Link to Canberra Times review:
Alanna Maclean
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
DAYLIGHT SAVING
 |
| Jason Morton - Nicky Lyn Hunter -Rina Onorato |
“Daylight Saving” by Nick Enright
Director: Michael Weston
Set Design: Bill Kolentsis and Michael Weston
Tempo Theatre
Belconnen Theatre until May 24th.
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
The selection of Nick Enright’s delightful romp, “Daylight
Saving”, is a great choice for Tempo Theatre to celebrate their fortieth year
of presenting community theatre in Canberra.
Written by Enright in 1989, “Daylight Saving” offers six
meaty roles, with situations which remain funny and believable. The plot
revolves around a successful restaurateur, Felicity, (Rina Onorato), who’s getting
bored with her marriage to her busy jet-setting sports-manager husband, Tom
(Bill Kolentsis). While Tom is on one of his many overseas trips Felicity is
contacted by Joshua (Jason Morton), an old flame from her exchange student days
in the USA. Left alone on her wedding anniversary, Felicity decides to set up a
romantic candle-lit dinner with Joshua, to relive old times, and just maybe,
rekindle something of their old romance.
Predictably and hilariously, her plans go awry when her
preparations for the lobster dinner are constantly interrupted by phone calls
from her restaurant, where her maître d’ is engaged in a pitched battle with
the cook. Her inquisitive, over-bearing mother, Bunty (Joan White), arrives
unexpectedly, about the same time as her distraught, thoughtless neighbour
Stephanie (Nicky Lyn Hunter), promptly invites herself to the dinner.
On opening night, first night nerves robbed the first act of
the necessary pace and precision. Rina Onorato and Bill Kolentsis, as Felicity
and Tom, struggled to establish some rhythm to their performances, and as a
result, many of their best lines missed their laughs. However in the second
act, once Tom’s self-absorbed protégé, champion tennis player, Jason (a nicely
sustained and very funny performance from John Brennan) arrived on the scene,
the pace picked up and the laughs came thick and fast.
All the action in the play takes place in the large family
room of Felicity and Tom’s house in Pittwater, on the Northern beaches of
Sydney. The nicely detailed set design with its water views, ceiling possums,
comfortable furniture and period technology, reflected this well. Jordan
Renneberg’s well-managed sound effects and lighting design also contributed to
the success of this entertaining example of Tempo Theatre’s welcome and
sustained contribution to Canberra’s theatrical milieu.
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| Jason Morton - Rina Onorato - Bill Kolentsis |
Photos supplied by Tempo Theatre
Monday, May 19, 2014
CANBERRA INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL - THE FIRE AND THE ROSE
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| Roland Peelman conducting "Music of the Spheres" |
Canberra International Music Festival
Llewellyn Hall – Saturday May 17
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
Though not the final concert of the festival, “The Fire and
the Rose” never-the-less provided Christopher Latham with his perfect swan song
as Artistic Director. For despite the rigours of planning and delivering a very
ambitious festival, Latham had held enough energy in reserve to conduct five of
the seven demanding works on the program, commencing with the mighty “Mars – The
Bringer of War”, one of the seven movements from “The Planets”, composed by
Gustav Holst between 1914 and 1916.
The impressive Canberra Festival Orchestra, made up of ANU
School of Music faculty, staff and students and Sprogis Woods Smith Young
Artists responded to the considerable demands of this piece with commendable
energy and precision, as they also did with the following work, “Romanza”, from
Ralph Vaughn Williams’ WW2 Fifth Symphony, for which he utilised many of the
musical themes from his operatic work “The Pilgrims Progress”. Its lush warm
tones provided a soothing contrast to the bombast of “Mars”.
For the third work “Sunset Epilogue and Evening”, which
Richard Strauss composed in 1915 prior to being absorbed into the military
during World War 1, an organ and harps were added to the orchestra to assist in
recreating a musical impression of a day’s mountain climb in the Bavarian Alps,
climaxing in a fierce thunderstorm which ultimately dissolves into quiet sunset
and eventual darkness. Commendable attention to expression and detail by
conductor and orchestra allowed the composers’ intentions to be easily imagined
by the audience.
