King Lear, Echo Theatre, The Q, 30 Nov-3 Dec

 

"King Lear" is one of the Shakesperean plays where I always have a little difficulty - the setup requires multiple characters to be excessively gullible, it's incredibly grim, and Lear himself finds himself subject to his fate largely due to his own monstrous ego, rather than because of any more sympathetic fault. This production certanily owns the grimness, using simple staging, minimal but precise lighting by Zac Harvey and a soundtrack with dark undertones by Neville Pye and Sophia Carlton. Set in an almost pagan world (the invocations of a whole pantheon of gods in this production are gently underlined), costumed by Helen Wotjas in a stylish combination of now-and-then, Joel Horwood 's production serves the play with simplicity and skill.

Leading the cast is a titanic performance by Karen Vickery, by turns playful, wrathful, disturbing, emotional and mind-bogglingly human. We're drawn into her foolish Queen, demanding the treatment of her title despite having given up the responsiblity, disturbed as she curses out her daughters, overwhelmed by her rages, and ultimately touched by the broken person she becomes.

It's a murderer's row of talent in the cast, from the reliable strength of Michael Sparks, Lainie Hart, Natasha Vickery, Jim Adamik, Josh Wiseman, to emerging performers like Lewis McDonald, Holly Ross, Glenn Brighenti, Petronella Von Tienen and Tom Cullen, and new-to-me faces like Christina Falsone, and all find their moments of impact.  There's not a weak link in the performers, whether it be Hart's haughty rage, Brighenti's snippy servileness, McDonald's sneeringly lustful evil, Wiseman's attempts to hold onto his sanity while lost inside a persona, Falsone's extreme loyalty, Sparks' vulnerability, Adamik's righteous rage, Von Tienen's gentle joys as the fool and compassion as Cordelia, or Cullen's brutal joy in cruelty. 

Special mention to stage manager Maggie Hawkins who does a hell of a job in setting the scattered earth in act one and bringing it to organised piles for the beginning of act two, and has carefully drilled the cast into smooth set transitions. 

If you're interested in grand powerful epic Shakespeare (while I could spot a few trims in the text, this still winds up at around 3 hours 20 minutes), this is certainly one to catch. 

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Revised), Canberra Rep, Theatre 3, 16 Nov-2 Dec

 "Complete Works" is basically a template for three performers to mess around with some of the best-known works in the English language, throwing everything they have into delighting the audience. It's very much a go-for-broke effort, throwing everything into a big blender with jokes coming at such speed that if one fails, there's another three dozen to follow that the sheer weight of it overwhelms you into delight. Rep's production brings this together under the guidance of Ylaria Rogers, who gives her cast a whole lotta rope while keeping the evening from falling into complete chaos, instead just having the semblance of chaos. 

The three performers giving it their all are, in alphabetical order, Callum Docherty (playing the ADHD one, distractible, goofy, constantly after the next diversion), Alex McPherson (the closest the show has to a straight-guy, but still with a great affection for a diversion into talking about anything other than the ostensible topic), and Ryan Street (who does a lot of the transition-narration in the style of a harassed Kermit-The-Frog type, if Kermit also loved taking on the women's roles by throwing a shawl on and miming vomiting on the audience). The show is a test of stamina as much as anything, keeping the energy level at 11 for just under 2 hours, and these three certainly have it to burn. 

Kayla Circeran's set is a great playground for the actors, giving them plenty of spots to play in while simultaneously looking like a backstage junkyard. Stephan Still's lighting picks out areas and gives appropriate moodyness where required for all the mini-playlets. 

In short, this is a romp, whether for Shakespeare scholars who can laugh at the tiniest joke, or for people who just want to laugh at people sticking swords under each other's arms and having a prolonged death scene. There's no intellectual justification for it beyond that it's fun. But it is definitely fun.

A Little Night Music, Hayes Theatre Company, Hayes Theatre, 13 Oct-18 Nov

 

This is the fourth production I've seen of Sondheim's sophisticated romantic comedy, after one at the Sydney theatre company in 1990 starring Geraldine Turner, John Waters and a young Toni Collette as the maid, one at the Theatre Royal in 1997 with Ruth Cracknell, Helen Morse, John O'May and Pamela Rabe, and one on Broadway in 2010 with Bernadette Peters and Elaine Strich. It's a clever comedy of lust and misaligned love, albeit a comedy with a death and a suicide attempt (but then it is based on an Ingmar Bergman film).  Hugh Wheeler's script is the rare Sondheim script that has the structural skill and wit that Sondheim himself had (it's no wonder that Wheeler was recruited for this and "Sweeney Todd", one close to farce, one close to thriller, both genres that require a strong sense of structure), and the show is lush, romantic and all-round delightful. 

