THE LOVEBIRDS

 

Written by Basil Thomas

Directed by Jon Elphick

Tempo Theatre Inc.

Belconnen Community Theatre to June 7

 

Reviewed by Len Power 30 May 2025

 

When a newly married couple are given a budgie as a wedding present, what happens when the bird is found to be possessed by the spirit of the bride’s late first husband?

This delightfully silly comedy, first produced in the UK in 1957, is the work of prolific author, Basil Thomas. Tempo successfully staged another of his plays, Book Of The Month, in 2023.

The complex plot gives the cast of 11 (plus budgie) the opportunity to present a group of colourful characters struggling with ever wilder and funnier situations.

Eloise Willis (Julie Skidmore) and Bradley Jones (Bertie Skidmore)

Bradley Jones and Eloise Willis play Bertie and Julie Skidmore, the newly married couple. Both performers display good comic timing as well as clear characterizations of a couple in love. Their struggle to regain control over the havoc caused by the budgie is very amusing. George Bellibassakis gives voice to the budgie with great expression from offstage.

The rest of the large cast shine in their individual roles. There are two small roles that proved to be particularly memorable and a gift to the actors playing them. Kim Wilson is a hilarious French professor, Gaston Cheval, and Eilis French is a standout as the very funny Russian, Natasha. She was given a well-deserved round of applause after her brief appearance.

Director, Jon Elphick, ensures that the show is lively throughout. The staging of the chaos at the end of the show is particularly well done.

These types of comedy plays mostly disappeared from London stages and moved to television with the arrival of realistic dramas like Look Back In Anger in the 1950s. The nearly full opening night of The Lovebirds showed that there is an audience in Canberra for this type of play and Tempo Theatre is giving it to them.

 

Photo by Pete Butz

 

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 31 May 2025.

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/.

 

 

THE MAIDS

 

 The Maids by Jean Genet. Translated by Martin Crimp.

Directed by Caroline Stacey. Set and costume design Kathleen Kershaw. Sound design Kimmo Vennonen. Lighting design Neil Simpson. Street Two. The Street Theatre. A Street produced professional theatre production. May 24- June 7 2025. Bookings 62471223.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Sophia Marzano as Claire. Christina Falsone as Solange in The Maids

 Kathleen Kershaw’s luscious design for The Street Theatre’s production of Jean Genet’s The Maids evokes a taste of kitsch boudoir with a hint of salon bordello. It is the Mistress’s bedroom , exuding an air of elegance, style and luxury. The Mistress’s maids, Claire (Sophia Marzano) and Solange (Christina Falsone)  play out the shifting fantasy and reality of the relationship between the mistress and her maids. By setting the production in the Street Theatre’s intimate and confined Street Two, director Caroline Stacey has created an atmosphere that is darkly compelling and intriguingly mesmerising as the two sisters role play their relationship with the Mistress during her absence. The intensity is visceral as status veers between wealth and privilege and subjugation and servility. The two sisters interchange roles wielding power and disdain in the role of the mistress or fawning obsequiousness as the oppressed housemaid. It is when  the Mistress (Natasha Vickery) returns that Genet’s play takes a sinister turn and the maids’ motive is revealed.

Natasha Vickery as The Mistress

 Martin Crimp’s translation is fiercely charged. Twists and turns in the relationships ricochet with envy and adulation, love and loathing as Genet’s psychological thriller hurtles towards a shock ending punctuated by Kimmo Vennonen’s startling sound design and Neil Simpson’s lighting design. Stacey’s production is a flawless realization of Genet’s attack on the class system, social prejudice and inequality. Born illegitimate, sent to prison at 15 for not having a ticket on a train and subsequently to many other prisons for theft  and railing against French bureaucracy and sexual intolerance, Genet gave voice to the outcast. Inspired by the 1933 murder of a mistress and her daughter by two sisters in her employ, Genet probes the reality and fantasy of motive in The Maids.

