MOJO

 

MOJO by Jez Butterworth.

Directed by Lachlan Houen. Red Herring Theatre Company and ACT HUB. Produced by Gwyneth Cleary. Stage Manager Maggie Hawkins. ACT HUB Spinifex St. Kingston.

Cast: Lachlan Herring, Jack Ferrier, Joel Hrbek, Taylor Barrett, Taj De Montis, Joshua James.

Wednesday January 22 - Saturday February 1 2025  

Bookings:  https://acthub.littleboxoffice.com 

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Jack Ferrier (Potts), Tayler Barratt (Mickey) Joel Hrbek (Sweets( Taj De Montis (Skinny)
Photo Helen Musa

In  March 1995, notorious East End gangster twin Ronnie Kray died in prison. In July of the same year Jez Butterworth’s debut play,opened at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Set in a seedy night club in Soho, Mojo is set during the era of 50’s rock and roll and in the early days of the rise of the  underworld Kray twins with their penchant for murder, extortion, money-laundering, corruption and every vice known to the criminal world. This is the world of psychopaths, sociopaths, enforcers, big time gangsters and their thuggish henchmen. It is 1958. Rock and Roll has rattled the establishment as the young generation rock around the clock to Bill Haley and the Comets, or gyrate to the hip-swivelling affrontery of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock. Lachlan Houen, Director of Red Herring Theatre Company’s inaugural production blasts the auditorium with tracks of the songs of the rock and roll revolution. Times are changing and Soho sees the rise of gangsters and crims like Potts (Jack Ferrier) and Sweets (Joel Hrbek), nightclub manager Mickey (Tayler Barrett), stooge Skinny (Taj De Montis) and nightclub owner Ezra’s son Baby (Lachlan Herring). This is the world of kill or be killed, violent power struggles and shady deals to snare the greatest prize, which in this case is rising teen singing sensation, Silver Johnny.

Jack Ferrier (Potts), Joel Hrbek (Sweets)

At the start of the play, nightclub owner Ezra’s body has been found gruesomely sawn in half and stuffed in two rubbish bins. Suspicion falls every which way and the inhabitants of the Atlantic Club are out for revenge in a play that mirrors the East End of Harold Pinter and the violence of Tarantino. Houen keeps the energy racing along. Characterizations are tightly coiled ready to spring into Sweet’s ADHD, Potts’s unstated menace, Skinny’s anxious panic, Mickey’s cool control and Baby’s explosive and violent unpredictability. Houen has cast MOJO brilliantly. An all male cast inhabit their world with riveting conviction. Only diction confounds performance at times as spitfire Cockney and East End accents lose the diction to fully tell the story. The opening scene between Potts and Sweets, beautifully played by Ferrier and Hrbek with a perfect sense of physical character lose much of the dialogue, so that I was left reeling until Barrett’s Mickey clearly revealed that the owner had been murdered and the thriller could get under way.  This production of MOJO, so splendidly performed with detailed attention to the unsavoury and largely unlikeable characters of the period would have benefited from the careful attention of a professional accent coach.

Lachlan Herring (Baby), Taj De Montis (Skinny)

Having said that in the hope that the actors will pay careful attention to the impact of their dialogue, Red Herring Theatre Company’s debut production promises a very bright future for the company. The actors sport excellent training credentials and their entirely believable portrayal of character and tight physical characterization indicates a level of professionalism that Red Herring aspires to. I wish them every success with future ventures.

In its premiere year Butterworth’s MOJO received an Olivier Award for Best Comedy. On the surface this may be an unusual award for a play that is about highly unlikeable thugs, fools, deadly neurotics and power-mongers.  Houen and his company play the absurdity and stupidity for laughs with an eye for the sudden twists and surprising moments of danger. In 1995 audiences who remembered the Krays and the rebellion of the rock and roll era could view Butterworth’s play with humourous detachment. That detachment is even more pronounced in 2025, and the small matinee audience in the intimate ACT HUB theatre obviously saw the black comedy in this almost farcical gangster thriller.

