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| Christopher Samuel Carroll in "The Cadaver Palaver" - Photo:Carlos Hernan |
The Courtyard Studio – Canberra Theatre Centre. 12th – 21st September 2025.
As part of a year of celebrations marking its 60th
Anniversary year, the Canberra Theatre Centre has inaugurated a new festival
aimed at connecting Canberra with contemporary performance on a national scale.
Over two weekends the Canberra Theatre Centre will present
four productions by independent artists, all of which will also be presented at
the 2025 Sydney Fringe Festival.
The productions chosen for “The Independents” are The Cadaver
Palaver (Christopher Samuel Carroll), Superposition (Gabriel Sinclair and Jazmyn Carter) both from 12th to 14th
September.
I watched Someone Die on TikTok (Charlotte Otton) and
Takatapui (Daley Rangi) will be presented from 19th to 21st
September.
This review looks at the two productions presented each
night of the inaugural weekend.
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| Christopher Samuel Carroll in "The Cadaver Palaver". Photo: Carlos Hernan |
The Cadaver Palaver – Written and performed by Christopher Samuel Carroll.
It is hardly surprising that all four performances of The
Cadaver Palaver drew capacity audiences to the Courtyard Studio. Having
enjoyed successful seasons at the Adelaide Fringe, The Butterfly Club, Melbourne,
and most recently at the Edinburgh Fringe, these performances offered the first
opportunity for Canberra audiences to see what all the fuss is about.
A much-admired Canberra- based artist, Christopher Samuel
Carroll has trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin and
Ecole Internationale du Theatre Jacques Lecoq, Paris, and is a prolific creator
of solo shows for himself, in addition to maintaining a busy independent career
as an actor, director and teacher.
This latest and threatening to be his most popular creation
to date, is a masterwork of storytelling, which holds his audience in thrall from
the moment his alter-ego Bennett Cooper Sullivan is revealed sprawled on a
carpet.
For the following hour, which feels like ten minutes, sartorially
outfitted in an elegant three-piece Edwardian suit lined with red satin, a cane
his only prop, (unless you count that suit), Bennett Cooper Sullivan, an enthusiastic
adventurer and raconteur, regales his audience with a long, complicated,
perhaps dubious, but wonderfully entertaining explanation as to how he came to
find himself in such a predicament.
His story has Monty Pythonesque overtones involving hands
being cut off in duels with syphilitic lunatics, falls down endlessly deep
holes, encounters and conversations with all manner of nefarious villains who speak
in a variety of accents, which he recreates and demonstrates amidst gales of
laughter from his delighted audience.
It’s a tour-de-force performance notable as much for the
elegance of its execution, as for the cleverness of its presentation. It is
also a wonderfully entertaining showcase for Carroll’s impressive skills as a
writer, actor, raconteur and mime.
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| Gabriel Sinclair & Jazmyn Carter in "Superposition". Photo: Andrew Sikorski |
Superposition – Choreographed and performed by Gabriel
Sinclair and Jazmyn Carter.
Described in the promotional publicity as “a bold
contemporary dance performance where movement meets machine”, this iteration of
Superposition is an extension of a shorter work originally performed at the
2024 Melbourne Fringe.
It commences in silence with the two performers facing each
other, in a circle of light, emotionless, except that their hands are constantly
moving, machinelike, around each other’s, scrupulously avoiding contact.
They are costumed identically in long skirts and tops
created from multi-coloured fabrics which responds to changes in lighting
states.
For the best part of an hour, they continue this movement, expanding
it into wide fan-like sweeps as the surrounding light expands and contracts. Occasionally
one will advance on the other, then retreat as the other takes the initiative,
as if caught in some magnetic push-and-pull. However, the initial hand
movements continue, by now, driven by an electronic soundtrack.
The effect of the repetitious machine-like movement is
mesmerising. But what to make of it? A
duet in perpetual motion? A deconstructed pas de deux perhaps? While pondering these possibilities, tiny changes
in the timings and directions of the movements propel thoughts towards wonder
at the ability of the performers to maintain concentration as the movements
become more tender and intimate while still avoiding contact.
Superposition is a challenging work which makes extraordinary demands on both the performers and their audience. For those who witness it, reactions and responses will undoubtedly vary, but there will be little argument as to the originality of the work, or the excellence of its execution.
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| Stella Eve performing at "The Independents" Photo: Bill Stephens |
A delightful inclusion pre – between- and post-show, was the courtyard performance by songstress Stella Eve presenting a selection of her original songs.
This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au