 Stacey’s casting is impeccable. At the moment of entry as we watch Marzano dancing into the bedroom, we are captivated by the young woman assuming at the makeup table the manner of the Mistress and playing out control and superiority in the Mistress’s red dress. Falsone appears the older sister, more serious and concerned with the politics of oppression.  Marzono’s youthful foil is brilliantly contrasted by Falsone’s constrained servant. The exaggerated stylization of Marzano’s Mistress offers a striking contrast in status to Falsone’s Solange, who ironically assumes control over the situation as the play progresses to its climax. Director Stacey has drawn out perfectly contrasted impressions of the younger, more impetuous sister and her more serious and driven sibling.

 

As the Mistress, Vickery presents a performance of neurotic eccentricity. Besotted with obsessive devotion for her framed lover, Vickery ‘s Mistress is an electrifying manifestation of the privileged class, utterly impervious to the humiliating role of the servant. Under Stacey’s direction Vickery cleverly plays the scene of her return as a recap of the absurdity of the ritual and the suspicious behaviour of the maids in her absence.

Stacey and her excellent cast and creatives have successfully staged a production that draws you in and compels you to listen. At times bewildering, it is constantly intriguing, challenging the intellect and probing the nature of human behaviour. The Maids probes an existential dilemma. What power do individuals have to exercise free will? Claire and Solange enact it through the ritual of role play, but free will comes at a heavy price in Martin Crimp’s translation of Genet’s reverberating work.

 Stacey’s production is a vitally important event on Canberra’s theatre scene. Skilfully orchestrated direction, evocative design elements and superb performances from Vickery, Falsone and Marzono make this not only a rare opportunity to visit Genet’s classic play. It is  also a night at the theatre that is totally absorbing, intellectually provocative and entertaining. Don’t miss it.!

THE MAIDS The Street Theatre

Sophia Marzano (Claire) and Christina Falzone (Solonge) in "The Maids"

Written by Jean Genet, translated by Martin Crimp 

Directed by Caroline Stacey –Designed by Kathleen Kershaw

Lighting design by Neil Simpson – Sound Design by Kimmo Vennonen

The Street Theatre May 24 to June 8, 2025. 

Performance on May 27 reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Sophia Marzano (Claire) - Christina Falsone (Solonge) in "The Maids"

Jean Genet’s turgid homoerotic drama,"The Maids" written in 1947, and presented here in a 1999 translation by UK playwright Martin Crimp, has long been a magnet for imaginative creatives and performers drawn by the opportunities it offers to recreate and explore the world and psychology of three alluringly extraordinary characters.

Loosely based on an infamous real life murder trial involving two maids who brutally murdered their employer and her daughters, Genet’s play focusses on sisters, Claire (Sophia Marzano) and Solange (Christina Falsone) who spend their time when their employer is absent, engaging in erotic fantasies playing among their employer’s belongings and planning her murder. 

The employer, simply identified as The Mistress, and stunningly portrayed by Natasha Vickery, unbeknownst to the sisters, is aware of their activities, even encourages them, using her power and position to torture them with her own malicious mind games. 

At this performance both Sophia Marzano and Christina Falsone took some time to settle on the correct performance level to allow either the sisters’ role-play games or relationship to convince as authentic, although they did manage to pique the curiosity of the audience.

Natasha Vickery as The Mistress in The Street Theatre production of "The Maids"

No such problem for Natasha Vickery however, who from the moment she stepped onto the stage as the drug-addled Mistress, offered a performance so pitch-perfect and dazzling that the atmosphere immediately became electric and the play began to fly. 

At various times self-absorbed, vain, ruthless, kindly and vindictive, but always completely believable, Vickery commanded the stage, ruthlessly manipulating the sisters, so that the reasons that fueled their hatred of their employer quickly became obvious, even though she was not the only reason for their behaviour. 

Directed with her customary flair and attention to detail, Caroline Stacey has staged this production in a sumptuous setting designed by Kathleen Kershaw, beautifully lit by Neil Simpson and complimented with an unsettling soundscape designed an operated by Kimmo Vennonen. 

