unBECOMING

Visual Arts Review - Brian Rope

unBECOMING - Fernanda Pedroso

Grainger Gallery on Geelong

15 November – 14 December 2025 (Thu–Sun, 11am–5pm)

Originally from Brazil, Fernanda Pedroso moved to Australia in 2020 and is based in Canberra.  At the age of 40 she transitioned from a 20-year career in advertising to a new life in photography. In the few years since she has achieved a great deal, including being name Australasia's Top Emerging Photographer of the Year in 2024.

Her work has gained international recognition, earning distinctions in The Monochrome Awards, Australian Photography Awards, Asia Pacific and Iris Awards. She was a finalist in the Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize (2024, 2025) and semi-finalist in the Head On Photo Awards (2024, 2025).

This exhibition of her series unBECOMING is part of this year’s Head On Photo Festival Open Program. It is one of over seventy diverse, artist-run exhibitions in the Festival across Australia. Looking back through my blog to remind myself what I had seen/reviewed of this artist’s work previously, I noticed that I had seen one of the images, It Doesn't Sound Right, being exhibited here when it was shown in Terra:(un)becoming, a group show at Photo Access in December 2023.

It Doesn't Sound Right, Archival Ink Photograph, Canson Platine Fibre Rag

(Framed, Artglass, Black Vic Ash) © Fernanda Pedroso

Her series Silent Currents, 2024, also shown at Photo Access in late 2024, explored “the quiet sadness” of Tokyo. At the time, I wrote that it was an excellent example of how photographers can explore specific urban areas and paint descriptions for those fortunate to see their imagery. And I very much appreciated this artist’s piece Transmuted, 2025 in the 2025 Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize, and its accompanying delightful poetry artist statement. 

I was unable to attend the opening of this current exhibition but saw the show, and met Pedroso, when attending a book launch at the gallery the following week. You will very likely meet the artist too if you visit the exhibition, as she is there most days.

Pedroso’s work is described as being “deeply inspired by her personal experiences, music, poetry, and the diverse cultures she has encountered. Drawing influence from other notable photographers and artists, she seeks to merge their techniques with her own perspective to create powerful and emotive imagery.”

In a media release by Head On, I read “Pedroso explores technology’s grip on human identity in debut solo exhibition. Are we becoming who we want to be, or who technology wants us to be?” And “Grainger Gallery on Geelong presents unBECOMING, photographer Fernanda Pedroso's powerful debut solo exhibition exploring how digital dependency can reshape human identity and connection.”

So, what is in this exhibition? Two years in the making and shot in Brazil in collaboration with makeup artist and designer Rafa Jones, there are twenty-seven striking images that explore how our hyperconnected age is impacting us. Are we truly more connected or are we, in reality, more isolated from each other? Right now we are witnessing and feeling the many impacts of artificial intelligence. Some think it is absolutely marvellous, at least in particular fields. Others are appalled by its current and almost certain impacts on photography and other arts. 

Disconnected, Archival Ink Photograph, Canson Platine Fibre Rag

(Framed, Artglass, Black Vic Ash) © Fernanda Pedroso

Motherboard, Archival Ink Photograph, Canson Platine Fibre Rag

(Framed, Artglass, Black Vic Ash)  © Fernanda Pedroso 

Overwhelmed 3, Archival Ink Photograph, Canson Platine Fibre Rag

(Framed, Artglass, Black Vic Ash) © Fernanda Pedroso 

So this is a most appropriate time for us to be challenged, by these artworks, to think about the issues caused by the technological accelerations in our world. What are the costs to us personally of being more connected, whilst feeling disconnected? How has technology shaping our lives today? Is the impact any different to when I was one of the first mainframe computer programmers in Australia in the 1960s? Or when digital photography overwhelmed the analogue system we had always previously used?

As you’ve seen in the images above, the exhibition features haunting images of figures painted entirely black. This is intended to refer to the black mirrors of our screens. Seven striking models are adorned with copper wire masks, terminals, tangled cords and headphones. They are futuristic yet also have an ancient tribal feeling. Pedroso intends them to be a visual metaphor for a question she believes we all need to ask ourselves, “What am I becoming? Can I come back to myself, my own truth?” various accoutrements of technology.

