Due to hurt feelings from my last review, I feel very uncomfortable reviewing any further work or engaging in any way with its director. I've tried to keep this blog relatively collegial, where I don't interfere with the right of artists to do their work the way they want and in return, they don't interfere with my right to respond in the way I choose. That polite exchange has been broken. And I don't know that it can be healed particularly easily. I am aware that in one private conversation a year and a half ago I was intemperate. I wasn't aware that was going to be held against me forever. But apparently it is.
So, we're on a hiatus.
Friday, 30 November 2018
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
One Man Two Guvnors, Canberra Rep, Theatre 3
Carlo Goldoni's commedia-inspired "Servant of Two Masters" is one of those classics that can always stand a revival as long as you've got the right leading man playing the titular servant. In an Australian context the translation written for the Old Tote in the 70s, originally entitled "How could you believe me when I said I'd be your valet when you know I've been a liar all my life" and starring Drew Forsythe has stuck around a reasonably long time (returned to its standard, non-marquee-busting title, it got a Nimrod revival in the 80s and was picked up by Bell Shakespeare in the 2000s to be a vehicle for their talented clown Darren Gilshenan). The Richard Bean adaptation premiered at the National Theatre in 2011 emerged to prominence on the back of a James Corden performance that launched him into the heights of talk-showdom, and a carefree updating from the renaissance to early-60s Brighton, an England just on the verge of swinging that still had plenty of time for Carry-On style jokes.
This production has the right leading man. Arran McKenna has played the role before (in a much-remembered-by-this-reviewer ANU drama lab production in 2007 where I particularly remember his comic byplay with Erin Pugh, one of the best physical comediennes of her generation), and he knows exactly how the role works - ingratiating himself with the audience quickly and committing himself whole heatedly both to the comic shenanigans and the very real physical hungers that underlie all the comedy. It also has the wonderful Steph Roberts, doing her best Barbara Windsor as the lusty, independent, thoroughly no-bullshit Dolly, and Patrick Galen-Mules upperclass-twitting to perfection as one of the titular Guvnors, Stanley.
Elsewhere, the spread is a little more uneven. There's exposition that feels raced through, there's curtain lines that fall flat, there's running gags that stagger and there's sight gags that fail to pay off. The physical production is big and impressive (and I don't object in principle to people trying big-scale stuff on Canberra stages) but here it often seems like it's trying to compete with the actors rather than compliment their work - the play lives and breathes when the cast is forming a connection to the audience and some of the grandiose nature of the production acts, for me, as a block rather than an assist to having that connection.
I laughed a reasonable amount at this, and for those three key performances this is certainly worth watching. But there's a lot here that could have been improved with a bit more control and focus on the bigger picture.
This production has the right leading man. Arran McKenna has played the role before (in a much-remembered-by-this-reviewer ANU drama lab production in 2007 where I particularly remember his comic byplay with Erin Pugh, one of the best physical comediennes of her generation), and he knows exactly how the role works - ingratiating himself with the audience quickly and committing himself whole heatedly both to the comic shenanigans and the very real physical hungers that underlie all the comedy. It also has the wonderful Steph Roberts, doing her best Barbara Windsor as the lusty, independent, thoroughly no-bullshit Dolly, and Patrick Galen-Mules upperclass-twitting to perfection as one of the titular Guvnors, Stanley.
Elsewhere, the spread is a little more uneven. There's exposition that feels raced through, there's curtain lines that fall flat, there's running gags that stagger and there's sight gags that fail to pay off. The physical production is big and impressive (and I don't object in principle to people trying big-scale stuff on Canberra stages) but here it often seems like it's trying to compete with the actors rather than compliment their work - the play lives and breathes when the cast is forming a connection to the audience and some of the grandiose nature of the production acts, for me, as a block rather than an assist to having that connection.
I laughed a reasonable amount at this, and for those three key performances this is certainly worth watching. But there's a lot here that could have been improved with a bit more control and focus on the bigger picture.
