OzAsia Festival. W!ld Rice Theatre. Dunstan Playhouse. 28 and 29 Sep 2017
Hotel
The jewel in the crown of the OzAsia Festival shines very brightly indeed.
The Singapore company W!ld Rice Theatre, with playwrights Alfian Sa’at and Marcia Vanderstraaten, have devised a Singaporean history work ingeniously centred on what happens over a century in a single room in a grand old hotel. It is unnamed but fairly clearly it is Raffles.
The play's five hours embrace eleven episodes: small plays representing different situations and characters from 1915 to 2015. Incredibly, eleven languages are spoken through the eleven scenes, English predominates and the others are translated on sur-title screens.
Hotel staff function as the chorus introducing the show with a lovely piece choreographed around rolling suitcases. Thereafter, dressed as the hotel valets and maids, they define the scene changes and complement the history symbols which also are represented in black and white photo images on the set.
The production opens with a colonial plantation owner on honeymoon with his Eurasian bride. The audience cringes at his imperialistic sexism. Ten years later in the roaring 20s, Malaysian Chinese cousins, one a hotel laundry worker and the other a servant of the rich Mrs Wong, are reunited in the room and mock the class system by parading around in Mrs Wong’s frocks. Their merriment is shattered by the visit of an Irish nun on the lookout for girls sold into service and the audience again cringes in sorrow. Between scenes, the hotel staff converge on the room cleaning traces of former guests, as indeed hotel staff are meant to do.
The 30s brings an oddly wacky scene with a shrill Indian spiritualist and very strange and spooky séance. A decade later it is Japanese occupation and a heart-rending scene with a Japanese captain and his Malay lover. So sad. But Wild Rice and its large cast, whipping from costume to costume and character to character, lift the mood to Bollywood frivolity with an Indian star who dares to want to make a “realistic” movie. This is the 1950s and the characters are over the top, the script is comical and the dancing is superb. Come 1965, the sexual revolution is suggested as the hotel room service manager woos the TV repairman. Their doomed relationship is eclipsed, however, by Lee Kuan Yew on the broken TV reading the announcement of Singapore's separation from Malaysia.
Already the company has spread its wings in the array of characters the actors portray. They’re a fine, strong and versatile cast, some of them trained in Australia. They are racially diverse and linguistically athletic. Directed by Ivan Heng and Glen Goei, they are the wondrous ethnic blend which is Singapore.
Hotel II
In the 1970s there was Singapore’s famous Bugis Street, the world headquarters for gorgeous drag queens and trannies. Hotel opens with an American army vet bringing two Bugis St beauties back to his room along with a stash of first class coke and acid. He trashes himself on the drugs and passes out leaving the girls to their own devices. The W!ld Rice Theatre actors capture their fantastic feyness to a tee. Monika takes the man's money and leaves her friend discovering the effects of LSD. And thus is the scene a wild acid trip with giant penises and a sparkling angel mother laying on a guilt trip. The scene becomes colourful high action and fun with a poignant edge.
In 1985, the story of 1945 is recalled. This scene of the Japanese businessman tracing the woman in a photo given to him by his father is profoundly moving and superbly performed. It attempts to tie up the loose ends of life.
Indeed, as the scenes of Hotel II evolve, it becomes clear that the play is intent on deeper themes within the comings and goings of the hotel guests.
Then, again, sensitive issues can get a light touch. Racial tensions, for instance, are delivered with colourful and comic treatment with the hotel room now, in 1995, occupied by a bride and her helpers changing from the wedding dress. She has the most wonderfully strict and intractable mother and a bit of a loopy new Indian mother-in-law and the big issue is which national dress she should wear. It’s a funny scene which also is not funny.
By 2005, Islam has become a more emphatically expressed force in largely Chinese Singapore. A Muslim woman, returning to the room in which she had such a delightful time as a girl in 1955 when Islam was less adamant, finds her now stricter Islamic family is seen as a security risk. Singapore has changed and so have they. And of course, the world at large is changing too and this remarkable play mirrors that.
