LA BOHEME

Natalie Aroyan (Mimi), Garrett Sorenson (Rodolfo(
Adrian Tamburini (Colline), Jose Carbo (Marcello) 
James Clayton (Schaunard)

West Australian Opera

His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth

29^th October – 9^th November 2013

 

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

This production of “La Boheme” is the familiar Opera Conference production, with sets and costumes by Stephen Curtis, and original direction by Simon Phillips. It had several seasons at The Sydney Opera house until it was eventually replaced by the lavish new current production directed by Gale Edwards.



For this outing by West Australian Opera, the production has been meticulously rehearsed by Cath Dadd and presented with a fine cast, lead by American tenor, Garrett Sorenson, as Rodolfo, and Natalie Aroyan as Mimi, with Jose Carbo ( Marcello), James Clayton ( Schaunard), Adrian Tamburini  (Colline) and Rachel Durkin, outstanding as Musetta.

Simon Phillips' vision for this production has the action taking place in the present, and for the most part this works extremely well, but some jarring aspects still remain. Rodolfo’s use of a laptop for his writing makes the sacrifice of his manuscripts as fuel for the fire to warm his friends, a less noble gesture, as he has no doubt backed up his writings in his computer. While the moment when the set rises mid-aria to make way for the admittedly spectacular act two transition into Paddy’s Market, still jars, as does Mimi’s rather uncomfortable death propped up in a bean-bag.  

However these quibbles are more than compensated by the vitality of the Café Momus (Paddy’s Market) scene, and the realism of the early morning act three scene with its over-flowing wheelie bins of garbage, and the total commitment of each cast member towards bringing each scene to vibrant life.  

From their very opening notes, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Joseph Colaneri, sounded confident and secure, beautifully delineating the musical allusions which are such a notable feature this score, and bringing admirable drama and passion to the music, adding significantly to the pleasure of the carefully detailed direction.

 

Garrett Sorenson (Rodolfo) Natalie Aroyan (Mimi)

Garrett Sorenson was a likeable and passionate Rodolfo, with a glowing tenor voice, but with a rather disconcerting tendency to suddenly drop the volume of his singing at various times throughout the opera.

Natalie Aroyan offered a superbly sung, if somewhat tentatively acted, Mimi, while Jose Carbo, James Clayton and Adrian Tamburini, as Rodolfo’s three friends, each provided beautifully sung, energetic and thoughtfully detailed interpretations. Andrew Foote had two opportunities to shine, and he did, delightfully, as the landlord Benoit, and later as Musetta’s unfortunate cuckold, Alcindoro. 

But it's Rachel Durkin’s wonderfully idiosyncratic performance as Musetta, which deservedly steals the show. Durkin is a marvellous comedienne, blessed with a tall, thin, fashion-model’s physique, which she utilises outrageously to create a glamorous, wilful, cheeky, genuinely funny Musetta who is absolutely memorable. At the same time she negotiates the intricacies of Musetta’s famous Café Momus aria with apparently effortless panache.  Musetta’s lovemaking with Marcello later is equally funny, but then in the final scene, the warmth and concern she displays for her dying friend, Mimi and her companions, is completely believable and affecting. 

Rachel Durkin (Musetta) 

Durkin's captivating performance as Musetta, was just one of many such highlights which contributed to a very satisfying evening of opera.

 

 

 

 

Natalie Aroyan (Mimi), Jose Carbo (Marcello)
James Clayton (Schaunard), Adrian Tamburini (Colline)
Garrett Sorenson (Rodolfo)
 

                                                   Photos: James Rogers

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN

Richard Block as Frank Butler and Anita Davenport as Annie Oakley 

Queanbeyan Players

The Q, Queanbeyan until 16^th November

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

Queanbeyan Players new production of “Annie Get Your Gun” offers theatregoers the opportunity to see the revised version of this show,  which received a cool reception when it was presented on Broadway in 1999.

