Review - Longing Lasts Longer

Penny Arcade

Longing Lasts Longer (USA)

Melbourne Comedy Festival

The Famous Spiegeltent at Arts Centre Melbourne

Until 3 April at 7pm Tuesday to Saturday and 6pm Sunday – 70 mins

Penny Arcade is back and her show at the Spiegeltent Longing Lasts Longer is surely the hot ticket of the Comedy Festival! But be warned it is for the thinking punter who enjoys confrontational ideas.  See it if you have a genuine interest in cultural change, adaptation, the curved balls life throws at us and you really do have a sense of humour because at times it is shockingly forthright.

Ms Arcade is a lively early sixty something – going on forty.  She is such a sincere entertainer who communicates from the heart, but, as a ‘gutsy gal who has been round the block a number of times’ she is not afraid to tell it like it is.

As a woman, who lived on the cutting edge of the sixties and seventies, Arcade, looks just like a cuddly cupie doll in a cute redress but don’t let that fool you - her show is full of keen insights and acute invective – she’s sharp. 

Over the past couple of decades Penny Arcade who’s real name is Susana Carmen Ventura has been presenting her amazing show Bitch! Dyke! Fag Hag! Whore! to lucky audiences all over the world.  And now Daniel Clarke has pulled strings to bring her to Melbourne for this year’s Comedy Festival. 

Ok this show isn’t for everyone.  It bashes away at some of our ‘holy cows.’  She is particularly offended by, and hostile about, gentrification.  She articulates some very strong and striking home truths about a number of things including male homosexuality.  She hammers Brisbane and suggests that Melbourne’s beautiful young women would ‘strut around’ in Ugg-boots, if you could strut around in Ugg-boots.  Really not in Australia’s cultural capital!

She expresses the deep disturbing horror of losing a huge number of friends to the AIDs virus and the humiliating difficulties of not being able to maintain an enduring romantic relationship.  She is nothing if not courageous and vital.

This reviewer found her show wonderfully affirming, deeply funny and insightful, and yes, - a bit like a motivational talk full of belly laughs and an anthem to gleaning wisdom as one ages. 

Other shows pale into insignificance.

Don’t miss it if you can get a ticket!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Footnote:  I feel like I was pulled backwards through a wringer to be totally affirmed.  This woman is amazing.

Review - Blind

Blind

By Black Hole Theatre and DudaPaiva Company

Concept/Script – Nancy Black and Duda Paiva

Director – Nancy Black

Lighting Design – Mark Verhoef

Sound Design and Composer – Wilco Alkema

Performer - Duda Paiva

Theatre Works

8 – 19 March 2016

From go to whoa this wonderful ‘grownups’ puppet show is a rich rewarding delight.  Funny and even ‘laugh out loud’ to start with, Blind is a marvelous and often tantalizingly surprising journey.  Master puppeteer and artist Duda Paiva in communion with, through breathing life and voice into, his exquisite delicate puppets - delights his audience.

Paiva is a charismatic, consummate, relaxed and spontaneous performer who engages with disarming sincerity. 

The work created in collaboration with Director Nancy Black is predicated on experiences of childhood illness and blindness from which Paiva recovered. 

As a trained dancer Paiva moves with wonderful contorted and controlled extensions.

Sound (Wilco Alkema) is usually subtle and underpins with a pervading sense of mystery and Lighting (Mark Verhoef) serves the piece beautifully.

Like the murky underbelly of a very old fairytale Blind seems to to be a tricky, to the death, tussle between good and evil that rewards partly through catharsis and partly through wonder at its uniqueness.  It is a work about healing on a deep shamanistic level that allows one to tap into the inner child’s sense of curiosity and, leaves one feeling elevated and joyful.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers) 

Review - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

By Jay Presson Allen

Adapted from the novel by Muriel Spark

Directed by Andrew Meldrum

Producer – Allie Clare

Assistant Director – Kath Addicoat

Costumes – Kath Addicoat

Lighting Design – Roger Farley

Sound Design – Russell Servis

Cast:  Karen Hunt, David Runnalls, Andrew Walker, Christine Walker, Cherry Servis, Mike de Jong, Alex Mc Murray, Pam Lenders, Julia Santamaria, Amber Hemmes, Isobel walker, Tilly Munro-Lawrence, Grace Sullivan, Madison Galea, Casey Dzesa, Emily Clare Cousins, Laura Crozier and Tilly Snell.

