Famous Last Words. Goodwood Theatre and Studios. 20 Apr 2023
This world premiere is an exceptional piece of theatre not to be missed!
The original Miss Julie was written by Swede August Strindberg in 1888. The play has always been controversial with feminists because Miss Julie is a bit off her game and her creator attributes this in part to “the excitement of dancing,…the strongly aphrodisiac influence of flowers,... and her monthly indisposition.” Writing After Strindberg’s is a bit of an industry (Patrick Marber, Polly Stenham, Simon Stone) and it was even a dance in a 1958 German production. And now James Watson.
Local playwright, director and producer James Watson has stripped away the blah-blah and the rubbishy reasoning and created a taut, tense and terrifying 75 minutes absolutely focusing on the love triangle and setting it in our time. He has taken an old fossil, recovered the useful DNA and conjured up a new creature that is thoroughly modern and relevant.
Miss Julie is the alluring discombobulated daughter of a wealthy man sinking in a sea of privilege and meaninglessness. Daddy’s PA, Jean, is a handsome dreamer and his wife, Kristine, has befriended Julie out of pity. We first see the girls partying and later Jean arrives. Dangerously, Julie and Jean spend the wee hours awake and alone until the light of dawn when the shit really hits the fan. And thus we have a pulchritudinous love triangle.
Watson has written a fitting adaptation to our times. Circumstances aren’t stated but drip-fed through action. Dance music, mobile phones, drinking games, and ultra-authentic chit chat hitch a ride on the narrative arc. The creative team convey the rhythms and rankles of young adults trying to find their way with frightening verisimilitude.
The performances are fantastic. They are so fantastic I was embarrassed as an eavesdropper witnessing the intimacy. Pauses, glances, worried looks, and askances convey as much as the dialogue. Kate Owen (Julie), Emelia Williams (Kristine) and Christian Bartlett (Jean) and Watson are all graduates of Flinders Drama Centre, and Watson and William’s Famous Last Words theatre company reminds me of the Flinders graduates who performed amazing work at the now defunct Bakehouse Theatre back in the 80s. The ending could have been more satisfying. It looked like everybody just gave up and went their separate ways.
Watson didn’t mind utilising the female body types to convey motivation. Owen as Miss Julie is indeed a siren beckoning her sailor to the rocks. Her mad enthusiasm is infectious and dangerous and the anticipated train wreck is excruciating to behold. The tension never lets up. Jean and Kristine are battlers and respectful of earned money; Jean wants to live the American dream and Julie sees her saviour through coke-stained eyes. Julie and Jean’s longing for escape are a perfect storm. To get there, Watson and his actors convey frequent changes of status and its an audience’s guessing game where it’s going, unless of course, you already know, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be fascinated and horrified by the predicament so realistically portrayed - it could be you.
Double bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 18 to 29 Apr
Where: Goodwood Theatre and Studios
Bookings: eventbrite.com
Rocky Horror Company. Festival Theatre. 19 Apr 2023
My goodness! Has it been 50 years since Richard O’Brien penned every tidbit of his salacious tale of interplanetary transsexualism? I was not surprised to learn that the ultimate source of all this whackiness is that Richard O’Brien is a Kiwi. He was a youthful creature of the double feature in Hamilton, NZ, where his statue now stands erect. Just as O’Brien harkened back to the science fiction of the 50s, Rocky Horror’s theme of sexual frivolity and freedom impregnated with the thrill of the chase and taking chances reflects a time of less cares. Then again, the protagonist turns out the be the dangerous antagonist who must die for his excesses. In the musical, he’s killed with a laser beam, in real life it’s an STD.
The Adelaide audience is on the rollercoaster of an eighteen-year-old production directed by genious Christopher Luscombe. Unlike others, Luscombe says, he likes to freshen up each reprise in a new country by actually attending some rehearsals so he can taylor to the local talent. That explains why in the moving image ads at the Festival Centre, the actor playing the creature Rocky is doing backflips not to be seen on the Australian stage.
Seen by 30 million people in 30 countries in 20 languages, Rocky Horror Show is one of the most successful musicals of all time. And then there’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show of 1975. Both the film and the original stage production were directed by Jim Sharman. Some of you might remember that Sharman was Adelaide Festival Director in 1982 and that he stayed on to form Lighthouse – the halcyon days of South Australian theatre.