Representing The Mistress’s bedroom, it is crammed with gorgeous objects, furniture and fabrics which indicates The Mistress’s wealth and position, and which she flaunts cruelly in front of her servants, teasing them by gifting them with hand-me-downs which she demands back should they displease her.

Sophia Marzano as Claire and Christina Falsone as Solonge in "The Maids"

Responding to Vickery’s performance, both Marzano and Falsone eventually found their groove, with Marzano hilarious as Claire desperately trying to persuade The Mistress to drink the poisonous tea she had prepared, and Falsone as Solonge suddenly becoming terrifying as she exchanges fantasy for malicious intent towards her sister when their plans begin to turn awry. 

When the play eventually reaches its shattering climax, the audience is left with plenty to muse about concerning the psychology and motives of Genet’s characters, but in no doubt that it has experienced a memorable production of a compelling play.

                                            Images by Nathan Smith Photography.

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

MJ The Musical 

Sydney Lyric Theatre
Until 23 August 2025

Reviewed by Samara Purnell 

MJ The Musical opens in a grungy rehearsal room in Los Angeles in 1992. Dancers are perfecting Beat It in the final days of rehearsal for the Dangerous world tour. 

When Michael Jackson (Roman Banks) appears there are spontaneous cheers from the audience. And the tingles set in. 

 

From the book by Lynn Nottage, the narrative of MJ loosely hangs on the scenario of fictional MTV journalist Rachel (Penny McNamee) and her bumbling videographer who have been granted permission to unobtrusively observe Michael in rehearsal. Nottage was drawn to the dichotomy of an uncompromising perfectionist, generous philanthropist and self destructive recluse. The perfectionism Michael kindly but firmly demands from everyone involved, the budget blow-outs and his anxiety around press conferences and the media are portrayed.

Renowned choreographer Christopher Wheeldon directs and choreographs the mammoth undertaking that is MJ The Musical, years in the making. Opening on Broadway, MJ The Musical won multiple Tony Awards in 2022. He and Nottage have constructed a show that unfolds as memories, vignettes, highlights and heartbreaks from Michael Jackson’s childhood and early career. With a myriad of iconic songs to choose from, they deliberated, painstakingly, to select ones that would propel the story forward, with a couple of non-negotiables included. 

Banks does a remarkable job portraying one of the most iconic musical artists to have lived. The voice, his pronunciation and intonations and laugh are all exceptionally accurate. He does appear notably shorter than Michael Jackson. After a couple of particularly rigorous dance numbers the performers are slightly breathless. One thing that particularly stood out in seeing Michael Jackson perform live in Sydney was how incredibly fit he was and how he never seemed out of breath at all.

As Michael, earmarked as a star from childhood, yearns to be a successful African American artist, he attempts to find a balance between family obligations and loyalty and forging his own creative path and identity. Showcased in colourful Motown and Soul numbers from The Jackson 5 - Blame It On The Boogie is brilliant, with Soul Train and TV appearances morphing into Studio 54 and the influence of their dance moves on the local club scene, including a young Michael’s popularisation of the “Robot Dance”. Costumes are changed at warp speed and sets (designed by Derek McLane) seamlessly appear and recede, in a dazzling montage. 

Image from Official Program

Liam Damons as young Michael has just the right physique for the role. He sings confidently and portrays the frustration and angst of a young man navigating his way through fame, the music industry and all the pitfalls that come with it, producers, friendships and a demanding family. William Bonner as little Michael sings sweetly and dances joyously and at only 11 has the vulnerability and innocence to make the numbers sung with his mother (powerhouse singer Josslynn Hlenti Afoa) convincing and poignant. I’ll Be There between little Michael and his mother ends up with MJ harmonising with them.  