Entwined 3, Archival Ink Photograph, Canson Platine Fibre Rag

(Framed, Artglass, Black Vic Ash) © Fernanda Pedroso

The quality of the artworks is outstanding, and the overall exhibition is hugely successful. I am sure we will see more excellent work from this artist.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

LOW PAY? DON'T PAY!

 

Low Pay? Don’t Pay! Written by Dario Fo. Translated by Joseph Farrell.

Directed and designed by Cate Clelland. Kighting design. Stephen Sill. Sound design Neville Pye. Costume design. Darcy Abrahams. Properties coordinator. Rosemary Gibbons. Special properties construction. Russell Brown OAM. Cast: Maddie Lee as Toni. Chloe Smith as Maggie. Lachlan Abrahams as Joe. Rowan McMurray as Lou. Antonia Kitzel The Actor. Ensemble: Ben Zolfaghari. Stephanie van Lieshout. Ariana Barzinpour. Georgie Bianchini. Rucha Tathavadkar. Sterling Notley. Rosemary Gibbons. Paul Jackson. Canberra Rep. November 20 – December 6. Bookings; 6257 1950. Canberrarep.org.au.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Nobel Laureate playwright Dario Fo

Originally written under Lino Perle’s translated title  Can’t Pay Don’t Pay!  , Canberra Rep has chosen Joseph Farrell’s translation of Non si paga. Non si paga - Low Pay? Don’t Pay! to align Dario Fo’s original 1975 satirical farce with a contemporary cost of living crisis. Director Clelland has set her production in Canberra, although the action and the characters retain a distinct Italian working class flavour. Fo’s original plot of a group of women who steal groceries from the supermarket shelf in protest against the rising costs becomes the vehicle for Fo’s Marxist comment on exploitation, greed, inflation and the struggle of the working class against the opportunistic employers. Toni (Maddie Lee) is married to Joe (Lachlan Abrahams), a staunch member of New Labour. With neighbour Maggie (Chloe Smith), Toni has returned to her house with the stolen groceries, which must be hidden from the police and Joe and Maggie’s husband Lou (Rowan McMurray. What ensues is an hysterically funny farce of frantic evasion of capture and consequence.

Clelland’s direction pays perfect homage to the Italian tradition of Commedia dell Arte while carefully depicting the absurdity of social, political and economic injustice. The production with moments of farce, slapstick and madcap business has the audience in stitches. The production’s Ensemble take on the roles of the protesting women, the police and the workers. Clelland faithfully observes the role of farce as social and political commentary and criticism. The production charges along with volcanic energy . Fo is the master of political agit prop and his attack is broad-sweeping, targeting rising prises, the costs of gas and telephone bills, the shortage of hospital beds, the crippling rental crisis and corruption. All this is displayed in hilarious business, such as a starving Joe’s encounter with a can of pet food mistakenly brought home by Toni or the feigned pregnancy of Maggie’s concealed groceries.  Through the laughter we are made only too aware of the real struggle faced by the ordinary citizen. Joe’s initial male conditioning is eventually challenged as he confronts the challenges faced by women, an aspect I suspect prompted by the influence of Fo’s partner Franca Rame.

On occasion Fo breaks the fourth wall in a direct didactic address to the audience. It is a salutary moment that makes its point in a play that informs and educates through farce. Clelland and her cast leave us not with a solution, but with an awareness that will urge the proletariat to carry on the fight or be cast into the shadows. In 1975 Fo urged the Italian workers of the Communist Party not to allow the moderate movement to hold sway against the forces of Capitalist control. His final appeal to audiences in Joseph Farrell’s clever translation is a plea for protest and political activism in our own time.

Clelland has chosen a good cast with an excellent performance from Abrahams as the loud and blustering husband. Antonia Kitzel delivers a delightfully sharp caricature as the Chief Inspector with a moustache as well as the socially empathetic policeman without a moustache. Subtlety is not the go in this gung-ho production of Fo’s farce, but the point is not lost on the audience. And the struggle must go on.

