SEAGULL

 

Written by Anton Chekhov

Translated by Karen Vickery

Directed by Caitlin Baker

Presented by Chaika Theatre

ACT Hub Theatre, Kingston to 21 April

 

 

Reviewed by Len Power 10 April 2024

 

Written in 1895 in Russia by Anton Chekhov, his play, “The Seagull”, has developed a classic status over the years, with characters and situations that still resonate with audiences.

An examination of human nature, the play focusses on a group of people who come together in a remote setting. They know each other well but their surface interactions hint at hopes and feelings that become clearer to us as the play progresses. Searching for love and recognition, they mostly find pain and desperation by looking in the wrong places.

In a new translation entitled “Seagull” by Karen Vickery, the setting is contemporary rural Australia. The modern dialogue gives a sense of recognition to the characters without losing any of the subtleties or humour in the text. It is clearly the work of someone who knows the play intimately and Vickery has successfully made it a play that modern Australia, especially, can relate to and embrace.

Caitlin Baker, the director, has set the first half of the play in a simple outdoor setting which relies on the location under the spotlit trees to give it an atmosphere of space and remoteness. The second half plays inside the theatre with a more detailed and conventional setting with old-style furniture, creating a feeling of claustrophobia that suits the intensity of that part of the play.

Amongst the cast, Natasha Vickery is particularly effective as Nina, her nervous, fluttery energy while desperately trying to impress others is endearing and ultimately moving. James McMahon plays the difficult role of Trigorin - enigmatic on the surface with a studied charm that arouses our suspicions. McMahon captures this character very well.

Karen Vickery is a tower of strength as Irina, the fading actress and a selfish, attention-seeking woman. Her desperation at the thought of losing her young lover is both frightening and pathetic. As Konstantin, Joel Horwood is thoroughly believable as a tragic, neurotic young man living in his mother’s shadow. Everyone else in this strong cast bring their characters to life with clarity, depth and colour.

“Seagull” is a success on every level. It’s thoroughly engaging, often funny and, ultimately, very moving.

 

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/.

 

 

ROMANTIC MASTERS

Art Song Canberra

Andrew Goodwin, tenor, Roland Peelman, piano

Wesley Music Centre, Forrest 7 April

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

It was a grey autumn day and the leaves were falling from the trees around the Wesley Music Centre in Forrest. It was the perfect atmosphere for a recital of bitter-sweet romantic songs by Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

In a well-balanced program, Andrew Goodwin, tenor, and Roland Peelman, piano, took us on a romantic journey through Schumann’s Dichterliebe song cycle and five songs each by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. Roland Peelman also performed Schumann’s Arabesque Op 18 and Skriabin’s Etude Op 2, No 1.

Roland Peelman first played Schumann’s Arabesque. This melodic, reflective and romantic work, beautifully played by Peelman, set the mood for the rest of the recital.

Composed in 1840, the 16 songs of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) were set to poems by the German writer, Heinrich Heine.  These beautiful songs tell of the high and low points of a disappointed love, giving the singer an opportunity to express various emotions through the cycle.

Andrew Goodwin gave a sensitive reading of the songs. He was particularly impressive in several of the songs. In Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the wondrous month of May), his excitement as a young man falling in love was very real. The rapid Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Rose, lily, dove, sun) showed his remarkably clear diction and, in Ich Grolle nicht (I bear no grudge), his passionate singing was very moving.

Roland Peelman (piano) and Andrew Goodwin (tenor)

Goodwin studied singing at the St Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia and, with his ability in the Russian language, he was able to bring a strong depth of meaning to his performance of the songs by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

His moving performance of Why? by Tchaikovsky was outstanding and his wistful singing of Rachmaninoff’s Do you remember? was memorable.

It was also fascinating to compare both Tchaikovsky’s and Rachmaninoff’s different settings of Tolstoy’s poem, Do not believe it, my friend. Goodwin nicely brought out the turbulent emotions in the former and the victorious drama of the latter.

Throughout, Roland Peelman accompanied Goodwin superbly, bringing out all of the beauty and depth in these composers’ songs. His solo performances of Schumann’s Arabesque and Skriabin’s Etude were excellent.

The concert concluded with an encore of Goodwin singing L’ultima Canzone, a song by the Italian, Francesco Paolo Tosti. Goodwin’s performance of the song was thrillingly passionate and was the perfect ending to a highly successful concert.

 

Photo by Len Power

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 8 April 2024.

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/.

 

 

HEROIC MASTERWORKS

Edward Neeman, piano

Tuggeranong Arts Centre 6 April 2024

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

Putting together a program that included two “heroic” works by Beethoven and Chopin, plus an autobiographical work of Grieg, the pianist, Edward Neeman, gave a heroic performance that was quite simply exhilarating.

