Billy Elliot - The Musical

 

 

 

Billy Elliot – The Musical.  Book and Lyrics by Lee Hall.  Music by Elton John.
Free Rain at Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre,  April 9 – May 5 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 16

CREATIVES
Director: Jarrad West; Asst Director: Jill Young
Musical Directors: Katrina Tang & Caleb Campbell
Choreographer: Michelle Heine
Set Design: Dr Cate Clelland; Costume Design: Tanya Taylor
Lighting Design: Jacob Aquilina; Sound Design: Dillan Willding

ORCHESTRA
Keys 1/Conductor: Caleb Campbell; Keys 2: Vivian Zhu / Katrina Tang
Reed 1: Lara Turner; Reed 2: Caleb Ball
Trumpet: Sam Hutchinson / Elsa Guile
French Horn: Carly Brown / Dianne Tan
Guitar: Dylan Slater / Michael Rushby
Bass: Hayley Manning; Drums: Brandon Reed

CAST
Billy Elliot – Fergus Paterson and Mitchell Clement
Michael Caffrey – Charlie Murphy and Blake Wilkins
Jackie Elliot – Joe Dinn; Tony Elliot – Lachlan Elderton
Mrs Wilkinson – Janie Lawson; Mum – Jo Zaharias
Grandma – Alice Ferguson; Mr Braithwaite – James Tolhurst-Close
Debbie – Zahra Zulkapli and Madison Wilmott

FEATURED ENSEMBLE
David Gambrill, Tim Maher, Thomas Walker
Dave Collins, Sian Harrington, Jordan Dwight

Easington Cast                                  Maltby Cast
Florence Tuli, Addyson Dew             Eleanor Ladewig, Ella Field
Millicent Fitzgerald, Laura Keen       Sophie Kelly, Kaity Hinch-Parr
Rosie Welling, Amber Russell           Mia Veljanovsky, Laney Himpson
Heidi McMullen, Taylor Bollard       Giselle Georges, Ellie Grace de Landre
Caitlin Hunt                                       Bella Henness-Dyer

ENSEMBLE
Ash Syme, James Morgan, Anneliese Soper, Liam Prichard
Cameron Sargeant, Sam Welling, Jackson Dale
Bianca Lawson, Cassie Ramsay



Billy Elliot the Musical is about community.  Not just a coal-mining community in northern England in 1984 where the story is set.

On strike when PM Mrs Thatcher closed the coal mines.

Jarrad West and his huge cast make the evening about celebrating the performing arts in our community right here.

The whole community in Christmas celebrations

The audience in The Q were as energetic and enthusiastic as the onstage dancers, singers and actors in being together.  In community, in action.

It’s the real-life warmth of feeling that flows off the stage that makes this production so enjoyable to see.

The story itself is of a government cruelly destroying a community, and that community is divided even within families, which makes the original movie a tragedy for Billy to fight against.  His need for self-expression and determination to go his own way against the odds makes an engrossing drama.

But watching on a screen, at an emotional distance, means we focus on his individual experience.  In the theatre with a real Billy singing and dancing, real police tap dancing through their duties, and all those young girls showing Billy the way, life is clearly so much more positive – and we are no longer just watching but enjoying with the performers their expression through the art of performing.

And, of course, that’s the other theme of Billy’s success, even at last in his father’s eyes, at least, despite his never really understanding ballet.  The great thing was about seeing (I think on my night) Mitchell Clement as Billy showing exactly what his stage dance teacher Janie Lawson as Mrs Wilkinson sees in him, a potential Royal Ballet School entrant.

Billy ready for audition.  Father still doubtful.

Character acting was also forceful, and engaging at times in less than pleasant situations:

Photos side by side as if
Billy and Grandmother opposed to boxing lessons with Mr Braithwaite and Michael

Billy with his father, brother and dance teacher
Billy Elliot the Musical
Free Rain 2024
Photos supplied

 Overall, a highly successful production of a rather different kind of musical.

 

Concluding thought:

In closing down the coal mines Mrs Thatcher perhaps ironically foreshadowed our need now to close down as much fossil fuel industry as possible.  We can only hope our government can manage the transition to renewables with fair treatment of the communities involved. 