For its final production of the year, Canberra Rep offers an enjoyable and entertaining show with just enough bite to prick the conscience. And as the saying goes,
this production of classic Fo proves that “laughter is the best medicine.” or propagandist weapon?

 

 

 

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2026

 

Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Matthew Lutton OAM

and Executive Director Julian Hobba  Photo by Andrew Beveridge

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL. 

Artistic Director Matthew Lutton OAM. Executive Director  Julian Hobba. Writers Week Director Louise Adler OAM. February 27-March15 2026. Bookings: Online: adelaidefestival.com.au. Phone bookings: Adelaide Festival 1300 393 404 or Ticketek 131 246

Previewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Hofesh Shechter Company's Theatre of Dreams 

Photo by Tom Visser 

Adelaide’s flagship international artrs festival has a new artistic director at the helm. Perth-born and educated Matthew Lutton OAM brings an impressive list of credentials to his new role. His passion for theatre was ignited at Hale School where he wrote, directed and acted in his original play. “I was a bad actor” Lutton tells me. However that did not prevent him from passing his audition for the prestigious West Australian Academy of Performing Arts that boasts such graduates as Hugh Jackman and Tim Minchin. It was here that Lutton honed his skills in acting, writing and directing. After graduating he then founded his own company, Thin Ice Theatre Company. His reputation was subsequently confirmed with highly acclaimed productions of theatre and his twin love opera at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, The Hammersmith and Barbican Theatres in London and the Bavarian State Opera with productions of Richard Wagner’s operas. Artistic director of Melbourne’s Malthouse Marion Potts invited Lutton to join as an associate Director and when she left Lutton assumed the position of Artistic Director of the Malthouse,, which led  him to his current role as Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival.

Each year in February and March, Adelaide plays host to hundreds of thousands of local, national and international visitors to the arts capital of Australia. They come from far and near to revel in the amazing events offered by the Adelaide Festival and the Adelaide Fringe.  In 2026, the Adelaide Festival will again offer unrivalled opportunities to visit the very best in opera, dance, theatre and music from Australia and overseas. As well as the in-theatre performances the Adelaide Festival also presents Writers Week, a free event with talks and interviews by leading Australian and international writers and authors. At the same time the iconic world music festival  WOMADelaide will again thrill audiences at the edge of Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens. Special concerts will be presented at the Ukaria Cultural Centre, located on a picturesque landscape in the Adelaide Hills. The Adelaide Festival offers a cornucopia of culture not to be missed and I am eager to discover highlights that might lure visitors to Adelaide at this vibrant time.

In his introductory welcome in the program, Lutton indicates the philosophy that will underpin the first year of his three year contract.” The Festival does not seek to narrow to a specific theme. Instead it elevates Australian and international artists who push boundaries and embody virtuosity. Yet, if you ask me about the preoccupations you might witness, you will find narratives focused on the need for love, belonging and a sense of self; the brutal barriers – some strong, some crumbling – the world hurls at us and the determination for hope, eccentricity, humanity and art.” I am keen to discover how that is encapsulated in Lutton’s programming and in what he might consider to be the theatre performances that embody his vision.

The Cherry Orchard  directed by Simon Stone
Photo by LG Arts Center

In a programme featuring a plethora of Australian Exclusives and Premieres including World Premieres, expatriate director Simon Stone’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard is certain to surprise. Stone directs South Korean actors in his re-imagining of the Russian classic.

The cast and the set of The Cherry Orchard
Photo by LG Arts Center

 “It has a very fresh contemporary style” Lutton tells me. “Every word is new and it is set in the matriarch’s house in Seoul. It was gifted to her when she was 16. She has become a business tycoon in America and is now forced to return because everything is changing.  The Cherry Orchard is a great story about denial. They feel the pressure of capitalism and everything imploding about them and the play says something about the class structure in South Korea. It also makes complete sense of a world of service with all the children still raised by Amahs. Stone has found a place in this production where the Korean version makes absolute  sense. The play will be performed in Korean with English surtitles.

