2002: 2 Pianos 4 Hands - A Play on Music by Ted Dykstra & Richard Greenblatt.

2 Pianos 4 Hands - A Play on Music by Ted Dykstra & Richard Greenblatt.  Directed by Ted Dykstra.  Associate Director (Australia), David Lynch.  StageWorks in association with Black Swan Theatre.  Canberra Playhouse June 25-29 8pm.

    This is an autobiographical story of the failure of Canadians Dykstra and Greenblatt to become the great world-renowned pianists that their fathers planned for them.  Fortunately the authors have a largely comic view of their lives, becoming successful actors and directors, including playing themselves in this 90 minute two hander.

    For the Australian tour, the only two actors who were available and could match the piano playing skills required were Edward Simpson, playing Ted, and Jonathan Gavin as Richard.  Both are excellent.  Producer Tony Reagan is still keeping his fingers crossed against sickness and accident after 2 years with the show.

    2 Pianos is like a concert production of a play.  2 grand pianos are the focus of a simple set with 2 back lit screens.  All the characters - Ted, Richard, their parents, and a myriad of piano teachers and examiners - are played by the actor-pianists in an episodic series of vignettes, smoothly strung together without the need for scene or costume changing.  Each scene has its appropriate solo and duo piano performance with Bach before and after a bewildering array of classical and pop pieces. 

While the characters were still young children, the mixed music somehow reminded me of the comic orchestral concerts put on by Gerard Hoffnung (many decades ago).  I began to think that music as the light fantastic was as much as the show would offer.  But when it came to the scenes in which each young man, at the age of 17 or so, was confronted by the truth that though they were talented they simply were not going to make it as concert pianists, I certainly felt for them  - and wondered about the rights of well-meaning pushy fathers - at least for a few minutes before light-heartedness took over once more.
   
    Though not a great play, 2 Pianos is a neatly constructed musical comedy of a quite different kind, with instant identification for anyone who has faced an audition and, like most of us, failed to become world-renowned.

© Frank McKone, Canberra