2016: Simon’s Final Sound by Finegan Kruckemeyer

Simon’s Final Sound by Finegan Kruckemeyer.  Blue Cow Theatre Company (Tasmania) directed and designed by Robert Jarman.  At The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, August 11-13, 2016.

Cast: Mel King – Ginny; Guy Hopper – Simon;  John Xintavelonis – Michael;  Andrew Casey – Claude.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
August 11

This is a play written supposedly for adults by a successful writer for young children 5 to 8 years old.  A review (unacknowledged) published in The Brag (http://www.thebrag.com/arts/those-who-fall-love-anchors-dropped-upon-ocean-floor) of another play by this author, also supposedly for adults, which I haven’t seen but which was recently presented at the SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney, sums up my response to Simon’s Final Sound:

“There are both amusing and heartfelt moments, but ultimately, Those Who Fall In Love Like Anchors Dropped Upon The Ocean Floor is a light piece of theatre. Diluted between comedy and romantic drama, it’s a murky mix that isn’t particularly strong on either front.”

I can only add that in Simon’s Final Sound there is very little comedy, a lot which has to be called farcical, quite a bit of entirely irrelevant slapstick, and an ending which would be tragic if the apparently important issue – of the sudden onset of deafness – had been developed in any serious way over the two hours leading up to this point. 

What point? was the issue for me.

I thought very seriously of not publishing a review, because at least the actors should not feel that they are to blame.  Director and designer Robert Jarman has asked his actors to take on the task of turning an impossible script into worthwhile theatre.  I felt for them as they very professionally overplayed such thinly written characters, and managed to get some laughs from skilful clowning.

Though I don’t wish to deny Finegan Kruckemeyer’s success as a children’s playwright – his bio emphasises he has “had 79 commissioned plays performed on five continents and translated into six languages” and 7 “at the Sydney Opera House” (Shakespeare wrote only 37 for comparison) – he has clearly written a 50 minute children’s piece into a 2 hour long fantasy made ‘adult’ by crude sexual unfunny funny-bits which placed the lone woman character well down the scale of acceptable human rights.

The idea that we should be amused by 40-year-old unmarried Simon’s struggle to deal with a diagnosis that he will go deaf within a year, be elated when he seems to find the musical island from the story which his aunt had told him to help him go to sleep at the age of eight, and then be .... what?  Sorry for him?  Devastated by the tragedy?  Ecstatically happy for him because he heard the music after all?  ... when all the sound and lights are cruelly switched off.  That’s the end, folks!  Lights up, and clap, because wasn’t it all good fun?

Sorry, Finegan, but whatever your reputation, Simon’s Last Sound is a bummer of a play for adults – and my word is nothing like as offensive as the fucks, penises and tits you thought would make an adult audience laugh.  Some did laugh at the Yoga on the Boatdeck scene, admirably performed by Andrew Casey, and they laughed at the joke about making a Bungee Jumper think the rope was not tied on after they were on their way down.  And sliding around on the deck in the storm where each of the four came to hug, or at least grab onto, each of the other three with implications about their relationships, was mildly amusing. 

But in the end it’s more suited to a ten-year-old boy’s idea of funny.  And nowadays even he would think the language and the treatment of the girl was just too gross, and the storyline more suited to a five-year-old!

Mr Kruckemeyer should take a leaf out of Eddie Perfect’s notebook and go and see The Beast at the Sydney Opera House (reviewed here July 31, 2016), where he will learn how to write a really funny adult comedy.



©Frank McKone, Canberra

2016: Letters to Lindy by Alana Valentine

Letters to Lindy by Alana Valentine.  Merrigong Theatre Company: Artistic Director, Simon Hinton.  At Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, August 9-13, 2016.

Director: Darren Yap

Designers: Production – James Browne; Lighting – Toby Knyvett; Co-Composers / Co-Sound Design – Max Lambert and Roger Lock

Cast: Jeanette Cronin as Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton (Lindy), with Glenn Hazeldine, Phillip Hinton and Jane Phegan

Reviewed by Frank McKone
August 9

Letters to Lindy is both a moving commemoration of the short life and tragic death of Azaria, and a celebration of the remarkable steadfast resilience and human understanding of her mother, Lindy. 

