By Amy Herzog. Critical Stages, Catnip Productions and Mophead Productions. The Q Theatre. 11 Feb 2016
Growing up is tough and the more people there are to impart wisdom and provide guidance along the way, the better; as they say, it takes a village. Having an extra couple of decades of life experience under their belts, grandparents can be an invaluable resource to draw on throughout this process – especially if you’re as sassy and open-minded as Leo’s 91 year-old communist grandmother, Vera.
Leo (played by Stephen Multari) is a young man who has rolled into New York at the end of his epic, coast-to-coast bike ride across the United States. Intending to pay a fleeting visit to his Manhattanite nana while he’s in town, Leo decides it would be nice to extend his stay to spend some quality time with the ageing Vera (Diana McLean).
We quickly learn that Leo is carrying a great deal of emotional baggage, and that he is running away from an accumulation of complex problems that have become too much to process. Through his time spent with Vera, he finds the space to slowly confront his issues and move on to face the world awaiting him.
While very much a contemporary play within a modern context, 4000 Miles does a marvellous job of linking generations. This is achieved via cultural references to Vera’s rich and colourful past, but also a quirky soundtrack spanning a number of decades. Refreshingly, you’ll also find no tired clichés or old people moaning about ‘kids these days’, but rather two generations meeting in the spirit of love and respect.
What is nice about this progressive play is that the characters, despite their troubles, are devoid of cynicism. There are so many bleak and dystopian or saccharine stories being told to audiences today, and it makes a nice change to experience one that rejects this kind of extreme and instead offers up balanced reflection and reason.
Mclean and Multari are incredibly affable as the grandmother/grandson duo, and both serve up top-notch, uncheesy American accents. There’s no question their on-stage relationship is convincing and, like the script for 4000 Miles overall, it contains a heap of nuance.
Aileen Hunter as Amanda, Leo’s flamboyant one-night-stand and Eloise Snape as Leo’s ex-girlfriend Rebecca, are engaging and both have a fiery chemistry with Multari. Their presence on stage even when their character was not called for was somewhat baffling, but thankfully not to the point of complete distraction.
Overall, 4000 Miles is an intelligent play that can best be described as unyieldingly real. It is an eloquent portrayal of the power of sanctuary for those overwhelmed with what life has thrown at them. If this is a taste of things to come for the next generation of playwrights, bring it on.
Deborah Hawke
When: 11 to 13 Feb
Where: The Q Theatre
Bookings: Closed
The Un-Rest Cure. Written by Ben Brooker. The Tuxedo Cat – Cusack Theatre. 13 Feb 2016
Adelaide local and emerging playwright Ben Brooker has written three short plays that propose a broken future; one where our obsessions and indulgences have spiralled out of control and now determine our way of life.
They are set 15 minutes into the future. That is, 15 minutes into an imagined alternative reality where the bastardisation of technology, democracy, and human relationships has altered our existence.
Each play is a vignette, lifted from a broader theme and thrust upon us. Tension, inherited from the imagined future circumstances, is fuelled by our lack of context and inevitable confusion. It is absurdism – or is one just absurdist in exploration of its meaning?
It is tough going and hard work to watch. One listens intently for little hints and clues that might unlock the ‘how’ and the ‘why’. When they come, they are rewarding. But there are few ‘Ah-ha’ moments there in the theatre; one is required to do more research to understand what it is all about.
The Cusack theatre of the Tuxedo Cat is a hot-box on arrival. Fans have been dutifully laid out for patrons to cool themselves throughout. When the lights come up we find Patrick Klavins, representative to the government - and perhaps all that is left of it - agitated and fidgeting. Idealistic young Rachel Burke has just arrived. A sense of excitement, yet trepidation is on her. She has been looking for this place for a long time. She is heavily prejudiced. One senses she has navigated some form of post-apocalyptic world to get here. Brooker describes it as a “city overrun by corporations”. But Klavins does not have what she is looking for. He does not hold the answers, but rather waits, nay yearns, to meet his maker. This is Small Government.
The second vignette sees Tamara Lee and Michael Allen sitting side by side on illuminated boxes. Allen is on a drip; liver disease perhaps? A recovering alcoholic? He doesn’t look yellow… The couple are waiting, we aren’t told what for – Brooker writes it is a “life-saving delivery”. Relationships are suffering as individuals become more reliant on technological innovation and less on personal interaction. She is his enabler, but there is a twist in store. Point/Click looks at human relationships from a place of disconnection; where humanity has grown numb.
Finally we witness a grieving father at the funeral of his deceased child. Only three in attendance – or is that two and one spirit… Where are the people who loved him? An adolescent of only 14 years, mistakenly killed in a drone war; perceived as a threat on his way to buy lunch. Nothing now remains but the reminder of a few dirty coins fused to the pavement. The grief is too much to bear for a mother. This is an exploration of autonomous weapons in Dead Birds.
The acting is brilliant and helps you to engage with the complex stories. Brooker and his cast appear to have developed a deep understanding of the text and execute with equanimity. Their composure in the heat is particularly spectacular.
The plays themselves show great promise. But at times they are altogether too abstract to really enjoy upon first hearing. One would love to see some investigation of the themes within an expanded context. There are some very interesting concepts here that deserve to be properly explored.
