Reviews - 5pound theatre - Repertory Season

After Hamlet

From the play by William Shakespeare

Adapted and Directed by Trent Baker

Cast: Jason Cavanagh – Hamlet 2 and Polonius, Susannah Firth – Gertrude, Sebastian Gunner – Claudius and Ghost, Tom Molyneux – Hamlet 1, Polonius and Laertes, Freya Pragt – Ophelia and Rosencrantz.

Season Ended

This production is a beautifully edited from the original by Director Trent Baker (assumedly with the assistance of Dramaturge - April Albert), expressively lit by Doug Montgomery and atmospherically underscored with richly evocative music by James McGauran.  The initial scenes introduce Trent Baker as Director/Auteur who, one senses, would tightly arrange and coordinated everything to an exacting standard if he had the required time.  As it progresses it melds, perhaps inevitably, into something of an actor’s showcase.   However it begins artistically with a beautifully lit Tom Molyneux as Hamlet in a rarefied atmosphere that is enchanting.

The original text is so finely edited that many of the well-known and often quoted lines are highlighted throughout.   It is however difficult, with a pretty sound knowledge of the story, to know if this edited narrative, with actors playing multiple roles and even doubling in the role of Hamlet, makes complete sense to the un-initiated.

Jason Cavanagh as Hamlet displays the energy and strength he brings to the stage as a serious actor.  Susannah Firth’s Gertrude is contained elegant and commanding.  Freya Pragt makes a lovely straightforward Rosencrantz and a complicated misguided Ophelia of a forthright innocent but slightly damaged nature.   As youthful Hamlet Tom Molyneux is convincingly petulant and troubled.   His Laertes he is clearly a young man doing what must be done in the face of great misfortune.  Sebastian Gunner portrays a colorless and unlikeable Claudius.

With strong, effective atmosphere created with light and sound - it would excellent if this ‘mise en scene’ could be extended to Design and Costume Design.  Perhaps five designers could be included in next years repertory season (if there is to be one).

From where I was sitting there were some exquisite photo opportunities although I think some of the other viewing angles may not have had such great sightlines. 

After Hamlet left me wondering if, in this rather unrehearsed process, the director has license to add and tease things out from day to day.  

I can boast that I have seen the first night of the first play in this season Pygmalion and the last night in the fifth play After Hamlet.

SO CONGRATULATIONS 5pounds - you did what you said you were going to do!  And yes it was well done, successful and was fascinatingly as an exercise, and entertaining and satisfying as Theatre.  And, blimey, it must surely have been rich a training ground for five lucky, brave and hardworking actors.

Falling Petals

By Ben Ellis

Directed by Rob Reid 

Jason Cavanagh – Females

Susannah Firth – Sally

Sebastian Gunner – Males

Tom Molyneux – Phil

Freya Pragt – Tania

The Owl and the Pussycat – 34 Swan St Richmond

27 November – 1 December

This, paradoxically ambiguous yet insightful, play is simply presented, with the clarity and confidence one would expect, from capable and discerning Director Rob Reid.   

Stripped back to its bare bones Falling Petals is a story that highlights the perceptions and behaviors of three teenagers, two of whom; the sharp and determined Phil (Tom Molyneux) and the mean and somewhat calculating Tania (Freya Pragt) are under the hammer to do well at school in order to escape the small country town they grew up in.  By contrast the other, Sally (Susannah Firth) is happy to stay put, feeling she has a satisfactory future.  Over-shadowing these rather brutal and seemingly compassionless kids is some sort of creeping plague like lurgy that is slowly infecting the children of the village and ultimately killing them.  This work combines naturalism with a simple application of magic realism in the use of petals to symbolically represent the fallen children.  In turn its metaphorical symbolism could be open to other interpretations, such as, the stifling grip of small town culture consuming and therefore limiting and constraining its children and potential.

As with 5pouds Repertory Season so far, all the performers are strong, engaging and convincing in their roles.  There is a clear sense they have an awareness of the subtext and subtleties in the work, but as would be expected on first night after one week of rehearsing, not everything has quite come to the fore.

Tom Molyneux who was delightfully funny in Pygmalion and Sally is most particularly displaying the capacity to portray a convincingly naturalistic character by contrast.