Clearly affected by his father Joe’s (Derrick Davis) brutal management of the family and band, philandering and constant reminders of the challenges he will face as a Black man, when MJ “remembers” these and engages in duets with his younger self it’s as if he is acknowledging and healing a wounded child. These were sad and lovely moments in the show.

Growing up in a Jehovah’s Witnesses family where birthdays were not celebrated, his desire as an adult to make everything lighthearted and fun seems a counterpoint. He exhibited a child-like humour and playfulness throughout his life and amused himself with practical jokes, playing them on Rachel, who almost becomes a confidant by the end of her time with him. 

Rachel notices and enquires about his pill addiction in the aftermath of a serious burn he suffered during filming of a Pepsi commercial, but to no avail. Cleverly choreographed and staged montages of Michael winning a plethora of awards, and creating ground-breaking film-clips and dances follows. It’s like watching a tape in fast forward. 

Michael’s ambitious, even fantastical ideas are leading to a path of financial ruin, much to the despair of his manager and accountant. Unwilling to compromise or give in, or even look at facts and reality, Michael implores his team to just make it happen, even if it means he could lose Neverland. His quest for authenticity means he is not satisfied with a song, a routine, an idea, until he can “feel it” in every sense - emotionally, creatively and in his body. This leads to him moving constantly, throwing out small movements as he speaks, almost comically.

The choreography comprises many compact, contained iterations of the more wild and loose movements in many of Michael Jackson’s numbers. This gives the ensemble work a contemporary edge. The visually appealing presentation and dynamic staging of They Don’t Care About Us pits the press against Michael. This number was so powerful in real life, on tour, the military, space-aged costumed dancers marching and executing rigid arm movements was reimagined here with the dancers as press journalists, creating dynamic levels and beautifully formed shapes on stage to depict a power-struggle. The costumes (designed by Paul Tazewell) were beautiful long jackets with print media patches punctuating the lapels or lining. 

Image from Official Program

Every outfit Michael wore became legendary and as each iconic jacket, hat or “the glove” was donned on stage, rapturous cheers erupted from the audience.  

And when the instantly recognisable notes of Thriller are heard, the anticipation is palpable. In a wonderfully dramatic, extended number and the highlight of the first act, a stunning set, inspired by the artwork on the Dangerous album, fills the stage, flooded with red lighting and elaborate costumes. It’s overwhelming and exhilarating. It was intentional not to include a photo of this number in the review so as the impact remains a surprise for those who see the show!

Image from Official Program

Wheeldon is in his element when he creates "dance-offs" between MJ and his dance inspirations Fred Astaire and Bob Fosse, whom he studied meticulously, as his diary notes imply. The staging of Smooth Criminal set in a neon-lit NY alleyway, starkly shows the Fosse influence in the modernised leotards and choreography. Michael’s sampling of African dance and music that intrigued him growing up, comes to fruition in Wanna Be Startin’ Something. Michael’s dance vocabulary of signature moves are oft repeated and the ensemble execute the tight movements of all their numbers with precision.

Photo by Samara Purnell

The band (in Australia under the direction of Michael Azzopardi) is faultless, from the funk and soul of The Jackson 5, to every iconic opening chord and riff of Michael Jackson’s songs, from the solo guitarist to the dynamism and volume of a concert. The sound balance is good between dialogue, songs and music. Every opening note is instantly recognisable but contextually some songs take on different meanings, packing a powerful emotional punch.

As the show reaches its conclusion, the timeless anthem of Man In the Mirror is sung by the cast. The finale and curtain call had the audience on their feet singing along. 

Michael Jackson is recognised in The Guinness World Book of Records as the “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time” and having the best-selling album of all time (Thriller). He revolutionised dance, music and pop culture and his influence is felt, seen and heard across music, dance and fashion today. His charity work in creating the Heal The World Foundation was immense. 

The Dangerous Tour (1992) was the biggest tour any performer in history had undertaken. It reached over 3.5 million fans and raised over US 100 million (equivalent to 220 now) for his Foundation. 

