Review - The Events

The Events

By David Greig

A co production with Belvoir and State SA Theatre Company

Direction – Claire Watson

Cast Includes Johnny Carr and Catherine McClements

Set and Lighting Designer - Geoff Cobham

Musical Director – Luke Byrne

Composer – John Browne

Malthouse Theatre

21 June – 10 July 2016

Johnny Carr and Catherine McClements - Photo Pia Johnson

The Events, is a fictional story set in a small Scottish town, written by Scottish Playwright David Greig in response to the 2011 mass shoot in Norway.  This intelligent, skillful work is a testament to Greig’s capacity for deeply interrogating difficult and profound subject matter.  

Greig’s protagonist Claire a Vicar has the humanity, courage and deep spiritual need to confront and understand what has happening to her ‘flock’ after a murderous attack on her choir.

As Claire Catherine McClements a deeply perceptive, intuitive and seasoned performer is able to shine light on the many complex responses from being intimately affected by the profound and irrevocable experience of a massacre.

McClements is a wonderfully available and accessible actor.  Her performance, conveying the thought processes and roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows, is insightful and unaffectedly nuanced as she processes coming to terms with the unholy act of mass murder and its consequences.  She intricately handles the exposition of the voice of reason in a totally unreasonable and devastating situation. 

The direction by Claire Watson is measured and clear.  Ms. Watson, guided by the writing, does not attempt to tug on heartstrings or take the moral high ground.  She allows the various thoughts, arguments and at times overwhelming anxieties to be expressed and witnessed.   As observers we take the journey with Claire.

Catherine McClements and Johnny Carr
by Pia Johnson

The audience is included most specifically at the start when it would seem that a latecomer is being called in and involved.   As with the theme of community and a Minister and her flock this man, the offender a mass murderer, comes from amongst us.  Actor Johnny Carr whose work is satisfying and appropriate within the whole plays him, along with a number of other characters.

This is cerebral Theatre, which although moving, does not illicit visceral engagement.  As audience one feels removed and safe to engage only as far as able.  This is partly due to the staging, which would need to be more adventurous and destabilizing to really let the viewer into the potent distress.

Simple set changes are made to the community hall to designate various environments.  This reminds me of classroom performances. 

The Choir sang so movingly on opening night as doubtless all the chosen choirs, a different on each evening, will sing.  Members of the choir also double as players in the story and questing members of the public.  The story is about a choir and the choir frames the whole. 

It takes a foolhardy spirit and a load of courage to work on Theatre about contemporary disasters.  The difficult question is, how long, as ‘breathing time’ is needed between actual events and their dramatic reinvention and presentation to result in ‘good theatre’?  How long is a piece of string?  Maybe?

If you were fearful of seeing this one because it might be too distressing don’t be.  It radiates a massive sense of humanity and poignancy and one feels kind of removed – maybe even uplifted due to the singing and sense of community.  And Catherine McClement’s performance is not to be missed!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Xanadu

Directed by Julie Paice

Musical Director – Jem Sherwill

Choreographer – Donna Johnston

Producer - Amanda Watson

Band:  Keyboard – Jam Sherwill, Bass Guitar/Double Bass – Peter Cocklin, Drums – Con Mah, Guitar – Sophie Cox, Trumpet – Darren Milligan, Tenor Saxophone/Clarinet – Lucy Harrison, Keyboard/Alto Saxophone/Trombone/Flute – Sue Morris

Cast:  Bethany Foletta, Ray Maddocks, Jarrod Catt, Casey Withoos, Felicity Legg, Eve Lynch, Liana Petruccelli, Nikita Scott, Jess Ryan, Lauren Smedley, Melissa Barclay, Alex McMurray, Pam Lenders, Marie Darmos, Wade Dinning Nicholas Bingham, Jacob Elliott, Jenny Vanderzweep, Caitlin Bush, Nicole Chappell, Louise McLay, Amber Hemmes, Pennie Hume, Suzy Sliwczynski, Brooke Moorehouse, Liam Tran.

Mt View Theatre

Until June 4 - 2016

Xanadu is surprisingly cheeky, fully of jokes and has an edge of witty irony.  This production, featuring a vibrant cast of mixed ages and talents, has been skillfully brought together by Director Julie Paice.   There is never a dull moment. 

