PETER/WENDY

 

Peter/Wendy by Jeremy Bloom. Based on JM Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy.

Directed by Rachel Pengilly. Composer and sound designer. Shannon Parnell. Movement director and Stage Manager. Hannah Pengilly. Set and costume designer Helen Wojtas. Lighting designer Jacob Aquilina. Fight director Wajanoah Donohoe. Intimacy coordinator  Chipz. Ribix Productions and Lexi Sekuless Productions. The Mill Theatre. September 3-27.2025. Bookings:info@ribixproductions.com.au. www.milltheatreatdairyroad.com

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

If you believe in the magic of theatre then clap your hands loudly for Ribix Productions’ cast and creatives of Peter/Wendy. For the production is indeed magical. From the moment we step into the theatre, we find ourselves in a wonderland, a cabinet of curiosities, in a world of Victoriana. Members of the cast approach asking for happy thoughts that can then be written on the wall. The whole theatre comes alive with the wonder of the imagination. Wendy lies Ophelia like on a bed, covered with a floral designed quilt. Designer Helen Wojtas has turned the theatre into a tapestry of wonderment. Shannon Parnell’s music complements with the whimsy and charm of her composition.

 

Mark Lee (Smee), Heidi Silberman (Hook)
Veronica Baroulina (Wendy)

I left the theatre with the happy thought that Jeremy Bloom has opened my eyes with his adaptation of the iconic Peter Pan tale of the boy who never grew up. Where I might have once regarded the story of Peter Pan, Wendy and the Lost Boys of Neverland as a childhood fantasy story in Rachel Pengilly’s production at the intimate Mill Theatre I became transported to a darker, deeper world of complex emotions. Bloom has stripped back J.M.Barrie’s adventure to key moments that plunge us into a shadowy world of dreams and desires. The beloved characters are still there. Peter (Joshua James), Wendy (Veronica Baroulina), Mr. and Mrs. Darling (Mark Lee and Heidi Silberman), Tinkerbell(Chipz),Tiger Lily (Sarah Hartley) the Lost Boy( Phoebe Fielden), Smee (Mark Lee)  and Captain Hook, comically sporting a coat-hanger for a hook (Heidi Silberman). There are still the thrills of flight, Wendy’s kidnap, Peter’s battle with the dastardly Hook and his bungling mate Smee and Tinkerbell’s death by poison until an audience, believing wholeheartedly in fairies, clap their hands at Peter’s bequest to bring the loyal, yet jealous Tinkerbell back to life.

 

Sarah Hartley (Tiger Lily) and 
Lost Boy (Phoebe Fielden)

What makes Bloom’s adaptation more evocative is the perceptive insight into human frailty. Pengilly’s direction is mercurial, capturing Peter’s perplexed defiance, Wendy’s naive innocence, Tiger Lily’s bravado, Tinker Bell’s fear of rejection and Mrs. Darling’s motherly despair. The action moves quickly, too quickly at times. There are moments when the magic needs to linger still a little longer, transporting us through fairy lights to the stars, imbuing us with the haunting other-worldliness of Neverland. 

Pengilly’s mission is to provide opportunities for young emerging actors to work with more experienced performers on projects that will encourage a pathway to the profession. In this Australian premiere, professional and amateur merge seamlessly in Bloom’s reimagined version of Barrie’s Peter Pan. Here the cast convincingly suit the action to the emotion and the emotion to the action as the audience is transported into the world of memory and experience to reflect on the nature of childhood, the bond between a parent and child, the wonder of imagination and the peril of fear. And then there is the eternal conflict between good and evil where good must always triumph. More than ever I am reminded in Bloom’s version of the import of JM Barrie’s classic children’s story and Pengilly’s lucid theatrical interpretation wonderfully captures the feeling that the story of Peter Pan, Wendy and the Lost Boys of Neverland is a timeless cautionary tale for every generation.

