Theatre Republic. Bakehouse Theatre. 30 Oct 2018
This is a consummate theatre work.
Within minutes of the play starting, the outside world retreats. There is just one reality: an austere barracks room occupied by four raw recruits.
Over the next 75 minutes, under a starkly effective lightscape, the daily conditioning of the young men reiterates in a ruthless rhythm.
Clothes off for bed. Clothes on for inspection. Packs on for drill. Packs off, rifles up, drill, drill, clothes off, clothes on. Discipline. One of their number, Perk, is slack and bolshy. Everyone suffers for his stuff-ups: twenty pushups; twenty more pushups. The voice of the unseen Corporal bellows orders and challenges. The soldiers bark back at the top of their lungs. They are being hammered into a fighting unit. They get it. They try to cover for the recalcitrant Perk. Small differences and abrasions, camaraderie, hopes emerge in their resting hours. Then the nightmare realisation of what it really means in what they call the “theatre” of war.
This Pamela Carter play brings the theatre of war to a theatre's stage with explosive effect. It is powerful theatre. It is a tight and feisty little play superbly mounted by Adelaide's bright new professional theatre company, Theatre Republic.
Corey McMahon’s star continues to shimmer as a thrilling talent among the city’s high-calibre directors. He hits the nail fiercely on the head here with impeccable timing from a group of expert, disciplined and fit young actors: Matt Crook, Rashidi Edward, Stuart Fong and James Smith. Artfully and strenuously they embody the diversity of characters who seek the army life.
The work is finely choreographed by Roz Hervey, the moods underscored by James Oborn’s apt sound and Chris Petridis’s dramatic lighting plot. Olivia Zanchetta’s name leaps to attention for the eloquence of the sparse, regimental set.
Between them, the production team defines Theatre Republic as a quality entity which has arrived to enrich the city’s arts world. In Lines, it provides high-impact entertainment with socio-political substance. It’s a must-see triumph.
Samela Harris
When: 27 Oct to 10 Nov
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bakehousetheatre.com
OzAsia Festival. Korea. Dunstan Playhouse. 25 Oct 2018
Many weird and wonderful offerings from Korea have been seen on the Adelaide stage, but perhaps none more “out there” than the Dancing Grandmothers.
It is the creation of Eun-Me Ahn, a Paris-based Korean choreographer and artistic director. This work is her paean to the women who founded modern Korea. But first, it is a half hour of intensely frenetic physicality from whom one assumes are the dancing grandchildren. They are lean and lithe and they prance around and around the stage, on and off, up and down, tumbling and dropping and cavorting and trotting and skipping, from time to time changing costumes until they work themselves into a frenetic frenzy and end up twitching and writhing on the floor like a pack of dying insects under a street lamp. This dance piece lasts for over thirty minutes and is accompanied by deafening, pulsating techno-trance music. It is not exactly fun. In fact it is a bit tedious and leaves the ears ringing. It is a case of suffering for art. One feels that Eun-Me Ahn is trying to tap into the vein of the great Pina Bausch but ending up with Pina-on-speed madness. There is relief ahead, however.
The grandmothers.
In stark contrast to the aforementioned assault of musical volume, the grandmothers are delivered in silence on a great big screen as video clips; lots of grandmothers in their Korean homes and workplaces doing dear little jiggly dances. They can hear music but we can’t. It seems they are all dancing to the same tune. The audience finds it all quite comical but in fact it is rather poignant. The worlds in which Eun-Me Ahn has filmed the grandmothers are harsh and deprived. These are predominantly poor people. They are in cramped little apartments, tiny crowded shops, street stands, building sites, farm fields, and kitchens. The whole set of dance clips is quite fascinating and very much in the classic style of YouTube's dancing-man cult which was the big meme in early internet days.
Following this, the real live dancing grandmothers arrive on the stage and perform very much the same sort of simple jiggly dancing, mainly from the arms. The grandmothers come in different sizes and attire, escorted on and off the stage by the super-fit grandchildren dancers of the troupe. They dance solo and group pieces, at first restrained but with encouragement from the young, with increasing verve. Their personalities emerge. They are appropriately adorable.
The troupe turns on some more conventional dance before the show is quite over, and with less aggressive music. It is much more fun and at all times bright and colourful. There’s some silly dance shtick with trousers and some fun with mirror balls and when the show comes to a divinely elegant ending, the audience is effusive.
The show features some splendid lighting on the wide, open stage and some very appealing costuming.
There’s some quaint jazz and Euro-crooner music and, thank heavens, a zing of the spirit of K-pop.
It’s a show full of zany ideas and it is not likely to be forgotten. It is gorgeous quirky modern Korean fare and a suitably provocative opener to the festival.