Playing February/March 2016

Season Finished

This is such an interesting and complex play that can be accessed on a number of levels.  Above all it is fascinating and entertaining story that is certainly worth catching – if you are not too far from Macedon.

It is comfortably presented and beautifully produced (Allie Clare) on Jubilee Hall’s lovely deep stage by resident Theatre Company Mt Players.

Set in a private girls’ school in England, and spanning from early 1931 to the time of the Spanish War, it delves into a number of concerns.  The original book, that one assumes, is full of the feminist, moral and religious arguments of the time, was written by Muriel Spark and first published in 1968.  The highly successful play was adapted by Jay Presson Allen and staged soon after that.  The mores are of a bygone era, but not the issues of protecting the young and naïve, maintaining appropriate boundaries between teacher and pupil and the very deep emotional and psychological damage of betrayal.

A kind of a hologram, Miss Jean Brodie is an amazingly unconventional wonderfully caring and connected teacher.  She exudes the allure of a woman who lives a life of romantic illusion and has the charm of someone who can be daringly reckless.  Sometimes she seems to be inappropriately manipulative as she draws ‘her girls’ too deeply into her personal life.  At the same time she is a true teacher who understands and nurtures each in her care, as a revered individual.  Maggie Smith starred in the film of 1969 and won a best actor Oscar for the role.

Brodie is a complex multi faceted person with faults of self-indulgence that are palpable.   But no matter what, she must be played as charismatic and lovable for the play to make ultimate sense.  Ideally her wild and daring nature should appeal to the adolescent in us all.

The very refined and competent acting skills of the cast and relaxed clever Directing by Andrew Meldrum go along way to making this production the great success it is.  

Relationships and character journeys are beautifully drawn and presented convincingly.   Most impressive is the work of Karen Hunt as Miss Jean Brodie, David Runnalls as Teddy Lloyd and Julia Santamaria as Sandy.  Hunt confidently embodies the ‘larger than life’ character of Brody.  Lloyd engages very positively with other actors particularly through mastering a good fast and lively tempo that is infectious.  Santamaria has a lovely transparent, perhaps naïve style that goes a long way in allowing the audience to understand Sandy’s emotional experience and catastrophic decisions.

As the School’s Principal Miss McKay, Christine Walker exhibits just the right amount of principled control and manages a very telling nervous twitch when dressing Brodie down.

Cherry Servis as Sister Helena and Mike de Jong as Mr. Perry endorse and support the story skillfully in their framing roles.   And all other actors very competently and charmingly embody their characters.  They are all, without exception, to be congratulated.

Kath Addicoat had done well finding appropriate and unobtrusive costumes that support and don’t scream out look at me.  

And in response to the Director’s notes in the program, yes, this interesting and thought provoking play did entertain me.  Not only that but it left me with a lot to mull over.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - The Boys

The Boys

By Gordon Graham

Directed by Luci Klendo

Co-Producers – Linda Cookson Zilinskas and Vlady T

Production Manager and Lighting Design – Rebecca Fortuna

Cast:

Michelle – Rebecca Fortuna

Brett – Michael Shanahan

Sandra – Linda Cookson

Glen – Ben Taylor

Jackie – Heidi Lupprian

Steve – Malachi Grimsley

Nola – Lucy Orr

Gasworks 90 Graham Street Albert Park

10 – 20 February – playing Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm

This extraordinarily perceptive text by Gordon Graham is being thoroughly honored by Nice Productions exemplary staging in the comfortable Studio Theatre at Gas Works.

As a rare and illuminating opportunity, to see what Stephen Sewell based his remarkable screenplay for the powerful and haunting (1998) film The Boys, on, it is not to be missed.    

All characters are well cast and the troupe of actors works as a well-oiled ensemble.  Direction (Luci Klendo) is probing and displays an honest clarity that allows for gritty truths to be framed and therefore satisfyingly observed. 

It is partly a domestic drama set in the home - a family house and garden.  This particular staging allows for really smooth transitions. 

On one level the story is about a Mother, her three sons and their girlfriends.  But really it is a very telling exploration of the frightening sociopathic black heart of misogyny that is ever present in our community.

