Monday 22 April 2019

2019: Spooky Men's Chorale at the National Folk Festival

Spooky Men's Chorale in rehearsal
https://spookymen.com
Spooky Men’s Chorale – Workshop at The Majestic. National Folk Festival, Canberra, Saturday April 20, 10.30 am.  With a mention of Phil Bates at the Flute ‘n’ Fiddle.

Reviewed by Frank McKone

Spooky Men’s workshop was a great example of classroom management, but raised questions in this one-time teacher’s consciousness about political bias in education and society.

The great thing about the National Folk Festival is that’s where you meet old friends on common grounds.  Penny, a teaching colleague on occasions and a public servant retired from the federal Department of Education, is a person whose observations I know I can trust.  Though it’s not possible to review the whole four-day NFF from the one day and five main performances I attended, she thought there was much less overt political material on show this year.  Why would this be so with a May 18 election in the offing?  Shouldn’t we expect more, not less?

Disturbing my self-indulgent equilibrium – just enjoying the wonder of singing, dancing and musicianship of my annual Easter escape into the world of folk – Penny’s thoughts struck home.

Of course, as you would expect, there were social issues behind the songs of Stu Tyrrell – but more of a personal nature than strictly political.  His was literally a family show – his family – with his very young but wonderfully enthusiastic daughter up on stage with her favourite Dad.  Ricardo Tesi & the Banditaliana were terrific performers, filling the Budawang with, for me, a new kind of concert Italian Folk.  And just the fact that Yolngu man Gawurru Gaykamangu, from North East Arnhem Land, was performing his own work in language and had a crowd dancing along, was a political statement in itself.

Phil Bates, a quietly spoken and singing presenter of what I think of as traditional Australian folk songs, entirely un-commercial in origin, explicitly spoke and sang politically.  His Andy’s Gone with Cattle Now by Henry Lawson made the life of the ever-waiting worker’s family a sad reflection on the demands required to earn a living.  But only in his last item did he raise the politics of modern times.  He said that in an interview, Arlo Guthrie had said we don’t need to write new songs about the dire straits of democracy, because we already have them from 1968.

So Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin' made the point without need for further discussion.  For me, though it was oddly ironic that Phil lost his words and couldn’t even get them again on a second try – for the very verse that I had to hear:

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.


So the political guernsey falls on the shoulders of the Spooky Men’s Chorale, described (by them) – accurately – as a “vast, rumbling, steam powered and black clad behemoth, seemingly accidentally capable of rendering audiences moist eyed with mute appreciation or haplessly gurgling with merriment.”  I know this is true because I saw them at a previous NFF, in between their overseas tours (they’re Blue Mountains men, from the fog-bound ranges west of Sydney).

But this was a workshop, and we were going to learn how to sing like them.  So my praise begins with their musicianship – which certainly has my mute appreciation; and goes on to their leadership, teaching us a new song in four parts, rising in pitch and rhythmic complexity, our merriment gurgling all the way until a final point of chaotic haplessness.

Penny’s thoughts were stirred by the content of the song, which went basically like this (except for the bits I forgot while laughing):

Vote them; vote them; vote them; vote them out;
Vote them; vote them; vote the bastards out.


Then there was the maudling bit about wondering why some people vote them in, and wanting to leave the country.

Then a reprise of the original lines, designed to reach a crescendo of chaotic waving and yelling “out!”.

I thought GetUp! should take the Spooky Men to the electorate of Warringah to take over the campaign management, especially since our audience in The Majestic looked to me exactly like the middle class nice people who have set up Vote Tony Out at www.votetonyout.com .

But Penny pointed out the undercurrent of lack of enthusiasm for this election.  She said what the corporates want is for people to not believe in anything to vote for.  The ploy is to undermine representative democracy, to get government out of the way, not pay taxes, encourage individual libertarianism, and have people go along with “We’ll give a fair go to those who have a go”, and hard luck to the rest.

And suddenly (half a day after the Spooky workshop experience) I had the most horrifying thought.

The spooky part of their song it’s only against.  Is the Spooky Men’s Chorale, by so cleverly getting us into a state of gurgling merriment over voting the bastards out, actually working as an arm of the corporates who want the ‘freedom’ from people being voted in because they are for something – like regulating the market.

Oh horror!  Where goes the Folk Tradition now?  Are The Times A-Changin’?

