Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike

 

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang (USA).  Mockingbird Theatre Company at Belconnen Arts Centre, May 13-23 2026.  140 mins including 15 mins interval.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
May 15

Setting: Bucks County, Pennsylvania USA.  The year is 2013.

Cast:

Vanya – Chris Baldock; Sonia – Tracy Noble; Masha – Helen McFarlane
Spike – Darcy Worthy; Nina – Lily Welling: Cassandra – India Kazakoff

Production Team:
Director – Steph Evans; Asst Director – Gabrielle Purcell
Stage Manager – Gabrielle Purcell & Steph Evans
Set Design and Realisation – Chris Baldock, with Steph Evans and Gabrielle Purcell
Lighting Design – Rhiley Winnett and Steph Evans
Sound Design – Gabrielle Purcell
Costumes & Props – Chris Baldock, Steph Evans and Cast
Intimacy Director – Steph Evans
Photography – Zac Bridgman

Mockingbird’s presentation of this 21st Century highly American vision of how Anton Chekov’s late 19th Century Russian characters can make us laugh – and worry about the future – now as then, is like drinking a whole bottle of sparkling wine – superficially bubbly to start with, and a satisfying vintage by the end.

This success is because Chris Baldock has the imagination, the taste, and takes every care as the best winemakers do, working with a small, remarkably well-blended team to make sure every little detail is exactly right – from the Pennsylvania accents, to the extraordinary facial expressions by one who is speaking and everyone else in response, to the choreography, and the instant changes of attitudes and emotions.

This makes top-class comedy from Baldock himself as Vanya, the family elder (since their parents have ‘passed’); trying to live peacefully with his adopted sister Sonia, seeking more in life than just housekeeping; in massive contrast with his true sister Masha, actress in the extreme.  

Not only does Masha turn the household topsy-turvy by bringing in the amazingly beautiful sexy young man Spike, who then brings in the equally beautiful sexy young woman Nina; but it is Masha who owns the house and pays for her siblings’ living costs, since her acting roles provided the money – until now as she is growing old, but doesn’t want to face playing grandmother in the next movie.

Then, taking us way back referentially from Chekov to ancient Greek theatre (is it Sophocles?) the weekly house-cleaner is Cassandra, who predicts the future but is not treated well by the Gods.  The role is farcical, and just what is needed to make ‘normal’ life impossible – and awfully funny.

The style of acting all this is very much over-the-top, as you may imagine.  You have to see the show to see it done – and everyone of these actors are at the professional standard the play requires.

Even to the point in the final scene when they achieve the seriousness of the absurdity of our lives to open our eyes.  We may still be laughing while we applaud such great acting.  Only afterwards we may start worrying about our own futures in post-2020s.  It’s a great vintage at the end of the bottle; but we have to think about the effects of drinking so much all at once.

Another imbibement from Mockingbird not to be missed.

 

 

 

VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE

 

Written by Christopher Durang

Directed by Steph Evans

Mockingbird Theatrics

Belconnen Arts Centre to 23 May

 

 

Reviewed by Len Power 15 May 2026

 

When playwright Christopher Durang decides to have some fun with the characters and themes of Anton Chekhov, his play, ‘Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike’, is the result. It’s wildly and outrageously funny but underneath all the exaggeration and absurdity, real characters emerge with their pains, hopes and disappointments of life. You don’t need to know anything about Chekhov’s plays to enjoy this, but it adds extra depth if you do.

It’s 2013 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Gay brother and adopted sister, Vanya and Sonia, live in a country house with a small orchard. They feel that life has passed them by. Their sister, Masha, a famous, ageing, yet troubled movie star, who owns the house, arrives with her young and handsome boyfriend, Spike. When Masha announces she wants to sell the house, Vanya and Sonia are plunged into turmoil about their future.  Spike begins to show interest in a pretty young neighbour and aspiring actress, Nina, upsetting Masha, and the housekeeper, Cassandra, adds to the drama with her dire warnings and prophesies of disaster.

Tracy Noble (Sonia), Helen McFarlane (Masha) and Chris Baldock (Vanya)

The cast of six – Chris Baldock (Vanya), Tracy Noble (Sonia), Helen McFarlane (Masha), Darcy Worthy (Spike), Lily Welling (Nina) and India Kazakoff (Cassandra) – give their characters real life while playing the humour for all its worth. There are many delicious moments to enjoy including the characters’ monologues, an awful play reading and a voodoo doll sequence. The actors all display excellent comic timing and maintain a frantic pace throughout.

