The Heart of the Black Sea - An Oceanfaring Kabaret. Songs and lyrics by Mikel Simic. Orchestration: Ben O'Loghlin. Set design: Peter Mumford. Lighting design: Ivan Smith. Street Theatre, December 20-22.
Art cabaret in the European style might, at first blush, seem out of place in our bush capital. But in Mikel Simic's creative hands, the Heart of the Black Sea is a surprising, quirky, fascinating blend of Eastern and Western European traditions, drawing on Russian folk tales, Transylvanian pseudo-Gothic mythology and Brechtian social commentary.
Musically, many of the numbers have the contrapuntal and deliberately unfinished lines of the cabaret of Kurt Weill, but the harshness of the German form is rounded out by Magyar rhythms and Slavic harmonies. With trombone (Michael Bailey), trumpet/flugelhorn (Lou Horwood), euphonium (Lucien McGuiness) and Phil Moriarty, as The Great Muldavio on clarinet, we have all the elements of the traditional circus band and sad clown. Then across the stage the violas (Orson and Larissa Sutherland), violin (Anna Thompson) and cello (Kaija Upenieks) form a modern art quartet. And on stage, with the clarinet, Ben O'Loghlin on double bass, Pip Branson on violin and Mikel Simic on piano accordion form a cafe band of magnificent Romany romance, The Black Sea Gentlemen. O'Loghlin's orchestration ties this remarkable diversity into a wonderful unity of sound.
Dramatically, each number is a scene in episodic form, not linked by an obvious plot or the driving socio-logic of a Brecht, but by feeling. Reversals of our expectations are built into the lyrics, a commentary on the way we live our lives, taking us from ironic humour and gruesome imagery into the sadness of trapped love. Especially the final song, "The Carnival Goes On" seemed to offer some hope until we realise that the carnival has indeed gone on - and we are left, bereft, wondering how we are to cope.
This is strong stuff for cabaret - very satisfying original theatre - and matched in performance quality by Simic as Mikelangelo, Anna Simic (Anna Conda, the Snake Woman) and Undine Sellbach (Undine the Mermaid Tealady), in a cleverly designed set and great mood lighting.
Special appreciation must go to Pip Branson for his bravery in filling in so well for his brother David: The Heart of the Black Sea is a fitting memorial. I can only hope its shortened season can be followed by a revival in the fullness of time.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday 21 December 2001
Tuesday 18 December 2001
2001: The Monkey Show. Installation by Elizabeth Paterson
The Monkey Show. Installation by Elizabeth Paterson at Canberra Museum and Gallery until January 27, 2002. Visible day or night in Gallery 4 at CMAG entrance.
Liz Paterson has a long tradition as a fabric artist exploring the relationship in theatrical performance between the performer and her costume and set. Often the costume might become a character in its own right. Aspects of the costume or set then become symbolic of aspects of the character manipulated by an inner spirit - the hidden or partially hidden performer.
In this installation we see a set peopled by South American-looking monkeys, some wearing parrot costumes a little bit like rosellas but perhaps also South American. One wears a Father Christmas costume, appearing and disappearing down and up a colonial style plastered chimney.
Two wear nothing - one absolutely relaxed and comfortable in an extensive armchair; the other at the window looking out and away from the scene, as if stuck on a bland island, seeking fulfilment elsewhere.
Sailing boats cruise in through colonial French windows, airborne with clouds for sails - new arrivals expectant with ideals, perhaps.
A series of early model utes pass the scene as if on a hillside track. At random, one stops, for a sandwich, I wonder: maybe the insignificant driver stares at the view.
A river flows from a second French window, raising itself up like a serpent, becoming an old-fashioned ear trumpet. The comfortable monkey may be listening; or on the other hand may not be listening. Who can tell?
Trees, of no particular species, larger in the foreground, diminishing in the distance, lead into the fireplace beneath Monkey Santa's chimney. Is this a foreboding image of a charcoal factory?
The citation claims that "The Monkey Show alludes to Western culture's long fascination with the exotic and its relevance to the way that Australia has been perceived and how Australians perceive the world today." Maybe it does, but whatever perceptions you have are entirely your own. What you find in the images and what they symbolise may "allude" to bigger thoughts, and perhaps that's all you can expect from this kind of work. It's not a grand work of art (perhaps that's one image of Australia) and it's all made of cardboard, papier mache and bits of wire (that sounds like Australia, too).
Although I can't be sure I understand what meaning was intended, the images leave me less relaxed and comfortable than the monkey in the armchair, and feeling more like the monkey on the edge looking for something new. See what you think.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Liz Paterson has a long tradition as a fabric artist exploring the relationship in theatrical performance between the performer and her costume and set. Often the costume might become a character in its own right. Aspects of the costume or set then become symbolic of aspects of the character manipulated by an inner spirit - the hidden or partially hidden performer.
In this installation we see a set peopled by South American-looking monkeys, some wearing parrot costumes a little bit like rosellas but perhaps also South American. One wears a Father Christmas costume, appearing and disappearing down and up a colonial style plastered chimney.
Two wear nothing - one absolutely relaxed and comfortable in an extensive armchair; the other at the window looking out and away from the scene, as if stuck on a bland island, seeking fulfilment elsewhere.
Sailing boats cruise in through colonial French windows, airborne with clouds for sails - new arrivals expectant with ideals, perhaps.
A series of early model utes pass the scene as if on a hillside track. At random, one stops, for a sandwich, I wonder: maybe the insignificant driver stares at the view.
A river flows from a second French window, raising itself up like a serpent, becoming an old-fashioned ear trumpet. The comfortable monkey may be listening; or on the other hand may not be listening. Who can tell?
Trees, of no particular species, larger in the foreground, diminishing in the distance, lead into the fireplace beneath Monkey Santa's chimney. Is this a foreboding image of a charcoal factory?
The citation claims that "The Monkey Show alludes to Western culture's long fascination with the exotic and its relevance to the way that Australia has been perceived and how Australians perceive the world today." Maybe it does, but whatever perceptions you have are entirely your own. What you find in the images and what they symbolise may "allude" to bigger thoughts, and perhaps that's all you can expect from this kind of work. It's not a grand work of art (perhaps that's one image of Australia) and it's all made of cardboard, papier mache and bits of wire (that sounds like Australia, too).
Although I can't be sure I understand what meaning was intended, the images leave me less relaxed and comfortable than the monkey in the armchair, and feeling more like the monkey on the edge looking for something new. See what you think.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Monday 26 November 2001
2001: The Long Time 'til Tea by Greg Lissaman
The Long Time 'til Tea written and directed by Greg Lissaman. Jigsaw Theatre Company November 20 - December 1.
"I liked all of it" said one 4-year-old to her parent at the end, though there were many who didn't want to see the "crab" again when the puppets were revealed after the show.
In fact there were times when the long time felt a bit too long for me and by the end I concluded that though there is nothing wrong in the educational principles (encouraging the children's imagination of shapes and colours), something is missing in The Long Time 'til Tea compared with Jigsaw's previous early-childhood winner, The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate. Unfortunately, too, I couldn't forget Geoffrey Rush, Deborah Mailman et al playing 5-year-olds in David Holman's Small Poppies. Rush's entirely imaginary dog grabbed kids and adults in the audience by the throat emotionally in a way that carved foam puppets could never match.
The Long Time is a nice whimsy and excellent "black theatre" puppetry manipulated by Rachael Whitworth, with more than competent technical design and operation by Catherine Wright, but too often John Hunt (entertaining himself in his backyard after school until teatime) seemed to be twiddling his thumbs rather than getting on with the action.
What's missing is a really strong sense of journey to discovery (the key to both those other plays) to give shape to the on-stage child's imagination and the off-stage childrens' understanding. The concept of filling in time is too amorphous, I think too adult, for 4 - 6 year olds. This was why many of them failed to realise that it wasn't a crab that young Peter had to confront in the tunnel he had floated into on his washing basket boat, but a termite. I won't try to explain, but the point is that the young audience's imaginations were more logical in developing the story in their heads than the adults' idea of children's imaginations which led from a boat in the sky to meeting a termite underground.
So, although the season is already booked, and I'm sure the children will enjoy, I think the script needs more development before it deserves a wider exposure.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
"I liked all of it" said one 4-year-old to her parent at the end, though there were many who didn't want to see the "crab" again when the puppets were revealed after the show.
In fact there were times when the long time felt a bit too long for me and by the end I concluded that though there is nothing wrong in the educational principles (encouraging the children's imagination of shapes and colours), something is missing in The Long Time 'til Tea compared with Jigsaw's previous early-childhood winner, The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate. Unfortunately, too, I couldn't forget Geoffrey Rush, Deborah Mailman et al playing 5-year-olds in David Holman's Small Poppies. Rush's entirely imaginary dog grabbed kids and adults in the audience by the throat emotionally in a way that carved foam puppets could never match.
The Long Time is a nice whimsy and excellent "black theatre" puppetry manipulated by Rachael Whitworth, with more than competent technical design and operation by Catherine Wright, but too often John Hunt (entertaining himself in his backyard after school until teatime) seemed to be twiddling his thumbs rather than getting on with the action.
What's missing is a really strong sense of journey to discovery (the key to both those other plays) to give shape to the on-stage child's imagination and the off-stage childrens' understanding. The concept of filling in time is too amorphous, I think too adult, for 4 - 6 year olds. This was why many of them failed to realise that it wasn't a crab that young Peter had to confront in the tunnel he had floated into on his washing basket boat, but a termite. I won't try to explain, but the point is that the young audience's imaginations were more logical in developing the story in their heads than the adults' idea of children's imaginations which led from a boat in the sky to meeting a termite underground.
So, although the season is already booked, and I'm sure the children will enjoy, I think the script needs more development before it deserves a wider exposure.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Wednesday 31 October 2001
2001: Solid by Ningali Lawford, Kelton Pell, Phil Thomson.
Solid. A Black N'2 production for Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre by Ningali Lawford, Kelton Pell, Phil Thomson. Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, October 30 - November 3, 8pm.
"How would you like your tea? Black n'2 like you and me." At this point, the end of Solid, Graham settles down to learn his Noongar language from his Nan in Busselton, south of Perth. In Perth he had been "lost in life", facing loss of country, culture and language with no hope, no apparent way forward. Like refugees everywhere he tried to escape - north - with no clear destination. How could he face his Nan when he had not prevented his heroin-using brother from killing himself; when he was himself using alcohol and speed; when he could not care for wife and children; when no-one would employ him?
Meet Carol from Wankatjunka community in the Kimberley, destined for a traditional arranged marriage. She escaped south to Perth, got herself an education and a job. In the Aboriginal support agency, usually she's the only one actually at work - and it's her reports and submissions that get the funding: for other people's projects, of course, but at least it's a real job. She must go back, though, for her grandfather's funeral, and face the possibility of punishment for not fulfilling her marriage commitment.
Carol faces up to her traditional responsibility, and becomes the model for Graham to face his Nan in a play which reveals the truth about the cultures of the real Kimberley woman, Ningali Lawford, and the real Noongar man, Kelton Pell, two people as different culturally as the English and the French. After all you wouldn't catch an Englishman eating snails, would you?
With Graham, we can learn to see the emu in the dark spaces between the stars in the Milky Way, which bright lights and pollution had hidden from Noongar memory. With whimsy, humour and an ability to capture emotional tension in the turn of a word, Lawford and Pell show us human complexity, and human possibilities, as understandable in Wankatjunka as in Noongar country, in Canberra, or anywhere. This play is about country - our country - seen from the inside. All Australians will savour this cup of tea.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
"How would you like your tea? Black n'2 like you and me." At this point, the end of Solid, Graham settles down to learn his Noongar language from his Nan in Busselton, south of Perth. In Perth he had been "lost in life", facing loss of country, culture and language with no hope, no apparent way forward. Like refugees everywhere he tried to escape - north - with no clear destination. How could he face his Nan when he had not prevented his heroin-using brother from killing himself; when he was himself using alcohol and speed; when he could not care for wife and children; when no-one would employ him?
Meet Carol from Wankatjunka community in the Kimberley, destined for a traditional arranged marriage. She escaped south to Perth, got herself an education and a job. In the Aboriginal support agency, usually she's the only one actually at work - and it's her reports and submissions that get the funding: for other people's projects, of course, but at least it's a real job. She must go back, though, for her grandfather's funeral, and face the possibility of punishment for not fulfilling her marriage commitment.
Carol faces up to her traditional responsibility, and becomes the model for Graham to face his Nan in a play which reveals the truth about the cultures of the real Kimberley woman, Ningali Lawford, and the real Noongar man, Kelton Pell, two people as different culturally as the English and the French. After all you wouldn't catch an Englishman eating snails, would you?
With Graham, we can learn to see the emu in the dark spaces between the stars in the Milky Way, which bright lights and pollution had hidden from Noongar memory. With whimsy, humour and an ability to capture emotional tension in the turn of a word, Lawford and Pell show us human complexity, and human possibilities, as understandable in Wankatjunka as in Noongar country, in Canberra, or anywhere. This play is about country - our country - seen from the inside. All Australians will savour this cup of tea.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday 25 October 2001
2001: Who Cares If I Care?
Who Cares If I Care? by Hidden Corners International, directed by Robin Davidson. Gorman House C Block October 25-27, 7.30pm.
When young people perform I usually look for their sincerity, knowing that for untrained actors it is hard not to pretend to act, rather than really act. If a performance can move me to laughter and tears, make me face reality, and yet still celebrate life, then I know I am not watching a pretence.
Hidden Corners International is a big name for a small group of teenagers who through force of circumstance must care for others - maybe a sick parent, a disabled sibling. Mary Gays from Marymead, aware of the tensions and pressures affecting young carers, asked Robin Davidson to run workshops in creative writing and drama from which grew Who Cares If I Care?, a remarkably strong piece of theatre following George's story dealing with her father's sudden hospitalisation with a brain tumour (while her mother had died when George was young); Kevin's story with a mother who only appears on the end of a phone line while he has to cope with a schizophrenic younger brother; and Claire's story of how angry she becomes with her mother who is disabled with multiple sclerosis.
You can see where the tears come from, but these young people facing such adult responsibilities show us humour with a telling ironic edge, fear without sentimentality, and a wonderful sense of achievement in their lives. The play itself is an achievement of which they can all be proud. The sincerity of their performances, grounded in their real life experiences, has left me wondering how I would cope in their circumstance. It makes me concerned that, though this group have had such a great opportunity in creating and presenting their play, there must be many young - and older - carers who are not given the support they need. Politicians please take note.
Particularly I was worried by the humorous but unpleasant vignettes of a counsellor so concerned with his own childish obsession that he couldn't even listen to his clients' stories, let alone help them. If you would like to help, especially to send Hidden Corners to a Young Carers Festival in UK next year, which makes them International, email Mary Gays at mds@marymead.org.au .
© Frank McKone, Canberra
When young people perform I usually look for their sincerity, knowing that for untrained actors it is hard not to pretend to act, rather than really act. If a performance can move me to laughter and tears, make me face reality, and yet still celebrate life, then I know I am not watching a pretence.
Hidden Corners International is a big name for a small group of teenagers who through force of circumstance must care for others - maybe a sick parent, a disabled sibling. Mary Gays from Marymead, aware of the tensions and pressures affecting young carers, asked Robin Davidson to run workshops in creative writing and drama from which grew Who Cares If I Care?, a remarkably strong piece of theatre following George's story dealing with her father's sudden hospitalisation with a brain tumour (while her mother had died when George was young); Kevin's story with a mother who only appears on the end of a phone line while he has to cope with a schizophrenic younger brother; and Claire's story of how angry she becomes with her mother who is disabled with multiple sclerosis.
You can see where the tears come from, but these young people facing such adult responsibilities show us humour with a telling ironic edge, fear without sentimentality, and a wonderful sense of achievement in their lives. The play itself is an achievement of which they can all be proud. The sincerity of their performances, grounded in their real life experiences, has left me wondering how I would cope in their circumstance. It makes me concerned that, though this group have had such a great opportunity in creating and presenting their play, there must be many young - and older - carers who are not given the support they need. Politicians please take note.
Particularly I was worried by the humorous but unpleasant vignettes of a counsellor so concerned with his own childish obsession that he couldn't even listen to his clients' stories, let alone help them. If you would like to help, especially to send Hidden Corners to a Young Carers Festival in UK next year, which makes them International, email Mary Gays at mds@marymead.org.au .
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Saturday 20 October 2001
2001: Time Control by Canberra Youth Theatre Company
Time Control by Canberra Youth Theatre Company. Artistic Director: Estelle Muspratt. Workshop Directors: Barbra Barnett, Liliana Bogatko, Emma Bossard, Robin Davidson, Matthew Marshall, Alannah Pentony, Murphy People, Natalie Power, Kelly Somes, Karen Yaldren. October 3-20.
The most important image for me of this presentation of a mythic narrative in 6 chapters, each workshopped independently by Youth Theatre's 8-12, 12-15 and 15-24 year old groups, was a month's worth of applause last Saturday at sundown, and the immediate formation of groups of parents, friends and the actors and crew all talking excitedly about the experience of Time Control.
Each chapter was created in a style belonging to its workshop group. Often work which was focussed on scripted speech seemed to me too melodramatic to sustain the possible depths of the story of Old Timers who are running out of dreams and so devise a Dream Link where they can steal the dreams of the New Timers, making them effectively the Old Timers' slaves. From here a kind of Dr Who story centred on the Supreme Dreamer, the only New Timer who was not affected by the Dream Link, and who devised the way to destroy it.
Chapter 3 was perhaps the most theatrical, with its use of movement and circus, but it was also the least easy to follow in terms of the narrative. The Grand Finale, Chapter 6 at Weston Park, devised by the older group but using all 74 young actors, told its story clearly, taking the audience around from site to site, and with the use of fire the final battle and ceremony of destruction of the Dream Link was quite strong dramatically.