Brooker is undoubtedly one of Adelaide’s most exciting emerging playwrights. Bravo.
Paul Rodda
When: 12 to 16 Feb
Where: The Tuxedo Cat - Cusack Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
A Jethro Compton production. Noel Lothian Hall, Adelaide Botanic Gardens. 13 Feb 2016
It is a dusty haze one encounters on entry to ‘The Bunker’. It takes a few moments for eyes to adjust as we find our way to bench seating. Earth grinding beneath our feet as we slide into position; the bunker slowly reveals itself as one becomes accustomed to the darkness.
The haze begins to clear…
We are boxed into an underground shelter. The walls lined with hessian and clad in timber planks. Oil lanterns hang from the ceiling providing a warm, dull glow. The sounds of no-mans-land, a desolate windy plane, can be heard sweeping above our heads.
We are at war.
Two male voices begin to harmonise, in acapella, with a performance of Silent Night. It is Christmas, and the war is on hold for a few hours while both sides take time to celebrate. It is a break earned, but short lived. A time for the soldier’s minds to travel to nicer places, to better times, to loved ones lost and left behind.
And travel they do.
In this horrible place it is all they have to keep themselves sane. They share stories from their past, of loved ones waiting, and occasionally to events imagined; dreamed; desired.
They are Arthur, Gawain, and Lancelot. Names fondly bestowed upon each other as young friends growing up together in boarding school; the knights of the round table, playing out their fantasy in the very real, very awful reality of war.
Herein lays the legend of Morgana. Literally Morgan le Fay in Arthurian legends, but also know by many other incarnations, she is a mythical enchantress, wanton and full of unrequited love. Whether she is real in the character of the Frenchwoman who falls for the soldier Gawain, or simply a figment of his imagination and desire we may never know.
The Bunker Trilogy was first performed in Adelaide in 2014 taking the Fringe award for Best Theatre. Now internationally acclaimed, the audience anticipation is palpable; expectations are high.
And we are not disappointed. The production is spectacular.
The four actors, Hayden Wood as Arthur, Jonathan Mathews as Gawain, Sam Donnelly as Lancelot, and Bebe Sanders as Morgana are spectacular to watch. Their performance is a lesson in focus, energy and restraint.
Produced and designed by Jethro Compton Productions with a vision to create “cinematic, innovative and exciting theatre”, one can say the brief has been met and exceeded.
The whole production is visceral. The penultimate scene brings a tear to the eye.
This trilogy is acclaimed with good reason, and The Bunker Trilogy’s, Morgana is a show not to be missed.
Paul Rodda
When: 13 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: Noel Lothian Hall, Adelaide Botanic Gardens
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Joanne Hartstone productions. White Queen. 12 Feb 2016
Delia Olam emerges from behind the white drapes swaggering and swigging in the character of the executioner. He is drowning his apprehension.
The audience knows already that this play will not end happily. It is the story of a martyr.
Then Olam goes behind the screen and returns as a woman, then onwards over 75 minutes depicting a series of characters. She comes and goes between torrents of dialogue. For each character change there is a change in head wear.
Olam maintains a peculiarly low-key conversational delivery, sometimes letting her voice drop dangerously in the offhandedness of her character.
But she also is the mystical singer we never see. In this tale of a 19th Century Persian poet and suffragette we are to imagine that we can hear her somewhere close but somewhere hidden.
Behind the screen, Olam plays a double bass and sings the ancient Persian poems. Her voice is lovely and one realises that the wordy storyline of the Muslim martyr is just elaborate dressing to put the music into context. Olam sings a series of songs which would do Womad proud. There are moments of immense beauty when her voice rises from behind that screen to fill the air with clear, timeless lyrical purity. Her range is superb. The audience is transported.
It is a quirky production. For a little cultural immersion, the front row audience members are served sugar lumps and rose water tea.
The show runs about 10 minutes too long but, as an entity, it is one of those eerie and original Fringe experiences which will haunt the memory.
Samela Harris
When: 12 to 14 Feb
Where: White Queen
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Gobsmacked Theatre Company. White Queen. 12 Feb 2016
There in the White Queen are two female soldiers in desert cam fatigues, holed up in a bunker draped in sandy-coloured camouflage netting. It's quite a scene, made even more dramatic when, in a great whirring burst, sleety snow gusts out of a vent.
On a hot night on the Fringe, it’s surprising how the stuff lies about on the stage.
The incongruity of the snow is one of the things one contemplates when experiencing this offbeat theatre piece by Katy Warner.
It is like Waiting for Godot meets the War in Iraq.
The two soldiers are just passing the time, stranded somewhere, nowhere in a war zone That's all there is to do. Get on with the waiting. Talk the same talk. Play an imagination game - or not. Pretend they have some vodka. Argue about what's in the rubble. Reflect on the business of killing, on rotting flesh, the survival of a baby.
They are afraid, exhausted, fatalistic, perhaps losing the battle to stay sane. They are PTSD in the making.
Adelaide actors Suzannah Kennett Lister and Sarah Cullinan are directed by David McVicar in this tight little production. They establish character and sustain tension. Despite the heat in the White Queen, the play and the good performances take ownership of the audience.
It is a relevant, meaty, interesting think piece, a credit to the Fringe.
Samela Harris
When 12 to 25 Feb
Where: White Queen
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au