SEVEN NECESSARY SINS

Sally Whitwell, composer and pianist

Rachel Mink, soprano

Art Song Canberra

Wesley Music Centre, Forrest May 25

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

A concert in two parts, the first part celebrated four female composers who made it in a man’s world and the second part was the premiere of a new work by Canberra composer and pianist, Sally Whitwell.

Whitwell is known particularly for her interpretations of the piano works of American minimalist Philip Glass. Her five solo albums on ABC Classic have garnered between them with ARIA nominations and three wins. She has been commissioned to compose for many vocal ensembles around Australia.

Whitwell, in her relaxed, engaging manner, gave us brief but interesting backgrounds to four female composers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries – Amy Beach, Clara Schumann, Germaine Tailleferre and Cécile Chaminade.

Sally Whitwell

Expertly playing one work of each of these composers, it was an enjoyable set of contrasts from the vivid imagery of Beach to the romanticism of Schumann, the tonal colours of Tailleferre and the technical wizardry of Chaminade.

After interval, Rachel Mink joined Whitwell on stage for the new work, Seven Necessary Sins. Mink, who moved to Canberra from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore USA during COVID, is a freelance soprano and an ensemble member of Luminescence Chamber Singers. She is at home on the opera stage as well as performing as a soloist.

Rachel Mink

Inspired by Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, the work was based on Mona Eltahawy’s 2019 book, The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls. According to Eltahawy, the seven necessary sins that women and girls are not supposed to commit but need to if they are to harness their power are anger, ambition, profanity, violence, attention-seeking, lust and power.

Whitwell’s new work focused on each of those sins with an additional introduction and epilogue, Defy, Disobey, Disrupt.

Sally Whitwell and Rachel Mink

Whitwell’s music for this work showed that she is an excellent composer. One song in particular, Ambition: Sky Map soared with superb lyrics, beautifully sung by Mink.

While the music was excellent throughout and the songs were well sung by Mink, there was a sameness about the stream of consciousness lyrics that became progressively less interesting. While the audience could follow the lyrics in the program, the piano playing was often too strong, making the singer hard to hear.

The idea for this show was a good basis for a cabaret, but it would have been more effective if it had been presented in a more creative way. The readings introducing the songs seemed like sermons and the use of salty language to give the show an edge was tedious, not shocking.

Nevertheless, it was good to see Art Song Canberra present something new, adventurous and local.

 

Photos by Peter Hislop

 

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 26 May 2025.

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/.

  

THE MUSIC OF ABBA - Blamey Street Big Band

 

Leisa Keen - Ian McLean and the Blamey Street Big Band

Conducted by Ian McLean – Lead vocals: Leisa Keen – Backing vocals: Ashleigh Harris

Music arranged by Andrew Hackwill.

Piano: Don Lee – Guitar: Col Bernau – Bass: Peter McDonald -Drums: Derrick Brassington  

Saxes/Reeds: Andrew Hackwell, Tanya Kiermaier, Joshua Hackwill, Mia Blazevski, Sophia Hadjimichael, Bee Bailey, Amanda Macfarlane, Greg Barnwell.

Trumpets: Mark Du Rieu, Peter Levan, Matthew Johnston, Mike Hauptmann.

Trombones: Bronwen Mackenzie, Caitlyn Bool, Paul Trezise, Fliss Boxall.

The B -Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, May 24^th, 2025.

Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Leisa Keen - Ian McLean and the Blamey Street Big Band 

The Blamey Street Big Band may well have achieved a world first with its innovative concert which drew a large audience to the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre.  

In his opening remarks jovial musical director and conductor Ian McLean was at pains to point out that this would definitely not be a tribute show but rather a big band extravaganza with which the Blamey Street Big Band would celebrate the music of ABBA.

 It would do this by performing twenty-one of their songs but re-imagined in the style of some of the great swing bands of the Forties and Fifties, and notably, every one of these songs had been musically re-arranged by band member, Andrew Hackwill.

