G&S Fest. Gilbert and Sullivan Society of SA. Arts Theatre. 23 Apr 2015
Pinafore is the first of a triple bill which is completed by Princess Ida and Ruddigore. Three different directors, three different musical directors, three casts but one choreographer and one set designer in one theatre.
One may fairly safely bet than anything the Gilbert and Sullivan Society turns on is going to be of pretty high quality. The Society draws on some of the top up-and-coming talent in town as well as a stable of seasoned performers. They come from the Conservatorium, State Opera, and music teaching or if they don't, they have to seem as if they do.
Traditionally, the company has presented conventional proscenium stage costume productions with all the theatrical trimmings. Here in this triple bill over three consecutive nights, it has scaled things right back to a semi-staged version. One may throw away reservations that the lower production values would undermine the show.
On the Pinafore opening night, it was a matter of minutes before one had adjusted to the changed onstage arrangement; albeit the overture with the performance of a weird quasi-advertisement for genealogy services was extremely disconcerting, if not downright alienating. It was trying to say that people were descended from earlier people, even sea captains as in HMS Pinafore. But why?
Another mystery in this production is the use of theatrical smoke. The stage and part of the theatre are hazy with smoke and one finds oneself worrying about the musicians and singers working amidst it. Smoke is not a typical effect in Pinafore - and one would prefer the show went without it.
The rest of the production does not need it. It is good.
David Lampard has devised a clever partial set with a huge ship's wheel on a partial captain's bridge. This takes up about half the stage. The other half is occupied by a good, lively orchestra under the baton of musical director Rebecca Walker. A large sail sweeps across the back of the stage. That is it. As time goes by, male and female choruses occupy back areas of the stage and, downstage, the principals perform in costume.
One way or another, there are a lot of people onstage, which is typical of a G&S Society production. There are the briny sailors led by the jolly Boatswain, strongly played by the very engaging Ian Brown. Then there are the sisters and the cousins and the aunts who flank the foppish Sir Joseph Porter who has come to marry the captain's daughter. They dress the stage and the choral fun and games very nicely in the pithy old comic opera spirit of G&S.
Porter's pretentious love-hate character totters forth most eloquently and properly through the practised artistry of Nicolas Bishop, an ever-popular figure on the Adelaide stage. The sopranos, Sarah Jane Pattichis as Josephine and Tahlia Ries as Little Buttercup, trill and please. Andrew Turner turns in a sterling performance as Ralph Rackstraw, the common sailor in love with the captain's daughter. But it is Andrew Crispe, as Captain Corcoran, who brings the house down in this production. He is possessed of exceptional physical grace along with witty inflection in a clear and lovely voice.
The rest of the cast sustains the standard. The chorus sounds as good as it looks and complements the action. The costumes are just a bit odd, but the spirit is strong and the talent abundant and nicely directed by Peter Hopkins.
All of which just underscores how lucky we are to have our splendid G&S Society regularly and solidly presenting fine musical fare.
Samela Harris
When” 23 Apr to 2 May
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: gandssa.com.au
State Theatre Company & Vitalstatistix. Burnside Town Hall. 21 Apr 2015
Who tips the scales? Ross Ganf for being creative catalyst to this show or Trevor Stuart for his embodiment of Joseph Farrugia aka Madame Josephine? Both deserve awards.
Madame is an extremely unusual piece of bio theatre. It documents the man who founded the famous old Crazy Horse strip joint up those stairs in Hindley Street.
Ganf spent several years interviewing Farrugia about the evolution of the club through the years from feathers to lap dance and also about his own sexuality and personal life. An impressive team moulded his findings into this Torque Show production with State Theatre and Vitalstatistix. Joshua Tyler worked on text with Roslyn Oades and Ingrid Weisfeldt, and Vincent Crowley worked together with him on creation and direction with Emma Webb from Vitals in the mix as well. It's a complex list of credits to be found in the most appallingly-designed, pale-text program.
The old Burnside Ballroom, glittering from its balcony with long golden fringes, is a wonderful venue. It is laid out cabaret style with white cloth tables a la Crazy Horse revue tradition and a high catwalk dominates the centre of the stage.
Hereon, three performers depict Farrugia, perhaps a little confusingly separating him into aspects of the flamboyant Madame Josephine persona and the less exciting business persona of Joseph. In a very strange casting choice, Kialea-Nadine Williams performs as Madame Josephine. She is a powerful, athletic ADT dancer - an astonishing performer. But any similarity with Josephine is beyond remote and it leaves many audience members scratching their heads.
Chris Scherer with his long-haired androgynous appearance plays the young Egyptian emigrant Joseph, oh so touchingly, albeit some of the high physicality which engenders humour is a bit startling. Scherer projects many strong and interesting facets of the character and phases of Ferrugia. He is a pleasure to watch. But it is Trevor Stuart who takes and makes the show. His is a softly, softly tour-de-force performance. From stammering insecurities to rumbustious defiance, he portrays a character who not only is still alive but is right there in the room. Yet Stuart makes him his own.
