Patch Theatre. Space Theatre. 14 Aug 2021
No-one really likes being Pollyanna and blathering on about silver linings in the time of Covid but sometimes you just have to. Take the remarkable acrobatic circus company, Gravity and other Myths (GOM). In 2020, like most arts companies, they were unable to tour, so spent the time working on the magnificent The Pulse which premiered at the Adelaide Festival of Arts earlier this year to great critical acclaim.
Geoff Cobham, Artistic Director of Patch Theatre, was the designer of that show, and has worked with Creative Director Darcy Grant on previous productions for GOM. This time, Grant came to Patch, with both companies being state bound by various restrictions, lockdowns etc.
The result of the collaborations is I Wish…, a phantasmic exploration of what it is to be, well, us.
As the audience walks into the Space, portal lights flash, allocating one of four colours to each person entering, with each person receiving a small, silhouetted figure of that colour. For the record, in our group the two adults were blue, two short people were red and two were green. No yellows!
Geoff Cobham’s magic begins immediately, with colours flashing, grabbing young attention immediately. What’s happening? Four people wander into the space; one red, one blue, one green, one yellow. Oh yeah! As their robotic movements begin, the young audience is at first unsure, then smiling, then very quickly laughing. The four show their interconnectedness with wacky dance and acrobatics; as each does their own thing, it affects the next person, and then the next. It’s a salient lesson in how the individual influences the whole.
The backdrop becomes a reflective screen, then a digital screen, as all the while Cobham’s lighting design pulses with the original beats from composer Luke Smiles. Onstage, Lisa Goldsworthy and Simon McClure (from GOM) and dancers Zoë Dunwoodie (ex Australian Dance Theatre) and Wakara Gondarra (Djuki Mala) keep it all moving, keeping the kids in the action as they’re invited to ‘throw their colour’; the red, the blue, the yellow and green hit the light sticks with unerring timing as the delighted children contribute to the show.
This generation of audience are digital natives, so the use of screens is second nature to them. But the quirky animation designs of Luku Kuku had everyone delighted as the performers appeared to change heads and torso as the screens moved down their bodies. Think Salvador Dali channelling Terry Gilliam and you’re still not there. Fantastic work!
And the title of the show? We’re back to fantasy as each cast member has ‘I wish’ turns, using the omnipresent light sabres as props. I wish I was a unicorn; I wish I could fly; I wish I was a fork lift! And no kids show is complete without a fart joke; I Wish… did not disappoint, much to the delight of the green supporters! That’s our man!
What a wonderful collaboration this is. Colourful, physical, funny yet thought provoking and providing an experience for a wide range of ages (including adults!). This production will tour to the regions after its run at the Space, and hopefully, nothing stops it from getting there. Which brings us back to Covid and the silver lining. Pollyanna much?
Arna Eyers-White
When: 14 to 28 Aug
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 15 Aug 2021
It’s always time for a little cup of Coward, just to remind one that once there was polite society in which nice households had servants and everyone liked a drop of sweet sherry.
Blithe Spirit offers all that nostalgia and then some, as it throws in the pre-TV-days idea of having the local clairvoyant in to entertain with a séance.
Oddly, the Guild has chosen to frock this period piece in quasi 50s costumes and to allow the clumsy maid to look a bit scruffy. Of course, hers is a clownish role, well delivered by Ashlee Scott, and the play is a classic comedy which has been in production on stage and screen since 1941.
It depicts a writer Charles Condomine seeking background from the spirit world for his next book. To the annoyance of his second wife, Ruth, mystic Madam Arcati conjures up the ghost of his first wife, Elvira. Folly and cross-purposes ensue.
While The Little Theatre proves extremely comfortable for covid conditions, it is a bit incongruous for such a trad play. Director Megan Dansie, however, makes the best of the quaint little round space, especially in enabling the grey figure of Elvira to literally breeze through the audience.
Dansie's strength in this production is in her casting. The play is extremely ably performed. The accents and enunciations are right on the ball, if one forgives a “mischeevious” or two. Newly discovered young Emily Currie is positively breathtaking as Elvira. She is exquisitely counterpointed by seasoned hand, Jean Walker, whose Madam Arcati is spry, devious, and funny. Miriam Keane is word-perfect as the hapless second wife Ruth and Brad Martin embodies the suave central figure of Charles Condomine with panache, timing, and clarity of articulation reminiscent of the young Russell Starke. Esther Michelsen and Steve Marvanek complete the cast with adept characterisations.