In the end, however, the point is the value of young people devising their own theatre, experiencing how their ideas can be given expression, how to work together, and how much satisfaction there is in completing a project, even knowing that the next project can be even better. Youth Theatre have put together in Time Control a celebration of community, in the long tradition of Canberra groups from Blue Folk to Splinters and CIA.
Authoritarianism, violence, fire and death may seem a lot for young people to bear, even in a theatrical myth - but we only have to look to our Old Timer politicians to see how we all need to retain our dreams.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
The most important image for me of this presentation of a mythic narrative in 6 chapters, each workshopped independently by Youth Theatre's 8-12, 12-15 and 15-24 year old groups, was a month's worth of applause last Saturday at sundown, and the immediate formation of groups of parents, friends and the actors and crew all talking excitedly about the experience of Time Control.
Each chapter was created in a style belonging to its workshop group. Often work which was focussed on scripted speech seemed to me too melodramatic to sustain the possible depths of the story of Old Timers who are running out of dreams and so devise a Dream Link where they can steal the dreams of the New Timers, making them effectively the Old Timers' slaves. From here a kind of Dr Who story centred on the Supreme Dreamer, the only New Timer who was not affected by the Dream Link, and who devised the way to destroy it.
Chapter 3 was perhaps the most theatrical, with its use of movement and circus, but it was also the least easy to follow in terms of the narrative. The Grand Finale, Chapter 6 at Weston Park, devised by the older group but using all 74 young actors, told its story clearly, taking the audience around from site to site, and with the use of fire the final battle and ceremony of destruction of the Dream Link was quite strong dramatically.
In the end, however, the point is the value of young people devising their own theatre, experiencing how their ideas can be given expression, how to work together, and how much satisfaction there is in completing a project, even knowing that the next project can be even better. Youth Theatre have put together in Time Control a celebration of community, in the long tradition of Canberra groups from Blue Folk to Splinters and CIA.
Authoritarianism, violence, fire and death may seem a lot for young people to bear, even in a theatrical myth - but we only have to look to our Old Timer politicians to see how we all need to retain our dreams.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Saturday 13 October 2001
2001: Shake. Canberra Youth Theatre
Shake. Canberra Youth Theatre directed by Linda McHugh at Tracking Kultja, National Museum of Australia, First Australians Gallery. October 13-14 and Wednesday October 17, 10 am, 12 noon, 2 pm.
Earlier in the year I wrote about museum theatre - theatre in a museum, that is - at NMA. I hoped that there would be more. Well, there is, and there will be, and there should be, if we take CYT's Shake as a guide.
Daina Harvey from NMA has just returned from a conference of the International Museum Theatre Alliance and is enthused now to use actors to present real characters from our history to bring NMA's exhibits even more to life. In the meantime she helped lead a small group around the opening performance on Saturday of CYT's "street" theatre in 5 vignettes.
Shake runs like a small creek, beginning at a high waterfall of sounds - The Australian Declaration Towards Aboriginal Reconciliation. Then a small eddying pool of movement - Land and Spirit. In a quiet perhaps rainforested section of still water we heard Childhood Stories and saw figures of childhood, labelled like trees in a national park. Water then fell in thin strands in among the audience, with the words of laws about the "Protector of Aborigines" on a teletype ticker tape passing through people's fingers and before their eyes.
On reaching the point where the creek should shake hands with the sea, coming together was as turbulent as peaceful, raising Questions and Answers. Here the non-indigenous people, stood in line, asleep, head on the next person's shoulder. Then one stirs and calls "Wake up!" to the next and so on down the line, until the last says "Sorry", and the word flows back up the line. Isn't reconciliation easy, hey?
But when the indigenous people cry "Wake up!", the one on the end lies dead. There is silence and grieving. To achieve such a powerful and telling image in the Museum, in the First Australians Gallery, cannot fail to wake us, to make us realise past failings and how much must be done to turn the Australian Declaration Towards Aboriginal Reconciliation from easy words into hard reality.
Catch it Wednesday if you can.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Earlier in the year I wrote about museum theatre - theatre in a museum, that is - at NMA. I hoped that there would be more. Well, there is, and there will be, and there should be, if we take CYT's Shake as a guide.
Daina Harvey from NMA has just returned from a conference of the International Museum Theatre Alliance and is enthused now to use actors to present real characters from our history to bring NMA's exhibits even more to life. In the meantime she helped lead a small group around the opening performance on Saturday of CYT's "street" theatre in 5 vignettes.
Shake runs like a small creek, beginning at a high waterfall of sounds - The Australian Declaration Towards Aboriginal Reconciliation. Then a small eddying pool of movement - Land and Spirit. In a quiet perhaps rainforested section of still water we heard Childhood Stories and saw figures of childhood, labelled like trees in a national park. Water then fell in thin strands in among the audience, with the words of laws about the "Protector of Aborigines" on a teletype ticker tape passing through people's fingers and before their eyes.
On reaching the point where the creek should shake hands with the sea, coming together was as turbulent as peaceful, raising Questions and Answers. Here the non-indigenous people, stood in line, asleep, head on the next person's shoulder. Then one stirs and calls "Wake up!" to the next and so on down the line, until the last says "Sorry", and the word flows back up the line. Isn't reconciliation easy, hey?
But when the indigenous people cry "Wake up!", the one on the end lies dead. There is silence and grieving. To achieve such a powerful and telling image in the Museum, in the First Australians Gallery, cannot fail to wake us, to make us realise past failings and how much must be done to turn the Australian Declaration Towards Aboriginal Reconciliation from easy words into hard reality.
Catch it Wednesday if you can.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday 5 October 2001
2001: Demons by Wayne Macauley
Demons by Wayne Macauley, directed by David Branson. A FoCA work in progress. Street Theatre October 5-7, 8.10 pm.
A Festival of Contemporary Arts is only well served when original ideas are tried out. I saw preview night of Demons, but here is a work using a spare but quite intense script, group movement work, imagery on video screens and projections, which takes what to many of us might be Russian 19th Century romanticism (Devils by Dostoevsky) and applies its psychology of the human capacity for self-defeat to characters taking part in S11 demonstrations against globalisation.
The work has been developed so far mainly in Melbourne, but it was artsACT which came up with enough funds for a short workshop and rehearsal period for this production, which is planned to be an early stage of a fully developed work for the Melbourne Festival in a year's time. Hopefully funding will be found for this, because the dramatic structure is largely in place and the theme is certainly relevant.
We begin outside (bring something warm for the first 20 minutes) with a rehearsal by Albert Camus of his 1960 version of Dostoevsky, recreating the exaggerated emotions of romantic drama. An actor, committed to his art, argues the toss with the director and walks out. Camus drives away. And the director takes us to a BBQ where S11 protestors are relaxing after a demo, and where an activist, committed to action, creates a disturbance and perhaps a death.
By now we in the audience are disturbed, feeling uncomfortable, but we are taken into the warmth of the Foyer, into the Theatre, where we are told we are safe, though eerie figures - our mental demons - are outside the windows. We complete the circle out the back of the theatre to our starting point seeing a modern death and a Dostoevsky death on the way, to discover that Camus' play is off because he has been killed in a car smash. We end as uncomfortable as we began.
For an old peacenik like me, it's disturbing to think that Dostoevsky's tragic flaw view of humanity might be right. Making us uncomfortable is a legitimate role for theatre, and Demons certainly has potential.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
A Festival of Contemporary Arts is only well served when original ideas are tried out. I saw preview night of Demons, but here is a work using a spare but quite intense script, group movement work, imagery on video screens and projections, which takes what to many of us might be Russian 19th Century romanticism (Devils by Dostoevsky) and applies its psychology of the human capacity for self-defeat to characters taking part in S11 demonstrations against globalisation.
The work has been developed so far mainly in Melbourne, but it was artsACT which came up with enough funds for a short workshop and rehearsal period for this production, which is planned to be an early stage of a fully developed work for the Melbourne Festival in a year's time. Hopefully funding will be found for this, because the dramatic structure is largely in place and the theme is certainly relevant.
We begin outside (bring something warm for the first 20 minutes) with a rehearsal by Albert Camus of his 1960 version of Dostoevsky, recreating the exaggerated emotions of romantic drama. An actor, committed to his art, argues the toss with the director and walks out. Camus drives away. And the director takes us to a BBQ where S11 protestors are relaxing after a demo, and where an activist, committed to action, creates a disturbance and perhaps a death.
By now we in the audience are disturbed, feeling uncomfortable, but we are taken into the warmth of the Foyer, into the Theatre, where we are told we are safe, though eerie figures - our mental demons - are outside the windows. We complete the circle out the back of the theatre to our starting point seeing a modern death and a Dostoevsky death on the way, to discover that Camus' play is off because he has been killed in a car smash. We end as uncomfortable as we began.
For an old peacenik like me, it's disturbing to think that Dostoevsky's tragic flaw view of humanity might be right. Making us uncomfortable is a legitimate role for theatre, and Demons certainly has potential.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Wednesday 3 October 2001
2001: Via Dolorosa by David Hare
Via Dolorosa by David Hare, performed by Patrick Dickson. Directed by Moira Blumenthal at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, October 3-6.
I have had occasions in my teaching past when a top-class student, on whose assignment I had written Excellent A++, would approach me crestfallen. "You haven't told me why! You wrote such a long comment on Jane's, and she only got B. I need to know what you really thought about my work."
It was difficult to know how to tell such a student that her work outstretched my capacity to criticise, even constructively. David Hare's play about Palestine and Israel is in this class. I find it hard to imagine how he could have gathered so much detail from questioning and listening to so many people, holding the diversity of conflicting beliefs in his head all together, and shaping the experience of his travels into a kind of documentary drama in which he makes himself the central character on stage.
And then the writing is so good that an excellent actor like Patrick Dickson has no trouble convincing us that he is David Hare the playwright, who acts out for us politicians, theatre directors, taxi drivers, British Council "minders", US and Canadian Jewish settlers, Palestinian intellectuals with the dramatist's tendency to satirise, and his sense of despair. Using a simple set and easy transitions in lighting and sound, Dickson's timing was excellent, framing the visit to a country where political argument is rife - and 100,000 have died since the Oslo peace agreement - between the quiet bookends of Hampstead Heath, in a country where political argument seems to have lost its point.
Prime Minister Blair follows the popularity, Hare says, but he doesn't tell us what he really thinks. "Send your Blair over here, please" cries a Jewish or Palestinian from the back of the crowd in a land where everyone knows what everyone thinks, and divisions between the religious and the secular, between the principled and the corrupt, between those who see the truth and those who hypocritically refuse to look, not only divide Palestinian from Israeli, but Palestinian from Palestinian and Israeli from Israeli. And Christian from Christian.
Via Dolorosa has humour, weighs all sides equally in the scales of justice, engages our passions yet leaves us to think more clearly than we might expect since September 11: Excellent A++.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
I have had occasions in my teaching past when a top-class student, on whose assignment I had written Excellent A++, would approach me crestfallen. "You haven't told me why! You wrote such a long comment on Jane's, and she only got B. I need to know what you really thought about my work."
It was difficult to know how to tell such a student that her work outstretched my capacity to criticise, even constructively. David Hare's play about Palestine and Israel is in this class. I find it hard to imagine how he could have gathered so much detail from questioning and listening to so many people, holding the diversity of conflicting beliefs in his head all together, and shaping the experience of his travels into a kind of documentary drama in which he makes himself the central character on stage.
And then the writing is so good that an excellent actor like Patrick Dickson has no trouble convincing us that he is David Hare the playwright, who acts out for us politicians, theatre directors, taxi drivers, British Council "minders", US and Canadian Jewish settlers, Palestinian intellectuals with the dramatist's tendency to satirise, and his sense of despair. Using a simple set and easy transitions in lighting and sound, Dickson's timing was excellent, framing the visit to a country where political argument is rife - and 100,000 have died since the Oslo peace agreement - between the quiet bookends of Hampstead Heath, in a country where political argument seems to have lost its point.
Prime Minister Blair follows the popularity, Hare says, but he doesn't tell us what he really thinks. "Send your Blair over here, please" cries a Jewish or Palestinian from the back of the crowd in a land where everyone knows what everyone thinks, and divisions between the religious and the secular, between the principled and the corrupt, between those who see the truth and those who hypocritically refuse to look, not only divide Palestinian from Israeli, but Palestinian from Palestinian and Israeli from Israeli. And Christian from Christian.
Via Dolorosa has humour, weighs all sides equally in the scales of justice, engages our passions yet leaves us to think more clearly than we might expect since September 11: Excellent A++.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Tuesday 2 October 2001
2001: Canberra Youth Theatre - 21C Happenings. Feature article.
Watch out for young artists all over town for the next 4 weeks.
Canberra Youth Theatre kicks off with Time Control Chapter 1 (Gorman House 6 pm Wednesday October 3). The very young can Write Your Own Adventure with Jackie French (at National Museum 11 am Thursday October 4). Philosophy with bubbles is at Currong Theatre in The Clockwork Divide. And this week also sees young filmmakers on the Big Screen in Garema Place (Friday and Saturday 8.30 pm); Time Control Chapter 2 on Saturday; and Demons exploring Dostoyevski Thursday to Sunday at The Street 8 pm.
In following weeks CYT's Time Control goes through all 6 chapters; the ACT Writers Centre shows 8 - 14 year olds how to illustrate stories at the National Museum; art installations by Ken Lee will appear somewhere yet to be announced; the Choreographic Centre's youth will take a Quantum Leap into Transdance 3091 at The Street. At Tuggeranong Arts Centre, NUTS will show Picasso and Einstein being intuitive in Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin; at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka (and on a nature strip in your suburb soon) Daniel Maginnity's Urbane Mosaics will materialise; and Canberra College photographers will be Extraordinary at Gorman House.
And where else but North Canberra Bowling Club would you expect to see a four-piece funk band called Baron Samadhi and Others? Dickson College goes Train Surfing at Currong Theatre; and ACT Playgroups have a big festival at Corroboree Park, Ainslie 10 am - 2 pm October 23.
And that's not all: there's the Tuggeranong Rotary Youth Arts Awards; Theatre in Decay from Melbourne Kissing the Ground Goodbye; Canberra College being Artrageous; Marymead with Who Cares If I Care?; Famillease directed by Eulea Kiraly; Ethnic Schools Languages Day; Silhouettes for massed recorders and prerecorded tape; and maybe a couple of other things which aren't yet finalised.
Checkout the Canberra Youth Theatre Company's web site for details. They did all the work drawing together 21C Happenings, to show the whole city what the youth of Canberra are doing this October. www.cytc.net will get you there.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Canberra Youth Theatre kicks off with Time Control Chapter 1 (Gorman House 6 pm Wednesday October 3). The very young can Write Your Own Adventure with Jackie French (at National Museum 11 am Thursday October 4). Philosophy with bubbles is at Currong Theatre in The Clockwork Divide. And this week also sees young filmmakers on the Big Screen in Garema Place (Friday and Saturday 8.30 pm); Time Control Chapter 2 on Saturday; and Demons exploring Dostoyevski Thursday to Sunday at The Street 8 pm.
In following weeks CYT's Time Control goes through all 6 chapters; the ACT Writers Centre shows 8 - 14 year olds how to illustrate stories at the National Museum; art installations by Ken Lee will appear somewhere yet to be announced; the Choreographic Centre's youth will take a Quantum Leap into Transdance 3091 at The Street. At Tuggeranong Arts Centre, NUTS will show Picasso and Einstein being intuitive in Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin; at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka (and on a nature strip in your suburb soon) Daniel Maginnity's Urbane Mosaics will materialise; and Canberra College photographers will be Extraordinary at Gorman House.
And where else but North Canberra Bowling Club would you expect to see a four-piece funk band called Baron Samadhi and Others? Dickson College goes Train Surfing at Currong Theatre; and ACT Playgroups have a big festival at Corroboree Park, Ainslie 10 am - 2 pm October 23.
And that's not all: there's the Tuggeranong Rotary Youth Arts Awards; Theatre in Decay from Melbourne Kissing the Ground Goodbye; Canberra College being Artrageous; Marymead with Who Cares If I Care?; Famillease directed by Eulea Kiraly; Ethnic Schools Languages Day; Silhouettes for massed recorders and prerecorded tape; and maybe a couple of other things which aren't yet finalised.
Checkout the Canberra Youth Theatre Company's web site for details. They did all the work drawing together 21C Happenings, to show the whole city what the youth of Canberra are doing this October. www.cytc.net will get you there.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday 28 September 2001
2001: Sydney Theatre Company 2002 program. Feature article.
Sydney Theatre Company has announced its 2002 program: a diverse collection including European and American classics, new Australian works, tragedy, comedy and mystery. Maybe mayhem in the real world creates the conditions for expansion in the illusory world of theatre.
Robyn Nevin not only presides over all as Artistic Director, but she also acts - as the fading Southern Belle Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, directed by Jennifer Flowers - and directs: Hanging Man by Andrew Upton, a new study of Australian identity as the three sons of a legendary Australian painter come home for the funeral; and a new adaptation by STC's resident writer Beatrix Christian of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen.
The choice of Nevin to run STC seems to work in all directions. After a strong showing this year, she announces not only 3 "artform development" productions in the Wharf 2 Blueprints season: Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's The Seven Stages of Grieving (Aug-Sep), Benjamin Winspear's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth (May-Jun), and the Australian premiere of David Tushingham's translation of Mr Kolpert by David Gieselmann (Feb); but also 11 mainstage productions, plus the presentation of Theatre de Soleil showing The Flood Drummers by Helene Cixous in the Sydney Festival (Jan); and the construction of a new theatre at Walsh Bay for 2003, with expanded commercial opportunities for the company; and the news that private sector support is growing to the point that in 2002 more funds will come from private sources than from Government for the first time in STC's history.
Even the website (www.sydneytheatre.com.au) is expanding, though chunks of it are still under construction at this stage. But you can now book tickets directly.