 

 

RBG: Of Many,One

 

RBG Of Many,One by Suzie Millar.

Directed by Priscilla Jackman and performed by Heather Mitchell. Designer. David Fleischer. Lighting Designer. Alexander Berlage. Composer and Sound Designer Paul Charlier. Assistant Director Sharon Millerchip. Voice and Accent Coach. Jennifer White. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. Bookings:02 62752700 or www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

It is almost two years since I reviewed Sydney Theatre Company’s production of RBG:Of Many, One. (See below) Last night at the Canberra Theatre Centre’s Playhouse, I viewed the touring production through the prism of passing time. Heather Mitchell’s performance remains as monumental as ever. Her embodiment of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s spirit, character and physicality is as though the Supreme Court judge was on stage recounting her life and career to a full house. Her seamless and entirely convincing transitions to other characters in Suzie Millar’s funny, provocative, and moving  play is to be bewitched by the brilliance of a  chameleon of the art of acting. With a change of voice or gesture she presents Presidents Clinton and Obama, her beloved husband Marty, her childhood and younger self and an assortment of characters and colleagues. Director Priscilla Jackman has made this revival as fresh, as alive and as thought provoking as ever. RBG: Of Many, One is as though it is as fresh minted as when I saw the production at STC’s The Wharf Theatre in 2022.

But time passes and world events throw a different light on the production. Ginsberg’s passionate response to gender inequity and the dominant presence of men in positions of power and authority appears more pronounced with the fervent sense of injustice from an intellectual giant. Sadly Ginsberg lived long enough to bear the bitter disappointment of Hillary Clinton’s defeat, but not long enough to witness Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of the much despised Donald Trump. One can only imagine how she would react to a presumption of Trump’s return to the White House. Or the implications behind  Grace Tame’s experience and the Brittany Higgins affair.

Director, actor and writer have given audiences a revival as magnificent as the performance reviewed below and a tribute that continues to pay grateful homage to the remarkable legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. But it does more. It reminds us of the ideals that motivated this remarkable woman and that her battles and her achievements are signposts to a better world for all irrespective of race, colour or creed and under the guidance and protection of the law.

Although performed on a different stage in a different city and at a different time, I include here my 2022 review. Last night’s performance was as powerful as I remember and on a second viewing spontaneously brought me to my feet in ovation with the entire audience.

 

Heather Mitchell’s performance as Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg in STC’s RGB: Of Many, One is pure perfection. Playwright Suzie Miller has crafted a theatrical eulogy as brilliant as Ginsberg’s legal mind. Director Priscilla Jackman’s tight and engagingly fluid production is as sharply staged and as clearly revealing and logical as Ginsberg’s judgements and battle for universal equality for women.

But it is Mitchell’s performance that places her at the very Pantheon of the actor’s craft. In 95 minutes of magnetic and unforgettable acting Mitchell bestrides the Wharf Theatre stage like the legal colossus that Ginsberg  inhabited upon America’s Supreme Court. We discover Ginsberg impatiently waiting for a phone call from President Clinton to confirm her appointment to the Supreme Court. Miller reveals a woman as human and as nervously expectant as anyone who might be awaiting  life changing opportunity. Throughout the performance Miller and Mitchell introduce us to a woman, who, in spite of her position, her indefatigable battles for justice, her courageous will to be true to herself, her profession and her mother’s early advice remains simply human. Her girlish passion and belief in what she knows to be right, her reliance on her mother’s wisdom, her girlish awe in the presence of a president, her victorious delight at every case that she wins and her resolve not to be cowed by defeat or confrontation all reveal an extraordinary woman who believed in what she knew to be right and dedicated her life to creating a better world for both men and women.

Mitchell’s astounding performance traces Ginsberg’s life over her childhood to her last breath in 2020. With only the occasional stage hand to pass her a prop or change a setting, Mitchell, chameleon like transforms from schoolgirl to young wife to feisty defendant, grandmother to the Associate Justice at lunch with Obama, in the court, at the opera or at her exercises. This is a panoramic account of a woman, whose indelible mark on the judicial system and humanitarian cause has left a legacy to inspire generations of lawmakers.