As I watched Falling Petals I was reminded of Declan Greene’s play Moth in that both texts deal with the depth and intensity of teen angst and self-expression. Both highlight vulnerabilities exposed in working through the tumultuous time of change and self-actualization in relation to circumstances and environment that adolescence can be and often is.   

Well worth catching tonight or tomorrow night, if you can.  After all it is just a train ride to Richmond Station.

The Unnamed

Directed by Danny Delahunty

Ensemble: Jason Cavanagh, Susannah Firth, Sebastian Gunner, Tom Molyneux and Freya Pragt

The Owl and the Pussycat - 34 Swan Street Richmond 

20 -24 November

There is a great sense of community going into the same ‘shop front’ theatre space every week to see a new offering from a bunch of lively, interesting and courageous actors.  Maybe the work is not as polished as it would be if they had had even a few more days rehearsal time, let alone two or three more weeks.  But every production has had heaps to recommend it and has been a joy to watch.

Unnamed is a bemusing little piece with heaps of room to grow and develop in to a really intriguing work that explores what, in a tense and highly charged environment, even a slight shift in the status quo can do to equilibrium.  What is really going on here is any body’s guess.

Five workers in an enclosed room are doing something both amazing and ridiculous with sand that is intermittently delivered to them in an ingenious way.  They have down time after they have collected, sieved, tested and disposed of the sand, where they all seem to need to rest from their frenetic activity.  The atmosphere is edgy and one senses that they are some pretty significant personal and political differences that remain in check, as long as they all function in the prescribed way, and, no one becomes too irritated. 

Again it is fascinating to watch the actors one saw doing something completely dissimilar, only a week ago, taking on a completely new character in a totally different genre of work.  For the third time in a row I have been impressed by the complexity of subtext Freya Pragt is able to bring to her work.  This time I was surprised that there was little humour in Tom Molyneux vulnerable outsider and I witnessed a new dimension in Susannah Firth, Jason Cavanagh and Sebastian Gunner’s acting. 

A casting agents joy.

‘Sally!’ A Musical

Music by Jerome Kern – Lyrics by Clifford Grey

Book by Guy Bolton

Directed by Celeste Cody, Musical Direction By David Bramble, Cast: Jason Cavanagh, Susannah Firth, Sebastian Gunner, Tom Molyneux and Freya Pragt

The Own and the Pussycat – 34 Swan Street Richmond
13 - 17 November

Lively, fun and funny this production of ‘Sally!’ A Musical is a light and delightful ‘rags to riches’ story.

It features an innocent heroine (Susannah Firth) who is down on her luck but meets a bumbling wide-eyed hero (Jason Cavanagh).  In a smoky nightclub/restaurant a swanky opportunistic entrepreneurial type (Tom Molyneux) and his brash girlfriend ((Freya Pragt) open the show with a fairly hopeless attempt at ordering dinner.  The narrative complicates to include European royalty (Sebastian Gunner), an exotic dancer, an heir to a fortune and his socialite mother.   And just about all actors play the slave-driving restaurateur at one time or another, including the fabulous piano player and I musical director David Bramble.

On opening night the show had the fluidity of an under rehearsed work, that was still getting its final touches, it was a bit ‘up and down’, and ‘hit and miss.’   But that’s to be expected after a rehearsal period of five working days - and, frankly, who cares!   Some of the jokes worked, some barely hit the mark.  Much of the singing hit the right notes some did not.  But don’t let that put you off.  As the second work in 5pounds Repertory season it is great, naïve, romantic, engaging silly good fun, with nobody asking to be taken too seriously. 

This is actually the type of show one would expect to see in a Mechanics Institute many miles from the Metropolis of Melbourne and as such, is a damn good romp – refreshing and entertaining.

So much fun to see 5pounds innovative, inventive response to getting shows up and running and wowing audiences with this ambitious repertory exercise.

I am a dedicated audience member and keen to see what they come up with next.

