Easter Bilby - The Pantomime. National Museum. Yarramundi Visitor Centre Theatrette. Two shows daily at 10.00 am & 1.00 pm March 25-29. One show daily at 10.00 am March 30-April 14. Admission: Children $2.50, Adults $5.00, Families (two adults plus children) $12.00. Bookings essential on 256 1115.
Reviewed ~March 25, 1996
I recommend you ring up and book right now, even if you are an adult without children. I found it fascinating watching children from Kindy to Grade 3 from Palmerston Primary School enthusiastically metamorphosing into Bilby, Numbat and Chuditch (spotted quoll) in the indigenous team against Easter Bunny, Flash Rabbit and lots of Naughty Rabbits in the exotic team, with Finch and Wren as umpires. Well, it's not really the ARL vs SuperLeague, but this story by Ali Garnett and Kaye Kessing has implications far beyond the story of the environmental disaster caused by rabbits in Australia.
Easter Bilby - The Pantomime has already thoroughly entertained 2500 children at Yarramundi since 1994 and is set to become a permanent tradition. Wonderful costumes and set were made by Canberra designer Kaye Kessing and have been acquired by the National Museum. Kaye and writer Ali Garnett have produced the Easter Bilby Action Pack and have worked with presenters in many places around the country, training others in the ways of interactive educational drama.
I saw Regan White as the Storyteller/Guide and David Bailey in the character role of The Professor in an delightful production (assisted in the costumes department by Catherine Heness and Anna Bochenek). The Theatrette at Yarramundi is a little gem, small-scale and intimate, allowing Regan to work the children into the story ready for the surprise entry of The Professor. At this point the children take off into their dramatic roles, re-enacting the story with mad moments of "whooping about"; beautifully serious exchanges as Numbat and Chuditch, and later Finch and Wren, advise the quite kindly, old Easter Bunny; and a grand celebratory parade when Bilby is awarded Easter Bunny's job according to proper merit principles.
I found the presentation especially rewarding because it demonstrates how quality drama has become part of our lives, the result of 20 years' development in drama-in-education. No longer is it unusual for a Museum Information Officer or a Zoo Keeper or a Science and Technology Guide to use drama skills in a show like this. Even more important, the quality of the performance I saw was highly professional and supported by educationally sound thinking. I wish I could say the same for some other pantomimes that I have watched in shopping centres during school holidays. They may be professional in performance, but the scripts use cheap ways to extract reactions from the young audience. Easter Bilby engages the children directly in both enjoying the drama experience and understanding the environmental issues.
If you are an adult feeling responsible for children under your care, take them to see Easter Bilby. You can feel free to let them participate under the expert guidance of the Museum's presenters, comfortable in the knowledge that tolerance and understanding are what they will learn. But be warned that you will probably be expected to seek out those responsible shops which sell chocolate Bilbies for this year's Easter celebrations!
© Frank McKone
Monday, 25 March 1996
Saturday, 23 March 1996
1996: The Boy Friend by Sandy Wilson
The Boyfriend. All That Jazz Musical Theatre Company. Thursdays - Saturdays March 21 - 23 and 28 - 30 at Erindale Theatre. Amateur.
Reviewed March 23, 1996
This is a community theatre group which focusses largely on the participation of young women. There was some sparkle on stage especially from Sheena Smith (Maisie), Tiffany Mahon (Polly) and one of the necessary boyfriends, Richard Cowling (Tony). The older performers (Jenna Arnold, Peter Morris, Bill Lord and Joy Davy) were all competent and provided a nice contrast to the lively set of youngsters. Families and friends enjoyed a pleasant evening, which built slowly but was a happy event by the finale.
On a different level, however, there is a need for critical comment. It is a $12 show (not $22 or $35), but director Crystal Mahon makes claims in her notes for higher intentions than mere entertainment. She believes that in The Boyfriend the author Sandy Wilson intended both to "re-live and celebrate the carefree Twenties" and send "the period and its characters up quite mercilessly at times." Mahon took "this inherent parody" as her focal point.
I'm afraid it was a token gesture. The script really does not support parody. Some bitchiness from the girls and a sudden turn towards ironic humour by the millionaire Percival Browne in the final scene made for some useful comedy, but this wasn't parody of 1920's pretensions. Perhaps it could have been done by a set of 1990's young women playing The Boyfriend, or parts of it, against their own values - some form of a play within a play which could reveal the weaknesses of the class system and sexist attitudes of the past. Without such a frame to give us context, the script remains a rather silly 1950's reminiscence of past "glory".
There is also, I feel, a need to warn that for your ticket price you will get some rather nice costumes, but an absolutely minimal set and unfiltered stage lights. A string of globes helped to make the ball scene a little less dull, but otherwise the French Riviera could well have been a suburban living room and a street scene in Civic. And unfortunately, though much of the singing was excellent, the band was as colourless as the set. If the company is to live up to its name, in The Boyfriend especially, the band has to be up tempo and jazzy to the utmost from the overture to the curtain call. All the cast made a fair attempt at the dancing, but everyone needed oomph from the band to swing things along. Give the audience "zing" in their hearts to carry through the two intervals (which, by the way, do not need to be announced except in the program).
