BLITHE SPIRIT

 

Brief Lives by Noël Coward

Directed by Paige Rattray. Designed by David Fleischer. Lighting design by Damien Cooper. Composer and sound designer Clemence Williams. Magic and illusions consultant Adam Mada. Assistant director Tait de Lorenzo Fight and movement director Nigel Poulton. Voice and text coach Leith McPherson. Drama Theatre. Sydney Opera House. Sydney Theatre Company. March 25-May 14 2022.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Nancy Denis as Mrs. Bradman. Bessie Holland as Ruth Condamine.
Matt Day as Charles Condamine. Tracy Mann as Dr. Bradman

I wonder what Noël Coward would think of Paige Rattray’s extremely madcap and hilarious production of his comedy Blithe Spirit for the Sydney Theatre Company. Would he approve of the gender switching where Charles Condamine’s dear departed ex-wife Elvira is played by Shane Jenek aka Drag Queen Courtney Act and Dr Bradman, complete with red hair and beard and dressed in a kilt is played by award winning actress Tracy Mann? What would he think about casting against type where Rattray has cast an extremely large actress as Condamine’s current wife Ruth ( played with forceful authority by Bessie Holland ), and a person of short stature as the deadpan maid Edith ( a  wonderfully deadpan performance by Megan Wilding). This is physical comedy at its funniest. Only author Charles Condamine (Matt Day) and Mrs. Bradman (Nancy Denis) appear to be less cast against type, although their idiosyncrasies are obvious and a black wife of a nimble Scottish doctor makes for a quirky comparison. Even Madame Arcati, the obsessed medium, defies the Margaret Rutherford image of the quaint and eccentric elderly woman. Brigid Zengeni’s Arcati is a wonderfully realized and thoroughly believable portrayal of the intensely possessed medium.  In short, this is not the conventional Blithe Spirit. So would Coward have approved of this over the top mayhem and gender switching? Perhaps the answer lies in the creation of the play during the  Second World War when Coward wrote Blithe Spirit in a mere six days as an escapist wartime entertainment. The Master said that he had “ the talent to amuse.”  Blithe Spirit proved the perfect antidote to the gloom and doom of the war years in bomb blitzed Britain. Perhaps director Rattray saw its revival as the perfect antidote to the challenging and despondent time of Covid.

Courtney Act as Elvira

In any case, I believe that Noël Coward would have been thrilled by the fresh, funny and frantic approach to a play that mocks Spiritualism and the occult and makes fun of the pretentious and the vain. The plot is simple enough. Charles Condamine invites Madame Arcati to conduct a séance as research for a new novel.  He invites his doctor and the doctor’s wife to attend the séance as witnesses to the strange event. But Charles gets much more than he bargained for when Madame Arcati conjures up his dead wife, Elvira The rest is pure mayhem, a minefield of argument and confrontation as Elvira concocts her ghostly mischief. Charles descends into confusion and Madame Arcati, gleefully rapt in the phenomenon attempts to set matters right. 

Brigid Zengeni as Madame Arcati. Megan Wilding as Edith

  Coward revels in his ingenious construction of misunderstanding and mishaps and Rattray and her cast play the absurdity of the situation to the hilt while always maintaining credibility. A willing suspension of disbelief is all that is required as the table sways and levitates, lights flicker and books come flying out of bookcases. In a slinky performance of feminine guile and wile, Courtney Act’s Elvira is utterly captivating and seductive. It is not entirely implausible that the sceptical Dr Bradman should break into a highland fling in a moment of eccentric excitement. Too often the role is played straight but Mann’s characterization of Dr. Bradman as a darting Scottish  leprechaun is a comical gem. Wilding’s maid Edith is a brilliant portrayal of bewilderment that steals the show with her Funny Minion like movement and hilarious double takes. Day’s Condamine perfectly captures a sense of desperation as the situation spirals out of control.

Nancy Denis as Mrs. Bradman. Tracy Mann as Dr. Bradman

In Rattray’s imaginatively conceived interpretation of Coward’s sardonic comedy, contrast defies conformity. The excellent cast make the most of every moment, propelled by inventive business, tightly focused direction and Coward’s talent for sharply honed comedy. Fleischer’s set design, dominated by a large portrait of Condamine is a collection of contrasting elements. Order becomes chaos. The orderly secure world collapses at the collision with the mystical astral universe. Rattray and her cast and creative team joyfully embrace the nonsensical antithesis of Coward’s play and the result is a rollicking panacea for tough times. It worked wonders on audiences in war torn Britain and it worked wonders on a matinee audience still seeking respite from the pandemic. Sydney Theatre Company’s revival of this classic comedy from The Master even turned the grey skies to blue over Sydney Harbour with a smile on every audience face. Now that’s what I call magic!

