The Adelaide Repertory Theatre. The Arts Theatre. 19 Nov 2015
Once a year, the Arts Theatre is filled with booing. And hissing. And cheers. It's melodrama time.
The Rep is well practised at this silliness. After all, it is a ritual deeply rooted in theatrical tradition. Customarily, it features a sweet maiden, an evil villain, a heartthrob hero, a verbose Master of Ceremonies, a near-death scene, and assorted quaint characters all of whom must be played out in an exuberant overkill of exaggerated ham.
Valiantly brave and supremely talented Pam O'Grady has whipped up this year's offering, directing Only an Orphan Girl. Funnily, it is an American script written by Henning Nelms with the action taking place in rural Massachusetts. It requires the actors to add bad American accents to their overacting and the cast comes up with every American accent in the book. All except for the MC, the dashingly ebullient and vocally virtuous Mr Joshua Coldwell, who not only announces and pronounces the progressions of the play but also wrote his own bedazzling lines.
Star of the show is Nellie, the Orphan Girl, who is played like a swirl of delicious soft meringue by young Sophie Bubner. The audience gasps and boos and cheers as her fate rises and falls, as she faces death at the hands of a villain most foul. He is embodied by vivacious veteran actor Barry Hill with a million swishes of his big black cape and a deluge of devilishly devious dialogue. His every appearance is accompanied by a barrage of booing from the auditorium - and very often, loud and useful interjections.
The only thing that could stop this vile beast from his nefarious intentions is dear Dick Perkins, the clean-cut farm lad. Oh my. Young Robert Bell already is an award-winning emerging actor. He continues to emerge at the same shiningly stand-out standard. There's a lad who was born to be on the stage. He is the hero of the night of many levels, including the promise of his future.
Penelope Hamilton-Smith is another veteran actor who is utterly in her element when it comes to dressing up in elaborate period costume with bad wigs and slaps of makeup and going over the top. She brings the stage alive every time she struts upon it with her tiny parasol and double entendres. Gary Anderson plays old Mr Perkins, the good farmer who has taken the orphan girl into his poor-but-honest family. Anderson emerges as an I Love Lucy's Fred Mertz on rough and rugged steroids. It's a glorious performance, complemented by Jude Hines, rather in the aforementioned Lucy mode, as his dear wife.
Then there's vivid veteran Rose Vallen with massive Pippi pigtails as Lucy, the lumberingly simple-minded ray of sunshine, and the nicely seasoned Jean Walker as her not-so-simple widow mother. Misses A. Hall and M. Kemp and Mr Robert Hobson complete the cast with, wait for it, a guest appearance by the celebrated and incredibly expert and expensive prestidigitator, Professor Orlando a.k.a. the wonderful Wayne Anthoney. Never were there so many little umbrellas and flourishes of flowers, let alone unprepared cardboard tubes. How does he do it?
Among the plot intermissions, there were vaudevillian musical numbers and even the silliest sing-along in the business. You have to be there.
Grand sets were delivered by veteran stage designer and scenic artist Brian Budgen with construction overseen by veteran Vince Eustace. Richard Parkhill did the tech and lighting design with Tristan Kahl on lighting and sound operation and Liz Raymond on follow spot.
Of course Loriel Smart, queen of the venerable thespian veterans, had a hand in the costumes, along with Barry Hill. Barbara Messenger stepped out of her theatre manager's office to be production manager. There's not much Barb can't manage. Lest it be the stage itself which here was managed by Elizabeth Olsson. Norm Caddick did the sterling poster, Robert Nottage the program and Petra Starke told the world about the show as publicist. Then there were the front-of houses and the back stagers and Carmel Boffa on props. The only person missing was Maggie Day as prompt.
And ever present, bringing the whole show together was Rowan Dennis drumming up the pace of things and, drum roll please Mr Dennis, none other than the inimitable and ever-popular Sandi McMenamin on piano.