Director, Steph Evans, has obtained a fine balance between the truth in the characters and the frenzied humour. It might all be crazy fun but the humour is grounded with a logic and truth, nicely realized by the director and the cast.

With a running time of 150 minutes, including interval, the play did seem a bit overlong, but, overall, this is a very funny play expertly done.

 

Photos by Zac Bridgman

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/.

 

 

SPHERE - Australian Dance Party - The Vault - Dairy Road Precinct - ACT.

 

SPHERE -  Alison Plevey - Ashlee Bee - Gabriel Sinclair 

Directed by Alison Plevey and Sara Black

Composer: Sia Ahmad – Videography & Editing: Creswick Collective

Costumes: Kelli Donovan - Stage Manager: Anna Davies.

Dancers: Alison Plevey, Sara Black, Ashlee Bee, Gabriel Sinclair, Pat Hayes Cavanagh, Jahna Lugnan, Jason Pearce, Mia Rashid.

The Vault – Dairy Road Precinct - 14-16^th May 2026.

Performance on 14^th May reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

SPHERE - Mia Rasheed - Gabriel Sinclair - Sara Black

For ten years Australian Dance Party has been challenging audiences with site-specific creations across the Australian Capital Territory.

Born out of a passion for her environment, dance artist Alison Plevey has sustained a professional contemporary dance company dedicated to alerting audiences not only to degradation and waste, but also to the joys derived from awakening and participation.

She does this by creating works which are fun, witty, challenging and always thought-provoking and most often in unusual environments that have inspired the works. Among them the National Botanical Gardens, Mount Majura Solar Farm and other National Cultural Institutions and architectural icons.  

With SPHERE, an ambitious multi-discipline work with which the ADP is celebrating its 10^th year, Plevey has drawn inspiration from a suite of extraordinary videos shot in forests around Canberra as well as the possibilities offered by the building in which it is staged. Plevey and her co-Director, Sara Black, have created a huge immersive artwork which incorporates elements of dance, film and sound.

Both Plevey and Black participate in the work, together with their dancers, Ashlee Bee, Gabriel Sinclair, Pat Hayes Cavanagh, Jahna Lugnan, Jason Pearce and Mia Rashid as well as their entire audience.  

SPHERE - Jahna Lugna.

The Vault provides the perfect environment. Originally a huge, unlovely, concrete building in the Dairy Road Precinct, which began its life as storage for government documents, the Vault, through the imagination, leadership and energy of David Caffey, now exists as a multi-purpose entertainment venue.

Although Plevey has explored its possibilities before, for this work she has embraced its vastness by stripping it back to its four walls.

On entering the building, the audience finds themselves inhabiting an unfamiliar world. Coloured spotlights piece though a low-lit misty atmosphere, through which figures, some in trailing costumes, glide silently.  

A disembodied voice invites arrivals to explore the area, choose one of the many low seats scattered through-out, perhaps spread a rug near the cosy fireplace and sip an aperitif from the nearby bar as they settle expectantly for the performance to begin.

Unannounced, the lights fade to black, a haunting soundtrack begins, and the entire space magically becomes lush forest.  

The projections which cover the four walls are startingly sharp and clear. Dancing figures can be seen among the forest growth, so close and lifelike that it is easy to imagine that one could join them.  

Then you notice that the dancers are interacting with the projected images, and you find yourself being drawn into a surreal, increasingly captivating world. The effect is curious and quite discombobulating.

SPHERE is presented in four sections each differentiated by a short black-out.  The dance style is abstract, often bordering on improvised movement as individual dancers gracefully move through tightly focussed spotlights.

SPHERE - Pat Hayes Cavanagh

In some sections the dancers lift each other as they appear to walk up walls. In another, they combine to form a huge human ball with their bodies to allow another to languish on top of them as they move along. Other sections have the dancers surrounded by exotic tiling or drawing hieroglyphics in chalk on the floor.

Make what you will of what you see, SPHERE offers a provocative, tantalising, fascinating experience to celebrate the first ten years of existence for the Australian Dance Party.

                                          All images by O & J Wikner Photography

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

MICHAEL PAYNTER'S GREAT AUSTRALIAN SONGBOOK TOUR LIVE 2026 - Canberra Theatre Playhouse.

Michael Paynter performing in the Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse.