Originally the story of Annie Oakley concerned a naive backwoods girl with a prodigious talent for sharp-shooting, who deliberately loses a shooting contest to get her man. In this revised, politically-correct version, that man, Frank Butler, realising  Annie is going to lose the contest, decides to shoot so badly that the contest ends in a draw (go figure). Only a few Indians are represented and they’re referred to as “the original settlers”.

For those who don’t give a jot for such details, most of Irving Berlin’s superb songs remain, although “My Defences are Down” oddly, becomes an all-male “bump- and- grind” routine, “I Got the Sun in the Morning” disintegrates into a hoe-down, and a new song, “I’ll Share It all With You” is staged as big production number disregarding the fact that the scenery is indicating that it’s happening in the corridor of a Pullman car.

Neither Anita Davenport, initially more Bindi Irwin than Annie Oakley, or Richard Block, a fine looking Frank Butler, have the vocal strength to do the songs justice, but both give winning performances.  Jake Keen is adorable as Little Jake, Fiona Hale is deliciously hateful as Dolly Tate, and Pat Gallagher (Buffalo Bill) and Gerard Fitzsimmons (Chief Sitting Bull) provide excellent support.

The scenery is a bit sparse, but there are a big production numbers, lots of colourful costumes, and a large orchestra, all of which contribute to an agreeable evening watching a classic Broadway musical that really doesn't need revising.  

 

Splinters Theatre of Spectacle

A Canberra Critics' Circle Symposium on Splinters Theatre of Spectacle
Saturday November 2, from 1.30pm to 4pm at the Canberra Museum and Gallery Theatrette.

A brief reflection by Frank McKone

Chaired by CCC convenor, Helen Musa, each of the speakers took the floor for some 20 minutes, including questions from the small but keenly interested audience.  Speakers were:

Patrick Troy, one of the founders of Splinters, who remained central to Splinters’ work throughout the company’s performances from 1985 to 1996, coming from a drama background in high school and secondary college, and Canberra Youth Theatre.  He provided a lively sense of the variety, energy, and sometimes conflicting forces which stimulated the work of Splinters, as well as the often difficult times of touring with little finance.  Discussion arose about the place of women, including leading performers and writers such as Pauline Cady, who subsequently became co-director of Snuff Puppets in Melbourne (http://www.snuffpuppets.com/) and the photographer Katherine Pepper, whose documenting of Splinters’ performances has formed an essential part of the exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery Splinters Theatre of Spectacle: Massive love of risk (28 September – December 2013) (http://www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/cmag/).  The current director of ACT Museums and Galleries is Shane Breynard, also a supporter of Splinters in the 1980s.

Actor/Artist  Renald Navilly who worked with Splinters over many years in a role which might best be described as enabler and shaper.  He made it clear that his was never an authoritarian approach: his function was to hear ideas put forward by people, welcome all ideas however diverse, encourage people to be the authors of the development of ideas, and help guide the process of selection to create a dramatic structure in performance. He spoke of the influences on his philosophy and practice such as the Living Theatre (http://www.livingtheatre.org/about/history), Jerzy Grotowksi’s Polish Laboratory Theatre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Grotowski) and to some extent by the work of Antonin Artaud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty).
 
Assistant Professor Dr Geoff Hinchcliffe, Media and Graphic Design at University of Canberra, was a participant in many Splinters performances, on stage and in visual design and effects, with a background in secondary college drama and tertiary training at the Canberra School of Art.  He spoke on the visual culture developed by Splinters, but also took up discussion of the group collective approach which made Splinters into a social unit open to welcoming new participants and changing ideas, noting that possibly some 1000 people were involved over the decade.

Canberra author Joel Swadling spoke on the  biography he is writing about the late David Branson, a founding member of Splinters as well as a key figure in a wide range of theatrical and musical work as director and performer until his tragic accidental death in 2001.  As the work on the biography progresses, from a detailed study of nine boxes of Branson’s papers – now held in the ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collection http://www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/search/Manuscript_Collections/David_Branson – and through extensive interviews with many of the people who knew and worked with Branson, a picture is forming of the quality and importance of his contribution to theatre arts in Canberra, Australia and internationally.