If ever there was a pack of artistes extraordinaire, they are there at the arts rolling in the corn and inviting audiences to roll in the aisles. Hasten down, I say.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 28 Nov
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Davine Interventionz Productions. Star Theatres. 18 Nov 2015
It's very Off Broadway down there at Star Theatres right now. There's a deeply alternative, highly Sondheimesque two-hander musical playing - with all the suave expertise of the big time.
The musical is The Story of My Life and it is about two men whose friendship goes back to childhood. It is a Neil Bartram creation from a book by Brian Hill and although it premiered in Canada, it has the strong flavour of an American story. The most important location is a small town bookshop called Writers' Block, and one can't help but envisage it in upstate New York or Vermont. The actors' very good accents seem to endorse this impression.
As boys, the friends spend some significant time in this poky literary paradise run by Alvin's father who has a magical touch in matching customers with the perfect book. Alvin does this alchemy for his friend, Tom, giving him Tom Sawyer, a book which will inspire him to become a writer. And thus begin a series of significant moments in their lives, each one, Tom unwittingly cannibalises to establish a rising literary career.
The musical's odd springboard for the stories is writer Tom's frazzled efforts to write a eulogy for his best friend. The lads once had vowed that they would write each other's eulogies. But when the time comes, the now award-winning city writer can't get the words together. He has writer's block about his friend from Writer's Block; for, indeed, Alvin inherited the bookshop and has spent his life running it. As Tom struggles with his memories, Alvin materialises and provides all the stories from a well of manuscripts in the ghost of his bookshop.
It is an interesting idea and would work rather better if it was less laboured. Tom seems to be a stubbornly slow learner. The songs are all too long and there is a troubling sameness about the music. The pivotal story among the range of friendship revelations is repeated once too often. Somewhere along the line this broadly-produced musical, now having its Australian premiere, should have had a going-over with the blue pencil. However, its survival rests on the touching observations of the sweet and sour of human relationships and the way time and distance can change their dynamics.
One may shed a tear or two.
This production, directed by David Gauci of Davine Interventionz Productions, sets the players on a fashionably white, white stage. Move over Ikea. This, clearly, is meant to reflect the blank page of Tom's mind and the abstraction of death whence Alvin is very active. It is all quite aesthetic. But its impersonal coolth works against the theme of love and happenstance, not to mention the spirit of cosy clutter which characterises small town bookshops and is pivotal to the plot. Between the designer white and director Gauci's choice to keep the action fairly static, it means that everything rests on the power and skill of the two performers to bring the work alive.
But they are up to it. Paul Rodda and David Salter carry a complex and dense script and a series of difficult songs as if they were born to it. Two marvellous Adelaide talents they are.
In smart dark suit, Rodda plays Tom the fraught but egotistical writer. He opens the show with Write What You Know and the audience knows that Rodda knows his stuff. He is pitch perfect and expressive. As the tale evolves, his character becomes less likeable and Rodda plays it out with conviction, allowing for a beautiful turnaround at the end. The other attribute Rodda brings to the stage is his poise. He moves with grace and impeccable attention to stance.
David Salter has the looser part since, ostensibly, he is the loser. His three-piece suit is cream-coloured and slightly rumpled. His hair is a bit unkempt. He's always been the one who tried to please, who had the ideas, but who was ever the underdog. He was the boy whose mum had died when he was wee. He was the outsider boy who dressed up in chenille to play her ghost for Halloween.
Salter completes this complex character in a wonderful performance. He underplays. He shows a generosity of spirit on stage and a sweetness of nature. He has a smile which lights up the world and a voice of interesting timbre which can belt out the big tunes one minute and switch characters the next.
The stories which unfold in this show are many and varied. They are prompted by Alvin from stacks of white paper in white shelves. Some are fun. The snow angels are important and the actors descend from the stage and lie upon a furry white fabric on the floor in front of A row to give verity to the tradition, little known by many Australians.