Red Herring Theatre’s production of MOJO and the promise of things to come makes a welcome addition to Canberra’s expanding stable of excellent talent. This is a debut well worth a visit.

Photos: Ben Appleton  Photox Photography

The Chalk Pit

 

The Chalk Pit by Peter Wilkins.  Lexi Sekuless Productions at Mill Theatre, Canberra.
22 January - 1 February 2025

Reviewed by Frank McKone
January 24

Creatives & Company

Playwright: Peter Wilkins
Coach: Julia Grace
Players performing: Rhys Hekimian, Chips Jin, Alana Denham-Preston, Heidi Silberman, Timmy Sekuless, Maxine Beaumont, Rachel Pengilly, Martin Everett
Workshop support players: Kate Blackhurst, Rachel Howard, Sarah Nathan-Truesdale, Wynter Grainger, Phoebe Silberman

Photographer: Daniel Abroguena
Major partner: Elite Event Technology
Principal Sponsor: Willard Public Affairs

The Chalk Pit –  “A true tale of ambition, corruption, murder and betrayal, documenting the rise and fall of the Hon. Thomas John Ley” is presented by Lexi Sekuless “in a stripped back format called An Actor's Investigation. This is reflected in a lower ticket price.  This performance will be quite different from your usual night at the theatre. Each day from 10am, actors will work full time with renowned coach, Julia Grace (Melbourne Theatre Company), to pull apart the circumstances and characters and prepare to present a simple but powerful version of this story for the public at 730pm that evening.”

_____________________________________________________________________

I have mentioned before how the atmosphere of Canberra’s Mill Theatre reminds me of my seeing La Leçon in the Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris where, of the young writer Eugene Ionesco, Jacques Lemarchand wrote in 1952, in Le Figaro littéraire, “Within its small walls the Théâtre de la Huchette has what it takes to blow away all other Théâtres in Paris.… When we have grown old we will be proud to have attended performances of La Cantatrice Chauve and La Leçon.” www.theatre-huchette.com/en/the-ionesco-show

I sense in Sekuless’s manner of working something similar to this: “In the backroom of a café on the boulevard Saint-Michel a group of actors seated around a table roar with laughter. Nicholas Bataille, a young director, reads aloud the first scenes of a play by the young playwright Eugene Ionesco.”  Following each night’s script-in-hand exploration of The Chalk Pit, Lexi and her actors gather together in the foyer to talk with audience members.

This is creative theatre production in a community setting, which I am sure fits admirably into this writer’s career – Peter Wilkins’s work in Canberra began as artistic director of The Jigsaw Company, a specialist in educational theatre.  And there’s plenty to learn from in The Chalk Pit.

I am, of course, stretching connections too far – but in 1948 as Ionesco was getting on his way to showing in fictional characters the breakdown of marriage relationships and the rise of dictatorship, Wilkins shows us the true story of the bombastic, coercive controller, Australian Member of Parliament and corrupt businessman, the Hon. Thomas John Ley, a migrant from England as a child who ended up back ‘home’, found guilty of murder in the chalk pit, sentenced to be executed – but finally commuted to life in an insane asylum, where he died in 1947.

Ionesco couldn’t have imagined a life in his time to be really so absurd.  It’s likely that Ley actually caused, in Mafia style, four or five deaths – and fortunately failed to become Prime Minister.

Ley’s life story is long and complicated, but The Mill’s Actor’s Investigation, working as a team of ever-changing true-life characters, have brought the focus clearly on Ley’s marriage and extra-marriage behaviour.  The effects on the two women make The Chalk Pit a human story of the kind still played out in daily news stories; while on the political side the awful misuse of power around the world is as obvious today as it was to the young Ionesco after the two World Wars – in which the Hon Ley loudly demanded sending Australians as cannon-fodder in support of the British Empire.

The Chalk Pit is a great example of creative theatre work, in writing and production, especially in the context of Canberra, the Nation’s Capital – which our current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, says today (Canberra Times Page 4, Saturday 25th January) is “a fantastic place to live”.