The opening night here in Canberra was a significant social and cultural event, with both the author and the play’s real life protagonist present and appearing on stage for the curtain call.  This was not just a performance of a play, but a happy/sad recognition of the proper conclusion concerning Azaria’s death and her mother’s terrible treatment by the Northern Territory’s legal system – and by the Australian media and so many individuals over such a long period since 1980.

There was at last a sense of relief when we heard the words of Coroner Elizabeth Morris on 12th June 2012: "Azaria Chamberlain died at Uluru, then known as Ayers Rock, on the 17th of August 1980.  The cause of her death was as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo.  It is clear that there is evidence that a dingo is capable of attacking, taking and causing the death of young children."

As the ABC reported, the finding ended “decades of public speculation over the nine-week-old's disappearance”.  There were “four coronial inquiries, a murder trial and a royal commission into the case.”  And thousands of letters written to Lindy, ranging from the vicious and threatening to those of support, fellow-feeling, understanding and love.  The letters began almost immediately after the first publication of news reports, and were already so many by the time Lindy was jailed for murder, from 1982 to 1986, that a team of inmates formed to help her categorise and store them – until she finally sent 199 boxes to the National Library of Australia where staff awarded Alana Valentine a Harold White Fellowship in 2013, which resulted in this play.

(Wikipedia tells the detailed story at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain)

The play was set as if in the lounge room in Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton’s home, where she is reading letters and stacking them in large cardboard boxes.  As she read silently, the letter-writers appeared saying out loud to her, with the voice, actions, body-language, looks and facial expressions to suit, why they are writing, what they think and feel about her, and telling stories of their own – including, among the more weird ones, of seeing her face represented in the branches of a leafless tree against the moon.  And then there was the one setting up a religious revival campaign at Ayers Rock where Azaria died.

Scenes, such as the original coroner’s decision, the prosecution and defence cross-examination of a witness, the judge’s summing up to the jury (which effectively led them to convict despite evidence that could in no way have supported that verdict ‘beyond reasonable doubt’) were played without set changes, as we understood we were seeing into Lindy’s memory of these events.

The first few letters we heard were horrible nasty accusations by people who assumed Lindy had murdered her daughter.  Then we were surprised as Lindy turned to us laughing to say she thought she should start with comic relief.  Immediately we responded, laughing along with her and beginning to realise that we were meeting a woman of great strength in adversity.

Jeanette Cronin’s performance showed her great strengths as an actor, representing a real life person present in the audience, and playing the subtleties of Lindy’s personality at all the critical points of her life, including the break down of her first marriage and the beginning of her second.  Cronin was equally strongly supported by her colleagues being so capable of shifting from character to character around her.  Lighting and especially the sound design nicely underpinned the symbolic moments, leading us to a warm ending.  Of all Alana Valentine’s research and selection of material, her choice to use a letter-writer’s lullaby for Azaria was the perfect way to leave us feeling both the sorrow for what was lost and a quiet pride in having understood Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton as she really is.

I hope this play will continue to be performed all over Australia so that all those letter-writers and their families down the generations will get to know and seek the truth rather than accept and attack on the basis of prejudicial beliefs; and all people will be confirmed for their empathy and desire to give support to those who are mistreated.




©Frank McKone, Canberra

2016: When the Goalposts Move by Ben Eltham

When the Goalposts Move by Ben Eltham.  Currency House Platform Paper No 48.
Media enquiries to Martin Portus at mportus@optusnet.com.au or 0401 360 806


Commentary by Frank McKone
August 9, 2016.

There is an aching need for symbolic belonging in the hearts of all of us.  This is Ben Eltham’s foundation observation concluding his argument for the arts to be enthusiastically supported by governments. 

Using Australian Bureau of Statistics information on attendance and involvement in arts activities, and the key example of the Centenary of Anzac project as a “long-running cultural program of events…[which] was an explicit government policy, endorsed and re-endorsed by successive federal governments, planned for several years, and supported to the tune of more than half a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money…with no expectation of economic outcome”,  Eltham backs up his major point:

The fact that the majority of the citizens of the Australian State share a vivid and rich cultural involvement, means that culture is not some way-station on the road to the good life.  It is the good life, a vision of a modern society where much of the meaning and value derived by individuals and families is expressed through cultural and artistic participation and creation.