Canberra Theatre Playhouse - May 8^th, 2026 – Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Watching Michael Paynter’s break-out performance as Jesus in the latest iteration of Jesus Christ Superstar, it was obvious that he was a stunningly charismatic artist, who was not only an exceptional vocalist, but one with an extraordinary ability to draw his audience into the story being told by the lyrics of the songs.

Therefore, the announcement came as no surprise that he had been chosen to portray John Farnham in Whispering Jack – The John Farnham Musical, being developed under the direction of Mitchell Butel.  Despite never having seen Farnham’s portrayal of the same role in the 1992 production of Jesus Christ Superstar, a copy of the CD preserving Farnham’s performance is proof of how phenomenal he was in the role.

By now aware of Paynter’s background as a multiple ARIA Award  and Golden Globe Award  winning songwriter and producer, the musical director for The Veronicas and a full-time member of both Icehouse and the Jimmy Barnes’ touring bands who  divides his time between Australia and Nashville, the news that he was bringing his Great Australian Songbook show to Canberra, made it a ‘must-see’ for me, as I was curious to hear his approach to repertoire beyond Superstar.

Michael Paynter in the Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse

However, it seems I came late to the party because by the time his Canberra concert came around, what had originally been announced as a seven concert tour had already burgeoned into a 27 concert tour, most of which have been sold-out, as the ladies sitting beside me who had travelled to Canberra  from the Southern Highlands specially for this sold-out concert, were happy to attest.  

Well, What about the concert? On when entering the theatre, the first thing noticed was that the stage was pre-set with a grand piano, a couple of microphones, and a suite of three guitars. Nothing unusual about that because most solo artists travel with a supporting band.

However, for Paynter, there was no supporting band. His performance commenced dramatically in darkness. To the sound of an extended one-note drone, Paynter, slowly revealed standing in an overhead spotlight, sang a section of Bruce Woodley’s “I Am Australian”, following which he moved across to the piano to perform a goose-bump-inducing rendition of Jimmy Barnes’ “Working Class Man”.

After paying tribute to Jimmy Barnes and immediately connecting with his Canberra audience by acknowledging his bemusement at the number of roadworkers encountered enroute to the theatre, he explained that he was not performing The Great Australian Songbook but his Great Australian Songbook. And what a selection it turned out to be.

Commencing with Hunter/Piggot’s “The Age of Reason”, Paynter had threaded through his program several songs either by John Farnham or associated with Farnham. Among them, “Whispering Jack”, “Burn For You”, “Playing to Win” and Graeham Goble’s “Please Don’t Ask Me”.  

The defining timbre of Farnham’s voice was unmistakably present in all these renditions. But Paynter’s versions were not copies of Farnham’s.

Paynter’s versions are carefully crafted to highlight his clear, stratospheric range and warm lower register. He accompanied himself for every song, either on piano, or on one of the three on-stage guitars, occasionally enhanced by some discrete, self-manipulated technology, mastered over years performing as a jobbing musician.

Paynter also has a gift for communication, able to make each member of his audience feel that he is talking directly to them. Between songs he shared his admiration and enthusiasm for the skill of the lyricist, remarking at one point that he has no interest in songs without meaningful lyrics.

Remarking that lyrics are often smothered by production, he demonstrated with spectacular, stripped-back renditions of songs as varying as “Crazy” by Iva Davies, “Chandelier” by Sia, “Amazing” by Alex Lloyd and Wolfmother’s “The Joker and the Thief”.

He told of being asked to choose a song to sing for the induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame of producer, Mike Chapman. His choice was “A Fine Line Between Pleasure and Pain” which Chapman had produced for The Divinyls. He then sang a moving stripped back version, so extraordinary that the effect was as if listening to the song for the first time.

For each of his concerts Paynter invites a guest to join him for a duet. On this occasion his choice was sixteen-year- old singer/songwriter, Ruby Rogers. The audience had met Ruby earlier in the evening when she performed a thirty-minute set accompanied on guitar by her father, Ben Rogers.

Ben Rogers and Ruby Rogers performing in the Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse

It is fortunate that Ruby is so talented, because her initial appearance, spectacularly dressed down in trackydaks and sneakers, gave the impression that she had not placed much importance on this opportunity. Her giggly, rambling introductions, and lack of stagecraft, did not allay this impression.

However, her voice was pretty and her original songs especially “Sixteen” and “Father’s Daughter” are very good. It was a shame that poor sound balance between guitar and voice meant that many of her excellent lyrics were lost, and disappointing that she hadn’t bothered to learn her duet with Paynter, Missy Higgin’s “The Special Two”, choosing instead to read her lyrics off her phone.

