Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, Canberra Rep, Theatre 3, 11 Feb-5 Mar 2022

 Tom Stoppard's comedy is almost 60 years old but has lost none of its relevance - the story of two minor characters from Hamlet lost, confused, and finally doomed due to (see title) is a tale that's uniquely appealing to our complex world where the sense of never quite knowing where you are or what's going on around you is  ever-present. These two figures are styled as a classic comic pair - one inquisitive idiot, one complacent idiot, both lost in a world they have minimal control over. The fact that the "bigger picture" they're missing is one of the great works of world literature throws an additional twist in the tale. 

Cate Clelland's production brings the play to life in an open theatrical space making great use of Rep's wide stage to provide various areas for Ros and Guil to contemplate, explore and deal with those who confront them, whether they be the traveling players who seem to know a lot more than them about the way the world works, or the Danish Royal court playing out their preassigned roles in the drama. Rocks to sit, a wooden ramp for them to delve into the play-behind-the-play, and three sizable barrells with more in them than should reasonably be possible make up the scenery, and the play builds up from lacksidasical philosophical meanderings about the character's reality and history into a building sense of doom as inevitable fate looms ever larger.

Josh Wiseman and Lainie Hart are a perfect pair, Wiseman as the more inquisitive of the pair trying to work out what his place in the world, Hart as the one taking joy in the moment. There's an easy give and take between the two which draws us in, makes us side with them as they struggle to understand the world around them and ultimately surrender to the void. They're a wonderful pair and I hope to see them matched up together in many future productions by enterprising directors. Added to the mix as their most frequent interlocutor is Arran McKenna as the player king, a figure who by virtue of being a performer of tragedies is somehow already aware how things are going to play out and teases, baits and disconcerts the pair with his knowledge. McKenna is suitably larger-than-life, bombastic, impressive and menacing by turns. As for the rest, those doing the cut-down version of Hamlet mostly give a general impression of their roles (Orphelia is cut down to pretty much just the screaming, Claudius to the imperious arrogance, Gertrude to genial snobbery, Polonius to the befuddlement and Hamlet to sinister sarcasm), and the players provide a tight troupe of musicians, jugglers, acrobats and poor long-suffering Albert. 

Anna Senior and her team provide a mix of glorious Elizabethan outfits for the cast, and Neville Pye and Justin Mullin's soundscape of disconcerting weather and seascapes gives specificity to the lonely world our characters find themselves in. 

This is a modern classic played in strong style, and should absolutely be seen, consumed and talked about. 

Ruthless!, Echo Theatre, The Q, 24 Feb-12 Mar

 

A high camp musical, Ruthless is the tale of Judy Denmark, an apparently average, somewhat disney-ish mother, with a precociously talented daughter, Tina, who's managed to acquire an enthusiastic agent, Sylvia StCroix, and a desire to play the lead in the school play, "Pippi Longstocking in Tahiti". What comes next is a series of plot twists, double-crosses, revelations, songs on-and-off-key, theatrical in-jokes, and splashy costumes that will delight anyone with a love for old movies, female empowerment, disturbing wigs, multiple homicides or just plain old-fashioned fun.

Jordan Best directs with tongue-in-cheek glee, hitting every gag in the script and finding several new ones, showing a splashy lack of restraint and an overarching sense of joy and ridiculousness as the larger-than-life characters show off ego, desire and above all, the title characteristic of completely lacking Ruth.

As the apparently simple mother, Jenna Roberts scores another triumph, committing totally to every contortion of the plot she's put through and reacting with suitable charming obviousness to the madness around her. As predatory agent Sylvia, Dee Farnell is a constant joy, a lounge lizard of extraordinary proportions, larger than life and dropping bon-mots with suitable languidity. As psychopathically enthusiastic daughter Tina, Jessy Heath is triumphantly bratty and self-obsessed, gleefully seeking the spotlight wherever possible. As somewhat boozy third-grade teacher and ambitious writer/director of the Pippi musical, Tracey Noble is venomously wonderful, bitter, twisted and altogether fun. As Grandma and theatre critic extraordinaire Lita, Janie Lawson spills bitchery, boozery and the hit-song-with-many-encores "I hate musicals", rewarding each extra chorus with building power. Eryn Marshall does double duty both as the klutzy rival Louise and as the clearly-up-to-more-than-she-lets on Eve, both with go-for-broke enthusiasm and skill.

