BIG NAME, NO BLANKETS

 

 

Big Name No Blankets by Andrea James. 

Co-directed by Dr. Rachel Maza AM and Anyupa Butcher. Music Director Gary Watling Cinematographer & Sound Designer James Henry Sound Arrangements and Composition Crystal Butcher Sound Arrangements and Composition Mentor David Bridie Set Designer Emily Barrie Lighting Designer Jenny Hector Costume Designer Heidi Brooks Video Content Designer Sean Bacon Animation Patricia McKean and Guck Core Band Gary Watling, Jason Butcher, Jeremiah Butcher, Malcom Beveridge Performers Baykali Ganambarr (Sammy) Googoorewon Knox (George) Teangi Knox (Gordon & drum)s) Aaron McGrath (Brian & Ensemble) Jackson Peele (Neil) Cassandra Williams (Suzin)  Ilbijerri Theatre Company. Canberra Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. July 10-12. Bookings: 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Sheer joyfulness is the only way to describe Ilbijerra Theatre Company’s rollicking and uplifting production of Big Names No Blankets. And what a fantastic celebration of Naidoc Week. Big Name, No Blankets is a tribute rock musical to the late Warumpi Band founder Sammy Tjapanangka Butcher. As a salute to the name of the band’s first album Big Names No Blankets is big, blak, proud and strong. Ninety minutes of exhilaration track the origins of Warumpi Band from the Dreaming of the Honey Ant of the Red Desert to the towns of the bush, the city and eventually the world. From the very opening welcome to country it is obvious that this show is a statement from the heart, sincere, truthful and spoken with the voice of reconciliation. Rock and gospel, folk and ballad sing the praises of My Island Home, affirm the struggle in  We Gotta Be Strong and cry out for unity and tolerance in Blackfella/Whitefella.. Warumpi sounds the clarion call of hope and of a better future for generations to come. 

Baykali Ganambarr as Sammy Butxcher

The show tells the story of Warumpi Band’s journey from when Sammy (played with appealing engagement by Baykali Ganambarr) accidentally tripped over a guitar on the ground to the band’s emergence as Australia’s foremost iconic indigenous band, singing proudly in the Lurritja Yolgnu Matha languages of the Central Desert. It is a story told in the spirit of childlike joy and laughter by a company of favbulous performers and musicians. Central to the explosive impact of the production is the charismatic performance of  as the lead singer, George (Googoorewon Knox). He has the audience standing and stomping to the rock rhythm of his song including a celebration of identity and power in Stand Up And Be Counted. The auditorium pulsed with the power of total liberation. Brothers and sisters were united in the spirit of compatriotism..

From the forceful rhythm of rock ‘n roll to the soulful melody of the ballad sung by the band’s whitefella Neil (Jackson Peele) Warumpi’s legacy remains as potent as when Sammy Butcher gathered his self taught musicians together to sing the celebration of country. And it is country that brings them home, to the spirit of a land that nurtures and teaches them the culture of their identity.

Googoorewon Knox as George

Big Name, No Blankets is not merely a Blackfella’s Rock ‘n Roll Musical. It is a moving and inspiring example of simple and engaging storytelling. Writer Andrea James has written a story that combines the electricity of rock and roll with the gentle truths of folk and has imbued Big Name No Blankets with humour, protest, loss and hope. Directors , Sammy Butcher’s daughter Anyupa Butcher and the legendary Bob Maza’s daughter Dr. Rachael Maza AM fuse their theatrical inventiveness with the deep understanding of their people, culture and identity. The charm, talent and message lift an audience to their feet in adulation and respect. A couple of rows in front of me a young woman’s body rocks and rolls with excited vigour as Knox romps across the stage in a possessed display of Jagger, Hutchence and Garret exultation.

Big Name No Blanket is a triumphant celebration of what it is to be from the land of the honey ant within sight of the hill they name Warumpi. If theatre has the power to open eyes, touch the heart and change the world, then Big Name No Blanket’s tribute to Sammy Butcher and the original members of the trailblazing Warumpi Band will lift your spirits in a night of full forced music, storytelling and entertainment.  