Somewhere, nowhere there is a nine-piece orchestra under the musical direction of Peter Johns. It is a stunningly good orchestra. The music is wonderful. Is the orchestra hidden behind the black OP drapes? Did they record this work earlier? No one came out to take a bow. The audience will never know.
But the music is good, the sound is good, the lighting is pretty good and the performers are top notch.
It's only on for a couple of nights - so hasten down to Star Theatres.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 21 Nov
Where: Star Theatres
Bookings: outix.com.au
Readers note: Paul Rodda is the Creative Director and Editor for the Barefoot Review.
Photography by Andy Trimmings
Restless Dance Theatre. Odeon Theatre. 13 Nov 2015
Love, it’s a natural thing. Love, it’s a complicated thing. It is both; don’t we all know it. Restless Dance Theatre’s double bill Naturally does an extraordinary job of exploring this frustrating duality.
Emma Stokes’ What’s a Nice Girl Doing in a Place Like This? manages complicated things with a tremendous infusion of humour and deftly constructed choreographic narrative. It is seriously clever stuff.
Beneath a very large heart shape in two separated halves, constructed from of intertwined wood and doubling as lamps, stands a girl. As she lifts her arms outwards, upwards and down again, a male dancer behind her picks off what seem like invisible threads, hanging them on the wood.
Centre stage, the ensemble is gathered in couples. Their heads together, they slowly turn in soft light. Throughout the following phases, Stokes’ ensemble explores a number of different relationship experiences. The loneliness of missing your special one brilliantly expressed by couples standing, leaning side on, faces to the audience holding up a pillow between them. At intervals spoken word is thrown into the mix with hilarious results as things, usually kept under wraps, are expressed openly; I want to be alone, but I don’t; trying to discuss the tricky business of sex.
With each passing phase of dance, one half of the wood heart slowly moves its way stage left. Designer Ailsa Paterson’s broken half heart looks a like a question mark, perfectly accentuating the whole intent of the piece, as does the thoughtful blue of the costumes. Yes love is a nice place, without too many answers to the questions it poses. What’s a Nice Girl Doing in a Place Like This? engagingly asks lots of questions. If the answers don’t seem to be there, that’s ok. Getting the questions out is the thing.
Michelle Ryan’s Touched is a burst of high energy, peppy dance-theatre romance. Males in red and girls in pink rock their way through a series of romantic experiences; rejected by the girl you like; feeling attractive when you’re out and about; experiencing the thrill of the chase leading to first kiss, first touch, first love.
As preoccupied and thoughtful as What’s a Nice Girl Doing in a Place Like This? was, Touched is out and out in the spirit of Grease or Dirty Dancing. The natural thrill of love is celebrated in this work, embracing with humour the sad and happy of it all. Ryan’s choreography is a sharp blend of contemporary floor based disco and rap, accompanied by a solid score from Liz Martin.
Naturally is a perfectly paired double bill, taking on the good and the bad of love with generous spirit and piercing intelligence.
David O’Brien
When: 13 to21 Nov
Where: Odeon Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Gallery
State Theatre Company and Adina Apartment Hotels. Space Theatre. 10 Nov 2015
This is a rollicking, fun and whacky end to State's 2016 season. Cast your mind back to your last attendance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the amateur troupe of actors chosen to perform at the wedding. Puck referred to them as "the rude mechanicals" and Australian playwrights Keith Robinson and Tony Taylor renamed them The Popular Mechanicals in jovial reference to the now largely forgotten journal for nerds, Popular Mechanics.
The show was born in the halcyon days of Sydney theatre when Nimrod Theatre was morphing into the Belvoir Street Theatre. The captains of industry then were the dynamic duo of director Neil Armfield and our beloved Geoffrey Rush. Rush directed the premiere in 1987 and put his indelible stamps of physical comedy and theatrical extravagance onto it. No bottom joke is too base, no fart too windy, no rubber chicken too horny to be in this show. Director Sarah Giles, her cast and creative team have resurrected the theatrical magic of The Popular Mechanicals with such success that the opening night audience was roaring with laughter for nearly the entire performance. Over the top is the right praise.
