NoneSoBlind

NoneSoBlind by Garreth Cruikshank.  Dark Pony as part of Sydney Fringe 2019 at Erskineville Town Hall, The Living Room, September 24-28, 2019.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
September 24

Director and Set Design – Susan Jordan; Lighting/Sound Design – Jacinta Frizelle; Artwork – Andrew Langcake; Fight Choreography – Kurtis Wakefield.

Martin Portus as Mr Shepherd
Russell Cronin as Jude
Thomas Burt as Scott
Dale Wesley as Teenager


NoneSoBlind is an illuminating short play showing the difference between genuine gay relationships and manipulative pedophilia. 

It raises difficult questions.  Is Mr Shepherd strictly speaking a pedophile (as defined in Wikipedia “Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children”) because he claims his behaviour is an uncontrollable obsession?

But, because his focus is on teenage boys who, he claims, are sixteen and willing to be paid, should we see him as Jude ultimately does as a fraud who uses young gay men purely for his own gratification? 

In the small confines of The Living Room, with the limited audience sitting almost in the acting space, the playing out of Jude’s middle class attempts to do the right thing by this old blind man demanding help, while working out his relationship with working-class Scott, and by chance observing Mr Shepherd in a sexual encounter with a teenager, the play is confronting.  When violence ensues, barely two metres from my seat, it is quite simply shocking.

When the story was revealed, by Jude’s insistent questioning, about how Mr Shepherd was blinded by his gay partner; and then when Scott reveals his abuse as a child by ‘friends of the family’ – and explains how he recognises that he is manipulating Jude to sustain his love – the complexity of Garreth Cruikshank’s writing becomes apparent.

Martin Portus successfully plays Mr Shepherd’s demands and sly manoeuvres, using his old age and blindness, against the truth that he is psychologically disturbed and did grow up in the past when homosexuality was a crime, and had to be hidden and kept secretive. 

Though he abuses others, he is also the victim of abuse – by social attitudes and the law, and by the attack in which he, an art teacher and sculptor, being blinded, lost his one opportunity to achieve positive recognition.  As he points out, many famous artists, like Michelangelo,  and philosophers, like Sophocles, were homosexuals like him.  I thought of Joe Orton murdered by Kenneth Halliwell, in their Islington flat in 1967. 

Capturing this complexity and our changing feelings for and against Mr Shepherd was a major achievement for Martin Portus.  And, though his was the role central to the issues in the play, the quality of his acting was thoroughly backed by Russell Cronin as Jude, who plays our representative in this drama.  He asks all the questions of both Mr Shepherd and his partner Scott in their developing relationship that we are asking ourselves.  Thomas Burt in that role shows us how modern understanding is changing, while Scott’s backstory shows us how much further there is to go.   Both younger generation actors, in their intense emotional reactions, make us understand their feelings – and wonder how we would go in their circumstances.

Being in the Fringe Festival means only small-scale financial support, not including funds to pay everyone or even pay for rehearsal space.  Set, props, lights and sound equipment are minimal.  Yet the directing and design worked very well in creating the three areas needed: in the street outside Mr Shepherd’s flat, inside his kitchen, and along the street to Scott’s dining table.

So to conclude, I saw NoneSoBlind as a successful production of an important play, which needs now to be taken further afield.  Perhaps Dark Pony, a very new outfit headed by Susan Jordan, can work in cooperation with Creative Partnerships Australia (see my commentary on this blog 15 May 2019) to build support, perhaps for touring this production and for developing a continuing program. 

Exquisite guitar work accompanies soaring baritone Carbó

The José Carbó Trio

José Carbó - baritone

Andrew Blanch - guitar

Ariel Nurhadi - guitar

Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest ACT

September 22, 2019

by Tony Magee

WHEN Franz Schubert set the poems of Goethe, Schiller and Müller to music, he frequently used the opportunity to create more of the piano part than simply a pretty accompaniment to a singer’s voice. The piano could also be a character in the story, sometimes an implement, or even a force from nature.

In Der Erlkönig (Goethe), the piano represents a galloping horse, thundering through the night. On board are a father, clutching his desperately sick child. Together, the three urgently speed for the nearest medical help.

The singer has to portray four different characters in the lyric. The father, the son, the narrator and also, tragically, death calling to the boy.