Wendy (Veronica Baroulina), Tinkerbell (Chipz) and
Peter Pan (Joshua James) in Jeremy Bloom's Peter/Wendy

Director Pengilly and her cast and creatives have transformed the Mill Theatre into an immersive  fable. From whimsy to excitement, from adventure to reflection, from suspense to enlightenment, Ribix Productions Peter/Wendy is a feast of entertaining delight.

Photography: Darkhorse Creative

True West - Ensemble Theatre

True West by Sam Shepard.  Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, September 8 – October 11, 2025.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
September 21

Playwright: Sam Shepard
Director: Iain Sinclair; Assistant Director: Anna Houston

    Cast
Mom - Vanessa Downing
Austin - Darcy Kent
Saul Kimmer - James Lugton
Lee - Simon Maiden

Set & Costume Designer: Simone Romaniuk
Lighting Designer: Brockman; Sound Designer: Daryl Wallis
Dialect Coach: Linda Nicholls-Gidley; Fight Director: Scott Witt
Stage Manager: Christopher Starnawski                                Asst Stage Manager: Bella Wellstead  Costume Supervisor: Renata Beslik

By arrangement with Music Theatre International (Australasia)

95mins (no interval)    Recommended for ages 14+
 

 Photos by Prudence Upton

Mom - Vanessa Downing, arrives home unexpectedly

Saul Kimmer - James Lugton,  Lee - Simon Maiden confront Austin - Darcy Kent
about doing a movie script-writing deal

______________________________________________________________

Donald Trump said today, in what should have been a solemn commemoration of the life and shooting death of Charlie Kirk, that he disagreed with Kirk on one point – that Charlie never hated those who opposed him. “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said of Kirk. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry,” Trump added. “I am sorry, Erika”, speaking to Kirk’s grief-stricken wife. [independent.co.uk]

What’s worse is that Trump sounded as if he was making a joke of the core American default state of mind – violence in word and deed.

Sam Shepard understood it was not a joke when he wrote True West in 1980 – nearly half a century ago.  Though the play is famous, I’m embarrassed to say that I had known nothing about it before seeing Ensemble’s presentation.  For the final fifteen minutes and for long after leaving the theatre, I was literally in a state of shock.  

The performances by Darcy Kent and Simon Maiden, directed with such accurate precision by Iain Sinclair (whose work I saw in his younger days in his Elbow Theatre, here in Canberra) was quite extraordinary, achieving all, perhaps even more, than Shepard could ever have wished for.
 

 

Lee confronts Austin with the toast made in toasters Austin has stolen
to satisfy Lee's earlier challenge that the intellectual Austin couldn't do practical things.

Lee teases Austin with the keys of Austin's car

 

 

Which, on reflection, makes his play as important today, here in Australia, as it was in his America.  Shepard said [ http://www.sam-shepard.com/truewest.html ] "I wanted to write a play about double nature, one that wouldn't be symbolic or metaphorical or any of that stuff. I just wanted to give a taste of what it feels like to be two-sided. It's a real thing, double nature. I think we're split in a much more devastating way than psychology can ever reveal. It's not so cute. Not some little thing we can get over. It's something we've got to live with."

But what Donald Trump and this frightening production shows is that True West is powerfully symbolic and metaphorical precisely because it is more than a mere taste of what it feels like to be two-sided.  The most awful feeling in the play is at the moment when the two brothers are at the point of killing each other as their Mom arrives home unexpectedly from what she had hoped would be a holiday.

She doesn’t seem really surprised to find her house almost destroyed in their drunken mayhem. It’s just something she’s got to live with, apparently.  Just like we have to live with Trump’s hatred which will tear the whole world apart.

 

Austin has lost his sense of propriety, and now behaves like his profligate brother Lee
shortly before their Mom arrives home.