Productions are: A Man With Five Children by Nick Enright, a drama starring Steve Bisley (Jan-Feb); The Lady in the Van by British writer Alan Bennett, a poignant comedy starring Ruth Cracknell (Jan-Mar); A Doll's House by Ibsen who wrote "For me it has been a question of human rights ... my task has been the portrayal of human beings", starring Miranda Otto(Mar-Apr); Soulmates by David Williamson, a new comedy in "a world where, highbrow and lowbrow, the prizes of critical acclaim and literary immortality provoke greed, envy and competitive passions", starring Amanda Muggleton (Apr-Jun); the Australian premiere of Copenhagen by British playwright Michael Frayn, a play about loyalty in Nazi-occupied Denmark - to family, country and science's quest for knowledge - starring Colin Friels, John Gaden, Jane Harders (May-Jun).
And for the second half of the year: Volpone by Ben Jonson, the classic comedy of avarice, starring Barry Otto (Jun-Jul); The Virgin Mim, a new play by Tony McNamara commissioned by STC, a "tidal wave of comic mayhem" about a reconstructed virgin (Aug-Sep); Hanging Man by Andrew Upton (Aug-Oct); Life is a Dream by 17th Century Spanish writer Pedro Calderon de la Barca, a classic poetic study of a woman disguised as a man who falls in love with a prince who believes he's a slave (Sep-Oct); the 20th Century American classic The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, "an exquisite hymn to lost love and our need to believe in possibility", starring Robyn Nevin (Oct-Dec); Great Expectations by Charles Dickens adapted by Simon Phillips, a Melbourne Theatre Company production starring Angela Punch McGregor (Oct-Dec).
There is also the Sydney Theatre Company Education Program which includes Schoolsdays at mainstage productions, the Blueprints production of Macbeth, the Theatre-In-Practice program for teachers and students to access the professional resources and skills of STC, and the STC-The Sydney Morning Herald Young Playwrights' Award. Email education@sydneytheatre.com.au or phone the Education Manager (02) 9250 1700.
And finally, the Patrick White Playwrights' Award is a national competition which aims to encourage and reward the creation of new writing for the theatre of highest quality. The inaugural award, launched in July 2000, was shared by Bette Guy (The Other Side of the Lake), Ailsa Piper (Small Mercies) and Ben Ellis (Who Are You, Mr James?). The award is part of the STC Writer's Program which in 2002 has spawned The Virgin Mim, Hanging Man and the adaptations of Life is a Dream, A Doll's House and Macbeth.
What we are seeing from the Sydney Theatre Company is an integrated and well-directed offering to the whole community. The 2002 program is an intelligent mix which should make for an exciting theatrical year in Sydney.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Robyn Nevin not only presides over all as Artistic Director, but she also acts - as the fading Southern Belle Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, directed by Jennifer Flowers - and directs: Hanging Man by Andrew Upton, a new study of Australian identity as the three sons of a legendary Australian painter come home for the funeral; and a new adaptation by STC's resident writer Beatrix Christian of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen.
The choice of Nevin to run STC seems to work in all directions. After a strong showing this year, she announces not only 3 "artform development" productions in the Wharf 2 Blueprints season: Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman's The Seven Stages of Grieving (Aug-Sep), Benjamin Winspear's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth (May-Jun), and the Australian premiere of David Tushingham's translation of Mr Kolpert by David Gieselmann (Feb); but also 11 mainstage productions, plus the presentation of Theatre de Soleil showing The Flood Drummers by Helene Cixous in the Sydney Festival (Jan); and the construction of a new theatre at Walsh Bay for 2003, with expanded commercial opportunities for the company; and the news that private sector support is growing to the point that in 2002 more funds will come from private sources than from Government for the first time in STC's history.
Even the website (www.sydneytheatre.com.au) is expanding, though chunks of it are still under construction at this stage. But you can now book tickets directly.
Productions are: A Man With Five Children by Nick Enright, a drama starring Steve Bisley (Jan-Feb); The Lady in the Van by British writer Alan Bennett, a poignant comedy starring Ruth Cracknell (Jan-Mar); A Doll's House by Ibsen who wrote "For me it has been a question of human rights ... my task has been the portrayal of human beings", starring Miranda Otto(Mar-Apr); Soulmates by David Williamson, a new comedy in "a world where, highbrow and lowbrow, the prizes of critical acclaim and literary immortality provoke greed, envy and competitive passions", starring Amanda Muggleton (Apr-Jun); the Australian premiere of Copenhagen by British playwright Michael Frayn, a play about loyalty in Nazi-occupied Denmark - to family, country and science's quest for knowledge - starring Colin Friels, John Gaden, Jane Harders (May-Jun).
And for the second half of the year: Volpone by Ben Jonson, the classic comedy of avarice, starring Barry Otto (Jun-Jul); The Virgin Mim, a new play by Tony McNamara commissioned by STC, a "tidal wave of comic mayhem" about a reconstructed virgin (Aug-Sep); Hanging Man by Andrew Upton (Aug-Oct); Life is a Dream by 17th Century Spanish writer Pedro Calderon de la Barca, a classic poetic study of a woman disguised as a man who falls in love with a prince who believes he's a slave (Sep-Oct); the 20th Century American classic The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, "an exquisite hymn to lost love and our need to believe in possibility", starring Robyn Nevin (Oct-Dec); Great Expectations by Charles Dickens adapted by Simon Phillips, a Melbourne Theatre Company production starring Angela Punch McGregor (Oct-Dec).
There is also the Sydney Theatre Company Education Program which includes Schoolsdays at mainstage productions, the Blueprints production of Macbeth, the Theatre-In-Practice program for teachers and students to access the professional resources and skills of STC, and the STC-The Sydney Morning Herald Young Playwrights' Award. Email education@sydneytheatre.com.au or phone the Education Manager (02) 9250 1700.
And finally, the Patrick White Playwrights' Award is a national competition which aims to encourage and reward the creation of new writing for the theatre of highest quality. The inaugural award, launched in July 2000, was shared by Bette Guy (The Other Side of the Lake), Ailsa Piper (Small Mercies) and Ben Ellis (Who Are You, Mr James?). The award is part of the STC Writer's Program which in 2002 has spawned The Virgin Mim, Hanging Man and the adaptations of Life is a Dream, A Doll's House and Macbeth.
What we are seeing from the Sydney Theatre Company is an integrated and well-directed offering to the whole community. The 2002 program is an intelligent mix which should make for an exciting theatrical year in Sydney.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Wednesday 26 September 2001
2001: Eat Your Young
Eat Your Young. Arena Theatre Company directed by Rosemary Myers. The Playhouse September 25-29.
Post post-modern multimedia theatre for young people (15-19). Non-linear narrative. Techno decibel enlargement paralleling visual blasts on multichannel screens and speakers. Amazing stuff - but is it enuff?
Interesting that the printed program separates the live actors from the filmed actors, and again from the writer and technical production people - because Myers before the show explained how all the sound, imagery, lighting and design engineers were integrated into the workshops with actors and writer from the beginning to create a new theatrical form.
She also connected multimedia theatre to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, which has recently developed to include "spiritual intelligence" - the human ability to experience the wonder of the universe (and usually invent a religion to explain it).
This spirit is the core of great art - when I become engrossed in the theatrical fiction which reflects on and helps me encompass the universe - but Eat Your Young did not do it for me. Perhaps teenagers are used to disjointed images coming at them from all directions at once and so do not seek any clear resolution - maybe all they need is stacks of questions - but I found the techno gadgetry becoming too fascinating to focus on the live characters' personal experiences.
The issues surrounding children placed in "care" which alienates them and compromises the adults charged with responsibility for them are certainly raised loudly in this production, and I imagine would stimulate a great deal of discussion in schools and youth groups - but loudly is not necessarily clearly, at least in this case.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I fear that the non-sequitur imagery of the video clip is the modern popular development of the theatrical absurdism which became established after the terrible experience of World War II. Absurdist plays like Waiting for Godot said to a small coterie of adult theatre goers 40 years ago that there is no meaning in life. Now Eat Your Young takes the message to the young, and I am not sure they are resilient enough. Will they see through the techno imagery of September 11 in New York? Will this show help them do that? Amazing stuff - raising dust (like Ionesco's Rhinoceros) - but for me it's not enuff.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Post post-modern multimedia theatre for young people (15-19). Non-linear narrative. Techno decibel enlargement paralleling visual blasts on multichannel screens and speakers. Amazing stuff - but is it enuff?
Interesting that the printed program separates the live actors from the filmed actors, and again from the writer and technical production people - because Myers before the show explained how all the sound, imagery, lighting and design engineers were integrated into the workshops with actors and writer from the beginning to create a new theatrical form.
She also connected multimedia theatre to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, which has recently developed to include "spiritual intelligence" - the human ability to experience the wonder of the universe (and usually invent a religion to explain it).
This spirit is the core of great art - when I become engrossed in the theatrical fiction which reflects on and helps me encompass the universe - but Eat Your Young did not do it for me. Perhaps teenagers are used to disjointed images coming at them from all directions at once and so do not seek any clear resolution - maybe all they need is stacks of questions - but I found the techno gadgetry becoming too fascinating to focus on the live characters' personal experiences.
The issues surrounding children placed in "care" which alienates them and compromises the adults charged with responsibility for them are certainly raised loudly in this production, and I imagine would stimulate a great deal of discussion in schools and youth groups - but loudly is not necessarily clearly, at least in this case.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I fear that the non-sequitur imagery of the video clip is the modern popular development of the theatrical absurdism which became established after the terrible experience of World War II. Absurdist plays like Waiting for Godot said to a small coterie of adult theatre goers 40 years ago that there is no meaning in life. Now Eat Your Young takes the message to the young, and I am not sure they are resilient enough. Will they see through the techno imagery of September 11 in New York? Will this show help them do that? Amazing stuff - raising dust (like Ionesco's Rhinoceros) - but for me it's not enuff.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Sunday 23 September 2001
2001: Letters of Joy Hester and Sunday Reed - Dear Sun
Dear Sun. An adaptation of the letters of Joy Hester and Sunday Reed edited by Janine Burke. Melbourne Theatre Company directed by Sioban Tuke at the James O Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia, Sunday September 23.
In a setting that could be called Still Life in Artist's Studio, among seemingly breeze-scattered sheets of partially drawn-upon paper and deeply red delicious apples spilled from a country wicker basket, three performers were held in situ. The only movement was the bowing arm and slightly bowing body of Associate Principal Cellist of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sarah Morse; the rising into the spotlights of Rosalind Hammond as Joy Hester and Catherine Wilkin as Sunday Reed; their occasional use respectively of a kitchen chair and a 1950's Scandinavian style sunroom armchair; Hester's hand movements describing lines drawn in a letter or two; and the looks that pass between these two extraordinary women as if their letters were a face-to-face conversation.
This was all I needed to become entirely engrossed in their lives, and the terribly foreboding death of Joy Hester. There was a great tension between watching a theatrical performance yet knowing that each letter was real. I could not avoid feeling Hester's conflict over her new love and her responsibility for the child she left in the Reeds' care; the terror of Hodgkin's Disease and Hester's determination to be true to her feelings which she believed kept her alive for 10 years more than doctors predicted; the confusion over whether Sweeney should be adopted by Sunday and John Reed, against the possibility that his father Albert Tucker would demand his return to his care alone; the ill-feeling that seem to grow between the two women as words written at a distance for so many years failed to pass on true meaning, until they met again in the final dreadful year.
And the sadness of Hester's death was reinforced by large projections of her works, related to the people and experiences in her letters and poems, showing the variety and depths of feeling she created with no more than the necessary lines and shadings, while she continued to believe that she was not a major figure.
This performance illuminated my understanding of the art of Joy Hester, and I wonder if a film could be (or has been) made as a permanent record.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
In a setting that could be called Still Life in Artist's Studio, among seemingly breeze-scattered sheets of partially drawn-upon paper and deeply red delicious apples spilled from a country wicker basket, three performers were held in situ. The only movement was the bowing arm and slightly bowing body of Associate Principal Cellist of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sarah Morse; the rising into the spotlights of Rosalind Hammond as Joy Hester and Catherine Wilkin as Sunday Reed; their occasional use respectively of a kitchen chair and a 1950's Scandinavian style sunroom armchair; Hester's hand movements describing lines drawn in a letter or two; and the looks that pass between these two extraordinary women as if their letters were a face-to-face conversation.
This was all I needed to become entirely engrossed in their lives, and the terribly foreboding death of Joy Hester. There was a great tension between watching a theatrical performance yet knowing that each letter was real. I could not avoid feeling Hester's conflict over her new love and her responsibility for the child she left in the Reeds' care; the terror of Hodgkin's Disease and Hester's determination to be true to her feelings which she believed kept her alive for 10 years more than doctors predicted; the confusion over whether Sweeney should be adopted by Sunday and John Reed, against the possibility that his father Albert Tucker would demand his return to his care alone; the ill-feeling that seem to grow between the two women as words written at a distance for so many years failed to pass on true meaning, until they met again in the final dreadful year.
And the sadness of Hester's death was reinforced by large projections of her works, related to the people and experiences in her letters and poems, showing the variety and depths of feeling she created with no more than the necessary lines and shadings, while she continued to believe that she was not a major figure.
This performance illuminated my understanding of the art of Joy Hester, and I wonder if a film could be (or has been) made as a permanent record.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Monday 17 September 2001
2001: The Clockwork Divide
The Clockwork Divide by Blaide Lallemand and Conan the Bubbleman. Music composed by Simon Linke. Festival of Contemporary Arts: Currong Theatre September 27-29, October 4-6, 7pm.
Lallemand is a student of sculpture who has contrasted the ways Aristotle and St Augustine viewed time, with reference to the French philosopher of intuition and 1927 Nobel prizewinner for literature, Henri Bergson. Her work begins with Aristotelian time in linear form, with 3 long pendulums swinging to clockwork music, constraining the movements of her 3 performers: Conan O'Brien, Caroline Huf and herself.
Change in the movement and music takes place in minimalist steps until bubble-making fluid runs down the pendulum strings, into the containers which form the weights. Each pendulum is a double fishing line, which when separated becomes the perimeter of a soap bubble - a flat vertical membrane until moved in air, sometimes with a performer's breath to assist. At times the membrane reflects light, almost hiding a performer from the audience; at others a performer is reflected and distorted. Large unpredictably shaped bubbles form, link performers and burst. A hand slowly moves through the membrane without breaking it.
And so we see time as an original experience of the moment, no longer part of a linear progression; we interpret each image in its own right for its own sake; and we cannot know when an apparently solid form will burst.
Bergson's ideas of "creative evolution" are problematical as New Age adherents use him unreasonably to criticise modern science, but as a source of art he has served Lallemand very well. This is a highly original development of fluid material to form abstract images (O'Brien had to experiment with a new formula to create a strong enough bubble membrane). I certainly felt the immediacy of communication with something universal outside the limits of time, which St Augustine tried to articulate. And, after all, this is what all art is about.
It was interesting, though, to note the need for theatrical closure as we witnessed an effective climax and denouement. Aha, I thought. Unity of action in space and time: we've come full circle back to linearity. So Aristotle wins out in the end. What philosophy from a soap bubble!
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Lallemand is a student of sculpture who has contrasted the ways Aristotle and St Augustine viewed time, with reference to the French philosopher of intuition and 1927 Nobel prizewinner for literature, Henri Bergson. Her work begins with Aristotelian time in linear form, with 3 long pendulums swinging to clockwork music, constraining the movements of her 3 performers: Conan O'Brien, Caroline Huf and herself.
Change in the movement and music takes place in minimalist steps until bubble-making fluid runs down the pendulum strings, into the containers which form the weights. Each pendulum is a double fishing line, which when separated becomes the perimeter of a soap bubble - a flat vertical membrane until moved in air, sometimes with a performer's breath to assist. At times the membrane reflects light, almost hiding a performer from the audience; at others a performer is reflected and distorted. Large unpredictably shaped bubbles form, link performers and burst. A hand slowly moves through the membrane without breaking it.
And so we see time as an original experience of the moment, no longer part of a linear progression; we interpret each image in its own right for its own sake; and we cannot know when an apparently solid form will burst.
Bergson's ideas of "creative evolution" are problematical as New Age adherents use him unreasonably to criticise modern science, but as a source of art he has served Lallemand very well. This is a highly original development of fluid material to form abstract images (O'Brien had to experiment with a new formula to create a strong enough bubble membrane). I certainly felt the immediacy of communication with something universal outside the limits of time, which St Augustine tried to articulate. And, after all, this is what all art is about.
It was interesting, though, to note the need for theatrical closure as we witnessed an effective climax and denouement. Aha, I thought. Unity of action in space and time: we've come full circle back to linearity. So Aristotle wins out in the end. What philosophy from a soap bubble!
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday 6 September 2001
2001: Eulea Kiraly - feature article
Eulea Kiraly, Theatre Program Director, Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
Sounds simple enough - just another dogsbody arts practitioner. Well, not quite. Since she and her colleagues, the whole Drama Department, resigned from a well-known school back in 1989 when the principal banned a stage production shortly before opening night, Ms Kiraly has become a central figure in Canberra theatre. Only this year however - since she left the Rolls-Royce company (yes, the one which made the cars, or in her case the aeroplane engines) - is she properly recognised as the professional independent theatre director she has long known she needed to be.
Knowing the continual flow of her work directing productions and play readings over many years, I was amused and not a little amazed to imagine her in straight skirts and shoulder pads 9 to 5 as an executive assistant to an aeroplane engine. But this turned out to be the last of a long line of part-time jobs, a "proper day job, nothing to do with real life". Real life began, significantly, on April 1 as Eulea Kiraly, Community Theatre Director, gained employment for 2.5 days per week funded by artsACT, 0.5 days from Healthpact and, from July 1, the rest of the 7 days per week (or more if she fails the executive time management test) at Tuggeranong, funded by Urban Services.
Urban Services? I hear you cry. What are they doing funding a theatre program? The answer reveals the complexity behind the theatre scene in this city.
When I began teaching drama 30 years ago, the wisdom was that in "primitive" societies drama was an integral part of ordinary life, but in "sophisticated" societies - beginning with the Ancient Greeks - drama became separated from ordinary life, as plays were written to reflect on society: and thus began Theatre.