 

 

Fotoheide - A Photographers Tale

Photography Book Review: Brian Rope

Fotoheide - A Photographers Tale - The remarkable career of Heide Smith I Brian O Smith

Cover design by Nector Graphic Designs

Printed in Australia by Clark Mackay

ISBN: 978-0-646-71168-3

Cover of Fotoheide - A Photographers Tale featuring Heide Smith’s 1991 portrait of Josef Gross, an English journalist and photographer

Fotoheide - A Photographers Tale is a book which all Australian and German photo enthusiasts should have in their collections. It is about the career of Heide Smith Photographer, known in her birthplace, Germany, as Fotoheide. The book’s introduction uses various words to describe that career – remarkable, extraordinary, fascinating. Whilst the book’s author is the photographer’s husband Brian Smith, each of those words definitely are fitting.

How do you present a photographer’s career which began in 1959 and has continued ever since? A career during which she has published eleven books, given workshops and seminars to professional and amateur photographers all over Australia and in six other countries, and judged regularly for various groups, including the Canberra Photographic Society. This book attempts to show that career in a little over 200 pages. There is a 2 pages introduction followed by 32 chapters, each of which comprise just one page of words followed by a relevant set of black and white images. We do not see any of the photographer’s colour images in this publication.

The first chapter shows us just three family images, including the photographer’s first portrait of Uncle Albert – taken in 1951 when she was just thirteen and her career had not commenced in the true sense. Then there are chapters about learning to be a photographer, and marriage, motherhood and migration, which set the scene for the diverse career that was to follow.

Uncle Albert 1951 © Heide Smith

Along the way, the book looks at Australia and Germany (revisited). At industry, government, tradesmen, churches and churchmen, Black Australians, the Canberra Raiders rugby league players, timeless beauty, Cambodia, oyster farmers and much more. The subject matter is diverse. The quality of all the included images is top class.

The words provide key facts about the numerous elements of the fascinating career. So many portraits of famous people, but also many of ordinary folk at favourite outdoor locations or in their own homes. The story of the Pegasus Riding School for the Disabled in Canberra. Two trips to Cambodia when roadsides were booby trapped, the countryside was littered with thousands of landmines, and trigger-happy guards manned roadblocks. 

Hidden burial ground, 1993 © Heide Smith

The Smiths had a difficult task selecting the images used in the book from the many thousands available to them. Choosing just a few from those they selected to illustrate this review was also challenging.

A chapter about the Tiwi people contains just seven of the thousands of images made during Heide’s adventures with those islanders. All seven feature people – young and old. The photographer herself is in two of them; one with her two Tiwi sisters. One is a most delightful casual study of four little children.

Four Little Tiwi 1988 © Heide Smith

Another great shot in the same chapter provides just a glimpse of the island lifestyle.

Barney’s Homeland, 1988 © Heide Smith

A chapter about Canberra includes a variety of excellent images – amongst them the jetty at Acton where the old hospital was, scenes of Lake Burley Griffin, and the old and new Parliament Houses. That is followed by a chapter titled Canberra Studios. It tells readers about Heide’s first Canberra book I Love Canberra, a copy of which is on my bookshelves. And about some of her major exhibitions, such as Portrait of an Industry – Australian Photographers. The photos illustrating this chapter include events, wedding portraits and some great fun shots.

Ingrid, Irene, Lyn and clown, 1983 © Heide Smith

Other wonderful images in the book include a fun selfie shot with Heide’s team at a seminar or workshop in Hong Kong, and one of a cow in a shop in Varanasi (a scene I’ve experienced myself in India).

Heide and her team in Hong Kong © Heide Smith

A shop in Varanasi in 2009, Holy Cow! © Heide Smith

Finally, I must mention the last of the artist’s images in the book. It is one of her excellent coastal landscapes that she continues to capture where she and the book’s author now live.

