Peter and the Starcatcher

Dead Puppet Society

Canberra Theatre Centre

Until October 26 

Reviewed by Samara Purnell

Play by Rick Elice

Based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Music by Wayne Barker

This wonderfully madcap story is fiddly to explain: In a nutshell: Two ships - The Wasp and The Neverland set out with a treasure chest full of starstuff. Aboard the ships are Molly, her father Lord Aster, three orphan boys, Slank, Black Stache, Smee, Mrs Bumbrake and Alf, along with various other shipmates. Treasure chest switches, a shipwreck and a beautiful bunch of creatures later sees everyone washed up on an island chasing each other and the elusive starstuff. 

Peter and the bird

This production boasts a stellar cast of high profile actors across stage and screen. Director David Morton has secured stage royalty in Paul Capsis as the scheming, slinking Slank who brings an easy flare, humour, facial expressions and a sleezy physicality to the role. 

Colin Lane as Black Stache is an absolute treat. He engages the audience, who lap it up, as he prances and parades across the stage mangling the English language and engaging in verbal jousting. The Pirates of Penzance tongue twister I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General comes to mind.

The actors utilize a range of accents from British to Peter Helliar’s (typecast perfectly as Smee) casual Aussie accent. His projection and diction give away a lack of stage training. But he’s there for the gags and when Stache loses his hand, absolute farce ensues, with Helliar and Lane reveling in their element. 

Alison Whyte gives a warm and stoic performance as Lord Aster, but having daughter Molly call her daddy was jarring. John Bachelor’s Alf was covered by James Haxby on the official opening night. He and Mrs Bumbrake (Lucy Goleby) bounced off each other nicely. Sometimes literally. Ryan Gonzalez as the Italian Fighting Prawn is brilliant. (Yes, Fighting Prawn…)

Molly and the orphans

Olivia Deeble’s stage debut as Molly sees her bring an energetic and athletic physicality to the role. The character lacks softness and empathy, rather, she is determined to lead the missions and sort the problems. Otis Dhanji as the unnamed child, later Peter Pan, adopts a strange physical stance throughout the performance. He and his friends look (and are) older than the script implies but is likely required to carry off the roles. The bedtime story scene between them and the Italian chefs on the island was brilliantly timed and delightfully nuts.  

The cast’s textured, layered costumes featuring burgundy, reds and greens were inspired by Alexander McQueen collections and the description of the characters by the director to costume designer Anna Cordingley.

Smee, Lord Aster and Black Stache

The musicians are on stage to replicate ships’ bands and create the soundscapes from the recurring, haunting strains of O For the Wings of a Dove, to the campy Mermaid Outta Me. There are songs throughout, but mostly it is a spoken play. The sound was perfectly balanced between music, singing, sound effects and dialogue and reached a roaring crescendo to Act 1 of puppets and song.

The script is manic, with blink and you’ll miss them jokes - who knew Philip Glass and semicolons could be so funny. At interval a girl was overheard saying: “I don't necessarily get it but I like it”. A perusal of the program did little to explain or clarify the story, rather whet the appetite for the creatures to appear and the storyline to resolve.  

Apart from the cast, the overarching appeal is the staging itself. Ben Hughes’ fantastical lighting design of slightly fluorescent blues, pinks, stars and fairy lights blend wonderfully with the cleverly utilised set and multilayered panels of blue sea. At interval, it closes to resemble stained glass window shards. The ships decks and quick rotations of sets and characters reveal entertaining vignettes of scenarios happening aboard.

The Dead Puppet Society has previously produced beautiful shows solely based on puppetry. Here, the puppets and props are gorgeous, although not the entire basis of the show, with the exception of the piece de resistance - Mr Green, the epic crocodile, comprised of lights and polytubes, nets and rope. The cat, birds (made to look like cockatoos for Australian audiences), stingray, sea creatures and butterflies are scattered throughout the production with the storm scene highlighting the clever use and aesthetic appeal of props and lighting. 

Mermaids in dazzling costumes open Act 2 and just when you thought the script or storyline couldn't get any looser, a brigade of Italian chefs appear.

The Mermaids

The emotional engagement that had been kept at bay for most of the show, came rushing in in the last few scenes and hit hard in the feels, to the point of tearing up. Thematically, Peter and the Starcatcher is an origin story of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Mary Darling and Neverland. It also explores themes of friendship, home, belonging and belief in dreams, rolled up in wonder, magic and star dust. Oh, and mermaids and focaccia. 

