Peter Carey's 1997 novel uses Charles Dickens' 1860 novel "Great Expectations" as a bouncing off point - taking the figure of Magwitch, one of the first literary appearances of an Australian expatriate, and exploring him more deeply, also using the life and work of Dickens in painting the figure of a novelist, Tobias Oates, who attempts to exploit Maggs' story and ultimately pays several costs. Samuel Adamson's adaptation theatricalises this in a rich and engrossing way as Maggs attempts to live among the english and realise his potential exposes him to greater and greater risks.
That Guy who Watches Canberra Theatre
Friday, 6 December 2024
Jack Maggs, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Canberra Theatre Centre, Playhouse, 5-7 Nov
Peter Carey's 1997 novel uses Charles Dickens' 1860 novel "Great Expectations" as a bouncing off point - taking the figure of Magwitch, one of the first literary appearances of an Australian expatriate, and exploring him more deeply, also using the life and work of Dickens in painting the figure of a novelist, Tobias Oates, who attempts to exploit Maggs' story and ultimately pays several costs. Samuel Adamson's adaptation theatricalises this in a rich and engrossing way as Maggs attempts to live among the english and realise his potential exposes him to greater and greater risks.
Thursday, 5 December 2024
Eurydice, Lexi Sekuless Productions, Mill Theatre at Dairy Road,
It's interesting that this is the second Sarah Ruhl play to perform in Canberra this year, after "Dead Man's Cell Phone", and it's also interesting that these are the two plays she's written that are most engaged with death and the afterlife - "Cell Phone" treating it as a farce about a young woman finding her identity as she co-mingles with the history of a stranger, while "Eurydice" is a mythic tragedy about the loss of connections - Ruhl concentrates on elements that aren't normally focussed on in the myth through the eyes of Eurydice, including her reconnection with her departed father and the nature of the underworld where the sense of personal identity is lost and people are forced into isolation. Amy Kowalckzuk's production has beauty as well as melancholy running deep in its soul, from the opening rhapsody of Eurydice and Orpheus's young love, to the distance that opens up when she can't absorb his beloved music as much as he wants, to the distraction of the Nasty Interesting Man, to the persecution of the chorus of Stones, to the compassionate reconnection with her father to the final playing out of the myth in bleak loss. While it's a short play it never feels rushed in its developments, with moments given time to ruminate and impinge on the audience.
Saturday, 30 November 2024
Bloody Murder, Canberra Rep, 21 Nov-7 Dec
The conventions of the mystery thriller are well understood and equally well parodied by now - the group of suspects gathered together in a remote location all with multiple motives to slaughter one another, and bodies drop on a regular schedule until a finale where all is revealed. Versions of it are still going, whether it be the regular cycle of murders in Midsomer (23 series and counting) or revivals of Agatha Christie on stage and screen. Even after frequent spoofs from Neil Simon's "Murder by Death" and Jonathan Lynn's "Clue", and Tom Stoppard's existential parody of both the country house murder and theatre critics in "Real Inspector Hound", the genre still persists (then again, post-hound, theatre critics also still persist so... maybe we'll just call it even).
Ed Sala's script for "Bloody Murder" plays into the stereotypes - an assembly of types from drunken actor to disreputable nephew, boastful major, bashful ingenue, imperious dowager aunt and faithful maid - before pulling a few twists on the formula that examine the workings behind these kinds of stories. It doesn't quite go to the dark existential places that Stoppard did but it's still clever, funny and, in Josh Wiseman's production, brisk, stylish and effective.
The septet of performers embody their stereotypes while going beyond them as the plot requires. There's physical comedy as the bodies hit the floor under various methods of murder, there's dexterity as the twisty-turny plot reaches unlikely conclusions and there's all kinds of surprises that a critic would have to be evil to hint at. The production is a delight for the senses from a perfect country-estate set to mood-setting sound and lighting from Nathan Scriberras and Neville Pye.
This isn't a show that's trying for depth, just for diversion, fun and a few thrills, and it captures those perfectly. It deserves large appreciative audiences.
Friday, 22 November 2024
Sweat, Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf Theatre, Wharf 1, 11 Nov-22 Dec
Lynn Notage's 2015 play deals with a small town in crisis, as the employees of a steelworks gather in the local bar to largely bitch, moan and blow off some steam. The world financial crisis is hitting elsewhere and Cynthia is in with a chance of finally being promoted off the factory floor. But soon it becomes clear that bad times are coming to everyone and some of the decisions Cynthia has to make will create a rift between her and her old friend Tracey, and lead to repercussions for both of their sons.
August: Osage County, Belvoir St Theatre/Black Swan State Theatre, Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir Street Theatre, 9 Nov-15 Dec
Didn't I just review this already? Well, yes, but Belvoir and Black Swan's production has just enough different choices to make it worthy of interest, from the decision to use a set (designed by Bob Cousns) which takes a more impressionistic approach to the challenge of combining a whole house full of family members on stage (including incorporating the symbolic papered-over-windows into the set), to a relentless pace that blends the opening discrete scenes into one another, to the timing of a production of a play about the declining United States of America after the to the performance idiosyncracies of a new set of actors, from Pamela Rabe's monstrous celebration of a Violet Weston to John Howard's permasloshed Beverly, Helen Thompson's disgruntled Tammy Faye, Greg Stone's goofy Charles Aiken, Tamsin Carrol's volatile Barbara, Bert La Bonte's chagrined Bill, Amy Mathews' deglamorised Ivy, to Esther William's desperately young Jean to Bee Cruise's observant and quietly cutting Johnna.
Thursday, 21 November 2024
Sunday, Sydney Theatre Company/Melbourne Theatre Company, Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House, 28 Oct-12 Dec
Anthony Weighs's play covers about thirty years of history between a mix of characters who were all associated with the titular Sunday Reed and the art commune she created in a rural property near Melbourne, and particularly focuses on her relationship with one of the artists, Sydney Nolan - though the non-linear storytelling goes back to her initial meeting with her eventual husband, John Reed, and forward to the final parting between her and Nolan. Sarah Goodes stages it on a mostly simple stage with a gap in the back where dates are projected, as artistic and personal passions become mixed and questions become raised about who's the true creator of the work, patron or artist.
Friday, 8 November 2024
A Balloon Will Pop * At Some Point During This Play, East and Under Theatre Company, ACT Hub, 8-9 November
This is one of those shows that's great fun to watch but a bugger to review. To even describe it is a challenge - it's sorta standup-philosophy, which as anybody who saw Mel Brooks' "History of the World Part I" know, means bullshit, but in this case it's erudite, thoughtful bullshit with an inate suspense created by the titular balloon and a visible sharp object. Andrew McMillan, fresh from playing Leo and Adam in "The Inheritance", tells a big scale story delving into some of the bigger questions of existance, while also not being above some jokes that could considered low comedy.