I read this looking around my lounge room.  We are not a wealthy family, retired on a part-aged pension.  But the room is full of art – photos, paintings, pottery, statuettes, books and even the furniture – each piece with a story to tell from our past of family, hobbies, work and travels.  Each is a symbol, full of meaning to us beyond what it may have meant to the painter, potter, sculptor, writer or furniture maker.  (The photos are ours, except for the one of us at the Taj Mahal, one of the greatest artworks in the world.)

So I am sure that Ben Eltham is right.  But how do we deal with the political history which he has written up so clearly, under the headings

False Dawn: March 2013,
 
‘The capacity of the Minister to give directions…’: September 2013,

 ‘Vicious ingratitude’: The Biennale boycott,
 
The origins of ‘excellence’: 1974,

The power of ministers: May 2015,

The long shadow of neoliberalism,

How to fight taxes and change prime ministers,

The silence of the Australia Council, and

Getting political: Free the Arts and the anti-Brandis resistance.

You can see where the overall title When the Goalposts Move fits in.  Without this context, even more relevant now that the Liberal / Nationals have managed a one-seat majority in the July 2 election, we might continue forever to ‘waffle’ about the heARTS of all of us. 

Just before the election, Eltham wrote: In the run-up to the 2016 election, the Australia Council now finds itself in a dangerous place.  There is little love on the Coalition backbench for the organisation, and the election of a second-term Turnbull Government could well signal the beginning of the end for the agency.  It is not a good sign that so many of the arts administrators I regularly talk to appear to be convinced that the Australia Council will be abolished altogether should Turnbull win.

Well, he has won, even if only just.  So it’s time to take action. 

One political move which was not mentioned in Eltham’s Platform Paper was the rise of the Arts Party.  Although no electorate, House or Senate, yet has an Arts Party member of Parliament, the first preference count on July 2 showed a substantial vote for the Arts Party across the country.  Go to www.artsparty.org/ to find information and to join.  The Arts Party makes the specific point that it is independent of any other party, sending its policy platform to all of them “in the hope they will consider new creative ideas to improving the future of Australia.”

Their policy summaries are headed:

    ARTS & HERITAGE
    FILM, TV & RADIO INDUSTRY
    MUSIC INDUSTRY
    EDUCATION POLICY
    VENUES & LIVE PERFORMANCE
    DIGITAL ARTS & VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY

and anyone is invited to make new suggestions to comms@theartsparty.org

To give more of an idea of where The Arts Party might go now that it has become more than an almost one-person-band led by PJ Collins (The Arts Party · PO Box 114, Kingsford, New South Wales 2032, Australia):

OUR PRINCIPLES:

 ACCESS TO ARTS & CULTURE

    ABC & SBS Funding
    Australia Council & Arts Sector Support
    Trove
    AMPAG Funding and SM Funding
    Demand Not Supply
    National Arts Week
    National Ensemble of Theatre Actors (NETA)
    Regional Cultural Support
    Public Museums, Galleries and Community Centres
    Digital Cultural Access

SUPPORT OUR CREATIVE INDUSTRY

    Expanding The R&D Tax Incentive
    Supporting The Film & TV Industry
    Supporting The Book Publishing Industry
    Supporting The Games Industry
    Supporting The Music Industry
    Creating a Space Industry

EDUCATION ACCESS FOR EVERYONE

    STEAM not STEM
    We Give A Gonski
    Visual Arts and Music in Primary Schools
    Drama and Dance Education in Schools
    Teacher's Pay
    National School Cultural Engagement Program (NSCEP)
    HECS & Lifelong Learning
    National Touring

IMPROVE OUR COMMUNITY

    Marriage Equality
    Healthcare
    Disability Support
    Climate Change
    Refugees
    Indigenous
    Vaccination

REVENUE RAISING

    Corporate Community Tax
    Legalise Cannabis
    Reform Negative Gearing
    Superannuation Tax Concessions
    Super Profits Tax on Banks

I suggest you read Ben Eltham’s detailed history and discussion of the meaning of ‘culture’, and as a result you may conclude as I have that The Arts needs its own political presence rather than supinely relying on the whim of the Minister of the Day in the Government of the Day.  We were lucky in the days of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam when the Australia Council was set up at some degree of arm’s length from political interference, but terribly unlucky to have Arts Minister George Brandis show how his arm was more than long enough to stick his finger up the pie.