It was only at the end of their duet that Paynter revealed that Ruby is the granddaughter of Jimmy Barnes. 

Despite her obvious talent one hopes Ruby will have taken the opportunity to study Paynter’s polished professionalism and stagecraft, again on show in every note of Paynter’s final offering for the evening, Don Walker’s Flame Trees. 

Photos of Michael Paynter performing in the Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse supplied.

Photo of Ben Rogers and Ruby Rogers in the Canberra Theatre Playhouse by Trudy Thornton.  

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

Between What Remains

Visual Arts Exhibition Review | Brian Rope

Between What Remains | Hilary Wardhaugh and David Manley

Belconnen Arts Centre |  27 March – 17 May 2026

The 2024 Canberra City News Artist of the Year, Hilary Wardhaugh, has again produced a wonderful collection of artworks – this time for a joint exhibition with a friend from their teenage years in Belconnen. Their surroundings influenced the visual elements they both would later use to convey their ideas and responses to the places they experienced as artists. 

David Manley has also contributed great imagery for this exhibition. His artworks often are constructed pieces – architectural models and dioramas. The two artists complement each other.

Between What Remains reflects on the lives of the two artists and their shared artistic vision. They have come together in this exhibition to present conceptually aligned bodies of work.

Manley photographically explores architectural models and historical sites that have been marked by violence. The profound influence past events and experiences have on the present and future of individuals and societies, the overwhelming nature of media in our lives today, and the rapid, decisive and forceful application of actions underpin his constructed trauma-scapes. In those quiet, speculative spaces, memories linger and collapse into the present.

Wardhaugh’s series The Disconnect also inhabits the territory of temporal rupture, but from a post-documentary urban landscape perspective. Exploring disconnection and the categorisation of the natural world in our urban landscapes, the work uses visual portrayals to contemplate puzzling things.

Curator Alexander Boynes wonderful essay in the catalogue suggests this reunion of the two artists in a renewed dialogue is shaped by their shared beginnings in Belconnen. He tells us that the developed photography practices of both artists have led to them viewing landscapes and architecture as sites of memory, rupture and return not simply as subjects.

All 21 works draw us in to stand before them, first looking closely at the elements contained in them, then thinking about the messages they are intended to convey. Messages about ecological forces, climate change, impacts on biodiversity, the consequences of human presence, the traumatic impacts, and their own perceptions and views about our responsibilities in our world.

Manley’s High Rise shows us a huge concrete edifice improbably hovering high over the surface below. We wonder how it could possibly have moved into that position, apparently weightless despite its size and composition. How it could be so light as to float there? 

High Rise, 2023. 1000mm x 1000mm. Framed pigment print – David Manley

Post-Traumatic Urbanist #2 Shows me a complex structure which might have been part of a long-gone urban settlement in what is now a barren landscape. Manley himself and others viewing the image may see something quite different.

Post-traumatic Urbanist #2, 2017. 500mm x 500mm. Framed pigment print – David Manley

Zoomorphic Cement Structure is another delightful piece. Seen from a distance it seemed to me that somehow a large cement block had moved right heading away from its purpose as a key support for the block above. Moving closer revealed I was wrong. A little research since has told me that zoomorphic architecture refers to the design and construction of buildings inspired by the forms and characteristics of animals. It embraces fluidity, dynamism, and a connection to nature. Perhaps my first interpretation resulted from fluidity.

Zoomorphic Cement Structure, 2013, 1250mm x 1000mm. Framed pigment print – David Manley

Wardhaugh’s pieces are diverse, but also complementary. Landscapes reveal terrains that have been significantly impacted by environmental stress and by decisions made, or not made, by those responsible for particular locations. In The Life of a roadside bush, the bush is a lone piece of nature in urban Queanbeyan’s concrete surroundings.

The Life of a roadside bush, 2025. 850mm x 1200mm. Framed pigment print – Hilary Wardhaugh

Danger! Nature is another most interesting piece. I invite you to look closely and interpret what you see for yourself. What are we looking at? Is it all real? Was the yellow vertical structure which neatly divides the image in two actually there in that landscape?

Danger! Nature, 2014. 850mm x 1200mm. Framed pigment print – Hilary Wardhaugh

Coercively Controlled confronts us with a view of trees being forced to grow as someone has determined they should, rather than allowing nature to take its course.