How Spooky is the Men’s Chorale!


© Frank McKone, Canberra

Sunday 21 April 2019

2019: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second by Wliiam Shakespeare - Almeida Theatre, UK

Rear: Leo Bill, as Bolingbroke
Foreground: Simon Russell Beale, as King Richard the Second
 The Tragedy of King Richard the Second by William Shakespeare

National Theatre Live, UK, shown at Dendy Cinema, Canberra: April 20, 21, 22, 2019.  Original season on stage at Almeida Theatre, London, UK: Previews 10 Dec – 17 Dec; Season: December 19, 2018 – February 2, 2019.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 21, 2019


This modern pared-down but full of symbolism interpretation of Shakespeare’s Richard II is absolutely fabulous theatre by London’s Almeida.  I mean this literally, for it shows Shakespeare’s genius for fable-making – turning (for him) a century old history into an everlasting story of universal significance.

Director Hill-Gibbins’ genius is to have turned (for us) a 400-year-old work of theatrical art into a gripping emotional and intellectual experience – a study of the nature of political power – of crucial importance to us, now, as it was for Shakespeare and his audience, then.

How is it done?  What does it mean?  Why should Almeida Theatre be so highly praised?

Here’s how a different recent production was done:

Hermione Gulliford as Bolingbroke; Tim Delap as King Richard II

[In 2016] Jack Gamble and Quentin Beroud’s Richard II is the first Shakespeare play to have been performed at the House of Commons. The opening performance at the prestigious site sought to emphasise the relocation of the play into modern Westminster by literally taking the action there. 
[ https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2016/05/04/richard-ii-at-arcola-theatre-theatre-review/ ]
[Then back] at Arcola Theatre the set consists of little more than a desk and regal chairs hinting at the political-meets-royal dimension of the reinterpretation. The modernisation of Richard II is intended to point out that the essence of political conflict is timeless, and that the dynamics of power can be easily transferred and applied to a modern setting.

"Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me;
Let's purge this choler without letting blood"

Unity of purpose behind Bolingbroke


Mud and blood, but where is Bolingbroke now?
 In 2018, at Almeida the set is a single room made of iron walls, high, with no doors or windows – the prison in which Richard, king by divine right, is held without hope by his usurper, Bolingbroke.  But note that all the cast of nobles and the commoners who serve them, are all equally trapped – yet cannot learn to live together.  As Bolingbroke finally ‘wins’, his power is already being challenged by the next generation as illegitimate.

I call this production a modern interpretation because of a simple device: the end is a repeat of the beginning, which has to remind one of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot – who never comes.  Richard speaks directly to us, saying “I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world…Thus play I in one person many people, and none contented: sometimes am I king; then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, and so I am: then crushing penury persuades me I was better when a king: then I am king’d again; and by and by think that I am unking’d by Bolingbroke, and straight am nothing: but whate’er I be, nor I nor any man that but man is with nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased with being nothing.”

How is this, then, in a world where we are all made to believe that we can all achieve our ‘dream’: we will all have a fair go, if we give it a go.  But the reality is what our caretaker prime minister actually said – to encourage us to vote for his party again next month: “We’ll give a fair go to those who have a go”.  As Charles Body of Canberra suburb, Kaleen, wrote in a Letter to the Editor in The Canberra Times, today [who] “will decide who is having a go.  Bad luck to those individuals who through disability or for some other reason are deemed not to be having a go.  How sad for our nation that care and compassion are now available only on a user-pays basis.”

Or, as Shakespeare wrote, in effect, those deemed not to be having a go must be “eased with being nothing”.  When this line repeats, near the end, Richard seems to have lost himself in a dream, hearing mysterious music, “and now time doth waste me; For now hath time made me his numbering clock.”  Yet still he lashes out and kills two before Sir Pierce of Exton ‘strikes him down’.  Is this what ‘having a go’ means, rather than being ‘eased with being nothing’?

So this design, of actors in rehearsal clothes, in a set in which they, the walls and the floor become mired in mud and blood, becomes far more than a mere study of political conflict – monarchy or people power – but takes us to where time ticks us all in his numbering clock.  In Shakespeare’s day, of course, people died young; yet today with all our technical advances so we have longer to live fulfilling lives of care and compassion, we still cannot learn to be eased with being nothing.  Still we, like Richard, can be “irresponsible, foolish and vain” sending our “kingdoms into disarray and our courts into uproar”, as the program notes.  And still like Bolingbroke we see “no other option but to seize power”, be “ambitious” and “challenge the throne” and the “divine right to rule”.

