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| Christie Whelan-Browne as Liz in Vigil |
Vigil by Steve Vizard.
Music composed by Joe Chindamo. Directed by Andy Packer. The Space Theatre. Adelaide Festival Centre. World Premiere. Commissioned by the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. June 11 and 12. 2017.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
In a cabaret festival programme
that headlines international sensations, Alan Cumming and jazz icon, Dianna
Reeves, it is pleasing to note the inclusion of a new and original Australian
musical. Vigil with book and lyrics
by Steve Vizard and music composed by leading Australian jazz pianist Joe
Chindamo is being given its World Premiere at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
It
is a poignant glimpse at the complex and often troubled relationship between a
daughter and her mother. Liz (Catherine Whelan- Browne) has arrived at the bed
of her dying mother at Christmas Eve. She has flown in from overseas after an
eleven month absence to find her mother confined to a hospital bed and unable
to communicate. Writer, Steve Vizard’s one woman musical is a sensitive and
honest confessional, peeling away the façade and confronting the unuttered
truths of a daughter’s private anguish. Alone at her mother’s bedside, Liz
looks back on her life through a photoboard, created by her sister. It is a
moment of bitter reflection, a plea to absolve her God-given gift of guilt.
Resentment swells as she realizes that she features in only nine of the thirty
seven photos and the painful realization of unresolved issues (One More Breath), flashes back through
the years to the nine year old girl in Sleeping Beauty (Pretty Little Thing) , a sister’s envy, the sleazy barbecues in the
back yard (Barbecue of Love), her
marriage break up with Nick, the love of her life, (When You Tie A Knot), the
tragic loss of their baby boy and her mother’s departure to live with her
lesbian lover, Jill, her need to express her feelings (I Confess), and her longing for answers and the desire to be
recognized for who she is (Here I Am Mum).
Vizard’s plot is disarmingly real,
his character unambiguously honest, compelled to truly express her feelings and
look in vain for reassurance from a silent figure in the bed. Alone on stage,
Whelan-Browne conjures the people of her life – her favoured sister, Amelia and
precocious niece, Giselle, her dreaded Aunt Frieda, her ex husband and their
lost child, and dreams to be accepted by those whose judgements bring her pain.
It is a bitter sweet tale, performed with touching honesty by a singer whose
purity of heart floats upon the sensation of her songs. Composer Joe Chimado’s
melodies recall the emotional power of Sondheim, though more gently at the
strings of Zoe Black’s violin, and with the intimacy of an off-Broadway
musical, destined for glittering success upon the bigger stages of the world.
Slingsby director, Andy Packer, directs with gentle sensitivity, allowing
Whelan-Browne’s extraordinarily natural talent to shine.
Vigil is a new work, still in need of development. Has the audience
witnessed a meeting in the mind, confirmed by a phone call at the end that comes
too late to realize Liz’s desires to set matters right? It is a dramatic device
still clouded with some dramaturgical confusion. Is the forged cheque necessary
and is the hearing aid a comic touch or bitter irony? New works need time to
evolve, and Vizard’s musical is no exception. At the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
it is still perhaps too long, but it is a poignant, ironically funny and
pertinent new Australian work. Whelan-Browne combines a beautiful, expressive
voice with a natural emotional honesty that keeps her character engagingly
real. This is a musical not to be missed for Whelan-Browne’s performance alone
as well as Chimado’s tuneful, heartfelt melodies. It deserves a wider audience
and and greater acclaim. When the
opportunity arises be sure not to miss this new Australian work or
Whelan-Browne’s performance. She affirms her place as a shining star of the
Australian music theatre stage.
BLACK COMEDY