ON COURSE 2019

Marcel Cole in "Free As A Bird" 

Directed by Alison Plevey for QL2 Dance

QL2 Theatre, Gorman House Arts Centre, 14^th and 15^th December, 2019.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

The final presentation on the QL2 Dance 2019 calendar, “On Course 2019” provides a unique opportunity for students who are currently on full time study in universities around Australia and New Zealand, to choreograph, collaborate and perform new short works.

This year participating choreographers came from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), the New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD), the Academy of Music and Performing Arts (AMPA) and the Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional Year (PPY) to work with fellow tertiary students and senior Quantum Leapers to create original works.

Many of the participants had been inspired to pursue further contemporary dance studies as a result of their involvement with Quantum Leap and its various programs, during their formative years. But for others, it was their first taste of this program, which this year was directed by Alison Plevey, founder and Artistic Director of Australian Dance Party, who together with Steve Gow, a member of Australian Dance Party, also provided professional artistic mentorship for the participants.

The task for the emerging choreographers was to create an original dance work to be performed for three performances before paying audiences. The choreographers were encouraged by their mentors to not concern themselves with creating the “best” work, but to take full advantage of this opportunity to step outside their individual comfort zones, draw on the new skills learnt during their studies so far, but to experiment and take risks. A challenge which the participants embraced with admirable energy and creativity, and also admirably, attention to detail

With only space for six full rehearsals of each work during an intense two week rehearsal period, with the choreographers responsible for rehearsing their dancers, organising schedules, sourcing costumes, choosing music and co-ordinating lighting plots, uneven results may have been expected.

However it says much for the commitment, energy and creativity of the young choreographers and their dancers, as well as their mentors, that the works which resulted provided such a stimulating evening of dance.

Each work had its particular interest. Where some choreographers managed to achieve polished unison work, others impressed with the clarity of the movement they chose to express their themes.

One such work was a solo work, “Free as a bird”, devised and danced by Marcel Cole, currently majoring in contemporary dance at NZSD.  It commenced excitingly with Cole dancing an expansive, bravura classical solo from the ballet, “La Bayadere”. A   change of lighting suddenly transported the audience to a dance studio where Cole is discovered at a ballet barre, berating himself with existential questions as he repeatedly fell to the floor while failing to execute difficult dance steps.  It was an arresting work, brilliantly performed. 

"Eye to Eye" by Caspar IIshner 

Also particularly impressive were the polished performances Caspar IIshner was able to achieve with his work for eight dancers, entitled “Eye to Eye”.  Also studying at NZSD, Ilshner produced a remarkably cohesive work exploring questions of human communication through confidently arranged unison choreography to a score which he composed himself.

Otto Kosok, now in his second year at NZSD, kept the audience intrigued with his cleverly devised work, “Pushing Up Daisies”, an ambitious work also for five dancers,  inspired by Wolf Eribruch’s  “Duck, Death and the Tulip” in which Caspar IIshner portrayed a mysterious man with a suitcase, appearing to have power over life or death.

"Pushing Up Daisies" by Otto Kosok 

Having just finished her first year at WAAPA,  Ruby Ballantyne, one of several former QL2 alumni in this year’s program, drew guffaws from the audience with her delightfully quirky duo, “My Roommate is a Very Heavy Sleeper”, exploring  conscious and subconscious states, which she performed with Maddy Bowman to an amusing  soundscape, which she co-composed with Lorien Allen.

"Tensegrity" by Karlia Cook 

“Propagating blue Bindweed” a lovely work by Amelia Vanzwol (VCA) for a quartet of dancers costumed in pristine white boiler-suits;  “Just Breath”, sophisticatingly choreographed  by Lara Darling  (WAAPA)  in  which her four dancers costumed attractively in black, explored  energy use; “Tensegrity” for which Karlia Cook (WAAPA)employed  pulsing movements  for her five dancers  to express ideas of community interaction; and “I was the angel in the poem you wrote” by Mia Tuco, who is majoring in acting at VCA for which she incorporated shadows and coloured lights and an interesting choreographic repertoire for her five dancers to interpret the cyclical nature of life; together with two interesting short dance films by Gabriel Sinclair and Jason Pearce, both at VCA,  all provided a tantalising glimpse into directions being explored by young emerging dance makers in their efforts to express often complicated concepts through the language of dance.