The company promised "a funfilled night out, full of laughs, toe tapping music and energetic dancing" and delivered maybe half of their promise on the second night. Let's hope the traditional flat spot has passed and the second week fulfills the promise.
© Frank McKone
Reviewed March 23, 1996
This is a community theatre group which focusses largely on the participation of young women. There was some sparkle on stage especially from Sheena Smith (Maisie), Tiffany Mahon (Polly) and one of the necessary boyfriends, Richard Cowling (Tony). The older performers (Jenna Arnold, Peter Morris, Bill Lord and Joy Davy) were all competent and provided a nice contrast to the lively set of youngsters. Families and friends enjoyed a pleasant evening, which built slowly but was a happy event by the finale.
On a different level, however, there is a need for critical comment. It is a $12 show (not $22 or $35), but director Crystal Mahon makes claims in her notes for higher intentions than mere entertainment. She believes that in The Boyfriend the author Sandy Wilson intended both to "re-live and celebrate the carefree Twenties" and send "the period and its characters up quite mercilessly at times." Mahon took "this inherent parody" as her focal point.
I'm afraid it was a token gesture. The script really does not support parody. Some bitchiness from the girls and a sudden turn towards ironic humour by the millionaire Percival Browne in the final scene made for some useful comedy, but this wasn't parody of 1920's pretensions. Perhaps it could have been done by a set of 1990's young women playing The Boyfriend, or parts of it, against their own values - some form of a play within a play which could reveal the weaknesses of the class system and sexist attitudes of the past. Without such a frame to give us context, the script remains a rather silly 1950's reminiscence of past "glory".
There is also, I feel, a need to warn that for your ticket price you will get some rather nice costumes, but an absolutely minimal set and unfiltered stage lights. A string of globes helped to make the ball scene a little less dull, but otherwise the French Riviera could well have been a suburban living room and a street scene in Civic. And unfortunately, though much of the singing was excellent, the band was as colourless as the set. If the company is to live up to its name, in The Boyfriend especially, the band has to be up tempo and jazzy to the utmost from the overture to the curtain call. All the cast made a fair attempt at the dancing, but everyone needed oomph from the band to swing things along. Give the audience "zing" in their hearts to carry through the two intervals (which, by the way, do not need to be announced except in the program).
The company promised "a funfilled night out, full of laughs, toe tapping music and energetic dancing" and delivered maybe half of their promise on the second night. Let's hope the traditional flat spot has passed and the second week fulfills the promise.
© Frank McKone
Saturday, 16 March 1996
1996: Old Times by Harold Pinter at ANU
Old Times by Harold Pinter. Papermoon production, directed by Geoffrey Borny. ANU Arts Centre Drama Lab, Wed. - Sat. 8 pm until 16th March, 1996. Amateur.
Reviewed by Frank McKone
Previously published by The Canberra Times, March 1996.
Here is an intelligent production of a very clever play, admirably suited to the Drama Lab. If you haven't seen what Geoffrey Borny and Tony Turner have done to turn the echoing chamber of the old rehearsal room into a terrific little theatre, go and see Old Times.
In this intimate and theatrically warm space, you will see Pinter treated the way he should be. Funny, though you know you shouldn't laugh. Sweetly sad in moments of remembrance. Terribly bitter when the truth cannot be avoided. Kate (Jenny Ongley) is married to Deeley (Tony Turner). Anna (Naoné Carrel), twenty years after sharing a flat with Kate, comes to visit her in the marital home. If anyone thinks that a twenty-five year old play about a time twenty years past couldn't be relevant now, think again.
Pinter, always the master of the pause, places the action in the country - a place of silence. "You can hear the sea sometimes if you listen very carefully", so different from the noisome pubs and parties of London where perhaps Deeley met Anna, though she says she doesn't remember. Where maybe Anna loved Kate in a way that Deeley finds disgusting. Where Kate allowed herself to accept Deeley even though she knew he took her as second-best.
It is in the silences, as the characters before us reflect on the possibilities and probabilities of meaning embedded in what has just been said, that we too become engrossed in their mind games. This very English play is like the Hampton Court maze. "I live on a volcanic island," says Anna, escaping into a blind alley from Deeley's pursuit. "I know it," he says darkly, entering from a side passage that takes her by surprise. Geoffrey Borny has been well served by all three actors. They have understood the twists and turns, revealing to us a maze which, despite our hopes and fears, seems to have no exit.
It is unfortunate that we use the terms "professional" and "amateur". These actors are not paid to perform, but they are surely not amateur-ish. From the very best professionals, I might expect some extra depth of menace and maliciousness from Deeley, some more light and shade. I think Pinter wants it, so we can fully believe in his breakdown when Kate finally proves her mettle. But Jenny Ongley and Naoné Carrel both show all the subtlety required of their complex relationships.
As education and entertainment, for both town and gown, this is an excellent production. I wouldn't miss it, if I were you.
