I think the Bell Shakespeare Company will blow up a storm this weekend with the opening of The Tempest. Jim Sharman took The Tempest to re-read while holidaying on Bali. The magic of the island worked: he came home to an invitation from John Bell to direct this production.
On Tuesday a substantial crowd, from traditional thespians to young Triple J's, heard new voices singing, saw a new conception of set design, and felt that Sharman will illuminate the Bell Company.
We heard from Sharman about more than a year's work on "ideas of great gravity expressed with marvellous lightness". Antony Ernst, the dramaturg, took us through a play which is "clearly symbolic, but it is not clear what it is symbolic of". Rather than a problem, this is an advantage because interpretations of all kinds - Prospero as the retiring Shakespeare; theatre as a microcosm of the real world; the world as a theatrical illusion; the tempest as a Jungian archetype; a play about a manipulator who wants to get his daughter on the throne of Naples - are all plausible. We can take the play at any level.
I was excited by the dynamic acting and singing, though we were given only a taste of the opening scene, by Bell and a close-knit team of six men and three women, a fascinating combination from Rachael Maza to Lani John Tupu.
Michael Wilkinson's set represents at the same time the intellectual tradition of science and the art of magic. It is Prospero's workshop, all decked in knotty timber, in which he has created a transparent island with a ladder to heaven, where we see his geometry and his philosophical words - in Egyptian, Greek, Arabic, Chinese and English.
Yet hidden in the island is music: written, directed, played and sung by Tyrone Landau - stunning, original, magical music. It crosses the boundaries from high-brow contemporary, through popular musical to husky jazz. It opens up the play to people across cultures and classes. It is the music of the spheres, the magic in the show, and I can't wait to see the full production - preview on Friday September 19; opening night Saturday September 20 at the Canberra Theatre.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Wednesday, 17 September 1997
Thursday, 11 September 1997
1997: Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen. Paper Moon Productions at ANU Arts Centre, directed by Geoffrey Borny. September 11 - 20, 1997, 7.30 pm.
Ghosts (1881), sequel to the perhaps more well-known A Doll's House, is about a woman's duty and freedom, but also opens up other issues very much in today's news: sexually transmitted disease, a child's inherited defects, hiding the truth from children about their parents, and euthanasia.
Geoffrey Borny directs a new translation from the original Norwegian by May-Brit Akerholt (dramaturg for the Sydney Theatre Company and director of the Australian National Playwrights' Conference) and the playwright Louis Nowra. The result is a play of subtle twists in emotional relationships, handled well by all the actors but especially by Naoné Carrel and Tony Turner as Mrs Alving and Pastor Manders.
Ibsen wrote to August Lindberg, director of the 1883 Hälsinborg production (who also played Helene Alving's son Oswald), that the play depends a great deal on "making the spectator feel as if he were actually sitting, listening and looking at events happening in real life". This was the new realism in theatre which was, I think, not fully achieved on opening night. Some intensity is lost in movements which "use the stage" but are psychologically unnecessary. Lighting changes need to be smoother and slower so the emotional effect on the audience is achieved more subliminally. The openness of the set design works well in the Arts Centre space for sight-lines, but requires greater intensity of stillness to focus us on each character's conflicting feelings. Especially I felt the final stages of Oswald's decline into insanity as the sun rises needed to gradually build more horror in us sitting, looking and listening, before his mother on stage realises what has happened.
Regine (Sarah Chalmers) and her "father" Jacob Engstrand (Richard Anderson) open the play with a strong, lively interchange. Patrick Brammall presents Oswald's dramatic mood changes well. Tony Turner and Naoné Carrell are consistently good, experienced actors. I sense that the production will deepen and intensify through the season.
Ghosts is a highly relevant classic play well worth seeing in this intelligent production - and remember curtain-up is at 7.30, giving plenty of time at the end for coffee and discussion.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Ghosts (1881), sequel to the perhaps more well-known A Doll's House, is about a woman's duty and freedom, but also opens up other issues very much in today's news: sexually transmitted disease, a child's inherited defects, hiding the truth from children about their parents, and euthanasia.