“Cortege”, a sombre
but accessible short work, one of two remaining sections of a suite composed by
Scotsman, Cecil Coles, in 1918, preceded,
what for many was the highlight of the evening, the haunting “Symphony
No 1 “Da Pacem Domine”, composed by Ross Edwards, one of the Composers-in-residence for the
festival.
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| Christopher Latham conducting "Da Pacem Domine" Didgeridoo player, William Barton, centre |
For this work, except for a spotlight over didgeridoo
player, William Barton, and the conductor, all other stage lights were extinguished. Light
escaping from the individual orchestra lights suggested a starry sky, creating
an eerie, beautiful and mysterious ambiance.
With just the tiniest pulsing sound emanating from the orchestra, Barton
began to wail. Eventually his wailing was replaced by the sounds of his didgeridoo,
as the evocative orchestrations gathered momentum. An astonishing and evocative
piece of writing, so compelling that when it ended no-one wanted to break the
spell by clapping. However, when conductor, Christopher Latham called the
composer on to the stage, the applause was thunderous. Partly in recognition of
a remarkable composition by Edwards, partly for a remarkable performance by the
orchestra, but mostly for the remarkable achievements of the conductor who had just conducted his last
performance as Artistic Director of the Canberra International Music Festival.
 |
| Conductor, Christopher Latham, composer, Ross Edwards, soloist, William Barton acknowledge applause |
In a graceful gesture, Latham had programmed the concert so
that last two works were conducted by incoming Artistic Director, Roland
Peelman. It was no surprise to learn that this performance of “Music of the
Spheres” composed by Danish composer, Rued Langgaard between 1916 and 1918, was
its Australian premiere. Not only does the work require huge musical and vocal
resources, it also demands intense concentration from the conductor, the
musicians and the audience. According to the program notes Langgaard claimed,
that in composing the work, he had “completely abandoned any sort of motif,
planned structure, form or coherence”.
What emerged sounded like a series of experiments to find
out how many unusual sounds could be extracted from various combinations of
musical instruments and voices. For a
while, watching Roland Peelman coaxing, imploring and encouraging his vast
resources, like a huge possessed praying mantis, was curiously fascinating but
ultimately, with the realisation that all these extraordinary sounds were leading
nowhere, the whole enterprise seemed like a lot of effort for little result.
Much more interesting was the finale, “Requiem for Eli”,
composed by Nigel Westlake to harness his grief over the sudden death of his
son. Here, Peelman’s inspired conducting gave the orchestra and choirs the
confidence to attack the great crashing walls of despair brilliantly encapsulated
in this brief but brilliant composition, providing a stunning end to a
challenging and ultimately satisfying concert.
This review appears in the May 19th digital edition of CITY NEWS
Photos: Peter Hislop
Sunday, May 18, 2014
CANBERRA INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL - SOUNDING THE LAKE
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| Louise Page accompanied by Phillipa Candy entertaining passengers on M.V. Southern Cross. |
Sounding the
Lake – Amazing Space 5
Canberra
International Music Festival – Friday May 16
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens
Sometimes it’s hard being a critic. Imagine having to maintain focus on a picture-perfect Canberra day, cruising Lake Burley Griffin, while being aurally seduced by two of the most beautiful female voices in the country, surrounded by taste-tempting morsels displayed invitingly on crisp white tablecloths, while gazing at an indescribably spectacular autumnal view of the National Capital from the water.
The Amazing
Space concerts are the jewels in the crown of the Canberra International Music
Festival. These concerts are held in Canberra’s most iconic locations, in this
case on the waters of Lake Burley Griffin commemorating the 50th
Anniversary of the filling of the lake.
Jenny
Goddard, representing the sponsors, ACTEW Water, welcomed guests aboard MV
Southern Cross. As the cruise began it was announced that due to an unfortunate
illness, star tenor, Christopher Saunders, had had to withdraw, necessitating a
quick reshuffle of the announced program.