Well, I guess I have to treat Canberra as an example of a modern sophisticated society - yet in the last 30 years "community" theatre has regained status. The Australia Council, for example, has a Major Performing Arts Board, but also a Board for Community Cultural Development which funds theatre work.
The distinction on the ground in Canberra has long been between "community" and "professional" theatre. We have never succeeded in maintaining for long a professional theatre company, yet there are professional productions and much community theatre. Local professional productions attract very small audiences in competition with Sydney only 3 hours away, or imports to the Playhouse.
And then there are amateur companies, which are not community theatres. So we have among others Canberra Rep (amateur, sometimes with pro input, and essentially social rather than community); Free Rain (amateur, but offering opportunities for young people to work on pro style productions); Women on a Shoestring (pro, yet with community theatre themes); Elbow (pro, but so small it almost looks like a community theatre).
And now Urban Services and Health seem to have picked up on the 1980's idea of the "healthy city" in which the arts are re-integrated with daily life. Healthpact has supported work at The Street Theatre for several years, and Urban Services' recently introduced Community Renewal Program supports projects from the Narrabundah community garden to the Tuggeranong theatre program, in recognition that where local people are engaged in professionally managed creative activities, the community benefits from a sense of cohesion, stability and purpose: the heart which Canberra is supposed not to have.
Eulea Kiraly's work is to create theatre in, with and for the community.
At Tuggeranong, following work with Maude Clark of Melbourne's Somebody's Daughter Theatre earlier in the year, her Thursday evening group of some 28 people - indigenous and multicultural, from teenage to senior - are working on "Fam-ill-ease", expected to open on October 26.
A play by Jay Bannister working with the Karralaika drug rehabilitation community and WIREDD (Womens Information Referral and Education on Drugs and Dependency), "White Track Miracle", will be presented as a reading at CMAG Theatre 8pm September 29 in the upcoming Festival of Contemporary Arts (FOCA). This script has already been critically evaluated by the National Playwrights Centre: Bannister and Kiraly plan to take it on to full production after further development work.
Also for FOCA Kiraly plays her dogsbody role as the organiser of the Australian premiere of David Hare's "Via Dolorosa", with Sydney director Moira Blumenthal, at Tuggeranong October 3-6. Performed by Patrick Dickson, the play is about "the volatile passions of faith" set in Israel and Palestine.
In December there will be a reading of a new play, "Coming to Canberra", by Sri Lankan-Australian Siri Ipalawatte, directed by Kiraly for the Canberra Multicultural Theatre Association.
And, finally, Kiraly is working with "Alphabet Soup", a women's group on a long-term theatrical exploration of their experiences living in the Allawa, Bega and Currong Flats, ranging from the 1950's memories of the Snowy Mountains Scheme era, through the public servant period, to inner city life today. Though no date has been set, this work will be performed, probably within the context of the ABC Flats.
So this is Eulea Kiraly, Canberra's Rolls-Royce of integrated community theatre. She can be contacted at TCA on 6293 1443 or by email: eulea@spirit.com.au
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Sounds simple enough - just another dogsbody arts practitioner. Well, not quite. Since she and her colleagues, the whole Drama Department, resigned from a well-known school back in 1989 when the principal banned a stage production shortly before opening night, Ms Kiraly has become a central figure in Canberra theatre. Only this year however - since she left the Rolls-Royce company (yes, the one which made the cars, or in her case the aeroplane engines) - is she properly recognised as the professional independent theatre director she has long known she needed to be.
Knowing the continual flow of her work directing productions and play readings over many years, I was amused and not a little amazed to imagine her in straight skirts and shoulder pads 9 to 5 as an executive assistant to an aeroplane engine. But this turned out to be the last of a long line of part-time jobs, a "proper day job, nothing to do with real life". Real life began, significantly, on April 1 as Eulea Kiraly, Community Theatre Director, gained employment for 2.5 days per week funded by artsACT, 0.5 days from Healthpact and, from July 1, the rest of the 7 days per week (or more if she fails the executive time management test) at Tuggeranong, funded by Urban Services.
Urban Services? I hear you cry. What are they doing funding a theatre program? The answer reveals the complexity behind the theatre scene in this city.
When I began teaching drama 30 years ago, the wisdom was that in "primitive" societies drama was an integral part of ordinary life, but in "sophisticated" societies - beginning with the Ancient Greeks - drama became separated from ordinary life, as plays were written to reflect on society: and thus began Theatre.
Well, I guess I have to treat Canberra as an example of a modern sophisticated society - yet in the last 30 years "community" theatre has regained status. The Australia Council, for example, has a Major Performing Arts Board, but also a Board for Community Cultural Development which funds theatre work.
The distinction on the ground in Canberra has long been between "community" and "professional" theatre. We have never succeeded in maintaining for long a professional theatre company, yet there are professional productions and much community theatre. Local professional productions attract very small audiences in competition with Sydney only 3 hours away, or imports to the Playhouse.
And then there are amateur companies, which are not community theatres. So we have among others Canberra Rep (amateur, sometimes with pro input, and essentially social rather than community); Free Rain (amateur, but offering opportunities for young people to work on pro style productions); Women on a Shoestring (pro, yet with community theatre themes); Elbow (pro, but so small it almost looks like a community theatre).
And now Urban Services and Health seem to have picked up on the 1980's idea of the "healthy city" in which the arts are re-integrated with daily life. Healthpact has supported work at The Street Theatre for several years, and Urban Services' recently introduced Community Renewal Program supports projects from the Narrabundah community garden to the Tuggeranong theatre program, in recognition that where local people are engaged in professionally managed creative activities, the community benefits from a sense of cohesion, stability and purpose: the heart which Canberra is supposed not to have.
Eulea Kiraly's work is to create theatre in, with and for the community.
At Tuggeranong, following work with Maude Clark of Melbourne's Somebody's Daughter Theatre earlier in the year, her Thursday evening group of some 28 people - indigenous and multicultural, from teenage to senior - are working on "Fam-ill-ease", expected to open on October 26.
A play by Jay Bannister working with the Karralaika drug rehabilitation community and WIREDD (Womens Information Referral and Education on Drugs and Dependency), "White Track Miracle", will be presented as a reading at CMAG Theatre 8pm September 29 in the upcoming Festival of Contemporary Arts (FOCA). This script has already been critically evaluated by the National Playwrights Centre: Bannister and Kiraly plan to take it on to full production after further development work.
Also for FOCA Kiraly plays her dogsbody role as the organiser of the Australian premiere of David Hare's "Via Dolorosa", with Sydney director Moira Blumenthal, at Tuggeranong October 3-6. Performed by Patrick Dickson, the play is about "the volatile passions of faith" set in Israel and Palestine.
In December there will be a reading of a new play, "Coming to Canberra", by Sri Lankan-Australian Siri Ipalawatte, directed by Kiraly for the Canberra Multicultural Theatre Association.
And, finally, Kiraly is working with "Alphabet Soup", a women's group on a long-term theatrical exploration of their experiences living in the Allawa, Bega and Currong Flats, ranging from the 1950's memories of the Snowy Mountains Scheme era, through the public servant period, to inner city life today. Though no date has been set, this work will be performed, probably within the context of the ABC Flats.
So this is Eulea Kiraly, Canberra's Rolls-Royce of integrated community theatre. She can be contacted at TCA on 6293 1443 or by email: eulea@spirit.com.au
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Sunday 2 September 2001
2001: Tuggeranong Community Arts Association Open Day. Feature article.
Tuggeranong Community Arts Association Open Day, Saturday September 1.
Maybe it seemed a gamble a decade or so ago to force the Canberra Casino to compensate the community for the privilege of profiteering from people's weakness in imagining winning an easy wealth from blackjack.
Political imagination worked wonders a year or two later to split the ACT into 3 electorates before the money was pigeonholed, so it became politically correct to spend some in Belconnen (Murranji Theatre at Hawker College), some at CIT Woden (recording studio) and most in Nappy Valley: the Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
It wasn't Black Jack but Domenic Mico, the now famous Festival Director, who had become Tuggeranong's Community Arts Officer in 1992 - with the gall to follow through the construction of an oddly exciting building by architect May Flannery in pursuit of a brilliant vision of community and professional arts working together, despite rumblings from many that the money should have gone to Civic.
Mico moved on to one festival after another and back again, and Evol McLeod became the General Manager who has made the vision brighter in reality than anyone could imagine when the angles and planes of architecture were bare of technical equipment. But the art of the architect worked to create light and air, with stunning lakeside views, which have stimulated excitement in the artists, the administrators, the Tuggeranong community and especially the young people - no longer in nappies but finishing college, like the cast of Lockie Leonard Scumbuster, adapted by Messengers Project Officer Garry Fry from the novel by Tim Winton.
The Messengers Project is just one of many at TCA. It's about helping young people to be resilient in the face of the pressures of hormones and society which lead so many to depression and even suicide. Josh Broomfield, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Tess MacDonald and Matt Friend - all previous Drama students with Fry at Lake Tuggeranong College - have stayed together after Year 12 to perform Winton's vigorous take on environmental pollution, with resilience as its theme, in primary and high schools. The show is an energetic piece of theatre-in-education which works at both the intellectual level on the environment issue, while middle school students especially also pick up on how Lockie's friend Egg's problems affect him. In post-show discussion they find themselves focussed invariably on positive suggestions for resolution. Winton/Fry's art and the youth of these performers works well indeed.
Open Day saw some 16 activities, among which were the Pet Parade judged by ALP MP Annette Ellis (Most Theatrical Pet was a ferret) and the Official Opening of the Shorelines Public Art Project by Lib ACT Minister for the Arts and Other Things, Brendan Smyth. Shorelines is a mosaic footpath with street banners and flags by the lake, leading to the Arts Centre, aiming to reflect the cultural identity of Tuggeranong. The Minister claimed to be a local identity and thanked all the dozens of people involved in the project, including the Australia Council and ACT Urban Services for funds and construction work.
ALP MLA Bill Wood, who hopes to be Minister for Education after the October 20 election, was there and says he will want the Arts in his portfolio rather than with Other Things. Domenic Mico couldn't not be there especially since he seeks election as a Democrat with a strong arts agenda: he is rethinking the way the Arts should be placed as the key to cultural and community renewal.
Just the buzz on Open Day was enough to justify that decade-old gamble. Imagination is certainly a winner at the TCA.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Maybe it seemed a gamble a decade or so ago to force the Canberra Casino to compensate the community for the privilege of profiteering from people's weakness in imagining winning an easy wealth from blackjack.
Political imagination worked wonders a year or two later to split the ACT into 3 electorates before the money was pigeonholed, so it became politically correct to spend some in Belconnen (Murranji Theatre at Hawker College), some at CIT Woden (recording studio) and most in Nappy Valley: the Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
It wasn't Black Jack but Domenic Mico, the now famous Festival Director, who had become Tuggeranong's Community Arts Officer in 1992 - with the gall to follow through the construction of an oddly exciting building by architect May Flannery in pursuit of a brilliant vision of community and professional arts working together, despite rumblings from many that the money should have gone to Civic.
Mico moved on to one festival after another and back again, and Evol McLeod became the General Manager who has made the vision brighter in reality than anyone could imagine when the angles and planes of architecture were bare of technical equipment. But the art of the architect worked to create light and air, with stunning lakeside views, which have stimulated excitement in the artists, the administrators, the Tuggeranong community and especially the young people - no longer in nappies but finishing college, like the cast of Lockie Leonard Scumbuster, adapted by Messengers Project Officer Garry Fry from the novel by Tim Winton.
The Messengers Project is just one of many at TCA. It's about helping young people to be resilient in the face of the pressures of hormones and society which lead so many to depression and even suicide. Josh Broomfield, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Tess MacDonald and Matt Friend - all previous Drama students with Fry at Lake Tuggeranong College - have stayed together after Year 12 to perform Winton's vigorous take on environmental pollution, with resilience as its theme, in primary and high schools. The show is an energetic piece of theatre-in-education which works at both the intellectual level on the environment issue, while middle school students especially also pick up on how Lockie's friend Egg's problems affect him. In post-show discussion they find themselves focussed invariably on positive suggestions for resolution. Winton/Fry's art and the youth of these performers works well indeed.
Open Day saw some 16 activities, among which were the Pet Parade judged by ALP MP Annette Ellis (Most Theatrical Pet was a ferret) and the Official Opening of the Shorelines Public Art Project by Lib ACT Minister for the Arts and Other Things, Brendan Smyth. Shorelines is a mosaic footpath with street banners and flags by the lake, leading to the Arts Centre, aiming to reflect the cultural identity of Tuggeranong. The Minister claimed to be a local identity and thanked all the dozens of people involved in the project, including the Australia Council and ACT Urban Services for funds and construction work.
ALP MLA Bill Wood, who hopes to be Minister for Education after the October 20 election, was there and says he will want the Arts in his portfolio rather than with Other Things. Domenic Mico couldn't not be there especially since he seeks election as a Democrat with a strong arts agenda: he is rethinking the way the Arts should be placed as the key to cultural and community renewal.
Just the buzz on Open Day was enough to justify that decade-old gamble. Imagination is certainly a winner at the TCA.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday 15 June 2001
2001: The Old Time Music Hall 2001
The Old Time Music Hall 2001. Canberra Repertory at The Playhouse, June 14-23.
Ritual theatre, as this has surely become after 27 seasons, has a role to play which I am sure some sociologist from ANU could tease out for us. Something about preserving continuity in the face of constant change, maintaining the power of the mythic, bonding particular social groupings. But since some would say this analysis is not my task here, I'll leave theory to others, except to say that this year's show is much less Howard-esque (I'm nodding towards Ian Warden) than the last one I saw 5 years ago.
The difference is partly in a more sophisticated production - better choice of numbers and acts, excellent choreography (simple in style but just right for each situation), equally good costumes and backdrops, all directed with clarity by Cathie Clelland. The quality that really lifts the show, however, is the satirical humour - not present in every item (Pennies From Heaven was too gawky for me), but brilliant in numbers like the two emus and a sort of lizard tap-dancing to an almost monotone regular-rhythm primary school version of My Country by Dorothea Mackellar.
It is nice, too, to see Federation put in its place - Canberra - by working out of the old song "Come, Josephine, in my flying machine ... Oh, let's spoon in a hot air balloon" into the new song written by Musical Maestro Dr Andrew Kay called Fed-air-ation: "When people say, What's good about Canberra? we say, hot air!"
Original English Music Hall was so popular for so long because comedians and singers caught the changing moods of the ordinary people of that nation, and it is interesting to see how in this show it is the mostly quite absurd numbers that make fun of Australian attitudes which move the audience to cheers.
Unfair as it is to select individuals from an all-round excellent cast, I'm going to give guernseys to Lesley Smith and Julie McElhone as the best actors this year. And the best icon is clearly Rosemary Hyde, unable to direct this time, whose image revealed at the end raises the roof. Ritual theatre, indeed, and nicely done.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Ritual theatre, as this has surely become after 27 seasons, has a role to play which I am sure some sociologist from ANU could tease out for us. Something about preserving continuity in the face of constant change, maintaining the power of the mythic, bonding particular social groupings. But since some would say this analysis is not my task here, I'll leave theory to others, except to say that this year's show is much less Howard-esque (I'm nodding towards Ian Warden) than the last one I saw 5 years ago.
The difference is partly in a more sophisticated production - better choice of numbers and acts, excellent choreography (simple in style but just right for each situation), equally good costumes and backdrops, all directed with clarity by Cathie Clelland. The quality that really lifts the show, however, is the satirical humour - not present in every item (Pennies From Heaven was too gawky for me), but brilliant in numbers like the two emus and a sort of lizard tap-dancing to an almost monotone regular-rhythm primary school version of My Country by Dorothea Mackellar.
It is nice, too, to see Federation put in its place - Canberra - by working out of the old song "Come, Josephine, in my flying machine ... Oh, let's spoon in a hot air balloon" into the new song written by Musical Maestro Dr Andrew Kay called Fed-air-ation: "When people say, What's good about Canberra? we say, hot air!"
Original English Music Hall was so popular for so long because comedians and singers caught the changing moods of the ordinary people of that nation, and it is interesting to see how in this show it is the mostly quite absurd numbers that make fun of Australian attitudes which move the audience to cheers.
Unfair as it is to select individuals from an all-round excellent cast, I'm going to give guernseys to Lesley Smith and Julie McElhone as the best actors this year. And the best icon is clearly Rosemary Hyde, unable to direct this time, whose image revealed at the end raises the roof. Ritual theatre, indeed, and nicely done.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday 31 May 2001
2001: Up For Grabs by David Williamson
Up For Grabs by David Williamson. Sydney Theatre Company directed by Gale Edwards at The Playhouse May 30 - June 2, June 4-9.
Casting Garry McDonald as the ruthless Manny, fifth richest man in Australia with an interesting sexual identity problem, has to mean a thoroughly entertaining night. His comic timing is superb; his transition from veniality to vunerability is wonderful to watch.
McDonald was offered the part by Gale Edwards because she knew his integrity as an actor would do the trick (watch out for the end of Act 1), and the whole ensemble - Helen Dallimore, Tina Bursill, Angela Punch McGregor, Simon Burke, Kirstie Hutton and Felix Williamson - came up to scratch, sometimes literally (though on opening night Punch McGregor did get stuck on a high pitch and volume for a while, losing comic effect and audience sympathy, before regaining strength in her final revelation speech).
David Williamson, whom I have criticised before for not having full control of dramatic form (seeking to be naturalistic when one-liners and neat finishes are at odds with this quest), has found in Edwards a director who sees the style his work needs - while Williamson has also at last clarified his understanding of form by allowing characters to speak direct to the audience in soliloquies which reveal themselves to us and draw us along with them into the action.