Coercively Controlled, 2025. 850mm x 1200mm. Framed pigment print – Hilary Wardhaugh

Succulent and Potty is another piece that demands our investigation. It is not simply a potted plant with thick, water-storing leaves sitting atop an interesting structure. Behind it is what might be a tall building under construction covered with translucent material.

Succulent and Potty, 2023. 850mm x 1200mm. Framed pigment print – Hilary Wardhaugh

Both artists have effectively used the cathartic power of image-making in a world marked by the human cost of disconnection, ambivalence and disruption.

This review is also available on the author's blog. A shorter review has also been published in Canberra City News.

DJILBA: A Moment in Time - Mirramu Creative Arts Centre

 

Floeur Alder performing DJILBA: A Moment in Time

Choreographer and performer: Floeur Alder
Costume design: Virginia Ward and Verity Wyllie
Poems: Virginia Ward -Producer: Kiri Morcombe
Mirramu Creative Arts Centre, 2 May 2026 - Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS 

Floeur Alder performing DJILBA: A Moment in Time at Mirramu Creative Arts Centre

One of the many highlights of the Ausdance ACT 2026 Dance Week program was the participation of West Australian dance artist Floeur Alder.

Following a preview screening in Canberra in October 2025 of the extraordinary dance film POINTE: Dancing on a Knife’s Edge, Ausdance ACT Executive Director Cathy Adamek invited Alder to return in 2026. The return visit included an encore screening of the film at the National Film and Sound Archive during Dance Week.

POINTE: Dancing on a Knife’s Edge powerfully documents Alder’s journey of recovery after a brutal knife attack that threatened to end her dancing career. While the film focuses on Floeur’s personal story, it also contains compelling archival footage of her parents at the height of their performing careers, as well as glimpses of their later lives.

Floeur Alder performing DJILBA: A Moment in Time at Mirramu

Although raised in Perth, Alder has a strong connection to Canberra. Her parents, Alan Alder and Lucette Auldous, were internationally celebrated dancers who both became Principal Artists with The Australian Ballet after distinguished careers with the Royal Ballet and other major companies. Their performances during the years when The Australian Ballet toured annually to the Canberra Theatre remain vivid memories. Equally memorable is the afternoon when I joined the crowd outside St Andrew’s Church in Canberra to watch them emerge after their wedding in 1972.

After retiring from the stage, both Alan and Lucette taught at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Their only child, Floeur, followed in their footsteps, studying and graduating from WAAPA with the expectation of matching her parents’ illustrious achievements.

Alder’s visit to Canberra was not limited to the film screening. Adamek also invited her to present a workshop on the Floorebarre technique, of which she is one of only a small number of practitioners worldwide. Perhaps most significant, however, was the opportunity for Alder to perform her dance work DJILBA, A Moment in Time.

Created just one month after her father’s death, DJILBA draws inspiration from the landscape of the Rainbow Coast in the Albany region of Western Australia, along with the Indigenous histories of the Menang people and the season of Djilba, or ‘Emergence’. Through this work, Alder seeks to understand her parents’ lives and her own place within that lineage, connecting with them not as they once were, but through nature and memory as part of her process of grief and healing.

Floeur Alder performing DJILBA: A Moment in Time at Mirramu

Canberra holds particular resonance in this context. It is the city where Alder’s father was born and where he began his dance journey, performing Highland dance and tap before discovering ballet. A scholarship to The Royal Ballet School followed. His sister, Joy, still lives in Canberra and continues to teach at the Joy Reiher School of Scottish Dancing. Her presence, along with her family, at this performance added a deeply personal emotional layer for Alder.

“Mirramu is a great, mysterious place,” Elizabeth Cameron Dalman reminded the audience in her introduction to the performance. With Lake George—known to the Ngunnawal people as Weereewa—forming a brooding backdrop, the setting provided an ideal atmosphere for this work.

Because the performance took place outdoors in mid-afternoon, the projections originally designed for DJILBA could not be used. Instead, they were presented separately as a studio display at Mirramu. Alder embraced the possibilities of the outdoor setting, introducing several new elements unique to this presentation. For the first time, she performed on a rectangle of white sand bordered with gum leaves, with a vessel of smouldering foliage placed at its centre.

Anticipating the biting winds that often sweep in from Lake George during Canberra’s autumn, Alder commissioned a new costume for the performance. Fortunately, the weather proved kind on this occasion.