As often happens, something lost can sometimes result in something
gained and on this occasion, the other singers, Christina Wilson accompanied by
Alan Hicks, and Louise Page accompanied by Phillipa Candy were able to come up
with some superb additional repertoire to replace that scheduled, maintaining perfectly
the theme of songs written during the world wars, including four songs by two
early Australian composers Frederick Kelly and Roy Agnew.
 |
| Christina Wilson accompanied by Alan Hicks entertaining guests on board M.V.Southern Cross |
Other
fascinating discoveries included two songs by Andre Caplet, “Farewell from a
Boat” and “Forest”, the haunting “To Our Unknown Dead” by Reynaldo Hahn, and
the melodic “The Song of the Croanne” with sardonic lyrics contradicting its
cheerful tune, were all beautifully interpreted by Christina Wilson and Alan
Hicks, as were Reynaldo Hahn’s five enchanting children’s songs performed by
Louise Page and Phillipa Candy.
Sprinkled
among these unknown gems were gorgeous versions of Norbert Schultze’ “Lilli
Marlene”, Ivor Novello’s “We’ll Gather Lilacs” and a particularly moving
version of “Danny Boy” sung as a duet by Louise Page and Christina Wilson.
Between the
song selections members of the Australian Institute of Architects provided
enthralling accounts of pertinent aspects of Canberra’s history. Stuart McKenzie spoke about the creation of
Lake Burley Griffin. As we cruised past the wetlands, Dianne Firth revealed
that trenches dug by soldier trainees during the war, can still be spotted by
planes flying over the wetlands. As the boat drew up to the Kingston Foreshores
wharf, Graham Humphries detailed the planning
behind the foreshores development. Following which the passengers were
treated to a jaunty performance of Handel’s “Water Music” by on-shore members
of the Canberra Festival Brass, under the direction of Paul Goodchild.
 |
| Guests being entertained by The Canberra Festival Brass on Kingston Foreshores |
 |
| Canberra Festival Brass on Kingston Foreshores |
While the
vessel headed towards the National Carillion, Dianne Firth gave an enthralling
account of the history of the Carillion, and shared a revealing tidbit that the
concept for the structure was inspired by three Toblerone boxes. Then in
glorious sunshine, passengers were treated to the world premiere of a new Ross
Edwards composition “60,000 Bells; A Peal for the Fallen” commemorating the
60,000 soldiers killed in the world wars, which was given a spine-tingling
performance by Didgeridoo player, William Barton together with Lyn Fuller and
the National Carillonists.
Re-approaching
Commonwealth Bridge, between more luscious musical offerings, Ann Cleary
enthralled us with an explanation of the National Axis as the vessel was
accurately positioned directly on it.
But too soon
it was time to head back to shore and following some heartfelt thank-you’s from
the Pro Musical Board President , Dorothy Danta, pianist Phillipa Candy
delighted all by returning to the piano
to accompany an impromptu rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” by the blissed-out passengers.
As you can
imagine, given this critic’s low temptation threshold, this was a tough gig.
But then someone has to do it.
This review was published in the May 17th CITY NEWS digital edition
Photos by Peter Hislop
7 SHOWS IN 6 DAYS!...A BROADWAY REPORT
Report by Len Power
April
is a good time to see shows on Broadway.
Producers are falling over themselves to get their shows previewed and
opened by the end of April to be eligible for consideration for the Tony Awards
which are announced in June.
First
up for me was ‘Bullets Over Broadway’, a big, brassy musical still in previews
based on Woody Allen’s very funny movie of the same name. Imaginatively directed by Susan Stroman and
starring Marin Mazzie as a tipsy Broadway diva who drinks paint stripper, this
is a highly entertaining, fast-moving and great looking show that is a real
audience-pleaser. The music, chosen from
the American songbook, almost sounds like an original score, due to the large
number of unfamiliar songs amongst some well-known standards.
 |
| Bullets Over Broadway |
My
next show was ‘A Gentlemen’s Guide To Love And Murder’ which had opened a few
months previously to excellent reviews but wasn’t doing great business. Based on the novel on which the British
classic film, ‘Kind Hearts And Coronets’ was also based, this production used
the same device as in the film of one actor playing all of the murder
victims. It was fun to watch the
imaginative murder sequences and good performances but I found the show too
earnestly American in its depiction of Edwardian England.
 |
| A Gentlemen's Guide To Love And Murder |
 |
| Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale in 'The Bridges Of Madison County' |
The
revival of ‘Pippin’ has been running over a year. It’s a stunning Cirque De Soleil style
production re-imagined in a circus setting.