As a result, Dallimore's art dealer, Simone, doing everything (the details of which I won't reveal) to make her 2 million dollar sale remains a character we can feel sympathy for. It's interesting, perhaps ironic, that through non-naturalistic devices the characters seem more real. And Williamson's writing seems much freer and more daring than in many earlier plays. His younger damagecontrol.com instant new wealth couple, Mindy (Hutton) and Kel (Williamson) display a wildness that I think is new and exciting.
Everyone I spoke to on opening night emphasised how entertaining the performance was, and especially how exquisite the stage and lighting designs are, so no-one will be disappointed in this night out at the theatre. Yet for me, this play is less layered with meaning than, say, Face to Face, though it is better than his other financial competition play, Emerald City. I guess I'm looking for a harder satirical edge which could make this play greater than just a great night out.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Casting Garry McDonald as the ruthless Manny, fifth richest man in Australia with an interesting sexual identity problem, has to mean a thoroughly entertaining night. His comic timing is superb; his transition from veniality to vunerability is wonderful to watch.
McDonald was offered the part by Gale Edwards because she knew his integrity as an actor would do the trick (watch out for the end of Act 1), and the whole ensemble - Helen Dallimore, Tina Bursill, Angela Punch McGregor, Simon Burke, Kirstie Hutton and Felix Williamson - came up to scratch, sometimes literally (though on opening night Punch McGregor did get stuck on a high pitch and volume for a while, losing comic effect and audience sympathy, before regaining strength in her final revelation speech).
David Williamson, whom I have criticised before for not having full control of dramatic form (seeking to be naturalistic when one-liners and neat finishes are at odds with this quest), has found in Edwards a director who sees the style his work needs - while Williamson has also at last clarified his understanding of form by allowing characters to speak direct to the audience in soliloquies which reveal themselves to us and draw us along with them into the action.
As a result, Dallimore's art dealer, Simone, doing everything (the details of which I won't reveal) to make her 2 million dollar sale remains a character we can feel sympathy for. It's interesting, perhaps ironic, that through non-naturalistic devices the characters seem more real. And Williamson's writing seems much freer and more daring than in many earlier plays. His younger damagecontrol.com instant new wealth couple, Mindy (Hutton) and Kel (Williamson) display a wildness that I think is new and exciting.
Everyone I spoke to on opening night emphasised how entertaining the performance was, and especially how exquisite the stage and lighting designs are, so no-one will be disappointed in this night out at the theatre. Yet for me, this play is less layered with meaning than, say, Face to Face, though it is better than his other financial competition play, Emerald City. I guess I'm looking for a harder satirical edge which could make this play greater than just a great night out.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Tuesday 29 May 2001
2001: Tuggeranong Community Arts - Community Cultural Development Project. Feature Article.
"The play made me angry that we 'protect' children but deny them love and their right to self-worth; and then jail them when they fail to cope as adults, denying them their freedom instead of helping them to regain the freedom we all deserve - from the violence, sexual abuse, emotional manipulation, financial pressure which we do too little to restrain."
This comment in reviewing Tell her that I love her..., performed by Somebody's Daughter Theatre at Tuggeranong Arts Centre in October 1999, remains true of director Maud Clark's recent work for Tuggeranong Community Arts: a five weeks' project funded by the Community Cultural Development Fund of the Australia Council.
Bringing together some 20 young people from Inanna's Well Being Group, the Karalika Therapeutic Community and Dickson College's Alternative Program with TCA workshop directors Garry Fry and Eulea Kiraly, Community Arts Officer Louise Haigh and Gallery Coordinator Susie Edwards, Clark worked with Somebody's Daughter Musical Director Greg Sneddon and Odyssey House Visual Art Consultant Maria Fillipow on an integrated arts development workshop with several objectives.
While the TCA staff were learning new techniques for engaging young people in the process of discovering and expressing their understanding of love, in all its positives and negatives, the young participants, many of whom have had difficulty fitting in with social norms, were finding new levels of self-confidence, learning to work successfully in a new group, and creating a work-in-progress last Tuesday to show in visual, musical and theatrical forms how "Love is an onion" - many layered, rich in texture and shape, bringing tears to the eyes. Poems and mimed images in the Gallery space were followed by movement and music in the Dance Studio, and song and text-based scenes in the Theatre.
Eulea Kiraly will take some members of the group, and others who may join, further in what Clark refers to as "opening a window", and next year plans to use the Somebody's Daughter approach to work with teenage boys involved in bullying. Clark explains that the work is not specifically therapy, but aims at leading young people to find a passion to follow - maybe in theatre, art or music, or indeed in surfing - the theme of one scene developed from one boy's writing in this group. Clark calls this "crossing the bridge to understanding why".
Helping to allay young people's anger and frustration is important community arts work: TCA is based at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, but works with people across the city. Contact TCA General Manager Ms Evol McLeod if you are interested in, or would like to take part in this kind of project. Ring 6293 1443.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
This comment in reviewing Tell her that I love her..., performed by Somebody's Daughter Theatre at Tuggeranong Arts Centre in October 1999, remains true of director Maud Clark's recent work for Tuggeranong Community Arts: a five weeks' project funded by the Community Cultural Development Fund of the Australia Council.
Bringing together some 20 young people from Inanna's Well Being Group, the Karalika Therapeutic Community and Dickson College's Alternative Program with TCA workshop directors Garry Fry and Eulea Kiraly, Community Arts Officer Louise Haigh and Gallery Coordinator Susie Edwards, Clark worked with Somebody's Daughter Musical Director Greg Sneddon and Odyssey House Visual Art Consultant Maria Fillipow on an integrated arts development workshop with several objectives.
While the TCA staff were learning new techniques for engaging young people in the process of discovering and expressing their understanding of love, in all its positives and negatives, the young participants, many of whom have had difficulty fitting in with social norms, were finding new levels of self-confidence, learning to work successfully in a new group, and creating a work-in-progress last Tuesday to show in visual, musical and theatrical forms how "Love is an onion" - many layered, rich in texture and shape, bringing tears to the eyes. Poems and mimed images in the Gallery space were followed by movement and music in the Dance Studio, and song and text-based scenes in the Theatre.
Eulea Kiraly will take some members of the group, and others who may join, further in what Clark refers to as "opening a window", and next year plans to use the Somebody's Daughter approach to work with teenage boys involved in bullying. Clark explains that the work is not specifically therapy, but aims at leading young people to find a passion to follow - maybe in theatre, art or music, or indeed in surfing - the theme of one scene developed from one boy's writing in this group. Clark calls this "crossing the bridge to understanding why".
Helping to allay young people's anger and frustration is important community arts work: TCA is based at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, but works with people across the city. Contact TCA General Manager Ms Evol McLeod if you are interested in, or would like to take part in this kind of project. Ring 6293 1443.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday 25 May 2001
2001: Museum Theatre: Making Our Stories Accessible. Feature article.
Museum Theatre: Making Our Stories Accessible
"Banging a visitor over the head with a message will only serve to concuss their mind, not expand it." - Catherine Hughes, Boston Museum of Science, Executive Director of the International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTA). So I'll begin with an old joke, along the lines of when is a horse not a horse? When it turns into a field.
When is museum theatre not museum theatre? When it's in a museum, not in a theatre. Traditionally, museum theatre - in the theatre - is an unimaginative reproduction of an old play with no modern relevance beyond maybe an academic interest in how it was done a century ago. But museum theatre in a museum turns all this on its head. And it's happening right here at the National Museum of Australia. This is where the audience participation starts.
Old dark brown timber, linoleum floor, green and cream wall tiling and glass cases with fascinating stuffed animals and ancient spear points. This was the Australian Museum I remember in Sydney in the 1950s. For me, an exciting place which turned me on to anthropology, archaeology and environmental issues. But Greg Lissaman, director of Canberra's Jigsaw Theatre Company, says things have changed.
Young people live now in a visual and information world in which not only is museum theatre (in the theatre) irrelevant, but museums need to be interactive places where learning happens through people participating. Machines and computers, of course, can provide exciting activities - go to K-Space at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) to see the children in action inventing their own instant-video city of the future - but theatre has a special role to play.
At the NMA, a team led by Lyn Beasley, manages theatre performances, like Strike It Rich (by Susanne Ellis, as the wife of a goldminer) and Alien Invasion (by Alexis Beebe, Special Agent Scruffy, and Stephen Barker, Special Agent Mouldy from the Bureau for Feral Invasions) specifically for school groups during term time. Another team, led by Daina Harvey, focusses on young people up to age 24 outside the school context, including next July a Federation show by justly famous Canberra satirists Moya Simpson and John Shortis.
A quieter theatre scene at the NMA is inside the Boab Tree, where storytelling takes place, especially but not only for the very young children. With manager Denise Fowler, I watched Marina Knight from the Storytellers Guild enacting her story of the rainbow serpent who sloughed her skin, leaving a beautiful magical light show for all the insects to explore, except the grasshopper - until the mantis wisely suggested weighing the grasshopper down with bullants and beetles so he couldn't suddenly jump and damage the delicate membrane. Her description reminded me of Chihuly's glass exhibition at the National Gallery, except that he didn't have a choir of ants to complete the visitor's experience.
It was Fowler who articulated the special role of theatre: no matter that machines and computers can do wonders, visitors to the NMA respond to the humanity of performance by people. In the end it is the human touch which transforms a green-and-cream wooden, glass and linoleum museum, or even a whirring, buzzing multimedia museum, into a contemporary museum of stories and dramas which touch people's real lives. This is what museum theatre can do.
So what's the connection between the National Museum of Australia, the International Museum Theatre Alliance and The Jigsaw Company? The answer: The Australia Council for the Arts, which offers grants in its Emerging Artists Fund to artistic directors in their first 4 years. Greg Lissaman has been at Jigsaw for 3 years, with a remarkable achievement in expanding Jigsaw's program.
When Jigsaw began, as you may imagine from its name, it was an offshoot of the long-gone Canberra Children's Theatre, providing essentially theatre-in-education for the school system. Now Lissaman has built on the work of 25 years' worth of professional artistic directors to make The Jigsaw Company a theatre for young people, which not only can serve the needs of schools through its contract with the ACT Department of Education, but has as its core the presentation of quality theatre. In effect Jigsaw is operating in parallel to Daina Harvey's team at the NMA.
Jigsaw's base is the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, but the company has never been restricted to a theatre venue, as Peter Wilkins' recent review in The Canberra Times of Kings Hall 9 demonstrates: the Chambers of Old Parliament House make the perfect setting for this Federation drama.
In fact it was this work which led to Lissaman receiving a grant from the Australia Council for an 8 week study tour of zoos and museums in USA and England in May 2002. In Dallas he and Michael Richards of Old Parliament House will co-present a paper to the Annual Meeting of the prestigious American Association of Museums, while Lissaman goes on to the Smithsonian in Washington, the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Region History Centre, Philadelphia Zoo, Boston Museum of Science and the London Museum of the Moving Image, where he will make a more lengthy study of the training of actors for scripted and improvised museum theatre work, and the model of consultancy which makes this Museum a successful provider of museum theatre across Europe.
This is where not "banging a visitor over the head" comes in. Catherine Hughes founded the International Museum Theatre Alliance, writing in 1998 "As the museum theatre field grows, criticism of it may as well. In fact, when engaging the full power of theatre, it should spark healthy debate. The aspect that should not be up for debate is quality. It is imperative to produce well-acted, well-written, well-researched, and well-supported museum theatre. A lone actor in period costume with no structure or support from an institution will appear foolish. A simplistic, badly written play will not keep anyone's attention. Bad or overzealous acting will ruin more than just one experience."
Daina Harvey from NMA will be at the IMTA conference for four days in September. Greg Lissaman will meet with Catherine Hughes next May. The NMA Performance Advisory Group has been established to build on the high-level enthusiasm of the internal staff, chaired by Children's Programs General Manager Dr Darryl McIntyre, by bringing in the expertise of not only Greg Lissaman, but Canberra Youth Theatre's Linda McHugh, Elbow Theatre's Iain Sinclair, College drama teachers Lorena Param and Peter Wilkins, Melbourne Theatre Company dramaturg Peter Matheson, and Robert Swieca from Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, who is also a Board Member of IMTA.
The object of the exercise is to ensure that Hughes' injunction about not compromising on quality is followed through. This is Jigsaw's main point: quality theatre is the core - only then can quality experience and learning take place. I guess parents and teachers around Canberra will back Jigsaw's reputation on this point.
Of course, the other issue raised by Hughes will be the one to watch. Will the funding for the NMA support the current enthusiasm? Will museum theatre become entirely dependent on box office (already partly the case for some performances at NMA)? Professionals need to be paid at professional rates, so will budgetting in the long term recognise the continuing need for quality?
ANM Director, Dawn Casey, expresses no doubts however, explaining that museum theatre is directly related to the Museum's central concern: making Australia's national stories accessible. As exhibitions change and develop, so will the museum's theatre be embedded in the process not only of presenting our stories but creating stories, where, for example, a school or community may bring their own theatre to the museum. Already, she says, museums overseas are keen to learn from the way we do things here where we aim to integrate visitors' experiences around themes and national narratives.
So museum theatre has jumped out of its old theatrical pigeonhole and wombatted its way into the Mr Squiggle design of the National Museum of Australia where it will create ever diverting tunnels for the unwary - and will be impossible to remove without the whole structure falling down about our ears like a dunny kicked by an emu. Museum theatre has certainly turned topsy-turvy, to become the theatre of the future instead of the theatre of the past.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
"Banging a visitor over the head with a message will only serve to concuss their mind, not expand it." - Catherine Hughes, Boston Museum of Science, Executive Director of the International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTA). So I'll begin with an old joke, along the lines of when is a horse not a horse? When it turns into a field.
When is museum theatre not museum theatre? When it's in a museum, not in a theatre. Traditionally, museum theatre - in the theatre - is an unimaginative reproduction of an old play with no modern relevance beyond maybe an academic interest in how it was done a century ago. But museum theatre in a museum turns all this on its head. And it's happening right here at the National Museum of Australia. This is where the audience participation starts.
Old dark brown timber, linoleum floor, green and cream wall tiling and glass cases with fascinating stuffed animals and ancient spear points. This was the Australian Museum I remember in Sydney in the 1950s. For me, an exciting place which turned me on to anthropology, archaeology and environmental issues. But Greg Lissaman, director of Canberra's Jigsaw Theatre Company, says things have changed.
Young people live now in a visual and information world in which not only is museum theatre (in the theatre) irrelevant, but museums need to be interactive places where learning happens through people participating. Machines and computers, of course, can provide exciting activities - go to K-Space at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) to see the children in action inventing their own instant-video city of the future - but theatre has a special role to play.
At the NMA, a team led by Lyn Beasley, manages theatre performances, like Strike It Rich (by Susanne Ellis, as the wife of a goldminer) and Alien Invasion (by Alexis Beebe, Special Agent Scruffy, and Stephen Barker, Special Agent Mouldy from the Bureau for Feral Invasions) specifically for school groups during term time. Another team, led by Daina Harvey, focusses on young people up to age 24 outside the school context, including next July a Federation show by justly famous Canberra satirists Moya Simpson and John Shortis.
A quieter theatre scene at the NMA is inside the Boab Tree, where storytelling takes place, especially but not only for the very young children. With manager Denise Fowler, I watched Marina Knight from the Storytellers Guild enacting her story of the rainbow serpent who sloughed her skin, leaving a beautiful magical light show for all the insects to explore, except the grasshopper - until the mantis wisely suggested weighing the grasshopper down with bullants and beetles so he couldn't suddenly jump and damage the delicate membrane. Her description reminded me of Chihuly's glass exhibition at the National Gallery, except that he didn't have a choir of ants to complete the visitor's experience.
It was Fowler who articulated the special role of theatre: no matter that machines and computers can do wonders, visitors to the NMA respond to the humanity of performance by people. In the end it is the human touch which transforms a green-and-cream wooden, glass and linoleum museum, or even a whirring, buzzing multimedia museum, into a contemporary museum of stories and dramas which touch people's real lives. This is what museum theatre can do.
So what's the connection between the National Museum of Australia, the International Museum Theatre Alliance and The Jigsaw Company? The answer: The Australia Council for the Arts, which offers grants in its Emerging Artists Fund to artistic directors in their first 4 years. Greg Lissaman has been at Jigsaw for 3 years, with a remarkable achievement in expanding Jigsaw's program.
When Jigsaw began, as you may imagine from its name, it was an offshoot of the long-gone Canberra Children's Theatre, providing essentially theatre-in-education for the school system. Now Lissaman has built on the work of 25 years' worth of professional artistic directors to make The Jigsaw Company a theatre for young people, which not only can serve the needs of schools through its contract with the ACT Department of Education, but has as its core the presentation of quality theatre. In effect Jigsaw is operating in parallel to Daina Harvey's team at the NMA.
Jigsaw's base is the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, but the company has never been restricted to a theatre venue, as Peter Wilkins' recent review in The Canberra Times of Kings Hall 9 demonstrates: the Chambers of Old Parliament House make the perfect setting for this Federation drama.
In fact it was this work which led to Lissaman receiving a grant from the Australia Council for an 8 week study tour of zoos and museums in USA and England in May 2002. In Dallas he and Michael Richards of Old Parliament House will co-present a paper to the Annual Meeting of the prestigious American Association of Museums, while Lissaman goes on to the Smithsonian in Washington, the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Region History Centre, Philadelphia Zoo, Boston Museum of Science and the London Museum of the Moving Image, where he will make a more lengthy study of the training of actors for scripted and improvised museum theatre work, and the model of consultancy which makes this Museum a successful provider of museum theatre across Europe.
This is where not "banging a visitor over the head" comes in. Catherine Hughes founded the International Museum Theatre Alliance, writing in 1998 "As the museum theatre field grows, criticism of it may as well. In fact, when engaging the full power of theatre, it should spark healthy debate. The aspect that should not be up for debate is quality. It is imperative to produce well-acted, well-written, well-researched, and well-supported museum theatre. A lone actor in period costume with no structure or support from an institution will appear foolish. A simplistic, badly written play will not keep anyone's attention. Bad or overzealous acting will ruin more than just one experience."