Peter and the Starcatcher is a beautiful, visually rich and wonderfully physical, slick production. The cast relish in the movement created by Liesel Zink. The myriad experience of this quality cast may be lost on younger audiences, who will enjoy the humour, silliness and energy of the show and all will love the sumptuous feast of puppetry, staging, colour and fun.

Photos by Daniel Boud

THE WHARF REVUE - THE END OF THE WHARF AS WE KNOW IT. - The Canberra Theatre

 

Mandy Bishop as Jacqui Lambie entertaining at the Midwinter Ball.
Back: Phil Scott (Piano) - Jonathan Biggins (Bass) - David Whitney (drums)

Written by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, and Phillip Scott.

Directed by Jonathan Biggins and Phillip Scott.

Musical Director: Phillip Scott

Performed by Jonathan Biggins, Mandy Bishop, Drew Forsythe, Phillip Scott, and David Whitney.

Canberra Theatre 25^th October – 2^nd November 2024.

Opening night on 26^th October reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Another Opening - Phil Scott (piano) - Jonathan Biggins (bass) - David Whitney (drums)
Mandy Bishop and Drew Forsythe (foreground)

Given that the Wharf Revue had previously announced its demise a few years ago, then re-emerged, perhaps the clue to its future is in the title. Read carefully.

Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, and Phillip Scott have been writing and performing editions of this revue for an incredible 25 years. During that time Mandy Bishop has become an essential component while David Whitney is a more recent addition to the team.

For this valedictory season they’re all on stage and in top form. While they could be forgiven for reprising a selection of their most memorable sketches, they have opted for all new material. Their satire is still razor-sharp, their caricatures and parodies still brilliantly conceived, skewering their victims with unerring accuracy.

Jonathan Biggins as Paul Keating introducing the show.

All the favourites are there. Paul Keating (Jonathan Biggins) introduces the show with a few well-chosen put-downs. Pauline Hanson (Drew Forsythe) takes the opportunity to debut her new cabaret act. Jacqui Lambie (Mandy Bishop) not only MC’s the Midwinter Ball in Parliament House but provides a floorshow dazzling enough to make Tina Turner envious, while David Whitney’s Peter Dutton is more like, well, Dutton than Dutton.

Mandy Bishop as Joanna Lumley - Phil Scott as Mirian Margolyes.

But this year there are new victims, among them Miriam Margolyes (Phil Scott), Joanna Lumley (Mandy Bishop), Phil Scott as a defiant Baby Boomer, and Jonathan Biggin’s glorious Tay Tay who you really need to see for yourself.

To give away more would be to risk spoiling the surprises but suffice to say that the production is as always, impeccable, the costumes spot on, and the performances side-splittingly hilarious.

Drew Forsythe as Pauline Hanson debuting her cabaret act. Phil Scott on piano.

If this, as promised, is really the end of the Wharf as we know it, then Canberra audiences are taking no chances. Their Opening Night performance was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation for this team of skilled entertainers who over the years have established and maintained such a high bar for the art of political satire in Australia. Don’t miss this final opportunity to celebrate them.

                                                         Photos by Vishal Pandey

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

THE WHARF REVUE - THE END OF THE WHARF AS WE KNOW IT

 

 The Wharf Revue: THE END OF THE WHARF AS WE KNOW IT. Writers Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Philip Scott.

Directors Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe. Producer Jo Dyer. Lighting Designer Matt Cox.  Sound and Video Systems Designer Cameron Smith.  Costume Designers Hazel and Scott Fisher. Video Designer Todd Decker. Musical Director Philip Scott. Performed by Jonathan Biggins, Mandy Bishop, Drew Forsythe, Phillip Scott, David Whitney. A Soft Tread Production. Canberra Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. October 26- November 2 2024. Bookings 62435711 or canberratheatre.org.au.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Could this really be the end as we know it? Is it possible that after twenty-five years of dazzling, biting, hysterically funny and pointedly sobering satire, the Wharf Revue team should call it a day? If so, then that is every reason why you should rush to buy a ticket, so hot that it sizzles with the promise of a night of wit and talent that you will never forget. Is it possible that this satirical swan song could bid farewell to the favourites of so many digs and jibes, swipes and spoofs at our political leaders and politicians of all persuasions? What checks and balances will remain without Jonathan Biggins’s Paul Keating, Drew Forsythe’s Pauline Hanson, Philip Scott’s Kevin Rudd, David Whitney’s Peter Dutton and Mandy Bishop’s Julia Gillard?