Bravo to QL2 Dance for maintaining this important initiative, now in its thirteenth year. 

                                Photos by Andrew Sirkorski - Art Atelier

This review also appears in Australian Arts Review.  www.artsreview.com.au

ON COURSE

QL2 Dance

Project Director: Alison Plevey

QL2 Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre to 15 December

Reviewed by Len Power 14 December 2019

QL2 Dance’s ‘On Course’ project is a great opportunity to observe young dance artists in development.  It’s now in its 13^th year.  QL2 dancers as well as other students who are currently in full time study at universities around Australia and New Zealand come together to choreograph, collaborate and perform new short works.  Ten items were presented on opening night.

The evening commenced with two filmed works.  ‘Kafka’, directed by Jason Pearce was based on a scene from Murakami’s novel ‘Kafka on the Shore’.  A study in muscularity, it was cleverly filmed and edited.  At times the angular, organic nature of the work was reminiscent of the art of H.R. Giger.  The original music score by Theo Vanclay added an atmospheric dimension to the film.

The second film was ‘Hyperfocus’ by Gabriel Sinclair.  In this film, the choreography of the dancing merged nicely with the imaginative choreography of the film editing, producing a strong work that was not merely a filmed dance.  The atmospheric music score by Loulou Wheeler and the cello playing by Darcy Gilkerson complemented the images on screen.

The eight other works presented live were all notable for their imaginative concepts and all were well-produced and strongly danced.  All had great lighting designs and sound.  Issues raised in the dances ranged from explorations of the human condition to statements about nature, the arts and world issues.  The dances with clearly understandable concepts that an audience member could connect with were the most successful.

Ruby Ballantyne’s ‘My Roommate is a Very Heavy Sleeper’ was a perceptive and amusing work that looked at conscious and unconscious states and the issues of care and relationships.  It was danced very well by Ballantyne with Maddy Bowman.

‘Just Breath’ by Lara Dorling was a dramatic work that focussed on our inner ‘chi’ or breath energy.  She created a dance that was highly expressive and demanding for the dancers and it worked very well.  The four dancers, Caspar Ilsher, Pippi Keogh, Karlia Cook and Lara Dorling herself performed it with great assurance.

Marcel Cole choreographed and performed ‘Free as a Bird’, a work of great depth about a dancer with doubts about their direction in life.  While it focussed on the life of a dancer, the doubts presented are universal and something that can challenge us all at various times of our life.  A showcase for Cole’s strong dance skills, this work clearly resonated strongly with the audience.

‘Eye to Eye’, choreographed by Caspar Ilsher, looked at persuasion and the moral issues that can arise.  It was a nicely developed, clear concept with eight dancers and a music score composed by Ilsher himself.  The choreography was dramatic with fine group and individual moments of dance.  The ending was especially satisfying and effectively performed.

A great opportunity to see the emerging work of all of these fine young choreographers, this was a memorable evening of dance.

Photos by Andrew Sikorski, Art Atelier

 

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.

CIRQUE STRATOSPHERE

Anna Lewandowska on LED Sphere wheel 

Presented by The Works Entertainment.

Canberra Theatre Centre: 11^th – 21^st December.

Performance on 11^th December reviewed by Bill Stephens 

The Canberra Theatre Centre is rapidly becoming the “theatre de jour” for producers to premiere their shows. It’s a win-win situation, because Canberra audiences get first look at shows, which sometimes go on to International success like “Circus 1903” and “The Illusionists”, and for the producers, it’s the opportunity to finesse their show “out of town” before touring it nationally and even internationally.