It is based on the 1980s film that was apparently a box office flop but the memorable soundtrack was understandably a big success with songs such as ‘Magic’, ‘Suddenly’ and ‘Xanadu’ that were performed by Olivia Newton-John and The Electric Light Orchestra. 

This fun and very funny production opens on a delightful painting by Marg Mulheim projected onto a scrim, behind which, an extremely tight and exhilarating band headed by Jem Sherwill plays the overture with aplomb. 

When the scrim is lifted we are introduced to nine gorgeous Muses and the magical scene is set through a strikingly hand drawn Mural of Mt Olympia by highly respected local artist Robert Wallace.

The basic narrative is about forbidden love.  It is premised on a theory that Muses are expected to inspire human artists but are prohibited to fall in love with them.   However Clio/Kira the Olivia Newton-John role, played here by Bethany Foletta, seems unable to avoid Cupid’s arrow.

Choreographer Donna Johnston works with 80s themes to and elicits  excellent work from all performers who, universally, appear to be comfortable and happy when dancing.  The dance ensemble of Jess Ryan, Melissa Barclay, Nicole Chappell, Suzy Sliwczynski, Brooke Moorehouse and Caitlin Bush is a particularly impressive testament to some of the great dance schools in the local area and Ms. Johnston’s choreography.  And the tap routine of a flashback to the Air force of the 40s (The Andrew’s Sisters routine) is impressive and really enjoyable for the audience.

Liana Petruccelli and Nikita Scott are standout performers as Euterpe the Muse of Music and Irato the Muse of Lyrics and Erotica respectively.  Petruccelli gives a lovely ‘centered’ performance and Scott has a divine singing voice.

Felicity Legg as Calliope the Muse of Epics and most particularly Casey as the Muse of Tragedy ‘steal the show’ with their clear characterization and strong resonant singing voices.  They are a delight to watch and hear.

 

The two young leads, Bethany Foletta (Clio/Kira) and Roy Maddocks as Sonny Malone are appealing young performers who look perfect for the roles.  They are both ‘great movers’ - who would now do well to, breath deeply and, let it rip as far as their singing is concerned. 

Jarrod Catt makes an awesome Danny Maguire.  His singing and dancing is very cool and characterization spot on.  He has some great lines like; “Nothing turns around a crappy neighbourhood like the arts.”

One thought I had whilst watching this show, was concerning our contemporary approach of having directors pass shows over to stage managers and let them go on opening night.  I know directors who tighten and polish their work as the season is progressing.  In amateur theatre I think this could be good as young performers gain in confidence form being appreciated by an audience.  Therefore a few performances into a run much more can be drawn out of them and timing can be tightened because they are over the anxiety of opening.

It is always a treat to attend shows at Mountview Theatre where the atmosphere is generous warm and inclusive.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

By Tennessee Williams

Directed by Eamon Flack

Jim O’Connor – Harry Greenwood

Tom Wingfield – Luke Mullins

Amanda Wingfield – Pamela Rabe

Laura Wingfield – Rose Riley

Video Design Consultant – Sean Bacon

Lighting Designer – Damien Cooper

Composer and Sound Design – Stefan Gregory

Set Designer – Michael Hankin

Costume Designer – Mel Page

Merlyn Theatre – Malthouse

18 May to 5 June 2016

This Belvoir Street production of The Glass Menagerie is not for the faint hearted it is long and robust, contemporary and acutely perceptive.

As the quasi-autobiographical ‘Memory Play,’ of Tennessee Williams’s early adult life in a small apartment with his deluded mother and vulnerable fragile sister, with whom he felt a deep connection, is especially revealing. 

Although Tom, the Williams character, is able to walk away into another life it is an era when women had limited options.  So the only respectable way out of a dysfunctional family setting for daughter Laura is through marriage.   However due to social isolation and desperate shyness and a mild disability she has no mobility and is doomed to spinsterhood.   And yet there is a poignant glimmer of hope.

Interesting choices have been made around characterization.  Rose Riley plays Laura in a lovely open way - using a natural voice and unapologetic physical presence.  Riley’s Laura exhibits some startling, deeply disturbing and telling behavioral traits.

Harry Greenwood plays Jim O’Connor, the gentleman visitor, with sympathetic self-awareness.  He doesn’t overtly express any sense of repulsion that his character might be feeling towards Amanda and Laura and the smothering situation in which he finds himself.  This adds a rich dimension to the second act and the touching scene between Laura and the gentleman caller that is delightful staged and enhanced by marvelous lighting  (Damien Cooper).

