GOD OF CARNAGE

 

God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. Translated by Christopher Hampton. 

Directed by Jordan Best. Designed by Jens Nordstrom. Lighting design Jacob Aquilina. Echo Theatre. The Q Theatre. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre.November 24 – 26 2020. Bookings: 02 62856290

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

The cast of Echo Theatre's God of Carnage

The word Carnage leaps out from the title of Yasmina Reza’s 2008 play God of Carnage currently showing at The Q Theatre and directed with razor sharp acuity by Jordan Best. The image of disembowelment, shredded  flesh and exposed carcass may be excessively grotesque to describe the meeting between two sets of parents to discuss the injury  to Henry, son of Veronica (Caroline Elwood) and Michael (Josh Wiseman) inflicted by a stick wielded by Benjamin, the 11 year old son of Annette (Lainie Hart) and Alan (Jim Adamik). The gentle strains of classical music open the show lulling an audience into a mood of soothing expectation. What evolves could not be further from the reality. Seated on the settees in Jens Nordstrom's comfortable middle class  Swedish design the parents ostensibly seek to reconcile the boys’ behaviour and arrive at a civilized and mutually agreed resolution to the regrettable incident.

Carolyn Eccles as Veronica. Josh Wiseman as Michael in God of Carnage

Reza takes a theatrical scalpel to dissect the contradictions, fallacies and defensive offence of the human condition. What begins as a civilized discussion between the respective parent turns on a word, an accusation, a misinterpretation or a simple attack of indignation as Reza reveals  the  parents’ combative instinct . The civility of coffee and cake quickly degenerates into vitriol and recrimination. Veronica, a writer, writing a book on Darfur and the war in South Sudan shrieks with disdain. Michael. a self made wholesaler desperately seeks compromise against the odds. Alan, a high powered lawyer is glued to his mobile phone as he deals with a case and Annette, who manages her husband’s wealth is provoked to vomit. Christopher Hampton’s dialogue spits and snarls, unleashing barbs that tear at whomever may be the object of spite or derision. Audiences watch on as the roulette wheel of bitter argument spins from one parent to another, from husband to wife, wife to husband, spinning accusations stemming from a sense of protectiveness.    In a final exasperated act fuelled by fury and rum the play reaches a dramatic crescendo as Veronica empties Annette’s handbag across the floor and Annette tips the tulips onto the carpet.  They stand exposed, stripped of human civility and dignity, the detritus of their own emotional carnage. With poignant irony the lights fade as the classical music restores a mood of tranquillity.

Carolyn Eccles and Laine Hart as Annette in God of Carnage

God of Carnage is fly on the wall theatre. We are compelled to watch four human beings descend into a pit of childish unrestrained behaviour. There is an uncomfortable familiarity with no prospect of redemption.  Best and her excellent ensemble of four highly charged actors  display  the disturbing universality of  irrational response.  The timing is excellent, the relationships between each character perfectly  captured as interactions shift and sway from friendship to animosity and outright attack. Best’s direction never falters and the actors rise to the occasion. It is a pleasure to see the four actors sparking and sparring. Only Elwood’s vocal technique falters. The appropriate screeching as Veronica hits an emotional peak but  loses diction and her crucial opening and closing lines lack the necessary energy  of projection.

With startling and bizarrely comic effect each actor fully embraces Hampton’s spitfire translation. Hampton has translated a number of Reza’s plays including Art which was recently performed to acclaim at The Street Theatre. His dialogue, faithful to Reza’s spirit bursts trippingly off the tongue enabling each actor to convincingly embody character and the drama of the moment, illustrating the versatility of Best’s actors.

Jim Adamik as Alan in God of Carnage

Reza’s black comedy is a professional production with a bitter-sweet bite. If your sense of the absurd enjoys watching people battle the slings and arrows of outrageous conflict then you are in for a great night at the theatre. And maybe the occasional squirm along the way. After all the course of true argument never did run smooth. Perhaps the secret is not to take this very clever, finely produced production by Echo Theatre too seriously. Rather sit back and delight in Echo Theatre’s night of fascinating taunts and turbulence.