Such is the case with “Cirque Stratosphere” which had its World Premiere in the Canberra Theatre last night, and which despite the often astonishing skill of the featured acts, the show’s concept, which surrounds their individual acts, still has a way to go to make it comprehensible.

A printed program might have helped. Hopefully it would have explained what the show was about, who the audience was watching, and even, who created the show. But as it was, for most of the audience, attracted by the publicity hyperbole of experiencing “the Canberra Theatre stage transformed into a futuristic space-age utopia in which a troupe of Olympic-standard acrobats and gymnasts would perform gravity-defying acts on a scale never seen before in Canberra”.

Variations of most of these acts have been seen in Canberra before, though rarely performed at the skill level exhibited here. So it seemed a pity that the audience did not realise that it was Anna Lewandowska who gracefully melded dance and acrobatics to perform an impressive act with her LED Sphere wheel, or Polina Volchek who amazed with her strength and elegance performing on a vertical metal pole, or Emma Dutton who performed gracefully in an aerial hoop, or that it was spinning artist, Felice Aguilar accompany by three anonymous dancers, who performed a mesmerising, beautifully staged interlude. 

 

Aerial hoop artist - Emma Dutton

Although the excitement level was upped by duo-skaters Evgenii Viktorovich and Natalia Viktorovna, flaunting their dazzling roller skating skills on a tiny two-metre circular stage; and  Dmitry Makrushin & Oleg Bespalov drew gasps from the audience with their astonishing strength and flexibility performing hand to hand acrobatics; and smiling Nicholas-Yang Wang and Shengpeng Nie proved crowd favourites with their hoop diving prowess; the efforts of  Dmitri Feliksovich and Denis and Nikolai Alexandrovich with their teeter board act,  Oleg Spigin’s amazing Washington Trapeze act, and Antonio Leyva Campos’ bungee straps performance seemed  restricted by the low Canberra Theatre proscenium.

Duo-skaters Evgenii Viktorovich - Natalia Viktorovna

Despite the impressive high-tech paraphernalia, troupes of choreographed, marching space-persons, dazzling light displays, and booming, unintelligible soundtrack, how these elements related to the impressive feats performed by the highly skilled acrobats and gymnasts, remained very much a puzzlement, especially when the mood being created by the various elements was continually interrupted by mildly amusing, but totally unrelated, audience participation segments of the two amiable mime artists, which destroyed the continuity and slowed the pace.

No doubt the creatives will take advantage of the Canberra season to tighten and polish the show so that by the time it leaves the Canberra Theatre it will truly be the stratospheric theatre experience promised. 

                                              Photos by Mark Turner

  This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 12.12.2019   

 

Cirque Stratosphere

Sal the Clown
Photo: Mark Turner

The Set Design
Photo: Frank McKone

Cirque Stratosphere.  Produced, choreographed and directed by Neil Dorward, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment. The Works Entertainment (Co producers Simon Painter and Tim Lawson) at Canberra Theatre Centre, December 11-21, 2019.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
December 11


The world of circus has changed dramatically since I first saw Coco the Clown (Michael Polakovs), baby elephants, bareback horse-riding and Pinito del Oro doing her headstands on a trapeze at Harringay Arena, London, around 1950.  Shows then were all about and only about the skills of the performers, our excitement at what they could do – and our fear that they might fail, with disastrous consequences (which sometimes happened, even to a lion-tamer as I recall).

Circus was simple then.

Cirque du Soleil was started in Montreal, Canada, by Guy Laliberté in 1984, but in Australia, Circus Oz had already been underway since 1978, an amalgamation of Soapbox Circus (Melbourne) and the New Circus (Adelaide). Social commentary began to turn circus into a new theatre genre.  “They wanted it to be funny, irreverent and spectacular, a celebration of the group as a bunch of multi-skilled individual men and women, rather than a hierarchy of stars.” And without animals to steal the scene.