As Tom Wingfield Luke Mullins shines.  He brings the audience in to his world with the seemingly effortless charm of Tennessee Williams.  He moves fluidly in and around the apartment through windows, doors and curtains, documenting all the while - particularly through the setting of cameras. 

Pamela Rabe’s characterization of the stifling, disturbed Mother Amanda is inescapably larger than life.  She is a grand puppet master – with invisible strings jerking at her children’s emotional well being.  There is an uncanny sense that the set (Michael Hankin) is a little smaller than a real life apartment and has something of a dolls house about it.   Rabe’s Amanda fills and dominates this space.  Sometimes what she mutters seems almost indistinguishable as though she is not fully expecting her children to be listening to her. 

Desperation and insecurity imbues this archetypal ‘Southern Bell’ who has been rejected and escaped by a philandering husband.   She is left with two very sensitive adult children with whom a dance of crippling codependency takes hold.  Ambivalence reigns and emotional blackmail abounds.  It has the potential to touch any raw nerve of familial dysfunction in the viewer.

As director Eamon Flack has elicited very strong choices from his cast and creatives that allows for a truly insightful production highlighting isolation, vulnerability and replacing some of the pathos usually emphasized with a contemporary sense of angst, even anger.   

One could be forgiven for thinking that Flack has imposed a contemporary post –modern sensibility on this staging through a use of multi media.  However nothing could be further from the truth as a great many of the stage directions and particularly the use of filmic projections are specified in the text.

Beautiful rich melodies transport the audience from scene to scene thanks to sound designer Stefan Gregory.

Mel Page’s costuming is great including having Amanda wear a man’s dressing gown and a dress that she has definitely grown out of  - with a zip on the back that doesn’t fully do up.

Tennessee Williams is truly honoured through this insightful production.

Suzanne Sandow
(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Tales of a City by the Sea

Tales of a City by the Sea

By Samah Sabawi

Original Direction – Lech Mackiewicz

Remount Direction – Wahibe Moussa

Set Design Lara Week

Lighting Design – Shane Grant

Sound Design - Khaled Sabsabi

Producer - Daniel Clarke

 

Cast

Jomana – Helana Sawires

Rami - Osamah Sami

Lama/Relative at Hospital – Emina Ashman

Ali – Reece Valla

Abu Ahamad/Relative at Hospital – Alex Pinder

Samira/Relative at Hospital/Wedding Guest – Rebecca Morton

Nurse/Um Ahmad/Security/Mother – Cara Whitehouse

Singer – Asell Tayah

Mohanad/Security/Father/Wedding Guest – Ubaldino Mantelli

La Mama Courthouse

May 11 – 29, 2016

(Part of the 2016 VCE Drama Playlist)

An excellent ensemble of multicultural performers work closely together to draw together and express the story of star crossed lovers who are both, perhaps a little surprisingly, Palestinian.

He, Rami (Osamah Sami) is a doctor who runs a medical clinic in the USA and she, Jomana (Helana Sawires) a journalist who was born and raised in the Shanti (beach) Refugee Camp in Gaza.  He comes and goes into this volatile site of the bitter struggle of the siege of Gaza that took place in 2008.  They are just like young lovers from anywhere and any culture. 

It is not a story of conflict, of brutal ingrained enmity between Israeli and Palestinian but a story of romantic love with a backdrop of engrained enmity that’s conflict extends into every nook and cranny of life. 

This poetic production is framed with the glorious haunting Arabic songs sung by Aseel Tayah who is dressed in traditional costume.   And staged on a set (Lara Week) of curtains (apparently made of sheets) that allow for a flow of expressive imagery and the creation of potentially unlimited environments.  The sea is a very strong motif as emphasized through sound as designed by Khaled Sabsabi.

As a piece of theatre it has an engaging and engrossing through its linear narrative and all performances honor the writing that is glistening poetry at times.

Generous nurturing direction by debuting director Wahibe Moussa, with an emphasis on emotional sincerity that is at times frustratingly static, supports the poetic nature of Samah Sabawi’s writing and endorses clarity.  Perhaps with some more time, inventive and adventurous, risks in staging could have been played with and incorporated.

This is a work that all creative artists, cast and La Mama should feel great pride in bringing to a Melbourne audience - particularly in view of any controversy drawn from where the story is set and the wonderful mix of multicultural performers.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)