At the very end, as the three Josephines strut out to My Way, it is he who draws the eye and arouses the emotion. Funnily enough, once in full drag on stage, he could be Shirley McLaine.
Madame is an interesting show. There's some drag show-style mime, best accomplished by Williams; there's lots of narrative; there's some high-kicking and calisthenics and a spot of terrific point work; there's some camp waspishness; there's loud music; some video projection; plus lots of two piece gym outfits. In spite of all that there is a strange absence of glamor. It is a strip world stripped bare.
But one supposes that is the point.
Samela Harris
When: 21 Apr to 2 May
Where: Burnside Ballroom
Bookings: bass.net.au
Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Arts Theatre. 15 Apr 2015
Four ageing opera singers are seeing out their last years in a retirement home for musicians.
The days pass slowly as their inflated theatrical egos sashay around, dodging each other, occasionally clashing, oftentimes hitting the realisation that their days of fame are gone.
They tell tales of great stars of yore, they bicker, they gossip, they reminisce - until they decide that the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi is cause for musical celebration and for a come-back at the rest home’s annual concert. They gird their loins, rehearse like crazy, rustle up some old costumes and, for a glorious sojourn, are a focused ensemble, albeit with the burdens of their age.
Playwright Ronald Harwood balances the pathos and bathos of ageing with some pithy humour so it makes a lovely, meaty vehicle for older actors. Director Sue Wylie with her assistant, Ian Rigney, have gathered a wonderful foursome to perform in this Quartet. They are a joy to watch.
Brian Knott delivers baritone Wilf Bond as a loud, rumbustious, and ever the fresh guy grieving for the futility of his advances. He seems in better physical fettle than the others despite the stick he carries.
Soprano Jean Horton, played by Jean Walker, is a snobbish old thing, overdue for a hip replacement. Walker gives a lovely balance as Jean’s soft side finds release from her brittle defensive shell. Meanwhile, Julie Quick moves the audience to its core as she develops mezzo Cissy Robson, from fey trouper to a poor dear soul coping with the onset of dementia. It is a glorious and vivid performance which, in the final scene, brings the house down. Last but absolutely not least is Russell Starke in a very welcome return to the Adelaide stage after too long a hiatus. He plays Reginald Paget, the old tenor on the edge of his own form of dementia. In stark contrast to Knott, Starke underplays this role and does so with masterful restraint. There’s an edge of hesitance against manic little rages and a character emerges whose spirit, the audience feels, has always risen in the face of life’s disappointments. It is a delicate and sweet character - and another memorable performance by Starke.
Director Wylie seems to have brought out the best in the actors but not in the set. And that’s a strange thing. Most of the action takes place on the rest home’s terrace. This is a row of chairs with loose cushions placed down stage with a wall and doors behind. But the row of chairs is incongruous - not a bit like a relaxing terrace. There is no table, no aspidistra, nothing else. This leaves the actors just moving around a row of chairs. It feels limited and awkward. The set screams for a table or a wicker settee.
The good set lies in wait. In act 2, the wall comes down and a fabulous music room is revealed. The actors have lots more to do physically and the pace lifts.
Quartet is not only a terrific vehicle for mature actors but also a charming diversion for old and young audiences. It is not a great play. It is a fun play - and a very nice night’s entertainment, as Dame Edna might opine.
Samela Harris
When: 9 to 18 Apr
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
The Other Ones. Bakehouse Theatre. 10 April 2015
The buzz of anticipation in the Bakehouse foyer held a special current of thrill on the opening night of The Good Son.
This was no ordinary play. It was a long-awaited new play by a rising Adelaide playwright who is also a popular and respected professional actress. Her steady determination to enter that hardest-of-all writing genres has rallied support from some of the country's top talent - and funding through Pozible. So, there were many threads of interest gathered there in that cosy foyer with, it felt, not just hope that the finished work would be good but trust that it would.
The trust was well-placed, as it turned out. What Elena Carapetis has written is latter-day kitchen sink realism which seems to nod in the direction of the great Eugene O'Neill whose renown Long Day's Journey Into Night has just finished playing under the banner of Independent Theatre. While The Good Son is but 80 minutes long and is about a Greek-Australian family, its likeness to Long Day's Journey is that it is an extremely intense and emotional journey in a day in the life of a dysfunctional family. Perhaps one may find thematic nods to Osborne and others. But the play stands on its own merit. It is a topical tragedy. It is powerful, pertinent and Australian.
Its characters are well-wrought and Carapetis shows her nous in the carefully-measured way in which they develop - building skilfully towards the play's passionate and poignant denouement.