Daina Harvey from NMA will be at the IMTA conference for four days in September. Greg Lissaman will meet with Catherine Hughes next May. The NMA Performance Advisory Group has been established to build on the high-level enthusiasm of the internal staff, chaired by Children's Programs General Manager Dr Darryl McIntyre, by bringing in the expertise of not only Greg Lissaman, but Canberra Youth Theatre's Linda McHugh, Elbow Theatre's Iain Sinclair, College drama teachers Lorena Param and Peter Wilkins, Melbourne Theatre Company dramaturg Peter Matheson, and Robert Swieca from Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, who is also a Board Member of IMTA.
The object of the exercise is to ensure that Hughes' injunction about not compromising on quality is followed through. This is Jigsaw's main point: quality theatre is the core - only then can quality experience and learning take place. I guess parents and teachers around Canberra will back Jigsaw's reputation on this point.
Of course, the other issue raised by Hughes will be the one to watch. Will the funding for the NMA support the current enthusiasm? Will museum theatre become entirely dependent on box office (already partly the case for some performances at NMA)? Professionals need to be paid at professional rates, so will budgetting in the long term recognise the continuing need for quality?
ANM Director, Dawn Casey, expresses no doubts however, explaining that museum theatre is directly related to the Museum's central concern: making Australia's national stories accessible. As exhibitions change and develop, so will the museum's theatre be embedded in the process not only of presenting our stories but creating stories, where, for example, a school or community may bring their own theatre to the museum. Already, she says, museums overseas are keen to learn from the way we do things here where we aim to integrate visitors' experiences around themes and national narratives.
So museum theatre has jumped out of its old theatrical pigeonhole and wombatted its way into the Mr Squiggle design of the National Museum of Australia where it will create ever diverting tunnels for the unwary - and will be impossible to remove without the whole structure falling down about our ears like a dunny kicked by an emu. Museum theatre has certainly turned topsy-turvy, to become the theatre of the future instead of the theatre of the past.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Saturday 19 May 2001
2001: Cosi by Louis Nowra
Cosi by Louis Nowra. Three Dice UCU Theatre Co, directed by Michele Lee and Jenni Sainsbury. University of Canberra Theatre 8 pm May 18, 19, 25, 26, June 1, 2. Bookings 6201 5350.
One might compare Cosi with the other famous asylum play, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but what Nowra could do - and Ken Kesey couldn't - is write delicate light characters, edging on satire but leaving no doubt about the reality of their psychoses. Funny, but sad.
And sad it was at the end as each of the ill people parted from Lewis, who had succeeded in directing their play not by the rules of theatrical convention but by responding to their feelings, encouraging their sense of self-worth. At the same time the "well" people - Lewis' girlfriend and his best mate - were fighting ideological battles in the anti-Vietnam moratorium marches and betraying him, while the social worker maintained a spurious concern for the patients' welfare, always setting "them" well away from "us".
It took most of the first half on opening night for the actors to relax but by the end they had the feel of the roles and the rhythm of the play - ending the curtain call with an exuberant, superficially silly conga-line exit - yet just what this edgy satire needed. It seemed to me that the co-directors had probably been a bit too earnest about developing characterisation in the early scenes, but you can't keep a good play down, and Nowra is such a good writer that the script does the work.
Costume and props were excellent. I loved Henry's toy soldiers and model ship, Zac's Wagnerian anti-Mozart Viking helmet and all the women's specific elements of self-expression, from Julie's just-enough bare skin above her jeans to Cherry's short red number. Released from the wards for rehearsals, these were the marks of freedom. Doug, of course, had to escape D ward to reappear, with Cherry's knife wounds bloodily bandaged. And then came Roy's pipe at the end! In this little theatre every detail could be seen and made its theatrical point.
While not a professional quality production, Cosi is a good play done with energy and intelligence. Worth a visit.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
One might compare Cosi with the other famous asylum play, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but what Nowra could do - and Ken Kesey couldn't - is write delicate light characters, edging on satire but leaving no doubt about the reality of their psychoses. Funny, but sad.
And sad it was at the end as each of the ill people parted from Lewis, who had succeeded in directing their play not by the rules of theatrical convention but by responding to their feelings, encouraging their sense of self-worth. At the same time the "well" people - Lewis' girlfriend and his best mate - were fighting ideological battles in the anti-Vietnam moratorium marches and betraying him, while the social worker maintained a spurious concern for the patients' welfare, always setting "them" well away from "us".
It took most of the first half on opening night for the actors to relax but by the end they had the feel of the roles and the rhythm of the play - ending the curtain call with an exuberant, superficially silly conga-line exit - yet just what this edgy satire needed. It seemed to me that the co-directors had probably been a bit too earnest about developing characterisation in the early scenes, but you can't keep a good play down, and Nowra is such a good writer that the script does the work.
Costume and props were excellent. I loved Henry's toy soldiers and model ship, Zac's Wagnerian anti-Mozart Viking helmet and all the women's specific elements of self-expression, from Julie's just-enough bare skin above her jeans to Cherry's short red number. Released from the wards for rehearsals, these were the marks of freedom. Doug, of course, had to escape D ward to reappear, with Cherry's knife wounds bloodily bandaged. And then came Roy's pipe at the end! In this little theatre every detail could be seen and made its theatrical point.
While not a professional quality production, Cosi is a good play done with energy and intelligence. Worth a visit.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Tuesday 15 May 2001
2001: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, trans. Paul Roches
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, trans. Paul Roches. The Acting Company directed by Estelle Muspratt. Hawk Theatre, Narrabundah College 8 pm May 15-19.
"You see here young and old clustered round the shrine. Fledglings some, essaying flight ... and striplings some - ambassadors of youth." Like a modern Oedipus, Muspratt represents the creation of good order among these largely youthful actors. Her search for the truth, which she describes as "taking the simplest tack I can - telling a story" is as effective as Oedipus' insistence on discovering the truth about himself - how he murdered his father and married his mother, just as the gods had ordained. Fortunately the results for Muspratt are anything but dire.
Several colleges over the years have sought to establish post-college theatre groups for their drama graduates, but The Acting Company has been the most long-standing (since 1989) and successful, with Barbra Barnett the current Artistic Director. This cast includes students at Narrabundah, ANU, Canberra School of Music and UC, while Muspratt is herself a product of Narrabundah and ANU, with a swag of successful work and a Canberra Critics' Circle Award as an emerging force in local theatre.
This production edges a little too close to the drama "workshop" style, and some actors' technical skills in language articulation require more training, but the simplicity of design, the use of group movement and chorused voices, and especially the timing of silences, makes for a sincerity and clarity in telling the story which allows the horror of Oedipus' terrible dilemma to stand out boldly in relief. Though nothing can stand up to the last great production I saw of Oedipus Rex - by Sir John Gielgud - at least this is moving in the right direction, and left the audience on opening night quite silent at the end, as it should.
Muspratt, 10 years on from College, has set herself the objective of demonstrating by her own example to those following her, a belief in theatre work in and for Canberra. This production, of a classic mythic play of such large universal implications for how we should live in society - elucidating and facing up to truth - is a worthy project for The Acting Company.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
"You see here young and old clustered round the shrine. Fledglings some, essaying flight ... and striplings some - ambassadors of youth." Like a modern Oedipus, Muspratt represents the creation of good order among these largely youthful actors. Her search for the truth, which she describes as "taking the simplest tack I can - telling a story" is as effective as Oedipus' insistence on discovering the truth about himself - how he murdered his father and married his mother, just as the gods had ordained. Fortunately the results for Muspratt are anything but dire.
Several colleges over the years have sought to establish post-college theatre groups for their drama graduates, but The Acting Company has been the most long-standing (since 1989) and successful, with Barbra Barnett the current Artistic Director. This cast includes students at Narrabundah, ANU, Canberra School of Music and UC, while Muspratt is herself a product of Narrabundah and ANU, with a swag of successful work and a Canberra Critics' Circle Award as an emerging force in local theatre.
This production edges a little too close to the drama "workshop" style, and some actors' technical skills in language articulation require more training, but the simplicity of design, the use of group movement and chorused voices, and especially the timing of silences, makes for a sincerity and clarity in telling the story which allows the horror of Oedipus' terrible dilemma to stand out boldly in relief. Though nothing can stand up to the last great production I saw of Oedipus Rex - by Sir John Gielgud - at least this is moving in the right direction, and left the audience on opening night quite silent at the end, as it should.
Muspratt, 10 years on from College, has set herself the objective of demonstrating by her own example to those following her, a belief in theatre work in and for Canberra. This production, of a classic mythic play of such large universal implications for how we should live in society - elucidating and facing up to truth - is a worthy project for The Acting Company.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Wednesday 9 May 2001
2001: Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet. Free Rain Theatre Company directed by George Huitker. Courtyard Studio 8 pm until May 26.
All those politicians who extoll the virtues of competition need to see this horrible little play about real estate salesmen. Maybe a stint in Mitch & Murray's office would be more effective than a few days in the army. On the other hand, they might learn to be even more underhand in their dealings from Mamet's all too accurate representation of men who must make a sale or lose their livelihood. Feels like an election coming on.
And they are are all men, so language flies at its worst, to such a point of exaggeration that it's hard not to laugh at times - until we realise that the loser really is a loser. Do not sell the Harbour Bridge: go to jail. No Monopoly money here - just the reality of capitalist competition.
David Mamet has written a USA Incorporated version of something like Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, but without the British "pause". These Americans talk flat out like Woody Allen, and it's not long (about 1 hour 20 minutes) before they self-destruct. A terrible existence, but an instructive drama.
Huitker is a master of movement, visual image and timing and has passed on to all his actors a consistent and precise style which this play requires: always just beyond the bounds of reality, yet therefore able to reflect the character types which inhabit this office from hell.
In fact, the ensemble quality of these actors, despite their such varied background experiences, means it's time to stop writing silly amateur biogs on the back of the program. Mamet and Huitker demand that the actors take themselves seriously, off stage as well as on stage where they are doing so well.
Technical production, set and costumes are all excellent. High energy and speed on the preview night might slow a little as the run settles. But this should only improve the play's bite. It might shake you out of complacency if you think competition trickle-down is the economic answer. Don't be at the bottom of the sales graph, because you'll just get pissed on. See this play for the experience.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
All those politicians who extoll the virtues of competition need to see this horrible little play about real estate salesmen. Maybe a stint in Mitch & Murray's office would be more effective than a few days in the army. On the other hand, they might learn to be even more underhand in their dealings from Mamet's all too accurate representation of men who must make a sale or lose their livelihood. Feels like an election coming on.
And they are are all men, so language flies at its worst, to such a point of exaggeration that it's hard not to laugh at times - until we realise that the loser really is a loser. Do not sell the Harbour Bridge: go to jail. No Monopoly money here - just the reality of capitalist competition.
David Mamet has written a USA Incorporated version of something like Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, but without the British "pause". These Americans talk flat out like Woody Allen, and it's not long (about 1 hour 20 minutes) before they self-destruct. A terrible existence, but an instructive drama.
Huitker is a master of movement, visual image and timing and has passed on to all his actors a consistent and precise style which this play requires: always just beyond the bounds of reality, yet therefore able to reflect the character types which inhabit this office from hell.
In fact, the ensemble quality of these actors, despite their such varied background experiences, means it's time to stop writing silly amateur biogs on the back of the program. Mamet and Huitker demand that the actors take themselves seriously, off stage as well as on stage where they are doing so well.
Technical production, set and costumes are all excellent. High energy and speed on the preview night might slow a little as the run settles. But this should only improve the play's bite. It might shake you out of complacency if you think competition trickle-down is the economic answer. Don't be at the bottom of the sales graph, because you'll just get pissed on. See this play for the experience.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Saturday 28 April 2001
2001: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. Canberra Repertory Theatre directed by Walter Learning. Theatre 3 April 27-May 19.
"This is my soft birthday. Not my gold birthday, nor my silver birthday, but my soft birthday..." says Big Daddy, knowing, but not knowing, that cancer is undermining his 65 year old body. Phil Mackenzie created a softer more empathetic character than is usual in this now classic 1955 play. The theme, against mendacity and for facing the difficult truth - the only way human understanding and tolerance can grow - became clear in this production.
Learning's direction was tight, in an excellent set by Russell Brown, including Big Mama's crass iconographic purchases from her trip to Europe. Lighting was unobtrusive and therefore effective. So all the makings of a good production were there.
However this was not gold or silver, not as hot as the Memphis cat that Tennessee Williams wrote: a workmanlike production, finally, because the cast, though a good selection, could not involve us in the full complexity of these characters' illusions. Mackenzie and Duncan Ley (the drunkard son Brick) showed their strength, lifting Act 2 through their long duet; Janie Lawson as the Cat (Maggie) got the story through, but never the depth of desperation driving her character's sexuality - and so the first Act took too long to get moving - but there were effective moments of reflection, when we could really wonder if Maggie understood how self-destructive was her need to reclaim Brick's attention.
Other characters were neatly cut out, and therefore a bit cardboardy, though Ian Croker (Brick's lawyer brother Gooper) and Jenny Ongley-Houston (his avaricious wife Mae) showed some spark in vicious lines from the side of the mouth in Act 3. Big Mama (Anne Joyce) I found disappointing - the right elements of feeling were there, but not elemental enough. And the "no-neck" children were awful, exactly as they should have been. "Happy Birthday Big Daddy - we love you" was excellent.
Rep is aiming high this season. Though we can't expect the standards of fully professional trained actors, it is good to revisit classic Tennessee Williams even in a softer focus. Mendacity and avarice, after all, are still with us.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
"This is my soft birthday. Not my gold birthday, nor my silver birthday, but my soft birthday..." says Big Daddy, knowing, but not knowing, that cancer is undermining his 65 year old body. Phil Mackenzie created a softer more empathetic character than is usual in this now classic 1955 play. The theme, against mendacity and for facing the difficult truth - the only way human understanding and tolerance can grow - became clear in this production.
Learning's direction was tight, in an excellent set by Russell Brown, including Big Mama's crass iconographic purchases from her trip to Europe. Lighting was unobtrusive and therefore effective. So all the makings of a good production were there.
However this was not gold or silver, not as hot as the Memphis cat that Tennessee Williams wrote: a workmanlike production, finally, because the cast, though a good selection, could not involve us in the full complexity of these characters' illusions. Mackenzie and Duncan Ley (the drunkard son Brick) showed their strength, lifting Act 2 through their long duet; Janie Lawson as the Cat (Maggie) got the story through, but never the depth of desperation driving her character's sexuality - and so the first Act took too long to get moving - but there were effective moments of reflection, when we could really wonder if Maggie understood how self-destructive was her need to reclaim Brick's attention.
Other characters were neatly cut out, and therefore a bit cardboardy, though Ian Croker (Brick's lawyer brother Gooper) and Jenny Ongley-Houston (his avaricious wife Mae) showed some spark in vicious lines from the side of the mouth in Act 3. Big Mama (Anne Joyce) I found disappointing - the right elements of feeling were there, but not elemental enough. And the "no-neck" children were awful, exactly as they should have been. "Happy Birthday Big Daddy - we love you" was excellent.
Rep is aiming high this season. Though we can't expect the standards of fully professional trained actors, it is good to revisit classic Tennessee Williams even in a softer focus. Mendacity and avarice, after all, are still with us.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday 19 April 2001
2001: Australian National Playwrights' Conference - Drama Teachers Studio
Drama Teachers Studio, directed by Timothy Daly. Australian National Playwrights' Conference (ANPC), Burgmann College ANU April 18-21.
"He's brilliant" whispered Robert Schneider, as I sat next to him on Day 2 of the Drama Teachers Studio. After an hour, it was an accolade for Timothy Daly I could not deny. If only I had had this detailed professional play-writing training available when I was teaching drama.
At last I was hearing not the old purely literary analysis of plays, which according to the 9 drama teachers from NSW, Tasmania and South Australia is still too common, but how "exposition" means "you make clear the status quo" as the play opens - in words, or in mime; and then you create a "disturbance!", and so you begin the "major action/problem/dilemma". And then you "complicate" the action with a "new action/new decisions/new reactions" and create a change of direction, until a "turning point" (for good or ill) is reached, and there are three climaxes: for the narrative, for the characters internally, and for the meaning.
So the denouement, which I always thought was the slack bit after the climax to get to the end as quick as possible, becomes the key to dramatic meaning: how it ends makes all the difference. And how my short experience with Daly ended made the point, as teachers performed the short scripts they had written on Day 1. I saw all comedies, but no tragedies here: cleverly crafted pieces already, and 2 more days to go.
Daly's teaching was itself a model for these teachers. By experiencing the role of students in such a creative, intensive class, Schneider (St Aloysius' College, Sydney), Elizabeth Surbey (Sydney Girls' High), Stephen Goldrick (St Andrews Cathedral School, Sydney), James Fischer (St Paul's College, Walla Walla NSW), Victoria Lewis (Killara High, Sydney), Melinda Boston (Norwood Moriatta High, Adelaide), Kris Plummer (Bankstown Grammar, Sydney), Julie Waddington (Kingston High, Tasmania) and Lesley Christen (Santa Sabina College, Strathfield, Sydney) were sure that they could take back, and put into practice, the writing skills Daly had to offer.
These 9, some with partial support and some entirely self-funded, are surely the vanguard, flying the flag for the generation of drama teachers who can no longer be seen as self-indulgently playing games. Their creativity in the classroom is now being recognised and professionally developed at the ANPC, the theatre industry's fermentation plant.
Now that the opportunity is there, it's time for education, especially government departments (look at the schools represented this year), to take the ANPC on board. And may I say, especially in Canberra.
It was Julie Waddington who voiced on behalf of everyone in the Drama Teachers Studio how important it is, rather than being a teacher who is an artist on the side, "to be valued as an artist who teaches".
© Frank McKone, Canberra
"He's brilliant" whispered Robert Schneider, as I sat next to him on Day 2 of the Drama Teachers Studio. After an hour, it was an accolade for Timothy Daly I could not deny. If only I had had this detailed professional play-writing training available when I was teaching drama.