We follow the Mechanicals as they prepare their one-night performance for the newlyweds. Rory Walker as the anxious director doles out the parts to the odd-named actors - Bottom, Flute, Snug, Snout and Starveling. The actors then busy themselves at their day-job trades preparing costumes and props with an impromptu concert thrown in. As in the "Dream," there is a hitch when Bottom is turned into an ass, but actor Charles Mayer does hilarious double duty when Bottom is replaced by the cask-swilling professional actor, Mowldie. There ensues a delicious tongue-in-cheek comparison of the amateur and the professional - a never-ending discussion in the real world. All the fun was in the preparation and the actual performance by the Mechanicals was nearly anti-climactic. Persons involved with theatre will enjoy the in jokes.
What an exceptional cast of clowns Sarah Giles has crammed into this wooden O. Everyone has to multi-task in singing, sound effects, instruments, slapstick, and pathos. Attention must flit from one to the other as the stage is a cavalcade of Shakespearean gags and business. Tim Overton, Lori Bell, Julie Forsyth and Amber McMahon and the aforementioned thespians - bravo!
All's well that's lit well by Mark Pennington and Jonathan Oxlade's panoply of trap doors, colours, and props kept the eyes very busy. David Heinrich contributed the aural magic and the furniture was left unbumped thanks to Gabrielle Nankivell's choreography.
Don't go without this Christmas!
David Grybowski
When: 6 to 28 Nov
Where: Space Theatre, Festival Centre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Photography by Shane Reid
The Hills Musical Company. The Stirling Theatre. 6 Nov 2015
Stephen Sondheim’s Company was the first concept musical. Its construction deemphasises plot in favour of metaphors that communicate a single notion or ideology. In Company, vignettes are employed as a device to integrate the central theatrical themes of ambivalence, desperation, seduction, and tepidity of relationships.
In the show, Robert, an unlikely hero played by Josh Barkley, is central to the psychological drama. Robert moves through the vignettes – which are structured like snapshots from his memory – and attempts to learn from the other characters about the virtues of marriage, love, and relationships. Sondheim’s score builds and maintains an underlying tension which assists with forward momentum whilst simultaneously trapping Robert right up until the final moment.
The ensemble cast under the direction of Fiona DeLaine are all relatively strong, though there are some standouts amongst them. Kate Anolak and Jamie Richards as Sarah and Harry are hilarious and have developed a chemistry one would expect from long time partners. Danii Zappia delivers some of the strongest acting in the show, particularly when her character Jenny is high on more than the ‘spice of life’, and Lauren Potter’s Southern accent is unshakeable.
Stephanie Rossi is coquettish and free-spirited as Marta and sings beautifully, Jessica Rossiter is perfectly manic as Amy, and Kerry Straight plays up April’s stupidity with charm and charisma. The remaining cast give solid performances throughout; ensemble numbers are sung very well.
Josh Barkley takes the central role of Robert and is perhaps a little out of his depth in the challenging part. Despite singing beautifully he needs to be stretched emotionally a lot further. Many of the production’s pivotal moments are built on Robert’s emotional instability. There is a lot of room here for Barkley to grow as an actor.
The set is designed by Jamie Richards and has aided DeLaine in placing the action with purpose where there often is none. On stage the overall production works, but would perhaps benefit from a lift in excitement and energy from the whole cast. Sondheim’s music sounds wonderful, and musical director Mark DeLaine should be congratulated for wrangling the complicated score.
Together the DeLaine’s, their production team, and the cast have put up a nice piece of work that is most definitely worthy of your attention, so head for The Hills and check it out.
Paul Rodda
When: 6 to 21 Nov
Where: The Stirling Community Theatre
Bookings: hillsmusical.org.au
Photography by Mark Anolak