Photos by Prudence Upton

 

SIX The Musical, by Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss, Canberra Theatre until 15 May, Reviewed by Samara Purnell

 

GET ready to dance. Get ready to laugh. Get ready to cheer. 

This is “BEHEADED - LIVE!” the wives of the Tudor King Henry VIII shout.

“SIX The Musical” turns the stories of the six wives of Tudor King Henry VIII into a pop concert. Think Spice Girls meets reality TV shows “The Bachelor” and “The Voice”.

Under the rather morbid premise of competing over who had the crappiest time with Henry, the first wife off-the-bat is the Spaniard Catherine of Aragon (Pheonix Jackson Mendoza). Divorced by Henry after his infidelity, Catherine’s catchy song “No Way” has a samba beat that Mendoza belts out of the park, embodying a perfect balance of pissed-off and sass. 

Kala Gare as Anne Boleyn really has a chip on her shoulder, after being beheaded by the king, and is convinced she has the competition in the bag. Throwing out barbs and taunts to the other girls, she’s “Sorry not sorry” in her “Don’t Lose Your Head” solo, giving off Katy Perry and Arianna Grande vibes. 

The Australian run of “SIX” has Shannen Alyce Quan as the swing, who performed on this evening as the sweet, stoic Jane Seymour. Her ballad “Heart of Stone” tells of the patience and fondness she and Henry had for each other before she died after giving birth to a son. Surely death has to keep her in the running to win?

After a “Swipe left-swipe right” scenario to settle on Anne of Cleaves (swing Chiara Assetta) as his next wife, Henry had taken one look at her upon meeting and decided she looked nothing like her profile picture (in reality a portrait by Hans Holbein). When Anne of Cleves' turn comes to tell her story, the show goes full Eurovision EDM in the hilarious “House of Holbein”, complete with fluoro sunnies, ruffs, and strobe lights. “Supercool” as they say. 

There is a mix of musical genres throughout “SIX” but mostly up-tempo pop, with references to Beyonce and other pop divas.

The flirty fifth queen Katherine Howard (Chelsea Dawson) channels Britney Spears, with pink hair and accessories. Her number “All You Wanna Do” is a racy number. There is sexual innuendo throughout the show as well as an brief, unsettling comparison as to who had the most miscarriages.

There is a token attempt instigated by the wife who outlived Henry - Catherine Parr (Vidya Makan) to spend the last five minutes of the show retelling their own stories and strengths away from the label of “Henry VIII’s wife” but really, he is infamous because of these women too and the zeitgeist of “empowered females” and the coathanger of a competition comes second to just the pure fun and exuberance enjoyed by both cast and audience in this musical context.

Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s choreography is tight, energetic and poppy, performed tightly and non-stop by the whole cast, who do a wonderful job of maintaining energy whilst singing and dancing throughout the entire show.

The finale reprise of songs is clever and the all-girl band - Claire Healey, Kathryn Stammers, Debbie Yap, Jessica Dunn band blend in seamlessly on stage and give a great performance. Greensleeves played on the keyboard to sound like a harpsichord was a nice historical nod.

The wives are dressed in gorgeously sculptural, sparkling costumes and perform on an attractive set - more LED lighting than leadlighting and a blend of church and “The Church” nightclub in London. It really is eye-candy.

What initially looked like a girls’ night out, was being enjoyed just as much by the guys in the front row and the grandparents who had come along too. 

“SIX is a witty, bullet-point of history, presented as a glitzy pop-competition, with catchy songs and a vibrancy that will make you want to see it again!

 

Canberra International Music Festival, Concert 7: "Kia Ora Kiwi"

New Zealand String Quartet

Guest soloist: Horomona Horo - Taonga Pūoro

At Fitters’ Workshop, May 1, 2022

Reviewed by Tony Magee

UNIQUELY combining string quartet culture with the ancient sounds of Māori instruments, the New Zealand String Quartet with guest soloist Horomona Horo presented a fascinating and diverse concert as part of the Canberra International Music Festival, showcasing the music and sounds of their country through millennia.