 

 Photos by Jane Duong and Photox- Canberra Photography Services

 

 

GOD OF CARNAGE

Written by Jasmina Reza

Translated by Christopher Hampton

Directed by Jordan Best

Echo Theatre production

Q Theatre, Queanbeyan to 26 November

 

Reviewed by Len Power 23 November 2022

 

Originally a French play first published in 2008, ‘God Of Carnage’ has gone on to great acclaim internationally.  It was filmed as ‘Carnage’ by Roman Polanski in 2011.

Two couples meet to discuss an incident where their sons have been involved in a fight, leaving one of them with two teeth damaged.  The evening starts well over coffee and clafoutis as the couples try to discuss the incident involving their children in a civilised manner.  It quickly degenerates into a series of irrational and, at times, childish arguments.

The play shows that the veneer of civilization is just as wobbly as a clafoutis.  It does not take much to show the savagery, frustrated desires and prejudices underneath in all of us.  We know people like this or maybe we are seeing ourselves in a mirror?  It’s very funny to watch these people but it’s also an unsettling experience.  The writer, Yasmina Reza, has captured a truth about humanity that we like to think does not exist.

Jordan Best’s new production is set in Canberra, which works perfectly fine.  On a strikingly stylish living room set by Jens Nördstrum, chaos erupts quickly. 

The four cast members give excellent performances.  Jim Adamik is repellently wonderful as a businessman who is only at this meeting to please his wife.  Self-centred, aggressive and always on his mobile phone, he delights in baiting the others and sitting back to sadistically enjoy the results.

Lainie Hart gives great depth to the character of a wife and mother who is unhappy in her marriage and struggling to contain the frustrations building up inside her.  Carolyn Eccles quickly shows in a sharp and physical performance that she is not as reasonable as she first seems.  Josh Wiseman deftly captures a smugness and passive resistance that infuriates the others.

The actors’ sense of timing in this fast-paced play is superb.  Jordan Best’s assured direction blends breathlessly fast comedy with the sadness underneath.  Yes, we’re laughing, but it hurts.

 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

God of Carnage / Le Dieu du Carnage

 

 

 

 

Image: Jane Duong

God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza translated by Christopher Hampton.  
Echo Theatre at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, Wednesday November 23 – Friday November 25, 8pm and Saturday November 26 2022, 2pm  &  8pm.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
November 23

Director – Jordan Best; Assistant Director – Callum Doherty
Set Design – Jens Nördstrum; Lighting Design – Jacob Aquilina
Operator – Zac Harvey; Props – Jordan Best

Cast:
Jim Adamik – Alan Raleigh (legal adviser to a pharmaceutical company)
Lainie Hart – Annette Raleigh (wealth manager adviser)
Josh Wiseman – Michael Novak (owner of wholesale household goods company)
Carolyn Eccles – Veronica Novak (writer and works part-time in an art history bookshop)

Stage directions:
All in their forties.
A living room.
No realism.
Nothing superfluous.

In the original French the characters’ names are Alain and Annette Reille, and Michel and Véronique Houillé.  ‘Reille’ is a baby’s name meaning ‘angelic’; ‘houille’ means ‘coal’.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Though Echo Theatre’s promotional image suggests gluttony in a grand scale, and their program even provides a detailed recipe for the apples and pears baked French dessert of fruit clafoutis, the play is an often quite excruciatingly funny satire of the very French philosophy, à la (pardon: au) Jean-Paul Sartre, known as Existentialism.

It’s the sort of play that, in Australia, could have been written by David Williamson, but the central cause of dramatic conflict is reminiscent of Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap – except that the ethical conventions arising from the fact that, as Veronica states,
“At 5:30 P.M. on the third of November, in Telopea Park, following a verbal altercation, Benjamin Raleigh, eleven, armed with a stick, struck our son Henry Novak in the face”
are turned on their heads as the two pairs of parents battle intellectually on questions of responsibility towards others (including Henry’s hampster).  It’s hard to imagine, or for me to describe, how their twists and turns over 90 minutes can turn out to be so funny.

Yet, weirdly, the play ends without ever reaching The End, because, as Sartre might have said, as Michael says:

MICHAEL. Chances are that creature's [Henry’s hampster’s] probably stuffing its face as we speak.
VERONICA. No. (Silence.)
MICHAEL. What do we know?

Getting to and getting that ending right, with a long almost embarrassed pause with no-one moving while the lights slowly fade to black, demonstrated the professional ensemble quality in the actors, clearly working with a director with a clear sense of the sublety of the French satire.  What do we really know of the nature of our existence,  after all?

