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.
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The cast of Mockingbird Theatre’s The Laramie Project and
The Laramie Project –
Ten Years Later.
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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 .
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| 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.
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Daryl Somers and Jeremy Benson in Dramatic Productions
Production of The
Producers at Gungahlin Theatre
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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.