All this, when played properly, delivers one of the most captivating pieces of music of the Romantic vocal repertoire.

So closed the first half of a brilliant concert by the José Carbó Trio at Wesley Church, Saturday last.

In arranging the piano accompaniment for two guitars, Andrew Blanch and Ariel Nurhadi took on one of the most difficult musical challenges imaginable, something which baritone José Carbó talked at length about before they performed the piece. 

Musically, the playing was sublime and provided an exquisite base over which señor Carbó sang the four characters so well, one could easily distinguish who was who, aided by his impeccable German diction.

L-R: Ariel Nurhadi, José Carbó & Andrew Blanch. Photo: Will Perez Ronderos

The duo guitars don’t quite capture the thundering hooves of the horse, however they bring to the piece a fresh new vibrancy, in which the pianistic sense of urgency is replaced by multiple senses of serenity, calm, forboding and deception.

I think there is more to explore right at the end, as the guitars really need to portray the horse pulling up to a stop - they have arrived. Devastatingly, the singer mournfully and slowly reveals: “In seinen Armen das Kind war tot.” - In his arms, the child was dead.

The trio closed the concert with a powerful and stirring rendition of the aria “Cortigiani vil razza dannata” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto”. Carbó’s voice filled the church voluminously and presented the audience with a climactic finish that elicited rapturous applause from the near capacity audience.

Also on the program were the songs of Gluck, Debussy, Faure, de Falla, Hahn and Tosti. In all these cases, the arrangements are by the trio, reduced from orchestrations or piano accompaniments and translated into the most exquisite duo guitar settings, providing José Carbó with a sound wash almost as a cushion of clouds, over which his pure voice floats in heavenly motion.

The combination is unique and the quality is such that the three could be placed on a stage anywhere in the world and receive ovations of delight. In particular, there is scope for an entire Schubert lieder recital. A huge amount of work obviously for guitarists Blanch and Nurhadi, but one which would present the world with a new, refreshing and unique insight into some of the most stunning poetry, melodies and accompaniments in the history of literature and music.

Violin Favourites - Musica da Camera

Violin Favourites

Musica da Camera

Holy Covenant Anglican Church, Cook, 

September 21,  2019

by Tony Magee

Musica da Camera with soloists Madeleine Retter and Sam Jenkin.
Photo: Tony Magee

MAX BRUCH'S “Concerto No. 1, Op. 26 for Violin and Orchestra” presented a challenging opening for Musica da Camera and 16 year old violin soloist Sam Jenkin, one which they pulled of successfully.

Beginning with a tentative orchestral wash, almost as if someone is whispering a secret, Jenkin emerged with a violin cadenza opening of heartfelt passion. There was much to enjoy along the way, particularly strong support from the four cellos and single double bass in an extended orchestral interlude. 

Whilst there were various intonation problems here and there, the work came to a secure conclusion with Jenkin again stating the cadenza theme, this time with flourishes and embellishments of great feeling, with all the players coming together with a final chord beautifully in tune.

A Percy Grainger coupling followed. In “Irish Tune from County Derry”, the theme was stated with feeling and grace by the cello and viola sections and later taken over by first and second violins. In “Molly on the Shore”, which bears some similarity to Britten’s “Simple Symphony”, the ensemble displayed fine dynamics with effective pizzicato work from cellos and double bass.

“St Paul’s Suite” by Gustav Holst revealed enthusiastic and robust playing from the entire chamber orchestra, with good balance between the sections. Second violins played an effective ostinato during the second movement and in the third “Intermezzo” section, sweeping solo violin passages, played with confidence and style by leader Madeleine Retter, were infused with the entire first violin section most effectively and with precision.

Samuel Barber’s most famous piece, “Adagio for Strings” opened the second half of the concert. The ensemble managed to capture the increasing dynamics of the piece, beginning with a sad, quiet, but enveloping opening and increasing slowly to a climax of forte in the high registers of all the string instruments. Often used at US state funerals, the piece finishes on an optimistic major dominant chord of gentleness - something which Musica da Camera clearly felt and played with sensitivity.

To close, the engaging and hugely popular “Concerto for two violins in D minor” by Sebastian Bach. Sam Jenkin joined Madeleine Retter and the two soloists swept the piece along with the ensemble sometimes scrambling to catch up. A most engaging performance, where Retter and Jenkin played together with confidence, delivering a robust tone with intelligent phrasing and balance.