Millar does far more than make audiences aware of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s  professional achievements, her generational contribution to legal reform and her elevated status to cultural icon. First and foremost Millar reminds us that Ginsberg, apart from her achievements in law was a human being. RBG: Of Many, One is a moving and heart -warming love story between Ginsberg and her husband, Marty. It depicts her joy at motherhood and her devotion to her grandchildren and their reciprocal love. We hear her admission of shame and guilt at her outburst against Trump, not because it is the natural reaction of a concerned American, but because of the conflict it exposes between her duty to the law and her professional responsibility to remain detached from the political process. However, Mitchell’s performance leaves one in no doubt. RBG was a compassionate, loving and also vulnerable human being.

Photos by Prudence Upton

 

 

RBG: Of Many, One - Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse.

Written by Suzie Miller – Directed by Priscilla Jackman

Designed by David Fleischer – Lighting Design by Alexander Berlage

Composer and sound design by Paul Charlier.

Assistant Director: Sharon Millerchip – Voice & Accent Coach: Jennifer White.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg performed by HEATHER MITCHELL

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse 11-24^th April 2024.

Opening Night performance on 12^th April reviewed by Bill Stephens.

You may not know much about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or any of the other justices who sat on   Supreme Court of the United States of America for that matter. However, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court and a fierce advocate for gender equality and reproductive rights.

How Bader Ginsburg achieved legendary status by the time she died in 2020 is the subject of Suzie Miller’s brilliant one-woman play, written specifically to showcase the talents of another legend, one of Australia’s most celebrated and admired actors, Heather Mitchell.

Heather Mitchell as the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg in "RBG: Of Many, One".
 

Suzie Miller’s play “RBG: Of Many, One” traces Bader Ginsburg’s life from the age of 16 until her death at the age of 87. Heather Mitchell’s portrayal traverses significant events in the life of Bader Ginsberg in which she addresses the audience directly while out significant conversations with the likes of Presidents Bill Clinton, Barak Obama and even Donald Trump.

During her performance she literally ages, physically and vocally, leaving the audience with a  strong sense of Bader Ginsburg’s determination while battling against gender discrimination which attempts to deny her employment within her chosen career path, as well as the ravishes of cancer. It’s a remarkable story and one brilliantly performed by Mitchell.

Heather Mitchell as Ruth Bader Ginsburg awaiting an important phone call.
 

Among a stream of Suzie Millers cleverly rafted scenes is one in which Bader Ginsberg expresses her-stream-of-conscious thoughts while waiting impatiently for a phone call from President Clinton to advise her whether he has recommended her for appointment to the Supreme Court. At the same time she is fending off sympathetic advice from her beloved husband Marty.  Mitchell had the audience rocking with laughter with the brilliance at her portrayal which was delivered without any hint of caricature.

Later she drew tears as Bader Ginsberg reading out a speech written by Marty in which he talks affectionately about their marriage, but which he never got the opportunity to deliver. Bader Ginsberg discovered this speech after Marty’s death just four days after their 56^th Wedding Anniversary.

 Mitchell’s performance in this production is a master-class in theatrical story-telling. But as memorable as her performance is, it also burnished by the contributions of those creatives who framed her particular genius with their own unique skills.  

Heather Mitchell as Ruth Bader Smith at the height of her career.

In particular, playwright, Suzie Miller, who conceived and wrote the words Mitchell delivers with such memorable skill, and director, Priscilla Jackman whose subtle, inventive direction illuminates both the play and Mitchell’s performance.  

Then there’s David Fleischer’s elegant, understated setting, sensitively lit by Alexander Berlage to ensure that nothing distracts from Mitchell’s performance, and Paul Charlier’s haunting soundtrack that celebrates Bader Ginsburg’s deep love of music, especially opera.

If you didn’t know much about Ruth Bader Ginsberg before you saw this production, you’ll certainly come away informed about this remarkable woman. Better still, you’ll come away dazzled and moved by having witnessed a truly remarkable acting performance by a great Australian actor which is likely to remain among those treasured performances that keep you returning to the theatre. 

Following this sell-out Canberra season, the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of “RBG: Of Many, One” will tour to Melbourne, Brisbane, Parramatta, Perth, and it’s rumoured, Broadway. Wherever you get the opportunity to see this remarkable production, be sure to take it. It really is something to cherish. 