The show wraps up with a beautifully dignified grand 2015 scene in which the hotel management and its new Middle Eastern owners are at a loss dealing with a long term guest who is on his deathbed. This wonderful man puts life, class, immigration and compassion into place.
Again, there are superb performances from the large ensemble cast as they leap from principal character to chorus and back again. These are experienced actors of strikingly different backgrounds, multilingual and, let it be said, pretty good dancers, and with the quietly changing character of the hotel room and the artful marriage of relevance with sheer ingeniousness, they bring us a five star Hotel experience.
Samela Harris
When: 28 and 29 Sep
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed
State Opera of South Australia. Adelaide Town Hall. 30 Aug 2017
With the Festival Theatre being off-limits for (much needed) renovations, and for the lack of suitable venues to mount full main-stage operas, the State Opera of South Australia instead staged two one-act operas in (mostly) concert format in the pleasing acoustic of the Adelaide Town Hall.
It is a most enjoyable program, but it is definitely an evening of two halves.
La Vide Breve, with music by Manuel de Falla and Spanish libretto by Carlos Fernández-Shaw, is the story of an arranged marriage between Paco and Carmela, but Paco is in love with Salud, a common gypsy girl who despairingly takes her own life because she is denied Paco. The passion of the young lovers is made palpably evident through the beautifully played music and the well-sung arias, but the production lacks a true sense of theatre, and the gravitas of the plot is subjugated by the staging.
Director Nicholas Cannon, through necessity, staged the production largely in concert formation. The limited space of the wide and narrow thrust stage situated in front of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra accommodates the State Opera Chorus as well as the cast and various basic items of stage properties. The whole thing is cramped and lacks a sense of intimacy and seclusion that is often required. Pelham Andrews is a standout as Tio Saravor. His rich bass-baritone voice resonates throughout the auditorium and is never intimidated by the force of the orchestra, unlike Brenton Spiteri, whose excellent tenor voice is at times drowned out by what is essentially an over-powered orchestra.
The displays of flamenco dancing and singing provide interesting contrast. Gisele Blanchard sings a convincing Salud, and Elizabeth Campbell is deeply emotional as Abuela.
Gianni Schicchi is an altogether different proposition, and the evening suddenly takes off! Puccini’s score is emotive, lush, and contains the ever-popular aria O mio babbino caro. (One can sense the audience patiently waiting for it!) The Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, is based in part on Dante's Divine Comedy and is fabulously comical. In short, it concerns the antics of a bunch of relatives who are over-excited about not receiving an inheritance and who conspire to fraudulently alter the will so that they do not miss out.
Director Douglas McNicol exploits every opportunity to extract laughter and his cast is completely up to the task; their acting skills are polished – facial gesturing in particular is exemplary. Elizabeth Campbell gives an object lesson in how to create a truly three-dimensional character that only comes through a deep understanding of one’s relationship with the other characters as well as the time, place and social milieu in which the action is located. It was difficult to take one’s eyes away from her.
McNicol chose to set the action into a contemporary setting, and it works well. Sadly, there are many examples where modernising a setting simply doesn’t work. For example, I recall without fondness Gale Edward’s attempt to give contemporary relevance to Salomé in her 2013 production for SOSA by setting it in a slaughterhouse. The quality of the music and the singing was overshadowed by an execrably bad design concept. This reviewer can’t help wonder what new heights of enjoyment might be achieved if the creatives, in their attempts to modernise, went that extra step further and judiciously altered the libretto as well to remove what ultimately become anachronisms if left unaltered. However……..
Desiree Frahn again demonstrates that she has a bright future as a singer, and her rendition of O mio babbino caro is just delightful: a crystal clear pitch-perfect voice, with no unnecessary vibrato. Brenton Spiteri is a delight as Rinuccio, and his sweet tenor line this time incisively cut through the combined might of the orchestra. Conductor Brian Castles-Onion also seems to have a more refined sympatico with the vocalists in Gianni Schicchi than in La Vide Breve, which helps. McNicol also stars in the title role, and his skills at farcical acting are well on display. Jeremy Tatchell sings and acts the role of Marco with his usual aplomb.
