Review - Story of O

Story of O

By THE RABBLE after Pauline Reage

Supported by NEON (Melbourne Theatre Company)

The Lawler Studio – Southbank

June 27 – July 7

Creators – Kate Davis and Emma Valente

Director – Emma Valente

Set & Costume Design – Date Davis

Cast

O – Mary Helen Sassman

Sir Stephen – Jane Montgomery Griffith

Rene  - Gary Abrahams

Jacqueline – Dana Miltins

Anne-Marie – Pier Carthew

Nathalie – Emily Milledge

Actors move around on a sparse stage, set with merry-go-round horses and sprinkled with sand that makes a crunching sound as it is walked on.  This modern reinterpretation, by The Rabble, of the original novel Story of O written by Pauline Reage (Anne Desclos) and published in 1954, is at times, an overwhelmingly visceral experience.

The masochism of being subjected to erotic/pornographic sex is explored from the female perspective.  Mary Helen Sassman plays O, a young woman with a healthy defiance, who throughout is symbolically violated with clinical objectivity - as though such exploits are an imperative and necessary evil.  The unquestioning compliance, with which, the-matter-of fact sex acts are perpetrated, by the other characters, is fascinating.  This disturbing malaise of neutrality allows, the viewer, space for contemplating meaning that is uncluttered by emotional connectivity. 

As O, Sassman tellingly and poignantly portrays the journey of a feisty and strong willed young woman being corroded by voluntary sexual exploitation/victimization.

Emily Milledge is beautifully cast as Nathalie an apparently unquestioning compliant and complicit child like assistant who’s participation in torturous activities implies the self perpetuating unquestioning and cyclic nature of the exploitation of the female body.

The character of Sir Stephen played by Jane Montgomery Griffiths establishes an unstable patriarchal focal point.  Griffith richly and disturbingly embodies this controlling and unlovely male character who initially lectures the audience on the semantics of erotica.

Story of O is a serious work and not for the faint hearted.  Acts of sex and violence such as penetration, restraint and whipping are robustly and graphically, albeit symbolically, enacted. 

Director Emma Valente courageously and rewardingly explores theories of erotica in relation to gender – fulfillment, satiation and annihilation.

It is an intense and rocky ride that has much to recommend it including a hilarious parody on the casting of a classic work that is concurrently running at Melbourne Theatre Company.

(For Stage Whispers) 

Review - 2 Short Russians

5pound theatre

Presents

2 SHORT RUSSIANS

Vodka, Fucking and Television

By Maksym Kurochkin

The Bear

By Anton Chekhov

Jason Cavanagh – Director/Designer

Jack Beeby – Hero/Luka

Clare Callow – Fucking

Susannah Firth – Vodka/Popova

Dmitri Pronin – Television/Smirnoff

The Bear is a beautifully crafted piece of writing and a lovely introduction to Chekhov as a writer of comedies.  This staging is just delightful with all three actors excelling.  What it may lack in precision is made up for with energy commitment and a very real grasp, and expression, of instinctive truth.

A couple of years ago I was sent to review a production of The Bear and was unable to complete the task as I found the whole way to serious and precious and possibly, on retrospect, slow and labored.  Not so this production it is fast and furious and hilarious.  Jack Beeby sets the scene with a youthful interpretation of a cynical aged manservant Luka with just a hint of clown.

Propova, a recently widowed woman of some property, is the type of role that Susannah Firth inhabits very satisfyingly on the surface whilst realizing the subtext with subtle nuance.  And Dmitri Pronin just is The Bear – no question.

Vodka, Fucking &Television is just as fascinating as it promises to be with staging that is nothing short of inspired.  As Hero Jack Beeby fights with his existential angst in trying to modify his life by eliminating one of his fabric of sustaining, yet at times debilitating, pleasures.   These addictive supports are portrayed as personas that ‘arc up against’ being rejected and fight for supremacy.  I do have a small ‘beef’ with this production, in that, to my sensibilities Lust is ill cast.  Clare Callow certainly interprets the character strongly and appropriately and is sexy, but her voluptuousness somehow defines her as a seductress of a much earlier era and thus dates a relatively contemporary work.  This is a tiny quibble in another great night at the Owl and Pussycat.

It is a rewarding pleasure to follow 5pounds’s offerings.

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - The Woman Tamer

Replay Presents

The Woman Tamer

By Louis Esson

Directed by Rob Reid

Cast

Tom Molyneux

Clara Pagone

Jack Beeby

Kate Brennan

Assistant Direction and Chorography Kate Brennan

The Owl and the Pussycat

21 – 25 May

Rob Reid is nothing if not courageous. So often one hears it said that real Art is born of taking risks.  Couched in ambiguity this fascinating production risks being rebuffed tor being obscure.

As an adapted version of a short insightful piece about Melbourne’s underworld by Louis Esson, written in 1910, it is like a puzzle and will be read by each audience member according to his or her knowledge, or lack of, about theatre, rehearsal techniques, old Australian vernacular and the works, life and times of Louis Esson.  It is reminiscent of his much longer work The Bride of Gospel Place - first performed in 1926.