 

As I searched for others’ views, I couldn’t do better than this, from Misha Berson written in 1997:

"'True West' isn't just a combustive slam dance of warring brothers. It also animates the psychic struggle of self and shadow self, and it makes vivid the unbridgeable split in the American West mythos between unfettered individualism and mainstream success, wide open space and subdivided wilderness. The play is inconclusive. It offers no healing of such divisions, no integration. It just lays out its contradictions with high-voltage dramatic force. It rocks, and reverbs."   ...Misha Berson, Seattle Times theater critic.

30 years later, we – in Australia – on social media and in the face of destructive climate change which we have caused ourselves;  do we not see that contradiction between unfettered individualism (in Lee) and the insistence on mainstream success (in movie producer Saul Kimmer), and between the wide open space of the natural world and the subdividing of the wilderness?

The shooting of Charlie Kirk has filled our news with arguments about political violence and gun control, as the Minister for the Environment struggles to control the expansion of the gas industry which has already awfully damaged the ancient heritage of Murujuga in Western Australia.

While a “sovereign citizen” has gone bush after killing police in Victoria – the Australian version of Sam Shepard’s characters (and apparently his own father) going to the desert to escape social responsibility.

Ensemble’s True West is quite simply a fantastic production, but be prepared for its powerful emotional effect on a personal level, and for the truth of its story on the wider social level.

Definitely not to be missed.  This is theatre art at its best.

 

 

The Fold : Hoda Afshar

Photography Book Review: Brian Rope

The Fold : Hoda Afshar

Edited by Sarah Chaplin Espenon & Hoda Afshar

Designed and Published by Loose Joints Studio

Oversized stitched booklet with quadruple-folded debossed cover

245 x 245mm, 228 pp, 435 monotone plates

ISBN: 978-1-912719-64-8

Hoda Afshar began her career as a documentary photographer in Iran. Since 2007 she has been an Australia-based visual artist and documentary maker. She has won various major awards, including Australia’s National Photographic Portrait Prize twice.

Afshar is a member of Eleven, a collective of contemporary Muslim Australian artists, curators and writers uniquely straddling contemporary art, academia and grass roots community engagement. Considered to be a most innovative visual artist of her generation, she explores marginality, gender representation, and displacement.

Afshar challenges the history of gazes. The gaze (French: le regard), in the figurative sense, is an awareness and perception of others or oneself. In this book, The Fold, she pushes the boundaries of photography, making it a potent instrument of disclosure and resistance. It is both poetic and committed.

Cover_The Fold

In addition to the book, the artist’s first monographic exhibition – opening on 30 September 2025 at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, France - Hoda Afshar. Performer the Invisible also unveils The Fold.

Performer l'invisible

The book – and, I understand, the exhibition - offers a critical re-reading of photographs from the museum's collections’ archives, taken by the French psychiatrist and photographer Gaëtan de Clérambault during a stay in Morocco in 1918-19. He attempted to investigate his psychoanalytic theories regarding fantasy and facial coverings, producing thousands of photographs of Islamic women, and some males, wearing the traditional white Haik garment of the area, which has now virtually vanished from everyday life there due to colonialism.

By exploring and re-appropriating that image archive, Afshar has questioned the way in which photography, used by dominant powers, has shaped - sometimes made captive – how bodies are represented. The Fold attempts to unpack de Clérambault’s ideas about fabrics, covering, and fetishism.

When she commenced scanning the archive, Afshar found herself unintentionally creating small square images of folded fabric and hidden faces, purely selected by chance. She decided to continue doing so, as a way of referencing the repetition, excess, and obsession with the fold – the very qualities of the Baroque period described by Gilles Deleuze in his 1988 book, also titled The Fold. He was a key figure in poststructuralism and, in that book, proposed a new and radical way of understanding philosophy and art. He introduced a way of practising philosophy that centres on the fold, exploring how difference turns inward to engage with itself.

This is the first time Afshar has drawn upon an archive in her work. Through the recurring motif of a mirror, we are invited to examine our own biases as we view these images, particularly in relation to the veil. 

