Review - Personal

Personal

Artistic Director/Writer/Performer

Jodee Mundy

Director – Merophie Carr

Design – Jen Hector

Sound – Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey

Video – Rhian Hinkley

Movement Consultant – Jo Dunbar

Script Consultant – Sandra Fiona Long

Auslan Translation Consultant – Gavin Rose-Mundy

Arts House – North Melbourne

April 24 to 29 2018

Personal by Jodee Mundy is an acute insight into some of the strains and joys of being a ‘CODA’ – a hearing child born to a deaf adult/parents/into a deaf family.

As a short but intense 60 minutes of theatre it frames, elucidates and distills this experience, on a very personal yet totally relatable to level, for a mixed audience of deaf and hearing.  This rewarding compelling work brings deaf and hearing a little closer together both literally and through its delicate and sharp insights - crisply and clearly presented.

Personal feels like an especially liberating opportunity for creator/performer Jodee Mundy to communicate her experience through both her spoken language English and signed language Auslan.   With her beautiful physicality as a trained mime artist, her pleasingly modulated voice and command of Auslan she delights her audience.  Throughout the work what is signed is spoken as well, or interpreted through subtext.  Mundy’s experience - so very expressively communicated, often with cheeky witty nuances, is accessible to all.

Personal is the sum of a number of aspects of Mundy’s experience integrated with the help of Director Merophie Carr into a lovely expressive unified, finely tuned and fascinating whole.  Nothing is extraneous and everything has been beautifully linked and crafted together by massively skilled performance makers. 

The design of movable open boxes by Jen Hector offers numerous opportunities for modifying and changing the performance space in a smooth and direct manner.  Rhian Hinkley is a master of video.  His work of recording and projecting anecdotes and conversations adds a stunning immediate dimension to the whole. Sound (Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey) in the form of a kind of static or ‘white noise’ is initially directed in a very specific way to areas of the audience and later sound is integrated in numerous ways.  

Doubtless the input and work of Jo Dunbar as Movement Consultant, Fiona Sandra Long as Script Consultant and Gavin Rose-Mundy as Auslan Translation Consultant is just as vital to the ultimate result though not necessarily as obvious to the viewer. 

Ms. Mundy who has an agreeable and disarming ‘stage presence’ talks to us, plays with us, moves boxes, interacts with projections and generally commands the space.  Everything is linked and on a number of occasions projections even converse with each other in an unanticipated manner.  Most tellingly we are given a glimpse of how Ms. Mundy must have experienced very unusual boundaries/or lack of by virtue of living in two often-separate worlds through her childhood and adolescence.

Congratulations to all involved - this is a must see!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Cock

Bakers Dozen Theatre Company Presents

Cock

By Mike Bartlett

Directed by Beng Ho

Cast:

Matthew Connell

Shaun Goss

Marissa O’Reilly

Scott Gooding

Designed by Emily Collett

Lighting by Ashleight Barnett

The Stables – Meat Market

11 to 21 April 2018

Opening night of Cock was refreshingly ready for an audience.  There was no evidence of a lack of time spent in the rehearsal room in this superbly directed (Beng Oh) 2009 work by British playwright Mike Bartlett. 

Cock is about relationships, sexual identity, romantic relationships, and performed identity.  At its heart is the suggestion that the act of sex can be isolated from gender and feelings of love, and, an individual’s behaviour can be controlled by social expectations and the coercion of others.

John (Matthew Connell) is in a relationship with a somewhat critical, brittle and sarcastic male partner (Shaun Goss).  They rub up against each other without much evidence of harmony.  John finds himself attracted to, and fatally seduced by, a lively young generous natured woman (Marissa O’Reilly) and they have pleasurable sex.  John is subsequently confused about with whom to spend his future.  The work contains a dated suggestion that children and growing a family is exclusive to life in heterosexual partnerships.   This conjecture helps to define John’s choices in the context of his changing circumstances.  John’s partner is assisted in his fight to maintain their relationship by his father (Scott Gooding).

There is an intimation of woman as predator.   This is expressed through the crazy fears of John - that he is being stalked.  Which could be interpreted as misogyny and a fear of female sexuality.  But that is not to say it is indicative of the playwright’s actual perspective - if the work is understood as a conventional play that explores various points of view.

In Beng Oh’s production the wonderful lack of props, and complete commitment of the actors to ‘being in the moment’ and in very close proximity to the audience, is exemplary.  As the actors are kept on the move time is not spent indulgently and their energy is kept alive and vital.