Further Reading: www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/member-details.aspx?pk=1344

 

 

 

 

 

MOJO ACT Hub.

 

Jack Ferrier (Potts) - Lachlan (Baby) - Taylor Barret (Mickey) - Taj De Montis (Skinny) - Joel Hrbeck (Sweets) in Red Herring Theatre Company's production of "Mojo".

Written by Jez Butterworth – Directed by Lachlan Houen

Produced by Gwyneth Cleary – Stage Managed by Maggie Hawkins

Presented by Red Herring Theatre Company & ACT Hub

ACT Hub January 22nd - February 1st 2025.

Opening Night performance reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.


Red Herring Theatre Company’s inaugural production of the Jez Butterworth’s Olivier Award winning play Mojo offers adventurous theatregoers a challenging night of theatre.

Set in the back rooms of the seedy Soho nightclub, the play follows the machinations of a group of young drug-addled criminals who find themselves involved in the gruesome murder of the club’s owner, whose dismembered body is discovered sawn in half and stuffed into two garbage bins.

Directed with a certain flair by Lachlan Houen, the play commences with a largely unintelligible pseudo-cockney conversation performed at breakneck speed between gang members Potts, (Jack Ferrier) and Sweets (Joel Hrbek).

Their conversation is interrupted by Baby (Lachlan Herring) the dangerously psychotic and unloved son of the murdered night-club owner. Baby has ambitions of being a rockstar himself, but his ambitions are being thwarted by local crime boss, Mickey (Taylor Barrett) who intends to take over the nightclub and profit from the success of the resident rockstar, Silver Johnny (Joshua James).

The fourth member of the gang, along with Potts, Sweets and Baby, is Skinny (Taj De Montis) a waiter at the nightclub, who is revealed, in one of many surprising revelations, as having attracted the amorous attentions of Mickey.



Jack Ferrier (Potts) - Taylor Barrett (Mickey) - Joel Hrbeck (Sweets) - Taj De Montis (Skinny_.


Clearly, a lot of care and attention has been invested in this production, which was no doubt more satisfying for the director and actors to rehearse, than for many watching the results of their efforts.

Each of the actors have obviously worked hard at creating strong, individual characterisations. However, the characters themselves are such an unlovely lot, that it is difficult to muster any sympathy or empathy for any of them, especially given the surfeit of violent mood swings, rapid accented dialogue delivery, and baffling plot revelations.

On the evidence of this production, it is difficult to see what it was about this play that earned Jez Butterworth an Olivier Award, or indeed, what he is trying to say with his play.




                                                   Photos by Helen Musa

MOJO

Written by Jez Butterworth

Directed by Lachlan Houen

Presented by Red Herring Theatre & ACT Hub

ACT Hub Theatre, Kingston to 1 February

 

Reviewed by Len Power 22 January 2025

 

You’ll need a sense of humour for black comedy and a keen ear to fully appreciate Jez Butterworth’s seedy gangster play set behind the scenes in a 1950s English nightclub. In fact, as the play begins, you could be forgiven for wondering if you’ve blundered into the wrong play with the characters speaking what sounds like a foreign language.

This is the world of 1950s Soho in London uncompromisingly presented by writer, Jez Butterworth. The dialogue is part profanity and part colourful Cockney delivered at a machinegun pace by a group of not very bright, edgy and pill-taking young men.  They’re trying to be as tough as their jobs demand, but they’re fearful and desperate to project an image of masculinity that they don’t really feel. When they learn that there has been a particularly nasty murder of the nightclub owner, they’re seriously out of their depth as a battle for power begins.

Lachlan Herring (Baby) and Taj De Montis (Skinny) - Photo by Ben Appleton - Photox Photography

The fast-paced action has been staged with an impressive fluidity by the director, Lachlan Houen. He has obtained strong, colourful and real performances from his cast. Taylor Barrett shines as the more-controlled, ambitious Mickey and Lachlan Herring is particularly effective as the dangerously psychotic Baby. Jack Ferrier as Potts, Joel Hrbek as Sweets and Taj De Montis as Skinny give vivid, individual characterizations of these gangster types of the period. Their keen sense of timing brings out the humour in the script very well.

