - (photographer: Sarah Walker). 

Footnote:  There seems to be a fairly contemporary new style in programs that lists actors as performers without indication of exactly which character they play.  This can be frustrating for those of us who are writing about Theatre.   I have not discussed the work of individual Actors on this occasion due to the lack of listing.

Yours The Face

By Fleur Kilpatrick

Director & Designer:  Sarah Walker

Artistic Consultant:  Robert Reid

Performer: Roderick Cairns

Lighting Consultant: Robert Sowinski

Sound Designer:  Tom Pits

Dramaturg: Raimondo Cortese

This surprising piece has been written by Fleur Kilpatrick for one actor to play all characters.  Actually Kilpatrick’s play displays the perception and insight that leads one to think both main characters could be played by either a female or male actor. 

In this production Roderick Cairns is a very commanding tour de force.  He is quite mesmerizing and extraordinarily convincing in both the two contrasting as well as the subsidiary roles.  Androgyny can be so seductive!

Cairns’s characterization is beautifully interpreted and managed and very skillfully integrated into his body both physically and vocally.  His character transformations are handled without a missed beat. 

As realized here Yours The Face is a very strong work based on a narrative that travels, unfolds and surprises and has been extremely competently managed by some outstanding theatre practitioners.    

I don’t think it is giving too much away to say that writer Fleur Kilpatrick explores the relationship between a photographer and model that twists and turns.  It is partly love story and partly sad indictment of a glossy glamorous narcissistic world with many pitfalls.    

The set, a photographer’s studio is perfect and the lighting (Robert Sowinski) is used to great effect changing mood and environment.   There is an unnecessary and way to literal set change at towards the end - but this is a small consideration in an otherwise excellent work.

If nudity is going to offend definitely don’t buy a ticket to this one. 

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)