Due to the elucidating writing and committed acting, fully clothed sex scenes are rendered as engrossing and affectingly sensuous.

Conversations are the backbone of the work and Cock would transmute marvelously as an audio piece.  Indeed sometimes the conversations are almost too articulately express individual characters self-knowledge.  I say this mostly in relation to the female voice.

As John, Matthew Connell brings a light touch and the delicate sincere sensibility of a ‘free spirit’.  Shaun Goss is sharp, crisp and most convincing as John’s feisty long-term partner.  Marissa O’Reilly presents the young assertive ‘femme fatal’ as strong, clever, self aware and deeply seductive.  While Scott Gooding’s Father of John’s partner is complex and profoundly perceptively, resolved and supportive.  The acting is uniformly excellent.

Cock is set simply in the round and costumed with lovely indicative universality by Emily Collett.

A challenging, thought provoking and very interesting work.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Unknown Neighbours

Theatre Works and Festival of Live Art Present

UNKNOWN NEIGHBOURS

By Ranters Theatre and Creative VaQi

Created by

Beth Buchanan                 Performer

Adriano Cortese               Co-Director

Da-Huim Kim                    Performer

Kyung-Sung Lee               Co Director

Deborah Leiser-Moore   Performer

Kyung-Min Na                   Performer

Soo-Yeon Sung                  Performer

Theatre Works 12 – 18 March 2018

Site-specific work can be a bit hit and miss.  Unknown Neighbours is a hit not to be missed!  No seriously - this is a rich and rewarding collaboration between Ranters Theatre and Creative VaQi from Korea for the FOLA (Festival of Living Art).  And the season is only a few days!

As an organic cultural exchange that was first performed in Seoul, Unknown Neighbours is, and is destined to be, much more then the sum of its parts.  It is a collaboration between Theatre makers from Eastern and Western communities with differences in language, community structures, religion and styles of theatre making and an inimitable offering. 

On any single visit each audience member gets to see one main piece of the four or five unique sight-specific installations, but most significantly, acquires a rich sense of the connections and rewards of this intercultural collaboration.

On opening night I went to the house that was occupied by Beth Buchanan and her investigation into, and expression of, separation.  This intense and affecting work conjures the visceral reality of what, individuals dissolving relationships can experience.  Eventually, it, very satisfyingly, morphs into a philosophical contemplation on romantic and lasting relationships, home and aloneness.  Ms. Buchanan is beautifully in control of her material and environment and communicates with her audience with great integrity.

I can only speak for this particular experience however - as an indication of the gravitas of the work on offer any of the individual works would be worth caching.  I don’t know how the bookings are decided - it may just be the luck of the draw – ‘pot luck.’  (Check with Theatre Works on this.)

A brisk walk follows the engagement with the various housed performance installations, to a park area where all performers and audience meet amongst locals and general vibrant everyday goings on.  Here the intended focus seems more general and elicits a sense of community.   Our next stop is the wonderful atmospheric and unsettlingly enhanced environment of the very old Christ Church St Kilda - next to the once Parish Hall - Theatre Works.  Here idiosyncratically East meets West with an unearthly sense of magic as Korean bells chime in a traditional church space and we move in an unconventional way throughout the area.

Finally five performers share something of their experience of involvement with aspects of the work and we are taken on a, galvanizing, projected video of the surrounding suburb and out to the bay.

A unique and very special adventure that I can’t recommend highly enough.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - Good Muslim Boy

Malthouse Theatre Presents

Good Muslim Boy

By Osamah Sami

Adapted for the stage by  - Osama Sami and Janice Muller

Direction Janice Muller

Cast

Rodney Afif

Nicole Nabout

Osamah Sami

Set and Costume Design – Romaine Harper

Lighting Design – Ben Hughes

Sound Design and Composition – Phil Slade

Stage Manager – Jess Keepence

The Beckett

9 Feb to 11 March 2018

Personable, enigmatic star of the autobiographical film Ali’s Wedding Osamah Sami takes us on the journey of a lived memoir, from his own story Good Muslim Boy, of an almost unbelievable romp in Iran.  Well timed, beautifully underscored with sound and music (Phil Slade) on a very functional set designed by Romanie Harper three actors bring to life this gem of a ‘stranger than fiction’ narrative.    

As an especially funny story it offers a night of laughs.  The action commences with a chat to the audience that has the feel of stand-up-comedy about it and then proceeds to detail a chain of events in the form of numerous vignettes that swiftly morph – one into the other.  Osamah Sami plays himself as he battles, with characters of the bemusing and confusing Iranian bureaucracy, to bring home the body of his Father who suddenly died on a father and son holiday/personal pilgrimage to Iran.   