Stormy Weather Tuross Head 2021 © Heide Smith

Following that, the penultimate chapter, Hidden Treasures, is about various vintage prints discovered long after they were made. And the final chapter has no photographs. Rather it is words from a few of many reviews of Heide’s photographs and books over the years of her career. They wonderfully illustrate the way individual people, newspapers and magazines, and industry groups have responded to this artist’s remarkable career. Professor Manning Clark, an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia wrote “this book is a delight to the eye.” So is this book.

A shorter version of this review has been published in Canberra City News here. The version published here is also available on the author's blog here.

 

METEOR SHOWER by STEVE MARTIN

 

Meteor Shower by Steve Martin. 

Directed by Chris Baldock. Assistant director Stephanie Evans, Stage Manager Rhiley Winnett. Lighting design. Rhiley Winnett. Sound design Chris Baldock.. Projection, sound and lighting operation Rhiley Winnett.  Mockingbird Theatre and Acting Studio. Belconnen Arts Centre.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

One thing that is guaranteed when you attend a Mockingbird Theatrics production is that you are certain to witness a finely staged production of a play that will entertain, provoke thought and surprise. This has been the case with Andrew Bovell’s When The Rain Stops Falling, Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and most recently Steve Martin’s madcap, absurd and somewhat surreal Meteor Shower. Like Martin’s brand of zany comedy, the play is a ricocheting bullet of behavioural madness. The play is set in 1993 in Ojah California at the time of a forecast meteor shower.  For some inexplicable reason in a play that is full of inexplicability, Middle Class couple Corky and Norman decide to invite two people over to witness the meteorological event. Perhaps it is not so inexplicable when one considers that the host couple are uniquely odd. Corky, is a neurological firecracker with a rocketing case of ADHD. Norm plays along until the guests Gerald and Laura arrive on the scene and Martin lets his fanciful flight of delirious comedy light up the stage with meteoric madness.

Corky purposely invites the belligerent and aggressive Gerald to fuel conflict in the belief that that is the Velcro that will bind Norman and Corky in a truly adhesive partnership. But even she can’t expect the course of true intent to run smooth. In a series of scenes that switch back and forth in time and incident through blackouts the couples play out their idiosyncratic personalities, engage in Swinger’s fantasies and react to Norm’s fatal encounter with a meteor, or is it? BY the end of the play, director Baldock has Corky and Norm velcroed together, inseparable and glued in perfect matrimony. We could be led to assume that Corky and Norman’s experiment worked under the brightly illuminated sky.

Fans of Steve Martin’s style of comedy or those with a quirky liking for the absurd and the surreal  had a great night of laughter on the final night of Baldock’s snqppy and sharp production. Lovers of Ionesco’s Theatre of the Absurd and Edward Albee’s viperish Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf will appreciate the marital quips and jibes. Those keen to grasp the playwright’s meaning may be puzzled. Martin laces his satire with sitcom hilarity, and the discerning theatregoer may have to probe motive for meaning.

That aside, it is the production that makes the eighty minutes at Mockingbird’s studio theatre in the Belconnen Arts Centre a performance to remember. Director and designer Baldock has set his simple but stylish set within three sides and an upper level where the characters view the meteor shower and become entwined in sexual liaisons. There is an element of Hump the Hostess and Get the Guest on rhe outside area.

What is not confusing in the production is Baldock’s tight direction and the excellent performances of his small cast. Baldock’s casting of what appears to be actors of different ethnicity gives the production a distinctive individuality and character. There is not a weak link in the casting of Jess Beange as Corky. Sachin Nayak as Norman, Anto Hermida as Gerald and Maxine Eayrs as Laura. Nayak plays the straight guy with utter believability. Hermida is the ideal foil with his bullish bombastic attitude and Eayrs slinks with vampish allure.

But it is Beange who mesmerizes with her superb sense of timing and crackerjack grasp of comedic technique. Her wonderful control of erratically changing emotions in the most absurd circumstances is a meteor shower of artful comic performance. Beange appears to channel the great female comedians of the American sitcom. Any of the audience for Mockingbird Theatrics’ production of Meteor Shower who has witnessed performers like Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball would have recognized in Beange’s Corky a stellar comedic performance.