Pygmalion

By George Bernard Shaw

Adapted and Directed by Daniel Lammin

Cast: Jason Cavanagh – Henry Higgins, Susannah Firth – Mrs Pearce and Mrs Higgins, Sebastian Gunner – Alfred Doolittle, Tom Molyneux – Colonel Pickering, Freya Pragt – Eliza Doolittle

Lighting – Doug Montgomery

The Owl and the Pussy Cat - 34 Swan Street Richmond

6 - 10 November

Enthusiastically presented with humor and energy this ‘rough around the edges’ version of Pygmalion is a highly engaging and engrossing production that moves at a spirited pace.

Shaw’s play, about the working class flower girl who is transformed into a lady by the master of elocution that the film My Fair Lady is based on, is competently abridged by Director Daniel Lammin and presented by five actors with the aid of four chairs (possibly 5) and one occasional table.  What are preserved are the characters and the skeletal story - that was originally based on the Greek myth of the artist Pygmalion who fell in love with his own marble sculpture that was morphed into life by Aphrodite who was influenced by Pygmalion’s fervent desire.

Amazingly a working week (5days) is the sum total of rehearsal time for this enlightening work about class and sexual politics.

Freya Pragt a recent VCA graduate cuts a fine, feisty beguiling Eliza Doolittle with just a hint of calculation about her.  Sebastian Gunner playing her father Doolittle presents a very funny and knowing gent and manages some of the most telling lines.

Susannah Firth handles two beautifully contrasting characters; Mrs. Pearce who seems perpetually in a state of shock at the behavior of those who inhabit the household she keeps and Mrs. Higgins so assured of her position of privilege she maintains with a relaxed yet controlling air.  It needs to be said that the exalted position enjoyed by the aristocracy so dependent on the strivings and compliance of those below them in the social structure is something that Shaw’s writing identifies.

Tom Moylneux’s Colonel Pickering is delightful in his intense commitment to, what is presented as the rather, adolescent game being played with gusto by himself and Higgins in which Eliza Doolittle is a willing pawn in search of betterment.

Jason Cavanagh’s Henry Higgins is pivotal to the whole and he has the strength and clarity to play the role, though in a way, he is playing the characters subtext of anger and determination.  It would be great to see what he could do with a little more time to more comprehensively develop the Higgins’s sophisticated exterior and then to see him expose the more fleshy emotional side as the play progresses.

To quote Shaw’s; "You have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her. It's filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul." (Act 3)   If only it were that simple or perhaps it is that our social constructions dominate the outcome of our lives?

This work bodes well for the rest of 5pounds adventurous repertory season of 5plays in 5weeks with 5actors and 5directors. 

5must sees!

Suzanne Sandow
(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Mothersmilk

Mothersmilk

By Joanne Trentini

Presented by One Other Productions

Directed by Claire Phillips

Producer and Set Designer - Kathryn Hooper

Producer and Creative Stylist – Renee Trentini

Actors – Joanne Trentini, Lelia Rodgers, Gerard Lane and Stefan Bramble

Live Music – Earthwire:  A J Winnick, Cloud Unknowing and Nick Hadjelias

45 Downstairs – 45 Flinders Lane

31 October to 11 November

With its beguiling, beautifully produced flyer, superb photo on the program and lovely little filmic scene of a young boy being given a toxic glass of milk to drink it is bemusing that this production of a supposedly new play is not billed as a reworking of Medea.  It would make sense as the basic story is the same and there always seems to be an enthusiastic audience for reworked classics.

There are problems with just about all the elements of this production and I think they can all be traced back to not being clear about the context of the whole.  The script is repetitive, yet it is not entirely clear who each of the characters are, the acting is at times monotonous, the lighting messy and dull and the music although initially very promising and strong - often intrudes, upon rather than underscore and supports, the acting.

There is quite obviously not a true sense of ensemble pervading this work.  The direction lacks clarity and many opportunities have been missed and the work drags.  Basically the whole falls in an out of being monotonous rhythmically and vocally.  That is not to say that talent isn’t there and that all actors can surely and probably will do better as the season progresses.

And there is something in the writing – it just hasn’t come through onto the rehearsal room floor and therefore is illusive in the production.  In my experience writers performing in their own work are seldom successful.  In this instance it is the writing that suffers not the performance.  Joanne Trentini is a strong and stunning stage presence but her writing is in need of dramaturgical work to bring out the ideas she says in the program that she is discussing.

Much of the characterization seems non-specific and actors are often not really talking with each other indeed they are barely working with each other at times.  