The grandmothers and the whole idea of them are welcome joys and, at show’s end when Eun-Me Ahn invites the audience onto the stage, there’s almost a stampede of enthusiasm.
Samela Harris
When: 25 to 27 Oct
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au
Matt Byrne Media. Holden Street Theatre. 11 Oct 2018
Here’s to you, Matt Byrne for giving audiences a fly on the wall experience of the privileged upper middle class of mid-sixties America in Matt Byrne Media’s (MBM) latest production; the Terry Johnson adaptation of Charles Webb’s novel The Graduate.
One word comes to mind, ‘Plastics’.
Not as a reflection on the production, but on the characters laid (and laid again) out before us. Just when one feels they could invest in a character, one realizes there is little to like about them and withdraws quickly from the investment.
Interestingly, for a play about the 60s, little is dated about the storyline. Rather what is presented seems to reflect much of the lost generation, ‘Kardashian’ way of life often fed to us over the airwaves. As a result the shock value of the cougar and college graduate relationship is quickly diminished in favour of trying to work out just how empty these human vessels are. If you are looking for character arcs; prepare for a long search.
All that said there are great performances in this presentation. As Benjamin Braddock, the graduate, Nathan Quadrio plays with skill and nuance. Making sense of conversations that heighten and drop at the intake of a breath takes insight into the acting conventions and styles of the mid-sixties. Quadrio has certainly done his homework.
As the ‘Delilah’ Mrs. Robinson, Niki Martin brings a complex, strong, manipulative character to the stage in what could have easily been something much shallower. Her delivery of the iconic line “Would you like me to seduce you?” gives a sickening insight into how those who prey, twist a situation to make them seem the preyed upon. There is a frightening chemistry between these two on stage even in the most bizarre post coital conversations that ensue. Interestingly, even after months of intimacy with her, the graduate still insists on calling her ‘Mrs. Robinson’ (figure that one out Freud!).
Which bring us to the elephant in the room… the sex scenes. Subtlety has never been the hall mark of an MBM show, and this production follows suit. While montage is a great way of showing time passing, there are titters from the audience as positions changed, and the dialogue of the parents during the montage is lost as we all wonder, what are they going to do next? Enough said!
There is significant nudity in the play, but Paul Tossel’s lighting design keeps these moments tasteful and the nudity less the focus than the on-stage character’s reaction to it. Costuming by Sue Winston and set design by Matt Byrne all give a true sense of the era.
A special mention to Hannah Tulip for her work in the role of Elaine Robinson, her performance is strong and honest. The rest of the cast, many of whom play multiple parts, work well in ensemble with the two leads; Tim Cousins and Heather Riley, as the graduate’s parents, and Matt Byrne as Hal Robinson all give fair performances. Some care should be taken in the more furious exchanges as words are lost in the emotion of the moment.
A significant part of the film was the sound track. Most people remember the song Mrs Robinson (originally titled Mrs Roosevelt), but one might argue that the most iconic song began and ended the story, Sounds of Silence. The MBM production makes good use of the Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack in the scene changes and as the audience gathered.
Matt Byrne Media often choses to tread where others dare not. It is certain there will be a number of conversations that will spring from this production asking about the validity of presenting a play about seduction, intent, infidelity and using alcoholism as an excuse. Perhaps that is why a plays such as The Graduate do need airing, if only to keep the conversations going.
David Gauci
When: 10 to 27 Oct
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: mattbyrnemedia.com.au
Michael Coppel, Louise Withers & Linda Bewick. Adelaide Festival Centre. Festival Theatre. 11 Oct 2018
The Plaza renovations may be creating ugliness and stress on the outside but inside the Festival Centre there is nothing but unadulterated joy and good spirit. Mamma Mia! is in the house and the house is bursting with happiness. This show does not get a standing ovation. It gets a dancing, bopping sing-along ovation as it thrills with a stream of high-energy encore numbers. And the cast seems to be as happy as the audience it has just enchanted. It’s an audience-cast love affair devolving from a show which is all about love affairs.
Of course it’s all pure corn, a well-worn story woven around a songbook of dear old Abba hits.
Sophie invites to her wedding three men who had affairs with her mother in the hope of identifying her father. The mother is aghast and the men perplexed as they work it all out amid a bevy of colourful wedding guests and island locals. There’s a torrent of favourite Abba songs and, in the case of this production, some absolutely gorgeous spirited choreography.
Few people have not seen the film and its sequel and millions more have seen the musical. The program stats rate it at 60 million so far and its popularity is not waning. It was the feminine spirit of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus’s songs that inspired Judy Cramer to create the show and after its opening in London in 1999, it has just gone on and on sweeping around the world. Now a new generation is lapping it up.