Go to The Q this week, and find out whether Benjamin really is a savage, and what really happened to Henry’s hampster.



 

Carolyn Eccles, Lainie Hart, Josh Wiseman, Jim Adamik
as Veronica, Annette, Michael and Alan
in God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza
Echo Theatre 2022

Photo: Canberra Photography Services

32nd ANNUAL ACT ARTS AWARDS

 

32nd “Canberra CityNews” Artist of the Year

 

Nigel Featherstone

 

Nigel Featherstone (photo credit: Holly Treadaway)

A “writers’ writer” who has become equally famous as a novelist and a tireless advocate for the arts was this evening (November 22) named “Canberra Citynews” Artist of the Year at the 32nd annual ACT Arts Awards evening, held in the Canberra Museum & Gallery.

 Nigel Featherstone was singled out for his eloquent writing and as a constant champion for his fellow Canberra writers and lovers of the written word.

 “Citynews” editor, Ian Meikle, presented him with a certificate and cheque to the value of $1,000 and a F!nk studio jug.

 Declaring himself “absolutely honoured,” Featherstone said, “I've lived in the ACT region for over three decades and it's become my creative home as well as my geographic home. The combination of our incredible arts and cultural institutions and relative peace and quiet has been essential to my work as a writer.”

 Featherstone, whose novel “ My Heart is a Little Wild Thing” was published by Ultimo Press in May this year, has been lavished with praise by critics around Australia for taking a remarkable look at Australian masculinity, for the complexity and contradiction of the work and for its lyrical evocation of the “magnificent” Monaro, in which the novel is set. The lyricism of “his novel inspired British artist and composer BPMoore to release a composition called “Monaro” in June this year.

 Quiet and erudite, Featherstone is a self-described “natural hermit.” A former officer at artsACT, he abandoned the public service in 2010 to become a full-time writer and has since published three novels, three novellas, a play, a libretto, at least 50 short stories, and around 120 non-fiction articles and essays, including stories about being an artist in regional Australia.

 In 2021 he joined Canberra-region poets Melinda Smith and CJ Bowerbird to found the spoken-word/music collective “Hell Herons,” which fuses lyrical language with songs.

 In 2022 he has worked at The Street Theatre as a dramaturg on CJ Bowerbird's “Coward Punch” and as forum host for “Twenty Minutes With The Devil”. His first full-length play, “The Story of the Oars,” was read in December 2021 as part of The Street’s “First Seen” program.

 Although he has lived in Goulburn for the past 12 years, he identifies as a Canberra artist, is an active arts advocate and commentator in the ACT and has worked at ACT Writers since 2013, supporting and mentoring emerging writers, also connecting artists and community.

 A familiar face on the wider Australian arts circuit, in August this year he was on the final panel at the Canberra Writers Festival and traversed northern NSW as part of the “Writers on the Road” regional tour, then in October he led two residencies for the Terror Australis Writers Festival in Huon Valley, Tasmania.

 

Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting

 

Karen Vickery

 

Karen Vickery (photo credit: Jane Duong)

A powerful actor-director who gave up her day job to get behind a new theatrical enterprise in Canberra was presented with the Helen Tsongas Award for excellence in acting by Canberra Theatre director Alex Budd at the ACT Arts Awards tonight (November 22).

 Karen Vickery was singled out by the Canberra Critics Circle for a remarkable year of acting, especially for her performances as Jaques in Lakespeare’s “As You Like It”, as the older woman in Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women” for ACT Hub and as the narrator in “Urinetown: The Musical” for Heart Strings Theatre Company.

A graduate in acting and a long-time staff member at the National Institute of Dramatic Art with a degree from the University of Melbourne behind her, Vickery has made herself well-known in the Canberra acting scene since coming to Canberra in 2011 to join the National Portrait Gallery as director of access and learning.

 She left the NPG in April this year to concentrate on her acting and on the challenges presented at the new ACT Hub in Kingston, conceived during the covid lockdown when she and the directors of three other theatre companies joined forces to secure the future of serious theatre practice in Canberra.

 A performing artist at the very height of her powers, Vickery, the judges believe, takes hold of the mature parts presented to her now and interprets them with a great deal of complexity and sophistication.