The work began in near silence, accompanied only by the sounds of birds settling in the surrounding trees. Gradually, an evocative soundscape emerged, threaded with whispered poems written by Virginia Ward. Alder responded with movement that expressed a profound connection to Country, blending Indigenous-inspired motifs suggesting animal forms with contemporary dance language and, at moments, exquisitely executed balletic jumps and extensions. The result was a performance that was both mesmerising and deeply heartfelt.

In a brief address following the performance, Alder dedicated DJILBA, A Moment in Time to the memory of her father.

Elizabeth Cameron Dalmand and Floeur Alder following her performance of DJILBA.



Images by MODE IMAGERY.



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

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Deadpan artefacts: creative experiments with facial expression recognition in photographic portraiture

Visual art exhibition review | Brian Rope

Deadpan artefacts: creative experiments with facial expression recognition in photographic portraiture | Melita Dahl

ANU School of Art & Design Gallery, Wed 22 Apr 2026, 10:30 am - Fri 15 May 2026, 3:00 pm

An early graduate of the ANU School of Art & Design, Melita Dahl later undertook postgraduate study at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. Her work is held in major public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Museum and Gallery and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, and has been exhibited widely in Australia and abroad. This exhibition is presented as part of a Higher Degree by Research examination.

In the room sheet, Dahl tells us that “Over the past three decades, photography has evolved from its traditional role as an indexical imprint of the world into a fluid, computational space shaped by digital transformation.”

It is within that context that Melita Dahl has used the photographic portrait as a framework for research exploring “datafication of pose and expression through creative experiments engaging with Facial Expression Recognition (FER) technologies.” A key focus has been the neutral category in FER, which closely aligns with the so-called deadpan expression.

Dahl’s practice has long engaged the portrait as an experimental site where cultural and technological forces intersect with the history of photographic practice. While discussing her 2021 Portrait exhibition at Photo Access, I referred to how we try to interpret facial expressions. And how looking into a person’s eyes can supposedly tell us what that person thinks and feels. In essence, that is what this exploration is all about.

Deadpan portrait photography has frequently been presented as an "objective" form of documentation that gives no clues about what the subject might be thinking. Focusing on the neutral face - found to be measurable through facial expression recognition technologies - Dahl traces a correlation with the deadpan. She has used this interplay as a conceptual bridge in her research, connecting the conventions of analogue portraiture with contemporary data-driven approaches. As a result, her works “explore how neutrality operates across the intersecting fields of portraiture, photography and technology.”

The works on display include ten high-quality pigment ink prints on archival paper. There are also three 4K video loops and an “interactive data visualisation”. The latter is a fascinating Web application. It draws on the National Portrait Gallery’s photographic collection. The portraits have been visually and contextually filtered and sorted, then classified and arranged according to pose and expression, particularly the Deadpan. At the exhibition opening, I watched numerous people standing looking at the tiny reproductions of those portraits moving about the projection with information regarding assessed facial expressions, and the video loops, for lengthy periods. The facial expressions I saw on the viewers’ faces revealed nothing to me about what they were thinking!

So, let’s look at some of the exhibits here. Firstly, a 2019 print titled happy (0.96). When you look at the facial expression, do you see a happy face? If not, what sort of facial expression do you see?

Melita Dahl, happy (0.96), 2019, Pigment Ink Print on Archival Paper, 52.4 x 69.9cm

Next, a 2021 print titled Deadpan 9.980549278246. The portrait here is accompanied by some “scores” which provide us with more information than the portrait alone would.

Melita Dahl, Deadpan 9.980549278246, 2021, Pigment Ink Print on Archival Paper, 80x60cm

Here’s a 2026 image from the Perspective Machine series. A fine piece of art.

Melita Dahl, Perspective Machine 02, 2026, Pigment Ink Print on Archival Paper, 60x80cm

And here’s a still from a 2026 video Deadpan/Neutral – A comparative analysis. A triple Deadpan portrait no less.

Melita Dahl, Deadpan|Neutral – A comparative analysis, video still, 2026

All the prints in the exhibition are very high quality and are fine pieces of art as well as providing much information to viewers about the results of Dahl’s research. Those who have not been Doctor of Philosophy students may be challenged by the research concept and outcomes, but that doesn’t matter. Being challenged is a good thing for us all - and what better way to be challenged than by a great exhibition?

If you are unable to visit the exhibition, I encourage you to check out Dahl’s website https://melitadahl.net/. Those of you who can visit the exhibition should check the opening days and hours and be aware that the gallery will be closed to the public during examination times.

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