The final image of Heather Mitchell as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in "RBG: Of Many, One".



Images by Prudence Upton.



This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. 

Shoe-Horn Sonata

 

 

The Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto. Lexi Sekuless Productions at the Mill Theatre at Dairy Road, Canberra, April 10-27 2024

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 13

Production Team
Director: Lexi Sekuless
Sound Designer and Composer: Leisa Keen
Production Designer: Annette Sharpe
Lighting Designer: Jennifer Wright
Production Stage Manager: Katerina Smalley
Production Photography and Film: Daniel Abroguena
Interviewer voice: Timmy Sekuless
Set Construction: Simon Grist
Producer: Lexi Sekuless Productions
Publicity Photographer: Robert Coppa
Publicity Hair and Makeup: Vicky Hayes
Major partner: Elite Event Technology

Cast
Bridie: Andrea Close
Sheila: Zsuzsi Soboslay
Contingency: Tracy Noble

Bridie: Andrea Close,  Sheila: Zsuzsi Soboslay
in Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto
Lexie Seculess Productions 2024
Photo supplied

This is an unusual sonata, being a duet for trumpet and piano.  It’s the story, based on true stories from nurses captured by the Japanese in World War II, of “Bridie” and “Sheila” who saved each other’s lives more than once during the period from 1942 to 1945, following the failure of the British administration and security to prevent Japan’s forces invading Singapore.

Nurses come in different shapes and sizes.  Bridie is tall, a strongly built Australian, a get up and go, let’s do it now no matter what, type of nurse.  She tells it as it is.  We would say, No Bullshit.  

Bridie trumpets at; while the English Sheila is softer and more tuneful, playing her scales for rather than at.  Yet there is a time when her grand opera, a Tchaikovsky 1812, bursts out.  And in the end her quiet secret, kept for 50 years, escapes, and brings Bridie to a new understanding about Sheila’s private strength; and a new self-awareness for herself.

The setting is a television interview with an invisible voice-over asking the questions, sometimes responding to the stories the women tell of what happened to them, as they were shipped out in crowded small boats from Singapore harbour; met each other nearly drowned when the Japanese Air Force fired on and sank their boats; and survived against soldiers and tropical sickness at a secret inland jungle camp with no known end to their incarceration.  Japan’s intention was that all the women (and even their children from Singapore families) would die – but in secret, to avoid the Japanese being called to account for their war crimes.

In the foyer Lexie Seculess has displayed the real diary, kept by the real Betty Jeffrey, writing in pencil on exercise books stolen from the supervising soldiers, amazingly kept and kept secret until publication after the war as White Coolies.  John Misto read this when young – and so began this play.

Betty Jeffrey's diary published as White Coolies

Betty Jeffrey's pencil
Photos: Frank McKone

The fascinating, yet in a sense awful, aspect, while watching the performance (with occasional snippets on a 1960’s tv set of how they looked on screen), is how these traumatic experiences generate both often dreadful criticism of each other at the same time creating an unbreakable bond of mateship.  It is the revelation of the secret Sheila kept for 50 years which seals the bond at last during the interview.  What is revealed is as powerful in its effect on us, watching, as it is for Bridie.

The performances of both Andrea Close and Zsuzsi Soboslay are outstanding.  The Mill Theatre is small and they are very much up close.

Bridie: Andrea Close and Sheila: Zsuzsi Soboslay
in Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto
Lexie Seculess Productions 2024
Photo supplied

And we never miss even the smallest turn away or look towards, expression of concern or sudden anger between these two such different but bound together characters.

You should take the chance as I and others did to meet the actors and director in the foyer after the show.  For me the essential value of our meeting was for the women to explain how the mateship bond in war is so different for women than for men.  These women – those who survived, and those who did not – knew from when they were girls how they were always under threat from men.  So for these women – these actresses – telling the stories of these wartime nurses, the sense of threat and the need to be so brave in the face of an army of men instructed to literally rape and kill, or just leave to die, provided the energy and determination which created their characters with such strength.

And so this play is not merely an historical documentary – which it might look like on an external screen – but becomes a plea for men – in or out of war – to treat women with the respect and honour with which they should treat their own mates.