 An accomplished Russian linguist who has translated plays by Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky into hotly sought-after English language playscripts, she also spent many years is a working as a jobbing actor working for TV series, including “All Saints,” and “A Country Practice” (three times in three different roles) and in stage dramas, once playing 13 characters in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of “Nicholas Nickleby.”

 Moving to Canberra to pursue her new career, she found the Portrait Gallery responsive to the power of dance and theatre in interpreting portraiture and hosting many performances and a celebration of playwright Ray Lawler’s “The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll” in its 60th year, which she later directed at The Q.  She also founded the project "In their own words," where poems or literature pertaining to portraits are  read in the galleries.

 But Vickery never abandoned her love of treading the boards, and as a lead actor with Canberra Rep — her first foray into community theatre— then as actor-director with Everyman Theatre, Pigeonhole Theatre, and her own newly formed Chaika (Russian for ‘seagull’) Theatre, she became a driving force in the Canberra theatre scene and a model to younger actors.

 The Helen Tsongas Award for excellence in acting was established by the Tsongas family in the name of the late Helen Tsongas, who died in a motorcycle accident with her husband, Peter Brajkovic, ten years ago.

 Tsongas was a dramatic actor, memorable for tragic roles in “Medea” and “The House of Bernarda Alba” but equally admired for her comic roles in plays like “Noises Off” and The Female Odd Couple”

 She worked at Arts ACT for many years (former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope was, at the time, the Arts Minister) and then moved to the then Commonwealth Office for the Arts when Simon Crean was Minister for the Arts.

She would have been 43 in November this year.

The Helen Tsongas award takes the form of a cheque to the value of $1000 and a certificate going to the best Canberra actor of the year, with no restrictions on age or gender, as judged by the theatre panel of the Canberra Critics Circle and will continue over the coming years.

 

 The 2022 Canberra Critics Circle is as follows:

 

Frank McKone, Helen Musa, Rob Kennedy, Meredith Hinchliffe,

Tony Magee, Alanna Maclean, Joe Woodward, Kerry-Anne Cousins,

Cris Kennedy, Michelle Potter, Simone Penkethman, Bill Stephens,

Brian Rope, Len Power, Graham McDonald, Peter Wilkins,

Dante Costa, Barrina South, Ian McLean, Con Boekel,

Jane Freebury, Samara Purnell, Arne Sjostedt

 

 Canberra Critics Circle Awards

 The centrepiece of the 32nd ACT Arts Awards was the presentation of Canberra Critics Circle certificates by choreographer, teacher and performer, Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, to the artists below:

 

Visual Arts

 

Rory Gillen

 

For “Uncalibrated Space, post-digital and networked photographic art”. Deep learning carves facets into images. Mesmerising, dreamlike. The underlying machinations of algorithms are investigated. Seeking what is real and exploring how we know that.  Tuggeranong Arts Centre in November/December 2021.

 

Visual Arts

 

Michael Armstrong

 

For “Voices and Veterans”.  Each Veteran living with PTSD has a story, visually told, expressed, felt and heard through a challenging creative process using molasses as a metaphor to reveal both darkness and light.  The National Press Club in May/June 2022.

 

Visual Arts

 

Judith Nangala Crispin

 

For “Nox”.  Paying respect to our non-human brothers and sisters by creating a lyric poem of mourning using her own alternative process to make extraordinarily beautiful artistic images of roadkill. A record of things passing by night. Grainger Gallery in January/February 2022.

 

Visual Arts

 

Annette Blair

 

For “Quietly Spoken”, in which the artist displayed a notable development and assurance in her conceptual ideas as well as skill and innovation in glass making techniques that resulted in an impressive and emotive exhibition based on the artist’s perception of memory and loss.  Canberra Glassworks in August.

 

Visual Arts

 

Maryke Henderson

 

For “Unpredictable: an exploration of Soda Vapour Glazing 2004-2022”, where the artist displayed the results of a single minded dedication to the study of form and practice.  The resulting works are beautiful and honest pots that have developed from a long tradition but whose forms and surfaces reflect the innovation and skill of a true, dedicated artist. Canberra Potters, Watson Arts Centre in August.

 

Visual Arts

 

Valerie Kirk and Harriet Schwarzrock

 

For the exhibition Artist-in-Residence at CraftACT.  This body of work was the result of a 2021 artists’ residency at Namadgi National Park in August and  demonstrated the passionate and thoughtful response both artists had to their environment not only allowing us to see the preliminary studies they made but also the completed works that reflected their individual experience.