From left: Jack Ferrier (Potts), Lachlan Herring (Baby), Taylor Barrett (Mickey), Taj De Montis (Skinny) and Joel Hrbek (Sweets) - Photo by Helen Musa

The lengthy opening scene with Potts and Sweets seems to be pitched too high, emotionally, and the impressively authentic sound of the dialogue is achieved often at the expense of clarity. It’s not a play where you feel much empathy for the characters, but it is an intriguing look at the shadowy world of English clubs of the era.

This is an impressive achievement for Red Herring Theatre, a new theatre company for Canberra, hopefully a sign of more great theatre to come.

 

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/. 

Circus of Illusion  Canberra Theatre Jan 11-12.

Circus of Illusion has visited before and offers some good  old fashioned circus bits and pieces with an occasional touch of pantomime. There’s a kind of a wisecracking ringmaster in charge and a bloke who does dangerous balancing tricks and a woman who has a gentle hula hoop act and two statuesque showgirl dancers who also become very much the heart of some of magician Michael Boyd’s classic illusions.

These illusions are central to the show. People vanish and reappear in and out of elaborate boxes, swords and the danger of impalement hover and the assistants add glamour as well as considerable skills to support the vanishings and reappearances. Young audience members are frequently pulled in to help with the less dangerous stuff like card tricks.

The setting apart from the apparatus of the various bits of magic is just a few drapes artfully lit with strings of flashing lights but that’s all that’s needed for a bit of mood and atmosphere.

And the wide eyed kids down the front love it all. 

Shades of the old Sydney Tivoli back in the 1950s complete with the under tens being drawn into live performance and live magic. 

Alanna Maclean

DIONNE WARWICK One Last Time

Andre Chez Lewis - Dionne Warwick - Jeffery Lewis

 Presented by Frontier Touring

 Canberra Theatre. 19^th January 2025. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

 

Taking the stage of the Canberra Theatre for the final concert of her whirl-wind farewell tour of Australia, before heading off to New Zealand, leaving a trail of sold-out concerts in her wake, Dionne Warwick made her entrance in a blaze of purple sequins to be greeted with a standing ovation from an adoring audience thrilled to be in the same room as this bonafide music legend for just one last time.

Acknowledging the ovation with a dazzling ear-to-ear grin, Ms Warwick settled herself on a stool beside the grand piano and proceeded to delight that audience with a succession of songs that she had made chart-topping hits in a career that has spanned over 50 years.

A smiled signal to her accompanist, Andre Chez Lewis, heralded the familiar strains of her 1963 hit, Walk On By. A string of Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs followed, Anyone Who Had A Heart, You’ll Never Get to Heaven If You Break My Heart, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again and Message to Michael, just for starters.

Acknowledged as the supreme interpreter of the songs of Bacharach and David, Ms Warwick must have sung these songs a thousand times before, yet she appeared to enjoy sharing them with this audience as if for the first time.

Andre Chez Lewis - Jeffery Lewis - Dionne Warwick

Although the voice has aged, and the breathing a little less free, nobody expected otherwise from the 84-year-old singer who's stellar 50-year career is crowded with accolades.   

But despite the blemishes of age, her unique vocal timbre and phrasing remain intact, as does the artistry of her presentation evident in her ability to hold her audience spellbound for the entire 80 minutes of her performance.

No gimmicks, no padding with long reminiscences about past glories, just 80 minutes of her hit songs, with revised musical arrangements that allowed her more freedom for spontaneous vocalisations with which she playfully teased her audience, while luxuriating in the inspired accompaniments of her superb quartet which in addition to Chez Lewis on Piano included Jeffery Lewis on Drums, Renato Brasa on percussion and Danny DeMorales on bass.