This writer, educator/theatre critic Frank McKone, spoke on the issue which others also alluded to: how did Splinters’ often anarchic approach to theatre arise in Canberra, the capital city largely populated by public servants, and seen by outsiders as a planned city with no soul.  He proposed a theory that in 1968, the 19th year of conservative government, the accidental rise to the Prime Ministership of John Gorton, described as a man who liked to portray himself as a man of the people who enjoyed a beer and a gamble, with a bit of a "larrikin" streak about him, in stark contrast to the previous Liberal Party PMs, stirred the conventional public servants, by osmosis, to reject the control of Canberra’s education system by the authoritarian New South Wales Department, and to demand our own ACT Schools Authority.  In starting a new system from scratch, including offering the first Drama courses in Australia at matriculation level, teachers found themselves with the freedom to “negotiate the curriculum” with their students from 1972, very much in the manner that Renald Navilly described in his work with Splinters participants from 1985.

The curator of the CMAG exhibition which included this Symposium, former  Splinters member Gavin Findlay who joined after being impressed by the work they presented at the Performance Space, Redfern in Sydney, (http://www.performancespace.com.au/us/history/)  then spoke on the archiving of Splinters records and how the materials and history form the basis of his doctoral research designed to recognise the place of  Splinters in 20th Century theatre, nationally and internationally.

In discussion, as well as the developments in the schools in the 1970s, the importance of the establishment  by Carol Woodrow (http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE4882b.htm) of Canberra Children’s Theatre, Reid House Theatre Workshop, Canberra Youth Theatre, The Jigsaw Company, and The Fools’ Gallery during the same period, showed that Canberra was developing its own sense of authorship in both the educational and professional theatre circles, so that by the mid-1980s there was fertile ground for Splinters to grow among young people committed to the crossover of theatre and visual arts.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Imara Savage

Bell Shakespeare/StateSA Theatre Company
The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre

29 October - 9 November, 2013

Review by Len Power 29 October 2013

Shakespeare’s early play, ‘The Comedy Of Errors’, is a slight work that, if done traditionally today, would not offer much to interest a modern audience.

Bell Shakespeare’s jazzy new production is played with only ten actors on a simple set designed by Pip Runciman of eight double doors stretching across the stage with changing electronic signs above them to tell us where we are.  It’s certainly different to any other version of the play you might have seen.

Director, Imara Savage, states in the program, “I was hoping to capture something of the feeling of a night out, those nights where we stay out until the sun comes up and in the cold light of day we are able to see everything for what it is.”  If that’s what she was aiming for, it wasn’t clear enough.

The play is a simple bit of fun about two sets of twins who get mistaken for each other and cause great confusion until all is resolved at the end of the play.  Unless you’d seen the play before, this tricky production obscures the storyline so much that it’s hard to work out who everyone is and what is going on.  The modern day costumes add to the difficulty.  Except for the courtesan, the costumes give no clear visual clues about who each character is supposed to be.

In this production, the delivery of the words has been given less importance than the physical comedy.  However, there are some well-played moments of inspired lunacy, especially a sequence involving a washing machine.  The use of slow motion at various points in the play was imaginative and the eight double doors gave good opportunities for farcical entrances and exits.  Scene changes flowed very well with the help of the clever lighting design by Mark Pennington.

One difficulty when staging this play is finding actors who closely resemble each other to play the two sets of twins.  Luckily, this was achieved rather well in this production.  The standout performance of the evening was Renato Musolino as the servant, Dromio of Syracuse, who was extremely funny in the physical comedy but never lost sight of his character or its Shakespearian origins.  Everyone else played their roles at such a fevered pitch, there was no real character development and the constant shouting was a bit wearing.  The longer speeches were delivered as if they were just something to be got through with no depth or feeling for the language.