Geoffrey Borny directs a new translation from the original Norwegian by May-Brit Akerholt (dramaturg for the Sydney Theatre Company and director of the Australian National Playwrights' Conference) and the playwright Louis Nowra. The result is a play of subtle twists in emotional relationships, handled well by all the actors but especially by Naoné Carrel and Tony Turner as Mrs Alving and Pastor Manders.
Ibsen wrote to August Lindberg, director of the 1883 Hälsinborg production (who also played Helene Alving's son Oswald), that the play depends a great deal on "making the spectator feel as if he were actually sitting, listening and looking at events happening in real life". This was the new realism in theatre which was, I think, not fully achieved on opening night. Some intensity is lost in movements which "use the stage" but are psychologically unnecessary. Lighting changes need to be smoother and slower so the emotional effect on the audience is achieved more subliminally. The openness of the set design works well in the Arts Centre space for sight-lines, but requires greater intensity of stillness to focus us on each character's conflicting feelings. Especially I felt the final stages of Oswald's decline into insanity as the sun rises needed to gradually build more horror in us sitting, looking and listening, before his mother on stage realises what has happened.
Regine (Sarah Chalmers) and her "father" Jacob Engstrand (Richard Anderson) open the play with a strong, lively interchange. Patrick Brammall presents Oswald's dramatic mood changes well. Tony Turner and Naoné Carrell are consistently good, experienced actors. I sense that the production will deepen and intensify through the season.
Ghosts is a highly relevant classic play well worth seeing in this intelligent production - and remember curtain-up is at 7.30, giving plenty of time at the end for coffee and discussion.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday, 5 September 1997
1997: An Ordinary Day by Franca Rame and Dario Fo and Can't Pay Won't Pay by Dario Fo
An Ordinary Day by Franca Rame and Dario Fo and Can't Pay Won't Pay by Dario Fo. Ugly Duckling and Canberra Independent Artists in the Fo Festival at The Street Theatre Studio 7.30 pm till September 13 (Tuesdays to Saturdays).
The Fo Festival's second opening night last Thursday turned out to be a more exciting evening of theatre than the first night. The band led a more substantial and lively audience, and Can't Pay Won't Pay is not so intent on following logical twists and turns of political polemics as Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
The program alternates Waking Up / Accidental Death with Ordinary Day / Can't Pay on the weekday evenings, but on Saturday September 6 at 5.00 pm Waking Up is teamed with Ordinary Day, while on Saturday evenings Accidental Death and Can't Pay go together. Be prepared for a long evening on Saturdays.
For me, the best combination for performance quality would be Waking Up and Can't Pay Won't Pay. An Ordinary Day makes a slow start because it is presented too naturalistically until towards the end when her "ordinary day" finally gets the better of the woman who no longer wants to commit suicide but is about to be mistakenly committed as insane. The play, like all Rame / Fo plays, is essentially expressionistic and needs to emphasise the humour until the last moment when the reality of life's absurdity hits home.
Can't Pay Won't Pay is much closer to commedia, farce and circus and is performed with appropriate gusto. Its theme - that people must take things into their own hands and not wait for governments, unions or (in the Italian tradition) even the communist party to solve society's problems - is built into the fun revolving around apparently pregnant women rounded out by bags of food nicked from the supermarket whose manager blames "market forces" for high prices. Being light-hearted, like Waking Up, I feel the satirical points sink in more firmly and the characters become more human than in Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Performances will soon settle in: you will need to go to two shows to get the best of the Fo Festival and the best is worth seeing.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
The Fo Festival's second opening night last Thursday turned out to be a more exciting evening of theatre than the first night. The band led a more substantial and lively audience, and Can't Pay Won't Pay is not so intent on following logical twists and turns of political polemics as Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
The program alternates Waking Up / Accidental Death with Ordinary Day / Can't Pay on the weekday evenings, but on Saturday September 6 at 5.00 pm Waking Up is teamed with Ordinary Day, while on Saturday evenings Accidental Death and Can't Pay go together. Be prepared for a long evening on Saturdays.
For me, the best combination for performance quality would be Waking Up and Can't Pay Won't Pay. An Ordinary Day makes a slow start because it is presented too naturalistically until towards the end when her "ordinary day" finally gets the better of the woman who no longer wants to commit suicide but is about to be mistakenly committed as insane. The play, like all Rame / Fo plays, is essentially expressionistic and needs to emphasise the humour until the last moment when the reality of life's absurdity hits home.