Described as the “master of his generation” by New Zealand’s “Mana” cultural magazine, Horomona Horo is a practitioner of Taonga Pūoro, the collective term for the traditional musical instruments of the Māori people.

Horomona Horo… superbly showcasing his incredible skills on his collection of Taonga Pūoro instruments.
Photo: Peter Hislop.

Celebrating their 35th season, the New Zealand String Quartet regularly tours internationally and the ensemble’s extensive discography on the Naxos label includes the complete quartets of Mendelssohn, Bartok, Berg, Brahms, Janacek and Lilburn.

Opening with “Manaaki” (2022) by Phil Brownlee and Ariana Tikao, the piece reflects a key concept for Māori people: support, taking care of, giving hospitality to, protection, and showing respect and generosity for others.

It began slowly and evocatively, with Horo establishing a mystical scene with his whirling pūrerehua (bull roarer), not unlike the wind swirling through rustling leaves. A lush wash of string sounds followed, taken over by mournful solos from Gillian Ansell on viola and Rolf Gjelsten on cello.

Salina Fisher’s “Torino - Echoes on Pūtōrino Improvisations by Rob Thorne” (2016) invites the audience into a 200 metre long tunnel landscape, the haunting music revealing incredible imagery and sound effects from the string quartet, later developing into furious and fluttering interplay between Helene Pohl on first violin and Monique Lapins on second violin.

“Te Koanga” (2017) by Gareth Farr, also scored for string quartet, imitates birds and welcomes the audience into the New Zealand bush. Brilliant in construction, the piece opened with call and response interplay between violin and cello contrasted with vibrant playing from the entire ensemble in unison, alternating with a rich harmonic structure.

Horomona Horo with the NZ String Quartet, which is celebrating its 35th season. Photo: Peter Hislop.

After interval, Horo returned to the stage for a solo tapestry of pieces showcasing the myriad of instruments that make up his collection of Taonga Pūoro. 

Opening with a traditional lament he masterfully filled the venue with haunting flute sounds, transcending into familiar and joyful melodies from the east coast before a final improvisation, which also served to reintroduce the New Zealand String Quartet - one by one - as they slowly traveled down the long corridor of Fitters’ Workshop, joining in the improvisation as they went, finally assembling on stage. It was a fascinating display of Horo’s many talents.

To close the program, “Hine-pū-te-hue” (2001) by Gillian Whitehead revealed a huge dynamic range from the players and was complex in construction. Featuring extended solos from all the strings, Lapins on second violin amazingly created sounds from her instrument resembling a small pipe organ. Horo pulled out all the stops and selected his treble flutes, an alto flute, gourds and climaxing with a long wooden trumpet which filled the auditorium with a massive sound. 

Throughout the concert, the New Zealand String Quartet played with animated conviction and style, demonstrating they are indeed one of the world’s finest quartets. Horomona Horo complimented them superbly, showcasing his incredible skills on his collection of Taonga Pūoro instruments, sweeping the audience into the ancient and sometimes mysterious world of traditional New Zealand.

First published in Canberra City News on-line edition, May 2, 2022

Between Hope and Despair - Natasha Fijn, Eating Wild Weeds - Alex Flannery, Archive Apparitions - Elisa deCourcy

Review of Photography Exhibition | Brian Rope

At Photo Access | 21 April - 21 May 2022

In this suite of exhibitions, three artists explore the possibilities of cross-cultural and/or intergenerational communication through the photographic medium.

Dr Natasha Fijn is an ethnographic researcher and observational filmmaker. In combination with text, observational films and photo essays form an integral part of her creative research output.

In the aftermath of the 2020 Plumwood Mountain bushfires, Fijn shows her observations of temperate Australian forest recovering alongside her grandfather Jan Reinder Fijn’s record of the liberation of Nazi-occupied Maastricht in 1945. Each set of images in Between Hope and Despair documents a place immediately following a time of crisis. So, we see burnt trees and a destroyed shed at Plumwood, and a destroyed bridge at Maastricht.

Natasha Fijn, Burnt trees with water meadow beyond, Plumwood Mountain, 2020

Natasha Fijn, Destroyed Shed, Plumwood Mountain, 2020

 

Jan Reinder Fijn, A sad picture the destroyed St Servatias Bridge, 1944

​Both Fijns have employed the art of critical, participant observation in the documentation of their respective landscapes. The two documented times are separated by seventy-five years, but are connected by an intergenerational sense of urgency, through attention to their environments. The juxtapositions effectively reveal that both the old and recent events were indeed crises.