And in a case of amazing serendipity I have also just reviewed RGB: Of Many, One with precisely the same demand, and warning if we men fail, from eminent human rights lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Don’t miss.

BILLY ELLIOT - Free Rain Theatre

 

Fergus Paterson as Billy Elliot - Joe Dinn as Billy's father Jackie Elliot in Free-Rain Theatre's production of "Billy Elliot"

Book and Lyrics by Lee Hall – Music by Elton John

Directed by Jarrad West – Choreographed by Michelle Heine

Musical Direction by Katrina Tang and Caleb Campbell

Set design by Cate Clelland – Costume Design by Tanya Taylor

Lighting Design by Jacob Aquilina – Sound Design by Dillan Willding

The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre April 9 – May 5, 2024

Opening night performance on April 11 reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Janie Lawson as Mrs Wilkinson with her dance class.

Free-Rain Theatre’s production of the Elton John/Lee Hall musical "Billy Elliott" certainly packs a punch both physically and emotionally.

Based on the 2000 film of the same name the musical revolves around a motherless boy who begins taking ballet lessons in a British mining town during the 1984-85 UK miner’s strike in North East England’s County Durham.

Jackie Elliot (Joe Dinn) discovers Billie (Fergus Paterson) in Mrs Wilkinson's dance class.

Against fierce opposition from his father and older brother, both of whom are involved in the union battle for better wages and conditions for coal miners, Billy finds a champion for his ambitions in his dance teacher, Mrs Wilkinson who eventually convinces his father to let him audition for the Royal Ballet.

Confidently directed by Jarrad West and choreographed by Michelle Heine, this musical makes huge demands on the young actor playing Billy Elliot. He is required to depict Billy’s story from novice dancer to one exhibiting enough talent to be accepted into the Royal Ballet School. He’s also required to sing well and act convincingly.

On opening night this role was played by Fergus Paterson, whose performance in this critical role constantly drew cheers from the audience.

Paterson breezed through Heine’s cleverly staged production numbers, "Shine" , "Born to Boogie" and the extraordinary "Angry Dance". He delighted in the effervescent duet "Expressing Yourself" partnered by his friend Michael, this role performed with considerable panache by Charlie Murphy.

Michael (Charlie Murphy) and Billy (Ferguson Paterson) perform "Expressing Yourself"

Paterson astonished in the spectacular "Swan Lake Dream Ballet" which he shared with accomplished ballet dancer, Jordan Dwight and broke hearts with his rendition of  "The Letter" with mum, Jo Zaharias. But it was his confident singing and dancing in  his big solo number "Electricity", that had the audience cheering even before he led the entire company through Heine’s spectacularly staged "Finale".

Jordan Dwight (Older Billy) and Billy (Fergus Paterson) perform the "Swan Lake Dream Ballet"

The Roles of Billy and Michael are shared in later performances with Mitchell Clement and Blake Wilkins, so you may have to see this show twice. However that should be no hardship because this production also contains a surfeit of excellent performances.

Among them Janie Lawson in a star performance as the hard-bitten dance teacher Mrs Wilkinson, outwardly tough, but with a heart of gold, who recognises Billy’s talent and champions him.  Her opening number “Shine” is one of the many highpoints of this show.

Mrs Wilkinson (Janie Lawson) and Billy (Fergus Paterson) and the dance class perform "Shine"

Joe Dinn brings impressive depth to his portrayal as Billy’s rough miner father, Jackie Elliot. At first violently opposed to Billy’s choices, Jackie’s eventual capitulation is movingly portrayed.

Similarly Lachlan Elderton gives a powerful performance as Billy’s strong-willed brother Tony Elliot, who struggles with the pressures caused by his loyalties to his workmates and his family’s upheavals. The physical violence between Tony and his father is convincingly staged although both performances would benefit from a little less shouting.

Jackie Elliot (Joe Dinn) and Billy's brother Tony (Lachlan Elderton) menace Mrs Wilkinson (Janie Lawson).

Completing the Elliot family, Alice Ferguson delights as Grandma whose antics eventually draw the family together.