There are around 24 pages of text in the 122 pages of the book. They primarily comprise two essays - “On Photography and Orientalism” by Ali Behdad, and “Decoding Clerambault – Hoda Afshar’s Unfinished Quest” by Annabelle Lacour, plus a conversation between Afshar and photography historian Taous Dahmani. One brief exchange from that conversation focuses on the key issue of why the women in the image archive are not identified.

Dahmani asks Is their fate to be ever-linked with their photographer’s name? Afshar responds Yes, this is a difficult question to answer and the same one I had in making The Fold – the question of who is missing in this work. On the one hand this is obvious; the women who figure in Clerambault’s photographs. As in so many of the photographs taken in this same milieu, the photographed women are silent; we learn nothing about them.

The bulk of the book is images created by Afshar’s scanning of the Deleuze archive. Here is my small random selection of the image pages.

 

And here are a few individual images provided to the media for use:

Hoda_Afshar_TheFold_Press05

Hoda_Afshar_TheFold_Press11

Hoda_Afshar_TheFold_Press15

Afshar has also created a film which begins with a digital animation re-imagining the scene of de Clérambault’s death – he shot himself in front of a mirror. A camera focusing on his reflected image leads into a sequence in which clinicians and academics offer their assessment of him. An excerpt worth viewing is here.

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

​

DUCKPOND Circa The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre.

Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa ensemble.

Director & Stage Design: Yaron Lifschitz – Composer & Sound Design: Jethro Woodward

Costume Design: Libby McDonnell – Lighting Design: Alexander Berlage

Associate Director: Marty Evans – Dramaturg/Associate Choreographer: Rani Luther

Performed by: Oliver Layher, Tristan St John, Jordan Twartz, Harley Timmermans, Adam Strom, Darby Sullivan, Asha Colless, Anais Stewart, Clara Scudder-Davis, Maya Davies, Sophie Seccombe, Rose Symons.

The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre September 18^th to 20^th 2025.

Opening night performance reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

There appears to be no limit to the imagination of Circa Director Yaron Lifschitz when devising creative ways of utilising acrobatics in his creations. Nor it seems in the supply of incredible acrobats willing to put their bodies on the line in extraordinary ways to interpret his ideas.

His forays into classical music include ground-breaking interpretations of Daphnis et Chloe, Beethoven 9, The Art of Fuge and Rite of Spring.  His re-interpretations of operas Orpheus and Eurydice and Dido and Aeneas have challenged opera lovers to rethink their response to these operas.  

This whimsical deconstruction of the most loved classical ballet in the repertoire shamelessly subverts both Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Hans Christian Anderson’s The Ugly Duckling, together with a soupcon of burlesque and clowning, to create a hugely enjoyable entertainment that can be enjoyed equally by those with no knowledge of the source themes, as much as those familiar with both.  

In Lifschitz’s version, the principal characters are the Duckling, the Prince, the Black Swan and Cupid. However, although provided with the names of the 12 performers, there was sadly no identifying information to allow this reviewer to tell you who played which role.  

Apart from certain dot points, the plot bears little resemblance to either Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake or Hans Christian Anderson’s The Ugly Duckling. Suffice to know that Cupid ensures that the prince falls in love with the Duckling who does indeed turn into a Swan. But surprisingly our Swan doesn’t end up with the prince, instead, the show ends with a surprise denouement which possibly wouldn’t have occurred to either Tchaikovsky or Anderson.

Lifschitz design has the stage surrounded by vertical strips which allow unobstructed entries and exits. Libby McDonald’s stylish costume design has the ensemble costumed in elegant, sparkly black velvet body suits, which are later replaced by similar outfits in white. Cupid wears Black and White wings, the Black Swan’s bodysuit is provocatively see-through, and the prince wears a crown and sparkly vest. The duckling is costumed in gold with a cute white tutu. Various elements are added and discarded depending on the requirements of the storytelling or the acrobatic feats.