My guess is that creative roles have not been clearly enough defined, and the rehearsal time has not been adequate to workshop some of the disturbing and complex ideas explored.

 Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - I Wish You a Boat

I Wish You a Boat

Created and Directed by Wendy Ward

Featuring:  Libby Brockman, Luke Cadden Emma Caldwell, Nathan Falcke, Robert Caetano, Petra Glieson, Taylor Klas, Lara Jean Mrashall, Helena Plazzer and Kliment Poposki

Docklands Cotton Mills – 63/91 Moreland Street Footscray

Until 17 November

This is the time of year when aspiring actors are working on their monologues to get into Drama schools.  Huge numbers apply for the main flagship schools and of course there are limited places.  Recently I have seen work from two Melbourne Drama Schools and both greatly impressed me.  It is important for aspiring actors to note that a career as an actor theatre maker is a lengthy complex journey that requires the capacity to continually refresh aspirations and the capacity to be able to generate ones own work.  Often a more pragmatic approach than that of a prestigious Drama School will reap more lasting rewards.

Wendy Ward has come from New York to open a Drama School - Ward Acting Studios and I Wish You a Boat is a very fine example of the outcomes of her work.

From the moment the actors walk on stage, with their personal props, to present this work about the tragic sinking of the liner ship Merry Rose, they inspire confidence.  Due to their focused work, stage relationships though often fleeting, are uniformly convincing.  One senses each actor has an intrinsic gist of the importance of sincere engagement with, and respect for, their compatriots, which results in the creation of a rich and credible milieu.

The characterization is lovely with all actors playing several believable individuals, at a convincing level of development and commitment, under Ms. Ward’s unified direction. 

There are two distinct parts to this work the first focusing on first class and the second on steerage passengers.   In the first half the parting scenes though poignant and interesting and varied are little too long and repetitive but the second half very fine and moving in its use of language and expressions of pathos.

It would be interesting to discover Ms. Wards key ingredients in her extremely effective drama training that produces beautifully tuned, evenly balanced work, in which all actors appear confident and comfortably in control of their craft.

Details and bookings – wardtheatrecompany.com

Suzanne Sandow

Review - We're Gonna Die

We’re Gonna Die

Presented by Jean Lee’s Theatre Company

For the Melbourne Festival

Written and performed by Young Jean Lee, Original Music by Young Jean Lee, Tim Simmonds, Mike Hanf, Nick Jenkins, and Ben Kupstas.

Choreography by Faye Driscoll, Directed by Paul Lazar.

Future Wife: Make Hanf, Andrew Hoepfner, Nick Jenkins, Ben Kupstas and Young Jean Lee.

Arts Centre Melbourne

24 – 27 October (season ended)

Young Jean Lee is certainly a courageous, sharp and perceptive theatre maker, she knows how to get to the bare bones of universal experience that can be satisfyingly shared with an audience.  Her approach to creating work by specifically propelling herself out of her comfort zone is inspiring.

We’re Gonna Die is a series of true-life anecdotes, around the subject of death, told quite entrancingly with an almost monotonously dry, controlled, delivery with a naïve youthful edge. Lee’s material comes from her own life experience and the resulting retelling is disarming in its sincerity.  She is at home with her audience as are her supporting band of musicians Future Wife.  Songs and music that are completely intrinsic to the whole are reminiscent of the songs of the band Rilo Kiley.

Under the matter-of-fact delivery, which brings Seinfield to mind, one sometimes glimpses Lee’s expressive strengths as a performer.  She is particularly animated when she sings a song as her mother giving rather chillingly pessimistic advice.  Lee introduces this item, a little confusingly, as one character portraying another character.

This production is closer to stand up cabaret than theatre actually, but is well housed in the intimate Fairfax Studio.  The simple staging, and charming neutrality of the delivery of this work, belies the number of creative individuals engaged to achieve a perfectly paced effective result.

It is a novel, communal experience singing ‘we’re gonna die’, in celebration of our mortality as an audience at the end of Young Jean Lee’s sensitive and moving show.

Engaging with this work got me thinking that perhaps there is a place in this festival for the more full engagement of a younger demographic in the Melbourne Festival.  It is the third one-hander that I have seen this Festival!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

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)