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| Dene Kermond |
Devised and
Composed by Sally Greenaway
Written by
Paul Bissett and Catherine Prosser
Directed by
Shelley Higgs
The Street
Theatre 26 – 29th July 2017
Performance
on 28th July reviewed by Bill Stephens
Devised and
composed by Canberra composer, Sally Greenaway, with a script by Canberra
writers Paul Bissett and Catherine Prosser, “7 Great Inventions of the Modern
Industrial Age” is the result of a Merlyn Meyer Fund Composing Women’s
Commission.
Greenaway
has been steadily building a reputation for the versatility of her
compositions, embracing classical chamber works, choral, big band jazz, film
and documentary soundtracks.
Because the
commission imposed no restrictions as to subject or style, Greenaway challenged
herself to create what she describes as “an infomercial musical”, in which the
actor doesn’t really sing. She also took advantage of the opportunity it offered
to experiment with different genres and styles. The work received its first
performance in Melbourne, where the solo actor was a woman.
For its
Canberra season, the work has been re-jigged with the script now performed by
actor, Dene Kermond as a kind of Phileas Fogg Victorian- era, explorer character,
who arrives by hot-air balloon to expound on the virtues and inspirations of
the various inventions. These inventions ranged through telecommunications,
aviation, space exploration, massed warfare, the artificial brain and computing
and biomechanical and medical marvels.
As in
Melbourne, Greenaway’s music was stylishly performed by the Melbourne based Syzygy Ensemble, who played a variety of instruments and also participated as
various whimsical characters. They performed in a suitably cluttered museum setting,
for which no designer is credited, but which tantalised with its myriad of
objects including an early telephone, a gas mask, a 1940’s iron, an Arnott’s
biscuit tin and various antique recorders, typewriters, computers and radios.
Greenaway’s
music was equally eclectic and playful. A ragtime interpretation of Bach’s “Two
and Three Part Inventions” to represent telecommunications, evocations of a
European carousel suggested the advent of film, and a haunting cello solo conjured
up medical marvels.
The result
was a charming, if slightly puzzling musical experience. The cleverly presented,
information often tended towards the superfluous, and the transitions between
the narration and music were not always successful, sometimes distracting from the
witty, attractive and beautifully played music.
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| Dene Kermond and musician |
Providing the
glue between the narration and the music, Kermond’s performance was perhaps a
little too broad and energetic for the intimate performance space. The
necessity to dash from side to side, dodging instrumentalists and props, sometimes
made it hard to concentrate on the information he was imparting.
However, even
if not entirely dramatically cohesive, as an ‘infomercial’, or extended advertisement to promote the advertisers product, “The 7 Great Inventions of the Modern Industrial
Age” still impressed for the originality of its presentation, and the
opportunity it provided to experience the work of one of Australia’s most
interesting and enterprising composers.
Images by Novel Photographics
This review first published in Australian Arts Review.
www.artsreview.com.au