This production of Meteor Shower is another excellent example of the diversity of Mockingbird’s programming. If you have not made the trek to Mockingbird’s intimate studio theatre in the Belconnen Arts Centre, be sure to visit when next this imaginative company produces another high quality theatrical experience.

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE - Queanbeyan Players 60th Anniversary Production.

 

Lachlan Elderten (Frederic) - Adam Best (Pirate King) - Wally Allington (Samuel) in
Queanbeyan Players 60th Anniversary production of "The Pirates of Penzance"

Director: Alison Newhouse – Assistant Director and Choreographer: Jodi Hammond

Musical Director: Jenna Hinton – Costume Design: Helen McIntyre

Lighting Design: Zac Harvey (Eclipse) – Sound Design: Tella Jansen (Eclipse)

Stage Manager: Jill Young – Production Manager: Brigid Cummins

Properties Master: Mel McDonald

Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre until July 13th  2025. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS. 

 

Lillee Keating (Isobel) - Emma White (Edith) - Tina Robinson (Kate) and ensemble
 in "The Pirates of Penzance"

Queanbeyan Players have assumed the mantle of keeper of the flame of the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire in the ACT. This role was previously the unchallenged prerogative of the Canberra Philharmonic Society, but for the last 50 years the Queanbeyan Players have also entertained audiences with regular presentations from this hardy genre.

The Queanbeyan Players were established in 1965, which is also the founding year of the Canberra Theatre Centre. Both organizations are marking their 60th anniversaries.

The Queanbeyan Players are celebrating theirs with this exuberant production of The Pirates of Penzance, the first G & S presented by the company back in 1975, in a very traditional production directed by Ian Gammage with a cast headed by Fran Bosly, Peter Woods, Ross Hosking, John Johnson, Roger Coombs and Doug Stephenson.

For this celebratory production, director Alison Newhouse has chosen the famous Essgee version created by Simon Gallaher in 1994 for himself and Jon English with new orchestrations by Kevin Hocking.

Adam Best (Pirate King) - Lachlan Elderton (Frederic) - Louise Gaspari (Ruth)

The tone is set for the evening with a charming reference to previous productions when characters from various G & S operettas emerge from a giant treasure chest. The curtains open to reveal an expansive nautical setting occupied by Jen Hinton’s orchestra soon joined by the Pirate King (Adam Best) and his inclusive band of merry men and women for a hearty Pour, Oh Pour the Pirate Sherry.

The pirates are gathered to commemorate the 21st birthday of one of their members, Frederic (Lachlan Elderton). Upon Frederic's disclosure that he is an orphan, the other pirates similarly admit to being orphans themselves, which initiates a series of comedic complications.

On the assumption that you would surely have seen a production of Pirates before, there is no need to explain the complicated machinations here. Perhaps suffice to say that the large talented cast tackle the endless comedic possibilities with unbridled enthusiasm.

Demi Smith (Mabel) - David 'Dogbox" Cannell (Major General) - Adam Best (Pirate King).

Adam Best gives the late Jon English a run for his money with a wildly athletic performance as the Pirate King. David ‘Dogbox” Cannell once again displays his mastery of the G & S patter roles with a dazzling performance of vocal wizardry and comedic timing as the pompous Major General.

Lachlan Elderton charms as the sweet-voiced orphan, Frederic, who suffers the disadvantage of being born in a leap-year. Louise Gaspari is perfectly cast as the good-hearted nursemaid, Ruth, who connives for a deeper relationship with Frederic.

Demi Smith delivers an impressive performance as Mabel, showcasing her stratospheric soprano vocal range. However, frequent distracting interaction with other characters rather diminishes the overall impact of her role alongside Lachlan Elderton as the romantic leads.

Wally Allington (Samuel), Emma White (Edith), Tina Robinson (Kate), Lillee Keating (Isobel), and Joe Moores (Police Sergeant) each deliver noteworthy performances within the large and enthusiastic cast.