Isabelle Huppert in Mary Said What She Said
Photo by Lucie Jansch

Sadly, legendary director Robert Wilson died earlier this year before he was due to visit the Festival with his production of Mary Said What She Said, starring the great French actress Isabelle Huppert as Mary Stuart. The one-woman show will be performed in French with English surtitles. “The play is based on research into her diaries and performed as a stream of consciousness monologue. I love the eccentricity and certain strangeness to it” Lutton says. “She is wrestling with her own vanity and her own privilege. Even though she is one of the most famous women in the world she felt so alone, just as a contemporary celebrity might” Not only is it powerful because of the subject and Huppert’s performance but because Wilson’s production is so dreamlike, inviting you to sit with a different type of consciousness.  “It is completely in the world of surreal.”

Controversial artistic director of the 2001 Adelaide Festival Peter Sellars returns for the first time with Perle Noire, Meditations for Joséphine with soprano Julia Bullock in the role of Josephine Baker.” It’s Opera in the fact that there are moments of operatic aria but then it’s like cabaret because it shifts to another song that’s more music hall and another that’s more spiritual. It’s like a song cycle that moves through different styles by an opera singer.”

Julia Bullock in Perle: Meditations for Josephine

 Acclaimed local theatre company for family and young people, Windmill Theatre will be staging a World Premiere Season of Mama Does Derby. At 16 Billie is facing the pressures of growing up, made more significant by a move with her Mum to a rural town The play which features 20 Adelaide Roller Derby players in the Entertainment Centre is about hope and overcoming loneliness. “I love the eccentricity.” Lutton says. “The mother gets involved in the derby and she’s the one getting out there and going crazy instead of the daughter who is left at home to worry about Mum. It has a big theatricality to it. In my mind local companies in the festival should do something big that has scale.”

Re-shaping Identity by GuoGuoHuiHui

Photo by Shenzhen Fringe Festival 

Re-shaping Identity by GuoGuoHuiHui comes to the Adelaide Festival with five young dancers all from regional parts of China “They have been taught as young dancers very strict traditional dance. They love the traditions but the world has changed. Each takes their traditional dance and turns it into a nightclub of anatomic dance right in front of your eyes. You see the tradition and you see them shifting it and owning it. It’s very sexy. It’s very powerful and you see how they maintain the traditional line and make it new.”

 

Elevator Repair Service. Company members of GATZ
Photo by Mark Barton

Elevator Repair Service returns with their take on Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in Gatz.. “Gatz is their hallmark show really” says Lutton. “This is the show where they came to fame. They read every word over eight and a half hours with breaks for meals. The ensemble shares the reading. There is the great fun that they are in a run-down office and they are describing things that are of the most decadence – the flowers and the drinks and the parties so how do you create that with staplers and office equipment?” “You’ve constantly got two things happening in your head where you’re vividly seeing the Gatsby. It’s an interesting allegory of America because it’s a group of Americans on stage who will never have access to great wealth telling the story of the greatest wealth. They really cracked a way to tell that story that is opposite to Baz Luhrmann’s”

History of Violence by Édouard Louis. Director Thomas Ostermeier

 Director Thomas Ostermeier returns to Adelaide with his production of Édouard Louis’s History of Violence. “This is a hard hitting show” Lutton says. “It is morally complex.  There is a sexual assault and when the binary character wants to report it the police make it about race It was a French Algerian man who attacked him and he says that it has nothing to do with race and so he goes to his family and they say that it is homophobia and he shouldn’t be out in the streets at 4 a.m. He finds a way to navigate the whole incident.  Even though he has been heavily traumatized by the assault he knows where it has come from. He had no money. He was lost and that’s how it all came about. It’s about the range and depth of empathy. It’s four incredible actors and a drummer on stage and they deliver the play with such intensity.  It’s very powerful.”

 

Clarre Watson and Virginia Gay in Mama Does Derby

Photo by Claudio Raschella 

It is time for Lutton to move on to his next appointment. I ask him what he would advise for people who may be coming from Canberra or interstate and may only be able to spend a few days or a weekend at the festival. “They should pick shows that are not in English like The Cherry Orchard or Mary said What She Said. If you want something surreal, then the legendary Robert Wilson offers that. For something really surprising you should see Works and Days. It is confronting but surprising like the magic of theatre. It is performed by Toneelhuis/FC Bergman from Belgium. The company wowed festival audiences with their production of The Sheep Song some years ago. Works and Days has been inspired by the original verse of the ancient Greek Poet Hesiod.