Of course, I liked Circus Oz from the beginning – remember Roger, flying off the trapeze and being flattened against the wall; and women being caught up in washing machine action.  As time went along, Oz shows took on themes which were successfully dramatised, such as consumerism in But Wait…There’s More (reviewed here September 2015); and sometimes less effectively but still on the same kind of song sheet, such as last year’s Model Citizens attempt to unpack the “myths of Modern Australia”.

On the international scene (where Circus Oz plays its part magnificently), Cirque du Soleil was impressive in a different way from its beginning.  Also without animals, their shows became more choreographed movement, reminding me of the developments in modern abstract dance.  Where Circus Oz in, say, From the Ground Up (October 2012) has something like a story-line, Cirque du Soleil left you to interpret the flow of action in your own way. 

Until the rise of James Thieree, a descendant of Charlie Chaplin, with The June Bug Symphony (January 2003) and Bright Abyss (January 2006).  The latter is like a dance composition about human relationships, with imagery “often very funny to watch as well as exciting, sometimes frightening, sometimes touchingly sad” (to quote my review).

Variations of approaches are now common – see Urban by Circolombia (January 2013) and shows by Strut and Fret like Blanc de Blanc (April 2018).

So where does Cirque Stratosphere stand in this new tradition of ‘contemporary’ circus?  Now that Neil Dorward owns Cirque du Soleil and The Works Entertainment – the very successful management production team from Brisbane?

I have reviewed this director’s work before – The Dark Side of Cirque Le Noir – in May 2015.  “Pure seductive entertainment” was my description – “Just relax and ooh and aah as appropriate.”  But Cirque Stratosphere at least has a theme – going to the moon, as in 1969.

Felice Aguilar
Photo: Mark Turner

Oleg Spigin
Photo: Mark Turner

Evgenii Viktorovich and Natalia Viktorovich
Photo: Mark Turner

As in all circus, each of the performers is a specialist:  the clown TapeFace acts as host, so there is no old-fashioned ringmaster; the three Vanin Brothers do gymnastics on the Russian Bar; the balancing act called Hand to Hand by Dmitry Makrushin and Oleg Bespalov included an astounding standing somersault from the support man’s shoulders back to landing on those shoulders; Anne Lewandowska performed graceful acrobatic dance on a Sphere Wheel lit all round by LED lights.

The duo roller-skaters, Evgenii Viktorovich and Natalia Viktorovna, spun on a tiny circular raised platform for an extended display which I watched heart-in-mouth – if they fumbled or lost grip, Natalia would have been flung into space, facing serious injury.  Evgenii had to be stock still spinning in the centre, if you see what I mean.

Felice Aguilar was another Spinning Artist, less likely to come to grief.  While Pole Artist Polina Volchek seemed to be able to stick to her pole at very considerable heights with very little points of contact – and slide in free-fall to stop just before hitting the ground.  And Antonio Leyva Campos was equally impressive and scary on the Bungee Straps.  As were Dmitri Feliksovich, Denis and Nikolai Alexandrovich who bounced each other to horrifying heights on a specially engineered teeterboard; and Oleg Spigin ‘defying gravity’ balancing on his head on his trapeze (like Pinito del Oro!)

Finally it was the Hoop Diving Nicolas-Yang Wang and Shenpeng Nie that most engaged the audience with a great cheer when the somersault through the highest hoop at last succeeded.  This was the circus of old, for me.

Yet as ‘contemporary’ circus, although the costumes clearly represented astronauts in space, so that the idea of commemorating the first moon landing was obvious, with the story told in an American accented voice over, there was little sense of relationship between what was performed in each act and what the story was about.  What did, for example, the duo roller skaters’ spinning have to say about space travel?