However, this enthusiasm at times resulted in important moments being undermined by members of the background cast—occasionally including principals—engaging in attention-seeking actions that drew focus away from others during their featured performances.

This distraction affected the presentation of Jodi Hammond’s choreography, which was otherwise skillful and well-executed. Some cast members' uncoordinated steps, whether intentional or due to a lack of preparation, impacted the overall performance, spoiling the overall effect.   

Helen McIntyre's costumes are exemplary, complemented by Zac Harvey's lighting design and Telia Jansen's sound work. Jenna Hinton and her accomplished orchestra delivered an outstanding rendition of Kevin Hocking’s engaging musical arrangements with an additional highlight being the revelation of her previously unsuspected skills as a talented comedienne.

Whether you are familiar with G & S or have never attended a performance of “The Pirates of Penzance,” Queanbeyan Players' celebratory production offers an unmissable opportunity to discover why this show continues to entertain and delight almost 150 years since its creation.

Queanbeyan Players "Pirates of Penzance" finale.

                                                   Pictures by Ben Appleton - Photox

          This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 5/07/2025

The Half-Life of Marie Curie

The Half-Life of Marie Curie by Lauren Gunderson.  Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, June 13-July 12, 2025.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 5

    Playwright: Lauren Gunderson
    Director: Liesel Badorrek

    Cast
    Rebecca Massey as Hertha Ayrton; Gabrielle Scawthorn as Marie Curie

    Production Concept: Anthea Williams
    Set & Costume Designer: James Browne
    Lighting Designer: Verity Hampson
    Composer & Sound Designer: Daniel Herten
    Video Designer: Cameron Smith
    Dialect Coach: Linda Nicholls-Gidley
    Movement Coach: Gavin Robins
    Stage Manager: Bella Kerdijk; Assistant Stage Manager:  Maddison Craven
    Costume Supervisor: Lily Mateljan
   
 “The Half-Life of Marie Curie” is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service imprint. (www.dramatists.com)

Director's Note

It is 1912 and Marie Curie has won two Nobel Prizes in different scientific fields. It is almost impossible to overstate her level of international celebrity or, consequently the tempest that exploded after it was leaked to the press that she was having an affair with her married colleague Paul Langevin.

Virtually held hostage in her Paris home by journalists and angry mobs, Marie fell into a deep depression. Her friend, the British physicist, electromechanical engineer and suffragist, Hertha Aryton, took Marie to her house on the English coast for the summer, the respite of which may have saved Marie’s life. Obviously, we will never know the intricacies of this incredible friendship between two extraordinary women….but we can imagine.

The Victorian age was one of incredible change and discovery, particularly in the field of science. Unlike now, the worlds of science and spirituality weren’t regarded as mutually exclusive. There was a feeling that it was possible to reveal the invisible, and know the previously unknowable – in science, nature and even, to quote Hamlet, ‘That undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns’.

Like many Victorians, Marie attended seances with her husband Pierre out of curiosity. Could there be any science there? A measurable energy? What have we been and what do we become?
Lauren Gunderson’s play is about Transformation and Discovery – processes which shape both Marie and Hertha as women, as scientists and as friends, in real and transcendent ways.

‘Half-life. The moment an element transforms so fully that it is more other than self.’

Liesel Badorrek 

_________________________________________________________________________________
 

First, the performances, the stage design and choreography make this production of The Half-Life of Marie Curie one of the most imaginative, engaging and even exciting to watch shows that I have ever seen.

Second, but not least, the play, short though it is, has intellectual and emotional power which places it among the greatest theatrical works.

It was simply wonderful to see these two exquisite actors working so completely in harmony together, creating totally believable characters. Rebecca Massey as Hertha Ayrton grabs our attention from the get-go, so focussed on her concern for the welfare of her colleague, equal in scientific achievement, but suffering social contumely as a woman leading an independent life.  

Gabrielle Scawthorn’s Marie Curie pulls us inevitably in to her emotional turmoil as a woman and lover of her dead husband, needing to find new love in Paul, in the context of her almost spiritual understanding of science, working with these men, which enabled her to explain the process by which seemingly unchanging elements radiate energy – changing half-life by half-life from uranium to lead.