The chatty audience succumbed to excitement from the opening bars, antici-pating the great night of rock and irreverence that they got; many in character dress-up, no doubt practiced from drunken midnight showings of the movie. It’s hard to imagine the enthusiasm of Rocky Horror tragics; think of the “deplorables” supporting Trump. The first act songs are the famous of the famous and the audience was enthralled with the glam rock riffs. The Time Warp is orgasmic. Director Luscombe notes the phenomena of audience interjection, famously commonplace in Shakespeare’s day but not the done thing presently. Impressively, most of it is pretty good and the cast is asked to go with the flow. Eg: Janet says, “I don’t like a man with too many muscles,” and a smartass yells out, “Just one big muscle!”
David Bedella playing Frank N Furter has won as many Laurence Olivier awards as there are Three Stooges. His tremendous baritone booms and Furter is at once playfully teasing and disturbed. Bedella was unconvincing though on some dialogue exchanges. Henry Rollo has a tremendously powerful voice and his Riff Raff shakes the rafters. Deirdre Khoo’s and Ethan Jones’s Janet and Brad are delightfully innocent yet bold as they undergo a sexual awakening. Stellar Perry and Darcey Eagle made Magenta and Columbia an exciting coupling with their vocal and physical virtuosity. Loredo Malcolm conveys all the naivety of the newborn yet contrapoints with a fabulous body, nimble movements and melody. Ellis Dolan needs all of Eddie’s brain to give this role even more umph. TV star Myf Warhurst is a definite no-no as Narrator. Her Narrator’s Australian ordinariness and reading of the fable jarred with the ambient flamboyance; she comes across more square than even Janet. Warhurst disarms her interjectioners with grace and humour but like a cautious grade school teacher.
You definitely get bang for your buck with the production values. Nick Richings’ colourful laser lights are hard at work and Sue Blane’s cossies admirably fall somewhere between punk trash and Victoria’s Secrets. Hugh Durrant’s set was suitably cartoony and sci-fi fake naff. He cleverly incorporated a representational swirl of 35 mm film in homage to the Rocky Horror movie. Jack Earle’s band blasts away and drives the intensity and excitement.
The audience couldn’t wait to rise to their feet with applause and the cast responded with several encores including The Time Warp which had everyone dancing as the golden ticker tape flied. With each viewing, the shock and awe of the visual audacity gives way to the sheer brilliance of O’Brien’s multi-themed narrative mixed with juvenile hi-jix. Rocky Horror Show is a masterpiece of spoofy rock music extravagance. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 13 to 30 Apr
Where: Adelaide Festival Theatre
Bookings: rockyhorror.com.au
Junkyard Dog Productions, Rodney Rigby and others. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 29 March 2023
Unless you live near Perth or Canberra where this production of Come From Away is going next, you better come from away to Adelaide for the greatest, most uplifting and emotionally charged musical you’ll ever see. All the more ebullient as all the characters are based on real people and events from these most extraordinary five days in Gander.
President Bush closed down American airspace immediately following the 9/11 bombings by Boeings. The compliant Canadians next door, presumably sensing less risk and having more compassion, accepted the US-bound traffic. Thirty-eight airplanes with 6,579 people on board landed within hours in Gander, Newfoundland. Gander International was ideal as it’s far from anywhere and huge, having been the re-fueling port for trans-Atlantic travel before jet planes could make the journey on one tank. Gander had a population of about ten thousand on the day over 20 years ago.
We begin with an energetic introduction to the good citizens of Gander going about their business. We are introduced to the strange Newfie accent described as “the lilting bastard child of Scottish, Irish, Welsh, American and French Canadian,” betraying the historical milueu of the island known as “The Rock.” Talented Canadian couple Irene Sankoff and David Hein (book, music and lyrics) convey the charm before the storm with alacrity. Then the news and it dawns on the townfolk, OMG, what do we do? And without hesitation they spring into hyper-hospitality garnering sandwiches and toilet paper from the entire region and turning every community hall into a hostel. The school bus strike was put on ice and the ice rink turned into a walk-in refrigerator. “You would have done it for us,” they said at the good-byes, refusing any money. The extraordinary things these ordinary people did is the stuff of legend.