In all these previous viewings, though, the central pair, Desiree and Frederick, have always been played by performers somewhat older than me. So it's a bit of a shock to suddenly discover I'm past their age, and into an age where love-stories are very much second-time-around stories (it's also the first time that I've been in a permanent relationship while watching this). It's a show very much about misdirected desires finding a new (or returning to a previous) partner, with a complex series of five love triangles between eight characters, and of course, being Sondheim, all those triangles means it's a show entirely in derivativs of 3/4 (or waltz) time. 

Dean Bryant's production captures the sophistication and the grand passions inside the production well, using simple staging (minimal props, a couch, a couple of chairs) and the intimacy of the Hayes space to let the actors spill their personal issues straight into the audience as much as possible, dragging us into their dilemmas and issues. The orchestration for a band of five is surprisingly adaptable and rarely sounds underpowered (though there's a slight case of over-miking during the act one climax when the entire cast is singing at full force). 

Blazey Best enjoys the wryly teasing nature of Desiree, along with the rueful sadness during "Send in the Clowns". Leon Ford gives Frederick an endearing pompousness which drops away with repeated exposure to Desiree. Nancye Hayes gives Madame Armfeldt just the right amount of hauteur and pride in her debauched accommplishments. Melanie Bird is a sweetnatured-without-being-dim Anne, and Jeremi Campese manages Henrik's angst without making it painful rather than funny. Joshua Robson and Erin Claire as the Count and Countess Malcolm provide suitible pompousness and wounded-target-of-a-lot-of-that-pompousness. Kiana Daniele enjoys the role of the lusty Petra in every opportunity it gives her, wehther it be teashing with Anne and Henrik, or in her own spotlight song. 

In short, this is a production I was delighted to catch the closing night of after fearing I was going to miss it entirely before the production extended for one week. If it makes a comeback, be sure to catch it. 

Oil, Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1, 4 Nov-16 Dec

 

 "Oil" frames wide political issues through a deeply personal story, as the history and future of the oil industry on this planet is told through multiple scenes of a mother and daughter traveling through time - originally met in a bitter Cornwall winter as oil promises an escape and a light that never goes out, moving forward to the middle east as British companies take over the gulf and the same woman gets involved with a British oil company representative, into the 70s when she's a top-level oil exec right at the time when Libya starts retaking the rights to exploit its own oil, and on into futures both not-so-distant and very-much-distant. It's a beautifully presented and performed production, with the contrasting personal narrative of a mother and rebellious daughter playing with and against the wider historic narrative, with elements reflecting each other. Ella Hickson's script requires grand resources to give this personal story scale and to capture the very distinctive tone, somewhere between strict reality and abstract lesson-play, and Paige Rattray's production mostly captures this very well.

That may not be apparent in the first scene, which is both very dimly lit and acted in broad-to-the-point-of-incomprehension cornish accents. It does feel a little bewhildering watching grim happenings in a frozen cabin in the middle of nowhere (or in this case, on a platform on top of a pile of black dust). But the following four scenes are grand contrasts, well lit, clear and played with power by the company. Brooke Satchwell as protagonist May, and Charlotte Friels as the daughter Amy carry the bulk of the evening, with the rest of the cast playing various cameos as lovers, friends, enemies and business associates in smaller but striking cameos. The in-the-round-staging means that this story stays close and personal even as it traverses time and place widely, coming to a strong ending that lays bare where we're headed. 

This is compelling, thoughtful political theatre presented lushly and grandly in a way that still lands powerfully. Absoultely worth catching. 

The Master and Margarita, Belvoir Street Theatre, 11 Nov-10 Dec

 Eamon Flack's production of "Master and Margarita" begins with three performers picking up a copy of the titular novel and reading it out loud. But soon strange things begin to happen, and soon we're off on a rollicking story full of magic, mysticism, religion, copious nudity, romance and a murderous cat. It's a strange adaptation that feels like it's simultaneously trying to tell the story of the novel and the circumstances of its creation, with byways all over the place. But it's a distinctively Belvoir flavour of romp,too, with dance, eccentricly outlandish performances, magic, a mega-fast revolve and enough stuff left all over the stage by the end of the show to make it very probably a nightmare for the stage crew to reset again. 

The cast are game for anything, from Matilda Ridgeway's narrator to Josh Price's Behemoth the Cat. Bulgakov's novel may or may not be anything like this, but certainly this is a compelling night out in the theatre. In some ways it's the most sophisticatedly produced piece of student theatre I've ever seen, with ideas thrown at it in abundance, but it's played to perfection by the cast. If you don't fall onto the wavelength of this, I can imagine it becoming a very tedious evening very quickly, but fortunately this hit me in all the right places. I think the best way to go into this may just be to know as little as possible going in apart from that anything can happen and probably will. 