Physics and chemistry are brought together in a fascinating abstract circle of light, darkness and transparency, representing in my mind the universe within which, and indeed integrated into, Marie and  Hertha – like all of us – exist, live and die.

Thinking of the experience of such force emanating from the intimate space of the Ensemble Theatre brought to my mind, almost in a funny way, two words.  Marie’s death, probably from cancer caused by the very radium she discovered, though long after the holiday that Hertha provided for her which “saved her life” socially, and gave her love, seemed AWFUL.  Yet her two Nobel prizes are AWEFUL, and rightly show the importance of Marie Curie as a woman scientist.

I am not surprised to find on Wikipedia that Lauren Gunderson's works heavily focus on female figures in history, science, and literature. She is one of the top 20 most-produced playwrights in the country, and has been America's most produced living playwright since 2016. She has had over twenty plays produced including, “I and You”, “Émilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight”, “Parts They Call Deep”, and “Background”.  

Thanks to Ensemble, my hope for American culture is restored.  Ensemble’s founder, Hayes Gordon, would surely be proud.

And, in case you were wondering, Google AI says:
No, Pierre Curie did not die from radiation poisoning. He died in a street accident in Paris on April 19, 1906, when he was run over by a horse-drawn carriage. His death was a tragic accident, not a result of radiation exposure. While both Pierre and Marie Curie were pioneers in the study of radioactivity and exposed themselves to radiation, Pierre's death was not related to that. Marie Curie, however, did eventually die from aplastic anemia, likely caused by prolonged exposure to radiation. 

 Gabrielle Scawthorn as Marie Curie; Rebecca Massey as Hertha Ayrton
in The Half-Life of Marie Curie, Ensemble Theatre 2025
Photo: Prudence Upton

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE

 

The Pirates of Penzance. Adapted from the comic opera by WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan by Simon Gallaher. Additional lyrics by Melvyn Morrow. Orchestation by Kevin Hocking.

Directed by Alison Newhouse.Assistant director and choreographer Jodi Hammond. Musical director Jenna Hinton. Costume design Helen McIntyre. Lighting design. Zac Harvey (Eclipse), Sound design Telia Jansen (Eclipse) Properties Master Mel McDonald. Production Manager and repetiteur Brigid Cummins. Stage Manager Jill Young. Queanbeyan Players. The Q Theatre. July 3-13 2025. Bookings: 0402353443; 62856290

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Demi Smith as Mabel, David Cannell as the Major General, Adam Best as The Pirate King. Photo: Ben Appleton Photox Canberra

Ahoy me Hearties and shiver me timbers! Walk the plank to the Q Theatre and throw yourself into an ocean of fun, laughter and merriment at Queanbeyan Players’ rollicking production of G and S’s  favourite comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. In a show that explodes with joyful energy and gusto, director Alison Newhouse, musical director Jenna Hinton and choreographer and assistant director Jodi Hammond have brought Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance wonderfully to life. Every aspect of this story of Frederic, a slave to duty and apprenticed to a Pirate King and his tender-hearted band is brimful of captivating melodies, clever stage business, beautiful singing and rousing ensemble chorus song and dance.  It is the perfect antidote to a cold Canberra and Queanbeyan night,

At the opening overture a variety of Gand S characters from the Gilbert and Sullivan canon emerge   from a large treasure chest as a tribute to the wonderful works of the two giants of Victorian comic opera. It was obvious that the capacity opening night audience was in for an imaginative night of G and S delight.  This was no Victorian relic. Newhouse and Hammond have injected the production with slapstick and satire, puns and parody, adlibs and acrobatics. Gilbert and Sullivan are the mockers of sacred cows such as the military, the establishment and the constabulary and yet they are politically astute enough to ensure that their characters pay due allegiance to their  queen (Act ll Finale).