Nick Griffin provides musical accompaniment and has directed the women to choral perfection when they come together, with Jacquelyn Richards providing every cheesy dance move a larger-than-life musical needs. Anna Senior's outfits are suitably outlandish, while Ian Croker's set is a simple but stylish playground for the performers. 

All in all this is a fun, frolicsome, nonsensical musical featuring six of the best talents in town, and should not be missed by anybody sentient. 

As you like it, Lakespeare, Verity Lane Market (and various other locations until 6 Mar)

 

Lakespeare's been doing the free-shakespeare in the outdoors thing for a while now - seasons of "Much Ado About Nothing" in 2017, "Twelfth Night" in 2018 and "Midsummer's nights dream" in 2019 - and after COVID interruption, it's back for 2022 with a play just as entertaining, if not quite as familiar as the last three - with a team of local talent to tell a tale of banishment, romance, rivalries, comedy, melancholy and a big honking Act 5 deus ex machina to wrap everything up. Featuring one of Shakespeare's best known monologues, one of the most substantial female roles in the canon, plus wrestling, poetry and duels, it's got everything a good night out should have. This season a couple of the performances have moved indoors to the upstairs area at Verity Lane Market, which proves a fine venue for these sort of shenanigans (with many good eats downstairs to be brought upstairs to consume during the show).

In general, the production is done with absolute emphasis on simplicity and clarity - the set is nothing more than a round space in the middle of the audience, with a couple of chairs dragged in for assistance occasionally, and plenty of strategic exits for people to dash off when they need to. If the cast tend to project more than is strictly necessary for the indoor venue, that can be excused as a byproduct of a run dashing between indoors and outdoors on alternate nights. 

Natasha Vickery shines as the lovelorn Rosalind - if she's never entirely convincing in the girl-dressed-as-a-boy sections, that's more a feature than a bug as the rest of the cast mostly remain unconvinced too, despite her efforts. She's great at the love-at-first-sight moment between her and Jake Fryer-Hornsby's Orlando, and they sell their mutual affection and indulgence of one another's nonsense as the story develops. Shae Kelly is delightful as the hanger-on, Touchstone, very much along for the ride until he gets dragged into his own romantic love triangle between Anneke Van der Velde's goofy Audrey and Ryan Street's rough-as-guts William. Heidi Silberman plays the two different duchesses, good and evil, with authority and alternatively petty cruelty and generous embracement of those around her. Karen Vickery plays the moody Jaques as somewhat the worse for several rounds of booze, but also hyperverbal and argumentative to the last. Ylaria Rogers and Jake McMillan have one of the evening's other love plots, and while this is where Shakespeare's plotting gets massively arbitrary as to why these particular two should pair up, we do get the sense that they're together for more than just to provide a lot of matching pairs at the end. Similarly Lachlan Herring's lovelorn young Sivius feels very true to every young man who's ever felt a serious case of the unrequiteds, in this case with the fresh-faced Phoebe of Katerina Smalley. Max Gambale scores in three small roles as wrestler, familiarly-accented farmer and surprise love-rock-god-to-make-the-ending-happen, and Jay Cameron provides musical accompaniment that has the audience clapping along and stomping feet. 

In short, this is a fun, frivolous shakespearean night out, the perfect accompaniment to a pizza and wine, or a cider and a bao, or a pasta and a fizzydrink. 

Triple X, Sydney Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre, Wharf 1 Theatre, 8 Jan-26 Feb 2022

 

This much-delayed modern romcom finally gets its Sydney season, nearly two years after it was originally planned. And there's a reason this has stuck around when other shows in development  - it's not the most surprisingly original plot in the world (guy in the hours before his wedding thinks about his relationship with his ex, and, surrounded by friends and family, ends up making a decision), but the angle that this is a hetrosexual man and his ex is a trans-woman does begin to suggest some of the complications in store. Throw in a more-than-usually invested family, a few shocking offstage events, a dramatically significant bottle of avocado oil, some dodgy standup and a surprise appearance and you've got the making of a truly fascinating evening in the theatre.

As writer and lead actress, Glace Chase has the goods. Her dialogue is fast and witty, and as a performer she's confident, direct, vulnerable and ready for anything. It's a play that uses the familiar form to tell a story with a lot of bitter broken edges in it, and tells it well. 

For the rest of the cast, Josh McConville is a charmingly likeable leading man, even as it becomes clear how little he knows himself and how incapable he is of really standing by his passions. Elijah Williams as the sleazy best friend gives just enough to make it clear why they're still friends, Christen O'Leary as the complicated mother is a bundle of raw energy, aggravation and ultimately affection, and Cotessa Treffone as the oh-so-right-on sister is just the right side of frustrating. 