An Australian of Irish descent, Alex Flannery’s aim is to create photos that are both documents of the moment and also of things meaningful to him. Ouyang Yu is a contemporary Chinese-Australian poet and prose-writer. Operating in two languages and closely, caustically interrogating Australia's cultural identity and diversity, Yu's work is seen as matching a strident political voice with a tightly tuned lyrical self.

Eating Wild Weeds is a collaboration between Flannery and Yu. Together, they consider the complexities of cross-cultural understanding. Flannery’s images paired with Yu’s poetry investigate seeing, knowing and experiencing life in another country, engaging questions of visitation, migration, communication and being part of a multi-national family.

Flannery shows us interesting everyday scenes that he saw in the Chinese cities of Xiangyang and Wuhan during 2019.

Alex Flannery, Laddermen and Mao, 2019

Alex Flannery, sun and man in the street, 2019

Alex Flannery, river and jumping board, 2019

Yu’s displayed poetry needs to be read and considered. To illustrate, I share the concluding words of his I Love Sleep – “I love sleep … correct me if I am wrong … for in sleep I am equal to anyone … Without a fight.”

Dr Elisa deCourcy is currently an Australian Research Council fellow, working on a project about the first fifteen years of photographic practice in the Australian colonies. For Archive Apparitions, she collaborated with historic processes photographer, Craig Tuffin, who is among one of a dozen artists working with the historic daguerreotype process internationally, and with James Tylor.

In this work, deCourcy reactivates the daguerreotype process, as practised in the 1840s, to tell new stories of migration, environmentalism, family, and photography's role as a container of memory. The work continues conversations around colonisation, race, femininity, work and mobility, and photographic custodianship that began in the mid-nineteenth-century photography studio.

Cased daguerreotypes are among the oldest extant photographic images in (Australian) gallery, library and museum collections. These tiny, pocket-sized photographs in cases look quite foreign to us today. Their mirror-like surfaces make their subjects appear ethereal and otherworldly, but they are often sharp images often rich in detail.

Elisa deCourcy and Craig Tuffin, Konrad, 2021 - detail

In the mid-nineteenth century, both settler-colonists and First Nations people brought objects to the photography studio: books, letters from loved ones, cloaks, shields, heirlooms and even other photographs to narrate their personal biographies and relationships to family, kin and Country outside the frame.

The visual narratives constructed in this contemporary series gesture to engagements with the past. However, instead of objects, here are portraits of currently living people, who have various personal and professional relationships with historic colonial Australian photography, narrated through historic portrait devices. How appropriate that one of the subjects is Helen Ennis, who specialises in Australian photographic history.

Elisa deCourcy and Craig Tuffin, Helen, 2021, sixth-plate, cased, daguerreotype

This review was published in the Canberra Times (albeit without the final sentence) on 2/5/22 here. It is also on the author's blog here.

PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT

 

Joe Dinn (Tick) - Jarrad West (Bernadette) - Connor Banks Griffith (Adam)

(Photo: Helen Musa)

Written by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott.

Directed by Jarrad West – Associate Director: Steph Robert

Choreographed by Michelle Heine – Musical Direction by Alexander Unikowski

Costumes designed by Fiona Leach – Set Design by R James Entertainment.

Lighting designed by Phillip Goodwin – Sound Design by Nick Cossart.

Presented by Free – Rain Theatre Company.

The Q - Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre - 26th April to 22^nd May

Opening Night Performance on 28^th April reviewed by Bill Stephens.

Over the years, Free- Rain Theatre Company have earned an enviable reputation for the quality of its musical theatre productions. Unfortunately their current production of “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” will do little to add to that reputation. As presented on its opening night, despite the best efforts of all concerned, it fell well below Free-Rain’s best efforts.

Premiered in 2006 the musical “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” is based on the highly successful 1994 Australian film, “The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert”. It quickly became one of the most successful Australia musicals ever, enjoying productions on the West End and Broadway as well as other countries around the world. Its accolades include nominations for Olivier Awards, as well as Helpmann and Tony Awards in the costume design category.

Part of the attraction of the musical is its affecting story following the adventures of Bernadette, an ageing trans woman and former Les Girls star, and two professional drag queens Tick and Adam who convince Bernadette to join them in an adventure travelling across Australia in a bus they’ve nicknamed “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. Their destination is Alice Springs, where Tick has accepted an engagement from his ex-wife, Marion, to present a drag show at her venue. Unbeknown to the others, Tick’s motive for accepting the engagement was to allow him to reconnect with his young son, Benjie, who has been questioning Marion about his father.