Australian-American pianist Edward Neeman has performed across five continents, holds a Doctorate from the Juilliard School and is currently a piano lecturer at the ANU School of Music.

Beethoven’s “Eroica” Variations was written before his well-known Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica”. The theme for the variations was based on the last movement of his symphony and it was fascinating to hear the wide range of styles in which the theme was presented.

Beethoven dedicated his “Eroica” Symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte and his anti-monarchic government, only to cross out the dedication in a rage when Napoleon declared himself emperor.

Edward Neeman

Neeman’s performance of the Variations was full of energy and colour and, being so close to the artist in the small Tuggeranong Arts Centre theatre, there was the opportunity to see the complexity of the playing that the work required. It was a thoughtful and memorable performance.

The next item on the program, Grieg’s Ballade, was a subdued, melancholic work that seemed autobiographical.  There were echoes of homesickness for his beloved Norwegian homeland as well as the influence of the time of his musical education in Germany. Neeman’s sensitive playing brought out the emotional depth in this work.

The third item on the program was the well-known “Heroic” Polonaise by Chopin, a work that was also linked with revolution. His lover, the French novelist George Sand, declared that she felt a deep symbolic connection between this polonaise and the 1848 French Revolution.

Neeman gave this work a precise and bright performance that underlined the heroic themes that stir the emotions. It was the perfect end to a superb recital.

Or so we thought…

For an encore, Neeman invited his wife, Stephanie, also a brilliant pianist, to the stage and together, they played a four-hand arrangement of William Bolcom’s 1969 piece, The Serpent’s Kiss, a ragtime inspired work that told the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

This unique work was given a playful and thoroughly enjoyable performance by the Neemans, complete with foot-stamping, piano-slapping, unexpected vocalising and physical comedy. It was a delightful conclusion to this heroic concert.

 

Photo by Cassidy Richens

 

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 7 April 2024.

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/.

 

EMMA DONOVAN

 

 

Emma Donovan. 

HIT Productions. Featuring Emma Donovan with musicians David Tweedie and James Gilligan. The Q’s Bicentennial Hall. April 5 2024’

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Emma Donovan entered the stage with a smile that instantly captures the heart.. She exudes warmth as she greets the audience and approaches the microphone to begin the evening’s performance at the Q Theatre’s Bicentennial Hall in Queanbeyan. Joined by musicians David Tweedie on guitar and James Gilligan on slide guitar Donovan launches into a repertoire that is both diverse and inescapably compelling. Here is a singer whose voice charts 65,000 years of culture and tradition, whose songs echo the love and the longing, the suffering and the sacrifice, the personal and the political and the inspiration of her Noongar and Gumbaynggirr ancestors and family. Donovan is the chameleon of song, morphing from soul to rhythm and blues, from country to gospel and folk. Her vocal intensity is a powerhouse of emotion and conviction from the familiar Blak Nation to a prediction for our times Change is a Coming. In two weeks Donovan will launch her latest album Til My Song is Done, which is a testament to her energy, her passion and her connection to her indigenous heritage and her immediate rapport with audiences fortunate enough to share a night with an artist of exceptional talent and the ability to reach out and draw an audience into her unique ability to make the eclectic mix of styles her own. While acknowledging the debt to people like Uncle Archie Roach and Aunie Ruby Hunter or Paul Kelly her performance retains an individuality. Even her full throttled rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water brings an entirely new sound and rhythm to a song that speaks to the defiant voice of a strong and resilient descendant of her singer/songwriter father and grandfather and the musical members of the Donovan family.

It appears that Donovan’s song will never be done. “We’ve got all night” shouts a member of the audience. Donovan has already run about twenty minutes over the seventy-minute advertised time, but her audience could indeed sit and be swayed by their capitulation to songs that speak to the heart and to the soul.

With only Tweedie and Gilligan on stage with her to provide the musical accompaniment and occasional vocal backings, Donovan’s amazing voice and radiant personality were allowed to shine and the audience became mesmerised by her songs. The Bicentennial Hall is probably appropriate for an artist on a regional tour, but I kept hoping for a more theatrical and intimate venue. A low level of house lighting would also have given a stronger sense of shared community. Donovan sings of family, community and the relationship between her and her audience.

As a postscript, Donovan will be presenting her album launch, Til My Song is Done at Virginia Kay’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival on June 24^th in the Dunstan Playhouse. If you are in Adelaide at this time don’t miss the concert that is sure to take the festival by storm.   