Among the hard working ensemble, Tim Maher successfully mined his role as a duplicitous miner for comic opportunities, as did James Tolhurst-Close as Mrs Wilkinson’s long-suffering repetiteur, Mr Braithwaite. Zahra Zulkapli was delightfully precocious as Billy’s dance class friend, Debbie.

To accommodate the many large production numbers threaded throughout the show, Cate Clelland has designed a spectacular setting that takes up every centimetre of the Q’s stage.  Draped with union banners it represents the Miners Union Hall in which Mrs Wilkinson also conducts her dance classes.

Although this multi-purpose setting occasionally leads to confusion as to where the action is taking place, particularly for the domestic scenes involving the Elliot family, clever pop-outs and careful lighting allows an attentive audience to follow the storyline, enhanced by Tanya Taylor’s costume designs which appropriately conjure up ballet schools and miners protests.

Caleb Campbell and Katrina Tang share the Musical Director responsibilities as well as participating in the excellent tight musical ensemble which accompanies the show.

Unfortunately the sound design on opening night vacillated between deafening and too low, making it difficult to understand much of the North East dialect in which lyrics and dialogue are written.

Hopefully this blemish will be corrected for later performances so that Free Rain Theatre’s excellent production of this extraordinary musical can be enjoyed to the fullest.

The Miners protest in "Billy Elliott"

                                                         Images by Janelle McMenamin

An edited version of this review published in the digital edition of  CITY NEWS on 12.04.24

RGB: Of Many, One

 

RGB: Of Many, One by Suzie Miller.  Sydney Theatre Company at Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, April 12-21 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 12

Director Priscilla Jackman
Designer David Fleischer
Lighting Designer Alexander Berlage
Composer & Sound Designer Paul Charlier
Assistant Director Sharon Millerchip
Voice & Accent Coach Jennifer White
Associate Designer (Tour) Emma White
Associate Sound Designer (Tour) Zac Saric

With
Heather Mitchell

Understudy
Lucy Bell

Marketing image Rene Vaile
Production photos Prudence Upton


RGB Of Many, One brings together three extraordinary women – the eminent American lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg; the international award-winning Australian playwright Suzie Miller; both in the remarkable hands of Australian actor Heather Lee Mitchell AM.

All three are, of course, directed on stage by a fourth woman – Priscilla Jackman, whose website explains: Priscilla is a multidisciplinary director working across theatre, opera and screen. Priscilla is invested in the exchange between performers and audience through a dynamic use of space using traditional and twenty-first century technologies and the hybrid fusion of innovative Arts and theatre practices in Australia.

It’s not surprising, then, for me to have little to say beyond effusive praise for an astounding theatre experience last Friday night.  

I want to use only their first names, rather than their surnames which ironically represent male relatives, even though – wonderfully – Ruth Bader’s marriage to Martin Ginsburg lasted 59 years together and then surely continued in spirit until her death at 87 in 2020.  Though Ruth is remembered as "the Notorious R.B.G.", Heather’s recreation of Ruth’s personality, sense of humour and strategic determination – using far more than just her hands and an amazing array of voices – was the wonder of the night for me.

And, through the telling of her story in such an intense and detailed 1 hour 40 minutes solo performance, reaching an understanding of how women’s human rights have not been put into practice nor even guaranteed in law as they should be.

All four of these women’s lives and work in creating such powerful theatre demonstrate what RGB stood for.  Perhaps the most telling and amusing stories in the play are her interviews with the three US Presidents, William – call me Bill – Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Suzie’s scriptwriting and Priscilla’s directing, as well as the very clever use of props, lighting and sound track, make a very simple stage setting bring out the best in drama – the opportunity for Heather to communicate personally with every member of the audience.  Her Ruth spoke to each of us as a friend who we come to respect – to the point where we need not be sad for her in her dying moments, but proud of all she achieved even while being realistic about what the rule of law can and should mean.  For women, of course – but importantly for us all.

I don’t know how long Heather can continue touring, following her extensive run in 2022, so I have to say do everything you can not to miss the chance of catching up with RGB: Of Many, One.

Heather Mitchell AM
as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in RBG: Of Many, One
Sydney Theatre Company, 2024
Photo: Prudence Upton

 

 

 

 

THE SHOE-HORN SONATA

 

 

The Shoe-Horn Sonata.