All actors embody their characters.  Linda Cookson as Sandra the mother exudes a cloying controlling maternal love.  As Stevie’s new, naive and pregnant addition to the clan, Nola (Lucy Orr), is a haunting presence.  Malachi Grimsley as a trained dancer creates a jerky wonderfully physically realized Stevie.

As the long suffering Michelle, Brett’s girlfriend, who seems to be able to hang in there no matter what (probably in a large part due to Sandra’s vigilant support) Rebecca Fortuna brings a lovely energy and vitality.  Michael Shanahan displays the volatile pent up hate and craziness required to the pivotal character of Brett who has just been released from prison.

Ben Taylor is a strong handsome stoic presence as Glenn who is really working overtime to satisfy the conflicting expectations of his girlfriend Jackie and his brothers Brett and Stevie.  For me there is just that extra little edge of sharpness in Heidi Lupprian’s work as the vulnerable yet smart Jackie.

This is a short season – closing on the 20^th of January.  I was surprised that the opening night wasn’t papered and full.  If it had been, I reckon, word of mouth would have filled the studio on ensuing nights.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Inferno

Inferno a double bill

4^th to 14 February 2016

Crestfall

by Mark O’Rowe

Directed by Jayde Kirchert

Cast:

Freya Pragt as Olive Day

Marissa O’Reilly as Alison Ellis

Marissa Bennett as Tilly McQuarie

Lighting – Peter Amesbury

Sound Design – Chris O'Neill

Purgatorio

by Ariel Dorfman

Directed by Celeste Cody

Cast:

Woman – Freya Pragt

Man – Jason Cavanagh

Other members of the production team deserve complements:  Jade Kirchert as producer, Janel Gibson – Stage Manager, Fiona Spitzkowsky – Production Manager for Purgatorio and the two interns Stephanie Clare-Clover and Alexandra Suttie.

Masterful theatre; both works in Inferno, Crestfall and Purgatorio are beautifully and skillfully produced by Citizen Theatre.  These strong offerings are the culmination of carefully considered work by skilled, hardworking theatre practitioners.  The upshot is very polished ‘poor’ theatre of high quality.

For the audience the atmosphere created at is welcoming and comfortable.

However the material is rich and confronting:

Crestfall is made up of three monologues from three female characters describing aspects of their unfortunate, troubled, tormented and harsh intertwined lives.  The heightened poetic language and imagery describes their dissolute and difficult existences.  At times it is reminiscent of Patricia Cornelius’s perceptive and confronting play Slut.

Frey Pragt and her strong bold character Olive Day open this piece.   She describes the difficult events in her brutal life with urgency.  She is a delight to watch and listen to as she immerses herself in the trials and torments of a proud but compromised woman fighting for survival.

The language used is very strong and descriptions of sex and violence extremely graphic.  Mastering this material is no mean feat and Pragt does an exemplary job.

Sound by Chris O'Neill is very subtle.

She is followed by Marissa O’Reilly as Alison Ellis whose energy and commitment to role and character beautifully endorses and extends what has been set up.  The last monologue is the culmination of the story.  Finally Tilly McQuarrie played by Marissa Bennett experiences the most positive outcome.  She receives something of a windfall.  Or perhaps she is just younger, fitter and fresher than the other downtrodden spirits.  The material is fascinating and bemusing and performances are highly engaging.  Although Marissa Bennett (an interesting and charismatic performer) would do well to attend some intensive vocal workshops to further enhance her skill base.

In Purgatorio Frey Pragt and Jason Cavanagh are a well-matched pair of actors.  Both are acutely focused and wholly engaged and able to work with nuance and subtlety in response to each-other.  

Before watching this work it would probably helpful to acquaint or re-acquaint ones-self with the story of Medea and Jason as Purgatorio is about the unresolved torment in the damage done through their cruel treatment of each other.  More and more we are hearing reports of infanticide happening around us and there always seems to be a production of Medea popping up somewhere, not surprisingly.

There is a rich humanity in this work – it attempts to extrude some reason from Medea’s horrifying actions. 

I can’t really recommend Inferno highly enough as the work of dedicated, truly talented, inspiring theatre makers who have the capacity and energy to work on a ‘shoe-string’ budget to produce rich rewarding outcomes!

Very strong material indeed.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)