In this, as with all the pieces, one thing that needs to be addressed is the relationship between the players and their leaders, both within each section and the orchestra as a whole. This would fix the rhythmic and tempo inaccuracies which sometimes occurred. In addition, Retter needs to display a more commanding presence as leader, with body language, bow gestures and eyes.

This mixed aged group ensemble put their all into this concert and delighted the audience from start to finish. A creditable effort from an enthusiastic group who adore fine music.

First published in City News Digital Edition, September 22, 2019

L'HEURE EXQUISE

The José Carbó Trio

José Carbó (baritone)

Andrew Blanch and Ariel Nurhadi (classical guitars)

Art Song Canberra

Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest 22 September

Reviewed by Len Power

With ‘L’Heure Exquise’, the premier Australian baritone, José Carbó, joined with emerging classical guitarists Andrew Blanch and Ariel Nurhadi to present a wide ranging program of classical works that, for the most part, had never been heard with a guitar accompaniment.  The trio first appeared together at Canberra’s 2015 Voices In The Forest concert.

Helpmann Award-winning baritone, José Carbó, has performed in major opera houses internationally.  He has recently been seen in a new production of ‘Tosca’ for Opera Queensland and in Graeme Murphy’s new production of ‘Madama Butterfly’ at the Sydney Opera House for Opera Australia.

Andrew Blanch is recognised as one of Australia’s leading young classical guitarists.  Since making his solo debut in 2017 at the Sydney Opera House, he has had a busy career performing internationally.  Ariel Nurhadi is a Sydney-based classical guitarist who has performed in concert around Australia.  Both he and Andrew Blanch are graduates of Timothy Kain’s renowned guitar class at the Australian National University.

Their concert featured music by Schubert, Fauré, Debussy, De Falla, Verdi and others.  Carbó’s and the guitarists’ relaxed manner and interaction with the audience gave the concert a welcome intimacy.

Opening with ‘O my sweet ardour’ by Christoph Gluck, José Carbó’s performance was full of romance and longing, perfectly complemented by the beautiful guitar arrangement.  Other works sung superbly by Carbó included a haunting ‘Romance’ by Debussy and ‘The Curious One’ by Schubert with its very moving final verse sung with quiet sensitivity.  Schubert’s nightmarish ‘The Eriking’ was given a well-paced, dramatic delivery and the highlight of the concert was a set of Spanish songs by Manuel de Falla which Carbó performed magnificently.

From left: Ariel Nurhadi, Andrew Blanch and José Carbó

The two guitarists demonstrated their extraordinary skills with performances of three very different works by Rameau, Gnattali and Piazzolla.  Watching these superb artists playing the most complex passages in these works was breath-taking.

The program finished with José Carbó singing ‘Cortigiani vil razza dannata’ from Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’.  His powerful voice and acting ability demonstrated why he is one of Australia’s foremost opera singers.  Although normally sung with a full orchestra, the accompaniment arranged by the trio for guitar was fascinating and honoured Verdi’s original work.

Once again, Art Song Canberra provided a unique and compelling concert.

Photo by Peter Hislop

 

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.

ANU + CYO COLLABORATION CONCERT

Conducted by Max McBride

Llewellyn Hall 22 September

Reviewed by Len Power

If you like variety in your classical music, this was your dream concert.

A collaboration between the ANU School of Music (ANU) and Canberra Youth Orchestra (CYO), the concert featured works by ANU composers Kim Cunio, Frank Millward, Chris Sainsbury, Alexander Hunter and Chloe Sinclair.

In addition, there was also a performance by this year’s CYO Concerto Competition winner, Nicholas Hilderson, on clarinet.  Also performing were 4 members of Wild Voices Music Theatre and soprano, Katrina Wiseman.

Bringing it all together was returning conductor, Max McBride, who conducted the CYO for 17 years from 1992 to 2008.

The CYO concerto competition had 14 competitors this year from around Canberra and regional New South Wales.  The winner, clarinet player Nicholas Hilderson, opened the concert with a performance of the Clarinet Concerto No. 2 by Carl Maria von Weber with the orchestra.  This demanding work was a fine showcase for Hilderson, who played with skill and accuracy.  He was particularly impressive with his emotive playing of the second ‘Romanza’ movement.