Writer John Misto. Director Lexi Sekuless. Sound Designer and Composer: Leisa Keen Production Designer: Annette Sharpe. Lighting Designer: Jennifer Wright. Production Stage Manager: Katerina Smalley. Production Photography and Film: Daniel Abroguena. Interviewer voice: Timmy Sekuless Set Construction: Simon Grist. Publicity Photographer: Robert Coppa. Publicity Hair and Makeup: Vicky Hayes. Producer: Lexi Sekuless Productions. Major partner: Elite Event Technology.   Mill Theatre, Building 3.3, 1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick. April 10 – 27. Bookings: Tickets $40 to $50, from Humanitix. 2024

 Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Andrea Close as Bridie and Zsuzsi Soboslay as Sheila
in Lexi Sekuless's production of The Shoe-Horn Sonata

As the war in the Pacific was drawing to a close, the Japanese released survivors from the dreaded Belalau Camp in the dense jungle of Sumatra. They left behind the dying and the dead women who had been imprisoned in brutal and inhumane conditions since the fall of Singapore in 1942. It is a dark and terrifying chapter in the history of Japanese occupation and a shameful record of the failure of allied governments, Australian and British to acknowledge and publicly recognize the atrocities enacted upon their citizens.

In 1995, award winning playwright John Misto drew upon personal accounts of the suffering, the courage and the survival of those women who were released to write a moving and authentic account of the experiences. The Shoe-Horn Sonata is Misto’s memorial to those who did not survive and tribute to those who did. The play has become an Australian classic, performed countless times across the country sometimes in the face of controversy, and often to great acclaim. Lexi Sekuless Productions continues to champion the revival of Australian classics with previous productions of Oriel Gray’s The Torrents and Nick Enright’s Good Works. With The Shoe Horn Sonata, Sekuless presents a powerful. moving and faithful revival of Misto’s homage to the female victims   of Japanese occupation.

The play is set in 1995 in a TV studio and a hotel room. Annette Sharpe’s eclectic design of memorabilia includes a large Japanese flag, a poster of Kitchener from the First World War, television monitors and the bed in the hotel room. It is functional, unostentatious and unobtrusive. Two survivors of the Belalau Camp have been invited to take part in a documentary about their time in the prison camp. Chatswood born and bred Bridie Cartwright (Andrea Close) is a tough, outspoken, straight-talking former Australian Army nurse. Sheila Edwards (Zsuzsi Soboslay) was a 15 year old British schoolgirl at the time of her incarceration and at the time of the documentary works as a librarian in Perth. It comes as a shock to Bridie who thought that Sheila had returned to England after the emancipation. Their surprise reunion after fifty years unearths tensions and secrets as they face their interviewer Rick (the voice of Tim Sekuless). In the hotel room accusations fly. The difference in the two women fuels the tensions as each struggles to reconcile their past close and interdependent relationship with the present impact of a fifty year separation. Sekuless directs the shifting relationship and revelations from the live interview to the televised appearances to the hotel room with gripping clarity and superb pacing. Misto’s dialogue has the authenticity and intensity of verbatim theatre. Each performer embraces character and circumstance with an honesty that makes their performance riveting.

Under Sekuless’s direction Close and Soboslay give two of the finest performances that I have seen from both actors. Close’s Bridie presents a matter-of-fact Aussie with a distinctive nasal twang and a no-nonsense get-on with life attitude. She appears to no longer carry the pain and horror of her wartime experience in the telling of her experience.   Soboslay’s Sheila conceals a painful secret within her prim and proper personality. The scars remain and Soboslay’s performance tears at the heartstrings. Extrovert and introvert struggle to exorcise the past to reconcile their present relationship. Director and actors do more than take the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions. They reassure us that survival is a communal act.  Close and Soboslay’s performances will last long in the memory after leaving the theatre.

It can often be a cliché to say a piece of theatre is not to be missed. In this instance it is imperative that Misto’s The Shoehorn Sonata plays to packed houses over its all too short season. This is not only because of its importance in righting the historical wrong of political indifference but also because of the opportunity to see a production of The Shoe-Horn Sonata that is uplifting and unforgettable.