The cast of Toneelhuis/FC Bergman's Works and Days
Photo by Kurt van der Elst

“If they’re after dance then Hofesh Shechter’s Theatre of Dreams is what it’s about. It’s full of adrenalin and we don’t get to see that much in Australia.” Set to Shechter's own trademark cinematic composition "Theatre of Dreams takes a plunge into the subconscious exposing the fears and desires that are in us all. It is astonishingly beautiful and utterly engaging."

Ensemble Pygmalion. Photo by Fred Mortagne

Finally, Lutton slips in a mention of his great love. “I really love Ensemble Pygmalion. I love early music and especially early sacred music. They are one of the best French orchestras in the world. I get very emotional listening to them. They are very refined.” Audiences will be offered three extraordinary works; Bach's Goodnight World performed in German with available translation, Monteverdi's Vespers performed in Latin, also with translation available and Luigi Rosso's Orfeo, performed in Italian with surtitles

Matthew Lutton OAM Artistic Director of the Adelaide Fesdtival

Photo by Andrew Beveridge 

 

Lutton exudes enthusiasm for his inaugural Adelaide Festival programme and his passion is infectious. A glance at the festival programme reveals treasures that we have not had the time to discuss. I am reminded that Lutton has promised a bold festival that will “push boundaries and embody virtuosity.” Audiences will be immersed in “narratives that focus on the need for love, for belonging and a sense of self.” Whether it be through theatre, opera, music, dance or visual arts the 2026 Adelaide Festival has something for everyone.

 Adelaide Festival

February 27 – March 15 2026

www.adelaidefestival.com.au

TWIGGY: THE STORY OF AN ICON

Directed by Sadie Frost

Transmission Films

In cinemas from December 4

 

Previewed by Len Power 26 November 2025

 

Ever since she burst onto the fashion scene in London in 1966, Twiggy has shown that she was not just a model who would fade away after a few years of fame. The new documentary, ‘Twiggy: The Story Of An Icon’, looks at the woman and her long and varied career. It’s a surprising and fascinating story.

Born Lesley Hornby in Neasden, London, the 16 year old schoolgirl suddenly found herself to be the most famous model of the 1960s. Her distinctive look, accent and slight figure caused a media frenzy at the time. It would have been understandable if fame and fortune had changed her for the worst, but decades later she displays the same natural and appealing personality that we remember from those early days.

The film is an exploration of her upbringing, career and relationships. The story of how her modelling began is surprising enough, but the unexpected direction in which her career moved afterwards is equalling fascinating.

In 1970, she surprised everyone with her singing and dancing skills in the Ken Russell musical film, ‘The Boyfriend’. She released several record albums of songs and relates a chilling tale in the film about record producer, Phil Spector.  She also burst onto Broadway in 1983 with the hit Gershwin musical, ‘My One And Only’ with Tommy Tune.

Television work followed, including a duet with Bing Crosby filmed shortly before he died. She became well-known to modern audiences with her appearances in ‘Absolutely Fabulous’.

Various media personalities such as Dustin Hoffman, Joanna Lumley, Paul McCartney, Lulu, Tommy Tune, Brooke Shields and others reminisce about her in the film. They’re not just a bunch of famous people called in to enhance the film. They all have worthwhile stories to tell about their interactions with Twiggy. Joanna Lumley gives a particularly interesting picture of life as a fashion model in the 1960s.

Twiggy’s life hasn’t been all rosy. There were failed marriages, but she also had a daughter, who appears in the film. She is now happily married to actor and director, Leigh Lawson. In 2019, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to fashion, to the arts and to charity.

The film is directed by Sadie Frost, who previously made a feature film on fashion designer, Mary Quant. ‘Twiggy: The Story Of An Icon’ is a pleasant trip down memory lane with a fascinating woman, who might have been in the right place at the right time, but went on to show that she had so much more going for her.