Hindsight and foresight merge to create a lesson of the past and an omen of the future. Is AI the pathway to a new world or will the Wharf’s Revue prophetic claim of a world destroyedby AI by 2032  force humanity to seek out a new world on Mars? In a poignant and lamenting sketch, the promise of  hope and dreams imagined by  Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama and Martin Luther King  Junior give way to the the lamentable lowering of the stars and stripes on the pole. Laughter and ridicule may be this indefatigable troupe of satirist’s weapon of enlightenment but there is always the barb of prophesy to remind us that comedy is a serious business.

There are so many gems in this brilliant company’s crowning farewell to their devoted and obviously partisan audience. Mandy Bishop’s in your face portrayal of Jaqui Lambie’s performance as MC at the parliamentary Midwinter Ball is a full throttled projectile spray, a veritable force to be reckoned with that brings cheers and whistles from the adoring audience. Forsythe has Hanson down pat with more malapropisms than a Roget’s Tyrannosaurus. Aspiring PMs get words of advice from Labor’s hero Hawkie at a 1984 disco.Whitney’s Dutton with the bald head and monotone drone is greeted with gales of laughter and delighted recognition and to top it all off Biggins hits the high note with his impersonation of Angus Taylor Swift in flimsy costume and with his hit response to every fact - Make It Up. It is sketches like these that have made the Wharf Revue the must see show of the year. .

With musical director Philip Scott on piano, Jonathan Biggins on guitar and Whitney on drums Australia’s favourite spinners of satire also give excellent backing to Bishop’s remarkable vocals in pointedly reworded numbers to music from Cole Porter to Noel Coward and Michel Legrand to Jonathan Larsen. The melodies are familiar, but the lyrics cast fresh light on our political landscape.

“Can satire bring about social change?” Biggins’s Keating asks. Maybe not, but whether it be yes or no, the Wharf Revue’s team have been at the forefront of political satire and their farewell will leave a huge hole in Australia’s entertaining tradition of political accountability. Perhaps we can hope for a revitalized reincarnation. After all this is the “end as we know it.” Perhaps there is a new beginning to discover. The Wharf Revue is a national treasure too precious to lose.

A shorter season has propelled the Wharf Revue into Canberra’s main theatre. Judging by the response of the full house on opening night, the farewell show will sell out in the blink of a pollie’s one eye. The Wharf Revue’s THE END OF THE WHARF AS WE KNOW IT is a last hurrah you can’t afford to miss.

 

 

 

 

THE WHARF REVUE - THE END OF THE WHARF AS WE KNOW IT

 

Created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott

Musical Direction by Phillip Scott

Directed by Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe

Presented by Canberra Theatre Centre & Soft Tread Enterprises

Canberra Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre to November 2

 

Reviewed by Len Power 26 October 2024

 

If politics is the beast we must have, at least we’ve had the Wharf Revue at the end of each year to put it all in a better and hilarious perspective. After 25 years, this year’s show is to be the last. Nothing goes on forever, but the full house at the Canberra Theatre on opening night gave the performers a well-deserved sendoff.

Once again, the quality of the humour and political satire was up there with the best. The creators and performers, Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsyth and Phillip Scott, with the addition of the other cast members, Mandy Bishop and David Whitney, presented a bewildering number of sketches, songs and film clips in which no-one in the political arena was safe from their incisive humour.

Jonathan Biggins as Paul Keating

The show commenced with Jonathan Biggins in his uncanny persona as Paul Keating, who assured us that “the age of enlightenment never happened”. Miriam Margolyes, farts and all, with a tipsy Joanna Lumley gave us “Mad Ducks And Englishmen” and Annabel Crabb hosted the TV’s “Hindsight”, a continuing theme in the show on various hot topics.

Mandy Bishop as Joanna Lumley and Phillip Scott as Miriam Margolyes

Trying to list every personality presented in the course of the show is impossible but there were nicely devastating portrayals of Bob Katter, Tony Abbott, Gina Reinhardt, Clive Palmer, Geoffrey Robertson, Julia Gillard, Alan Koehler, Anthony Albanese, Bob Hawke, Kevin Rudd and many others.

Mandy Bishop as Jacqui Lambi

Highlights were Jonathan Biggins singing in a skimpy sparkling dress as Angus Taylor Swift, David Whitney as Peter Dutton declaring “Nuclear’s Here” and Mandy Bishop singing up a storm as Jacqui Lambi. There were also Phillip Scott’s “I’m A Boomer”, Drew Forsyth’s delightfully edgy and cross Pauline Hanson talking about skulbuggery and King Charles’ chlorination and the clever film and song on the state of America was a thoughtful and chilling change of pace.