The aforementioned historical milieu is matched in the music (Michael Tyack – musical director). The pace is set by seven musicians in the wings rendering familiar Newfie pub fare filled with Celtic rifts augmented by symbiotic sounds from other cultures. Director Christopher Ashley creates non-stop action as the cast of twelve switch from eager townsfolk to temperamental passengers plus air crew (40-something characters!) and back again in a snap. The jet speed was made possible by a simple set comprising chairs and tables that in a blink, and almost unnoticeably, are rearranged by the cast from mayor’s office to aircraft to bus to bunk bedding.
I have been to Gander and the museum is full of mementos including scores of thank you notes from passengers and dozens of letters from national leaders thanking the Newfies for taking care of their citizens. What is forgotten is that while the geese and ganders got on with the job, the passengers had no idea what happened, why they were diverted to nowhere they knew, and had no contact with loved ones (very few people had mobile phones then). They hadn’t showered, were stuck on planes in the air and on the ground for up to 15 hours and were grumpy when not plied with alcohol. It wasn’t smooth sailing but the way to handle this was to invite the “come from aways” into their homes and hold a BBQ at the pub complete with a Newfie initiation ceremony including kissing a cod.
The Newfie characters wear their hearts on their sleeves with helpfulness; their passenger characters eventually soften and let down their guard and suspicion. The superb cast handle this heartwarming transition from untrusting to grateful with gumption. There are a dozen true stories weaved into the situation. The middle age Texan woman and Englishman who crave to canoodle. The woman who can’t reach her fireman son in New York. The Rabbi requiring kosher cuisine. The Moslem man who is repeatedly humiliated, all the more poignant as he is head chef for a chain of international hotels. People from 100 countries were grounded and the kaleidoscope of cultural collision was a joy to behold.
In an outstanding cast, there is an outstanding performance of an outstanding real life character. Australian Zoe Gertz plays Beverley Bass who was the first female captain of a commercial plane (with American Airlines) and also diverted on the job to Gander. Sankoff and Hein were so impressed as to give her character an inspirational song of attaining your dreams against all of the odds. Gertz exudes a sense of command and sings pulchritudinously and precisely with thrilling percipience.
Having succumbed to Newfie hospitality myself, my heart was in my throat the entire time. It is so pleasurable to see a positive dramatic situation based on the real deal. And did I say it was fun!
Musical theatre will rarely be any better than this and the standing ovation was instantaneous. Ten stars and triple Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 30 Mar to 29 Apr
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre. 25 Mar 2023
After all the daring newness of our massive Fringe and Festival shows, it is a comforting delight to sit down in an old-school matinee of quietly clever, well-presented local theatre.
The title of this Roger Hall play is the key to its plot. For all the expertise of the Italian caffeine tradition, the “flat white” is not a coffee Italy serves. Asking for a “flat white" abroad presents an hospitality impasse which reveals the asker’s antipodean culture. Hence, “Four Flat Whites In Italy” describes the essence of the play: four Aussie tourists in Italy. Only one of them has done her homework to know how to order coffee.
This is a very light comedy,
A couple of recently-retired and downsized librarians are planning the holiday of a lifetime in Italy. Suddenly, their old travelling companion friends have to cancel. Their nouveau-riche, apartment-block neighbours offer to step in so the dream trip can go ahead.
While they have played a couple of hands of bridge together, the social and political differences of the four have not been explored. The new neighbour is a successful retired plumber with a trophy wife. The librarians are on humble budgets.
Cue for lots of comic and ironic banter as the contrasts unravel and the characters emerge on the great “adventure-before-dementia” European holiday.
With Don Oswald, director Kerrin White has devised a cunning set which convincingly places the action in Venice, Rome, and Tuscany. This set plays its own comic role, so expertly versatile it is.
Sam Wiseman and Rose Harvey embody the entire working population of Italy quite charmingly: wait staff, tour guides, receptionists, and operatic gondolier.
Furthermore, the cast of principals is up to the demands of their assorted roles, albeit with a bit of liberty with the script at times.
Sue Wylie is bravest of the foursome since she plays the character the audience has to loathe, the annoying super-organiser, know-it-all travel drear full of tedious factual minutiae. Wylie nails her in slow, over-emphasised delivery while, true to script, she is costumed in symphony of drabness.
Her fellow librarian spouse is played by Lindsay Dunn, a reliable actor who specialises in laconic characters. He also is real-time narrator of this travel tale, an artful dramatic device with which the playwright can add peculiarities, insights, and satirical commentary.