COCTEAU'S CIRCLE - Australian Chamber Orchestra - Llewellyn Hall - Canberra

 

Richard Tognetti (conducting) -Stefan Cassomenos (Piano) - Le Gateau Chocolat 
performing - "Cocteau's Circle"

Music Director and Violin: Richard Tognetti – Staging Director: Yaron Lifschitz

Costume Designer: Libby McDonnell – Interstitial Music Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin

Maitre d’ and Voice: Le Gateau Chocolat – Soprano: Chloe Lankshear

Australian Chamber Orchestra – Llewellyn Hall, Canberra – 22^nd November 2025

Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Richard Tognetti with The Australian Chamber Orchestra.

It seems that Jean Cocteau was as famous for the company he kept as he was for his contribution to the art scene of twentieth century Paris. 

A prolific poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist, ambulance driver and critic, Cocteau pushed boundaries with his collaborations with the likes of Picasso, Diaghilev, and Stravinsky, while providing inspiration for composers such as Ravel, Debussy, and George Gershwin.  

Even also for twenty-first century boundary-pushers like Richard Tognetti and Yaron Lifschitz, who between them, conceived this mesmerising concert, which received the final performance of its national tour in Canberra.

A sense of ennui might have been expected among the musicians, who, the previous evening, had performed a gala concert in the Sydney Opera House to celebrate exactly 50 years since the orchestra’s establishment in 1975. But that would have underestimated the professionalism of this extraordinary ensemble of musicians, because no such mood was discernible.  

Indeed, the mood was festive, even casual, as the musicians took the stage to perform Elena Kats-Chernin’s “Pre-show: Intermission Music”, one of several specially commissioned pieces from Kats-Chernin, dotted through the program to provide clever musical segues connecting the disparate compositions which made up the program.

Works by Georges Auric, Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Honegger, and other composers who sought artistic freedom beyond traditional conventions were showcased.  

The Soldiers Tale (  L’Histoire  du soldat: Ragtime) , inspired by a story of a young soldier who sold his violin to the devil; and Three pieces for a String Quartet (trois pieces pour quator a cordes)  displayed Stravinsky’s use of dissidence, as did Honegger’s, Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower (Les Maries de la tour Eiffel: Marche funebre).

While the superbly rendered orchestral selections illustrated the inventiveness of the more forward-thinking composers of the day, an inspired choice to include British shapeshifting drag performer, Le Gateau Chocolat, and soprano, Chloe Lankshear in the program, allowed reference to the work of iconic cabaret artists like Josephine Baker and Edith Piaf and their role in popularising the works of those composers.  

Le Gateau Chocalat and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Le Gateau Chocolat represented the subversive Black avant-garde artists who flocked to Paris during this period. His deconstructions of George Gershwin’s “Oh Lady Be Good”, from the musical of the same name, “I loves You Porgy” from Porgy and Bess, then later his compelling version of Janis Ian’s “Stars”, echoed the type of performance that attracted Cocteau to the cabarets of Paris.

He also offered visual splendour with his extravagant costumes, each more dazzling than the last, along with poems and monologues.   

Lankshear, by contrast, stayed with her chic black trousers and tuxedo, preferring to fascinate with her voice and personality which perfectly reflected those of artists of the period who appeared in operettas like Henri Christine’s Phi-Phi, from which she offered a stylish rendition of “Bien Chapeautee”.

Chloe Lankshear - Stefan Cassomenos (piano) and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Later, Lankshear captivated with a swooning version of “Les Chemins de l’amour” (The Ways of Love”), written by Francis Poulenc for Yvonne Printemps to sing in the play “Leocadia”, and a heart-stopping rendition of Lili Boulanger’s “Pie Jesu” which Boulanger dictated from her deathbed to her sister, Nadia.  

Performed without interval, before an artfully lit translucent curtain, floor candles and haze, the concert flowed uninterrupted for a riveting 90 minutes, arriving at the major work of the evening, an exhilarating performance of Darius Milhaud’s effervescent, “Le Boeuf sur le toit” (An Ox on the Roof”) written to accompany a Charlie Chaplin movie, but premiered as a ballet choreographed by Jean Cocteau in 1920.

This item was delivered with such infectious joie de vivre by the orchestra, that it was impossible not to be captivated by its ability to retain the impeccable balance between instruments for which it is justly celebrated, while seemingly abandoning itself to the playful mood of the music.