The Australian principals are very well cast. They are maybe not familiar to Adelaide theatre goers, most of them having achieved their career profiles in the television world. It does not take long for them to establish their characters and bring together the comic and emotional core of the show. There are lots of laughs and a little bit of misty-eye as well as an old fashioned moral to the story.
Sarah Morrison plays Sophie, the young bride-to-be. She has all the goods, voice, high energy and a pleasant persona which comes across. But, of course, her character and her song list is outweighed by her mother, Donna, who is performed by Natalie O’Donnell. It is a huge role with big numbers, quite exhausting, but talented O’Donnell powers through tirelessly. Donna’s two Mamma Mia Super Trouper girlfriends are a particular key to the show. The old friends, Tanya and Rosie, are the comic magic of the plot and Alicia Gardiner and Jayde Westaby flesh them out with vivacity, musical richness and utter hilarity. If anyone steals the show, it is Westaby, long, lean and lithe and blessed with exquisite comic nous. She is one of those rare performers who effortlessly connects with the audience. Gardiner, however, has the to-die-for voice. She’s Australia’s latest Big Mamma.
Ian Stenlake makes a hero’s meal of the handsome ex-lover Sam. His performance breathes romantic tension onto the stage and he can certainly belt out an Abba song. As the other potential fathers, Josef Ber and Philip Lowe, balance out the fun and games with their humorous old-lover-boy characters while Stephen Mahy is all muscles and good looks as the modern-day fiancé. Sam Hooper is the acrobatic fool of the show, the tumbling funny Pepper and everyone loves him. His island mates are well-wrought and their dance in flippers is one of the highlights of the night.
The ensemble work is suitably fabulous, whether it’s the huge cast popping out of the doors and windows of the taverna or out there en masse doing a big number. There is lots of complex choreography and planning in those numbers and wherever one looks, there’s some comic business going on. Behind the Greek taverna scene, Michael Azzopardi has a fine band pounding out the good tunes. And it’s all simply jolly good fun. It’s a ticket to downright feel-good, and as the world is turning right now, it comes as a precious tonic.
Samela Harris
When: 11 Oct to 18 Nov
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Matt Grey. Holden Street Theatres. 2 Oct 2018
Here is a man who wanted to make a career out of his love for computer games by putting them on stage with jokes.
He did it once and it was a hit.
Now, after a five year break and the birth of a son, he’s done it again. And it’s definitely another hit.
Game On 2 is just loads and loads of gorgeous geeky fun.
Several computer games with brilliant high-tech graphics are on today’s zeitgeist with the young, Fortnite at the peak of things right now. Of course, it’s a high-tech online game with sophisticated graphics.
Matt Grey’s show is absolutely the antithesis; it's utterly low tech. It’s nothing more than a Power Point presentation, the slides being images of computer games with commentary from Matt.
It’s no ordinary commentary. Matt has the loudest of loud voices. He said his mother complained about it. But now it’s his tool. There is no ignoring him. Not that you’d want to. He’s rambunctiously amusing and downright fun. He knows his games and he knows the players and the culture.
He tests the audience on games, setting up a Boogie bomb which means the kids have to jump up and do specific Fortnite jiggling dance routines. The kids know them and are thrilled to do them. He engages with them and summons kids and parents onto the stage to participate. Sometimes it’s a bit rough-house.
His Pokemon routine is rough and it is possibly the best time a kid could ever have in a theatre. Truly. With his wife dressed up in an inflatable Minion costume, he equips three boys from the audience with a seemingly endless supply of blow-up balls which they hit out into the audience whence they are to be thrown at the hapless costume creature. Balls fly in all directions. Everyone is leaping and throwing and bumping the balls around, the kids on stage ensuring that they all fly back into the audience. It goes on, riotously loud and exuberant until, eventually, the poor yellow giant Pokemon subsides onto the floor soundly vanquished.
There’s another rowdy audience game which is performed with peculiar toy guns and foam bullets. Everyone is supplied with this weaponry. The audience has to emulate the Battle Royale game and save the world by shooting the big baddie who is Matt behind a Donald Trump mask.
Then there’s Granny Theft Auto with optional story endings and Medicare Operation wherein kids with tongs take turns in removing organs velcroed to Matt’s overcoat.
Kids and dads get to star in the hour-long show. Matt doesn’t let them get away with anarchy, though. He keeps everyone in good check, strict as well as fun. He has found the balance.
He peppers the show with anecdotes and gamer chat but, while it is a real buzz for the young gamers, it is also engaging for the rest of the audience. This geek is inclusive.
It’s a feel-good show for young and old, and while the older of Barefoot’s two kid critics described it as really interesting, exciting and entertaining, the younger one, who had had her moment in the spotlight on stage in Matt’s dice story game, simply said:
“Can we go again tomorrow?”
Samela Harris
When: 2 to 5 Oct
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: trybooking.com