At last I was hearing not the old purely literary analysis of plays, which according to the 9 drama teachers from NSW, Tasmania and South Australia is still too common, but how "exposition" means "you make clear the status quo" as the play opens - in words, or in mime; and then you create a "disturbance!", and so you begin the "major action/problem/dilemma". And then you "complicate" the action with a "new action/new decisions/new reactions" and create a change of direction, until a "turning point" (for good or ill) is reached, and there are three climaxes: for the narrative, for the characters internally, and for the meaning.
So the denouement, which I always thought was the slack bit after the climax to get to the end as quick as possible, becomes the key to dramatic meaning: how it ends makes all the difference. And how my short experience with Daly ended made the point, as teachers performed the short scripts they had written on Day 1. I saw all comedies, but no tragedies here: cleverly crafted pieces already, and 2 more days to go.
Daly's teaching was itself a model for these teachers. By experiencing the role of students in such a creative, intensive class, Schneider (St Aloysius' College, Sydney), Elizabeth Surbey (Sydney Girls' High), Stephen Goldrick (St Andrews Cathedral School, Sydney), James Fischer (St Paul's College, Walla Walla NSW), Victoria Lewis (Killara High, Sydney), Melinda Boston (Norwood Moriatta High, Adelaide), Kris Plummer (Bankstown Grammar, Sydney), Julie Waddington (Kingston High, Tasmania) and Lesley Christen (Santa Sabina College, Strathfield, Sydney) were sure that they could take back, and put into practice, the writing skills Daly had to offer.
These 9, some with partial support and some entirely self-funded, are surely the vanguard, flying the flag for the generation of drama teachers who can no longer be seen as self-indulgently playing games. Their creativity in the classroom is now being recognised and professionally developed at the ANPC, the theatre industry's fermentation plant.
Now that the opportunity is there, it's time for education, especially government departments (look at the schools represented this year), to take the ANPC on board. And may I say, especially in Canberra.
It was Julie Waddington who voiced on behalf of everyone in the Drama Teachers Studio how important it is, rather than being a teacher who is an artist on the side, "to be valued as an artist who teaches".
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Friday 6 April 2001
2001: Lord of the Rocks, a musical by John O'Neil
Lord of the Rocks, a musical by John O'Neil. Tempo Theatre directed by Michael Weston. Belconnen Community Centre April 4-7.
I feared that some Federation celebrations would be embarrassing - and so it was.
I have not previously heard of John O'Neil. This spurious story of The Rocks in Sydney Town when Macquarie arrives to save the colony from injustice is so childish that I wouldn't let a child near it. John Howard would be proud: not one black armband among the happy band of Britishers. The final puke came when Macquarie announced that in future people would all be mates in the commercial centre of the world surrounded by a wide brown land and the whole cast sang Advance Australia Fair. Seriously!
After the worst choice of script came the worst performance. I can only praise the band Jeff Burns (bass), Ben Tyrell (drums) and especially Lachlan Cotter on keyboard. Without their stirling effort, keeping strict time and tuning, the show would have fallen completely apart, since the only actors who could sing in tune were Jon Elphick and Leah Wheelhouse - and only Leah could act as well. The description of one actor in the program as "quite good at voice contortion which is more a personality trait than a skill" says it all. If only it had been ironic!
From a deadly static opening, with leads who had almost no stage presence, the brightest spot in the show - though dim by any other amateur standards - was the knockabout Rum Corps. At last O'Neil broke just a smidgin out of gawky sentimentality with an almost G&S-esque song and dance. But the slapstick didn't last long, and goo covered the stage, getting thicker, and thicker until I felt thick.
I'm sorry to be so critical of an amateur group presumably enjoying themselves, but Holt Primary School did Joseph's Dreamcoat streets better than this 20 years ago. Tempo itself has done far better in the past; and we had a couple of very presentable musicals from Phoenix Players recently as well classy stuff from Supa Productions.
If we are going to celebrate Federation, let's at least do it in style (and maybe even mention an indigine or three).
© Frank McKone, Canberra
I feared that some Federation celebrations would be embarrassing - and so it was.
I have not previously heard of John O'Neil. This spurious story of The Rocks in Sydney Town when Macquarie arrives to save the colony from injustice is so childish that I wouldn't let a child near it. John Howard would be proud: not one black armband among the happy band of Britishers. The final puke came when Macquarie announced that in future people would all be mates in the commercial centre of the world surrounded by a wide brown land and the whole cast sang Advance Australia Fair. Seriously!
After the worst choice of script came the worst performance. I can only praise the band Jeff Burns (bass), Ben Tyrell (drums) and especially Lachlan Cotter on keyboard. Without their stirling effort, keeping strict time and tuning, the show would have fallen completely apart, since the only actors who could sing in tune were Jon Elphick and Leah Wheelhouse - and only Leah could act as well. The description of one actor in the program as "quite good at voice contortion which is more a personality trait than a skill" says it all. If only it had been ironic!
From a deadly static opening, with leads who had almost no stage presence, the brightest spot in the show - though dim by any other amateur standards - was the knockabout Rum Corps. At last O'Neil broke just a smidgin out of gawky sentimentality with an almost G&S-esque song and dance. But the slapstick didn't last long, and goo covered the stage, getting thicker, and thicker until I felt thick.
I'm sorry to be so critical of an amateur group presumably enjoying themselves, but Holt Primary School did Joseph's Dreamcoat streets better than this 20 years ago. Tempo itself has done far better in the past; and we had a couple of very presentable musicals from Phoenix Players recently as well classy stuff from Supa Productions.
If we are going to celebrate Federation, let's at least do it in style (and maybe even mention an indigine or three).
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday 5 April 2001
2001: How Big's Yours - Group Devised by Canberra Youth Theatre
How Big's Yours. Group devised theatre of spectacle, directed by Scott Wright for Canberra Youth Theatre. Riggers and performance consultants: Karen Yaldren and Russell Wright, courtesy of Spinifex Circus. Civic Youth Centre and surrounds, April 5-7.
Self-expression for young men - outside the traditional framework of sport - is problematic. For many, options like theatre and dance are "effeminate", despite the physical nature of stage performance. Scott Wright, from erth in Sydney, offers a blend of real physical risk with performing in roles, devised by the 14 young men of CYT to make statements about their experiences of "What makes a man a man?"
I'm going to trust the riggers and performance consultants about the safety of the acts, though I had my doubts about the belaying used for the most spectacular piece, a race up a 9-storey wall, using rope work similar to that at the Sydney Opera House at New Year 2000. It was also reported to me that the racing go-karts were close to being run down by the rapidly reversing 4 wheel drive in the first scene at the skate park on opening night.
I would not normally take a critical stance towards a young people's workshop theatre piece, but the very large-scale public nature of How Big's Yours gives it exposure. I found the emphasis on young men in battle and simple physical competition, which provided the opportunity for much firestick twirling, fire breathing and acrobatic rope-and-harness activity, left me wondering about the rest of young men's experiences. Is there really no sensitivity in a youth's life apart from the skill of physical dominance?
Apart from the opening songs, only Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" backed by fire breathing, touched, though obliquely, on deeper issues like youth suicide. But, by merely representing young men's behaviour, too many scenes ended up apparently condoning the excitement of violence and risk taking rather than commenting critically on what has been a problem for most societies.
So despite the spectacular bits, How Big's Yours needed focus and a clearer message before I could say it was big enough.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Self-expression for young men - outside the traditional framework of sport - is problematic. For many, options like theatre and dance are "effeminate", despite the physical nature of stage performance. Scott Wright, from erth in Sydney, offers a blend of real physical risk with performing in roles, devised by the 14 young men of CYT to make statements about their experiences of "What makes a man a man?"
I'm going to trust the riggers and performance consultants about the safety of the acts, though I had my doubts about the belaying used for the most spectacular piece, a race up a 9-storey wall, using rope work similar to that at the Sydney Opera House at New Year 2000. It was also reported to me that the racing go-karts were close to being run down by the rapidly reversing 4 wheel drive in the first scene at the skate park on opening night.
I would not normally take a critical stance towards a young people's workshop theatre piece, but the very large-scale public nature of How Big's Yours gives it exposure. I found the emphasis on young men in battle and simple physical competition, which provided the opportunity for much firestick twirling, fire breathing and acrobatic rope-and-harness activity, left me wondering about the rest of young men's experiences. Is there really no sensitivity in a youth's life apart from the skill of physical dominance?
Apart from the opening songs, only Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" backed by fire breathing, touched, though obliquely, on deeper issues like youth suicide. But, by merely representing young men's behaviour, too many scenes ended up apparently condoning the excitement of violence and risk taking rather than commenting critically on what has been a problem for most societies.
So despite the spectacular bits, How Big's Yours needed focus and a clearer message before I could say it was big enough.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday 15 March 2001
2001: The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayam
The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayam. National Multicultural Festival, March 14-15. Directed by Domenic Mico. Performed by Phil Mackenzie, with dancers, Veils of Baghdad and the Occidental Tourists, and musicians Jim Sharrock and Graeme Adler.
I guess the important thing about a "festival" is its inclusiveness.
The attempt to melt down the silver and gold of the old Multicultural Festival and the Canberra Festival, and remould them to fit a rectangular tent in Civic Square as a package to raise the tourist dollar, should mean the exclusion of Phil Mackenzie's dream of pretending to be a Persian 11th Century poet speaking the often execrable verse written by his 19th Century utterly Romantic neo-Gothic English translator, accompanied by excellent 21st Century Canberran belly dancers.
Probably the serious tourists wondered if their $8 was worth it, especially when the radio microphone echoed and whistled and the lighting left faces in the dark, and the one and one only dress rehearsal was obvious.
Yet, for our Festival, here was an oddity for which one can have some affection. The dancing was used to give the long set of verses some dramatic structure, some merely illustrating scenes but some, such as the scimitar dance and the dance of the black shadows, successfully illuminating the poet's philosophy. From a purely performance point of view, the professional quality of the dancers and musicians strengthened Mackenzies' mixed underplaying and overplaying of Omar al-Khayyami.
In Persian tradition, Omar was outshone 200 years later by the "Prince" of lyric poets, Mohammed Schems-Eddin Hafiz, who also praised wine and love. But Omar was a mathematician who lived at the time when Arabic philosophy invented the number zero, and in his verses one senses a kind of despair. The infinite universe seems reduced to nought and he will "Divorce old barren reason from my bed" and life becomes "nothing but a magic shadow show".
In the face of this, "fill me with that old familiar juice" he says, sadly, and - there being no higher force to save us from ourselves - he begs that "For all the sins that blacken Man, Man's forgiveness give and take." Sounds like a very modern message from the 11th Century for a modern multicultural society.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
I guess the important thing about a "festival" is its inclusiveness.
The attempt to melt down the silver and gold of the old Multicultural Festival and the Canberra Festival, and remould them to fit a rectangular tent in Civic Square as a package to raise the tourist dollar, should mean the exclusion of Phil Mackenzie's dream of pretending to be a Persian 11th Century poet speaking the often execrable verse written by his 19th Century utterly Romantic neo-Gothic English translator, accompanied by excellent 21st Century Canberran belly dancers.
Probably the serious tourists wondered if their $8 was worth it, especially when the radio microphone echoed and whistled and the lighting left faces in the dark, and the one and one only dress rehearsal was obvious.
Yet, for our Festival, here was an oddity for which one can have some affection. The dancing was used to give the long set of verses some dramatic structure, some merely illustrating scenes but some, such as the scimitar dance and the dance of the black shadows, successfully illuminating the poet's philosophy. From a purely performance point of view, the professional quality of the dancers and musicians strengthened Mackenzies' mixed underplaying and overplaying of Omar al-Khayyami.
In Persian tradition, Omar was outshone 200 years later by the "Prince" of lyric poets, Mohammed Schems-Eddin Hafiz, who also praised wine and love. But Omar was a mathematician who lived at the time when Arabic philosophy invented the number zero, and in his verses one senses a kind of despair. The infinite universe seems reduced to nought and he will "Divorce old barren reason from my bed" and life becomes "nothing but a magic shadow show".
In the face of this, "fill me with that old familiar juice" he says, sadly, and - there being no higher force to save us from ourselves - he begs that "For all the sins that blacken Man, Man's forgiveness give and take." Sounds like a very modern message from the 11th Century for a modern multicultural society.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Saturday 24 February 2001
2001: Steaming by Nell Dunn
Steaming by Nell Dunn. Canberra Rep directed by Liz Bradley at Theatre 3, February 23 - March 17, 8pm.
Steaming is a celebration of women, by women, for all of us. It's a great beginning to Rep's 2001 season.
No-one surely could fail to respond in kind to Lesley Smith's joyous Dawn, to worry for the sanity of Jennie Vaskess' Mrs Meadows, to feel the loneliness underneath Margaret Magner's sensible Jane, the strength of Judi Crane's Violet, the relief discovered by Naone Carrel's Nancy, and the glory of Bronwyn Grannall's Josie. This is a remarkably balanced cast, at ease with themselves and their director.
Superficially a small-scale modern classic about the local politics of closing some delapidated Turkish baths, in a 1970's London of the working poor and pensioners, Nell Dunn's characters continually create shifting planes of light as they reveal their stories, their physicalities and their emotional bonds with each other.
It's true, yet it becomes a minor point, that the issues in the play are just as relevant in today's "liberal" we-must-be-more-competitive regime as under Thatcherism. It certainly warns us how far backwards our government marches on. But the universal in the play - and brought out very well in this production - which enlarges our understanding, is about how we are all vulnerable and can find strength in sharing our experiences. How we are all different, and by coming to appreciate our differences we find how we are all the same.
The value of this production is the sincerity of the commitment of the women performers to the theme of women's freedom. Every man, woman and child needs to experience the warmth of feeling coming off the stage and enveloping the audience - just like the steam of the Turkish bath, which relaxes body and mind in a space separated for a short while from the frozen world outside. We all need theatre like this, just as the women will fight on to keep their baths.
First night was good, but the performance will without doubt become more energised and connected through the season. If the rest of this year from Rep is this good, you may as well take out a subscription now. Ring 6257 1950.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Steaming is a celebration of women, by women, for all of us. It's a great beginning to Rep's 2001 season.
No-one surely could fail to respond in kind to Lesley Smith's joyous Dawn, to worry for the sanity of Jennie Vaskess' Mrs Meadows, to feel the loneliness underneath Margaret Magner's sensible Jane, the strength of Judi Crane's Violet, the relief discovered by Naone Carrel's Nancy, and the glory of Bronwyn Grannall's Josie. This is a remarkably balanced cast, at ease with themselves and their director.
Superficially a small-scale modern classic about the local politics of closing some delapidated Turkish baths, in a 1970's London of the working poor and pensioners, Nell Dunn's characters continually create shifting planes of light as they reveal their stories, their physicalities and their emotional bonds with each other.
It's true, yet it becomes a minor point, that the issues in the play are just as relevant in today's "liberal" we-must-be-more-competitive regime as under Thatcherism. It certainly warns us how far backwards our government marches on. But the universal in the play - and brought out very well in this production - which enlarges our understanding, is about how we are all vulnerable and can find strength in sharing our experiences. How we are all different, and by coming to appreciate our differences we find how we are all the same.
The value of this production is the sincerity of the commitment of the women performers to the theme of women's freedom. Every man, woman and child needs to experience the warmth of feeling coming off the stage and enveloping the audience - just like the steam of the Turkish bath, which relaxes body and mind in a space separated for a short while from the frozen world outside. We all need theatre like this, just as the women will fight on to keep their baths.
First night was good, but the performance will without doubt become more energised and connected through the season. If the rest of this year from Rep is this good, you may as well take out a subscription now. Ring 6257 1950.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Monday 19 February 2001
2001: Shaking Up Shakespeare Festival at Thredbo. Feature article.
Shaking Up Shakespeare Festival at Thredbo, February 16-18. Coordinated by Robyn Klobusiak, Thredbo Tourism. Information and reservations: 1800 801 982 or www.thredbo.com.au.
There are two aspects to this Festival: being at Thredbo, and the performance of Shakespeare.
Thredbo itself has two contrasting angles. The bush, the mountains, the sun, wind and snow - all the natural forces of which Shakespeare wrote, here in their native Australian form. And then all the sophistication of the citified middle-class with credit cards hot-to-trot. No Antonios lending money at no interest here: after 4 centuries Shylock has won the day. Even Pauline Hanson's 2% bank has no show here.
So Shakespeare, the European master of drama, is relevant here, but how has he been treated?
Well, the packaged people ($139 per person, 4 share which includes 2 nights accommodation, a weekend festival pass and scenic chairlift rides) have been served a small treat, not to mention a Shakespearian Feast with music and dance for a mere $20. Not all nouveau cuisine, mind you, but some highly original presentations.
There was Australian au natural from The Actor's Forum (Sydney); the Oz bizarre flavour of tae kwon shakespeare II (Sydney); Euroexpressionisme from Thag-Theatre Fellbach (Stuttgart); Canberra ordinaire by the National Shakespeare Festival Company; Shrew in a dark prune sauce from the Gartre Troupe (Sydney); cappucino from Lieder Theatre (Goulburn); and 3 veg from the Thredbo Players, the amateur group who have inspired the Festival.
The highlight has to be the Thag-Theatre's Moonlight Fever, about how Puck stuffs up the lovers, a tightly disciplined production strong in symbolism and acting skills. The performers, representing high schools and universities in southern Germany, were as good as the best local professionals, and will perform in Canberra at Gorman House on Wednesday February 21, and in Goulburn and Sydney.
The professional Actor's Forum's Shakespeare on Love was a little like a Shakespeare tour for schools, but was expertly performed in naturalistic style, covering bits from 10 plays, 3 sonnets and the narrative poem Venus and Adonis. Young actor Ana Maria Belo closely matched Thag-Theatre's Mona Schrodel for stage presence and skill in switching mood. Buster Skeggs' Kate from Taming of the Shrew exposed the contrast between the Actor's Forum sophistication of interpretation and the too easy acceptance by the other Sydney professionals, Gartre, of Kate's apparent kowtowing to Petruchio. Gartre, recently graduated from acting schools, have the skills but not the depth to bring out Shakespeare's irony.