The Dictionary of Lost words, Sydney Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia, Drama Theatre, Opera House, 26 Oct-16 Dec (and subsequent season in Melbourne 17 Feb-10 March 2024)

 

Pip Williams' novel is not one I'd heard of before this was announced as part of the Sydney Theatre Company's 2023 season, but a new Australian novel getting a theatre adaptation so quickly meant it was something to keep an eye out - and what's arrived is a richly theatrical presentation of a dense story covering the process of putting the Oxford English Dictionary together, from the point of view of a young woman who discovers the words that are being left out - mostly the words of the lower classes and women due to the embedded prejudices of the men creating the dictionary. It's an essentially literary conceit, to tell a tale that relies so much on words and their definition, and Verity Laughton's adaptation doesn't entirely succeed in making the central character, Esme, into an active protagonist - she remains someone to whom things happen rather than someone who makes  things happen - but it's a story that moves along nicely enough through several decades as a young woman broadens her horizons on a journey that will reverberate beyond her lifetime.

Jessica Arthur's staging uses a simple two-levelled set (the floor largely playing the "scrippy" where the dictionary is being put together, the gallery above for additional scenes and for a projection screen for locations, dates and a few other surprising elements, in a production that flows smoothly across three hours of fairly dense plot. The cast of 8 slip across multiple roles smoothly creating a rich array of individuals, friends, colleagues, lovers and servants. Tilda Cobham-Hervey is a solid centre as Esme, aging from an inquisitive 2 year old to an experienced woman feeling the weight of her experiences. 

If in the end, this feels somewhat familiar (there's a fair few familiar stops off in the years from the late 19th century to the early 1920s) it's almost the definition of comfort viewing, wrapping the audience up in a big hug of a story. It's not a perfect show but it's an engrossing one that works with an audience, providing some laughs, heartbreak, and a few thoughts for the drive home. 

Garry Starr Performs Everything, MILKE, The Q, 9 November 2023 (and probably touring everywhere continualy for the next coupla years)

 So, I wrote up Garry's other show, Greece Lightning, back when it played Smith's Alternative in June, but due to a fault known as "being in Sydney" at the time, I missed the last run of this at the Q. Fortunately, it was back for another night so I booked fast. And it's just as good if not even better, a superb demonstration of Damien Warren-Smith's control of his body, his talent at playing with an audience, his shamelessness in indulging with ridiculous bits and, of course, some gratious knob gags. 

This time around Garry turns his eyes to the various genres of theatre - from Shakespere to Burlesque, via a lot of dancing, some gorgeous circus skills, some light flashing of the merkin, some grape catching, and a big closing number. Once again we get to see Garry mangle the English language as much as he mangles the various forms of theatre he goes through - treating sex-farce, Pinter, romcom, and Bunraku with equal delight and the proper amount of disrespect. Garry's gleeful idiocy, persistence, and inability to notice what a dill he's being are a constant delight, and draw audience members to him to play along in the various required scenarios. There's a lovely sense that for the hour of the show, we're in the hands of a master who will tease us, provoke us, and leave us a giggling mess on the floor, before performing one truly remarkable physical act that leaves you gasping in all the right ways. 

Garry is off to England to finish the year, but hopefully he'll be back touring Australia and delighting audiences shortly. So keep an eye out, and book fast!

Under the Influence, Q the Locals, The Q, 3-4 Nov

 I've seen Moya Simpson and John Shortis twice before - once in 2005 as two thirds of "The Three Scrooges", their christmas show with Peter J Casey, and once in 2008 in their cabaret show at Vivaldis, "We don't need another Euro", about Eruopean songs that have made their way into english-language hits; and I've sen Mikelangelo twice before, both times supporting Amanda Palmer on tour (once at the National Gallery in 2011, once at the Canberra Theatre in what google tells me was 2020). So now they're together in a show that Shortis and Simpson have apparently done a couple of time before, the "Under the Influence" shows where they team with another musician to explore their works and influences, and to share tunes. Over the course of a bit over two hours (intermission included), they explore everything from Balkan folk music to Dick Dale, Count Von Count, Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield and Elvis, using Mikelangelo's multiple past bands, from the Black Sea Gentlemen to Tin Star to P Harness with multiple changes of instruments, harmonies, and, in Mikelangelo's case, a few outfit changes. 

It's a glorious occasion - Shortis and Simpson play support more than, perhaps, you'd expect, but Mikelangelo is such a grand presence with strong deep vocals, snappy slicked-back hair and absolute stage power that it's wiser to yield than to try to upstage him. Together with a sharp tight backing band ("The Reprobates") and some gorgeous stage lighting, it's a fun evening of song and performance that is absolutely worth catching.