A Chatroom of Critics with Mark Shenton

A Chatroom of Critics with Mark Shenton, at ACT Writers’ Centre, March 13, 2011

An Unreview by Frank McKone

Mark Shenton is a full-time theatre critic and journalist, writing a weekly review column for the Sunday Express and daily blog for The Stage. He has hosted regular platforms at the National Theatre, including an onstage interview with Stephen Sondheim. He has written liner notes for a number of original cast albums, including the West End recording of Chicago. Mark was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, came to London when he was 16 and has never looked back. He read law at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and now lives in Borough, five minutes from the South Bank
guardian.co.uk (accessed 13 March 2011)

Mark is also Chair of the Drama Section of The Critics’ Circle, based in London but with members from all over the UK.  He has a special passion for cabaret, in common with Canberra’s Bill Stephens who invited him to call in for an informal chat with the Canberra Critics’ Circle en his route between Melbourne and Sydney.

Though we reviewers give awards to the best artists, which means in London that the Drama Awards are presented in a major theatre and attract “everyone” in the theatre industry, there was consensus that the best critics, whoever they are, should not receive awards.  This is why my report of a very entertaining couple of hours is not a review.

In fact it became clear that critics may not receive any rewards in the near future.  Mark commented on the decline in newspaper sales as blogging and tweeting become the new outlets for critical commentary.  Unless the Murdoch paywall approach is taken up by many other publishers, who will pay professional critics to blog?

Indeed, what is a professional critic?  To be accepted as a member of The Critics’ Circle you must have a history of paid-for reviews over at least the previous two years.  But when even a London newspaper reviewer writes, as Mark reported to us, about “blacking up” Iago in an argument against “political correctness”, I had to wonder who killed Othello?  As newspapers struggle financially who will they pay to write reviews?  Not the writers with experience and detailed knowledge of their specialist art forms, apparently.

Should reviews be mere entertainments?  And therefore short?  Of course not, but we discussed the difficult skill of writing briefly to the point, rather than boringly too long.  Which means I will cut the several dozen other topics we discussed, even though this is an Unreview, and thank Mark Shenton for giving us a sense of what it is like to be a freelance reviewer in a city where 55 new shows opened in January, a low season in London’s theatrical year.

The success of this evening suggests finding further visitors for future Canberra Critics’ Circle self-improvement occasions.  Please contact Helen Musa at CityNews with ideas: helen@citynews.com.au .

To catch up with Mark Shenton, check his blog in The Stage at
http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/shenton/2011/03/oz-connections/index.html

Tuesdays with Morrie by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom

Tuesdays with Morrie by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom.  Ensemble Theatre directed by Mark Kilmurry at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, March 10-12, 2011.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
March 10

I have to eat humble pie tonight.  Each of us responds to what we see from our own different perspectives. 

Watching this play in my role as theatre critic, I saw a predictable moralistic sentimental story using the death of Professor Morrie Schwartz from Lou Gehrig’s disease as a contrived device, sugar-coated with carefully managed laughs.

I also saw a production highly skilfully designed, directed and acted.  Daniel Mitchell faced a difficult task to avoid over-playing the Professor, but maintained a disciplined balance between making the inevitable one-liners into cartoon jokes and playing the physical horror of the disease for the horror rather than empathy.  Glenn Hazeldine, as Mitch Albom, who wrote the original story that the play was developed from, had to switch regularly between playing Mitch as if in a realistic relationship with Morrie – every Tuesday – and playing Albom, the narrator of his story.   By using stylised posture, movement and voice, Hazeldine clearly delineated each role.  What otherwise might have been a repetitive series of question and answer in a lesser actor became a dramatic dialectic, giving the play more appearance of depth than the content of the text deserves.

However, for most of the audience – senior students from the two Canberra Grammar Schools – my perspective was well outside of the range of their radar.  Their attention was focussed in the immediate heat of the emotion, not the distant cool of criticism.  They were bubbling with excitement in the foyer beforehand anticipating seeing Sydney actors perform the play they had been working on.  The actors’ skills did not disappoint.  The young absorbed the performance as if it were music, directly responding with laughter, shock and tears, as well as a resounding standing ovation for the actors at curtain call.  For them this was great theatre, and who am I to deny their experience?

