Mamma Mia!, Free Rain Theatre Company, The Q

 

Abba is part of my foundation. Their victory at Eurovision happened 6 months after I was born, and it was a rare occasion when I was growing up when Abba wasn't on the LP somewhere (my parents and both sets of grandparents had a "best of abba" LP and various other singles available as comfort music for toddler Simon, and I got given "Abba the Album" and was taken to "Abba the Movie" shortly after my Brother was born). They've remained pretty inescapable, the combination of bouncy pop and emotional yearning in the background, and so, when I was first in London in 2001, it was inevitable that the one show I paid full-price tickets for was the musical that combined 23 Abba classics with a pretty reasonable plotline and some energetic performances. Since then, there's been two movies (the first one seen after the session of "The Dark Knight" I wanted to see was sold out, and subsequently shown to my husband relatively early in our relationship after I'd filled him with enough Galliano to not object to Pierce Brosnan, the second surpassing it by throwing in Cher, being better shot so that Croatia looks like a better Greek Island than the actual Greek island in the first movie and by generally being the Godfather 2 of jukebox musicals) and a couple of professional tours and now ... Queanbeyan!

In the fundamentals, this is a simple fun show, tying together the songs through splitting them across a dozen principals, divided into 4 seperate trios, three older women, three older men, three younger men, three younger women - the older group normally getting the more dramatic emotional songs, the younger the more bubblegum pop side of things. Given they've got the bulk of the more emotional material, the olders are generally written better, even though the men slightly suffer with getting songs obviously written for female voices (the one male-original-vocal song, "Does your mother know", is reshuffled to being female-led in an attempt to detoxify the somewhat creepy lyrics) though plot-originating Sophie does get a reasonable amount of personality as she searches for her unknown father through planning a meeting with her mum's three long-lost-lovers in the days before her wedding. 

Free Rain's production serves the material well, with a strong cast across the board. Jarrad West draws on the skills of the cast to personify the various cast-and-ensemble performers with a bit of life (special mention to Cole Hilder and Meagan Stewart for doing a lot with their particularly thin-written characters and giving them a bit of verve and personality), Michelle Heine choreographs up a storm with bachannaliac club bangers like "Gimme Gimme Gimme" and "Voulez Vous" and Alexander Unikowski's band gives energetic performances of the score. Louiza Blomfield leads the cast as Donna in the iconic dungarees, giving the character a realistic middle-aged exhaustion while giving tireless, peerless vocals, from the vengeful "Mamma Mia" to the tender "Slipping through my fingers". Jessica Gowing, understudying for Sophie, slots in perfectly, playing a young woman just on the edge of over-naivety but determined to find her own way. As goofy sidekicks Helen McFarlane and Tracy Noble steal every scene they're in, McFarlane with sophistication and style, Noble with reckless charm (though she's in danger of overmilking the pause before "Take a Chance on Me"). As the three potential dads, Isaac Gordon has effortless charm as Sam, Mark Maconachie is a bashful pleasure as former-headbanger-Harry, and Paul Sweeney shows both presence and softness as the adventurous Bill. Grayson Woodham's Pepper is a little scenestealer whenever he gets a moment, and the ensemble all find individual moments to add life to the show. 

This is pure pleasure done right, and it's joyous to sit in the middle of a packed house at the Q sucking it all up. Go again! 

You're Safe 'Til 2024: Deep History, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre

 David Finnigan is one of those Canberra Artists who've exploded once he's left Canberra - his play "Kill Climate Deniers", which I described elsewhere on this blog as the only play to be improved by dramaturgical assistance by Andrew Bolt, combined big action movie ridiculousness with deep moral interrogation about the future of humanity, complex statistical thought and commentary on its own existence, and took Sydney's Griffin theatre by storm back in 2018 after an inaugural season as part of the You Are Here festival in Canberra. This piece, part of an ambitious 6-show cycle that will apparently all play together in 2024 somewhere somehow, looks at the last 75,000 years of human history, the events of Christmas 2019 in Canberra and its surrounds, Finnigan's father, the early days of his own theatrical career, his obsession with contemporary pop diva Caroline Polocheck and the environmental catastrophe that awaits us all. Accompanied by Reuben Ingall providing musical support, a large funnel and a power point presentation, he drags us into a story that's wide ranging yet specific and emotive, personal yet global, funny yet heartbreaking 

The question may be asked "is this theatre". Well, yes it is - it's storytelling at its most basic, us being the tribe listening to a master storyteller - Finnigan knows how to drag us in, to swerve and vary his narrative to keep us guessing where it's going next, to find an attention-grabbing angle or image, to use metaphors in intriguing manners. It's a skillful piece and I'm very glad Canberra's courtyard theatre is fulfilling its potential here as a place where artists can experiment, develop and perfect their craft.