The thunderous applause which greeted this performance was gently subdued by a superb rendition by Lanshear and Chocolat, of “L’Hymne a l’amour “written by Cocteau’s friend, Edith Piaf following the death of her lover in a plane crash. Piaf herself died just one day ahead of Cocteau in October 1963.

                                                            Images by Daniel Boud.

    This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

EQUUS

 

 

Equus by Peter Shaffer

Directed by Anne Somes. Associate director Crystal Mahon. Movement director Amy Campbell. Intimacy coordinator and stage manager Jill Young. Set design Cate Clelland. Lighting design Craig Muller. Sound design. Neville Pye. And Patrick Dixon. Live soundscape Crystal Mahon. Costume design. Anne Somes. Director of marketing Olivia Wenholz. Videography amd socialmedia Lachlan Elderton. Production Photography Janelle McMenamin, ACT HUB Season Photography = Ben Appleton – Photox.

Cast: Martin Dysart-Arran McKenna. Alan Strang: Jack Shanahan. Frank Strang/Harry Dalton: Bruce Hardie. Dora Strang: Janie Lawson.Hesther Salomon: Crystal Mahon. Jill Mason: Lily Welling. A Nurse: Caitlin Bissett. Nugget/Young horseman: Sam Thomson. Horses: Jamie Johnson. Finlay Forrest. Samara Glesti. Bianca Lawson. Robert Wearden.  Free Rain Tjheatre. ACT HUB. November 12-22.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

It is more than fifty years since I saw the original production of Peter Shaffer’s startling psychological drama Equus. Last night the memories flooded back as I watched Ann Somes’ remarkably deft production for Free Rain Theatre at ACT HUB. Somes’ production loses none of the theatrical power or intellectual enquiry of the original. The play has been staged as a minimalist investigation of action and motive with actors playing horses and the character actors seated Brechtian like at the rear of the stage awaiting the entrance of their character. ACT HUB’s intimate theatre space provides the ideal experience for total immersion in this gripping production.

Arran McKenna as Martin Dysart. Crystal Mahon as Hesther Salomon

 

 

 

Shaffer first heard of the case of a seventeen year old youth being charged for blinding six horses in a stable during a conversation in a pub. Curiosity ignited Shaffer’s imagination and enquiry.  The play focuses on the relationship between Alan Strang (Jack Shanahan) and the child psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Arran McKenna) who agreed to take on the case after being urged by magistrate Hesther Salomon (Crystal Mahon) to remove the young man’s pain. Throughout the process, Dysart is forced to confront his own existential dilemma and personal conflicts. If in the process he removes Strang’s pain, what is left of the young man’s obsession with and passion for horses? What does it mean to make him”normal”? What is lost and what price must Dysart pay in this great struggle to restore reason over individual instinct.?

Jack Shanahan as Alan. Arran McKenna as Dysart.

 In a series of short scenes Shaffer constructs an intriguing scenario. Circling the central relationship between the psychiatrist and his patient is Alan’s relationship with his highly religious mother, his atheist father, who bans his son from having television in the house, the horse Nugget (Sam Thomson) with whom he shares a bond of sacred devotion and Jill, whose innocent seduction of Alan provides the catalyst for an act of horrific consequence. We are left in this tightly directed production to observe and assess  the complexity of human emotion and intellect. The questions will remain long after one has left the theatre. The final image of Alan covered with a blanket that hides the cured result of Dysart’s shattering role play leaves us with the lingering question “Why me?, “Why him”

Sam Thomson as Nugget. Lily Welling as Jill Jack Shanahan asAlan

Somes has selected an outstanding cast. McKenna as Dysart inhabits the torment and self doubt of his practice. Alan is the scalpel that exposes his fpsychiatrist’s vulnerability and fear. Shanahan’s Strang is a coiled wire ready to fling open and snap. From ecstasy to excruciating emotional pain, Shanahan charts a challenging journey that leaves an audience riveted in the blinding scene and Dysart’s brutal exorcism.  Shanahan and Dysart are strongly supported by Mahon as the empathetic magistrate, Lawson as the mother,  Bruce Hardie as the father and Lily Welling as the innocent and natural girlfriend. No-one, not even Caitlin Bissett as the nurse remains untouched by the single act of brutal cruelty; not even the horses, and I am left after Free Rain’s thought provoking production asking myself, “What has changed since that first production.?”

