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)

Review - Last Man Standing

MTC Presents:

The Last Man Standing

By Steve Vizard

Music by Paul Grabowsky

Cast:  Clarry Flint – Peter Carroll, Ensemble – Nick Eynaud, Captain Skurry – Esther Hannaford, Doctor Morgan Cockburn - Simon Maiden, Colonel Raymond Hope – William McInnes, The Man – Jensen Overend, Ensemble – Monica Swayne, Elliot Fontana/Cam – Toby Truslove, The Minister for Defence – Nicki Wendt, Rachel Wiley – Alison Whyte, Violin – Ed Antonov

Director Roger Hodgman

Musical Director – Andrew Patterson

Set and Costume Designer – Richard Roberts

Lighting Designer - Matt Scott

Choreographer – Dana Jolly

Sumner Theatre - 6 November - 12 December 2015

The Last Man Standing is a rich opportunity to laugh, and laugh a lot, at the satirizing of one of our most treasured ‘holy cows’.  It is a motely, mottled mix of thoughts and ideas surrounding Anzac Day and our ever-burgeoning reverence, for it.  

Photo - Jeff Busby

Writer Steve Vizard has gathered Anzac Day motifs and created a pretty wacky scenario pertaining to the creation of a unique Ausi variety concert (V. C.).  It would seem this be being done to further galvanize the community through celebrating the disastrous and devastating contribution of our forces at Anzac Cove.   And yep there are puns aplenty.

Musically it has many of the best the hallmarks of Paul Grabowsky’s significant talent; subtle, mellow, moving and with songs that fit actors like gloves and support their particular skills and personal tones.  Some of the music is prerecorded but most is played live by violinist Ed Antonov and Andrew Patterson, who is the Musical Director, on the piano. 

At its heart The Last Man Standing reminds us we have fallen under a spell of politically driven hype and glorification of war.  Somehow we have been able to ignore or cover over the toxic personal and social costs endured over the last century.  And the homage we are now paying to Anzac day is further venerating human sacrifice and in doing so masking the personal and cultural damage experienced.

However – vitally - this timely reminder is encased in a light and engaging narrative that sweeps joyfully along.

Vizard, ultimately, encourages us to look at soldiers as real and flawed people who have been put in impossible situations, from which they have emerged deeply scared.

Photo - Jeff Busby

The Last Man Standing is beautifully cast with actors we have come to admire and love; lead by Peter Carroll who is an extraordinary tour de force.   He is the ‘last man’ Clarry Flint a survivor of Gallipoli.  Carroll is one of those inspired actors who can fill a parody with complex believable characteristics and reach out from behind the proscenium to make an intimate connection with his audience.  William McInnes as Colonel Raymond Hope the Bull of Kabul embodies our stuffy masculine, military past all respectability and suppression. 

Nicki Wendt portrays a Minister for Defence, (and a number of other difficult portfolios), with very convincing aplomb.  Alison Whyte as Rachael Wiley the producer’s producer. Toby Truslove shines as the master of ceremonies at the concluding spoof of a variety show.

Lighting by Matt Scott is mixed – sometimes shadowy, sometimes sharp and at times very consciously adding to emotional atmosphere and then at other times not particularly noticeable.  This seems to match the jumbled atmosphere of the whole that is inspired by the narrative and reinforced by the flowing Direction of Roger Hodgman and the efficient use of the revolving stage.

Photo - Jeff Busby

This first production of The Last Man Standing is a big, broad and confident, and as expected, a delightfully funny work about who we are as Australian’s in relation to conservative popular culture and our reverence for Anzac Day.  Satisfyingly it also has the capacity to move and engage on a more intimate and personalized level.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Someone Like Thomas Banks

Someone Like Thomas Banks

Thomas Banks – Writer/Performer

Lucy Freeman – Director

Gayelene Carbis – Writer

Nina Barry-Macaulay – Dramaturge

Canada White – Stage Manager, Set Designer, “Lorraine”

Scott Allen – Lighting Design

Lynn Gordon – Auslan Interpreter

45 Downstairs – until November 8 2015

Someone Like Thomas Banks is a wonderful unique opportunity to be offered insight into the complex life of an earnest, intelligent and astute young man with Cerebral Palsy.  It is a moving and joyful work that celebrates difference and highlights the need for more disability friendly Theatre.

Photo - Gemma Osmond

It may be a bit tricky to understand exactly what Thomas Banks is saying, at times, when he is talking, but he kindly suggests that we don’t worry to much because most of what he is trying to communicate will be made clear - and it is.

There is Auslan translation throughout allowing for easy engagement by members of the Deaf community and those who understand Australia’s very own language for the Deaf.

Banks uses a number of methods of to get his message across.  Multi-media, including an interactive video is used to great, clarifying effect.

This show courageously delves into the wishes and desires of a young gay man.  But in a more universal sense will touch anyone who has hoped for the elusive attainment of a sexual partner to love and sleep next to.   It is poignant.

Someone Like Thomas Banks has been developed over time with Director Lucy Freeman from its inception as part of the Platform Youth Theatre 2010 Provokateur project.   It honors the disabled in many ways including providing a disabled entrance to 45 Downstairs which offered quite and adventure in feeling vulnerable and a little on edge walking through darkened laneways to get to the ground floor performance space without the use of stairs.

Photo - Gemma Osmond

Banks who is many things including a proactive champion for disability recently had my table cleared at Malthouse and engaged my companion and I in conversation about what we were going to see.   He is very obviously a dynamic young theatre devotee.

He involves audience members an in this way adds another echelon of understanding most particularly the realization that one may need to slow down a bit and just take a little more time and effort to listen sometimes to fully understand what is being said.

This wonderful and cleverly managed show is well worth catching – don’t be sorry you missed it. 

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)