Other attractions of this show include the clever way popular 1980’s  pop and disco songs have been woven into the score to underline significant moments in the story, and And while the witty and wonderful award-winning costume designs which incorporated iconic Australiana.

The costumes in this production were a major disappointment. The mammoth task of providing, according to the program, in excess of 400 costume items needed for this show seems to have defeated Free Rain Theatre’s indefatigable costumier, Fiona Leach and her team.

While it’s not necessary to duplicate the original costume design, there is opportunity to re-interpret them. An excellent example of that in this production is a re-interpretation of the iconic thong dress where Covid masks replace the thongs, teamed with a headdress representing the Covid sphere. However the effect of these costumes is ruined by the many ill-fitting poorly made costumes which should never have been allowed on stage.

The three Divas, for example, who should be the epitome of disco glamour, instead are costumed in dowdy, ill-fitting outfits and scruffy wigs.  Professional drag artists are fastidious about their costumes so it’s hard to imagine that any would have presented themselves in the outfits chosen for the climatic Alice Springs show that was meant to wow Alice Springs, and in particular, Tick’s son, Benjie.

Elsewhere there seemed to be little cohesion in the costume design. Many outfits looked as though they had been thrown together with components pulled out of wardrobe with little attention given to style, appropriateness or even to whether they fitted the wearers.  Scruffy wigs, even for the principals, and ill-fitting headdresses which forced their wearers to hold on to them to prevent them from falling off, seriously detracted from the overall look of show.

Cupcake dance - Priscilla Queen of the Desert"

Photo: Janelle McMenamin.

Among the lead performances, despite being hampered by unflattering wigs and costumes, Jarrad West gives an impressive performance in the leading role as Bernadette, managing to invest her with dignity and warmth. These qualities were particularly evident in his second-act scenes with the mechanic Bob, another lovely performance by Pat Gallaher once again exhibiting his ability to bring an unaffected authenticity to his characterisations. West even provided convincing proof of Bernadette’s skills as the star of Les Girls in the climatic Darwin cabaret scene, something Terence Stamp was unable to manage in the film.

Having played the role of Tick for four years in Europe with Norwegian cruise line, Joe Dinn brought confidence and a fine singing voice to this role, neatly nailing his big scene with Benji, played by 11 year-old, Zavier Martin in his first stage role, with a sweet rendition of “Always On My Mind”. 

As the third member of the trio, the young, impulsive and charmless drag artist, Felicia, Garrett Kelly pushed rather too hard at the wilfulness, making it hard to sympathise or care about his horrifying poofter bashing. This was also the case with Jessica Marchant’s curious choice to play Tick’s ex-wife, Marion as ditsy and disorganised, rather than efficient and warm, and the over-the-top, bizarre performance by Dave Collins as Miss Understanding.

Dancers - Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Photo: Janelle McMenamin

Steph Maclaine provided an unexpected highlight with her magnificent singing of “Sempre Libra”.  Michelle Heine stumped up with her usual inventive choreography for the many colourful musical numbers, performed by the large ensemble with enthusiasm but rather less precision than we’re used to seeing from Free-Rain. Alexander Unikowski kept toes tapping with his fine band providing irresistible, spot-on accompaniments.  Priscilla herself proved impressive if rather cumbersome, as did the large, curiously under-used setting. 

However, despite the best efforts of all concerned, and the boisterous first-night claque who did their best to convince that this production was as good as it should have been, the end impression was that with “Priscilla Queen of the Desert”, Free-Rain Theatre had bitten off more than it could manage, ending up with a mis-guided, under-rehearsed bargain basement version of a show that demands otherwise.   

 

  

SIX -The Musical

 

Kala Gare - Chelsea Dawson - Kiana Daniele - Loren Hunter - Vidya Makan - Phoenix Jackson Mendosa.

Book, Music and Lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

Directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage – Choreographed by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille

Australian Associate Director – Sharon Millerchip – Musical Direction by Claire Healey

Canberra Theatre 23^rd April to 15^th May 2022.

Canberra Opening Night performance on 27^th April reviewed by Bill Stephens.

