God of Carnage, Echo Theatre, The Q, 23-26 Nov

 Image credit: Photox - Canberra Photography Services

Yasmina Reza's 2006 comedy is a challenging piece - it's a real-time one-act comedy with no obvious jokes in any of the dialogue, which seems to go out of its way to start after the most obviously dramatic events of its premise have passed (two couples meet after the son of one has injured the son of another in a fight - by the time we meet them, they've already come to an agreement and are fine tuning the final wording on a joint statement). What follows is coffee, Clafoutis and a degeneration into chaos as small differences escalate into major battles and the seemingly sophisticated parents are reduce to their most savage instincts. There's all varieties of bad behaviour, from incessent mobile phone interruptions through petty snobbery to a few violent interractions, as the veneer of civilization is shown to be perilously thin.

Jordan Best directs this in a fine manner, managing the pace between the slow builds up of tension and the sudden explosions into violent outbursts. All four performers are at the top of their game - Lainie Hart as the wife nursing long-held grudges, Jim Adamik as the one preoccupied with his mobile phone, sublimely dismissive and arrogant, Carolyn Eccles as the most precious of the group, self-confessedly utterly humourless (and all the funnier for it), and Josh Wiseman as the solicitously friendly one, infuriatingly capable of seeing all sides of the argument. There's not a wrong note in the under 90 minute running time - the quartet plays this material to perfection, bringing out the character's foibles, agressions, defensiveness and pretentiouns in full glorious display. 

This is a great wrapup to the year, seeing a quartet of great actors getting a chance to play with material that allows them to play the full gamut from genteel politeness to mind-boggling rage, and it's a capstone on a great year of local theatre. Catch it while you can!

Sense and Sensibility, Canberra Rep Theatre, 17 Nov-3 Dec

 Kate Hammill's adaptation of "Sense and Sensibility" uses most of its cast as a gossipy-greek-chorus, forever commenting on the romantic trials and travails of the Dashwood sisters, the rational, restrained Elinor and the more emotional Marianne. It's an interesting approach, situating the characters very much in a society where everyone has too much time on their hands and concerns themselves with other people's peccadillos, as the sisters struggle to find an eligible match among the various single gentlemen around them - whether it be the bashful Edaward, the stoic Colonel Brandon or the dashing Willoghby. 

There's a charm and verve in the story, particularly in the second act as the women face increasing challenges to their happily-ever-after and the stoic Elinor comes closer and closer to breaking point, in the face of the ruthlessly chatty Lucy Steele, though the production doesn't always take advantage of the fleet-of-footness that the script provides -there's a lot of setting-and-resetting of the minimal furniture rather than prsenting a seamless rush of story which would enable us to be driven forward and caught up in the narrative. There's a fine sense of period style in the costumes, the set, and the country dancing, and the entire production has a romping energy to it which is interrupted by those set changes dragging the energy down. 

Still, there's a lot of skill in the performances. Karina Hudson as Elinor keeps us clear on what's going on underneath the stiff-upper-lip demeanor, as we can see the buried passions become more and more not-at-all buried. Anabelle Segler as the more demonstrative Marianne certainly enjoys her chances to demonstrate, and is suitably chastened near the end when the chickens return to roost. Elsewhere, the three love interests are suitably bashful, stoic and dashing respectively,  Kayler Ciceran gives wicked sister-in-law Fanny a ruthless bitterness, Kate Garrow is stupendously slappable as you constantly wish Lucy would put a sock in it, and Sienna Curnow as her brash sister is similarly sock-worthy. 

In short, this is a romp that I slightly wish was a little tidier around the edges than it is - but a romp it remains, leaving us with a super-happy ending and an expression of pleasure at the end. 

