Davine Interventionz Productions. Star Theatres. 18 Nov 2015
It's very Off Broadway down there at Star Theatres right now. There's a deeply alternative, highly Sondheimesque two-hander musical playing - with all the suave expertise of the big time.
The musical is The Story of My Life and it is about two men whose friendship goes back to childhood. It is a Neil Bartram creation from a book by Brian Hill and although it premiered in Canada, it has the strong flavour of an American story. The most important location is a small town bookshop called Writers' Block, and one can't help but envisage it in upstate New York or Vermont. The actors' very good accents seem to endorse this impression.
As boys, the friends spend some significant time in this poky literary paradise run by Alvin's father who has a magical touch in matching customers with the perfect book. Alvin does this alchemy for his friend, Tom, giving him Tom Sawyer, a book which will inspire him to become a writer. And thus begin a series of significant moments in their lives, each one, Tom unwittingly cannibalises to establish a rising literary career.
The musical's odd springboard for the stories is writer Tom's frazzled efforts to write a eulogy for his best friend. The lads once had vowed that they would write each other's eulogies. But when the time comes, the now award-winning city writer can't get the words together. He has writer's block about his friend from Writer's Block; for, indeed, Alvin inherited the bookshop and has spent his life running it. As Tom struggles with his memories, Alvin materialises and provides all the stories from a well of manuscripts in the ghost of his bookshop.
It is an interesting idea and would work rather better if it was less laboured. Tom seems to be a stubbornly slow learner. The songs are all too long and there is a troubling sameness about the music. The pivotal story among the range of friendship revelations is repeated once too often. Somewhere along the line this broadly-produced musical, now having its Australian premiere, should have had a going-over with the blue pencil. However, its survival rests on the touching observations of the sweet and sour of human relationships and the way time and distance can change their dynamics.
One may shed a tear or two.
This production, directed by David Gauci of Davine Interventionz Productions, sets the players on a fashionably white, white stage. Move over Ikea. This, clearly, is meant to reflect the blank page of Tom's mind and the abstraction of death whence Alvin is very active. It is all quite aesthetic. But its impersonal coolth works against the theme of love and happenstance, not to mention the spirit of cosy clutter which characterises small town bookshops and is pivotal to the plot. Between the designer white and director Gauci's choice to keep the action fairly static, it means that everything rests on the power and skill of the two performers to bring the work alive.
But they are up to it. Paul Rodda and David Salter carry a complex and dense script and a series of difficult songs as if they were born to it. Two marvellous Adelaide talents they are.
In smart dark suit, Rodda plays Tom the fraught but egotistical writer. He opens the show with Write What You Know and the audience knows that Rodda knows his stuff. He is pitch perfect and expressive. As the tale evolves, his character becomes less likeable and Rodda plays it out with conviction, allowing for a beautiful turnaround at the end. The other attribute Rodda brings to the stage is his poise. He moves with grace and impeccable attention to stance.
David Salter has the looser part since, ostensibly, he is the loser. His three-piece suit is cream-coloured and slightly rumpled. His hair is a bit unkempt. He's always been the one who tried to please, who had the ideas, but who was ever the underdog. He was the boy whose mum had died when he was wee. He was the outsider boy who dressed up in chenille to play her ghost for Halloween.
Salter completes this complex character in a wonderful performance. He underplays. He shows a generosity of spirit on stage and a sweetness of nature. He has a smile which lights up the world and a voice of interesting timbre which can belt out the big tunes one minute and switch characters the next.
The stories which unfold in this show are many and varied. They are prompted by Alvin from stacks of white paper in white shelves. Some are fun. The snow angels are important and the actors descend from the stage and lie upon a furry white fabric on the floor in front of A row to give verity to the tradition, little known by many Australians.
Somewhere, nowhere there is a nine-piece orchestra under the musical direction of Peter Johns. It is a stunningly good orchestra. The music is wonderful. Is the orchestra hidden behind the black OP drapes? Did they record this work earlier? No one came out to take a bow. The audience will never know.
But the music is good, the sound is good, the lighting is pretty good and the performers are top notch.
It's only on for a couple of nights - so hasten down to Star Theatres.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 21 Nov
Where: Star Theatres
Bookings: outix.com.au
Readers note: Paul Rodda is the Creative Director and Editor for the Barefoot Review.
Photography by Andy Trimmings