 

Visual Arts

 

Anita McIntyre

 

For her survey exhibition “1970-2022” at the Woolshed at Strathnairn, which traced her work from student days to her most recent work.  Her work reflects the vistas and landscapes she lives in, travels in and travels through.  Family is just as important to this artist, who settled the area some generations ago.

 

 

Dance

 

Ausdance ACT

 

For its initiative in bringing together dance filmmakers from the ACT and South Australia in October 2021 and September 2022 in “Dance.Focus”, where nine short films were commissioned and shown, thus widening knowledge and understanding of Canberra’s dance culture beyond the ACT.

 

Dance

 

Jake Silvestro

 

For an exceptional full-length solo performance, “December”, choreographed using a variety of physical genres combined with a strong visual arts component and an underlying focus on issues concerning the disastrous bushfires that ravaged parts of Australia in December 2019.

 

Dance

 

Australian Dance Party

 

For its adventurous site-specific work “Less”, that explored a Canberra sculpture and its surrounding watery setting through innovative dance, and exceptional lighting and sound design, to give the audience a highly immersive experience.

 

Dance

 

Danny Riley

 

For his charismatic, athletic performance in his self-choreographed work “Similar, Same but Different”, based on a piece choreographed by Ruth Osborne for Riley’s brother, performed against a film of this work performed by his brother, with a calm assurance that was as captivating as it was moving.

 

 

Music

 

Pip Thompson

 

For stirring up a storm as the onstage fiddler in “Girl from the North Country”, for consistent excellence over a wide range of styles from Romanian street music to classical performance as part of Canberra Strings, the Phoenix Collective and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

 

Music

 

Fred Smith

 

For his concert to welcome Afghanistan evacuees to Canberra; an often sad, often funny, always poignant evening of fine entertainment which traced Australia’s 10 year deployment culminating in the chilling scenes of the 2021 airport evacuation.

 

Music

 

Luminescence Chamber Singers

 

For “Ave Regina//God, be with the Mother”, a well-conceived and performed concert where the singers were joined by jazz guitarist, Jess Green, to explore the long tradition of devotional music for Mary and the many meanings of motherhood.

 

Music

 

Ronan Apcar

 

For his invigorating world premiere performance of Dulcie Holland’s “Piano Concertino” with Canberra Sinfonia.

 

Music

 

Rachel McNally and Michael Dooley

 

For their concert “In2deep” which featured jazz playing and singing of the highest calibre.

 

Music

 

Canberra Symphony Orchestra

 

For their initiative, research and choice of composers and performers in devising and presenting a captivating and collaborative program of contemporary Australian music through the “Australian Series”.

 

 

Musical Theatre

 

Andrew Finnegan

 

For his realistic, humorous and scene stealing portrayal of Alexander Downer in the Queanbeyan Players production of “Keating”.

 

Musical Theatre

 

Echo Theatre Company

 

For a high quality production of “Ruthless” where superb acting, singing, directing, musicianship, staging and costuming produced a hilarious, over the top and most entertaining spoof.

 

Musical Theatre

 

Stephanie Bailey

 

For a beautifully sung and emotionally sensitive portrayal of Eliza Doolittle as she transcended from flower girl to belle of the ball in the Free Rain Theatre production of “My Fair Lady”.

 

Musical Theatre

 

Ylaria Rogers

 

For her highly inventive production of “Urinetown” which she directed for Heartstrings Theatre Company.

 

Musical Theatre

 

Rachel Reid (Jazida)

 

For her extraordinary performance in “Exotica Hypnotica” in which she showcased her remarkable range of professional level skills.

 

Writing

 

Nigel Featherstone

 

For “My Heart is a Little Wild Thing”, (Ultimo Press, May 2022) a beautifully told story, set in the magically-realised Monaro region, of love, duty and personal restoration.

 

Writing

 

Marion Halligan

 

For “Words for Lucy”, (Thames & Hudson March, 2022) a profoundly moving memoir celebrating the life of the writer’s late daughter, in which she weaves together everyday details and treasured events.