Like Mitch, who failed to “keep in touch” with his favourite professor for 16 years, I have not taught College students for 16 years and realised tonight how much I have become out of touch with the immediacy of people’s feelings at that transition from teenage to adulthood.  Tuesdays with Morrie may not be my play, but this production certainly made it this audience’s dramatic experience.  The Q is to be congratulated for including it in this year’s program, and I hope it foreshadows more Ensemble productions in future.

My Imaginary Family written and performed by Grahame Bond

My Imaginary Family written and performed by Grahame Bond.  Directed by Maurice Murphy at The Street Theatre, March 4 – 26, 2011.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
March 4

After he presented the eulogy at his mother’s funeral, Bond says, his doctor approached him saying, “I think you need help.”  Bond’s unspoken response, he tells us, was to reject criticism, as if the doctor were about to be a critic of his performance.  In fact, it was an offer of grief counselling, which Bond accepted and found of great value.

This story, about his real family – not the family of imaginary characters he has created as a writer-performer – makes my task as a critic of his show one of a delicate balance.  For the creator of characters, like Aunty Jack and Kev Kavanagh, to perform himself is like jumping off a real cliff and trusting that his imagination will make him fly.  It’s a risk that most actors only take in the company of a Michael Parkinson.  In this single hander, Bond plays himself, tells stories about himself, sings songs he wrote (often in company with Rory O’Donahue and Jim Burnett), moving in and out of roles he created, while also filling the Parkinson “interviewer” role of linking us watching with the person being “interviewed.”

Being Grahame Bond also inevitably meant a tendency to interact directly with his audience, so I was not surprised that keeping all these balls juggling in the intimate space of The Street 2 led him to lose his scripted lines at one point early in the show.  This was, I believe, the very first performance, and trajectories came into better unison as the 90 minute show progressed.  There were strong moments of both satire and emotion, both integrated in the horrifying highlight story of the 1980 New Year’s Eve at the Opera House.

For my generation whose adult lives have run alongside Grahame Bond’s, the stories behind the creation of Aunty Jack et al are of genuine interest.  I was always aware of the satire, but the characters and style seemed to appear out of thin air with Thin Arthur around 1970.  There was nothing quite like them in the Australian tradition, yet Aunty Jack, Flash Nick from Jindavick and Wollongong the Brave were as Australian as all get out.  Perhaps they were parallel to the British Not the Nine O’Clock News, Monty Python, and The Goodies, and indeed Bond did take his work to London Weekend Television in Not the Aunty Jack Show. 

I’m not sure what young people today will make of My Imaginary Family but it runs through the Canberra Festival and bookings are already going well.  It will be a good test for “The stories of a ‘Jack of all Trades’ and the backing songs of his life.”

Nixon in China . Reviewed by Malcolm Miller

NIXON IN CHINA

Three performances at the Dendy Cinema, February 26 and 27 and March 3, 2011.

Reviewed by Malcolm Miller

As part of the New York Metropolitan Opera’s  “Live in HD” series of operas for cinemas  with  appropriate facilities, this relatively unknown  (in Australia) but well–developed performance brought a notable modern opera to Canberra cinemagoers.  Based on the historic visit of President Richard Nixon, played by James Maddelena, in 1972, it presents a partly newsreel view and a partly fantasy one of a China in the throes of enormous change.  Janis Kelly as Pat Nixon was frighteningly realistic, especially in the aria where she tells us that she is a poor  girl  who never looks back.  Her intense commitment to her husband, and her compassion for others shine through.

Henry Kissinger  as Secretary of State accompanied Nixon.  His role in the opera  is a low key one which does not flatter the cunning statesman.  In contrast, the actor Richard Paul Fink who plays him also plays a part in a fantastic version of the real ballet, ‘The Red Detachment of Women’, in the second act.  As a singer he admits that this was ‘hard work’!

The strongest role was that of Chou En–Lai, depicted by Russell Braun as a cultivated and politically sagacious leader.  In contrast to him was the role of Madame Mao, played with passion by coloratura soprano Kathleen Kim. 