Saturday, 24 November 2018
12 Angry Men, Everyman, Queanbeyan Bicentennial Hall.
Reginald Rose's play is more than sixty years old, and while it's still a taut effective drama, it's not, for me, an unimpeachable classic. There are rather a lot of contrivances in getting the events in the jury room to play out, as the jurors, provoked by one man who holds out for "Not Guilty", re-examine both the evidence at the trial and their own prejudices, as people reveal at various points they "just happened to see" some extra fact that opens up the case for further discussion, dropped in ways that don't always feel organic to the conversation as much as they seem like something that can push the play closer to its resolution (and of course, all plays are ultimately contrivances to present events to develop towards an interesting resolution, but in this one the gears are a little too obviously apparent). It feels its age slightly when it gets into issues of race (the out-and-out racist is deliberately kept vague as to what race he's racist against, in a way that definitely feels contrived) and in some unexamined sexism near the end of the play as the one female offstage character referred, a witness to the crime, has her evidence questioned using some fairly iffy dimestore psychology. And it does have a few moments when it confuses drama with "Everybody yells at each other a lot" in ways that feel a bit like pointless machismo.
Having said that, it's a well known play and one where the title will sell tickets (while one of the alternate-gendered variants on the title "Twelve Angry Women" or "Twelve Angry Jurors" might not), so I understand the marketing decision to do it (and, well, other people probably don't have my nitpicks so they may actually like it anyway). And Everyman's production is mostly a pretty effective one - performed in the round, from my seat (midway down the table) everything was audible and clear (I understand reports have varied between performances). In a cast of 12 (well, 13 including baliff), I'm not going to list everyone, but I will pick out a couple. Certainly it's good to have Isaac Reily back onstage after way too long a gap as the inciting juror number 8 - in a performance that's precise, sturdy and solid as he picks away at each of his fellow jurors towards finding some level of certainty. As his chief antagonist, Rob DeFries combines surface charm with under-the-surface-bitterness as it becomes increasingly obvious what hidden agendas are driving him. Elsewhere around the table there's a mix of familiar and unfamiliar performers, with most serving their characters reasonably (although I tend to think most of the characters are written pretty thinly with maybe only one or two personality traits, and not everyone really managed to conceal that to bring us something that felt a bit more rounded). The points where the tension boils over and fights get louder tended to feel a bit messy - movement and focus became unclear and it all became a bit of undifferentiated yelling.
All in all, despite the in-the-round approach this did feel a little bit distanced - both by the decision to keep it based in the US in the 50s, by my own issues with the script, and by a performance style that keeps this very "classic movie" - this isn't a production that surprises anywhere except in the curtain call music (I did love the curtain call music). Everybody's doing what they're doing pretty well, it's just ... I didn't often have that sense of discovery or being taken away in the moment. And that's kinda why I go to the theatre.
Having said that, it's a well known play and one where the title will sell tickets (while one of the alternate-gendered variants on the title "Twelve Angry Women" or "Twelve Angry Jurors" might not), so I understand the marketing decision to do it (and, well, other people probably don't have my nitpicks so they may actually like it anyway). And Everyman's production is mostly a pretty effective one - performed in the round, from my seat (midway down the table) everything was audible and clear (I understand reports have varied between performances). In a cast of 12 (well, 13 including baliff), I'm not going to list everyone, but I will pick out a couple. Certainly it's good to have Isaac Reily back onstage after way too long a gap as the inciting juror number 8 - in a performance that's precise, sturdy and solid as he picks away at each of his fellow jurors towards finding some level of certainty. As his chief antagonist, Rob DeFries combines surface charm with under-the-surface-bitterness as it becomes increasingly obvious what hidden agendas are driving him. Elsewhere around the table there's a mix of familiar and unfamiliar performers, with most serving their characters reasonably (although I tend to think most of the characters are written pretty thinly with maybe only one or two personality traits, and not everyone really managed to conceal that to bring us something that felt a bit more rounded). The points where the tension boils over and fights get louder tended to feel a bit messy - movement and focus became unclear and it all became a bit of undifferentiated yelling.
All in all, despite the in-the-round approach this did feel a little bit distanced - both by the decision to keep it based in the US in the 50s, by my own issues with the script, and by a performance style that keeps this very "classic movie" - this isn't a production that surprises anywhere except in the curtain call music (I did love the curtain call music). Everybody's doing what they're doing pretty well, it's just ... I didn't often have that sense of discovery or being taken away in the moment. And that's kinda why I go to the theatre.
