Review - Botanica

Botanica

By MOMIX

Conceived and designed by Moses Pendleton

Performed by: Dajuan Booker, Jonathan Bryant, Simona Ditucci, Morgan Hulen, Autumn Burnette, Elizabeth Loft, Nicole Loizides, Graci Meier, Matt Schanbacher and Jason Williams.

Lighting Design: Joshua Starbuck and Moses Pendleton

Costume Design: Phoebe Katzin, Moses Pendleton, Cynthia Quinn

Puppet Design: Michael Curry

Presented by the Arts Centre Melbourne

State Theatre

7 to 11 August 2013

Botanica is a well-paced, abundant and engulfing work, a visual feast richly informed and buoyed with a great eclectic cultural mix of music.  My over all response is that it is an exquisitely realized design, a rare gift of theatrical interpretation.  It is a wonderful journey amongst anthropomorphized flora, fauna and natural phenomena.

MOMIX have created a generous and joyful work that allows for interpretation.   Though it contains some dark and brooding scenarios and moments that hint at the subliminal it is a wonderfully rich work that can be enjoyed by all the family.  I was accompanied by an eight year old who, for the whole ninety minutes, appeared to be happily transfixed and impressed.  She often whispered, to me, an inquiry or meaning she gleaned as the work progressed.

gum-nut dance, the preening of a number of handsomely conceived and executed centaurs, a wonderfully narcissistic mirrored androgynous full-bodied contortion, a prehistoric dinosaur, swarms of insects and numbers of birds, a miraculous snake exhibition and even a fan dance.  

Throughout strong contemporary dancers are amply supported by wonderful multi-media, lights and costumes and masterfully manipuliable objects.  The incorporated colors are vivid and spectacular.  There are many delightful and whimsical surprises and much excellent puppetry to b enjoyed. 

Great show for children from about eight to the grandparents.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - This is Beautiful

This is Beautiful

Presented by Public Studio

For the Malthouse Helium series

Tower Theatre

19 July – 3 August 2013

Ming-Zhu Hii: Director, Producer, Co-Creator, Text wrangler, Design Co-Concept, Cinematographer, Post-Production

Nicholas Coghlan: Assistant Director, Co-Creator, Cinematographer, Post-Production, Stage & Production Management

Anabelle Lacroix: Associate Producer/Epilogue Curator

Glyn Roberts: Dramaturg

Melanie Liertz: Design Co-Concept, Stet Design Realisation, Costume Designer

Damien McLean: Lighting Designer

Russell Goldsmith: Sound Designer

Raya Slavin: Associate Sound Designer

Performers: Jang-Xuan Chan, Pier Carthew, Terry Yeboah

This is Beautiful is a hauntingly rich, sensual and fascinating new hybrid performance art/multi media piece.

It is a precise and skillfully crafted, highly collaborative work that, on one level, questions perceptions of beauty, love and narcissism and on another, perhaps more primal visual level, is about those old profundities - sex, life and death.

The audience enters into the Tower space to sits in front of what could be a table or a coffin that is beautifully and lavishly decorated with vegetation and fruit.  The light is very low and objects such as huge shards of stone, are hazy silhouettes.

Three screens light up with images of plastic sheeting, from which eventually emerges a human face. Although the same projection is on each screen there is a variation of impression due to perspective.  Images of skin, flesh, bodies and faces are variously projected.  A fairly low-pitched sound scape (Russell Goldsmith), with an industrial edge, exquisitely accompanies images to significant and surprising effect.  Light is manipulated masterfully by Damien McLean.

Early on, from statues like stone sphinxes the three actors, Jing-Xuan Dhan, Pier Carthew and Terry Yeboah, emerge and speak.  If there is a weakness in the presentation it is that at times Actors voices are not properly taken into consideration and other sound levels are not always suitably moderated to accommodate the human voice.  Though I imagine this would have been picked up and ironed out since opening night by the expert production team.

At each performance an epilogue from a selection of various artists is an additional treat.  Zoe Scoglio’s highly complimentary Rock Bodies 2 was presented on opening night and will be repeated on closing night.

This is Beautiful is a short weighty, ponderous and intense experience that positions humans in an infinite timelessness and wonders from a youthful perspective. 

The conjecture of meaning will be a personal response.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Ubu Roi

Ubu Roi

By Alfred Jarry

5pound theatre

Directed by Jason Cavanagh

Performers:

Nicholas Dubberly – Papa Ubu

Susannah Firth – Queen Rosamund/Ensemble

Any Jones – Mama Ubu

Colin Craig – Buggerlas/Ensemble

Anthony Okill – King Wenceslas/Ensemble

Andi Snelling – Captain Bordure/Ensemble

Designer – Mattea Davies

Sound Designer – Tim Wotherspoon

5pound theatre is offering the opportunity to view a classic we seldom get the chance to see.  As yet another adventurous gamble from this troupe, who never seem to ‘take themselves too seriously’ it is a raucous engaging messy romp. 