Hackwill’s imaginative musical arrangement have always been a feature of the Blamey Street Big Band’s concerts, but this was the first time that he had undertaken the task of creating the musical arrangement for its entire concert.

Imagine I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do as it might have been played by the Glen Miller Band,  ABBA’s great break-up song, The Winner Takes It All as it might have been interpreted by any of the Cotton Club singers or Take A Chance On Me with a Bo Diddley beat.

All were featured in this intriguing concert which commenced with their ever-popular Mamma Mia, following which each song was introduced by either McLean or vocalist Leisa Keen, taking turns in sharing intriguing facts about ABBA’s songs or Hackwill’s inventive arrangements.

Who knew that Neil Sedaka had a hand in writing the English lyrics for Ring Ring ?  That SOS was really about Morse code, so Hackwill managed to embed the song’s title in Morse code into his arrangement, and the sounds of honeybees into his re-imagining of   Honey Honey, the last song the group wrote in Swedish. Or that the royalties for their song Chiquitita raised $5000,000 for UNISEF?

Although most of Hackwill’s arrangements included superb vocals by Leisa Keen and backing vocalist Ashleigh Harris, their work was particularly highlighted in a pretty arrangement of I’ve Been Waiting For You.

There were also two songs arranged specifically for musical instruments.  The first, Slipping Through My Fingers as a haunting solo showcasing trombonist Bronwen McKenzie, and the other, I Wonder, a little-known song written for a projected mini-musical The Girl With The Golden Hair, here, as a beautiful flugelhorn solo for Mark Du Rieu.

Other members of the band were highlighted in feature solos embedded in the arrangements throughout the concert together with too many other delightfully gossipy titbits to share here.

Suffice to tell that this hugely enjoyable concert was meant to end with a cracking arrangement of Waterloo, the song with which ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. However, the audience wasn’t going to let it get away without an encore. They obliged with a final Hackwill original, a medley of Hasta Manana and So Long.  

Ian McLean (R) and the Blamey Street Big Band take a bow.

                                                         Photos by Stan Blazevski

      This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on the 25th May 2025.

THE MAIDS

 

Written by Jean Genet & Translated by Martin Crimp

Directed by Caroline Stacey

A Street Produced Professional Theatre Production

The Street Theatre to 8 June

 

Reviewed by Len Power 24 May 2025

 

Considered one of the great plays of the 20^th century, ‘The Maids’ has a daunting reputation. Loosely based on a double murder by two sisters in France, 1933 of their employer and her daughter, it was first performed in Paris in 1947. It has been revived many times and was filmed in 1974. It has even been adapted as an opera.

Two sisters, Solange and Claire, are maids to a wealthy, glamorous mistress in a big city apartment. While the mistress is absent, the sisters indulge in an obsessive game of roleplaying ‘servant and mistress’.

Their game is meant to end with the ‘killing’ of their mistress, but their devotion to detail in the game means that they always fail to reach that climax before the mistress returns. The fantasy of their game and the reality of their situation becomes blurred to an increasingly dangerous degree.

Jean Genet’s play explores and challenges the complexities of social roles, class and identity. It’s highly stylised, ritualistic and provocatively theatrical in its depiction of the maids’ rebellion against authority and their own self-disgust at their perceived position in society. The struggle between outcasts, the lower classes and their oppressors is a constant theme through Genet’s plays.

Christina Falsone (Solange) and Sophia Marzano (Claire)

Caroline Stacey’s production moves at a cracking pace, aided by strong performances by her cast of three. It helps that the sisters are played by actresses who are physically believable as sisters. Christina Falsone as Solange and Sophia Marzano as Claire play their roles with an intensity that never lets up, clearly showing every facet of their personalities and beliefs in their fiercely detailed performances.

Natasha Vickery (The Mistress)

As The Mistress, Natasha Vickery presents a highly believable portrait of an upper class woman who knows her position in society and wields her power accordingly. She has achieved an impressive subtlety in her performance of this woman that displays the entitlement and attitudes of her class.

