The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Canberra Philharmonic Society, ACT Hub, 12-28 Mar

 

A musical about children at a spelling bee may sound like a particuarly gruelling evening of precociousness, but filtered through the brain of an improvisational team led by Rebecca Feldman and the musical assistance of William Finn (who's work has been ofen described as Sondheim-esque, mostly due to a lot of his songs sounding very much like what would happen if someone sung their therapy), it's a hilarious, incisive and even occasionally heartbreaking musical about an unsually passionate group of kids discovering things about themselves, whether it be triumph, friendship, a resistence of parental expectation, a sudden bodily betrayal or surprising intelligence in places they never expected. 

Philo's production is a tightly cast and well-woven production, mixing in improv and audience participation into the mix as various guest-spellers are tagged in to participate. The three adults of the show (Amy Kowalczuk as the ex-bee-champion-and-present-bee-booster Rona Peretti with a truly impressive lady-bun, Tim Stiles as comfort-counsellor-and-community-service-server Mitch Mahoney who discovers his inner sympathy with the kids, and Michael Cooper as the chaotic word-pronouncer Vice Principle Panch) more-or-less organise things while the main cast of six kids go through their individual traumas - Amelia Andersson-Nickson as lonely Olive, introducing herself with the song "My Friend The Dictionary" before  breaking our hearts with the climactic "I love you Song"; Dave Collins grotesquely marvelous as the adenoidal, obsessive, magic-foot possessing William Barfée, constantly suffering under an unpronounced acute accent; Meaghan Stewart as ultra-achiever Lograinne Schwartzandgrubinnaire, coping with two very excitable dads; Joe Mansell as the goofily confused Leaf Coneybear; Ella Colquhoun as the over-it-all Marcy whose accomplishments are beginning to bore her.; and Sterling Notley as the highly accomplished Chip Tolentino whose one slipup may be due to the end of his pre-adolescence...

Nathan Patrech directs a show that could easily become genuine pandemonium and instead is just on the right side of controlled chaos. Choreographer Lachlan Ruffy plays up the goofiness with just the right amount of showbiz pizazz. And Samara Marinelli's musical direction gives high quality harmonies and a nicely bubbling soundtrack underneath. 

In short, this is a show that will make you giggle up until the point where it briefly breaks your heart, about overacccomplished kids who learn how to enjoy themselves (and one dimwit who discovers maybe he isn't as dim as everyone thinks). It's a charmingly fun show that should induce multiple giggles. 

Head over Heels, Well Done Creative, Hayes Theatre, 20 Feb-22 Mar

 A pop musical using the songs of the Go-gos with a plot drawn from the 16th Century pastoral romance "Arcadia" by Sir Phillip Sidney, "Head over Heels" takes place in a blissful kindgom disrupted by multiple love plots and an oracle's prophecy, involving mixed gender romances including some crossdressing, a threat to the ruler and a trip through the forest on the way to a happy ending. But in this production it's largely an excuse for a whole lot of queer joy with a bunch of performers breaking out in songs like "We Got the Beat", "Our Lips are Sealed", "Vacation", "Beautiful" and the Debbie Carlisle ring-in "Heaven is a Place on Earth". Ellen Simpson directs a clean fun frolicsome production on Josh McIntosh's adaptable set as identities are twisted, rearranged and meddled with all over the place on an adaptable space with clever units used to reveal, conceal and show off the performers. 

Stealing a lot of the show is Shannen Alyce Quan as the princessy Pamela who gets carried away by passion in the most delightful of ways - they have a goofy pleasure in their performance that makes everything they do fun. Gaz Dutlow's high-drag oracle Pythio radiates power and poise at all times, setting up and resolving the situation with aplomb. There's also a lot of joy from Nancy Denis as offsider Dametus, mostly observing the consequences of the various nobles running around her until finally getting a part to play in the finale. 

Musical director Zara Stanton keeps a tight rocking band working all the way through, and Ryan Gonzalez choreographs with 80s cheese aforefront as the ensemble moves tightly through the pop-rock classics. All in all it's 120 minutes of joy in pop-cultural form. 