Adapted from an ancient work by Alfred Jarry Ubu Roi is an Absurdist piece that lends itself to Theatre of Cruelty.   Therefore - what a great choice to stage it on a set of mud in front of an evocative fading mural reminiscent of a cave paintings designed by Mattea Davies.

The story is commences with a spry, spunky and dogged Mama Ubu (Amy Jones) goading and convincing childish and suggestible Papa Ubu (Nicholas Dubberly) to kill the King and assume power with all its trappings. Not an unfamiliar story.  Subterranean carnage, driven by greed, lust and hunger for power and control, informs the action and narrative at every turn.  At times atmosphere is created by Tim Witherspoon’s sound design of dripping water in a cavernous space - redolent of a prehistoric environment.

Directed with a light and humorous touch by Jason Cavanagh Ubu Roi will incubate and grow over the next two weeks into something really worth catching.  The show not the mud – that is!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Domino

Domino

By Giuliano Ferla

Domino

By Giuliano Ferla

Presented by Attic Erratic

Director – Danny Delahunty

Set - Laura Harris

Performers

Alex Duncan – Prof

Joseph Green – Doc

Kane Felsinger – Skoll

Matt Hickey – Polly

Spencer Scholz - Gen

The Convent Abbotsford

18 to 29 June 2013

Well produced in a great found space at the lively hub of the Convent Abbotsford and playing to good size houses of interesting contemporary audiences Domino is a promising and challenging work that seems to just (frustratingly) miss the mark.

As a story it has the drive of an epic Myth or Fairy Tale.  However the work as a whole it is not clearly enough structured or delineated to make adequate sense for an audience who display their frustration by becoming restless in the last 20 to 15 minutes of the performance. 

At times the writing is startlingly satisfying then it falls.  This work requires more cohesion of concept through a deeper understanding by the Director and Actors of what the Writer is trying to say.  The Writer needs a more focused commitment to what he is trying to get at and some advice on editing.

When it works in the use of cut off words the text is exciting and inspiring however it is so uneven that as soon a one is swept away by how it operates bang – one is slapped back down to earth again with verbose banality.

A sort of fairy tale ambiguity is tendered by the set (Laura Harris). It could be and ‘men’s shed’ containing the shack from King Lear, a cubby house of a stable for a Nativity scene.  This liberally allows for a variety of interpretations. 

All five performers are strong and able, though there is some considerable vocal pushing - which infers a lack of confidence.   Although there are a number of startling moments of change and much rich characterization more directorial imput is required to refine and focus the work of the actors. 

The use of basic unpainted mod-rock masks smacks of the Drama classroom not a public performance.

Every aspect of this production is strong and and loaded with potential though it does not pull together into a coherent whole and ends up being less than the sum of its parts.  It is more like a work in progress than a fully realized production.  This suggests an inexperienced directorial eye (we all have to start somewhere).  To unlock this text productively it needs an experienced director/dramaturge to workshop with writer, director, dramaturge, and actors - to strip back the text and express the essence of the original idea with courage and aplomb.  

Well produced in a great found space at the lively hub of the Convent Abbotsford and playing to good size houses of interesting contemporary audiences Domino is a promising and challenging work that seems to just (frustratingly) miss the mark.

As a story it has the drive of an epic Myth or Fairy Tale.  However the work as a whole it is not clearly enough structured or delineated to make adequate sense for an audience who display their frustration by becoming restless in the last 20 to 15 minutes of the performance. 

At times the writing is startlingly satisfying then it falls.  This work requires more cohesion of concept through a deeper understanding by the Director and Actors of what the Writer is trying to say.  The Writer needs a more focused commitment to what he is trying to get at and some advice on editing.

When it works in the use of cut off words the text is exciting and inspiring however it is so uneven that as soon a one is swept away by how it operates bang – one is slapped back down to earth again with verbose banality.

A sort of fairy tale ambiguity is tendered by the set (Laura Harris). It could be and ‘men’s shed’ containing the shack from King Lear, a cubby house of a stable for a Nativity scene.  This liberally allows for a variety of interpretations. 

All five performers are strong and able, though there is some considerable vocal pushing - which infers a lack of confidence.   Although there are a number of startling moments of change and much rich characterization more directorial imput is required to refine and focus the work of the actors. 

The use of basic unpainted mod-rock masks smacks of the Drama classroom not a public performance.

Every aspect of this production is strong and and loaded with potential though it does not pull together into a coherent whole and ends up being less than the sum of its parts.  It is more like a work in progress than a fully realized production.  This suggests an inexperienced directorial eye (we all have to start somewhere).  To unlock this text productively it needs an experienced director/dramaturge to workshop with writer, director, dramaturge, and actors - to strip back the text and express the essence of the original idea with courage and aplomb.  

To present Domino convincingly the actors would need to undergo intense physical and vocal workshops to better equip them to credibly play humans in a post-apocalyptic age.

Challenging and valiant but naive work.

(For Stage Whispers – but unpublished)

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)