From left: Conductor - Max McBride, Composers - Frank Millward, Alexander Hunter, Chris Sainsbury, Chloe Sinclair, Clarinet Soloist - Nicholas Hilderson

The concerto was followed by five works by ANU composers.  Each work was quite distinctive.  Taking its cue from the Scottish Gaelic word for ‘weaving’, ‘Figheadairreachd’ by Alexander Hunter was a colourful and atmospheric work that was well-played by the orchestra.

Chris Sainsbury’s ‘Beach Holiday’, described as ‘orchestral surf music’, deftly evoked a recognizable sense of summer and Australian beaches in its epic and dramatic soundscape.  Frank Millward’s ‘Alice’s Common Sense Suite’ was as delightfully quirky as the Lewis Carroll character that inspired it.  All dressed identically as Alice in Wonderland, four singers from Wild Voices Music Theatre – Rachael Edwards, Leyla Papp, Olivia Skazlic and Eleanor Tehan – performed the nicely melodic vocal parts of this work very well.

The Alices: Rachael Edwards, Leyla Papp, Olivia Skazic, Eleanor Tehan

‘Autonomy’ by Chloe Sinclair, was an edgy work that was nicely unpredictable in its direction.  At times melodic, lush and with repetitive rhythms, it was well-played by the orchestra.  Kim Cunio’s ’21 Mantras for Tara’ was a beautiful, soaring work that had its origins in the harmonic chanting of Tibetan monks.  Max McBride played double bass to represent the low-key chanting of the monks as well as conducting the orchestra.  Katrina Wiseman gave a hauntingly beautiful performance of the soprano part of this work.

Soprano: Katrina Wiseman

The concert concluded with a spirited performance by the orchestra of Richard Wagner’s demanding overture from his opera, ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’.

 Photos by Peter Hislop

 

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.

Spencer

Spencer by Katy Warner.  Presented by Lab Kelpie at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, September 19-21, 2019

Director – Sharon Davis; Designers – Rob Sowinski and Bryn Cullen; Stage and Production Manager – Tanje Ruddick; Photo by Pier Carthew

Reviewed by Frank McKone
September 21

The play is an excruciating embarrassing success.  But you certainly could not call the extended family, into which the two-year-old Spencer is about to be welcomed, an embarrassment of riches.  If you were to draw up a family tree for Marilyn, Ian and their sons Ben and Scott, and their daughter Jules, it might look rather farcical. 

Yet author Katy Warner keeps us very cleverly right on the edge, balanced between farce and comedy.  Then, almost against our expectations, the story of the young up-and-coming footballer who couldn’t remember or even recognise which was the girl, among many, who has become the mother of his son – that story becomes sad, and has something significant to say about our society.

For a nation-wide tour to lots of smaller performing spaces, the designers have put together an amazingly effective set centred on the family lounge room; even down to the banging-shut screen door out in the hallway.  With the props, including things that pop-up among welcome decorations that make a huge mess, I wonder what size truck they have to fold it all into.

The casting and the resulting performances were spot-on.  Lyall Brooks as Ben, the elder son who has never grown up, is quite extraordinary.  The manic unloveable sexist larrikin kids’ football coach is a character ripe for over-playing.  Brooks makes Ben almost believable. 

Fiona Harris plays the eldest, Julia – always “Jules” in this drinking swearing family on the outer edge of Melbourne suburbs – with a dignity.  She has a sense of how her life could have gone if she had been able to work in fashion design; yet knows she is somehow held back.  I felt some hope by the end that she will find a way out.

Ian, the father who left when the uncomprehending children were small, is played by Roger Oakley with a subtle kind of knowingness while pretending naïvety.  He captures perfectly the frustrating nature of this man from the point of view of young women like Marilyn, when he married her, and the one who has just left him, taking his children with her to Queensland (2000 kilometres away).  So, says Ben, she couldn’t even stay in the same state!

To Jane Clifton as Marilyn and Jamieson Caldwell as her youngest son Scott get my special accolades for character development. 