The opening works well.  However throughout Sami could reach out more fully to his audience and take greater advantage of the organic nature of Storytelling in live theatre.  As audience we are very keen to connect to this extremely charismatic protagonist.  If he spoke to us more fully more often it would be gratifying.

The work is particularly fascinating because the cultures of the Middle East tend to mystify us.  Since the Iranian revolution of 1979 the West could be forgiven for thinking what was once Persia is a very dangerous place.   Sami and director Janice Muller subtly imbue the action with the sense that danger could be lurking around any corner and behind any official counter.   Yet, as the story unfolds Sami courageously unswervingly follows instructions and takes massive risks, such as travelling without a passport, to succeed in his daunting quest.

As a whole Good Muslim Boy comes across as intense Iranian experience from Western eyes.  What is extraordinary is the nerve, pluck and daring Sami garners to get through the mysteries of the intense ordeal and home to Australia with his father’s body.

Rodney Afif beautifully fulfills his roles, including that of Osamah Sami’s father, with clean definition and commitment.  Nicole Nabout in her depiction of numerous characters displays exquisite versatility and is quite magic at times.  

The lighting by Ben Hughes, however, doesn’t fully support the staging.  Too often it is murky and dark and lacking variation and definition.  This could signify pollution, or be intended to enhance the pervading sense of mystery in the machinations of the treacherous series of events.   However I feel there is too much shadow.

All in all - Good Muslim Boy is a most entertaining, enlightening and enjoyable evening of theatre. 

Most enjoyable!

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)

Review - The Children

Melbourne Theatre Company Presents

The Children

By Lucy Kirkwood

Directed by Sarah Goodes

Set and Costume Design – Elizabeth Gadsby

Lighting Designer – Paul Jackson

Composer and Sound Designer – Steve Francis

Cast:

Hazel – Pamela Rabe

Rose – Sarah Peirse

Robin – William Zappa

A challenging and rewarding work The Children unfolds naturalistically in real time. 

On a simple functional set of a rustic kitchen by Elizabeth Gadsby, that is superbly lit by Paul Jackson, three clever and influential sixty something nuclear physicists reunite.  The world as they know it has been turned upside down by a Fukushima like disaster.  Some of their pasts are divulged and we get to witness their flawed and often messy humanness.  And the apparently altruistic reason for the, often uncomfortable, ‘get together’ is revealed in the last minutes of the piece. 

Lucy Kirdwood’s text functions on a number of levels.  As an unfolding story it is full of surprises and maintains interest.  However as an observation of characters from the baby boomer generation it sometimes feels like an indictment.  The subject matter of our damage to our planet is deeply unsettling.  But there is another niggling ambiguous rift in this production.  Perhaps it is in the writing.  I am wondering if this is because Kirkwood is a much younger woman than the generation she is writing about.  Therefore what is presented is only partially from the lived perspective of the protagonists.   So at times the actors are bound by the way Kirkwood has written - to perform their characters from the perspective of an observer.

There is lots of humour and many laughs in this work.   However I get the impression there is a delicate balance, for director Sarah Goodes, between releasing the intrinsic sense of fun and play in the material from under the pall of the framing of a story of cataclysmic disaster.  I am wondering if the production itself tends more towards naturalism then the playwright intended.

Pamela Rabe’s Hazel is upfront and fascinated by, and unapologetic for, her own very human foibles.  At times she seems to be Hazel but every now and again she performs Hazel with self-deprecating humour.  Sarah Peirse brings to life the more independent and troubled Rose, a haunting presence who generally seems removed, somewhat toxic, and willfully unaffected by her friends.   William Zappa plays Robin, Hazel’s husband, the character with a greater sense of humour.  As with the other two his character expresses a very finely toned sense of his own self-importance.   

Throughout there are a number of rather clunky clichés and strangely simplistic statements.   All three characters are penned as clever privileged people exhibiting the appropriate blend of narcissism of those of their generation.  They have a disparate awkwardness about them as they relate to each other in an often-prickly manner.   The chemistry between the characters feels thin and fleeting but perhaps this will grow during the run.  Or perhaps one of the points of the work is that we are all alone together in this nest that we have soiled.

Sound by Steve Francis is minimal and extremely effective particularly in the last moments of the staging. 

My quibbles and questions aside I found The Children very engaging and rewarding, most particularly, for the argument it presents - I do heartily ‘recommend it.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)