Highlights include an energetic pillow-fight replete with flying feathers and much quacking; a delightful sequence referencing the dance of the cygnets from Swan Lake but with the cygnets replaced by ducklings wearing yellow clown pants, bejewelled flippers and carrying red mops, and an excruciating turn in which the Black Swan, wearing red stilettos, tramples over the body of her partner.

As expected of Circa’s productions, the acrobatic elements are spectacular, including stunning acrobatic duos, heart-stopping throws, three-high group pyramids, inventive routines on silks, cyr wheels and hula hoops.

Jethro Woodward’s sound design is peppered with tantalising references to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, while Andrew Berlage’s lighting design ensures that no detail of the thrilling gymnastic feats is missed.

However, the biggest surprise occurs at the very end, when the cast, having portrayed the story and taken their well-earned bows, appear to rebel and begin to deconstruct the deconstruction.

To the bemusement of the audience, they proceed to dismantle the set, tear up the dance tarkett, strip off their costumes, revealing flesh-coloured undies, and perform acrobatics with various apparatus, climaxing with an eye-popping parade in which each performer is showcased posing cheekily in a wheeled costume trunk. Thereby providing a wickedly subversive ending to a memorably subversive creation.  

Created in 2023, Duckpond has already been seen internationally. It is currently enjoying another whip around Australia before heading off overseas again. Watch out for it when it comes your way.

                                                                  Images by Pia Johnson.

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

THE STORY OF THE OARS

 

 

 The Story of the Oars by Nigel Featherstone. Inspired by song sketches of Nigel Featherstone. Music by Jay Cameron. 

Directed by Shelly Higgs. Music director Jay Cameron. Scenic and lighting design Veronique Benett. Costume design Leah Ridley. Production management. Neil Simpson and Caroline Stacey OAM. Cast: Craig Alexander. Louise Bennet. Sally Marett. Callum Doherty. Jay Cameron on pianoThe Street. World Premiere Season. September 19-21 2025. Performed on NGUNNAWAL AND NGAMBRI COUNTRY Bookings:

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Craig Alexander as Henry "Clocker" Bell.
Callum Doherty as Tom Bell in The Story of the Oars
Photo by Nathan Smith Photography

In the dim light composer Jay Cameron flings sheets of music to the floor. There is the sound of heavy clunking as bit by bit Cameron dismantles the outer surface of the piano to reveal the hidden workings behind the veneer. It could well be a metaphor for Nigel Featherstone’s World Premiere of The Story of the Oars, playing for a very short season at The Street.  Cameron’s percussive manipulation of hammers, keyboard and strings evokes an eerie tone of mystery and foreboding. A secret is about to be uttered. A truth will be revealed. The effect is visceral, compelling in its unease.  Veronique Benett’s lighting creates shafts of sharp lighting across the stage. A single spot reveals two figures standing at the edge of the lake. Henry “Clocker” Bell (Craig Alexander) looks out across the dry bed of the lake. His son Tom (Callum Doherty), a keen photographer is eager to stop to take photos on their trip to Canberra. Henry is ill at ease, anxious to move on, unsettled by the place, the moment and a haunting memory. Discordant punctuations of wire and wood heighten the uneasy atmosphere. There is a tension between father and son, a struggle to assert independent thought and understand an unspoken discomfort.

Louise Bennet as Gail Goodchild in
The Story of the Oars
Photo by Canberra Streets 

It is only when Featherstone unlocks the secret in the meeting between Henry and Gail Goodchild (Louise Bennet) and Pierra Caproni  (Sally Marett) who live at the lake  that we learn the truth of the tragedy that happened in the past, a truth that that would create both painful consequence for Henry and Tom and ther promise of healing for Henry, Gail and Pierra. The fury and torment of Cameron’s  mechanical accompaniment can assume a more musical harmony as the keyboard replaces the pounding rhythms of the timber and the strings. Cameron’s composition is the pulse that creates the shifting flow of our emotions. It is the spirit of the wild wind that feeds Gail Goodchild’s soul upon the lake, It is the water that envelops and cleanses Pierra Caproni with its healing power In Featherstone’s intriguing new work. It is the Lake that has the power to conceal and reveal. It is the lake that is the spirit of change. It embodies the complex character of the human condition.