Caldwell shows us Scott apparently in relaxed mode as Ben chivvies him in the opening scene; but bit by bit we cotton on, as his sister does, that he is hiding depression and guilt for the way he had treated Spencer’s mother.  As we come to understand him, the farcical nature of his surrounding family takes on new meaning.  His past behaviour towards women raises our attention to all those news reports of sports athletes in court; and his sense of guilt and pride in wanting to have his unexpected son welcomed, and his decision to drop a promising professional career in football, offers hope for positive change.

Clifton gives us an absolutely realistic Marilyn: the mother doing her very best to keep everything going from the days when when she certainly did not hate Ian (Julia asked her about that); through separation and another man, now also departed, to be her children’s Dad; while keeping faith always for Scott’s success. 

Her swearing, drinking and smoking may cause us to laugh – until Jane Clifton turns the table on us with Marilyn’s speech saying sorry to her children.  The words may have been written by Katy Warner, but it is Jane Clifton who makes us understand.

Spencer, then, is not laugh-out-loud comedy: quite remarkably it is laugh-along-with comedy because it is full of the typically Australian chiacking – the teasing put-down intra-family way of keeping up not only the appearance of continuing fun, but even the reality of love.  And in the great Australian cartoon tradition, we keep laughing while we quote from Stan Cross: “For gorsake stop laughing: this is serious!”



LAB KELPIE – An Australian New Writing Theatre Company is a “not-for-profit organisation with a board of experienced and passionate industry professionals [who] are strong advocates of new writing and aim to support Australian playwrights by developing, presenting, touring and publishing their work…”


]

The Irresistible

The Irresistible.  Side Pony Productions and The Last Great Hunt at Canberra Theatre Centre, The Playhouse, September 20-21, 2019.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
September 21

On overnight reflection on my initial response – that The Irresistible is the most boring theatre work I have seen for a long time – I think I have worked out at least what was the intention.  It’s a new kind of theatre which I dub Metaphoric Obscurantism.

Even the cast and creatives are hidden, since we were not presented with a program, until you search online.  Here they are at https://www.artsontour.com.au/tours/irresistible/

Director: Zoe Pepper
Writers: Zoe Pepper, Adriane Daff and Tim Watts
Performers: Adriane Daff and Tim Watts
Designer (Set & Costume): Jonathon Oxlade
Composer: Ash Gibson Greig
Sound Design: Phil Downing
Lighting Design: Richard Vabre

The metaphor seems to be that a young couple (perhaps married, but at least in a relationship) are represented as the pilot (male) and co-pilot (female) of a plane which crashes.  The backstory seems to be about the woman, when aged about 12, having been left by her sister Bridget to walk home alone through a park where she was followed by a man.  Though apparently nothing actually happened, the woman was (justifiably) frightened. 

How this was connected to a more immediate story about going to an airport to pick up a child (who may have been Bridget’s daughter, though I was never sure of this) seemed to be that the woman’s intention to care for the child became the source of raging conflict with her husband – who at one point raves at her in the foulest of language for several minutes.  I took this to be an example of at least verbal abuse of women.  Perhaps the plane crashing was meant to be a symbol of the violence and failure of men to understand women’s needs – as sisters and carers.  Her insistent concerns seemed to prevent him, during interminable bouts of rage, from getting on with the job of piloting. 

Whether we were meant to blame him or her for the crash, I couldn’t work out.

The production was obscure often to the point of incomprehension, especially because the two actors (behind a plastic screen) were using microphones which often (deliberately) distorted their voices.  Either of them at any one point could sound like the woman, the man, Bridget or the young child, in between announcements by either of them as pilots to their passengers.  Were we meant to be the passengers on this ill-fated plane?  Perhaps.  (I have to disclosure my generation gap here.  Picking up and understanding distorted high frequency sound is difficult through hearing aids.)

I began to wonder if the actors were miming to a pre-recorded sound track.  Their performances were amazingly detailed in physical movement, but entirely cold in terms of emotional response with us.  For me, theatre is about living communication between the actors, through their characters, with us in the audience. 

Watching this show was alienating in its normal meaning during the performance; at best, as my overnight reflection suggests, I could see it as a more modern form of expressionism with the intention to create distancing effect (Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt).

But where Brecht’s plays engaged us in progressive understanding while we watch an unfolding story, The Irresistible is just a plane crash.  Resistible, in my case.