Shakespeare was just 31, like a modern Millennial or Generation Z, when he wrote the character of King Richard the Second from the inside.  I am never less than amazed at the maturity of his understanding; and too I am stunned by the skills of clear expression of Shakespeare’s meaning – of what each character is feeling and thinking – on the part of all the Almeida cast, with an extra plaudit for Simon Russell Beale.  He achieved as he had hoped in his preview interview, shown in this film, to help us find empathy with and even some sympathy for a king who, according to history’s lights, failed his country. 

This is what great art can do for all of us, whatever the state of our country.


Simon Russell Beale and Leo Bill
as King Richard II and Bolingbroke
in the Almeida Theatre production of
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second by William Shakespeare


 © Frank McKone, Canberra





















Friday 12 April 2019

2019: The Miser by Molière, in a new version by Justin Fleming

The son, Cleante.  The father, Harpagon.  The daughter, Élise.



The Miser by Molière – a new version by Justin Fleming.  Bell Shakespeare at  Canberra Theatre Centre, The Playhouse April 11-20, 2019.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 12 (opening night)







Let me reveal my personal bias to begin: I am jealous of John Bell.  Having first seen him perform (as King Henry V) in a tent at the 3rd Adelaide Festival of Arts 1964, I wish I had his capacity for characterisation (which I never had) and his loose physical flexibility – which he still has, but I have lost forever.  He’s only two months older than me, dammit.

And for him to be able to return to such quality acting in ‘retirement’ from his own Bell Shakespeare Company is just awesome.




But, to this version of Molière’s 16th Century play by 21st Century writer Fleming. 

Four doors onto any set says ‘Farce’.  By interval I found myself wondering if farce was enough. 

But, in the final scene, John Bell’s representation of Harpagon’s loneliness and bewilderment as the lives of all those around him achieve a positive conclusion – all four doors have nothing behind them for The Miser – leaves us unexpectedly feeling for him. 

His loss of control, though we may see this as his own fault, is a modern experience.  Perhaps Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, by 1668, foresaw his own end: he collapsed and died after just four more plays, during the fourth performance of  Le Malade imaginaire, aged 51, in 1673.  Like so many of us today from a middle-class background, he worked in a ‘gig’ economy struggling against insecurity of employment, trying to innovate and facing official and political intransigence. 

No wonder his Harpagon was desperate to hang onto his ten thousand crowns.  Maybe even John Bell, after establishing and running a theatre company all his adult life, understands Harpagon / Poquelin – and shows us what he feels in that final scene.

So it was right of Fleming to insert into Molière’s script jokes from today’s Australia, from the squawking of cockatoos to cooking shows on tv – and including same-sex marriage.  And it was right on the part of Peter Evans to direct the acting way over the top to the point of absurdity – all picked up on, with consummate skill, by the whole acting ensemble.

And, as the pictures show, Anna Tregloan’s costumes, hair and make-up designs were right up there, though these don't show the wonderful La Fleche nor the full-frontal Signor Anselm, both played by Sean O'Shea.


Damien Strouthos, Harriet Gordon-Anderson, Jessica Tovey, Jamie Oxenbould
as Cleante, Élise, Valère and Master Jacques

John Bell and Damien Strouthos
as the miser Harpagon and his son Cleante

Michelle Doak and John Bell
as matchmaker Frosine and Harpagon



While, underneath, Max Lyandvert provided a soundscape surruptitiously simple – looking for a grounding in a nicer humanity.