In the end, in retrospect, I wondered if Neil Dorward had some conception of space being represented by the lifting and lowering of the main polished and gleaming scaffolding which was the main set design, and the action taking place in three-dimensional space.  Did he intend to have us see the circus, with its more romantic title ‘cirque’, as more meaningful than fantastic gymnastic action?

I came up with only this: that space is the universe of circus performance.  But this was surely far too arty and esoteric for a show which more or less continuously blasted us with tremendously high-volume music (from 2001 The Space Odyssey among many other film scores, for example) and often blinded us with massive lights from the cleverly designed central frame – which included the lights and sound operator, acting like an extreme night-club DJ, whose name I have not been able to discover (since the show did not offer patrons a program).

The nicest part of the show was the audience participation by Sal the clown – but there wasn’t much to do with landing on the moon in that.

So – very much a mixed night for me in the Stratosphere.  A bit too much of the ‘hierarchy of stars’ and not enough of a ‘symphony of the spheres’.

Photo: Mark Turner

CIRQUE STRATOSPHERE

Presented by Canberra Theatre Centre and The Works Entertainment

Canberra Theatre to 21 December

Reviewed by Len Power 11 December 2019

The Canberra Theatre Centre has scored a world premiere for The Works Entertainment’s new show, ‘Cirque Stratosphere’.  Created by Simon Painter and Tim Lawson, their past work includes the excellent show ‘The Illusionists’, seen at this time last year here in Canberra.  The Works Entertainment is a wholly owned division of the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group.  They have performed all over the world in more than 400 cities.

In this show a troupe of Olympic standard acrobats and gymnasts perform breath-taking stunts with high level production values.  The expensive-looking space-themed show has been well designed with colourful futuristic costumes, a spectacular setting and well-designed lighting and sound.

The main acts were truly impressive.  Pole artist, Polina Volchek, showed amazing strength and flexibility as well as elegance in her performance high above the stage.  Felice Aguilar did a dazzling dance on a spinning plate that was visually beautiful as well as gymnastically clever.

Evgenii Viktorovich & Natalia Viktorovna

Two Russian gymnasts, Dmitry Makrushin and Oleg Bespalov, demonstrated exceptional skills requiring power, flexibility and balance and two roller skaters,

Evgenii Viktorovich and Natalia Viktorovna, performed an edgy high-speed act that was confined to a raised platform.

Dmitry Makrushin & Oleg Bespalov

Two young Asian men, Nicolas-Yang Wang & Shengpeng Nie, appeared in a crowd-pleasing hoop diving act that was truly exciting to watch.  Their lively personalities quickly made them an audience favourite and their seemingly impossible stunts were quite extraordinary.

Other acts were just as impressive with performers dangling and balancing high up on swings, performing with hoops and ropes or tumbling with a see-saw.  Maybe it was world premiere first night nerves but there were some noticeably unsteady and off-balance moments in a couple of the acts that were a bit concerning.

In between these main acts, two skilful comedians – one in a space suit and another with his mouth taped over – presented sequences that required the participation of selected audience members.  One of these involved the use of tape measures as light sabres and was quite amusing but others went on far too long and weren’t particularly funny.

It’s the gymnastic acts that are the drawcard for this show and it certainly delivers on that score.  Its impressive production values will please audiences as well but be prepared for ear-splitting sound levels throughout the show.  If you’re looking for an exciting family show in the lead up to Christmas, this one will be sure to entertain everyone.

Photos by Mark Turner

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.