Thursday, 8 November 2018
Godspell, Queanbeyan Players, The Q
"Godspell" is a very early-seventies kinda musical - a look at Jesus with mostly the parables through a mix of improv-style comedy and a folky-style of music with lyrics drawn from traditional hymns, finishing with Christ's passion and execution. There are obvious parallels with that other big Jesus musical that seems to hit the stage fairly regularly, but this also has significant differences - there's far more emphasis on spiritual teaching, the score is far more shared around the ensemble, and there's less howling for power-notes all the time. It's a very sincere show that allows a lot of opportunities for a production to choose its own way into it (the parables and songs allow for a range of different presentation - in a weird way, this is a very Brechtian kinda religions show). Best remembered, perhaps, is the original Toronto production that launched the careers of comedians like Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin and Dave Thomas (four would go on to create the legendary Canadian sketch comedy series "SCTV" - Radner would go on to be one of the original stars of "Saturday Night Live", taking with her both the show's musical director (Paul Shaeffer) and its saxaphone player (Howard Shore)).
Queanbeyan Players takes this and runs with it, experimenting with the show in a lot of different ways. Not all the experiments pay off completely, but more do than don't. A game-for-anything cast of ten with a carefully deployed backup choir that only emerges in a couple of big moments give the parables a warm sense of humour and gentleness. Alexander Gorring and Anthony Swadling are the only ones directly playing familiar biblical figures (Gorring as Jesus, Swadling playing a role that morphs from John the Baptist to Judas over the course of the evening), and both have great moments (in particular the double-edged "All for the Best", shared between the two), but so does everybody else (Emily Ridge giving a heartfelt and beautifully sung version of the show's biggest hit, "Day by Day", Kirsten Haussmann a sultry and hilarious "Turn Back Oh Man", Lauren Granger is heartbreaking in my personal favourite song of the score "By My Side", Aaron Sims gives a bouncy "We Beseech Thee", Joe Moores a powerful "All Good Gifts", Sarah Hull a slammingly good "Bless the Lord", Michael Jordan a rocking "Light of the World" and Alyce King a sweet "Learn your lessons well". The company combines beautifully on the touching moments just before the finale with "On the Willows", and the finale version of "Beautiful City" (added for the movie and then incorporated formally for 2011 revisions) is a gorgeous way to wrap the show up.
There are a couple of hiccups - the opening moment in the foyer is one of those things where if it could have been blended through to get the audience into the theatre it woulda completely paid off (and in actual perforamnce and presentation, it's impressive, but the fact it's followed by a few minutes of practically getting the audience into the theatre means it feels separated from the show in a way that it probably shouldn't be) - and Alexander Gorring's Jesus was showing a couple of moments of vocal strain. But I felt the warmth and the tightness of a company of actors engaged with pure storytelling in an emotionally direct way, the foremost quality that defines a good Godspell. It's a very sincere and heartfelt show, and if you're looking for glossy polished surfaces, this is not the show for you. It's a show that reaches across the footlights and holds you in its heart with strength and compassion. And this production meets that challenge head on.
Queanbeyan Players takes this and runs with it, experimenting with the show in a lot of different ways. Not all the experiments pay off completely, but more do than don't. A game-for-anything cast of ten with a carefully deployed backup choir that only emerges in a couple of big moments give the parables a warm sense of humour and gentleness. Alexander Gorring and Anthony Swadling are the only ones directly playing familiar biblical figures (Gorring as Jesus, Swadling playing a role that morphs from John the Baptist to Judas over the course of the evening), and both have great moments (in particular the double-edged "All for the Best", shared between the two), but so does everybody else (Emily Ridge giving a heartfelt and beautifully sung version of the show's biggest hit, "Day by Day", Kirsten Haussmann a sultry and hilarious "Turn Back Oh Man", Lauren Granger is heartbreaking in my personal favourite song of the score "By My Side", Aaron Sims gives a bouncy "We Beseech Thee", Joe Moores a powerful "All Good Gifts", Sarah Hull a slammingly good "Bless the Lord", Michael Jordan a rocking "Light of the World" and Alyce King a sweet "Learn your lessons well". The company combines beautifully on the touching moments just before the finale with "On the Willows", and the finale version of "Beautiful City" (added for the movie and then incorporated formally for 2011 revisions) is a gorgeous way to wrap the show up.