The elegant production design by Kathleen Kershaw and the lighting design by Neil Simpson that continually highlights various aspects of the set and performers in the play are very impressive. Kimmo Vennonen has produced an excellent soundscape for the production.

The translation of the play by British playwright, Martin Crimp, has a refreshing directness that helped in understanding these characters. With the fine performances by the cast and strong direction by Caroline Stacey, this is a production of a famous play that satisfies on all levels.

 

Photos by Nathan Smith Photography

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/.

 

IF WE GOT SOME MORE COCAINE I COULD SHOW YOU HOW I LOVE YOU - ACT Hub.

Joshua James (Casey) - Robert Kjellgren (Michael) in the ACT Hub production of
 "If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You"

 

Written by John O’Donovan – Directed by Joel Horwood

Lighting Design by Lachlan Houen – Sound Design by Neville Pye

Costume Design by Winsome Ogilvie – Set Design by Isaac Reilly & Joel Horwood

Presented by Everyman Theatre Company, ACT Hub from 14^th – 24^th May, 2025.

Performance on 22^nd May reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Despite its cumbersome, off-putting title, Irish playwright, John O’Donovan’s first full-length play turns out to be a compelling 90-minute drama about two young gay men struggling with their feelings for each other in a situation which threatens to ruin both their lives.

Set in the Irish town of Ennis, the entire play takes place on the rooftop of a house, where the pair, Mikey and Casey, find themselves trapped in their effort to elude pursuing police following their botched robbery of a local petrol station.

Although the robbery didn’t yield much in cash it did provide them with a considerable stash of cocaine which they planned to dispose of at a party they are meant to be attending that night.

Mikey is the older of the two. The product of a difficult upbringing, he’s outwardly sure of himself and flaunts his sexuality as a badge of honour.  Although he’s been on the receiving end of small-town gossip, both verbal and physical, he’s learned to use his athletic prowess to attract bullies with whom he deals savagely.

English, and still closeted, but with a similar background to Mikey, teenager Casey is much less willing to declare his sexuality, particularly to his homophobic stepfather, with whom he and his mother have fled London to settle in Ennis.  Still not entirely comfortable in the erratic behaviour of Mikey, Casey is also inhibited by a secret he has been keeping from him. 

While they wait for an opportunity to escape from the roof, the pair pass the time in conversation. At first flippant and flirty, but as the night becomes colder, the conversation becomes more intense as they begin to help themselves to the cocaine stash in an effort to keep warm.

As their conversation leads them towards exploring previously unshared truths about their backgrounds and mutual attraction, they surprise themselves by realising and declaring the depth of their feelings for each other.  

Joshua James (Casey) - Robert Kjellgren (Mikey) in
"If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You"

Although there is no physical violence on stage, there are plenty of graphic descriptions of it in O’ Donovan’s hard-hitting script with its appropriately forthright dialogue riddled with expletives and delivered with confidence, commitment and unexpected tenderness by Robert Kjellgren and Joshua James as Mikey and Casey.

Kjellgren and James make a compelling duo in this fine production for which Joel Horwood, fresh from his much-admired production of “Sweet Charity” for Free Rain Theatre, again demonstrates his assured directorial skills with an admirably restrained production.

Horwood’s attention to dynamic stage blocking, contrasted with masterful use of stillness, avoids any hint of the conversations between the protagonists becoming static.  He also capitalises on the physical and temperamental differences of his actors to achieve astonishingly nuanced and authentic performances.

Astute collaboration with his designers, Isaac Reilly for the realistic rooftop setting, allowed him to create several heart-stopping moments. Lachlan Houen’s subtle lighting design successfully captured the atmosphere of a chill winter night, while Winsome Ogilvie’s understated costume design together with Neville Pye’s atmospheric sound design all combined to add authenticity to the world of Mikey and Casey.

