The initiation, Canberra youth theatre, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, 16-19 June

 

On the hills of Black Mountain, six teenagers gather - only two of them are currently friends, with another a former friend til they started going to seperate schools. One of them seems to know more than she's telling, and soon they're all drawn into a sinister ritual that will draw more out of them than they're expecting in the course of one long night.

Cathy Petcoz's script slips between three genres, having elements of teen slasher,  straight teen drama and mythology. It doesn't always juggle all three successfully - most teen slashers tend to include moments of deliberate humor to defray the tendency for the horror to get giggles if not carefully managed, and this doesn't quite get around the audience giggle-factor. Petcoz is clearly aware of how classic teen slashers have fairly retrograde attitudes of sexuality and gender presentation, but here she's mostly just pointing out where the behaviour is problematic rather than feeling like the problems are being engaged with and combatted meaningfully. There's elements of the straight teen drama that more effectively raises the creeps inherent in simply being a teenager than the genre elements do - these are fears that don't go away as simply once the story is over and the monster is banished. A year after "Little Girls alone in the woods", this is another play that plays in some of the same mythological space, albiet less comfortably. 

There's strong meat here for the six performers to engage with - in particular, Lantsamy Carruthers impresses, giving a spine to the narrative as the instigating character - Tara Sexena is as close as this story gets to a "final girl" and takes her to places that most of her breatheren don't get to. Juniper Potter gives her character a rounded independent strength. Sylvie Burke and Zoe Harris take two roles which could be close to cliche as the private-school meanies and give them a few more dimensions. Harry Ziano is effectively befuddled and vulernable as the sole boy of the team.

Petcoz is doing double duty as writer and director - I do think a seond set of eyeballs may have wrestled more effectively with some of the challenges of doing this kind of genre mashup, but it's effective direction, buidling tension as the show progresses.

There's meat in this show but I don't know that this has come out of the developement process entirely clean - it does feel like some elements of the script are there more to engage with dramaturgical notes than to actually clarify and focus the narrative, and it's led to a script that is maybe trying to do a little too much - it's unfortunate that this has to be the show that follows a script as tried and tested as "Dags" for CYT and it's possible that any show after that one is going to look a little more raw, I hope that this does get a life beyond the courtyard as I think the young performers are well showcased here, but I do wish that the mix worked a little better for me.

Dubbo Championship Wrestling, Hayes Theatre Company, Hayes Theatre, 13 May-12 Jun 2022 (and Riverside Theater Parramatta 16-25 June)

 In Dubbo, a regional wrestling promotion is still rolling into its twentieth year, struggling by with declining viewership and aging competitors playing out the same old ritulaistic rivalries. The return of the promoter's daughter Rose after some mishaps in Sydney, plus her mum, the conniving Cheryl and her new man, disgraced American wrestler "Perfect Ten Ken", could bring on change, particuarly as DubboMania XX approaches. And inevitably everything's going to be worked out in the ring in a series of contrived matches for ridiculously high stakes on the way to the only possible ending, an unlikely but inevitable victory of good over evil. 

Rock musicals have huge passions, verging on the ludicrous, predictable plots and intense physical dancing. So does wrestling. So this is a rich field for a joyous theatrical spectacular, and the writers, brothers Daniel and James Cullen, know how to combine their sports movies cliches with loud rocking riffs and some goofy comedy to bring pure delight to an audience. Combined with Sheridan Harbridge's direction, Ellen Simpson's choreography and Tim Dashwood';s fight choreography, using the musical skills of Joe Accaria and Glenn Moorehouse, this is a fun night out of spectacle, song and emotional catharsis. 

The performers get great chances to show off their skills, whether it's Zoe Ioannou's moody protagonist Rose, Bishanyia' Vincent's villainous Cheryl, Justin Smith's goodhearted old galoot Ozzy, Terry Serio's rough dad Des, Aaron Tsindos's egocentric idiot Ken, Genevieve Lemon and Noni McMallum's double act as the Tradie Ladies, or William Tukia-Edwards, covering as the gently heroic Ron. 

This is certainly loud entertainment that indulges in stereotypes of old-style australianism and is sentimental and cliched, but it's also great fun, a true panto-in-tights, and a surprisingly well developed new Australian Musical that, if there's any justice, should be a great touring unit for years to come (with a cast of 8, a band of five and a simple but effective set, why wouldn't you tour this)? A delightful night out. 