Brilliant lighting and sound enhanced the mood and ambiance of the performance to the extent that by the time Ms Warwick had worked her way through This Girl’s in Love With You, I Say a little Prayer, Alfie, Do You know the Way to San Jose? and I’ll Never Love This Way Again and the audience sensed she was moving towards her finale with 99 Miles From LA, What the World Needs Now is Love and of course That’s What Friends Are For, no one wanted to break the mood or the show to end.

Andre Chez Lewis - Dionne Warwick - Jeffery Lewis.

But being the consummate professional she is, and despite another vociferous extended standing ovation, Ms Warwick knows when it's time to make a graceful exit; leaving behind more than a few teary eyes and a memory of a remarkable concert which few who experienced it is likely to forget.     

                    Images by Grant Alexander

        This review also published in AUSTALIAN ARTS REVIEW.

                        www.artsreview.com.au

 

SIEGFRIED AND ROY: An Unauthorised Opera - World Premiere Sydney Festival Exclusive

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried Fischbacher) - Kanen Breen (Roy Horn) in "Siegfried" -
Photo:Neil Bennett

 

Composed by Luke Di Somma – Libretto by Luke Di Somma and Constantine Costi

Conducted by Luke Di Somma – Directed by Constantine Costi

Movement Direction by Shannon Burns – Set and Prop Design by Pip Runciman

Costume Design by Tim Chappel – Lighting Design by Damien Cooper

Sound Design by Michael Waters – Puppet Design by Erth Visual & Physical

Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1 Theatre. 8 – 25^th January 2025.

Performance on January 14^th reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

 

It’s hard to think of a more perfect subject for an opera than the story of Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried and Roy. Their lives, lived on a grand scale, were as illusionary as the feats of magic with which they intrigued audience throughout their stellar careers.

Yet it’s taken the imaginations of a couple of creatives from down under, both with impressive operatic chops, Luke Di Somma (Music) and Constantine Costi (Direction), to recognise the potential of their story and bring it to the stage as a sung-through, tragicomedy opera (their description).

German magicians and entertainers Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, met on a cruise ship and began performing magic together as Siegfried and Roy on the European nightclub circuit. Their act involved a white tiger. 

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried) - Kanen Breen (Roy) at the beginning of their careers.
Photo: Wendell Teodoro.

  In 1967 they were spotted by an American entrepreneur who enticed them to Las Vegas, where by 1990, they had established themselves as Las Vegas legends, headlining their lavish show, which by now involved a pride of white tigers, lions and even a disappearing elephant employing no fewer than 267 cast and crew, which I saw at the Mirage Casino in 2001.

Publicly living a life of operatic proportions, Siegfried and Roy shrouded their private lives and lavish lifestyle in a manufactured mystique that echoed the mystery and magic of their extraordinary Las Vegas extravaganza.  

However, in 2003 their careers, though apparently not their partnership, came to a sudden halt when on his 59^th birthday, during their act at the Mirage, Roy was sensationally mauled by his favourite white tiger, Mantacore in an incident so catastrophic for Roy that the show had to be closed down.

Di Somma and Costi have managed to compress their remarkable story into a tight 90-minute tragicomedy performed without interval, which succeeds in   capturing the essence and spectacle of Siegfried and Roy’s stage show, while cleverly alluding to some of the less savoury aspects of the price paid for their lives at the pinnacle of show-biz.  

The show commences with Siegfried and Roy being introduced at the end of their careers with Siegfried supporting Roy as he struggles to take a bow at his 60^th Birthday Party.

As Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, Christopher Tonkin and Kanen Breen, both fine opera singers, brilliantly create unforgettable characters who dazzle on the surface but leave an aftertaste of seediness, especially with their startling but very funny sex scene which they accomplish with considerable aplomb.

Having been introduced the duo disappear in a swirl of their voluminous cloaks as the action reverts to 1947 where Roy is discovered performing simple magic tricks at the beginning of his career.