Potted Potter

 

 Potted Potter by Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner.  Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, April 3 – 7, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Opening Night April 4

Creatives
Writers and Co-creators: Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner
Director: Richard Hurst; Associate Director: Hanna Berrigan
Designer: Simon Scullion
Lighting Designer: Tim Mascall; Composer: Phil Innes
Production Relighter: Andrew Haden; Line Producer: Jared Harford
Producer: James Seabright


Cast
Scott Hoatson (as “Scott” playing Harry Potter and others)
Brendan Murphy (as “Brendan” playing Voldemort and all the others)
Alternate: Jacob Jackson



The most serious thing I can say about the ‘parody’ of all seven Harry Potter books in seventy minutes is that it’s just too funny for words.  This may make my review seem as silly as the show itself – except that Potted Potter is not as silly as it looks.

Written by the British equivalents of our ABC’s Playschool presenters, known on the Children’s BBC as Dan and Jeff, behind the entertainment of the whole theatre audience excitedly playing Quidditch and the whole show being “A fabulously funny parody [which] will tickle the funny bone of every age group” (as the London Daily Telegraph puts it), it’s very clear if you think about it that Clarkson and Turner have two intentions.

The first is educational for the younger readers.  The show makes the acceptance of violence and death so ridiculous that it takes on the quality of that old cartoon “Stop laughing.  This is serious”.

For the grown-ups there is the final song “We will survive” with the line “She will survive!”  

Played with a Scottish accent, Scott as “Scott” admits he has lied about knowing J.K.Rowling personally.  This had made Brendan, as “Brendan” believe that “Scott” was a real expert, but now discovers he tells a lie to make himself seem more important than he really is.

“Scott” admits he doesn’t even know what the J and K stand for.  But in the song, it’s all about the threat to Harry, the death of Dumbledore, and when Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, his curse rebounded, seemingly killing Voldemort, and Harry survived with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead [which] made Harry famous among the community of wizards and witches. (Wikipedia)

All written by J.K.Rowling – but who will survive?  She, who has made a mint and reputation out of these morally questionable stories, is the only one to survive.

Indeed, since 2016 she has written another seven works after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a new era of the Wizarding World, put out by global digital Pottermore Publishing.

It’s interesting to note (not mentioned in Potted Potter) that J.K.Rowling also pretends to be “Robert Galbraith” in the Cormoran Strike series of classic contemporary crime fiction – another set of seven.  

Perhaps Dan and Jeff might consider another parody?  

But I wonder, as probably much the oldest audience member (even older then Dumbledore), how on earth they can keep up the energy for this tour:
04 – 07 Apr Canberra, ACT Theatre Centre
12 – 21 Apr Sydney, NSW Seymour Centre
24 Apr – 05 May Melbourne, VIC Athenaeum Theatre
08 – 12 May Adelaide, SA Festival Centre
23 – 26 May Perth, WA State Theatre Centre

I hope they survive, for they actually made me stop thinking for 70 minutes about the dreadful violence and death going on all around us – until I began to see that Mr Netanyahu thinks he is Harry Potter, using his latest wizardry to eliminate his Voldemort with help from the bumbling Dumbledore of the White House Castle.

The skills of these performers, Scott Hoatson and Brendan Murphy, as interpreters of such clever scriptwriting but especially also as improvisers working a full-house audience, gave me a great feeling of relief through spontaneous laughter that everyone needs.  Though at some extreme absurdist point in the show, Scott exclaims that ‘theatre is the victim here’, the terrible irony is that, to paraphrase The Beatles, ‘all we need is theatre’ – to bring us to our senses.

Please don’t miss Potted Potter.

 

 

 

Volver (The Return)

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

Volver (The Return) | Judith Martinez Estrada

Photo Access | 15 March 2024 – 27 April 2024

Two exhibitions running concurrently at Photo Access explore identity and memory, in quite different ways. Volver (The Return) is one of them. The artist Judith Martinez Estrada has focussed on migration as well. Starting in 2017, she comprehensively explored her paternal family’s apartment in Madrid, which they had rented for more than 100 years. Unearthing photos, documents and other material relating to her family gave her a significant volume of mixed media to which she has applied a variety of techniques.

Three babies had been born at the flat. Two people had died there. A century of family life had been lived there with all its highs and lows. The family’s history and the memories of all who had lived there was powerful and very much overlapped. As the relationship between the apartment and the artist’s grandparents, aunt and parents changed, so the memories altered - as they tend to for many, if not most, of us. As we get older we sometimes forget things long remembered. Sometimes we recall things from our early years which we have not thought of for a long time, if ever. Personally, my earliest knowledge of family history comes not from actual memories of the events but from hearing a story told over and over. Sometimes we are unsure whether an apparent memory is a real one.

So, what is the artist revealing to us here of this significant treasure of her family’s memories? Charu Maithani’s catalogue essay provides considerable background. Her documentation of the apartment became the catalyst in Martinez Estrada’s practice that brings together personal and political histories alongside archival and digital artistic techniques. Working with layers she creates a temporal and spatial juxtaposition of memories and objects. Each layer in the works creates spaces for remembrances to be added, including ones we do not know of yet. Layering allows multiple entry points and numerous recollections and half-rememberings to coexist.