Ghosting the Party, Griffin Theatre Company, Stables Theatre, 20 May-18 June 2022

 

This play is perfectly built for popular consumption - three generations of women deal with aging, life, their relationships with one another and the inevitability of death. It's material that is all-too-relatable to people of any age, looking right down the barrell at our mortality and examining it with honesty, wit and compassion. Andrea James stages it with verve and style, using the tiny Griffin stage and her three actresses to take us from fasionable bar to suburban home to 5pm discount dinner special - with two of the three women also getting a chance to switch into alternate roles for substantial cameos. 

Belinda Giblin plays the oldest, Grace, blunt in her aggravation with the frustrations of age and with her daughter, but still with compassion for her daughter and granddaughter. Jillian O'Dowd as the one in the middle, both mother and daughter, finding herself caught in the role of caregiver in two directions, is compelling as she attempts to put a sunny face on as much as possible while clearly deeply uncomfortable with the directions some of the conversations are going. Amy Hack as granddaughter Suzie lends a junior perspective, being slightly peterbed by the ways her elders act (and in a role that feels slightly under-written - she's basically limited to responding to the other two rather than really having an arc of her own). 

Isabel Gordon's set isn't one of the best Griffin sets, largely because it feels like it wants to be in a prosecnium space facing the audience straight on, rather than the usual Stables corner - though the chintzy decoration gives it a nice surburban homely vibe. 

This is surprisingly light material for the normally more sober-sided Griffin, and gleefully so - it could be accused of perhaps being a little slight and outside Griffin's remit of providing new directions for Australian theatre (rather than familiar crowd-pleasers) but it's still a worthwhile exercise.

Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, Melbourne Theatre Company, Belvoir Theatre, 2 June-10 July 2022

 

An academic and author becomes fascinated with one of his students, finding his life more and more entwined with hers until eventually they end up sexually involved. The after-effects on both of them have ramifications far beyond the immediate, hanging over both of them. He's narrating the story, telling it directly to the audience in the third person,but are we getting the whole story?

Hannah Moscovitch's 2020 two-hander is a fast moving play that dances at the edge of a precipice - this is the kind of story we've seen many times before, and often from the male perspective - but rarely this smartly and this intriguingly. Petra Kelive's production brings this Canadian play into Australian accents and with one or two Australian references, but otherwise keeps it pretty much intact - it's the kind of thing you could expect to see on any campus any time in the last decade or so. Dan Spielman plays the academic with a certain amount of self-justifying transperent charm - he's never quite getting away with as much as he thinks he is and there's an edge between who he thinks he is and what his actions are betraying. Izabella Yena has the role that seems thinner early on - most of the early scenes largely have her being observed by the academic and lightly interacting with him, before things get deeper and denser. It's a provocative evening, and the conversations after the play may be as enlightening as what goes on during - but it's also a story that knows its tropes and is able to effectively subvert them.

This is a clever, compelling 80 minute show that feels tight and laser focussed, and is gripping throughout. It walks a tightrope of comteporary concerns masterfully before hitting you with a final twist that brings the show into perspective. Very pleased this made the transfer.

Lano and Woodley: Moby Dick, Token Events, Canberra Theatre, 9-10 June 2022

 After thirty years as a double-act (less 10 years in the middle when they went on hiatus and both pursued solo careers, and two years of Covid), you'd thikk that the Lano and Woodley formula (Colin wants to pursue some serious project, Frank is distractable and distracting) would have worn out your welcome. You'd be wrong, and this time, applied to a telling of Herman Mellville's classic 19th century whale-hunt novel, it functions gloriously as an entertainingly knockabout shambles that sorta vageuly relates to a classic novel.

Beginning with a retelling of the plot of the novel in song, surrounded by deep fog, Colin tries to take over telling a one man version of the story with the assistance of some classy projections and a nifty vaguely nautical set. Frank has a few ideas for how he can help, most of which Colin rejects. Things get weird, an offstage crew member named Nathan helps out with props, Colin's frustration ebbs and flows, and everything ends in disaster and yet also with a resolution of some of the plot threads. Woodley is a delightfully mischeouvous agent of chaos, mostly somewhat well meaning, and Lane is a great slow-burn straight man. It never falls too hard into pathos or contrivance, it feels fresh and delightful, and all in all it's a fine night of structured chaos, with a goofy selection of exit music. 

21 Foster Street, Steps & Holes, The Q, 26 May-4 June 2022

 I must admit, this is a show I felt a little trepidatious about - the synopsis available in the publicity was vague about plot, talking more about how it looked at the heritage of a home in Bungendore, and using the term "multidisciplinary theatre work", which sounds awfully like an academic term for "self-indulgent wank". With director Kate Walder mentioning her qualifications from Ecole Phillipe Gaulier in her bio, my brain immediately turned to Zoe Coombs Marr's show "Dave: Trigger Warning", which spoofed a certain type of uberfrench mime to brutal perfection. 