There are a couple of hiccups - the opening moment in the foyer is one of those things where if it could have been blended through to get the audience into the theatre it woulda completely paid off (and in actual perforamnce and presentation, it's impressive, but the fact it's followed by a few minutes of practically getting the audience into the theatre means it feels separated from the show in a way that it probably shouldn't be) - and Alexander Gorring's Jesus was showing a couple of moments of vocal strain. But I felt the warmth and the tightness of a company of actors engaged with pure storytelling in an emotionally direct way, the foremost quality that defines a good Godspell. It's a very sincere and heartfelt show, and if you're looking for glossy polished surfaces, this is not the show for you. It's a show that reaches across the footlights and holds you in its heart with strength and compassion. And this production meets that challenge head on.
Saturday, 3 November 2018
An Enemy of the People, Belvoir
For me, this is a near-miss. A combination of a couple of creative decisions means that a promising update of Ibsen's classic drama of standing alone against popular opinion ends up feeling just that little bit flatter than it should.
First, the good. Kate Mulvany is a powerhouse performer and casting her as Ibsen's protagonist gives the play so much additional power. And when the rubber hits the road in the second act (particularly in the public meeting at the top of the second act), Ibsen's play feels utterly current in its look at whistleblowing, how an individual can be demolished by the society around them and how a conspiracy of silence actually works. There's also strong imagery in the basic design.by Mel Page (both in the last scene of the first act and the second scene of the second act - though the design in the last scene of the first act both looks visibly impressive and doesnt' entirely make sense in the situation of the play - why is Dr STockman walking through a steam room when the steam is made up of toxic water? Is the toxicity removed simply by boiling it? In which case why isn't she just suggesting boiling it first?)
Still, that same design also weakens the production. The glass-boxed patio, while useful for a couple of stage images, means that too much of the action is played at a slight cut-off from the audience (miked inside the box, with voices amplified outside), and it means much of the second scene of act one and the second scene of act two just don't feel quite as immediate and engaging. Like all stage devices, these need to be used carefully and this just feels like a recycle.
And the gender change feels like it hasn't gone far enough. Peter Carroll, Leon Ford and Steve LeMarquand in particular are fine and well regarded actors (and Charles Wu and Kenneth Moraleda are equally as strong, if less well known), but the play would only gain if one or more of these roles had been cast female - as it stands, this presentation of the play simplifies things to "good women versus bad men", and that's surely too simplistic a way of telling the story. There's interesting complex roles going begging for women here, and it'd give us a wider sense of the world if women were allowed to play both sides of the debate rather than just being stuck on one.
Melissa Reeves adaptation also sometimes feels a bit under-thought through - she introduces a thread of class-consciousness into the play, but it feels imposed rather than part of the material (it doesn't have a parallel in Ibsen and while it's not the worst idea in the world, it's too marginal to matter), and there are occasions when some of the dialogue fails to sit comfortably on the actors.
Still, there's Mulvaney and the rest of the cast delivering strong performances in what is, in its bones, a strong play (even if there are occasional hiccups). This is a "almost gets there" show.
First, the good. Kate Mulvany is a powerhouse performer and casting her as Ibsen's protagonist gives the play so much additional power. And when the rubber hits the road in the second act (particularly in the public meeting at the top of the second act), Ibsen's play feels utterly current in its look at whistleblowing, how an individual can be demolished by the society around them and how a conspiracy of silence actually works. There's also strong imagery in the basic design.by Mel Page (both in the last scene of the first act and the second scene of the second act - though the design in the last scene of the first act both looks visibly impressive and doesnt' entirely make sense in the situation of the play - why is Dr STockman walking through a steam room when the steam is made up of toxic water? Is the toxicity removed simply by boiling it? In which case why isn't she just suggesting boiling it first?)
Still, that same design also weakens the production. The glass-boxed patio, while useful for a couple of stage images, means that too much of the action is played at a slight cut-off from the audience (miked inside the box, with voices amplified outside), and it means much of the second scene of act one and the second scene of act two just don't feel quite as immediate and engaging. Like all stage devices, these need to be used carefully and this just feels like a recycle.