Paige Rattray's direction gives it sophistication, style and effectiveness as the play moves from farce-to-drama in a single scene, as we see a relationship from go to whoa in the course of a night, with highs and lows and in-betweens. Renee Mulder's set is a gorgeous delight, with a few surprises built into the furniture thanks to Design Realiser Jeremy Allen.

This is a startingly gorgeous comedy that leaves us thinking about love, life and the whole being-human thing in a very different light, and absolutely worth seeing.

Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Green Door Theatre Company, Darlinghurst Theatre, 25 Jan-20 Feb 2022

A modern tale of social media spiraling out of control, about social and economic outrages, about privilege and despair, and a hilarious tale of friendship and individual power, it's no wonder this comedy is getting a sold-out return season. Like all the best comedies, Jasmine Lee-Jones's script has a serious question at  its heart, about how we engage with one another in an increasingly fragmented world, about how we stand up against the ludicrous entitlement of the billionaire class, and how the cyberconversations we have impact on our lives.

Directors Shari Sebbens and Zindzi Okenyo keep the pace fast and furious, keeping a dense and intelligent script crystal clear for the audience. Moreblessing Maturure as Cleo is the cocky, rageful centre of the story, staking her clam as sarcastic narrator, arbitrer and ultimately the vulnerable figure finding the backlash to her opinion too much. As her offsider, Iolanthe holds her own both as interlocutor and later as interrergator as revelations about Cleo's past come to light. 

Keerthi Subramanyam's design is clean and simple, a private space with the social media projections looming over it, and gives just enough space for the various surprises to show up. This is a production that undoubtedly still has life in it (it's already announced a tour to LaBoite in Brisbane, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the road further), and it's a right-to-the moment contemporary comedy that will delight anyone whether or not they have any idea who the hell Kylie Jenner is. 

At What Cost, Belvoir St Theatre, 29 Jan-20 Feb 2022

 

Nathan Maynard's play confronts the nature of Indigenous identity and the internal politics of a small community building up pressure on the protagonist until he makes an irrevocable decision. It's very much a personal story (Maynard is himself very much involved in Aboriginal politics in Tasmania) and there's true pain and passion in this that make it a powerful evening in the theatre, even if the play does feel slightly loaded to express Maynard's side of a complex argument rather than to give a rounded view - it's more a great part for a leading man than it is a fully rounded four person play. 

Luke  Carroll as that leading man is compelling and fascinating throughout, as his character turns to the more paranoiac and protective, angrier and more defensive, he balances his character's indignation with emotional truth that anchors the production. Alex Malone does a lot to make the antagonist more than just a monster, making her twisting, defensive nature on the edge of being understanding before the stack of lies and half-truths collapses towards the end. Ari Maza Long and Sandy Greenwood's roles are slightly underwritten but we do get a sense of their histories with Caroll and Malone, and of why they both end up where they are in the middle between them. 

Isaac Drandic presents a smooth flowing production that builds wonderfully to the climax, using the space to flow the action onwards in a tightly paced show that moves from early geniality to final starkness. Jacob Nash's set design gives the space visual interest, as does Keerthi's realisation of the set and costumes. 

For all that I'm a little tough on the writing here, I did find this a compelling night in the theatre, as well as a presentation of some interesting ideas. But in the end it doesnt' feel so much as a fully rounded play as a great part for an aboriginal actor with three supporting actors doing different levels of lifting to cover for the rest. 

 

Girl from the North Country, GWB Entertainment etc, Theatre Royal Sydney (til 19 Mar), Her Majesty's Theatre Adelaide (25 Mar-10 Apr), Comedy Theatre Melbourne (from 29 April)

 
This is an odd show to become an international hit - an irish playwright telling a story set in 1930s Duluth, with 19 songs by Bob Dylan crossing 49 years of his career across 14 of his albums. But since opening at London's Old Vic, this has drawn audiences in London and New York to a distinctively different musical production, as much about the drama as it is about the songs, with soul and heart and unexpected beauty. 

Conor McPherson is probably best known for theatre with a distinctly horror edge, whether it be the ghosts with plays like "The Weir" and "Shining City", demonic forces like in "The Seafarer" or the horror of a theatre critic among vampires in the monologue "St Nicholas". This play (also directed by McPherson) has its own discomforting edges as madness and misery consume the residents of a Duluth, Minesotta boarding house during the depression, as people are confronted with desperation and their need to escape, often expressed through those self-same Dylan songs, given gorgeous period-appropriate arrangements with a rich band made up of four onstage musicians with assistance by the rest of the cast.  It's paced in such a way that there's never really time for an applause break after each song, so we're carried by the narrative as things proceed to their inevitably grim fate in a tale that borrows a little from some of Dylan's songs and a little bit more from the works of John Steinbeck. 