Chalkface, Sydney Theatre Company, Playhouse, Canberra Theatre, 9-12 Nov

 

Angela Beitzen has been working fairly consistently n Australian theatre over the last few years - plays like "Mortido" and "The Dark Room" exploring the darker sides of human nature. This year she's apparently flipped the switch to something lighter, with a comedy set in staff room of a public primary school, taking place over a school year as the teachers battle with overly sensative parents, officious admin staff, the overly-enthusiastic new staff member and the still-developing brains they're meant to be instructing. It's a slightly exagerated farce with runs speedily throgh triumps, disasters and an eventual explosive ending (with a slightly overly-long denoument) - fortunately it moves fast enough that you can't think too much about some of the more absurd contrivances (including a 12 year old who develops nuclear fusion in class). I'm usually a little bit of a nitpicker about writers who don't normaly write farce dabbling in it (it's a challenging form to get right) but this didn't trigger my nerves too badly. 

The cast of six mesh well into an ensemble. Ana Maria Bello (stepping in for an unwell Catherine McClements) is our point-of-view character, combining cynicism with engagement in a way that helps her grow on us thorughout the show. Stephanie Somerville as the newbie is suitably suniny and goofy up until the point where she inevitably cracks - she manages to avoid the risk of making her character appear too dumb to live. Ezra Juanta and Susan Prior are sorta playing one-joke characters but they play those one jokes well. As the two nemeses, Nathan O'Keefe and Michelle Ny provide suitably uptight prickliness for the rest of the cast to push against. 

Jessica Arthur directs with pace and clarity, giving the show a good running energy. Alisa Paterson's set is suitably grotty and run-down, whle her costumes give her lots of room to manouvre, from the teacher's regular daily gear to the explosion of ridiculou Book-week outfits. All in all this is a good solid Australian comedy to see out the year.

Sunshine Super Girl, Performing Lines, The Q, Nov 2 - 5

(photo provided by the Q- Credit: Paz Tassone)

 Andrea James' interpretation of the career of Evonne Goolagong, from her youth in a small country town to touring the world as a wildly successful tennis player, is visiting Queanbeyan towards the tag end of a yearlong tour that's seen it play everywhere from Adelaide to Brisbane (with a run at the Melbourne Theatre Company yet to come). Using a cast of five to tell the story (one actress playing Goolagong, everybody else playing multiple roles, from family to mentors to rivals), it plays out on an apparently simple set (designed by Romanie Harper, it's laid out like a tennis court with net, umpires chair and benches surrounding the stage, performing multiple duties with the assistance of the beautiful projections of Mic Gruchy). It's a beautiful production celebrating one of our most skilled athletes and is absolutely worth watching - it's charming, expertly summarising a long career into a 90-odd minute runtime, and contains great evocative choreography from Vicki Van Hout and Katina Olsen stylising the tennis matches into pieces that grab the eye. 

It also left me feeling a little disconnected - as a biography, it's definitely at the "respectful" end of the spectrum, which means that James has elected not to get particularly intrusive into Goolagong's feelings and motivations beyond what's clearly visible. And while I respect that's a good and generous impulse, it does mean that I did miss much of a sense of Goolagong's inner life - she does come across as almost an enthusiastic bystander to her own life, curiously detached. And while there's something to be said for that - the alienating way that fame and the media feels like it's creating a public figure who isn't quite you - the overall effect is that, though Goolagong is presented as narrating the story throughout, I don't emerge feeling like I know her more than I did when I entered the theatre. James stages a great play but she's written a somewhat distanced one - though it brings up all kinds of intriguing angles (the flat-out racist and sexist media coverage of much of her career, the distancing effect that her career has on her family, the exploitative nature of her mentor and coach), in the desire not to be exploitative it feels, instead, a little underwritten. 

I do recommend seeing this - Ella Ferris as Goolagong gives a bright, charming performance as Goolagong, and the support work by Jax Compton, Lincoln Elliot, Katina Olson and  Sermsah Bin Saad is funny, beautiful, emotional and generous. As a demonstration of theatrical and choreographic skill, it's astonishingly good work. I just wish the writing hit me harder.