And the gender change feels like it hasn't gone far enough. Peter Carroll, Leon Ford and Steve LeMarquand in particular are fine and well regarded actors (and Charles Wu and Kenneth Moraleda are equally as strong, if less well known), but the play would only gain if one or more of these roles had been cast female - as it stands, this presentation of the play simplifies things to "good women versus bad men", and that's surely too simplistic a way of telling the story. There's interesting complex roles going begging for women here, and it'd give us a wider sense of the world if women were allowed to play both sides of the debate rather than just being stuck on one.
Melissa Reeves adaptation also sometimes feels a bit under-thought through - she introduces a thread of class-consciousness into the play, but it feels imposed rather than part of the material (it doesn't have a parallel in Ibsen and while it's not the worst idea in the world, it's too marginal to matter), and there are occasions when some of the dialogue fails to sit comfortably on the actors.
Still, there's Mulvaney and the rest of the cast delivering strong performances in what is, in its bones, a strong play (even if there are occasional hiccups). This is a "almost gets there" show.
Book of Mormon, Lyric Theatre sydney
Yeah, I'm late to this one - it's about to close in Sydney and it's a good year and a half since the Australian production first opened in Melbourne - but I had an afternoon off, it's about to leave Sydney and it was time I got around to it. I was already very familiar with the US cast recording (and have even bought a copy of the script), but it was time to see how this held up on stage, and is it worth the somewhat exorbitant prices? The answer is "pretty well" and ... "possibly".
There is a reason why this is an international hit - it's tuneful and wickedly funny, and the combination of Parker and Stone from "South Park" and Bobby Lopez from "Avenue Q" and "Frozen" turns out to be a great trio. Parker and Stone's fascination with Mormon theology (which has popped up both in their film "Orgazmo" and during "South Park") gets explored in a way that both points out the ludicrousness of the beliefs and the otherwise-good-intentions of the people involved in spreading them, and the songs and script give the most sensible attitude to the Africans that the Mormons are meant to be enlightening. If, yes, it's also full of fairly brutal honesty about the nature of both modern African culture and the nonsense of theology, it's remarkably willing to let pretty much everybody have a redemptive ending. Casey Nicolaw's production keeps things visually distinctive with bouncy choreography and fast flowing effective design which knows how to emphasise every gag and cut to the chase as quickly as possible.
If there's a problem, it's a problem common to a lot of long-running professional shows -this does feel just that little bit too glossy - there's no sense that there's anything really "live" in this show any more, that most of the cast is pretty much going through exactly the same motions they will be going through for months ahead. And I don't really get a sense of anything individual from any of the performers - everybody seems very stuck in a track which was set down by another performer years ago. And that makes this slightly less fun for me -even as I'm aware it's the nature of the beast that this can't be varied that much, it does kill the "live"ness of a show just that little bit.
But as what this is, yes, it's indeed a very finely polished fun machine.
There is a reason why this is an international hit - it's tuneful and wickedly funny, and the combination of Parker and Stone from "South Park" and Bobby Lopez from "Avenue Q" and "Frozen" turns out to be a great trio. Parker and Stone's fascination with Mormon theology (which has popped up both in their film "Orgazmo" and during "South Park") gets explored in a way that both points out the ludicrousness of the beliefs and the otherwise-good-intentions of the people involved in spreading them, and the songs and script give the most sensible attitude to the Africans that the Mormons are meant to be enlightening. If, yes, it's also full of fairly brutal honesty about the nature of both modern African culture and the nonsense of theology, it's remarkably willing to let pretty much everybody have a redemptive ending. Casey Nicolaw's production keeps things visually distinctive with bouncy choreography and fast flowing effective design which knows how to emphasise every gag and cut to the chase as quickly as possible.
If there's a problem, it's a problem common to a lot of long-running professional shows -this does feel just that little bit too glossy - there's no sense that there's anything really "live" in this show any more, that most of the cast is pretty much going through exactly the same motions they will be going through for months ahead. And I don't really get a sense of anything individual from any of the performers - everybody seems very stuck in a track which was set down by another performer years ago. And that makes this slightly less fun for me -even as I'm aware it's the nature of the beast that this can't be varied that much, it does kill the "live"ness of a show just that little bit.
But as what this is, yes, it's indeed a very finely polished fun machine.
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