Drew Forsythe as Pauline Hanson

The high quality of the scripting, the frantic pace of the production, Phillip Scott’s musical direction and the clever costuming and wigs made this a superbly executed entertainment.

Running over 90 minutes without an interval, the show came to an end all too soon with a farewell song to the tune of “Seasons Of Love” from the musical “Rent”. It was hard to believe this was the last Wharf Revue but, with luck, maybe they were bending the truth like the politicians they satirise so well.

 

Photos by Vishal Pandey

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/.

 

LOVE FROM A STRANGER

Written by Agatha Christie

Directed by Jon Elphick

Tempo Theatre Inc production

Belconnen Theatre, Belconnen to November 2

 

Reviewed by Len Power 25 October 2024

 

Opening in London in 1936, Love From A Stranger is based on Agatha Christie’s short story Philomel Cottage, which was first published in 1934. It’s the story of a woman who breaks off her engagement and impulsively marries a stranger, only to suspect him of dark deeds in his past.

This play is more of a Will-He-Do-It than a Whodunnit, but anyone thinking this is a more straight-forward mystery than usual, will be caught napping as Christie stealthily controls the minds of her unsuspecting audience yet again.

Elphick has assembled a fine cast of 8 to tell this story. It’s notable for the depth of character work that he and the cast have achieved to bring these 1930s people convincingly to life.

The entire cast from 'Love From A Stranger'

Lilliana Cazabon-Mitchell brings a believable innocence to the role of Cecily Harrington, a typical middle-class young woman of the period. Eloise Willis, as her friend, Mavis Wilson, quickly establishes herself as the more worldly of the two women. George Belibassakis gains audience sympathy with his nicely controlled performance as the jilted fiancé, Nigel Lawrence.

Bradley Jones (Bruce Lovell) and Lilliana Cazabon-Mitchell (Cecily Harrington)

Bradley Jones as the man of mystery, Bruce Lovell, is convincingly charming when he first meets Cecily and carefully adds layers of darkness to his character as the play progresses. Some of the later psychological aspects of his character show that this is a play of its time, but Jones plays the threatening behaviour at a believable level.

Debra Byrne (Auntie Loo Loo) and Eloise Willis (Mavis Wilson)

Debra Byrne excels with her humorous character study of the interfering and bigoted middle-aged Auntie Loo Loo and there is especially strong support by Chris McGrane as a very funny gardener, Hodgson. Jessica Slusser as the maid, Ethel, and Kim Wilson as Dr. Gribble also give finely etched characterizations.

The women’s costumes and hats are attractive and nicely in period and the design of the two settings is artfully handled to give the impression of two completely different locations.

Renowned world-wide for her record number of murder mystery novels, Agatha Christie also wrote quite a number of plays. Jon Elphick, the director of Christie’s Love From A Stranger, has now directed 12 of them, which must be some kind of record, too.

 

Photos by Peter Butz - Methinks Creative

 

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 26 October 2024.

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/.

 

PETER AND THE STARCATCHER - Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse.

 

Otis Dhanji (Boy/Peter) - Benjin Maza (Ted) -Morgan Frazer (Prentiss)
in "Peter and the Starcatcher)

Written by Rick Elice – Music by Wayne Barker

Directed and designed by David Morton – Musical Direction by James Dobinson.

Costume Design by Anna Cordingley -Movement Direction by Liesel Zink.

Lighting Design by Ben Hughes – Sound Design by Matthew Erskine.

Presented by Dead Puppet Society and co-producers in The Canberra Theatre from October 15^th  to 27^th , 2024.

Opening Night performance on October 24 reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

The cast of "Peter and the Starcatcher"

If you have ever lay awake at night wondering about the origins of the character Peter Pan, then Peter and the Starcatcher could be a cure for your insomnia. Then again it could just add to it.

This spectacular Dead Puppet Society production is overflowing with amazing characters including a fighting prawn, a scotch salmon turned mermaid, shipwrecked Italian chefs and a chorus line of singing/dancing mermaids who provide just one of many highlights of this production.

How they feature in the transformation of orphan boy (Otis Dhanji) who together with his two mates Prentiss (Morgan Francis) and Ted (Benjin Maza) find themselves unwittingly  imprisoned on a ship called Neverland, under the command of brutal Captain Slank (Paul Capsis, delighting with a thousand expressions, who also doubles as Hawking Clam on the Wasp), is something you need to see for yourself to find out.