The strong principal casts are well rounded out by convincing performances from, David Cox, Daniel Goodburn, Norbert Hohl, Greg John, Rodney Kirk, Sara Lambert, Fiona McArdle, Rachel McCall, Joshua Rowe, and Beau Sandford.
SOSA’s next production will be Johann Strauss Jnr’s Die Fledermaus to be staged at her majesty’s Theatre on 24 & 25 Oct 2017.
Kym Clayton
When: 30 & 31 Aug
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Bonython Park. Spiegel Big Tent. 18 Aug 2017
Infamous is a breath of fresh air to regular circus fare.
Described as a cross between Cirque de Soleil and fringe show, La Soiree, Infamous attempts to strike a balance between cabaret performance - singing, dancing, burlesque, and comedy – and circus – acrobatics, death-defying stunts, aerialists, and strongmen.
The troupe is comprised of a famous family of circus performers, a team of dancing girls, a singer, a clown, jugglers, and contortionists. They are all highly talented performers in their own right, but it would be fair to say that some shine brighter than others.
As an overall production, Infamous is highly entertaining, but the ‘balance’ is not always there (no pun intended). A series of heart-stopping tricks on the wheel of death would be a tough act for anyone to follow!
In the circus elements, this show really hits its straps. The performers are clearly world class, and the audience are perched on the edge of their seats. It is exactly what the circus intended.
During the cabaret numbers, however, one’s attention drifts, production elements are lacking, and the buzz created by the preceding circus number slowly dies away. This is the result of a lack of pace, poorly focussed lighting, and generally low sound quality (especially for musical numbers).
The cabaret seating is a stroke of genius and gets much of the audience up close and personal to the action. Serving drinks throughout the show is a distraction however, constantly breaking our focus on the action as attendants come and go taking orders and delivering goods.
It is a show that needs the heavy editing of a director; but one with loads of potential to soar. The production elements of its big brothers in Cirque de Soleil and La Soiree are what make these shows so engrossing and memorable.
Infamous is an entertaining evening of spectacular circus with some enjoyable cabaret and gorgeous bodies on display – with a few tweaks it could be truly infamous.
Paul Rodda
When: 18 Aug to 10 Sep
Where: Bonython Park, Adelaide
Bookings: events.ticketbooth.com.au
Sydney Dance Company. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 17 August 2017
Look for details informing the evening’s double bill and you find a tale of new breed greatness paired with a mature master’s work.
Gabrielle Nankivell’s intensely rich, deeply primal Wildebeest was commissioned by Sydney Dance Company’s 2014 New Breed season. In 2015, she was awarded the Tanja Liedtke Foundation award.
Opening night marked the 10th Anniversary of Liedtke’s death. So it was quite fitting Nankivell’s work was performed. Rafael Bonachela’s Frame of Mind scooped the 2015 Helpmann Awards for dance; best choreography, best dance work, best male dancer and best female dancer.
Instinct and knowledge are words Nankivell uses to describe the core to her Wildebeest. The work choreographically sears with animal primality blended with mythological ritual.
Almost every move originates directly from body joints - knees, elbows, knuckles - from which the limbs take their cue in bringing to life what is animal, powerful, fast, dangerous, wild, strong, and graceful.
Whether in solo or ensemble performance, the presence of the beast in fight or flight is utterly clear. Fiona Holley’s loose tunic costumes in gradations of dark to light soil colours and Benjamin Cisterne’s low level lighting with subtle white lightning flashes enhance the sense of animal chaos.
Surprisingly then, perhaps not, there’s a shift from wildness to a lemon hue lit phrase. Composer Luke Smiles offers up a delicious series of hoof like beats to which the ensemble matches with hands and arms as two dancers come together to form a living statue, then other dancers. Their arms and hands clapping together in time with beat.