In this case, though, "multidisciplinary theatre work" means "a collage using bits of mime, dance, comedy, and drama in a gorgeous impressionistic look at history and time", using three skilled performers in a show that is astonishingly beautiful to see. There's not really a strong central narrative, but this is not a show that is about telling a story so much as showing a feeling. 

Performers Kate Walder, Damien Warren-Smith, and Poppy Lynch create moments of connection, comedy and deep emotion as they explore simple things like daily household tasks in the late 1800s, unconventional surgery, a surprisingly fertile expanding family, a montage going through the 60s-80s eras with musical backgrounds like "Have you Ever Seen the Rain", "Space Oddity", and "Boys Light Up". There's blithe romantic shuffles, pratfalls, surprises, and cosmic beauty throughout.  

John Shortis' score is beautiful, romantic and yearning, giving the show an air almost of a silent movie, with the score reinforcing the emotions of what we see on stage. Stephanie Howe's extraordinarily adaptable set and costumes cover several eras and configurations wonderfully, filling the Q space in ways I've not seen before, assisted by Benjamin Brockman's tight and well-focussed lighting design, and Claire Hennesy's sound design, mixing music and recorded personal history in intriguing manners.  

This is innovative, cutting-edge theatre unlike much you've ever seen before, and it should be approached with a receptive mind and an eye for something spectacular and beautiful. It's also a show that is a nightmare to criticise in words because it's utterly theatre - any attempt to describe it in words is only going to diminish and pin down something that is elusive and beautiful. But it's definitely recommended, it's worth your dollars. 

Jane Eyre, Shake and Stir Theatre, Playhouse, Canberra Theatre 17-21 May 2022 (subsequently touring Qld, Vic and Tasmana til 6 Aug)

 Adaptations of classic novels are frequently good box office - the combination of a familiar story and being out of copyright is very attractive as a package.  But with older narratives come older values, some of which may be outdated and requires reconsideration and recontextualisation in your new material, and if, say, you decide to do the material without thinking about why this story and why now, you can run into troubles....

In the case of this adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's fairly rambling novel, Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij's adaptation places a distinct emphasis on the central relationship between put-upon-orphan governess Jane and the somewhat Byronic Mr. Rochester (even down to the "when your personal life is screwing up, flee to Italy" impulse displayed during act two).  This is, to use modern parlance, a relationship that is overflowing with red flags but it's a strong centre to the work, as the two find themselves pulled together, and it's also where a lot of the stronger material in this production stands, as Nellie Lee's Jane and Julian Garner's Rochester find themselves pulled together despite the power imbalance and the dirty little secret that Mr. Rochester's been hiding in the attic. The adaptation is an attempt to capture the whole novel, but it has a tendency to rush everything that isn't Jane and Rochester or move it to caricature, such that elements of Jane's childhood and the chapters of her post-Thornfield life seem underserved - the adaptation doesn't seem to really have time to give these sections any life beyond an obligatory "well it was in the novel". 

Fortunately, it's in the performances that this relationship really works. Nelle Lee as Jane is narrator and protagonist throughout and keeps the attention even when elements of the adaptation are going a little wonky around her, and Julian Garner gives Rochester his grandeur and impressiveness. Elsewhere Jodie Le Vesconte picks up a number of small roles well, giving clear characterisations to various friends and foes of Jane, from a frustrating aunt to a kindly servant to a snobby socialite and a repressed potential sister-in-law. Sarah McLeod has mostly been hired to do the music and the brief attempts to have her play roles mostly feel either silly (in the case of her monotonously goofy Adele) or underdone (her Helen) although she's a reasonable presence as the somewhat feral Bertha. 

The songs aren't really integrated into the show very well either - either they provide generic reflections of Jane's emotions which are more apparent in the scenes, or else they restate things that are already in the script - while they're perfectly fine melancholic ballads, they don't really heighten the action or do anything other than stretch the show over the two and a half hour mark. Michael Futcher's direction does move the cast around Josh McIntosh's impressive set pretty effectively but sometimes struggles to find a consistent tone between drama and giggles. I will say the dramatic flame effects in the finale do give the show a sense of the epic, and it's a pity that the rest of the show around it doesn't quite match that power. 

So this is a mixed blessing - some decent moments but not an adaptation that really interrogates why this story needed to be retold or worked out a consistent way of presenting it in a modern context.