You can certainly find a lot to amuse you in this production, but it doesn’t really have much to do with Shakespeare.

Originally broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Dress Circle’ program on Sunday 3 November 2013.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN

Original Book by Herbert & Dorothy Fields

Revised by Peter Stone

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

Directed by Nina Stevenson

Queanbeyan Players, Q Theatre, Queanbeyan

November 1 to 16, 2013

Review by Len Power 2 November 2013

‘It’s old-fashioned’, wailed some critics when ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ first opened on Broadway in 1946.  ‘Yes’, replied the composer of the music and lyrics, Irving Berlin, ‘nothing but good, old-fashioned hits’.  Nearly 70 years later, this musical still has the power to delight an audience with one great song after another.  Even if you don't know musicals, you'll know most of the songs in this show.

Nina Stevenson’s bright and busy new production uses the 1999 revised book of the show which tones down insensitivities in the original script towards native Americans.  A notable song loss is ‘I’m An Indian, Too’.  It’s been reshaped into a show within a show, an awkward device that interrupts the flow of the story unnecessarily.

The large and enthusiastic cast start the show with a rousing, ‘There’s No Business like Show Business’.  In the star role of Annie Oakley, Anita Davenport is appealing, funny, fiery and down to earth.  She displays an excellent sense of timing with the comedy and sings the big numbers and the ballads very well.  She looks like she’s having the time of her life onstage and the audience is with her every step of the way.

Richard Block was a good choice physically as Annie’s love interest, Frank Butler, but he struggled with the dramatic aspects of the role and gave an uneven performance vocally.  He was not helped by the hideous zebra-patterned shirt and shiny pants he was given to wear for much of the show.  Pat Gallagher gives a grand, charismatic performance as Buffalo Bill Cody and Gerard Fitzsimmons almost steals the show as a very funny and wise Chief Sitting Bull.  Fiona Hale is a sunny delight as the scheming Dolly Tate and Peter Hoban gives great warmth to the role of Charlie Davenport.

The secondary love interest plot seems to get a bit lost in this show, but both Sophie Hopkins as Winnie Tate and Greg Sollis as Tommy Keeler, make the most of their big moments, especially in the bright number, ‘Who Do You Love, I Hope’.

The simple settings from a concept by Nina Stevenson, Kathryn Jones and Michael Booth, work well.  The costumes by Christine Pawlicki are generally fine.  The choreography by Kathryn Jones needed more Western flavour overall and the tap dance was out of place for the period and locale of the show.

This is an entertaining production of a now classic musical that must have an actor with star quality in the leading role.  They’ve got it with Anita Davenport!

TRIPTYCH - A TRILOGY OF WORKS

“Triptych – A Trilogy Of Works”

“Bona Mors” written by Olivia Hewson and directed by Jessica Alexander,

“Fight Or Flight” written by Jessica Bellamy and directed by Remy Graham-Throssell, “Run Rihanna! Run!” written by Lachlan Philpott and directed by Karla Conway,

Canberra Youth Theatre

Gorman House C Block Theatre,

1 November to 9 November, 2013

Reviewed by Len Power 1 November 2013

An evening of three one act plays is a rarity these days.  Canberra Youth Theatre’s “Triptych” considers the themes of expectation, pressure, success and fears that come along with the transition periods in young people’s lives.

None of the plays take a straight forward approach.  The first, “Bona Mors”, performed by pre-teen actors, is a surreal black comedy focussing on the fear of death and the loss of a brother.  The second play, “Fight Or Flight” shows the interaction of a group of young teens struggling to come to terms with a devastating event that might mean the end of civilization and “Run Rihanna! Run!” shows the pressures on two young men driving a truck away from a coastline slowly disappearing under water.

The first play worked best and the quite young cast displayed a surprisingly good understanding of the surreal aspects of the script.  The second play lacked pace, energy and voice projection from the cast and, having made its point early, overstayed its welcome.  The third play started with a nicely edgy idea and was well-acted but had an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending.