Also, on board the Neverland is Lord Leonard Astor (confusingly but expertly portrayed by Alison Whyte) and his daughter, Molly Astor (a vivacious and surprisingly athletic Olivia Deeble) who befriends the three orphans; together with her nanny Mrs Bumbrake (former Canberra actor, Lucy Goleby).

Colin Lane (Black Stache) -Ryan Gonzales (Sanchez) - Lucy Goleby (Mrs Bumbrake)
- Alison Whyte (Lord Aster) - Peter Helliar (Smee) in "Peter and the Starcatcher).

The Neverland is pursued by another ship, the Wasp, captained by the dastardly Black Stache (Colin Lane, hilariously stealing the show at every opportunity) and   henchman, Smee (a bemused and bewildered Peter Helliar) intent on stealing a trunk full of a magical substance called starstuff.

Molly’s father has been captured by Black Stache, who does not know that the trunk of starstuff has been switched.

Yes, it is complicated and gloriously silly and gets even sillier in Monty Pythonesque style, as the storyline pursues evermore outrageous and unlikely situations demanding all common sense be abandoned.

A beautiful fairy-tale setting by director, David Morton, is complimented by Ann Cordingley’s fanciful costumes and the magical lighting design by Ben Hughes.

Onstage musicians under the musical direction of James Dobinson join in the fun being whisked around the stage inhabited by astonishing puppets which include the most magical crocodile ever.

Despite a long series of previews it was hard to escape the impression that in this meticulously rehearsed and delightfully entertaining production some of the large cast were still discovering the correct dynamic level for their characterisations. 

This was especially true of Otis Dhanji as the orphan boy whose strongly physical interpretation might have been more effective had he adopted a more naturalistic approach to his role to separate his character from the highly stylised performances adopted by the rest of the cast, to better express the wonder felt by the boy to the events surrounding him.

     

The Cast of "Peter and the Starcatcher"

    

                                                           Photos by Daniel Boud

  This is a slightly extended version of the review first published in CITY NEWS on  25.10.24

 

 

 

 Peter and the Starcatcher by Rick Elice. Directed by David Morton. Musical director James Dobinson. A Dead Puppet Society, Glass Half Full Productions, Jones Theatrical Group and Damien Hewitt production. Canberra Theatre. The Playhouse. October 15-27.

Peter and the Starcatcher is a whirlwind of a show, combining live action with spectacular puppetry and music and the good old fashioned comedy and magic of the panto. 

You will only find echoes of J.M.Barrie’s original tales of Peter Pan here but time and waves of adaptation for stage and film have swept his work to the side. This is in fact a prequel and an origin story, putting Peter (Otis Dhanji) and Molly (Olivia Deeble) (the mother of Wendy) together in a tale that is both funny and beautiful to look at. 

Deeble’s self reliant and acrobatic Molly is a practical and amusing heroine and Dhanji has a growing presence as the boy who will become Peter Pan. The large cast includes stage and media veterans like Alison Whyte as Molly’s father  the pragmatic Lord Aster, Lucy Goleby as Molly’s resourceful and good humoured nurse Mrs Bumbrake, Colin Lane as the dreaded pirate captain (and lover of bad jokes) Black Stache, Pete Helliar as the none too bright Smee, John Batchelor as Mrs Bumbrake’s love interest Alf and the wise spectacularly costumed mermaid Teacher, and Paul Capsis popping up everywhere. (With that mad expressive face and wild hair he was born to play a pirate…)

Peter’s fellow orphans, the leadership obsessed Prentiss (Morgan Francis) and the pineapple clutching Ted (Benjin Maza), are sufficiently adrift to be clearly morphing into Lost Boys.  

In fact the whole cast is kept very busy and everyone seems to play everything from mermaids to pirates, while up the back of a set framed in circles the small and sometimes peripatetic orchestra subtly supports the action and the mood, even rising to the odd (and appropriate) old fashioned melancholy hymn. There are digs at the British Empire and colonialism and it is worth being across bits of history like the doomed South Pole expedition of Scott.

Around and among the humans roam the puppets. There are birds and sea creatures and shooting stars and of course a monstrous crocodile. Things get luminous, they fly, they interact with the humans. Visually this show is one for those of us who are always thinking ‘How did they do that?’ 

There were moments when the sound, particularly of voices , was not as crisp as it might have been but the mood and energy of the piece is always there, with plenty of room for the quieter and more emotional moments. 

Peter and the Starcatcher is a worthy entrant in the wide field of works inspired by J.M.Barrie’s original and an imaginative and enjoyable  show in its own right. Catch it before it moves on to a national tour. 

Alanna Maclean