The Elecution of Benjamin Franklin, Griffin Theatre Company, Belvoir Downstairs, 21 Feb-29 Mar

 

Returning to the space where it all began 50 years ago, this revival of Steven J. Spears' worldwide hit is a compelling revisit of an era when homosexuality was still illegal, when elecution lessons were considered the social-climber's ticket to success, and when the youthquake of Jagger, Bowie and Skyhooks smashed against the Australia still despearate to pretend it was still the 1950s. Simon Burke takes on the mantle of our central figure, alone onstage but building up a world around him - of Bruce, his closted friend/lover/playmate, of the censorious neighbours, of the various clients including Mrs Franklin and her stuttering son Benjamin who explodes into his life and shakes everything up with a few surprising revelations about what a 1970s 13-year-old can get up to. Declan Greene's production is set very much in the original era with Isabel Hudson conjuring up a room with the tiled floor, green curtains, many many tchotchkes on the walls and a very very active telephone for Burke to interact with.

Burke owns the stage as a figure who's sarcastic, snide, clearly very much a sexual being keeping a lot of himself under wraps a lot of the time, and finally a figure who's been broken by society's judgements. It's a marathon part, and Burke holds the stage like the star that he is - compelling from startling entrance to final blackout. 

The Normal Heart, Sydney Theatre Company, Opera House Drama Theatre, 9 Feb- 14 Mar

 Photo - Neil Bennett

Larry Kramer's 1985 play is an urgent, visceral piece of writing - an expression of rage over the inaction of various levels of government and media and the gay political response to the AIDS virus. Kramer centres himself as protagonist and storyteller, as he gets dragged into gay politics at its most urgent moment, and the inevitable personal consequences as he clashes with those around him who he sees as compromised or inactive. It's true that Kramer does lack sufficient distance to give a fully rounded version of himself or those around him, but he captures a time and a moment with pure "I was there" energy. In this production, directed by Dean Bryant, played in an institutional room (designed by Jeremy Allen) that looks like many of the hospitals, medical centres and community buildings where the activism was born, it feels very much like being in the heat of the moment when it all happened.

Mitchell Butel leads the cast as Kramer's self-portrait, Ned Weeks, a complex mix of activist, seer, lover, sentimentalist, cynic and holy terror. We feel exactly why he's like this with a few quick memories of his history with his straight brother, and we ride along with him all the way to the inevitable conclusion of those battles. Alongside him are Tim Draxl as the compromised and compromising Bruce, eager to make inways without a war, Keynan Lonsdale as Tommy, the volunteer whose life becomes taken over by the crisis, Nicholas Brown as Felix, the partner who bears the brunt of a lot of Ned's rants but stays anyway, Emma Jones as the doctor who tries to keep things just-the-facts until it becomes too overwhelming to do that any more and she joins in the rage. 

The bigger stage of the Drama theatre and some clunky scene transitions means that this falls behind the Everyman Theatre production from a decade ago in the loss of intimacy, but this is still a strong production of a major work from a major company.  

A Mirror, Belvoir St Theatre, Upstairs Theatre, 21 Feb-22 Mar

 

Plays with a twist are the hardest to review - particularly this one, where when we arrive we're expecting to see a play - but the stage is set for a wedding, with groom and registrar and best man standing by, handing out programs of the wedding to the audience with an order of service. But there are hints that all is not as it should be - as you climb the stairs to the upstairs theatre, all the posters of previous shows normally on the stairs are marked out as "censored by the department of culture", and the back of the order of service includes an Oath of allegiance with promises to "offier my body and mind to the eternal glory of the Motherland". Of course this is no ordinary wedding, but instead we're involved in a story about art and its influences, and those who try to control it. 

The core ensemble of Rose Riley, Eden Falk, Faisal Hamza and Yali Ozucelik are a strong unit, playing the two levels of the play with skill and care, as the facade of the wedding slips into the storytelling and it is apparent the story we're being told is one at great personal risk. The nature of the risk doesn't become completely clear until the finale, but there's enough indication along the way of what might be coming any moment to keep tension throughout for a tight 1 hour 50 minutes without intermission. Angelina Daniel's set looks simultaneously realistic and yet adapts to the other requirements of the story with the help of Phoebe Pilcher's lighting design. 

I'm being deliberately obtuse about the content of Sam Holcroft's script, because the best way to enter this show is to know as little as possible and to be engrossed by the questions it asks. It's not a show presenting easy answers to challenging questions about personal integrity, and it leaves you moved and shaken. 