Playing Beatie Bow, Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company

 Classic novel adaptations seem to be an easy way to bring box office for theatre companies - recently we've had "My Brilliant Career", further back it's "Grapes of Wrath", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Dr Frankenstein"  and the forthcoming "Sense and Sensibility" locally, and interstate "Jasper Jones", "The Harp in the South", "Cloudstreet", "Portrait of Dorian Gray" and "Bliss". They give a familiar structure with room for the production crew to develop a narrative conceived in another form and bring it to new theatrical life. Some can also feel a bit risk-free, trading on familiarity, or give back less than they take from the source material - but at their best it can be thrilling to see a cast fall comfortably into the arms of a grand narrative

Kate Mulvaney's adaptation of "Playing Beatie Bow" is mostly in the latter category - telling Ruth PArk's story of a contemporary girl taken back to 1873 in Sydney's historic "The Rocks" area, it's a rollicking adventure of mysticism, romance, fate and strength. Mulvaney's adaptation brings the contemporary sequences from Park's 1980 to 2021 with skill, and also attempts to stretch the very Anglo-Celtic narrative to reflect a more inclusive historic Australia. This stretch does come at the cost of pushing the running time out to around 2 hours 50 minutes, and it feels like there might be a tigher, faster version of this story out there that's been lost to a show trying to accomplish more than it can naturally fit. 

Having said that, as a demo-reel for what the newly renovated Wharf 1 can do, it can't be beat. Using the full depth of a new massive space, Kip Williams creates gorgeous stage pictures on the David Fleischer's minimal set, with the help of Nick Schlieper's lighting, in a story that races from era to era, from cramped slum home to a cruise across the majestic Sydney Harbour. There's also powerful performancs, from Catherine Van-Davies as our lead, Abigail, a tormented teen with heart, energy and drive, from Sofia Nolan as the somewhat-feral Beatie Bow, from Heather Mitchell both as the embracing Granny and the socialite modern Grandma, from Rory O'Keefe as the adorable Himbo-ish Judah, from Claire Lowvering as the romantically longing Dovey, from Ryan Yeates as the impulsively snippy Gibby, from Tony Cogin as the unrestrained Mr Bow, from Guy Simon as the tormented Johhny Whites, and from Lena Cruz as Abigail's mum. 

This is a little bit indulgent but it's adorably indulgent, and it's a great show to wash over you - this was my first acquaintance with the story, and delving into its complexities was a deeply rewarding experience. If there were a couple of sharp tonal shifts, I'm not entirely sure that all of them aren't from the source material (in particular, the brothel sequence feels like the story is moving to a more Dikensian space than the rest of the story, but it's an entertaining sideline), and it's good to see something stretching itself with skill. A good start to a year of STC works

Stop Girl, Belvoir

Sally Sara's debt play takes the term "write what you know" to extremes - a drama about a returning foreign correspondent who finds the rhythms normal life a challenge after years away covering the events in Afghanistan, it uses simple staging and a set of strong performances to devastating effect.  It's impossible not to take a work like this as being deeply, profoundly personal, and Director Anna-Louise Sarks and her production team bring the work to life very strongly.

Designer Robert Cousins provides a nicely neutral, white space for the story to be enacted - a sheet of blankspace with a screen behind for projections as required. We start on the streets of Afghanistan, seeing reporter Suzie doing her day-to-day work on the streets, accompanied by a friend doing a puff piece about her and her Afghani translator. As she returns home we find her uncertain about how to handle day to day life but presenting the strong competent façade to friends, family, and ultimately a therapist, meanwhile helping her translator chase asylum in Australia. There's strong writing here, even though I'm not entirely sure the right choice on where to end the narrative was chosen (one of the underlying traumas turns out to be a lot more mundane and personal than the ones inherent in her place and location). Still, all central performances are strong - Sheridan Harbridge leverages her recent triumph in "Prima Facie" to create another tough professional young woman breaking under the weight of accumulated trauma,  very different from her previous work but still with a great ability to show the faultines. Amber McMahon is an endearing best friend, honest and with her own issues to play against Suzie's dramas, Toni Scanlon is an engaging mum, very frustratingly perceptive in the best ways, Mansoor Noor as the translator is charming and endearing as he opens up to new possibilities on his arrival in Australia, and Deborah Galanos presents the therapist as practical, direct and never willing to take the back foot Suzie wants her to. 

This is a new Australian play of unusual strength and it's directed with care and skill - design choices through the set, lighting and video design bring the narrative to life carefully and well. I was brought in and felt full after a strong theatrical meal.