Louise Bennet (Gail Goodchild)
 Sally Marett (Pierra Caproni) in
Nigel Featherstone's The Story of the Oars
Photo by Canberra Streets

Language seizes the heart and the mind in this bold new work. It is poetic, it is hypnotic, at time sensitive , emphatic and musical. In Goodchild’s cry to the wind or Caproni’s supplication to the water; to Henry’s agonized admission or Tom’s assertion of the politics of independence and liberation. The Story of the Oars demands attention, engagement of the intellect and freedom of the emotion. In a world that pays too little heed to the truth, it is a warning of the damage of consequence for those who would conceal the truth, whether that be for personal, political, economic or social gain.

Callum Doherty (Tom Bell) and Jay Cameron on piano
Photo by Canberra Streets

The Street has once again upheld its fine reputation of producing new work of the highest professional standard. Featherstone’s writing is original and unique. His command of the lyrical nature of his prose  combines the beauty of language with the imagination to conceive a fascinating and engaging narrative. His characters are real, their situation unusual and the levels of their interaction deceptively complex .  Director Shelly Higgs and composer Cameron maintain the suspense as the outstanding cast creates totally believable and convincing portrayals of four characters caught up in the search for the truth.

It is unfortunate that such unique work should be limited by the available funding and resources to ensure a longer season.  It is a predicament that too often faces companies dedicated to the creation of new and important works. The Story of the Oars is a case in point. It is to be hoped that it may be revived at some point so that larger audiences may have the opportunity to witness the development and production of the finest premieres in the country.  If you read this before the 21^st then make sure that you grab a ticket to this daring and evocative new work, part mystery, part thriller and entirely entertaining.

 

 

DUCKPOND

 

 

DUCKPOND

Directed and designed by Yaron Lifschitz. Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa ensemble. Composer  and sound designer Jethro Woodward. Costume Designer 
Libby McDonnell. Lighting Designer Alexander Berlage. Associate Director 
Marty Evans.  Dramaturg/Associate Choreographer Rani Luther . The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. September 18-20 2025.Bookings: 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

The audience clapped, whistled, cheered and stood in rousing ovation at the end of Circa’s  performance of their breathtaking parody of Swan Lake. Duckpond is not a title that conjures images of balletic grace, acrobatic precision or soaring feats of aerial elegance. And yet this is what Circa has created in its cheeky reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s immortal ballet. Instead of a princess to steal the prince’s heart we are presented with an ugly duckling in Elizabethan pantaloon, hose and ruff. It is a liaison all too soon doomed to failure. And yet it remains a tale of a broken dream until the duckling can survive the tumbling rejection of the Corp de Swans in clinging black and discover with feathered Cupid true love in the arms of the black swan. Sounds crazy? It may be, but the entire daredevil performance by Circa is a tad crazy.

Instead of swans on points with white tutus the stage explodes with acrobatic leaps, lifts, tosses and twirls. The duckling must face obstacles to prove her worth in a struggle for survival. She must endure being thrown across the stage into the arms of another or hurled high onto the shoulders of another, standing on the shoulders of the person on the floor. And then if that is not risky and scary enough her hope is dashed as she falls through the airs into waiting arms. Trust was never challenged to this degree.