Reviewed by Frank McKone
Previously published by The Canberra Times, March 1996.
Here is an intelligent production of a very clever play, admirably suited to the Drama Lab. If you haven't seen what Geoffrey Borny and Tony Turner have done to turn the echoing chamber of the old rehearsal room into a terrific little theatre, go and see Old Times.
In this intimate and theatrically warm space, you will see Pinter treated the way he should be. Funny, though you know you shouldn't laugh. Sweetly sad in moments of remembrance. Terribly bitter when the truth cannot be avoided. Kate (Jenny Ongley) is married to Deeley (Tony Turner). Anna (Naoné Carrel), twenty years after sharing a flat with Kate, comes to visit her in the marital home. If anyone thinks that a twenty-five year old play about a time twenty years past couldn't be relevant now, think again.
Pinter, always the master of the pause, places the action in the country - a place of silence. "You can hear the sea sometimes if you listen very carefully", so different from the noisome pubs and parties of London where perhaps Deeley met Anna, though she says she doesn't remember. Where maybe Anna loved Kate in a way that Deeley finds disgusting. Where Kate allowed herself to accept Deeley even though she knew he took her as second-best.
It is in the silences, as the characters before us reflect on the possibilities and probabilities of meaning embedded in what has just been said, that we too become engrossed in their mind games. This very English play is like the Hampton Court maze. "I live on a volcanic island," says Anna, escaping into a blind alley from Deeley's pursuit. "I know it," he says darkly, entering from a side passage that takes her by surprise. Geoffrey Borny has been well served by all three actors. They have understood the twists and turns, revealing to us a maze which, despite our hopes and fears, seems to have no exit.
It is unfortunate that we use the terms "professional" and "amateur". These actors are not paid to perform, but they are surely not amateur-ish. From the very best professionals, I might expect some extra depth of menace and maliciousness from Deeley, some more light and shade. I think Pinter wants it, so we can fully believe in his breakdown when Kate finally proves her mettle. But Jenny Ongley and Naoné Carrel both show all the subtlety required of their complex relationships.
As education and entertainment, for both town and gown, this is an excellent production. I wouldn't miss it, if I were you.
Friday, 15 March 1996
1996: Mikel Simic's first review (Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen)
THEATRE BY FRANK MCKONE
P.Harness at the ANU Refectory, Friday 15 March, Professional.
Mikel Simic (percussion) and Geoff Hinchcliffe (guitar), with Ben O'Loughlin (bass) perform an idiosyncratic, deliberately unsophisticated show which was the attraction of the night. At midnight, delayed an hour by a ring-in band, a largely early twenties crowd swelled in the expectation of the unexpected. If this were Paris 75 years ago, P.Harness would be turning urinals into art works, making the ordinary and banal into something of significance.
Mikel explained to me that when they began 6 years ago, their naif style was indeed naive. Now they face an old artistic problem - how to keep the childlike quality in their work while writing, playing gigs, recording professionally. The reversion to childhood is a major theme which produces a seemingly confused schizoid mix of musical genres, dress-ups and a sort of pantomime. The humour is made from superficiality, and becomes a light-hearted satirical reflection on the pretensions which are so often part of the music scene. In fact, of course, it is the professionalism of their performance - crossing over from heavy rock, country and western, to pop-rock, rap, soul and funk - while acting "themselves" at about the age of 6, pretending to do adult things, which draws the audience in.
This is a Canberra original, odd and interesting, and I will be interested to see if they develop a wider audience over the next few years. I think they deserve it.
[Bias disclosure: I taught Mikel Simic and Geoff Hinchcliffe Drama at Senior Secondary (Years 11/12) Hawker College, Canberra]
P.Harness at the ANU Refectory, Friday 15 March, Professional.
Mikel Simic (percussion) and Geoff Hinchcliffe (guitar), with Ben O'Loughlin (bass) perform an idiosyncratic, deliberately unsophisticated show which was the attraction of the night. At midnight, delayed an hour by a ring-in band, a largely early twenties crowd swelled in the expectation of the unexpected. If this were Paris 75 years ago, P.Harness would be turning urinals into art works, making the ordinary and banal into something of significance.
Mikel explained to me that when they began 6 years ago, their naif style was indeed naive. Now they face an old artistic problem - how to keep the childlike quality in their work while writing, playing gigs, recording professionally. The reversion to childhood is a major theme which produces a seemingly confused schizoid mix of musical genres, dress-ups and a sort of pantomime. The humour is made from superficiality, and becomes a light-hearted satirical reflection on the pretensions which are so often part of the music scene. In fact, of course, it is the professionalism of their performance - crossing over from heavy rock, country and western, to pop-rock, rap, soul and funk - while acting "themselves" at about the age of 6, pretending to do adult things, which draws the audience in.
This is a Canberra original, odd and interesting, and I will be interested to see if they develop a wider audience over the next few years. I think they deserve it.
[Bias disclosure: I taught Mikel Simic and Geoff Hinchcliffe Drama at Senior Secondary (Years 11/12) Hawker College, Canberra]
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