In series of works entitled Family Biographies, photos and a variety of documents are held together using various means, such as rubber bands and paper clips. Has this been done to hide some of the past, the memories, the history? What else is there in the closed book, on the notebook pages not visible to us, in the photos hidden behind the top ones? Or are the assembled objects being presented to us as a symbol, telling us that the apartment which binds family members together will continue to draw back those still living?

Family-Biographies-Biografias-Familiares-XII-2018 - installation image provided by Photo Access

Another series Unknown Portraits uses strips to cover faces, thereby further hiding the already unknown identity of the people photographed at an unknown time in the past.

Unknown-Portraits-Retratos-Desconocidos-II-2018 - installation image provided by Photo Access

Two prints exhibited side by side share the title When God Left. The left side one spoke clearly to me of a god. A hand gesturing towards us is familiar to all who grew up attending Christian schools or churches. Here though we also see a nail hole telling us the artwork partially included is of Christ after his crucifixion – when he had left his earthly life. A video work tells us that Estrada’s grandfather played a role in the relocation and protection of artwork during the Spanish Civil War. Also displayed is a reproduction of an official commendation for that work. His granddaughter is now tracing and recreating the journeys he made transporting artworks from Madrid to Valencia. Did this painting of Christ belong to Grandfather Ramon?

When-God-Left-I-2018 - installation image provided by Photo Access

Old images of grandparent’s Ramon and Emilia are on display, overlaid on new images of things in the apartment. 

Ramon-II-2019 - installation image provided by Photo Access

There is much more to see, explore and consider in this fine exhibition. If you are able to do so, visit the gallery whilst this and its companion exhibition (also about identity and memory) are showing. If you can’t get there, at least take a look at some of her other works here or on her Instagram account. 

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

Poison Berries

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

Poison Berries | Janhavi Sharma

Photo Access | 15 March 2024 – 27 April 2024

Two exhibitions running concurrently explore identity and memory, in quite different ways. Poison Berries is one of them. 

Janhavi Sharma is a visual artist from India currently living and working in Nottingham, UK. In this exhibition she reflects on her childhood and heritage. She uses orange poison berries from her backyard layered over images as a metaphor relating to the interwoven continuity of time. There are 32 untitled inkjet prints displayed in a single group.

Installation image – provided by Photo Access

This artist often uses food in her practice as a mutating metaphor. Orange poison berries are an inedible fruit. Growing in the artist’s garden they attract songbirds and remind her of present pasts.

The booklet available in the gallery about this show contains many very expressive words about the poison berries written by Meher Manda, a writer, culture critic, editor and educator from Mumbai (Bombay), India but currently stationed in the USA. The material addresses a range of questions, including Why, Where and What are the poison berries? I found those words enormously valuable in understanding and appreciating the works on display. the artist feeds on a photograph for more Absolutely true. But here the viewers of the photographs not only feed on them for more but also should feed on the words.

Scan of middle pages of booklet

orange diffused at the foot of the plastic chair, durable, timeless refers to an image of just that. It is a good image. I would have enjoyed it completely devoid of context. But what is it all about here? Again, Manda’s words: say what the memory of one’s own forgone story? orange provide a starting point for our thoughts. What are your memories of your own forgone story? Are they merely a delicate thread woven into the fabric of your existence? Do they whisper secrets to you, only you? What do they reveal to you of journeys in your earlier life? Had you even forgotten them? As we grow older each of our memories, once vivid - even alive, fade into what some have described as quiet chambers of remembrance. How would you illustrate your memories before they fade so that you might recall them from those illustrations in your later life?

Janhavi Shama, Untitled 30 – installation image provided by Photo Access

In another image a child’s face is covered with the orange berries. She is standing alongside the trunk of a tree. A child limp on the stillness of a photograph. Her memory: orange. Again, words to stimulate our thinking, about what the author is saying relating to her memories. There are more in the booklet for you to read and consider as you stand before the block of images. About a mother’s orange bloodline. About a tree promising life yet bearing the poison berries.

Janhavi Shama, Untitled 27 – installation image provided by Photo Access

Another print features a small bird amongst the mainly bare branches of a shrub. Is it a hummingbird that fed on the berries before they fell from the branches? But wait on, it does not appear to be an evergreen shrub. sit on it and fly away … regurgitated as a photograph …. attracting … hummingbirds

Janhavi Shama, Untitled 16 – installation image provided by Photo Access

There is much more, in both the images and the words. Read about the what, when, where and why of the poison berries. Then, as you explore the images, consider both what they mean for the artist and what they mean us viewing them, whether we had orange berries in our past lives or not. As this artist has done, we should dare to reflect on our own childhoods, to explore the intersections between our gender, our memories and our relationships with physical environments.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.