Bedroom Farce, Canberra Rep, 19 Feb-7 Mar

 

Alan Ayckbourn's play has a slightly misleading title - while it's set in three bedrooms it's not really a farce (as that genre is far more about propulsive plots and frantic acting-before-thinking). Structurally this is another of Ayckbourn's experiments with form, taking place in three different bedrooms over one very long night and into the next morning as the residents mostly fail to get a good night's sleep due to the rampaging couple Trevor and Susannah. It's a look at hetro relationships as they were in the 1970s and as they still frequently are now - the minor dissatisfactions, the passive-agressions, the agressive agressions and the late night conversations that have a little too much truth in them. 

In the far left bedroom are Ernest and Delia, who's idea of an adventurous night is a nice restaurant followed by sardines-on-toast in bed. Pat Gallagher gives Ernest a nicely subdued, slightly Eyore-ish nature as he worries about the damp patch and the ettiquete of tipping, while Sally Rynveld as Delia has an iron fist in the velvet glove as she steers Ernest none-too-gently towards what she particularly wants. 

In the middle bedroom are Malcolm and Kate, just moved in together and about to have their housewarming but still playing pranks on one another. Antonia Kitzel gives Kate an anxious host energy, trying to show everyone a good time even at the possible expense of her own dignity, while Lachlan Abrahams gives Malcolm bumptious enthusiasm  covering up an easily bruised ego that becomes apparent as their conversation gets a little deeper in the second act. 

On the far right are Jan and Nick - Jan preparing for a night of being social at Malcolm and Kate's housewarming, Nick confined to bed after a recent back injury. Azerie Cromhout gives Jan an inner irritability while Rob de Fries is ragefully self-pitying as Nick fails to keep himself from exacrbating his injuries in all kinds of deligutful ways.

In between all three bedrooms are the dreaded Trevor and Susannah - a relationship on the rocks which infests each of the other three couples in various ways. James Grudnoff gives Trevor a self-centred air, blithely unaware of what he's doing to those around him, while Lara Connolly's Susannah attempts to and mostly fails to maintain her calming mantra. 

Andrew Kay's set gives us the vibes of each of the three host couples pretty easily, from the not-quite-fully-furnished mixed wallpaper of Malcolm and Kate to the modernist-futon-pad of Nick and Jan and the charmingly fusty room of Earnest and Delia. Mike Maloney manages the shifting lighting states across all three across the evening, and James McPherson sets mood well with pre-show tunes and three different ringtones for the telephones in each room. Cate Clelland dresses them all in a mix of evening-and-bedtime wear. 

Aarne Neeme stages a fairly tight production that gets a lot of laughs out of familiar characters and situations, with a little bit of truth in there as well. 

Never Closer, Off The Ledge Theatre, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre, 19-28 February

 

Photography - Photox - Ben Appleton

Grace Chapple's 2022 play premiered downstairs at Belvoir as part of the independent 25A season, and two years later got a run upstairs as part of the formal season. It's a play about five young friends in an Irish border town, starting in 1977 when they're 18 and enjoying summer holidays, against a background of occasional explosions and possible violence due to the ongoing Troubles. We flash forward to Christmas ten years later, when the friends have dispersed somewhat but are reunited when one of them, who's been living in London for a while, returns with her fiancé, an Englishman, and the mix of old tensions, regrets and the ongoing political tensions bubbles under until things boil over in a shattering climax. An epilogue 30 years later looks at the current generation and how the fallout of their parents' decisions have landed on them. 

Off The Ledge's production is a solid production of Chapple's text - Lachlan Houen directs with a sense of the tensions and the messiness of old friendships reunited - the desire for reconciliation and the regret at old hurts bumping up against each other. He has a rich cast - Emily O'Mahoney as the resentful Deirdre holds a lot of the tensions of the play within her and carries them well, Joel Hrbek as the gentle Jimmy is heartwarmingly kind, and Pippin Carrol as the outsider English Harry is wide-eyed-ly shocked at the hornet's nest he's wandered into while never quite breaking etiquette to escape. 

This is a skilled piece of new Australian writing given an engaging production in the intimacy of the Courtyard studio and is well worth 90 minutes of your time.