Having recently seen the Hayes Theatre Company production of The Pirates of Penzance performed by a terrific company of five performers it was a refreshing and uplifting experience to see a full cast of eager amateurs present a highly polished and hilarious full scale production of the work. Queanbeyan Players Inc. continues its record of high quality amateur productions and the company’s 60^th anniversary production of The Pirates of Penzance is no exception. The cast throw themselves into the production with all the enthusiasm of a pod of dolphins leaping the salty brine.

Adam Best (Pirate King), Lachlan Elderton (Frederic)

Aficionados of  W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s  comic operas will instantly recognize the popular tunes sung with aplomb by a talented cast of principals and chorus. Adam Best gives a swashbuckling rendition of I Am A Pirate King and throws himself into the bold abandonment of his character with the occasional backflip and cartwheel.  Louise Gaspari’s handmaid Ruth offers a tuneful confession in When Frederic Was A Little Lad  and is also a deft handler of the sword in Duty Duty with Frederic and the Pirate King. The two juvenile leads, Frederic and Mabel are played with endearing charm by Lachlan Elderton and Demi Smith. Elderton is a music theatre performer with enormous promise and Smith has a crystal clear soprano voice that would  sweeten the sourest lemon.

There is comedy in abundance in this uproarious revival of a Gilbert and Sullivan favourite. It doesn’t take a lot to realize that A Policeman’s Lot Is Not A Happy One with the ridiculous carryings-on of the London Bobbies under the leadership of Joe Moores’ Sergeant. Choreographer Hammond has had a lot of fun with the force’s Keystone Cops routines. David ‘Dogbox’ Cannell proves yet again that he is the master of the patter song with his performance of I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major General . Costume designer Helen McIntyre emphasises the parody by giving the character a fez to wear. I remember Cannell’s hysterically funny portrayal of the Admiral of the Fleet in Queanbeyan Players’ 2022 production of HMS Pinafore and once again Cannell’s clownish antics are a highlight of the production. In the tradition of satirical jibes, Cannell's modern major general grapples with the complexity of social media with Melvyn Morrow’s additional lyrics about Tik Tok, Snapchat, Facebook and the like. And then there is the political reference to Peter Who?

Musical director Jenna Hinton and her excellent orchestra of accomplished musicians seated at the rear of the stage get in on the act with interjections between the characters and the musicians. It is a clever example of director Newhouse’s collaborative approach to this 60^th anniversary production. Cast and creatives, including   Helen McIntyre creator of some of the most sumptuous costumes that I have seen on the Canberra stage, Zac Harvey and his colourful lighting design and Telia Jansen whose sound design adds to the atmosphere.

Queanbeyan Players Inc has earned a rightful place as top producers of first class performances of popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. This production of The Pirates of Penzance  will warm the cockles of your heart and launch you on a journey of sheer entertainment.

Photos by Ben Appleton  PHOTOX Canberra

CARMEN

The Australian Ballet 
Canberra Theatre
Reviewed by Samara Purnell

The Australian Ballet made a rare appearance in Canberra, to present Johan Inger’s version of Carmen. Artistic director of the Australian Ballet, David Hallberg, introduced

Jill Ogai and Callum Linnane.
Image from official program

the evening and performance.  

As the familiar strains of Georges Bizet’s Carmen Suite began, played brightly by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, the anticipation about this overtly sexual and dark take on cigarrera Carmen - her lovers, simps, cohorts, friends and its denouement, was palpable.

Inger’s choreography is full of flexed feet and dance leading with the elbows and hips, as well as graphic sexual poses and references. It is deliberate, considered, blatant and beguiling. 

The set was modern, minimal and maneuverable. A series of rectangular panels went from prison cell doors that clink and clank, perhaps also symbolic of an imprisoned life as a factory worker, to mirrors, to doors and boxes in alleyways, allowing glimpses of what goes on inside. It was deceptively simple and effective. 

The men preen, the girls flirt and the clearly segregated male and female ensembles circle each other like peacocks. Carmen amuses herself as she flits between two lovers, then three, using seduction and sexual prowess to escape imprisonment. 

The confident police captain Zuniga (Brett Chynoweth) commanding in his role, appears to take Carmen’s affairs in his masculine stride, but when she seduces Don Jose, their downfall begins. 