Next election let’s aim to do at least a Xenophon, if not a Hanson, a Bob Day, or a Derryn Hinch.  Vote 1 in the Senate for The Arts Party, and let’s have a ball!



©Frank McKone, Canberra

2016: The Hanging by Angela Betzien

The Hanging by Angela Betzien.  Sydney Theatre Company at Wharf 1, August 3 – September 10, 2016.

Directed by Sarah Goodes.

Designers: Set and Costume – Elizabeth Gadsby; Lighting – Nicholas Rayment; Composer and Sound – Steve Francis; Video – David Bergman.

Rehearsal Photographer – Hon Boey

Cast: Luke Carroll – Detective Flint; Ashleigh Cummings – Iris Hocking; Genevieve Lemon – Ms Corrossi.

Final Preview reviewed by Frank McKone
August 1

Ashleigh Cummings in rehearsal as Iris

If you are keen to be in the debate about education – and how could you not be this week? – apart from podcasting Life Matters on ABC Radio National this morning (August 3, 9am), you could not do better than see a different twist at Wharf 1 tonight.

The Hanging is a theatrical fiction derived from a literary fiction.  The play explores the effect that teaching a particular novel might have on fourteen-year-old girls, boarders in a private girls’ school, supposedly in Melbourne.

The author has created a powerful dramatic constraint by reducing the action to just three characters.  Two students of a tightly bonded threesome cannot be found.  The third has appeared at a police station.  Her English teacher is nominated to be her ‘friend’ while she is interviewed by a detective.

In an hour and a quarter we discover the real story behind the mysterious disappearances.  On the way, we learn a lot about being a teacher, being a daughter especially of split parents who pay $30,000 a year for her schooling, and about such girls’ imaginations and sexual drive.

The script is excellent – tightly focussed and emotionally engaging.  The three performers get everything right, and Ashleigh Cummings deserves special commendation for presenting so well both Iris’ childishness and desire to be seen as an adult.  While Genevieve Lemon is a good example, she explained to me, of the daughter told by her parents not to become an actor without backing up with a degree.  So she trained as an English teacher, but never actually taught.  In his role as Detective Flint, Luke Carroll presents a very un-Flint like character, very concerned for the well-being of his interview subject while searching out the right way to find the information he needs.

The use of video to provide the bush setting, outside the city where the interview takes place in Iris' father's flat, works very well.  The role of the bush is to raise the deepest theme in the play: how do we know reality from fantasy?

From my career as a teacher of both literature and practical drama, I can confirm how central this concern is for teenagers on the border – physically represented by a diagonal wall in the very simple but effective set design – between childhood and adulthood, for all sexual orientations and people of all different cultures.

Genevieve Lemon also spoke of the process of bringing the work to production, where the actors began familiarising themselves with the script some 18 months ago, and then following all the amendments as Sarah Goodes and designer Elizabeth Gadsby worked with Angela Betzien through to the final six weeks’ rehearsal.  And, she pointed out, the three actors parallel the characters in age and stages of their own lives and careers, giving the performance another layer of reality.  From her point of view, since she has been playing comedy so much, acting in this kind of psychological drama is very satisfying.

So, after my also having seen Belvoir’s Twelfth Night this weekend, I must misquote Shakespeare and say: If scriptwriting and development of this quality be the food of the Sydney Theatre Company, then play on, I say – play on.

Luke Carroll, Ashleigh Cummings and Genevieve Lemon
in rehearsal as Dtective Flint, Iris Hocking and Ms Corrossi

Ashleigh Cummings as Iris Hocking
in rehearsal for The Hanging

©Frank McKone, Canberra