 

Writing

 

Tabitha Carvan

 

For “This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch” (HarperCollins AU, March 2022), a book about what happens to women's passions after they leave adolescence, where the author depicts herself unexpectedly falling for the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch while stuck at home with two young children.

 

Writing

 

Sarah St Vincent Welch

 

For “chalk borders” (Flying Islands Pocketbooks, December 2021) where she transformed her ephemeral chalk-poems, enjoyed by hundreds on the footpaths at art festivals Contour 556 and Noted, into beautiful permanent meditations on art and life.

 

Writing

 

Kimberly K. Williams

 

For “Still Lives”, (Gazebo Books, September 2022) poems written about departing a place and then living in a very new one, Canberra, and forging a relationship with it. For stepping in to manage Poetry at Manning Clark House; she is a driving force behind Canberra’s poetry scene.

 

 

Film

 

Shannon Wilson-McClinton – Producer

 

For constructing a narratively-strong, youth-oriented film, “6 Festivals”, supported by impressive performances, created and shot in our region under the challenging conditions of COVID lockdowns.

 

 

Theatre

 

Meaghan Stewart

 

For her cleverly nuanced performance as Eliza Doolittle in Tempo Theatre’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”.

 

Theatre

 

Jarrad West

 

For his accomplished direction of Everyman Theatre’s production of a confronting but very funny play, “Hand To God”.

 

Theatre

 

Chrissie Shaw

 

For using her unique skills to give a sensitive and incisive performance of a woman suffering dementia in “Demented” by Ruth Pieloor.

 

Theatre

 

Max Gambale

 

For a superb trio of vignettes in Lakespeare’s “As You Like It”, in which he brought comedy, pathos and wild eccentricity to his roles.

 

Theatre

 

Christopher Samuel Carroll

 

For his performance as Meursault, the emotionally detached antihero in “The Stranger” for Bare Witness Company, which he adapted from the novel by Albert Camus.  This was a powerful and hypnotic theatrical experience.

 

Theatre

 

Andrea Close

 

For her ferociously real performance as Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Free Rain Theatre at the ACT Hub.

 

Theatre

 

Dylan Van Den Berg

 

For his script “Whitefella Yella Tree” which explored the effects of colonisation on two young indigenous boys in a love story.

 

 

Theatre

 

Amy Kowalczuk

 

For her direction of Gordon Graham’s “The Boys” for Alchemy Artistic, a strong, unnerving and impactful ensemble performance.

 

 

PRIMAVERA!

Art Song Canberra

Sarah Mann, soprano

Ella Luhtasaari, piano

Wesley Music Centre, 20 November

 

Reviewed by Len Power.

Unexpectedly, the soprano, Sarah Mann, was first heard but not seen as she entered from the back of the Wesley Music Centre singing an Amy Beach song.  Her hauntingly beautiful voice was fresh, sunny and warm, like the perfect spring day.

The songs of “Primavera!”, in Art Song Canberra’s latest concert, were all chosen to evoke the wonders of spring.  Works by Joseph Canteloube, Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Roger Quilter, Enrique Granados and Amy Beach made up the program.

Sarah Mann is an accomplished performer, teacher and administrator.  She has performed over twenty-six principal soprano roles in opera, operetta and oratorio, as well as performances with state and national arts organizations.  She is fondly remembered by Canberrans in the role of Cosette in the early 90s first production of Canberra Philharmonic’s “Les Miserables”.

Ella Luhtasaari and Sarah Mann

Ella Luhtasaari is a collaborative pianist and teacher based in Canberra.  She completed bachelor degrees in music and psychology at the ANU and completed post-graduate studies in Austria and the UK.  She is a vocal and language coach at the ANU School Of Music.

Three “Songs Of The Auvergne” by Canteloube were a perfect next choice with their sense of the countryside in spring.  The second song, “Spring Water” was a teasingly beautiful highlight and was delightfully sung by Mann.  The accompaniment for all three songs by Luhtasaari was excellent.

Other highlights included a sublime marriage of voice and piano with “Morgan” by Richard Strauss and, in the second half of the program, ‘”Elegia Eterna” (Eternal Lament) by Granados was dramatic with high sustained notes that took your breath away.  It seemed incredibly difficult but Mann sang it with apparent ease.

Sarah Mann

The other Granados work on the program, “Gracia Mia” (My Graceful One) was jubilantly sung and the joyful Roger Quilter’s “Love’s Philosophy” from a poem by Shelley was so memorable and obtained such a positive reaction from the audience.  It was welcomed again as an encore.