Perhaps a deeper understanding of what it is to be human!

 

THE ALMIGHTY SOMETIMES

 

The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver

Lachlan Houen – Director/Producer/Lighting Designer Caitlin Baker – Set/Costume Designer. Marlene Radice – Sound Designer/Composer. Sarah Chalmers – Voice and Text Coach. Kristy Griffin – Movement Coach. Lucy van Dooren – Stage Manager. Olivia Boddington – Marketing Assistant.

Cast:  Winsome Ogilvie – Anna. Elaine Noon – Renee. Robert Kjellgren – Oliver. Steph Roberts – Vivienne

Q The Locals. The Q. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. November 19-22.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Elaine  Noone 9Renee) and Winsome Ogilvie (Anna)
in Kendall Feaver's The Almighty Sometimes

          Lachlan Houen’s production of Kendall Feaver’s award winning play The Almighty Sometimes is not easy to watch, which is exactly why this powerful and compelling drama about mental illness is must see theatre. The direction is tight and sensitive. The setting by Caitlin Baker is simple and yet evocative against a lit cyclorama and with screeds of inscribed paper flowing from the flys to the floor below. Marlene Radice;s subtle score lends an air of discomfort to the possibility of the unpredictable.  Houen’s lighting is sombre, illuminating a sense of foreboding.

Anna and Renee in The Almighty Sometimes

Feaver’s dialogue resounds with the voice of authenticity, crying out from the heart as the four characters struggle with Anna Jean Phillips’s mental condition. As Anna Winsome Ogilvie gives an extraordinary performance plumbing the depths of spontaneous and confused outbursts. From the 17-year-old teenager on medication to the eighteen-year-old suffering withdrawal and seeking independence from her mother Renee, played with the plaintive helplessness of a distraught parent by Elaine Noone, Ogilvie presents a victim tangled in a search for answers and escape. Ogilvie gives an emotionally charged performance that demands engagement.  Hers is a performance of enormous promise as an actor to watch out for. She is ably supported by Noone and boyfriend Oliver, adroitly played with awkward bewilderment by Robert Kjellgran on crutches. Steph Roberts is the child psychiatrist Vivienne who has been treating Anna since the age of eleven. Roberts exudes professional ethic, bound by her role to remain detached and yet fascinated by Anna’s flood of creative imagination in her childhood stories. 

Robert Kjellgran as Oliver

Feaver immerses her audience in dilemma. We are presented with conflicting emotions and needs. No person is an island. Cause and consequence are flip sides of the same condition and an excellent ensemble cast grapples with the impact of Anna’s condition on their own lives. We are faced with questions that provide no resolution. Anna’s dramatic and destructive withdrawal emphasises the benefits of medication in controlling the erratic outbursts or illogical argumentation. And yet they remain a symbol of dependency, depriving Anna of identity and free will. The heart aches for Renee, a mother fraught with inability to cope. Anna is no longer the child under the child psychiatrist’s treatment. Each character, Anna, Oliver, Renee and Vivienne are caught in a spiraling vortex of uncertainty. Oliver can leave. Vivienne can pass Anna on to an adult psychiatrist, but for Anna and her mother, as with everyone who faces the struggle with a mental condition, hope rests in Feaver’s play with trust in medical advice, love and support. 

 

Steph Roberts as Vivienne

The Almighty Sometimes is a touching and important account of mental illness and its impact on families and society. It is both timely and relevant and is an advocate for empathy and awareness. “You are not alone” a sign says as you enter the theatre. There is support and help and Kendall Feaver’s play opens a window to the light.  Q The Locals is to be highly commended for the courage to present such a significant and finely staged production of Feaver’s play. If edited down to a little over an hour a touring version to schools and community organizations of The Almighty Sometimes would be an ideal and necessary community theatre piece. Whether a two-hour mainstage work or a shorter community theatre version The Almighty Sometimes is a play never to be ignored.

Photos by PHOTOX