Can't Pay Won't Pay is much closer to commedia, farce and circus and is performed with appropriate gusto. Its theme - that people must take things into their own hands and not wait for governments, unions or (in the Italian tradition) even the communist party to solve society's problems - is built into the fun revolving around apparently pregnant women rounded out by bags of food nicked from the supermarket whose manager blames "market forces" for high prices. Being light-hearted, like Waking Up, I feel the satirical points sink in more firmly and the characters become more human than in Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Performances will soon settle in: you will need to go to two shows to get the best of the Fo Festival and the best is worth seeing.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Wednesday, 3 September 1997
1997: Waking up by Franca Rame and Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo
Waking up by Franca Rame and Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo. The Fo Festival at The Street Theatre Studio, September 3 - 13, 1997.
The Franca Rame - Dario Fo Company has, since the 1950's, taken their plays of social criticism to the towns and working people of Italy, using pantomime and commedia dell'arte traditions to amuse, educate people in the skills of social analysis, and rouse people to action in the face of corruption and social control by powerful elite groups.
Waking Up is a short, humorous yet ultimately sad study of a working woman who forgets that Sunday is her day off. Anna Voronoff creates a warm, attractive character using excellent mime and voice skills. She is tuned in to Rame's theatrical style: we hear and feel the message.
Accidental Death is a surrealist very funny romp through a story of police corruption, based on a real case of an anarchist's supposed suicide by leaping from the fourth floor window of a police station. Fo's aim is to show that police are corrupt because they are an arm of the law of a society essentially based on corruption. At least that's what his anarchist character says: he doesn't end up committing suicide. Newspaper reporters get it in the neck in this play, and I'm not sure where theatre critics stand.
The performers from the Ugly Duckling Theatre Company are not all as skilled as Anna Voronoff in Waking Up, but they clearly understand the style and purpose of this kind of theatre and the energy rarely flags.
The Fo Festival is under the banner of the Tuggeranong Community Arts Association, bringing together Ugly Duckling (hatched by the John Oakley / Ian Phillips drama classes at the old Stirling College) and the professional arts/theatre collective Canberra Independent Artists. The Rame-Fo plays suit these performers and the times are perhaps ripe for Canberra audiences to appreciate themes of social awareness and conscience.
I may be accused of politicising my review, but Fo would shoot me down if I didn't. I can only say if you think a package is the answer to your workplace relations, then you should see these plays and make up your own mind.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
The Franca Rame - Dario Fo Company has, since the 1950's, taken their plays of social criticism to the towns and working people of Italy, using pantomime and commedia dell'arte traditions to amuse, educate people in the skills of social analysis, and rouse people to action in the face of corruption and social control by powerful elite groups.
Waking Up is a short, humorous yet ultimately sad study of a working woman who forgets that Sunday is her day off. Anna Voronoff creates a warm, attractive character using excellent mime and voice skills. She is tuned in to Rame's theatrical style: we hear and feel the message.
Accidental Death is a surrealist very funny romp through a story of police corruption, based on a real case of an anarchist's supposed suicide by leaping from the fourth floor window of a police station. Fo's aim is to show that police are corrupt because they are an arm of the law of a society essentially based on corruption. At least that's what his anarchist character says: he doesn't end up committing suicide. Newspaper reporters get it in the neck in this play, and I'm not sure where theatre critics stand.
The performers from the Ugly Duckling Theatre Company are not all as skilled as Anna Voronoff in Waking Up, but they clearly understand the style and purpose of this kind of theatre and the energy rarely flags.
The Fo Festival is under the banner of the Tuggeranong Community Arts Association, bringing together Ugly Duckling (hatched by the John Oakley / Ian Phillips drama classes at the old Stirling College) and the professional arts/theatre collective Canberra Independent Artists. The Rame-Fo plays suit these performers and the times are perhaps ripe for Canberra audiences to appreciate themes of social awareness and conscience.
I may be accused of politicising my review, but Fo would shoot me down if I didn't. I can only say if you think a package is the answer to your workplace relations, then you should see these plays and make up your own mind.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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