The cast is a mixture of familiar strong hands, some in interestingly different roles - Lisa McCune has never seemed more eager to break away from her popular conception as a TV sweetheart, into the disturbed and bitter Elizabeth Laine seen here, full of recriminations and disturbance, while Peter Carroll and Grant Piro both channel the more menacing parts of their repertoire, Helen Dallimore is earthy and compelling (and also plays a mean drum kit), Zahra Newman shows her seemingly endless versatility in a role that's miles away from most of what I've seen her do before, and Callum Francis gives a role miles away from his acclaimed Lola from Kinky Boots. Greg Stone has maybe the most difficult monologue in the entire show and makes it compellingly painful, and Terrence Donavan provides narration as the town doctor with suitable forboding. There's not a weak link anywhere, and it's a pleasure to see Dylan songs sung so well (it's a cliche to say Bob is not the best singer of his own work, but it's also true). 

Rae Smith's set designs combine simple furnishings with gauzy backdrops to provide interesting settings for the intimate confrontations, with singers seen through the gauze providing backup to the action.  

This is a brave experience for commercial theatres to be trying - it's nothing like you might expect a Bob Dylan musical jukebox musical to be, but it's compelling and dangerous and heartfelt. Canberra Theatre Centre is listed as a co-producer so hopefully the tour will pop up here sometime, but if not it's worth the trip to Sydney to catch a show that's raw and compelling. Recommended. 

Smokescreen, Bare Witness Theatre Co, The Q, 2-5 Feb 2022

Back in theatres for 2022, the first of the "Q The Locals" mini-season sees rising performers Christopher Samuel Carroll and Damon Baudin in a two-hander about marketing, society, personal ethics, psychology and the ways that capitalism may very well have doomed us all - ambitious perhaps, but also insightful, intelligent and incredibly pertinent. It's a simple production - two actors in suits, a long table with an ashtray and a drinks cabinet, talking for about 105 minutes, Carroll chain-smoking herbal cigarettes for most of the night. )

Carroll has triple-tasked himself with playing one of the leads, directing and writing (noting that was not the original intention - he's taken on the role after Covid upended some of the rehearsal process) - I'd hope in further productions he brings in a separate eye, because at present the play is a little over-written with long arias, particularly from Glenn, the character he plays, about the subtle arts of convincing people to do things that aren't necessarily in their best interest. He's clearly done his research (the program credits George Monbiot, Naomi Klein and Adam Curtis as key influences) but a little more shaping may have made this a slightly tighter evening - there's a little bit of a sense that some of the points are being belaboured as the play currently stands - the writing is smart and witty and absolutely makes an impact, but tightening the points would pay off wonderfully. It's also no discredit to Carroll as an actor, who plays the more sympathetico of the pair, as the character who has to face up to his own moral compromoses.  Initially brash and bold, we see his emotinoal deconstruction as he realises the trap he and the world he's in and how unlikely it is that he'll be able to work his way out again. Again, possibly as a result of the Covid recasting, there's a slight sense that the writing hasn't been adjusted to account for him being roughly the same age as Baudin- they're clearly meant to be of two different generations, and just as clearly they aren't, though Carroll does good work to try to sell the older character's gravitas. 

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Damon Baudin plays the more shifty, intelligent, precise, professional character in all his lizardly-fascination - a creature of pure intellect who presents some uncomfortable truths as we drive home in our oil-powered vehicles. He's got the longer arias on psychological manipulation and the techniques which sell fear and doubt to the general public and gives them an insinuating charm that makes it just that bit more shocking as you realise what he's really trying to sell you.

Anthony Hately lights the show as a sharp arena for the two men to prowl and prey on each other - with Carroll's herbal cigarette smoke forming a haze above them all that is as much symbolic as it is visually interesting.  

In short, this is a sharp, effective night in the theatre featuring two strong performers that is absolutely worth catching, which I hope has a long life and can build to be the short sharp shock to the jugular that this absolutely deserves to be.

(Note, an earlier version assigned the actors around the wrong way - to be mildly fair to the morning self who wrote the review, the program photos of the two actors have Baudin with a proto-beard and Carroll without, while in the show Carroll has a full beard and Baudin doesn't - this has now been amended)