CIRQUE STRATOSPHERE

Cirque Stratosphere. Directed by Neil Dorward. Co-produced by Tim Lawson and Simon Painter. Canberra Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. December 10 - December 21 2019. Bookings: 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Canberra Theatre , we have lift off. Cirque Stratosphere is something out of this world. The secret of a great circus show is not in its startling acrobatics, its breathtaking aerialist acts, its clowning and audience participation or its phenomenal  feats of strength, agility and endurance.  These are all familiar stock in trade of the circus acts. The secret is in the concept.  And it is in the concept that Cirque Stratosphere proves itself to be beyond the bounds of mere earthiness. A huge elevated hexagon beams out  rays of incandescent light. Above and beyond the iridescent rays of coloured lights a DJ performs her magic. On stage an astronaut appears in the audience, beckons two men forward to beat the drums on cue while the audience is divided into choral parts. In unison the separate choral  parts unite to create a distinguishable rendition of Richard Strauss’s theme composition for Stanley Kubrick’s  Space Odyssey. At the same time and in time with the choruses, the DJ lets forth the stirring and uplifting tones of Thus Spake Zarathustra.  We are transported into a galaxy of imagination and wonderment.

Host  Tapeface

President John F Kennedy’s  1962 exhortation to probe the very outreaches of space and land on the moon, a reality he sadly never lived to see, sets the show upon its journey to July 21st 1969 when Neil Armstrong  took that “small leap for man, a giant leap for Mankind. And it is during that journey, accompanied by the historical account of the stages of the trajectory to the moon that the stunning international company of circus performers exhibit their rare talents. A pole dancing aerialist defies gravity as she spins around the pole with only her feet in contact. Acrobats fly and somersault into the air from the end of a teeterboard. Two dancers on roller skates spin with astounding velocity on a turning plate. A dancer, swept away by the images flashing into her living room for a distant moon pirouettes on her hands upon the turning plate. Such are the images that flash before our eyes, awe inspiring visions of a new world. These are not mere displays of physical skill, but rather acts of courage and invention. An acrobat slip and returns to complete the action.  A trapeze artist grips an attachment on the bar with his mouth and spins with arms and legs outstretches, daring to do what no trapeze artist has done before.

Throughout as the Dj hurls her tracks with musical force into the universe the clowns straddle the space between acts with their comedy routines and audience participation. It is not particularly funny but a staplegun and balloon standoff at the OK Corral fills in the time while all OH and S concerns are carefully stage-managed as the next dangerous act is set up. But these artists are masters and mistresses of their art. Timing is precise as carefully calculated as a mission to the moon in its particular exactitude.

And so the journey comes to its grand finale, not with a full company spinning and twirling, soaring and leaping, but with two remarkable tumblers, who leap through hoops as more are places and the music swells with tension and excitement until, after a slow topple by the hoops, one tumbler indicates once more and with perfect precision, split second timing and sheer determination of spirit and self belief, the acrobat runs, leaps and clears the hoop in a single bound. It is the final testament to the courage, endurance, conviction and faith of the Apollo 11 astronauts who dared to make JFK’s dream come true.

Sal the clown

Cirque Stratosphere is a timely reminder that human beings are capable of  the most amazing feats  if only we should dare to journey beyond the ordinary and reach out for the stars.

CIRQUE STRATOSPHERE PERFORMERS

HOST
TAPEFACE
RUSSIAN BAR
VANIN BROTHERS (Alexander Vanin, Andrei Cherniaev, Vadim Naumov)
HOOP DIVING
Nicolas-Yang Wang & Shengpeng Nie
HAND TO HAND
Dmitry Makrushin & Oleg Bespalov
DUO SKATERS
Evgenii Viktorovich & Natalia Viktorovna
TEETERBOARD
Dmitrii Feliksovich, Denis Alexandrovich,& Nikolai Alexandrovich
WASHINGTON TRAPEZE
Oleg Spigin
CLOWN
Sal
LED SPHERE WHEEL
Anna Lewandowska
SPINNING ARTIST
Felice Aguilar
POLE ARTIST
Polina Volchek
BUNGEE STRAPS

Antonio Leyva Campos
 

THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS OF 2019

Theatre highlights of 2019 - A  personal selection

Comment by Peter Wilkins

On a train returning from Melbourne, I decided to write about my five top picks for 2019, as Alanna Maclean and I have done in the past. As it happened, this year  Alanna and I will be looking forward to 2020 and what theatrical events audiences may expect from our perspective. So, I have decided to post my train article on Canberra Critics Circle as an archival record of the year that was – 2019.