The part of the ageing, almost dying Chairman Mao taken by Robert Brubaker, showed us a once great man, now finding  consolation in philosophy. 

To me as one who lived through these events, the depiction of Nixon , eager for his re–election and excited about the news value of his daring trip, was very true to life.

  We owe a great deal to the ‘Met’ and its generous sponsors, and to the Dendy, for making it possible for us to see this and other magnificent productions  without  having the enormous expense of a trip to New York plus the cost of a Met Opera ticket!

Little GEM reviewed by Malcolm Miller

Little GEM  by Elaine Murphy, reviewed 

by Malcolm Miller.

Showing 1 – 5 March 2011 at The Playhouse

This play has received many awards since it appeared at the Dublin Fringe Festival  in 2008, and we are fortunate that it has been brought here for us to see by Arts Projects Australia and Guna Nua Theatre. 

On a deceptively simple set, three women sit in chairs.  Each in turn is lighted and gives us part of her story as a monologue of about ten minutes.  It took me about five minutes before I could attune my ears to the Irish accents; after that I was delighted  by the sound. 

The women are three  generations  of  the family of James, known as ‘Gem’; his wife Kay, daughter Lorraine, and granddaughter Amber.  Birth and death, life and love are the ingredients  which combine into a rich domestic portrait of a family with its dramas and frustrations.  Former footballer Gem is dying, and his wife Kay is physically discomforted by the absence of sex in her life, but tempted to acquire a fancy vibrator recommended by a friend.  Although she can never bring herself to use it, it figures in the story.  Lorraine has trouble with a harassing customer at work, and is sent by her boss for psychiatric treatment.  Amber is adventurous and inclined to recklessness with  drink, drugs and sex. 

Amber’s pregnancy coincides with  her lover’s sudden  departure for Australia, but the result, the Little Gem of the title, arrives in time to delight his grandfather before he dies.   Lorraine finds an admirer who takes her to Paris, and Kay has comic misadventure with her sex aid called Kermit.

A night of humour, strength, courage  and  honesty ends bravely with an ‘HEA’ or happy ever after when the errant lover returns from Australia, and the family of three women and the Little Gem affirm their unity.

OKLAHOMA!

OKLAHOMA!

Reviewed by Malcolm Miller

Free–Rain Theatre Copmpany,

Q Theatre, Queanbeyan.

Opening 11^th  February, 2011.

“Oklahoma!’ is one of those musicals which has joined earlier greats as a show which seems never to lose its popular appeal.  Free–Rain’s current production at the Q Theatre succeeds admirably in its depiction of the vigour and passions of rural Americans in the late nineteenth century.  A lively orchestra struck the authentic theatrical style under the direction of Leisa Keen.  A minimalist but effective set was designed by Wayne Shepherd and left plenty of open space for the cast’s dancers to show off their skills and Lisa Buckley’s excellent choreography.  Costumes by Fiona Leach contributed to the feeling of the period and the pioneering environment. 

The opening gave us  well–loved veteran trouper Barbara Denham alone on stage as Aunt Eller , soon joined by Jenna Roberts as Laurey, Dave Evans as cowboy  Curly, and Mathew Chardon O’Dea as the rodeo star who has just won a prize in Kansas City.  The songs “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”, ‘The Surrey With The Fringe on Top”  and “Kansas City” soon have the audience thrilled, and they’re followed by “I Cain’t Say No” by Amy Dunham as Ado Annie. 

Soon we are delighted by Tony Falla playing the Persian pedlar, Ali Hakim with a mixture of lugubriousness and lust, as he shows off his wares and is compelled by Ado Annie’s father, at the point of a gun, to say that he’ll marry her.  A comedic role played to perfection by this experienced performer.

Familiar songs and dancing follow, with gems like “People Will Say We’re in Love” before we meet the villain of the piece, played with tremendous power by David Spence as Jud, the brutish hired help on the farm. 