This reviewer experienced The Woman Tamer as a rare confusing and provocative cerebral treat.  That is not to say, it is not a visceral experience because it is, most particularly in the repetitive dressing and undressing of Kate Brennan that infers unquestioning monotonous sexual compliance.

The Woman Tamer commences in the small foyer of The Owl and the Pussy Cat with the ukulele backed melodic harmonic singing of Clara Pegone and Jack Beeby then moves into the performance space. Thereafter Tom Molyneux and Chopsey the character he is playing becomes the main focus of attention.  The other three actors work strongly around, and in response, to him - portraying a number of characters using almost all the words of the original text. 

As actors, with the possible exception of Molyneux, none fully integrate their characters, but rather, in a Brechtian manner are both themselves and the characters they are interpreting.

The sum total reads as a sort of Abstract or sub-text and proffers a strange revelation - that could be interpreted as, displaying the troubled mechanics of the writers mind.  Though the Director’s program notes suggest that it is the mental health of the main protagonist Chopsey that is being explored in relation to his poor sense of his own masculinity.

This is one of those productions where you are at liberty to make up your own mind about what is going on.   But you will have to catch it first, in its very short run at the, public transport friendly, Owl and the Pussycat just opposite the Richmond Station in Swan Street.

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Beached - MTC

Melbourne Theatre Company

Beached

By

Melissa Bubnic

Director – Petra Kalive, Set Designer – Andrew Bailey, Costume Designer – Kat Chan, Sound Designer – Robert Jordan, Animator – Rebecca Hayes.  Cast: Producer – Anthony Ahern, JoJo – Susie Dee, Louise Fanny Hanusin and Arty Damien Sunners.

Lawler Theatre

22 April – 10 May

Beached is refreshing and engaging and will certainly delight Secondary School audiences with some of the outrageous shocks embedded in the writing, particularly in regard to the use of ‘language’.  It is a fun romp written by a young writer that will be becoming even funnier as it tightens up through consecutive runs.

Arty (Damien Sunners) is over fed and pampered by his suffocating mother JoJo (Suzie Dee).  He sits in a sedentary position on a couch, part human part foam rubber, and eats almost more than is humanly possible.  The reality television program Shocking Fat Stories lays claim to Arty’s story and in doing so attempts to doctor the story for maximum effect and revulsion factor.

But that is not all, there is more to the story as the work touches on a number if social issues with startling and liberating political ‘incorrectness’ at times.

Suzie Dee’s mother character JoJo initially seemingly grounded in clown is a strongly realized, complex and convincingly dogged woman.  Anthony Ahern serves the production well as the producer and delightfully in a number of small video roles.

Although over written and just a bit too long and sometimes calling out for changes in the physical rhythms of the staging the direction is deftly and comfortable handled by Petra Kalive.

Beached is a real gift to Teachers as it touches on many complex issues and MTC have comprehensive and useful teacher notes online.  

Highly recommended!

Suzanne Sandow
(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Song - Ranters Theatre

Song

By Ranters Theatre

Concept/Director - Adriano Cortese Visual Concept/Designer Laura Lima, Songwriter/Performer - James Tyson,

Image Production and Lighting Design - Stephen Hennessy, Sound Designer -

David Franzke, Perfumer - George Kara, Performers - Paul Lum and Patrick Moffatt, Text - Raimondo Cortese, Producer - Sara Austin, Adriano Cortese,

Production Management - Geordie Baker & Govin Ruben from Rubix Cube

Arts House – North Melbourne

12 April – 21 April

This ‘sense around’ experience can be enjoyed against the wall, on a stool, or, on your own piece of astroturf placed anywhere on the beautifully polished Town Hall floor.   It is a very individual experience that doubtless many participants have reveled or will revel in, in the next few days.

It is so often what frame of mind one brings to theatre, that colours the experience, and can enhance with piquancy and assist in the suspension disbelief.  Exhausted at the end of a long week I was looking forward to something immersive and magical.  And, initially, I responded to Song with as much generosity as I could muster to find myself strangely transported to my sometime, misspent youth – imbuing me with the feeling of being totally stoned and lying heavily on the grass with a heightened awareness to my natural surroundings. 

A solid and interesting starting point I thought.  But sadly not a place I was able to freely maneuver from with the limited resources at my disposal. 

Song is an intense experience that makes weighty demands on its audience as it separates out the senses.  What one has most to work with is sound (David Franzke), sounds from nature as well as songs simply sung with a guitar and then piano (James Tyson).  There are also smells (Perfumer – George Kara) and air movement and a large round white object and some falling water.    Although initial smells are light and pleasant they are almost all somehow synthetic, and, except perhaps in the early stages, do not necessarily relate to the sounds.

Overall there is little to look at, other than other audience members.  To start with this is unmediated and not particularly comfortable though as the event moves on lighting (Stephen Hennessy) states change.   I was expecting projected images.  In a world that is so dominated and informed by the image it feels strange to do without them.  And for me the strongest messages from Song are just how dependent I have become on visual stimuli and how discomforting and disconcerting it can be to separate out and isolate ones own senses.

A worthwhile adventure in theatre making and interesting journey as participant but it did seem to give me a headache.

Suzanne Sandow
(For Stage Whispers)