This was a memorable concert by Sarah Mann who clearly loves what she does and had the good fortune to have such a superb accompanist as Ella Luhtasaari.

 

Photos by Peter Hislop

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

SENSE & SENSIBILITY - Canberra Rep.

John & Fanny Dashwood (Robert Weardon & Kayla Ciceran) - Anne Steele (Sienna Curnow) - Lucy Steele (Kate Garrow) in REP'S "Sense and Sensibility"

Direction and Set design by Cate Clelland - Costume Design by Anna Senior OAM

       Lighting Design by Nathan Sciberras and Leeann Galloway – Sound Design by Neville Pye

                      Canberra Rep Theatre 18^th November – 3^rd December 2022.

                         Opening night performance reviewed by Bill Stephens

Marianne Dashwood (Annabelle Segler) -Elinor Dashwood (Karina Hudson) - Edward Ferrars (John Whinfield) - Mrs Dashwood (Ann-Maree Hudson)

Canberra Rep is on a winner with this delightfully playful production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of the Jane Austen novel “Sense and Sensibility”.

Directed with a deft hand by Cate Clelland, who also designed the elegant setting, Hamill’s play manages to follow Austen’s novel faithfully enough that those who have read the novel will have no trouble following the story.  Audience members unfamiliar with the novel might need to be a bit more alert to keep up though.  Not that it really matters because everything  works out happily in the end, and there is so much to enjoy about this production that the journey is the best part.

Clelland’s entertaining and ingenious concept makes much use of tabeaus and freezes. Changes of locale are  indicated on an on-stage notice board, and grand banquets, ballrooms and the myriad other settings required for the busy storyline are differentiated by clever, tightly choreographed, skilfully executed scene changes in which the large ensemble efficiently re-arrange the splendid antique furniture.

Some of the ensemble double in principal roles, but when not acting a specific character, inhabit the shadows around the perimeter of the stage, observing and responding to the events as ever-present gossips.  It’s a clever directorial effect that echoes Austen’s world in which everyone seems to be pre-occupied with gossip.

Anna Senior has provided stylish period costumes for all the cast, which require only  the addition or removal of hats or bonnets to signify whether the events are happening inside or out;  while  Properties Co-ordinator, Brenton Warren has excelled with an array of  gorgeous artefacts that contribute so much to the handsome look of the production. It all works a treat and is hugely entertaining.  

Marianne Dashwood (Annabelle Segler) - Mrs Dashwood (Ann-Maree Hatch) - Elinor Dashwood (Karina Hudson) in REP's "Sense and Sensibility".

You won’t be surprised to learn that most of the action revolves around the three Dashwood sisters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, and the efforts of their mother, Mrs Dashwood, to find the two eldest, Elinor and Marianne, suitably rich husbands.

Karina Hudson and Annabelle Segler both offer vivacious, contrasting performances as the sisters, Elinor and Margaret, both questioning their roles in a world restrained by manners. Hanna Cornelia as the youngest, Margaret, has less opportunity but still scores her share of the laughs. Ann Maree Hatch is suitably dignified as their widowed mother, Mrs Dashwood.

Mrs Jennings (Ros Engledow) - Anne Steele (Sienna Curnow ) - Thomas  (Justice- Noah Malfitano) 
in REP'S  "Sense and Sensibility"

Among the host of other characters who play out the convoluted plot, Ros Engledow is a stand-out  with her engaging performance as the garrulous but well-meaning  Mrs Jennings, while Rob de Fries revels in three roles, Sir John Middleton, the Doctor, and a not particularly convincing, Mrs Ferrars.  (Yes you read right). 

John Whinfield, Kayla Ciceran, Kate Garrow, Sean Reve, Sienna Curnow, Jack Shanahan, Robert Wearden, Rosemary Gibbons, Russell Godwin, Justice-Noah Malfitano and Freya Rowell all contribute delightfully broad, tongue-in-cheek, characterisations as well as maintaining admirable energy to create what appears to be a cast of thousands.

This is the type of production that Canberra Rep does so well and makes a perfect finale production to celebrate Canberra Rep’s  90^th Year and as such is recommended as a perfect theatrical treat for the festive season.