Canberra audiences have been well served in 2019 by a variety of theatrical productions both locally and from interstate. Major venues such as the Canberra Theatre, Street Theatre and The Q Theatre in Queanbeyan have played host to major companies such as the Sydney Theatre Company, the Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir Theatre as well as production companies such as GDB Productions that brought Canberra the effervescent and evergreen West Side Story. Rising indigenous playwright, Nakkiah Lui’s political satire, How To Rule The World delighted Canberra audiences and popular Bell Shakespeare Company offered audiences an effusive and sparkling Much Ado About Nothing. The State Theatre Company of South Australia also returned to Canberra with a revival of The 39 Steps. The Street Theatre continued to offer a range of original and experimental works for the discerning theatregoer while The Q Theatre in Queanbeyan continued to attract audiences to touring productions by such companies as HIT Productions. Audiences have been fortunate enough to attend professional productions of the calibre of Belvoir Theatre’s Prima Facie, a one woman performance about the legal profession performed by Sally Harbridge under the direction of Lee Lewis or Simon Phillips’s sumptuous MTC production of Tom Stoppard’s Shakespeare in Love.

 

The cast of Mockingbird Theatre’s The Laramie Project and

The Laramie Project – Ten Years Later.

In the absence of a professional theatre company, Canberrans have been well served by some fine local productions, staged by established companies such as Canberra Repertory Society, Free Rain Theatre, Canberra Philharmonic Society and Dramatic Productions. Experimental Theatre by emerging writers from Canberra and interstate have been staged in the Ralph Indie Season at the Ralph Wilson Theatre at the Ainslie Gorman Arts Centre.

It is no phenomenon that the theatrical landscape of the ACT should be dominated by musicals. This is endemic of the paucity of major new Australian dramas. Musicals, such as Canberran Philharmonic Society’s Beauty and the Beast, Dramatic Production’s Pro-am The Producers and Queanbeyan Players’ Oliver do worthy justice to the mainstage musical. Canberra Repertory Society and Everyman Theatre have achieved a very high standard with intimate productions of The World Goes Round and Assassins respectively. It is an economic reality that companies struggling to gain audiences or increase their box office will often resort to quality musical productions in preference to dramas. Tempo Theatre with its traditional repertoire of standard thrillers and farces caters for its target audience of family and friends while Ickle Pickle Productions serves its niche children’s theatre audience with its annual holiday fare.

Everyman Theatre's Assassins by Stephen Sondheim

In deciding on my top 5 theatre picks for 2019, I can only comment on the productions that I have seen this year, conscious of the fact that productions such as local playwright David Atfield’s professional production of his play Exclusion at the Street Theatre has been universally applauded  and recognized as an excellent example of new Australian writing, dealing with the important themes of homosexuality, politics and social acceptance. Atfield gives voice to a section of society that in spite of recent advances remains marginalized in the mainstream of social and sexual politics.

The Street Theatre production of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

The Street Theatre has also produced an outstanding interpretation of Franz Kaflk’s classic work about the public service clerk who turns into a cockroach. Director, Adam Broinowsiki with designer Imogen Keen and actors Christopher Samuel Carroll, Ruth Pieloor, Stefanie Lakkas, Dylan van den Berg and P.J. Williams has created an absorbing interpretation that incorporates the essential flavor of provincial Russia with the expressive power of physical theatre to produce a highly stylized comment on the corrupt influence of bureaucracy and class distinction. Rarely performed the Street Theatre production provided a thought-provoking and frightening and relevant commentary on  the burdensome subjection to political and social authority .