Bell Shakespeare, with John Bell, makes for a night of satire in a farce with a human touch.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Moliere-French-dramatist#ref12112
Images: https://www.facebook.com/pg/BellShakespeareCo/posts/
Photos © Prudence Upton

Surprise revelation in The MiserStanding:      Sean O'Shea (Signor Anselm); John Bell (Harpagon);
Michelle Doak (Frosine); Russell Smith (Commissioner of Police)
Seated: Harriet Gordon-Anderson (Élise); Jessica Tovey (Valère); Elizabeth Nabben (Mariane)

© Frank McKone, Canberra

Tuesday 2 April 2019

2019: Life - The Show by Strut & Fret
















Life – The Show by Strut & Fret in The Spiegeltent, Canberra Civic Square, March 30 – April 21, 2019.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 2

Creative Director: Scott Maidment
    Artistic Associates: Spencer Novich and Nick Beyeler
    Choreographers: Hilton Denis & Rechelle Mansour
    Sound Operator: Tom Strode
    Costume Designer: James Browne
    Lighting Designer: Jason Raft
    Music Arrangement: Steve Toulmin
    Stage Manager: Cat Hobart
    Assistant Stage Manager: Dani Miller
    Visual Effects: Mik Lavage and Perceptual Engineering
    Original Cast: Helena Bittencourt, Hilton Denis, Tim Kriegler, Rechelle Mansour, Goos Meeuwsen, Elke Uhd, Yammel Rodriguez
    Musicians: Attis Clopton (drums), Blaise Garza (sax & flute), Fantine Pritoula (vocals), Lee Taylor (vocals)
    Aerial tube act created by Nick Beyeler for LIFE – the show and is used with permission.

Strut & Fret – an independent and dynamic company producing and managing theatre, artists, events, festivals and venues. We believe artistic experiences should be breath-taking, heart-gripping, unforgettable and entertaining. With almost 20 years experience and a collective of passionate and creatively inspired individuals, we deliver distinctive events nationally and internationally.

Tim Kriegler in Life - The Show
 

The aim is impressive but the only breath-taking and memorable experience is provided by the two aerial performers, Tim Kriegler and Elke Uhd.  Kriegler’s solo on straps, in which he becomes a human trapeze, is remarkable.  His control and flexibility is beyond any other performer I’ve seen.  Their pas de deux inside a transparent soft plastic 4 metre suspended tube is original in conception and technique.  This is the only artistically developed segment of the show, where the theme of reaching out for love, frustrated by the invisible boundaries of human life, is played out symbolically – and therefore much more powerfully than in the mimetic action, or purely dance and song entertainment of the rest.

When I look back at Spiegeltent shows, like La Clique (2007), Smoke and Mirrors (2011) and Tomboy Survival Guide (2017), or to burlesque by Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith over the years since their The Burlesque Hour (2009), Life – The Show seems like no more than a mildly funny entertainment for unsophisticated “young adults”.

You can check those other shows at www.frankmckone2.blogspot.com

The climactic moment of the show about a failure of a man who works all day and masturbates all night is finally reached when Goos Meeuwsen “accidentally” reveals his penis poking through old-fashioned underpants the like of which I’ve not seen (nor worn) since the nineteen-fifties.  Certainly the young women behind me whistled and whooped, but I mean to say…!


Goos Meeuwsen in Life - The Show



I am aware of the French clown tradition behind Meeuwsen’s training at the École Nationale de Cirque de Montréal, but I have never forgotten my teenage encounter with “Genial, bumbling Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati) [who] loves his top-floor apartment in a grimy corner of the city” [ https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=jacques+tati+mon+oncle  ] particularly in M. Hulot’s Holiday and Mon Oncle

M. Hulot certainly never revealed his penis but in my 1950s his clowning was funnier and his commentary by implication on social conventions was far more telling than Life – The Show seemed to understand.  I could, of course, go on to Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean with the same comment.

Goos Meeuwsen and Helena Bittencourt
in Life - The Show



But I mention the 1950s because the image of the expectations set up in Life – The Show about “the voice of a real man’s man” and the sexist fantasy of the clown as our leading man – including the admittedly slightly unconventional role of the wife with the vacuum cleaner – overlaid with music by Leroy Anderson (which might have been played by Tommy Tycho in Australia) left me thinking, this is a retro show.  But simple entertainment 1950s style without the satire it deserves from a 2019 perspective just isn’t enough to be “heart-gripping, unforgettable and entertaining” any more.  Particularly if you remember Tommy Tycho’s music backed The Mavis Bramston Show way back in 1964.

My life’s story is not stuck in the 1950s when I was a teenager/young adult, and I noticed in a full house that there were relatively few whistles and whoops.  The two young adult couples sitting immediately in front of me, for example, were amused a little more than I was, but….


Hilton Denis, Rechelle Mansour, Blaise Garza
in Life - The Show


© Frank McKone, Canberra