Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche, Everyman Theatre, ACT Hub, 17 Jul-1 Aug

 

Photo by Janelle McMenamin

Everyman's latest takes us to the meeting hall of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein for their 1956 Quiche breakfast - full of fine Americana bunting and women in their Sunday best. The Quiches have been baked, and it's about time for the first tasting. But a sudden incident means the five office holders start to feel free to let down their hair and expose a few deep dark secrets - but can they survive each other with just the one quiche for support? 

Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder's script emerged from their work with Chicago's New Colony, a playwrighting collective that used a mix of improv and intense development to produce multiple new works. And it does have some of the hallmarks of improv - a loose set of plotting (multiple setups aren't really fully paid off) and a joy in exploring individual moments of performance. With this quintet of performers, it's a rich banquet of comedic performance, from Sian Harrington's mousey Mancurian Ginny to Meaghan Stewart's aggressively New Jersey Vern, via Steph Robert's Minnesota-Nice Wren, Crystal Mahon's southern steely Lulie and Ylaria Rogers' bubbly glee as Dale.  They elevate Hobgood and Linder's setups to glorious heights, letting us delight as circumstances force all of them to unburden themselves of secrets both obvious (see title) and less obvious (in particular, one doozy of a surprise for intermission). 

Jarrad West's gifts for directing comedy have frequently been obvious but this shows them off well - it's a production that keeps motoring along even as events threaten to become more and more over-the-top. Visually it's a delight as well, from the cosy set design by West to the perfectly-pressed costumes from Fiona Leach. Delightfully giggle inducing throughout, even as the comedy verges towards the black in the last ten minutes, this is a chance to see five fine performers show their talents at their best. 

Gia Orphelia, JB Theatre Co in assocation with Canberra Youth Theatre, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, 8-11 July

 

Photo: Phil Erbacher

Grace Wilson's "Gia Orphelia" is a one woman play about a young female actor who faces a career crisis during a residency workshop working on shakesperean performance- it's very much a performer's piece with a lot of jokes that are very much for anybody who's ever been exposed to the rougher end of an acting class. Like most monologues, it's distinctly internal and personal, showing the inner insecurities of a performer who may just about be aging out of her dreams at 29 (at 52, having aged out of a lot of dreams, I can recognise the pain but also know that it's a transition to the Next Thing). There's some interesting twists and turns to the narrative, but this is very much a play that sits in the trauma rather than finds a way through - and its power works in that moment. 

Annie Stafford owns the role absolutely, shifting personas between narrator, mentor, classroom colleague and disengaged partner, and keeping us with her as her emotional spirals get more and more intense. She's constantly giving us something to connect to whether it be sarcasm, naked desires, some startling physicality or emotional stillness.

Director Jo Bradley stages it mostly reaosoably well, though I'm not sure the courtyard space has been used as well here as it has in the past - there may be financial or logistics reasons why a more intimate configuration (a la "Pony" staged by Griffin here in 2023) hasn't been used - the opening and closing scenes in particular are up against the back wall of the stage which creates a distancing effect for these that makes it take a little more time than it should to warm to the play (when we move into the workshop and Stafford is able to use the whole space, the play comes alive). 

This is probably a play for anybody who is an aspiring actor or who knows one, or who knows what it's like to see dreams go into the rear vision mirror. It's funny, it's got a lot of heart and soul and it's a tight 75 minutes. 

Caligula, Performative Theatre Company, ACT Hub, 1-4 July

 (photography - Jack Dent)

Camus' play, started before WW2 and performed after it, looks at the most infamously insane Roman Emperor of them all and how he exercised his absolute power - starting after the death of his sister/lover Drusilla, we see him start toying with the people around him, exercising his whims, using a perverse kind of logic to turn all the citizens of Rome against him. Isaiah Prichard's production brings us a richly designed pageant of decadence, power games and carefully rationalised insanity in a feast for the eyes and the mind.

Leading the cast is Mischa Rippon as Caligula - he's a compelling presence whether completely silent on his first entrance, ranting and railing, deconstructing those around him or indulging himself in dance, godhood or sexuality. Around him, Tash Lyall as his enabling wife Caesonia impresses with her calm engagement in his madness, simultaneously amused and compelled by his actions. Dan Fonn Prichard's Helicon has a grand contempt for the Roman citizenry as Caligula's majordomo of misrule - there's a clowning power to his actions. Alex Elwood and Amy Gottschalk as two of the citizens who stand against Caligula are simultaneously compelling victims and counterplotters with their own agendas. 

Kathleen Kershaw's set design is maybe the most epic I've seen in the ACT Hub space - dominated by a large face of Caligula, using various marble-esque set elements and with striking enhancements throughout increasing the richness of the setting. Alex Elwood's costume designs are eclectic and fascinating, starting with a simple mostly-white palate and then exploding across eras and styles into a feast for the eyes. Paris Scharkie's compositions increase the urgency underneath the finale as madness stretches to breaking point.  

This is a compelling new company performing an active, impressive production of an underexplored absurdist classic, and is absolutely worth your time.