Robert Kjellgren (Mikey) - Joshua James (Casey) in 
"If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You"

This debut play by John O’Donovan earned him a $10,000 Award from London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2016. It was given its first Australian production by the Green Door Theatre Company in Sydney in 2019 and it has received several Australian productions since.

Everyman Theatre has done the playwright and his play proud with this arresting   production which further enhances the reputation of ACT Hub for presenting excellent productions of challenging and important theatre.   

                                       Photos by Ben Appleton - Photox Canberra.

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

 

THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS - Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse.

The ensemble cast on the set of "The Dictionary of Lost Words".

Adapted by Verity Laughton from the novel by Pip Williams.

Directed by Jessica Arthur – Set Design by Jonathon Oxlade

Costumes designed by Ailsa Paterson – Lighting Design by Trent Suidgeest

Composer & Sound Designer – Max Lyandvert

Performed by Kathryn Adams, Arkia Ashraf, Ksenja Logos, Brian Meegan, Johnny Nasser, Shannen Alyce Quan, James Smith, Angela Nica Sullen.

Presented by the Canberra Theatre Centre in association with Sydney Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia and Creative Australia.

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, May 15- 24^th, 2025.

Performance on May 21^st reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Johnny Nasser (as Esme's Father) - Shannen Alyce Quan (as young Esme) in
 "The Dictionary of Lost Words"

Verity Laughton’s sumptuous stage adaptation of the award-winning debut novel by Australian writer, Pip Williams, is enjoying a sold-out season in Canberra.

The epic play follows the life of Esme Nicoll, portrayed by Shannen Alyce Quan, who is first met as a precocious four-year old who spends her days playing under the desk of her father, (Johnny Nasser), in a Scriptorium, where he and a team of lexicographers are busy gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.

Esme becomes fascinated with words, particularly those discarded on slips of paper by the male lexicographers as irrelevant. The realisation, when questioning the meaning of one of those discarded words, ‘bondmaid’, along with many other of the words in her collection, had female connotations, prompts Esme to set about compiling her own ‘Dictionary of Lost Words”.  

Kathryn Adams (as Lizzie) - Shannen Alyce Quan (as adult Esme) 

 

Those attracted by the opportunity of seeing favourite characters from the novel brought to life by talented actors, are unlikely to be disappointed.  The myriad of characters required to tell the story, are created by just 8 actors, who, with the exception of Shannen Alyce Quan, who plays the central character, Esme Nicoll, from a four-year-old through to adulthood, manage, with the assistance of excellent costumes and wigs designed by Ailsa Paterson, to populate the stage with creative and charming characterisations.

But despite their excellent efforts, for those who haven’t read the novel, deprived of a printed program to help identify the various characters, the experience of keeping up with the numerous plot twists of the epic story, may prove exhausting.

Shannen Alyce Quan (as Esme) and James Smith (as Bill) in "The Dictionary of Lost Words"

Reported as having worked closely with Pip Williams to create her adaptation, Laughton has fallen into the trap of not distinguishing the wood from the trees by including too many superfluous sub-plots from the novel and creating too many characters who are not given sufficient stage time to make an impact on or connect with the audience.

Although these details might have been fascinating in the novel, despite clever directorial flourishes by director, Jessica Arthur in creating many lovely moments, many potentially interesting details are not explored sufficiently in the play, and therefore detract from the main focus, which is the creation of Esme’s personal dictionary.

Even Jonathan Oxlade’s remarkable multi-layered setting, enhanced by projected timelines, dot-points and artful video decorations by Trent Suidgeest, felt overpowering and intrusive in those scenes not located within the Scriptorium. 

Therefore, despite the obvious talent, imagination and creativity lavished on this production, the meandering nature of Williams’ novel has not responded well as a stage production.  

However, as the rights to Williams’s novel have been purchased for presentation as a television series, perhaps the illusive nature of “The Dictionary of Lost Words” will be more comfortably realised in that medium.

 

                                                      Images by Prudence Upton.

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