The second act centres around the community’s auction of the girls’ food boxes, the wedding of Curly and Laurey, and Hakim’s escape from the shotgun wedding. The appearance of Jud and his fatal fight with Curly always brings a jarring black note for me to this otherwise purely romantic musical, but its resolution is part of the show and consistent with the whole story.

Otherwise excellent and unobtrusive lighting was spoiled for me by wobbly follow–spot aiming.  I know this is difficult, having done it myself, but any loss of aim is terribly conspicuous.

Free–Rain is to be congratulated on this pleasing version of what has become one of the classic musicals. 

THE BOY FROM OZ

The Production Company, State Theatre,
Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne.
Return seasons: Melbourne VAC, 9 to 13th February 2011 ,
Sydney Capitol Theatre 2 to 17 March 2011.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens.

If you missed out on seeing Todd McKenney create the role of Peter Allen in the original 1998 production of "The Boy From Oz" then you missed out on experiencing a career-defining performance which is now Australian theatrical folklore. McKenney's performance as Australian entertainer, Peter Allen, in that original production, is the one by which all other interpreter's of this role are measured.

When The Production Company announced that it would stage a concert version of "The Boy From Oz" in Melbourne in August 2010, and that McKenney would reprise his performance, little wonder that the season sold out even before it had opened. A two week encore season was quickly arranged in the Victorian Arts Centre in January 2011.

It was an opportunity too good to miss, so we made our way to Melbourne to attend, what was to have been, the final performance of the season. However, after we booked our tickets, such was the demand that a third Melbourne season was announced (February 9th to 13th),  as well as a short Sydney season (March 2nd to 17th).

Not to worry, I was glad to have the opportunity to see the show in Melbourne because even though I had read much about The Production Company's shows, I had never experienced one, so was keen to see this production in its home environment.

I couldn't have been more impressed. Although advertised as "a concert production" the production standards were of the highest order. With a sure hand and bucketloads of theatrical know-how and flair, director Nancye Hayes has staged the show very much in the style of the current production of "Chicago", and it works a treat, allowing Nick Enright's brilliant script to  weave its magic, and Peter Allen's songs to break our hearts and lift our spirits, often at the same time.

Utilising to the full Shaun Gurton's deceptively simple setting, with its large staircase to one side of the stage leading to a high platform behind John Foreman's classy onstage orchestra, Hayes manipulates her large cast almost like mobile scenery, carrying on and off  minimal set-pieces as they move seamlessly between scenes, creating striking tableaus or frenetic dance sequences to illustrate key moments in the story, which her lighting designer, Trudy Dalgleish,embellishes by creating striking environments, sometimes  dazzling, sometimes sombre, always dramatic.

Todd McKenney remains unsurpassable in this role, channelling the spirit of Peter Allen in a performance which is truly remarkable and masterful. He dances superbly and interprets Allen's songs as though they are intimate conversations with his audience. He dominates the stage throughout, but never hogs the limelight,generously sharing key moments with the rest of the cast. The look on his face at one point as he stands aside to admire young Blake O'Leary, as the young Peter Allen, take command of the dazzling line-up of Rockettes, is just one illustration of this. It's a performance to be relished.

The rest of the cast are equally impressive including Christen O'Leary in an elegant portrayal of Judy Garland, Fem Belling dancing up a storm as Liza Minnelli, and Alex Rathgeber, revealling a fine singing voice, excellent presence and a great deal of charm as Peter Allen's partner, Greg Cornell.

Robyn Arthur was in the original Australian cast of "The Boy From Oz". In this production she gets the opportunity to play Peter Allen's mother, Marion Woolnough, which she does, quite movingly, especially in her big song "Don't Cry Out Loud".

As is to be expected from a show directed by Nancye Hayes, the dancing by the large team of well-drilled dancers, is outstanding.  Choreographer, Andrew Hallsworth really understands the dance styles of the period, and in a series of finely honed, beautifully costumed dance numbers, recreates them with obvious affection.

If I have over-used the word "brilliant" in this review, it is because that's the word which constantly comes to mind when I think about this production. While I'll always treasure my memories of Gale Edwards' original  production of this show, Nancye Hayes brilliant new realisation is confimation that you don't need truckloads of expensive scenic affects to create real theatrical magic.