This Noel Coward old-school comedy of manners is now a fairly fragile period piece. Millennial audience members may well wonder why the women are sitting around in the living room waiting for the men after dinner. While Dansie has handled the play with care in a tricky performance space, one cannot help but wish it had been possible to tighten it up with a blue pencil.
Nonetheless, the scenes of ghostly mixed messages raise the same wholesome laughs as ever they did.
Samela Harris
When: 11 to 21 Aug
Where: The Little Theatre, University of Adelaide
Bookings: trybooking.com
Independent Theatre. Goodwood Theatre. 4 Aug 2021
Independent’s artistic director, Rob Croser, has made an audacious gamble on presenting a classic Shakespeare play not only in the traditionalist ilk but also neatly cut and devoid of an interval.
This is exquisitely perceptive in this era of coronavirus restrictions and audience sensitivity. An early start, a snappy midwinter show and spacious covid seating. This is us, 2021.
Bravo.
Eschewing the fads of period re-interpretations, Croser has put Macbeth back into familiar period costuming, draping the Scots in clan sashes and allowing the actors to deliver lines in the old school of Shakespearian enunciation. From Matt Hyde in the titular role, not a word is lost, albeit many are raised in powerful emphasis. Hyde works this part with almost exhausting dedication and articulation, a bellowing ill-fated villain of desperate misunderstanding. He mellows superbly at the critical moment of that great among greatest of Shakespearean soliloquies: “It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, Full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing..”
It is a magic and memorable moment.
Also starring in this Rob Croser production is the forest of Dunsinane.
Suddenly, beyond the striking blood red diamond of the raked stage, a lush backdrop of tall trees appears as if in the dim distance. It is a stunning achievement of lighting, imagination and, indeed, of sourcing of long coniferous fronds behind which the hidden enemy slinks to the fore. Magic.
This is followed by a cacophony of period battle sounds and expertly choreographed swordsmanship.
A magnificent Croser-devised soundscape rides behind the vast tragedy of Macbeth’s doomed world, from the chirping of crickets to eerie booming presages of imminent doom.
Matt Hyde delivers a strong classic Macbeth but Rebecca Kemp rises yet higher as the malign and appalled Lady Macbeth. Amid a torrent of talented male actors, she towers.
The three witches, oddly clad in something akin to Apache fringes, are a shrill, cackling chorus rather more interesting by the Croser suggestion that they should represent three generations, mother, daughter, and granddaughter. Hence they are embodied by senior actress Pam O'Grady with Lyn Wilson and Emma Bleby.
As ever, Independent has gathered a strong amalgam of senior and newcomer actors. Seasoned Steve Turner plays a compelling Banquo whose death one mourns and whose ghostly reiterations one admires. As his son, Callum Nunn emerges as a talented teen whose own ghostly onstage expressions long may haunt audience members. Strong performances are all over the place from this cast, ever exemplified by masterful David Roach as the old king.
Independent’s success continues with Shedrick Yarkpai once again shining with the pure bright light of his considerable talent. Here, as McDuff, his emotional depth is gut-wrenching as he learns of the death of his "pretty chickens and their dam”.
Also outstanding is Eddie Sims as the young heir to the throne and, indeed also those performing as the ruthless cohort which surrounds him.
With its eloquent lighting and staged simplicity, this is Shakespeare as we know and love him.
Samela Harris
When: 31 Jul to 12 Aug
Where: Goodwood Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Bakehouse Theatre. 17 Jul 2021
Out of the cold, wet night and into the convivial warmth and excellence of the Bakehouse. And we are to receive yet another wonderful, riveting production as, with our tears, we count down to the demise of this beloved and significant venue.