The stage becomes a cascade of tumbling bodies, somersaulting acrobatics and spinning cartwheels. Amidst the aerial displays on a falling ribbon of cloth, the triad formations of balancing bodies and the gasp-inducing perfectly timed physical feats of unbelievable control Cupid provides a narrative thread to remind us of the duckling’s search for true self and community. The percussive score tinkles at times like swirling water or raindrops on the pond and then at the moment of acceptance into the tribe, Tchaikovsky’s rich and deep music swells with portent. We are reminded for a moment that Circa’s parody can still excite the sheer drama of the search for self. It may be expressed through the astounding skill of Circa’s brilliant ensemble but is still to be felt in the heart-stirring danger of the circus.

A comedic highlight is the ludicrously absurd parade of the ducks, dressed in oversized yellow dungaree and sporting flippers and mops. Every circus has its clown but none that I have seen has a Corp de Ducks to waddle their way in unison across the stage mopping as they go. The sound of a young child’s laughter rang out in delight.

Like all good fairytales, Duckpond ends happily. Transformed, black and white combine in loving harmony, but ruffled feathers are never far away as a video of squabbling swans reminds us that every relationship will have its trials and tribulations.

Transformation is the theme and Circa surprises with a finale on a Cyr wheel and a hoola hoop routine on a stripped-back stage. All too soon the evening ends with the cheeky tease of a burlesque parade of each company artist.  The Ensemble returns to its true identity, a company of circus entertainers. Duckpond is a spectacular display of thrills and acrobatic skills that will delight, amaze and enthrall. It is a tale of resilience and survival in the quest to find acceptance and true love. Above all, it is an evening of entertainment and amazement not to be missed during its all too short season.

 

 

 

 

LEND ME A TENOR - Free Rain Theatre - ACT Hub.

John Whinfield (Max) - William 'Wally' Allington (Tito Merelli) in Free Rain Theatre's production of  "Lend Me a Tenor"

Written by Ken Ludwig – Designed and Directed by Cate Clelland

Costumes designed by Fiona Leach – Properties by Rosemary Gibbons

Sound design by Neville Pye – Lighting Design by David Brown

Stage Management by Charlie & Sam Harbison-Gehrmann

Free Rain Theatre, 17 – 27 September 2025.

Opening night performance on 17^th September reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Michael Sparks (Saunders) - Justice-Noah Malfitano (Bellhop) - William 'Wally' Allington (Tito Merelli)- Sally Cahill (Julia) - Christina Falsone (Maria) - Meaghan Stewart (Diana)- Maxine Beaumont (Maggie) in Free Rain Theatre's production of "Lend Me A Tenor).

An Opera Company’s worst nightmare. The Cleveland Grand Opera Company’s expensive world-famous guest tenor, Tito Merelli, has not arrived in time for its all-important dress rehearsal for his once-only appearance in their production of Pagliacci.

When Merelli eventually arrives, accompanied by his fiery wife, Maria, he is unco-operative and pleading the need to rest, refuses any rehearsal before that evening’s performance.

Frustrated by his star’s behaviour, the General Manager of the opera Company, Henry Saunders charges his harried assistant, Max with the task of making sure Merelli gets to the opera house in time for the performance.

On learning Max has an interest in singing opera, Merelli gives him a singing lesson, after which, to insure Merelli gets his rest, Max slips a tranquilizer into his drink, unaware that Merelli has already taken a double-dose of tranquilizers.

Later, when Max tries to awaken Merelli, he finds him unresponsive and assumes that he is dead. Horrified, he notifies Saunders, and Julia, the Chairperson of the Opera Guild. Chaos ensures while they hatch a preposterous plan to have Max substitute for Merelli in the opera.

Meanwhile, Merelli revives and slips out via a side door, providing the perfect set-up for an evening of hilarious, cleverly staged slapstick, replete with witty dialogue, mistaken identities, and a surprise behind every door in the striking art-deco setting designed by Clelland.

John Whinfield (Max) - William 'Wally' Arlington (Tito Merelli) in "Lend Me A Tenor"

Supporting the deco concept, costume designer Fiona Leach captures the period by costuming the ladies in gorgeous authentic thirties-period gowns, furs and lingerie, and the men in smart period day and evening wear.