The entire cast undertake many dangerous-looking stunts during the show
and, as well as being beautifully sung and acted, it’s a highly entertaining
show. Unfortunately the audience it‘s now attracting screamed with delight at
every crescendo in the music, as if they were at home watching ‘The Voice’ on TV.
 |
| 'Pippin' |
Still
in previews when I saw it, ‘If/Then’ starring Idina Menzel from ‘Wicked’, was an
interesting new musical with an appealing score by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey
who had had a big success previously with ‘Next to Normal’. Idina Menzel was wonderful in it and she
really lifts you out of your seat when she hits those high notes. Still, it was a pity that the show had a
storyline that was hard to follow.
 |
| Idina Menzel and the cast of 'If/Then' |
I
also saw two new plays. ‘Mothers And Sons’, with the marvellous Tyne Daly, was a
quiet but emotional story about a mother who suddenly appears on the doorstep
of the ex-boyfriend of her son who had died of AIDS during the 1980s. Written by the prolific Terrence McNally, it
ultimately delivered a strong emotional punch, but took far too long to get
there.
 |
| Tyne Daly (centre) and the cast of 'Mothers And Sons' |
The
other play, ‘Casa Valentina’ by Harvey Fierstein concerned a guesthouse in the
Catskill Mountains in 1962 where heterosexual men could go for a weekend and relax,
dressed as women. The play was inspired
by ‘Casa Susanna’, a book about an actual guesthouse of this type that existed
in the 1950s. This excellent drama
boasted some superb performances by an ensemble cast. I was expecting a comedy, but, like the rest
of the audience, I was stunned to be suddenly confronted by characters who,
although having a need to dress as women, displayed the same prejudices against
homosexuals as most other people in that era.
It was a very thought-provoking and unusual play.
 |
| 'Casa Valentina' |
Well,
I managed to see seven shows in six days.
You might be interested to know that, even though I managed to get tickets
for most shows at half-price, I was paying an average of $80 a ticket. Was it worth it? Yes, definitely!
Originally broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7's 'Dress Circle' program on Sunday 18 May.
BLOKES DON'T TALK
BLOKES DON’T TALK by Vince Melton
Bathurst Theatre Company.
Something Borrowed Theatre Company and Smith’s Alternative.
Produced by Judith Peterson.
Directed by Tanya Gruber
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
To discover some theatrical gems,
it is necessary sometimes to look beyond the surface. Such is the case at
Smith’s Alternative, the former bookshop and now alternative theatre venue/bar
in Civic. Under the guiding hand of Domenic Mico, Smith’s Alternative is
establishing itself as a leading light in providing opportunities for theatre
workers and musicians to express themselves, develop their talents and create
an intimate ambiance for the creation of new work.
My visits have been too
infrequent, but on each occasion I have been impressed by the offerings. What
has excited me most has been the emergence of new talent, whether that be a
former Daramalan student of Joe Woodward, Tanya Gruber’s production of Edward
Albee’s At Home At the Zoo for her newly formed Something Borrowed Theatre
Company, musical performances or Vince Melton’s series of short monologues,
Blokes Don’t Talk. In Blokes Don’t Talk six men relate the stories of their
lives from their perspective. Joseph (Alex Rouse) is a small time crim from the
wrong side of the tracks, whose life of crime leads him into trouble and
mishap. It is a bleak glimpse of those men who believe that they need to resort
to crime to drag themselves from the seeming futility and disadvantage of their
lives. Rouse’s monologue could
easily have become the bumbling comedy of the
ineffectual criminal, but he lends it a frustration and powerlessness that
underlies the trapped circumstance in which he finds himself. There is pathos
in his failure.