Jill Ogai and Brett Chynoweth. Photo Kate Longley

Jill Ogai dances Carmen with strength and conviction. And a control that almost defies the blase personality and intense yet carefree way she goes about things. She looks like a Spanish firecracker with her black hair and strong body. 

Hallberg has been presenting a body of work for the Company over the past couple of years that has a sole male dancer as the lead and predominantly features the male dancers. This has given audiences the opportunity to really get to know this impressive ensemble of men and in particular to enjoy danseur étoile Callum Linnane, who has recently portrayed Oscar Wilde and Vaslav Nijinsky. These were all-encompassing, stunning performances with poignant and beautiful solos and pas de deux, and have become Linnane’s one wood, and it’s a very impressive wood, but going into Carmen, the anticipation of seeing Linnane as Don Jose perform in a different type of role danced with a female partner was an enticing prospect.  

But that was not really to be. Dressed in pin-striped pants and a white shirt, he rapidly becomes disheveled and desparate in his pursuit of Carmen, as the interpretation of Don Jose in this production delved into the conflict of valour versus shame, jealousy and passion, control and anger, submission versus aggression, desire versus protocol. 

So, another tortured role for Linnane, as Don Jose grapples with the humiliation of being debadged and the teasing from Carmen and by other men, his sexual interludes with her and his jealous obsession. He brings stamina, nuance and emotion to this Don Jose and portrays mental and physical exhaustion with a sensual intensity.  

Jake Mangakahia. Photo Daniel Boud

Jake Mangakahia’s Torero pranced and posed like a horse on a carousel, a music box parody in a sparkling jacket and moustache, as fans and lovers whirl around him. He reveled in the role. The dances with the ensemble were especially striking.  

A young boy (played by Lilla Harvey) had opened the show - an odd inclusion in the narrative and to have the role played by a female dancer, even more so. In a dream sequence he becomes Don Jose’s child, as the story unfolds he becomes wary, angry,
mimicking the downfall of Don Jose. On face value he is a mirror, a reflection of Don Jose’s conscience, or a child losing his innocence by what is witnessed. Another interpretation is that it’s a representation of the generational and gendered violence and learned behaviour of males. 

An article by Heather Bloom, content editor of The Australian Ballet, very much focuses on gender roles and violence in Inger’s Carmen, suggesting that Carmen is inconsequential in the narrative, as viewed by the boy and that Don Jose is a victim - of the patriarchy and the expectation from and reward by society of male aggression and domination. He may be conflicted, but Carmen ends up dead either way. It’s food for thought, but not what would immediately be front of mind watching the ballet with no back-story.

Act two takes a dark turn, literally, into a city that gives Gotham City vibes, where the “dogs” - masked dancers in black suits and masks, sweep the murdered away and appear as a threatening and sinister presence. The interactions with the young boy change, as he is changed. Bizet’s score gives way to music by Mark Alvarez, with electric guitars. Don Jose becomes like a junkie, a dog scouring the street and hunting down Carmen. 

Their sexually charged pas de deux pulses with lust, turmoil and danger, Carmen takes the lead in some of the Paso Doble-esque dances, leaving Don Jose spent. He becomes more aggressive with her as he is consumed by her. 

Jill Ogai and Callum Linnane
Image from instagram

This Carmen was fiery in all senses. It was at the end that the emotional engagement really hit. When Carmen is killed by Don Jose and stripped of her iconic red dress - red that symbolizes danger, passion, love, rage and blood, she’s seen as what she is….first and foremost, Carmen is just a girl. One who messed with men. She played with fire and got burned. 

Callum Linnane. Photo Kate Longley 

As the bells chime and Carmen fades away, this stunning performance, danced with the energy, characterisation and intensity demanded by it, will remain with viewers. 

There was much animated discussion post-show on Inger’s take on the classic opera. It was certainly an exciting evening and a memorable way to celebrate the Canberra Theatre’s 60th birthday, with the Australian Ballet Company accompanied by Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and its performance of Carmen.