Under Clelland’s direction her accomplished cast captures the correct mood, creating well-rounded characterisations without losing the essential silliness necessary to engage the audience with the farcical situations.  

William 'Wally' Allington (Tito Merelli) - John Whinfield (Max) in "Lend Me A Tenor"

William ‘Wally’ Allington and John Winfield are well cast as the capricious opera star, Tito Merelli, and his reluctant carer, Max. The essential camaraderie of their developing relationship is engagingly realised, and their impressive rendition of the duet “Dio che nell’alma infondere” from the Verdi opera Don Carlos earned them an appreciative ovation.

Sally Cahill (Julia) - Michael Sparks (Saunders)- Justice-Noah Malfitano (Bellboy) 
 John Whinfield (Max) - Maxine Beaumont (Maggie) in "Lend Me A Tenor". 

Michael Sparks is totally convincing as the Opera Company’s General Manager, Saunders, the outraged father of the adventurous Maggie, engagingly portrayed by Maxine Beaumont, while Sally Cahill delights as the dotty, manipulative Opera Guild Chairperson, Julia.

Christina Falsone revels in the role as Merelli’s fearsome Italian wife, Maria, and while Meaghan Stewart’s interpretation of Diana, the man-eating soprano who doesn’t rely on her voice to achieve operatic heights, is entertaining, a little less aggression, and a little more elegance, would make her portrayal more believable.

Meaghan Stewart (Diana) - William 'Wally' Allington (Tito Merelli) in "Lend Me A Tenor"

And proving that there is no such thing as a small role, Justice-Noah Malfitano milks every moment he is on stage to steal more than his fair share of the laughs as the pushy bellhop fan of Tito Merelli.

With this delightfully entertaining production of “Lend Me A Tenor” Free Rain Theatre have produced a winner.  It would be a pity to miss it.

 

                                               Photos by Janelle McMenamin

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

   

 

LEND ME A TENOR by Ken Ludwig. Directed by Cate Clelland. Free-Rain Theatre Company. ACT Hub. Sept17-27.

                                                     Photo: Janelle McMenamin 

Lend Me a Tenor is an unabashed romp about life behind the scenes at the opera. There are six doorways in the hotel suite on stage and they’ll get a work out in this farce about backstage events in a 1930s American opera company who are doing Pagliacci with a somewhat doleful guest artist, world renowned Italian tenor Tito Merelli (William ‘Wally’ Allington). He's staying the hotel. The visit will not go smoothly. 

Saunders (Michael Sparks) is the wily company manager whose shy offsider Max (John Whitfield) harbours some singing ambitions as well as a passion for Saunders’ daughter Maggie ( Maxine Beaumont). Maggie is dying to meet Tito and is a little dismissive of Max. She wants a bit of excitement in her life before any settling down. 

The somewhat daffy Julia (Sally Cahill), chair of the Cleveland Opera Guild and fond of extremely bedazzling dresses, enlivens the scene. 

And the hotel’s wide eyed bellhop (Justice-Noah Malfitano) has an intense crush on Tito and comes in at all the wrong moments. 

Tito comes complete with brisk and passionate wife Maria (Christina Falsone) and neither have a great deal of English. 

The opera company’s leading lady is the powerful Diana (Meaghan Stewart), wolfishly ambitious and eager to use Tito to climb the singing heights.

There’s a presumed death and dual tenors in full identical clown costume and makeup as Max has to take over the role.  Luckily he can sing. 

Much confusion and use of those multiple doors is the well controlled order of the night under the firm hand of director Cate Clelland. The play’s demands are easily met by a strong cast and the pace does not slacken.

It’s not deep but it is a theatrical workout for all concerned and an excuse for some seasoned performers to let their hair down. 

Alanna Maclean