Indeed, it is not for nix that Roger Hall has been knighted for this work and has been dubbed here, across the ditch, as New Zealand’s David Williamson.
This is a skilfully-crafted play.
The characters bounce off each other and, as the plot progresses, present pertinent psychological and cultural revelations.
The work's resolution is intelligent and satisfying. The audience has found its own sweet spot for the rich plumber’s trophy wife, impeccably depicted for Therry by Anita Zamberlan Canala. As for her brash, moneyed husband, well, he is played by Frank Cwiertniak, a fine Adelaide actor who is at his peak and, with his character written by Hall, he has more than one dimension to express, but no spoilers here.
This is a play which makes one reflect on human values, ponder social mores, learn about Italy, laugh and guffaw at human follies and foibles and then, just get a bit misty.
Good choice, Therry. Nice work, White and cast.
But please take Saturday matinees back to the traditional 2pm timeslot.
Samela Harris
When: 25 Mar to 1 Apr
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre, University of Adelaide. 24 Mar 2023
Director Bronwyn Palmer’s production excitingly opens with Shakespeare’s ship-sinking storm scene represented with creative stagecraft that puts you at the centre of the action. Making a prow with two lengths of cloth is brilliant. Twelve years earlier, Prospero’s brother Antonio usurped Prospero for his dukedom and guess who’s luckily on the ship? The sorcerer Prospero conjured the tempest and ensured that everyone one on board is marooned on his island so he can right some wrongs with forgiveness and a dynastic plan.
Palmer, the director and set designer, plays with anachronisms in many aspects. The island is represented by a sand spit surrounded by shore waves and fishing nets adorned with the flotsam and jetsam of modernity. A great look that doesn’t have any further role in the narrative. The creative constructions just kept on coming, like Caliban’s cave. Prospero is aided in his mischief by the fairy Ariel and the monstrous Caliban. As well as most of the cast, they look terrific in bespoke costumery (costume design – Palmer and Emily Dalziel). And again like many others in the mainly young cast, Finty McBain and John Charles manifest their theatrical training with fetching expressions and physical movement (movement coach and choreography – Ella McKinnon). Original music and chants by composer Nicholas Cannon adds a lot to the witchcraft. Theatre magic is liberally sprinkled about like confetti by Palmer.
Prospero, of course, is a central role but its potential is not realised. Jack Robins looks like a retired professor beachcombing in Bali just after a meditation lesson including a debris-laden bandolier. More normalcy than wizardry. His enunciation of Shakespeare’s syllables and emotional veracity fell short. The main narrative event is the young love between Prospero’s daughter Miranda and the son of Antonio’s ally, Ferdinand. Ellie Schaefer conveyed all the wonder of first lust and love heightened by having never seen another human being before (besides Dad). Her wide-open enthusiasm is absolutely captivating. Another actor-in-training, Theodoros Papazis is an ideal Ferdinand blessed with gorgeous youth.
The highly experienced Bronwyn Ruciak as Alonso gives an acting lesson to the neophytes. Her constant engagement and expressive understanding are eye candy. Emily Dalziel and Annie Matsouliadis, as the clowning relief, are fabulous as a twosome and in threesome with Charles’s Caliban, their physical work was hilarious and ridiculous. Bogan accents, speech patterns and costume decorated their Shakespeare in a completely unique way. They deserve all the time on stage that they got for their sub-plotting. Antonio and Sebastian played by Susan Cilento and Harry Ollerenshaw were matched in their menace and as sharp as their bodkins.
The relationships of the numerous relevant characters are even more difficult to fathom by gender- and age-blind casting. Due to various appellations, was Alonso actually Ferdinand’s mother or father? Male roles are all of feminised, satirised with man-splaining, or simply played by women in men’s clothing. That adds interest but more discombobulating is that Antonio and Sebastian are the same generation as Prospero, Gonzalo and Alonso, but the actors are next gen. The costumes kept coming but the lighting did not; near the end there was more light on the audience than the stage (lighting design – Stephen Dean).
The whole here is not greater than the parts due to a few laggard elements but at its best, this The Tempest is tempting to attend for what works well.
David Grybowski
When: 26 Mar to 1 Apr
Where: Little Theatre
Bookings: adelaide.edu.au