It’s a mythic, religious soulfulness matching the animal wildness. Given the primal nature of the work, it’s easy to see this phrase of the work as a primitive human response to a feared power, worship it to understand it.
Frame of Mind is a very clever piece. Rafael Bonachela wanted to explore that desire to be in two places at once. He achieves this beautifully by mixing phrases of ensemble work with a duet. Designer Ralf Meyers and Lighting Designer Benjamin Cisterne provide Bonachela with a red curtained quarter square which is yellow lit for ensemble work and goes dark with faint front white wash lighting for the duet.
Where’s the clever? In the psychology informing the dance. Wonderfully, it’s not so much the dance that’s going on in the red corner that’s important. Oh no, it’s that male dancer and female dancer who don’t seem to be doing much. It takes a while to cotton onto it. She stands by the red curtain wall, watching. He slips in and out of the dance with the ensemble which is clearly under his direction. He’s half there, half elsewhere.
This terrific tension established so quietly between the male and female is given much more complex expression in the series of duets interpolated between the ensemble phrases. Only in these phrases is there a sense of unity, completeness and being at one in the moment. The choreography is gloriously intense, filled with ardent, passionately executed leaps, lifts and turns in which there’s an unrestrained freedom and joy between the two that is restricted when these two are in ‘real now time’. In the red corner with the ensemble.
Only when the first duet has occurred does attention turn to what is actually going on choreographically in the red corner space. It’s fantastic; filled with hard work and thrilling dance worthy of applause on its own. But it’s not personal. It isn’t intimate. It’s controlled and dependent for success on all dancers conforming to its dictates. Hence the tension tucked away between two dancers who would rather be somewhere else, and still get the work done.
David O’Brien
When: 17 to 19 August
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Star Theatres. Peter Maddern. 19 Jul 2017
Walking the Kokoda Trail has become something of a fitness-vacation fashion, one which defeats a few people and is a revelation to most. Here is a play which should be compulsory viewing for all those intending to go. It is an intense dip into the wartime world it once was and the reason its name now has such renown.
Peter Maddern has created a stereotypical young Aussie soldier who found himself in New Guinea as a “Chocko” or “chocolate soldier”, which label denoted the barely trained innocents who were late into action in WWII. Todd Grey portrays the young Private Morris Powell delivering a highly credible character; a classic, ingenuous ocker bloke with a broad accent and a voice more typical of the footy outer than the stage. It’s a huge script in which a series of wartime actions are embodied as well as a potted history of the whole interaction with the Japanese and some of the politics of the field, and a sense of the acquisition of wisdom by the character himself. It is a torrent of dialogue. Grey gives it light and dark, pace, tension, drama, and intimacy.
For one man alone on a small stage, it could have seemed an overly complex monologue but the writer, Maddern, also has directed the work and has seen that not only are there costume changes and one large rock-style prop to give the performer a sense of time and scene, but that his assorted frays of one-sided combat action are embellished by excellent sound and lighting.
Josh Williams’ soundscape is simply superb - from the jungle chatter of birds and weather to the percussion of weaponry and the sound of voices close and far from all directions. He peoples the theatre with invisibles. With Zac Eichner’s dramatic lighting and a haze of smoke, muddy mountaintop and frantic combat all feel real.
The narrative is rapid-fire and fact-filled. It’s a lot to take in. Occasionally time and place are projected through lights fanned out in the smoke effects.
It is not the easiest night in the theatre. It is not an easy story. But it is an important one in Australian history. It marks a crucial early defeat of the Japanese and it portrays a too-often overlooked saga of a mob of Aussie men who defended this country, but rarely ever told the gruelling tale.
One might suggest playwright Maddern cuts the early comparison to a then and now of Melbourne suburbs from the script and also the word “clusterf@!k” which was born of Vietnam. These anachronisms stand out like banners of distraction. But, otherwise, bravo!
Samela Harris
When: 19 Jul to 5 Aug
Where: Star Theatres
Bookings: trybooking.com