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| Moya Simpson in "Finale" |
Written and Directed by Tracy Bourne – Designed by Nyx
Matthews
Sound designed by Ben Marston – Lighting Design by James
Tighe
Ainslie Arts Centre
until July 15th.
Performance on 13th July reviewed by BILL STEPHENS
It’s rarely,
if ever, a good idea for an author to direct their own work. Primarily because
the director’s role is to translate the author’s vision for the audience and eliminate
impediments likely to distract the audience from the journey the author has set for them.
It is clear
that a lot of time and talent has been lavished on this production, but
whatever Tracy Bourne, the author, was trying to say with her play, it seems to
have been lost among the surfeit of distracting embellishments felt necessary by
Tracy Bourne, the director.
Although
promoted as “a wild and funny dream – cabaret about love, death and telling the
truth”, the actuality felt like a harrowing play with music, about the mental
breakdown of an apparently successful, cabaret Performer, who appears to suffer
this breakdown while trying to perform her cabaret act.
In the
course of her breakdown the Performer continually embarrasses her colleagues,
Pianist ( John Black ) and Percussion (Jonathan “Jonesy” Jones), as well as her
audience, by continually interrupting them and insisting that they perform
menial tasks for her.
Songs are
usually chosen to inform the action, but from the way they’re performed in this
show, it’s never clear if the songs sung by the Performer are meant to be part
of her act, or a comment on her mental state.
The show
begins with a song by the Gibbs brothers, “I Started a Joke” then followed by a
deliberately poorly performed version of Leiber and Stoller’s “Is That All
there is?” The presumption created that
these songs were part of the Performer’s repertoire.
But then the
song choices got darker. “I’ll Never Get
Out of this World Alive’ (Fred Rose and Hank Williams), Tom Wait’s satirical,
“God’s Away on Business”, and Morris Bailey Jnr’s “Go to Hell” suggesting that
these were clues to the Performers mental state.
Further
confusion was created when for some unexplained reason the Performer harangued the audience into reluctantly moving
to the other side of the room, to watch while she appears to slip into dementia
singing, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” (Taylor and Dallas), and
“The Mercy Seat” (Nick Cave and Mick Harvey).
But then she
recovers and bravely determined to finish her show on an optimistic note, bursts
into Amanda Palmer’s “Sing”, demanding that the audience join her in singing the
chorus. Recognising that they’re unlikely to be released unless they humour her,
they complied, some even managing an ovation.
While it
seemed an interesting choice to cast Moya Simpson, one of the regions most
accomplished cabaret performers, as the Performer, Simpson has built up a such
a formidable personal following over the years, that when the director
incorporated many of Simpson’s mannerisms into the character of the Performer, it
became difficult to differentiate between the actor and the character.
So while
admiring Simpson’s brave attempt to create a believable character, her efforts
were consistently thwarted by curious directorial decisions, unflattering costumes
and generally messy design making it difficult to accept the premise that the
Performer had ever been a successful cabaret artist.
So far from
being a wild and funny dream, “Finale” became a rather sad and dispiriting
experience.
Image by Shelly Higgs
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 14.07.23.