Originally written for a Cambridge University student production for the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival “Six” has become something of a global pop phenomenon with a soundtrack achieving in excess of 450 million streams and a ridiculous 3 billion views on TikTok.

 Australian producer Louise Withers was quick off the mark to secure the Australian and New Zealand performing rights for the show. She cast it with a sensational cast of young rising Australian triple threats, brought in the original creatives to stage the show, and surrounded them with a top line Australian creative team, including the brilliant Sharon Millerchip as Associate Director charged with the responsibility of keeping the production in tip top shape for an Australasian tour.    

Canberra is the first stop in a National tour which will take in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane as well as New Zealand. For this tour the production has been enhanced with additional lighting and setting to take advantage of the larger stages than the one in the Sydney Opera House Studio where the production played two Covid- interrupted sold-out seasons.

Brilliantly conceived, and wonderfully performed, “SIX” is presented in the form of a rock-concert in which the six wives of Henry V111 compete for the position of the band’s leader by trying to prove which of them had had the worst experience at the hands of Henry 111.

The competition takes place in a brilliantly lit Tudor-inspired setting in which both the wives, Catherine of Aragon (Phoenix Jackson Mendoza), Anne Boleyn (Kala Gare), Jane Seymour (Loren Hunter) Anna of Cleves (Karis Oka), Katherine Howard (Chelsea Dawson) and Catherine Parr (Vidya Makan), as well as the all-female band led by Clair Healey, are costumed in glittering futuristic steam-punk-with-a-Tudor-twist outfits designed by Gabriella Slade.

 Each costume holds the clues to the status of the various wives. For instance Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard both wear chokers to signify their beheading while Jane Seymour’s black and white corset alludes to half-timbered houses.

The costumes also provide clues to the tuneful score for which the songs through which the various wives tell their stories are modelled on those of modern-day pop princesses, among them Beyoncé, Sia, Adele, Rihanna and even Celine Dion.

Anne Boleyn wears a green costume to reference the myth that Henry V111 composed “Greensleeves” for her. “Greensleeves” becomes a recurring motif throughout the show. She also wears space buns to signal her character’s songs are rooted in those of Miley Cyrus. Younger members of the audience presumably pick up these signals immediately. Others might find Wikipedia helpful.

After a stunning opening number in which the six wives introduce themselves, Phoenix Jackson Mendoza, who plays Catherine of Aragon, and who’s aunt, Natalie Mendoza, is currently starring on Broadway as Satine in “Moulin Rouge, sets the ball rolling with a blazing rendition of “No Way” in which she tells how Henry V111 tried to annul their marriage and place her in a nunnery and replace her with Ann Boleyn.

Rule-breaking second wife, Anne Boleyn, sassily interpreted by Kala Gare, mocks Catherine with “Don’t Lose Ur Head”, explaining how after discovery Henry’s infidelities she flirted with other men to make him jealous, only to be beheaded for her trouble.

Loren Hunter as Henry’s loyal third wife, the pensive Jane Seymour, makes her bid with the lovely ballad, “Heart of Stone”, an Adele-like number in which she claims that she was the only one of the wives that Henry truly loved, although his love was conditional on her giving him a male heir.

The independent Anna of Cleves, portrayed by Karis Oka, complains of her lonely if lavish existence having been chosen, then rejected by Henry when she didn’t resemble her portrait, with her song “Get Down”. She ultimately decides to return to this existence after being questioned by the others, before Chelsea Dawson as Henry’s fifth and least relevant wife, Katherine Howard, challenges the group by recounting in the cheeky  “All You Wanna Do”,  her many romantic encounters before she too was ultimately beheaded.

Finally Vidya Makan as the empowering Catherine Parr fed up with all the arguing, questions the point of the competition by recounting her own accomplishments independent of Henry with “I Don’t Need Your Love”.  Inspired by Catherine’s argument to realise they didn’t need Henry’s validation, they band together for the rousing finale number “Six” in which they re-invent history to tell how their stories would have turned out if Henry hadn’t been involved.

Loren Hunter - Chelsea Dawson - Phoenix Jackson Mendoza - Kala Gare - Kiana Daniele - Vidja Makan

An intelligent,  high-octane, tightly choreographed  ensemble show in which every member of the exceptional cast and band are on stage for the entire 75 minutes playing time, “Six” is a thoroughly entertaining show with superb production values  and electrifying performances which can be enjoyed on many levels. It is certainly not to be missed.   

 

                                   Images: James Morgan - Getty Images.

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