Maurice Downing’s Dave is an
effectively written and beautifully paced and performed account of a man who is
the victim of his own lack of awareness of his own actions and the consequences
of misplaced priority. As Downing presents Dave’s journey from shearing on the
land to working in a factory, from his courtship of his wife Melanie to their
breakup and from his secure family home to a small Bachelor flat in Sydney, I
see a man in th audience nodding his head in recognition. At one tender moment,
his partner places her hand on his as a gesture of consolation. Downing’s
performance is engrossing in its plausibility, and disarmingly natural in its
performance. Here is a new talent to watch out for in future.
He is not alone. This is in fact
a hallmark of this production. New faces emerge on Canberra’s theatre scene,
and this play about men for men and women, written simply from stories that
Melton has picked up since he first wrote Blokes Don’t Talk in 2000, prior to
performances by Bathurst Theatre Company in 2004 and 2008.
Graham August’s monologue by the
young father, recounting the experience of the birth of his son, is the
shortest of the six but August genuinely captures the dreams of the new father,
quickly dissolved by the practical reality of a dirty nappy and the onerous duties
of fatherly responsibility. It is a pencil sketch of the experience but works
effectively enough to provide a moment’s insight into the contrasting nature of
idealism and reality.
Gruber’s decision to avoid the
stage and have the monologues delivered from the tables at which the various
actors are seated lends the performance an immediacy with each monologue
following on immediately from the previous one. I am sitting next to a stranger
sporting a black eye. As August flees from the space at the sight of a dirty
nappy, Arran McKenna leaps to his feet to present Johnnie, a taxi driver with
an over developed libido and a false sense of his own sex appeal. His own
sexuality is confronted when he finds himself in an unsettling situation with a
beautiful passenger who is not as she appears. Blokes Don’t Talk compels an
audience to question convention, stereotype and what it is to be male, and
expose the male’s inability to understand or deal with the issues that confuse
and confound. McKenna’s Johnnie is expertly portrayed as a man trying to come
to terms, not only with his own notions of male sexuality, but also with a
questioning of his own responses. I look forward to seeing this actor more
often on a Canberra stage.
As I do TW Gibbings, another
newcomer to Canberra theatre. His Bobby, a young arrogant, forceful and defiant
achiever commands the floor in a riveting performance. His attempts to deal
with his brother-in-law’s domestic violence against his sister depicts the
passionate belief in sibling loyalty and support. Melton is careful not to
simply paint the portrait of the violent husband and the abused wife. He peels
away Bobby’s macho fraternal loyalty to reveal the irony that underpins the
tragic powerlessness of the female victim of male aggression. Gibbings adeptly
shifts status from the self-assured controller to the powerless and confused intervener
in the complex circumstance that permeates the issue of domestic violence.
Only Ken Moran’s Military Man
seems out of place in a show that deals with contemporary issues and everyday
male characters. Melton has included the account of a Gallipoli veteran to
reveal male attitudes to mateship and responses to war, which, on the field, is
primarily a male domain, exposing male characteristics, conditioning and
values. Perhaps a more recent conflict within the context of modern warfare
might have been more effective. Moran, the older member of the company, who
performed many years ago in The Broken Years, at the Australian War Memorial
under the direction f George Whaley, is most suited to delivering this
monologue, and he does it naturally enough, with a true sense of sacrifice,
waste and loss.
Blokes Don’t Talk speaks to all.
It is the voice of experiences of real men, facing the consequences of their
actions, their ignorance and their need to be heard and understood. In Gruber’s
production, and in the café environment of Smith’s Alternative, it is simple,
compelling and unpretentious. Producer, social worker and youth worker, Judith
Peterson is presenting this as part of a trilogy of film and theatre that
explores attitudes to death in the family and the relationships between
couples. The Glue That Holds Us Together and Couples Don't Talk are being presented at Smith’s Alternative over the course of
the year, and if this production of Blokes Don’t Talk is anything to go by,
audiences can be assured of an experience that is insightful, entertaining and
worth a visit to Canberra’s intimate venue and showcase for new works and
exciting emerging and established artists
Blokes Don’t Talk
May 23 and 24 at 7 p.m.
Smith’s Alternative
 |
| The Glue That Holds Us Together |
Tickets available at
trybooking.com/83195
 |
| Couples Don't Talk |
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