I have to report, too, that though Nicholas Bolonkin, Miranda Rose and Simon Kearney of Canberra's National Shakespeare Theatre perhaps have depth of understanding, they haven't the skills to match Buster Skeggs in Venus and Adonis. Goulburn's amateur Lieder Theatre were certainly very funny in Tom Stoppard's 15 Minute Hamlet, but less so in Sonnets 18 and 141 (though Ann Elbourne is a good comedian) and less so again in Bridget Elbourne's A Little Elizabethan Tomfoolery.
The most original idea of the Festival was professional Ben Seton's story, directed by Melvyn Morrow, of how he defeated his Union-playing schoolmate Julian Beaumont for the love of leading lady Kate by incorporating championship Tae Kwon Do into all his Shakespeare roles. The script needs tightening but the bits that worked were quite stunning: martial arts becomes the language of movement through which the emotions of Shakespeare's words are expressed. He even did Kate, the Shrew's, final speech: in the kitchen chopping up vegetables - and he did not miss the irony.
Thredbo's own Players, conventionally amateur in their low energy, lack of movement and slow cues were saved by Steve Lyster's language control as Sir Toby Belch, with solid support from Lizzy Withers (Viola) and Mel Perrin (Olivia), and lifted the audience in the final scene. Unfortunately the modern setting (café society in Italian fishing village) was ignored, apart from the drunkards hiding behind the bar, instead the bush in the original. It was a potentially good idea wasted.
One strength of the Festival was John Garden's practical classes in Renaissance Dance, focussing on dances mentioned by Shakespeare and giving historical insights, for example about Queen Elizabeth's fascination with the new risque dance La Volta. Earthly Delights provided their usual high standard of Renaissance music and late evening entertainment was well provided for with Theatresports by Gartre and the excellent Irish band The Fifth Element.
My feeling is that after several years, Thredbo's Shakespeare Festival needs an upgrade. It seems to have fallen between stools, promising the sophistication which the credit card trotters expect while wanting to keep a village festival inclusiveness. Audiences have not grown. It's time for investment in a professional artistic director, or the Festival may fall on its sword: not a good result for Shakespeare or Thredbo.
Frank and Meg McKone were guests of Tourism Thredbo and stayed at Thredbo Alpine Hotel.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
There are two aspects to this Festival: being at Thredbo, and the performance of Shakespeare.
Thredbo itself has two contrasting angles. The bush, the mountains, the sun, wind and snow - all the natural forces of which Shakespeare wrote, here in their native Australian form. And then all the sophistication of the citified middle-class with credit cards hot-to-trot. No Antonios lending money at no interest here: after 4 centuries Shylock has won the day. Even Pauline Hanson's 2% bank has no show here.
So Shakespeare, the European master of drama, is relevant here, but how has he been treated?
Well, the packaged people ($139 per person, 4 share which includes 2 nights accommodation, a weekend festival pass and scenic chairlift rides) have been served a small treat, not to mention a Shakespearian Feast with music and dance for a mere $20. Not all nouveau cuisine, mind you, but some highly original presentations.
There was Australian au natural from The Actor's Forum (Sydney); the Oz bizarre flavour of tae kwon shakespeare II (Sydney); Euroexpressionisme from Thag-Theatre Fellbach (Stuttgart); Canberra ordinaire by the National Shakespeare Festival Company; Shrew in a dark prune sauce from the Gartre Troupe (Sydney); cappucino from Lieder Theatre (Goulburn); and 3 veg from the Thredbo Players, the amateur group who have inspired the Festival.
The highlight has to be the Thag-Theatre's Moonlight Fever, about how Puck stuffs up the lovers, a tightly disciplined production strong in symbolism and acting skills. The performers, representing high schools and universities in southern Germany, were as good as the best local professionals, and will perform in Canberra at Gorman House on Wednesday February 21, and in Goulburn and Sydney.
The professional Actor's Forum's Shakespeare on Love was a little like a Shakespeare tour for schools, but was expertly performed in naturalistic style, covering bits from 10 plays, 3 sonnets and the narrative poem Venus and Adonis. Young actor Ana Maria Belo closely matched Thag-Theatre's Mona Schrodel for stage presence and skill in switching mood. Buster Skeggs' Kate from Taming of the Shrew exposed the contrast between the Actor's Forum sophistication of interpretation and the too easy acceptance by the other Sydney professionals, Gartre, of Kate's apparent kowtowing to Petruchio. Gartre, recently graduated from acting schools, have the skills but not the depth to bring out Shakespeare's irony.
I have to report, too, that though Nicholas Bolonkin, Miranda Rose and Simon Kearney of Canberra's National Shakespeare Theatre perhaps have depth of understanding, they haven't the skills to match Buster Skeggs in Venus and Adonis. Goulburn's amateur Lieder Theatre were certainly very funny in Tom Stoppard's 15 Minute Hamlet, but less so in Sonnets 18 and 141 (though Ann Elbourne is a good comedian) and less so again in Bridget Elbourne's A Little Elizabethan Tomfoolery.
The most original idea of the Festival was professional Ben Seton's story, directed by Melvyn Morrow, of how he defeated his Union-playing schoolmate Julian Beaumont for the love of leading lady Kate by incorporating championship Tae Kwon Do into all his Shakespeare roles. The script needs tightening but the bits that worked were quite stunning: martial arts becomes the language of movement through which the emotions of Shakespeare's words are expressed. He even did Kate, the Shrew's, final speech: in the kitchen chopping up vegetables - and he did not miss the irony.
Thredbo's own Players, conventionally amateur in their low energy, lack of movement and slow cues were saved by Steve Lyster's language control as Sir Toby Belch, with solid support from Lizzy Withers (Viola) and Mel Perrin (Olivia), and lifted the audience in the final scene. Unfortunately the modern setting (café society in Italian fishing village) was ignored, apart from the drunkards hiding behind the bar, instead the bush in the original. It was a potentially good idea wasted.
One strength of the Festival was John Garden's practical classes in Renaissance Dance, focussing on dances mentioned by Shakespeare and giving historical insights, for example about Queen Elizabeth's fascination with the new risque dance La Volta. Earthly Delights provided their usual high standard of Renaissance music and late evening entertainment was well provided for with Theatresports by Gartre and the excellent Irish band The Fifth Element.
My feeling is that after several years, Thredbo's Shakespeare Festival needs an upgrade. It seems to have fallen between stools, promising the sophistication which the credit card trotters expect while wanting to keep a village festival inclusiveness. Audiences have not grown. It's time for investment in a professional artistic director, or the Festival may fall on its sword: not a good result for Shakespeare or Thredbo.
Frank and Meg McKone were guests of Tourism Thredbo and stayed at Thredbo Alpine Hotel.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
2001: Shaking Up Shakespeare Festival at Thredbo: Education Day. Feature article.
Shaking Up Shakespeare Festival at Thredbo: Education Day on the Village Green. Friday February 16 10am - 3pm.
As a social day for students on excursion to a beautiful sunny Thredbo, the day was a clear success. However I found myself agreeing with teachers Gai Britt and Mariette Daniels from Telopea Park School that educationally the experience was a little thin.
Also represented were Corryong Secondary College, Bombala High School and Snowy Mountains Grammar School whose teacher, Josh Levy, explained that his students studied Shakespeare in their English classes and were looking for learning about the production process to complement their literary study. As I discovered, indeed, few of the 90 students were taking Drama classes: many of those would have found the day fairly ordinary.
This was the first year "Education Day" has been part of the Thredbo Shakespeare Festival and several points need to be made if next year is to be better. Only one group was available to provide the professional input for the day, but - certainly if numbers attending are to build - a quality Festival needs to offer more variety. The Gartre Troupe is a company of recently graduated actors which has accreditation with the NSW Department of Education, basically providing work and exposure for actors at the beginning of their careers.
Their energy level, ensemble work and skills are high indeed, providing an excellent model for the students to aspire to, but their program (a brief introductory exercise in small groups about acting truthfully, a demonstration of rehearsing the opening scene of Taming of the Shrew, a performance of a shortened version of the same play, and a demonstration of Theatresports games with student input of ideas and some participation), which at first blush seems engaging, was not clearly structured to take the students from their normal conventional understanding of acting towards at least a beginning of experiencing the originality and creativity of professional theatre.
Probably the unexpected group of 5 - 9 year olds, brought along by brave parent Rowena Evans from Cooma Public School, gained the most by presenting their own drawings of the characters from the play as their way of thanking the performers.
The day also suffered from bad timing. A 10 am start for students arriving by bus from Canberra, Corryong and Bombala was never likely to work, and Gartre had to hold off for 30 minutes, had to shorten planned exercises and could not fit in a feedback session after the performance of a rather dark, perhaps even politically questionable version of Taming of the Shrew.
In fact fitting the trip into one day must have been very demanding of willing teachers. By expanding and developing the educational program, the Festival can gain a reputation to build on. As I saw the day this year, I would not deny the social value of the students' excursion, but I couldn't yet recommend it as quality education.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
As a social day for students on excursion to a beautiful sunny Thredbo, the day was a clear success. However I found myself agreeing with teachers Gai Britt and Mariette Daniels from Telopea Park School that educationally the experience was a little thin.
Also represented were Corryong Secondary College, Bombala High School and Snowy Mountains Grammar School whose teacher, Josh Levy, explained that his students studied Shakespeare in their English classes and were looking for learning about the production process to complement their literary study. As I discovered, indeed, few of the 90 students were taking Drama classes: many of those would have found the day fairly ordinary.
This was the first year "Education Day" has been part of the Thredbo Shakespeare Festival and several points need to be made if next year is to be better. Only one group was available to provide the professional input for the day, but - certainly if numbers attending are to build - a quality Festival needs to offer more variety. The Gartre Troupe is a company of recently graduated actors which has accreditation with the NSW Department of Education, basically providing work and exposure for actors at the beginning of their careers.
Their energy level, ensemble work and skills are high indeed, providing an excellent model for the students to aspire to, but their program (a brief introductory exercise in small groups about acting truthfully, a demonstration of rehearsing the opening scene of Taming of the Shrew, a performance of a shortened version of the same play, and a demonstration of Theatresports games with student input of ideas and some participation), which at first blush seems engaging, was not clearly structured to take the students from their normal conventional understanding of acting towards at least a beginning of experiencing the originality and creativity of professional theatre.
Probably the unexpected group of 5 - 9 year olds, brought along by brave parent Rowena Evans from Cooma Public School, gained the most by presenting their own drawings of the characters from the play as their way of thanking the performers.
The day also suffered from bad timing. A 10 am start for students arriving by bus from Canberra, Corryong and Bombala was never likely to work, and Gartre had to hold off for 30 minutes, had to shorten planned exercises and could not fit in a feedback session after the performance of a rather dark, perhaps even politically questionable version of Taming of the Shrew.
In fact fitting the trip into one day must have been very demanding of willing teachers. By expanding and developing the educational program, the Festival can gain a reputation to build on. As I saw the day this year, I would not deny the social value of the students' excursion, but I couldn't yet recommend it as quality education.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday 15 February 2001
2001: Jigsaw and Free Rain 2001 Season launches. Feature article.
Two very different Canberra theatre companies launched their 2001 seasons on Valentine's Day: Jigsaw and Free Rain. Yet there are strong connections between the two, not the least being David Whitney.
But first, their programs.
Jigsaw's was launched by Director of Public Prosecutions Richard Refshauge, the company's first president way back in the mid 70's, ACT Cultural Council Chair and currently serving on the Australian National University Committee of Review of the ANU Theatre Studies program. (Indications are positive and expect the Report, planned for last December, to appear about the end of this month.)
In true Jigsaw tradition, Mr Refshauge and David Whitney - representing the Australia Council - arrived on stage by ute and were critically examined by puppetry dogs, all part of Jigsaw's main production for Federation called Post & Rail. Asked to explain Federation in a fun way, writer Manuel Aston makes time rather slippery for Tom and Joanne when their ute breaks down and they seek help from a fencer who tells them they'll have to pay two bob customs duty to cross his state border fence and they can't catch one train to Melbourne because of the different gauges - and has a major fit when Joanne's mobile phone rings.
Jigsaw is bursting out all over with Post & Rail in schools and at Parliament House (March/April); Dyna'write at Big Byte Virtual Theatre (www.jigsaw.asn.au/bigbyte); Kings Hall Nine at Old Parliament House (March - April and September - November); Smoke Free Burning Boards Youth Drama Festival moving this year to The Street Theatre in June; The Long Time 'til Tea for 4-8 year olds at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Gorman House and Belconnen Community Centre (November/December); Kera Putih going this year to Melbourne and Geelong Arts Centres; while The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate, in its third year, goes to the Sydney Opera House, Western NSW, Adelaide, Melbourne and Geelong.
In addition is a new play by Mary Morris, The Blue Roof, with special funding from the Australia Council, treating a teenage boy's coming to terms with the tragic death of his girlfriend - a sophisticated production for young people at The Street in March/April. And New Direktions expands this year into employing (i.e. paying) Jonathan Lees (writer), Catherine Wright (technical production and set design), Matthew Aberline (costume) and Mike Smith (musical theatre and puppetry).
Free Rain Theatre Company, a risky business venture of its passionate director Anne Somes, has begun to keep its head just above water in this - its sixth - financial year. Focussed on providing for young actors and directors, Somes and George Huitker give particular credit to Jigsaw for major support two years ago as part of New Direktions at Currong Theatre and to Canberra Theatre Centre for administration, marketing and technical support for 2001 in the Courtyard Studio. A future direction will be to set up the now more experienced members into a separate team, while continuing to nurture a younger group.
Productions will be Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, David Williamson's Brilliant Lies, and Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. Phillip O'Brien in his launch speech commented on the challenge Free Rain sets itself, and compared the youth energy factor in this company with Richard Tognetti's Australian Chamber Orchestra: a high standard to match indeed.
And David Whitney? Now General Manager of the Canberra Theatre Centre as well as being on the Australia Council for the Arts, Whitney emphasises cooperation and support for the continually bubbling theatre scene in Canberra. People sit around their lounge rooms and form new companies every year, he says. Some collapse, but some prove themselves - like Free Rain - and he sees an obligation under the Canberra Theatre Centre charter to use his established administrative and technical structure to provide as much support as he can.
Whitney sees the Canberra Theatre Centre, Currong Theatre and The Street Theatre as a cooperative central network rather than competitive entities. His aim is to help raise professional standards of theatre in this city through the good offices of the Canberra Theatre Centre, and we can only hope his vision can break down insularity in the Canberra theatre scene.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
But first, their programs.
Jigsaw's was launched by Director of Public Prosecutions Richard Refshauge, the company's first president way back in the mid 70's, ACT Cultural Council Chair and currently serving on the Australian National University Committee of Review of the ANU Theatre Studies program. (Indications are positive and expect the Report, planned for last December, to appear about the end of this month.)
In true Jigsaw tradition, Mr Refshauge and David Whitney - representing the Australia Council - arrived on stage by ute and were critically examined by puppetry dogs, all part of Jigsaw's main production for Federation called Post & Rail. Asked to explain Federation in a fun way, writer Manuel Aston makes time rather slippery for Tom and Joanne when their ute breaks down and they seek help from a fencer who tells them they'll have to pay two bob customs duty to cross his state border fence and they can't catch one train to Melbourne because of the different gauges - and has a major fit when Joanne's mobile phone rings.
Jigsaw is bursting out all over with Post & Rail in schools and at Parliament House (March/April); Dyna'write at Big Byte Virtual Theatre (www.jigsaw.asn.au/bigbyte); Kings Hall Nine at Old Parliament House (March - April and September - November); Smoke Free Burning Boards Youth Drama Festival moving this year to The Street Theatre in June; The Long Time 'til Tea for 4-8 year olds at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Gorman House and Belconnen Community Centre (November/December); Kera Putih going this year to Melbourne and Geelong Arts Centres; while The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate, in its third year, goes to the Sydney Opera House, Western NSW, Adelaide, Melbourne and Geelong.
In addition is a new play by Mary Morris, The Blue Roof, with special funding from the Australia Council, treating a teenage boy's coming to terms with the tragic death of his girlfriend - a sophisticated production for young people at The Street in March/April. And New Direktions expands this year into employing (i.e. paying) Jonathan Lees (writer), Catherine Wright (technical production and set design), Matthew Aberline (costume) and Mike Smith (musical theatre and puppetry).
Free Rain Theatre Company, a risky business venture of its passionate director Anne Somes, has begun to keep its head just above water in this - its sixth - financial year. Focussed on providing for young actors and directors, Somes and George Huitker give particular credit to Jigsaw for major support two years ago as part of New Direktions at Currong Theatre and to Canberra Theatre Centre for administration, marketing and technical support for 2001 in the Courtyard Studio. A future direction will be to set up the now more experienced members into a separate team, while continuing to nurture a younger group.
Productions will be Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, David Williamson's Brilliant Lies, and Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. Phillip O'Brien in his launch speech commented on the challenge Free Rain sets itself, and compared the youth energy factor in this company with Richard Tognetti's Australian Chamber Orchestra: a high standard to match indeed.
And David Whitney? Now General Manager of the Canberra Theatre Centre as well as being on the Australia Council for the Arts, Whitney emphasises cooperation and support for the continually bubbling theatre scene in Canberra. People sit around their lounge rooms and form new companies every year, he says. Some collapse, but some prove themselves - like Free Rain - and he sees an obligation under the Canberra Theatre Centre charter to use his established administrative and technical structure to provide as much support as he can.
Whitney sees the Canberra Theatre Centre, Currong Theatre and The Street Theatre as a cooperative central network rather than competitive entities. His aim is to help raise professional standards of theatre in this city through the good offices of the Canberra Theatre Centre, and we can only hope his vision can break down insularity in the Canberra theatre scene.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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