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried) - Kanen Breen (Roy) - Kirby Myers (Showgirl) with Mantacore.
Photo: Neil Bennett

The details of how Roy acquires the tiger,  Mantacore, the third ominous character in their story,  then later persuades Siegfried, to whom he is immediately attracted after watching him performing advanced illusions on a cruise liner, to join him in a double act;  then  how their act at the Folies Bergere in Paris attracts the attention of the Rainier’s in Monaco, eventually leading to an invitation to perform in Las Vegas, and the fateful performance that ended their careers, are all enacted in a series of clever vignettes  devised and directed  by Costi.

A small ensemble of multi-talented opera singers, mostly alumni of Opera Australia, portray the major movers and shakers in the lives of Siegfried and Roy for whom only the names have been changed. 

Russell Harcourt (Ensemble) - Danielle Bavli (Tabby Chateaubriand) - Simon Lobelson (Randy Reggiano) - Louise Hurley (Tyler D"Amor) - Cathy-Di Zhang (Nancy White) 
Photo Wendell Teodoro

  

Danielle Bavli portrays an ambitious social climber, Tabby Chateaubriand.  Louis Hurley is Roy’s young protégé and lover, Tyler D’Amor.  Simon Lobelson portrays an opportunistic agent, Randy Reggiano, who attracts the pair to Les Vegas, while Cathy-Di Zhang, surely the only soprano ever to sing a stratospheric aria while cut in half, portrays their manager and confidant, Nancy White.  

Kanen Breen (Siegfried) - Christopher Tonkin (Roy) with the singing half of Cathy-Di Zhang (Nancy White) -  Photo - Wendell Teodoro.

Russell Harcourt provides the voice of Mantacore, while Kirby Myers, besides her role as a leggy showgirl, assists puppeteer Tomas Ramaili breathe life into the amazing adult tiger puppet that is Mantacore.  

Following the well-worn path of many acclaimed opera composers, Di Somma has included references to composers of the ilk of Wagner, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sondheim to create a compelling, accessible score which captures the grandeur of opera as well as  the ambiance of a Las Vegas showroom, while providing testing arias to showcase the powerful voices of both Tonkin and Breen, as well as a series of clever choruses for the excellent on-stage ensemble.

Particularly notable throughout is the clarity of the diction of all the singers, which allowed Di Somma and Costi’s clever libretto to be enjoyed without the need for surtitles, as was the attention to detail of composer, Di Somma, who conducted the impressive orchestral ensemble himself.

Another surprising aspect of this production was how quickly it established itself as a serious opera rather than the clever satirical romp it could have so easily have been.

Costi has exhibited directorial brilliance by keeping a tight rein on his concept to maintain a high camp ambiance demanded by the storyline, while creating believable, entertaining characters.    

By surrounding himself with brilliant collaborators, in sync with his concept, he has been able to successfully tell a larger-than-life story with comparatively limited resources.

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried) - Danielle Bavli (Grace Kelly Rainier) - Mantacore
Kanen Breen (Roy) - Kirby Myers (Showgirl/puppeteer) - Photo:Neil Bennett

Drawing on the lighting wizardry of Damien Cooper, set and property designer, Pip Runciman has achieved miracles by successfully transforming the Wharf 1 theatre into an approximation of a Las Vegas showroom, incorporating glittering chandeliers, cabaret seating, glowing table lamps, proscenium arches and  thrust stage in an arrangement that facilitates dazzling quick changes in time and locale, almost as impressive as Adam Mada’s skilfully accomplished large-scale illusions.

Tim Chappel’s costumes wittily combine glamour and gaudiness in equal measure, while the amazing puppets created by Erth Visual & Physical to portray Roy’s tiger, Mantacore, first as a kitten, then fully-grown, manage to steal every scene in which they appear.  

With “Siegfried and Roy”, Luke Di Somma and Constantine Costi together with their cast and creatives have achieved a hugely entertaining telling of a remarkable story about two German magicians who lived an extraordinary life of smoke and mirrors almost as magical as their illusions.  

However, they’ve also created a remarkable opera which deserves to be seen by a wider audience than those fortunate enough to experience it during this comparatively short premiere season. 

An edited version of this review was  first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 20.01.25.