There were three substantial sets by Cate Clelland that worked fine for each play, but necessitated herding the audience out of the theatre for nearly 30 minutes between plays so the set changes could be made.

It was good to see three casts of different age groups tackling these quite unusual plays, but maybe youth theatre could work on less depressing and bleak subject matter sometimes.

Originally published in Canberra City News digital edition 2 November 2013

Comedy of Errors

Imara Savage - Director

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare.  Bell Shakespeare and State Theatre Company of South Australia directed by Imara Savage; designer Pip Runciman; lighting designer, Mark Pennington; composer & sound designer, David Heinrich; physical comedy consultant, Scott Witt.  Canberra Theatre Playhouse, October 30 – November 9, 2013-10-31

Reviewed by Frank McKone
October 30

I suspect that William Shakespeare’s move from staid and sensible Stratford-on-Avon to lewd, lascivious and libellous London paved the way for the horror faced by Antipholus and his stolid, mercantile merchant father from Syracuse when they landed in energetic, excessive, sexually-charged Ephesus.  It must have been quite a revelation for Shakespeare to discover that his London of 1593 was not very different from what Plautus, some 100-200 years BC, had already described in his fictional Greek city of Epidamnum, in his play Menaechmi.

So for us it is a wonder to see the brilliance of Shakespeare’s words reveal how little different is the world of, say, Sydney’s Kings Cross after another 420 years.  Like Plautus, Shakespeare understood that a farcical treatment was the only way to come to terms with both the light and dark sides of such a community.  In this Comedy of Errors, Savage Witt is brought to bear with unerring aim.

To follow my line of thinking you need a copy of the wonderful program with its extensive background to the production.  It adds enormously to the satisfaction of seeing the play to read, far beyond the usual plot synopsis and director’s notes, source quotes and essays on comedy, farce, Plautus, Shakespeare’s Ephesus, the place of the classics, Kings Cross as explained by Louis Nowra, The Comedy of Errors as explained by Andy McLean, more details on Shakespeare’s sources, and the concept drawings of the characters by Pip Runciman.

The result on stage is near perfection.  Every nuance of Shakespeare’s intention in each line spoken and each action taken by each character is brought into a shining spotlight.  Now it is absolutely clear that this is not a young playwright’s immature imitation of a Latin classic.  This is farce precisely performed to the point of satire of human society.

The casting is exquisite.  The make-up and the costuming of the two sets of identical twins is so well done that, until the final scene, it was hard to believe that there were four actors rather than two doubling up the roles.  The set consisting of even more doors across the stage than I have ever thought possible – and added to by left and right entrances upstage and downstage – made this necessary element of stage farce into a character in its own right.  And no-one will ever forget props like the sun-tan machine, the hot electric iron and especially the washing machine and its sudsy servant Dromio – a scene which can justifiably claim the loudest laugh of the night.

There has been a long tradition in Australian acting of rumbustious physical theatre, fully endorsed by Bell Shakespeare and training at NIDA and in all the institutions since the 1960s, which comes to a peak of entertainment and theatrical maturity in this production of The Comedy of Errors.

If you can’t get to see it in Canberra, you have one more chance at the Sydney Opera House Playhouse from November 12 to December 7 – the last of 32 venues in the Playing Australia touring program.  Do your best not to miss it – and don’t forget to buy a program.

Renato Musolino, Nathan O'Keefe, Septimus Caton, Hazem Shammas as Dromio and Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio and Antipholus of Ephesus, with Demetrios Sirilas as Angelo (upstage)

Nathan O'Keefe (Antipholus of Syracuse) with Jude Henshall as Luciana

Suzannah McDonald as Courtesan

Elena Carapetis as Adriana, Eugene Gilfedder as Dr Pinch, with Jude Henshall and Suzannah McDonald.

    Anthony Taufa (not pictured) played The Duke and Balthasar.  Suzannah McDonald also played Emelia.  Eugene Gilfedder also played Egeon.     All photos by Matt Nettheim