 

Images by Helen Drum

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

 

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Adapted for the stage by Kate Hamill.

Direction and set design by Cate Clelland. Costume design by Anna Senior OAM. Sound design by Neville Pye. Lighting Design by Nathan Sciberras and Leeann Galloway. Stage Manager Carmen King. Canberra Repertory Theatre. November 18 – December 3 2022. Bookings; canberrarep.org.au or 62571950.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Canberra Rep’s latest production of Sense and Sensibility is simply a sheer delight. Director Cate Clelland has created an alluring set design and assembled an excellent cast, who bring Kate Hamill’s adaptation to life with verve and stylish elegance. It has resulted in an evening of fun-filled. entertainment with pertinent adherence to Jane Austen’s perceptive commentary on human relationships and social folly. Playwright Hamill has retained a faithful observance of the language and manner of Austen’s time, but her adaptation has contemporary vitality that bursts into life in the performance of a cast who not only play out the lives of the characters but when not taking on Austen’s characters become a chorus of gossips, peering, peeking and snidely uttering secret asides, hovering at times like vultures to catch the slightest salacious tit-bit. Clelland makes the most of Hamill’s dialogue, embellishing it with excellent and hilarious moments of business, such as the histrionics of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (Katrina Hudson) and Marianne (Annabelle Segler) or the yapping antics of members of the cast playing dogs.

If you do not know the story of Sense and Sensibility, then I urge you to see this faithfully staged production. Hamill has focused on the relationship and trials and tribulations of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Elinor’s love for the gentle and shy Edward Ferrars (John Whinfield) is thwarted by his disinheritance. The impetuous and volatile Marianne lets her feelings become entwined in the affections of the scoundrel John Willoughby (Jack Shanahan).Not even the pragmatic support of the widowed Mrs. Dashwood (Ann-Maree Hatch) can dissuade the daughters from their entrapment in love’s perilous heartache. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” The audience is left with tantalizing questions. Will Eliza find true love with Edward? Will Captain Brandon (Sean Reeve) rescue Marianne from the emotional bondage to Willoughby.  In a production that bristles with apparently insurmountable obstacles and human folly Clelland’s meticulously steered direction keeps an audience riveted to the unfolding drama, and the cast rise to the occasion with skilful observance of Austen’s deliciously wicked comedy of manners. It is refreshing to see an amateur cast pay such attention to articulate speech and clear gesture.

In a cast so uniformly in command of their character, there are performances that deserve mention. Hudson and Segler are outstanding in their roles as the sisters, so very different and yet entirely bonded by the ties of sisterhood in conflict or companionship. Shanahan skilfully turns our attitude of disapproval and loathing to pity and empathy at his self-inflicted sacrifice.  The responsible earnestness of Whinfield’s  Ferrars and Reeve’s Colonel are perfect foils for the comical silliness of Kate Garrow’s Lucy Steele, Hannah Cordella’s Margaret Dashwood and Ros Engledow’s Mrs. Jennings. Austen acolytes will delight in the performances of their familiar and much-loved characters.

Every aspect of this production has been reverently and authentically brought to life on the Canberra Rep stage. Anna Senior OAM’s costume design is a work of art, complementing Clelland’s design and evoking the elegance and sobriety of the Queen Anne period. Neville Pye’s mesmerising inclusion of the pianoforte is totally in tune with the formality and graciousness of the early ninetheenth century. Nathan SCiberras and Leeanne Galloway’s  lighting design unifies the elements of production. Period dance consultant Tony Turner‘s  final, happy Quadrille brings this  enjoyable production to a happy close.

Hamill and Clelland have focused on Austen’s affectionate yet critical regard for the society of her time. One does not need to look far to view the absurdities of manner and custom that lurk beneath the surface of social veneer in Austen’s portrayal of her time and the human frailty of the social elite. This production of Sense and Sensibility demonstrates that Austen’s timeless popularity reflects the universal nature of the human condition irrespective of class or status.As long as human beings will continue to suffer the slings and arrows of their own misfortune so long will the books and plays and films of Austen’s novels illuminate humanity in all its vice and virtue. Jane Austen’s keen observance of her society’s follies still resonates in the excellent Canberra Repertory production of Sense and Sensibility.

 This review honours the memory of and the enormous contribution to Canberra theatre by the late director and actor Liz Bradley.