The central character is Meda, the Greek matriarch whose pokies problem has been a long and divisive family issue. Despite this, she has retained manipulative power over the son who has stayed at home to support her. She's a devious old vixen and yet generous and loving in her suffocating way. As embodied by Eugenia Fragos, she is a veritable kaleidoscope of moods, snapping in a trice from charming to vulnerable to vengeful. Fragos's performance is nothing less than riveting.
Renato Musolino plays Frank, the hapless son who craves nothing more than a life of his own. Expecting his mother to be out, he has smuggled a new girlfriend into the house overnight and is trying to give her coffee in bed when Mum appears. This scenario provides a deliciously amusing opening to the play while also laying ground for ensuing tensions. The play is not without wit and irony as well as fire and ire.
Musolino plays comedically passionate and furtive and then displays a wealth of hurts and perplexities as the truths and deceits of Frank's situation evolve. Musolino is an accomplished actor and he was right at home in a nice, juicy role. Less seen on the Adelaide stage is Dimitrios Sirilas who appears as Jimmy, the close family friend who is almost a second son to Meda. Sirilas, with his little bob of pony tail, plays the wide boy with disconcerting ease. Meanwhile, there is Ana, the could-be/would-be girlfriend, played by Adriana Bonacurso. At first, she seems to be the play's minor character but all is not quite what it seems. Bonacurso gives a mighty performance.
One of the reasons the play sits well is that these four characters are not only believable but they also are, in their way, likeable. They feel real.
This is a very well-prepared production under the perceptive direction of Corey McMahon. He is supported by the knowing hand of producer Joanna Hartstone with an all-star backstage line-up of composer Jason Sweeney and lighting designer Ben Flett with creative associates Olivia Zanchetta and Alexander Ramsay. Most significantly, also, is Manda Webber with a domestic set the likes of which never has been seen in The Bakehouse. Made entirely of recycled materials, it even has its own walk-in kitchen as well as the true look of Greek-Australian domesticity: the patterned wallpaper; the lace curtains; the plastic tablecloth cover; and the lovingly-tended floral sofa.
And thus, with talent and diligence, with industry support and enthusiasm, does Elena Carapetis arrive fully-fledged as a new Australian playwright. And one may look forward to her future output.
Samela Harris
When: 10 to 25 Apr
When: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bakehousetheatre.com
Independent Theatre Company. The Goodwood Institute. 25 Mar 2015
Eugene O'Neill is a giant of American playwriting history. He is credited with shifting this medium from bland and mannered entertainment to a poignant search for truth in American life. Long Day's Journey Into Night was one of the last of his fifty plays. The Tyrone family, who inhabit this long and sad day that bleeds into the wee hours of the next, is a stand-in for O'Neill's own father, mother and brother, and himself, complete with their conflicts and addictions. Some biographers say that all his other plays led to this masterwork, even though he had already won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936, five years before this play. Although his wish was that it not be performed for twenty-five years, it won O'Neill his fourth Pulitzer Prize in 1957, four years after his death from pneumonia. His greatness is manifest in his antecedents. In this play alone, you will see the avatars of Arthur Miller's Hap and Biff, and Tennessee Williams's Blanche du Bois.
The first thing to note in this production is the magnificent re-creation of an early 1900s American east coast cottage interior (set design: Rob Croser and David Roach, and constructed with acute attention to detail by a team led by David Roach). Bravo! The after-breakfast chatter signaling hopefulness for a fresh start at the beginning of a summer day near the ocean soon manifests with the tremors that signal subsequent earthquakes. This family has more baggage than the train to Chattanooga and two things are going to happen today to bring out the worst, and sometimes the best, in everybody.
The vicious cycle of a hazardous remark, received with hurt arising from insecurity, followed by recrimination and blame, and finally ending in a temporary truce - although belying the love these family members have for each other - is numbing. And it's a three hour production. The day's situation is left unresolved and you can't help but feel, like in 'Groundhog Day', the Tyrones will do it all over again the next day, like they did it the day before. It becomes suffocating. O'Neill's followers must have sensed this themselves as they employed significant external characters to provide foil and relief to family dysfunctionality - the gentleman caller in The Glass Menagerie, the neighbour and Uncle Ben in Death of a Salesman and the young academic couple in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? are offered as examples.
Bronwyn Ruciak does a great job as the addled mother, floating gracefully between lies and morphine. Angus Henderson has his Jamie Tyrone disguise his loafing and dissipated youth with an exuberant charm that elicited forgiveness. Benji Riggs plays the younger brother as a congenial young man and victim, with snippets of real flare. David Roach (who else?) in the male lead of the father roars and declaims most of his lines and misses opportunities for nuance. Rob Croser once again displays his directorial virtuosity in using the entire stage and getting his actors into fetching and amplifying physicalities.
Long Day's Journey Into Night contains four of the most trapped and unhappiest family characters in literature, and is the important precursor for later American dramatists standing on the shoulders of a giant, and learning from him. A must see for those who honour this transition.
David Grybowski
When: 19 to 28 March
Where: The Goodwood Institute
Bookings: trybooking.com