The intimacy of the auditorium and the commitment of the actors makes this Sam Shepard classic just a bit daunting. There is a sense that the vengeful mania of big brother Lee is only just under control, and he is just metres away. Actor Marko Siklich is a big man and, inhabited by the hair-trigger psychopathology of Lee’s character, he is really rather frightening. Designer Hayley Green has placed the action right at the audience’s knees in a skeletal house frame. Beyond is a view of vast symbolic desert whence Lee is purported to have come to visit his screenwriter brother who is housesitting while their mother is in Alaska. Lee is a hustler and petty thief who brings with him a complex sibling agenda and, between downing beers and crushing the cans, he usurps brother Austin’s relationship with his Hollywood agent and a battle of territorial imperative ensues, climaxing in one of the greatest bizarre theatre scenes ever to involve toasters. Amid the sturm und drang of the terrible sibling showdown there is humour and also a knife-edge sense of veracity. Family life can be a dangerous place.
Director Caroline Mignone seems to have taken the play right under its own skin. It is a remarkably tense and vivid production with superb performances, including her own as the poor, hapless mother.
Marko Siklich’s fearsomely robust portrayal is exquisitely counterpointed by Robbie Greenwell who delivers brother Austin's evolution from confident, disciplined writer to its very antithesis. It is a potent emotional transition, very well executed. Rick Mills completes the cast with eminent competence as the self-serving Hollywood agent and, without falter, all actors sustain impeccable American accents.
Stephen Dean maintains his track record as a leading lighting designer in this work which, indeed, has been a work of talented devotion from all. The play is officially presented by the two principal actors and, as such, is an impressively professional enterprise with the power of a Flinders Drama alumni background. And, not to be reiterative but, dammit, it serves to emphasise what Adelaide’s theatre community will be losing without the Bakehouse.
Samela Harris
When: 14 to 17 Jul
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Tea Tree Players Theatre Youth. Tilley Recreation Park. 15 Jul 2021
A chilly, rainswept Adelaide night was the perfect occasion to see C.S. Lewis’ enduring tale of four children’s adventures in the snow covered world of Narnia. Oddly enough, the idea that a child can go into an old wardrobe and come out the other side into a parallel universe is still quite an acceptable concept, and that can only be a good thing!
The story follows the four Pevensie siblings who have been sent to the countryside for safety during the blitz (WW2). The costuming reflects this era - floral frocks and loose fitting slacks – but there is little reference otherwise. Having wandered through the aforementioned wardrobe into Narnia, Lucy (Gaby Taylor), Peter (Matthew Visciglio), Susan (Ashlee Brown) and Edmund (Zack Brittan) find themselves at the centre of a hostile takeover of Narnia. It has been prophesied that ‘two daughters of Eve and two sons of Adam’ will appear in the land, and assist the mysterious lion Aslan to destroy the evil witch queen and restore Narnia to the garden it once was. Along the way, they will experience betrayal, forgiveness, sacrifice and resurrection. If you’re sensing Christian overtones here, you’re right on track.
This debut by co-directors Rhi Shapcott and Kristyn Barnes, themselves graduates of the TTP Youth group, is a simple production; good old fashioned theatre without the technical tricks and geegaws over-offered these days. Painted flats, the lamppost (of course) and bits of furniture brought on and off by wood nymphs works perfectly well, if a little slow at times. The story is somewhat edited – it’s a bit hard to fit an entire book into 90 minutes or so – but the production flows effortlessly, and there’s not really a sense of anything important being omitted.
This is an ensemble work, and the cast are obviously supportive of each other, but some standout performances must be mentioned. Mathew Wright (at 6 feet tall, beautifully cast as the Dwarf) has a wonderful time with his role, and though he’s meant to be bad, the entire audience loves him.
Jimmy White as Mr Beaver brings a much nuanced performance, using expression and his body to bring his character to life, and shows a maturity in stage craft that should be nurtured.
Max Shapcott as the White Witch displays a maniacally effective evil laugh; equally well voiced is the sonorous Aslan (Clinton Nitschke), roaring out his anger while equally tempering his beautiful baritone for gentler delivery.
Makeup is one of the stars of the show. In the manner of kiddies’ face painting, the representation of animal faces is superb; beavers, fawns, wolves and unicorns, with Aslan’s lion makeup an artistic standout. Well done!
Particular mention must be made of the volunteers looking after front of house. COVID plans are not easy to deal with, and audiences are not easy to shepherd. In this instance, they perform brilliantly, combining efficiency with good humour; they could teach a few other organisations how to get the balance right! Congratulations all.
Arna Eyers-White
When: Until 17 Jul
Where: Tilley Recreation Park
Bookings: trybooking.com