2005: Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov.

 Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov.  Moonlight directed by Martha Ibrahim at ANU Arts Centre Drama Studio, May 17-21 8pm (Matinee Saturday 2pm).  Tickets at the door or phone 6125 5491 or dinner and show package 6257 2718.

    It's a bit scary to watch Dr Mikail Astrov (Sana Vasli), 110 years ago, demonstrate how the natural forest cover in his native Russia has declined from one half, to one third, to almost zero in the previous 40 years.  He cannot understand why people cannot see that if they continue to destroy the environment in their struggle for survival, their survival can only be for the short term before final collapse.  Shades of Jared Diamond.

    Moonlight's production is great to see not just for Chekhov's prescience concerning issues like this, but particularly for showing so clearly how destructive attitudes on the big issues play out in personal relationships.  It's also good to see young actors successfully creating this play, an odd combination of real drama and farce, in which only two roles - Alexander's young second wife, Helena (Gina Guirguis), and his daughter by his first wife, Sonia (Daisy Cohen) - are in their age range. The others, in their 40s, 60s and 80s, are not only much older but variously see themselves as too old to have reason to go on living, or playing on their age to demand 'respect' (which means power), or wise enough to have accepted their age without undue complaint.

    Glenn Brown is especially effective as Ivan Voynitsky, Sonia's Uncle Vanya, fatally attracted to Helena and almost fatal to her retired professor husband, Alexander (Timothy Sekuless), who by his first marriage to Vanya's sister gained control of the estate which he now proposes to sell in a highly dramatic emotionally explosive scene.  Moonlight's actors, coming as they do from ANU's Theatre Studies course, are not expected to have professional training, and often missed the subtleties of light and shade needed, especially in voice levels.  But they had good direction as a team, with timing which drew laughs, surprise, shock and sadness at all the right points on opening night.  Uncle Vanya's great original director Stanislavski might have needed to teach them more technique, but he wouldn't have been disappointed with this production's final scene which drew genuine, respectful applause.

© Frank McKone, Canberra

2005: The Big Con by Guy Rundle

The Big Con by Guy Rundle.  Max Gillies and Eddie Perfect, directed by Aubrey Mellor and Denis Moore.  Canberra Playhouse May 10 - 14, 8pm.  Canberra Ticketing 6275 2700 or www.canberraticketing.com.au

    What a ripper!  This is such unforgiving political satire that it's hard to imagine any of the targetted politicians willingly watching.  Rundle's words and Gillies' characterisations, especially of Downer, Ruddock, Vanstone and Howard, are not simply humorous or even mere clever cutting commentaries.  They reveal a bitterness in exposing the stupidity, the hypocrisy, the inhumanity, and the glorification of power.

    I am sure I heard a certain SES public servant call Bravo! from the balcony on opening night, and I say bravo indeed.  Max Gillies is a national treasure, a supreme actor (on stage and screen) not only for the outward instantly recognisable representations of people we see in the media - you will never forget his Amanda Vanstone - but for his ability to take us inside their personalities.  A special treat is his historian Keith Windshuttle, a figure who has discovered a ploy to overcome his insignificance.  Rundle's scripting gives the actor great material, but it is Gillies who makes the characters live.

    The relative weakness of The Big Con, is that Eddie is not as perfect as Max.  Part of the problem is technical - Perfect's diction is not as precise and the first night audio balance too often left his voice masked by his piano.  He wrote his own lyrics, some songs failing to catch the note of true satire.  Some people found the Gays Should Not Marry song too gross, even offensive, while other songs tried to be too clever.  Perfect has a lot to learn from Guy Rundle's verbal subtlety and variety. At the same time, his musical humour and performance are excellent, and he holds the show together well while Gillies changes backstage.

    The show builds to the point where I found myself unable to stop laughing until I discovered myself cringing with horror.  This is the mark of great gutsy theatre, which should not be missed.

© Frank McKone, Canberra