Lakespeare's production of Twelfth Night

Following on from its highly successful Shakespeare by the Lakes season of Much Ado About Nothing, Lakespeare delighted audiences with its latest open air production of Shakespeare’s delightful comedy Twelfth Night. Directed by experienced Bell Shakespeare actor Christopher Stollery with sumptuous costuming by Victoria Hopkins, the pro-am production provided a feast of Summer entertainment on the Patrick White Lawns by the National Library and in other open air venues to large audiences enjoying the festive atmosphere. Inspired by Joseph Papp’s open air Shakespesare in New York, Stollery’s Twelfth Night featured an excellent local cast who relished the flamboyant nature of the production of Shakespeare’s hilarious, yet sobering drama of love’s frailty.

 

Daryl Somers and Jeremy Benson in Dramatic Productions

Production of The Producers at Gungahlin Theatre

Dramatic Productions has forged a notable reputation for producing high quality musicals at the Gungahlin Theatre. This year producer Richard Block engaged professional musical theatre performer and first time director Rachel Beck who cast Daryl Somers as failed Broadway producer Max Bialystock As his gawky nervous accountant Jeremy Benson is a very talented newcomer to th Canberra musical thaetre scene and Demi Smith turns in a captivating performance as the ditzy sexy secretary Ulla in this hilarious and lively spoof on the vicissitudes of Broadway’s fickle fortunes. Splendid casting fun-filled direction and snappy, clever choreography made The Producers another musical hit of the year.

In complete contrast was Mockingbird Theatre’s courageous and powerfully staged production of The Laramie Project and its sequel The Laramie Project Ten Years Later. This verbatim theatre drama, directed by Chris Baldock and featuring some of Canberra’s finest actors staged both plays on alternative nights to regrettably small audiences. Although of the highest quality and attaining the true purpose of transforming theatre audiences, more attracted by more appealing entertainment than an account of the horrific gay murder of university student Mark Shepherd. An unsavoury, though significant theatrical palate risks the admonition of all but the most discerning and socially aware theatregoer. Mockingbird Theatre is to be applauded for not only courageously producing these two plays but for achieving such excellent standards.

It would seem that laughter is the best medicine and theatre that makes us laugh and think the best antidote to the absurdities of our time. Each year the Sydney Theatre Company production of the Wharf Review, created by that indefatigable team of satirists, Jonathan Biggins, Phillip Scott and Drew Forsythe titillates and tantalizes their partisan Canberra audience with sketches satirizing everything and everyone from Brexit to Trump and Scomo to Alan Jones with a highly uncustomary traverse beyond out shored to admonish Aung San Suu Kyi. With Forsythe, Simon Burke, Lena Cruz and Helen Dallimore switching roles and gender in a feast of diverse sketches, The Wharf Revue once again lauded the role of biting satire in a nation’s theatrical diet.  

There is much that I have not mentioned here. Intimate venue Smith’s Alternative has provided opportunities for local artists such as Nigel Palfreman and Christopher Samuel Carroll to present their work to Canberra audiences. What emerges is a rich feast of theatrical offerings from the amateur to the professional. In the absence of a professional State theatre company, audiences in Canberra are fortunate to have access to both professional companies from interstate as well as theatre of a professional standard from local productions. The Laramie Project and Laramie Ten Years Later and Metamorphosis , as well as The World Goes Round and Assassins  could all claim the title of professional theatre.

So, does Canberra warrant its own professional theatre company? Are there sufficient artists in Canberra to populate a professional theatre company? Could former Canberrans return to comprise a professional theatre company equal to any in the country. Perhaps. This is a decision for arts minister Gordon Ramsay and his artsACT department to consider. Several attempts have been made to create a state style theatre company in Canberra, and each has met with failure for one reason or another. It is time to revisit the notion of Canberra’s own professional theatre company with funds committed to a small company with which to begin and with excellent artists to establish a company worthy of a national reputation.  As well as the newly created Echo Theatre, Pigeonhouse Theatre and the Street Theatre’s professional programme already aspire to the title of a professional theatre company.

Maybe one day the dream may become a reality.