2024: Last of the Red Hot Lovers by Neil Simon

 

 

Last of the Red Hot Lovers by Neil Simon.  Canberra REP February 22- March 9, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Feb 23 Opening Night

Director: Anne Somes; Associate Director: Cate Clelland
Stage Manager: David Goodbody; Asst Stage Manager: Bede Doherty
Set Design: Cate Clelland; Set Cooridnator: Russell Brown OAM
Lighting Designer: Mike Moloney; Sound Designer: Neville Pye
Set Dressing: Cate Clelland, Anna Senior OAM; Rosemary Gibbons
Costume Designer: Fiona Leach
Production Manager: Anne Gallen


Wikipedia records: The play opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on December 28, 1969, and closed on September 4, 1971, after 706 performances and six previews.

And also under the heading Reception: Clive Barnes, in his review in The New York Times, wrote: "He is as witty as ever...but he is now controlling that special verbal razzle-dazzle that has at times seemed mechanically chill... There is the dimension of humanity to its humor so that you can love it as well as laugh at it."

Eugene O’Neill???  Somehow these characters in the sad comedy of the failure of sexual anything-goes a la 1969 seem somewhat out of place in a theatre dedicated to that great playwright so deeply critical of his own American culture.  

OK, I don’t mean Desire Under the Elms or Long Day’s Journey Into Night.  Just The Hairy Ape.  There’s a dimension of humanity to its humour way beyond Neil Simon.

But hey!  What should we expect in 1969?  The year in which David Williamson set his Don’s Party (which opened in August 1971 – a month before Last of the Red Hot Lovers closed). “To the party come Mal, Don's university mentor, and his bitter wife Jenny, sex-obsessed Cooley and his latest girlfriend, nineteen-year-old Susan, Evan, a dentist, and his beautiful artist wife Kerry.”

In other words don’t expect such inventive satire from Last of the Red Hot Lovers, the plot neatly summarised, again by Wikipedia:

Barney Cashman, a middle-aged, married nebbish wants to join the sexual revolution before it is too late. A gentle soul with no experience in adultery, he fails in each of three seductions:
Elaine Navazio, a sexpot who likes cigarettes, whiskey, and other women's husbands;
Bobbi Michele, an actress friend whom he discovers is madder than a hatter; and
Jeannette Fisher, his wife's best friend, a staunch moralist.

If you don’t know what a ‘nebbish’ is, the word is American Yiddish for “One who is fearful and timid, especially in making decisions and plans, in discussions, debates, arguments, and confrontations, and in taking responsibility.”  David Cannell does an excellent job of making us laugh at his character; but does Neil Simon intend, when Barney’s final phone call to his apparently loyal wife apparently fails to inspire her to join him, for us to laugh along with a sense of ironic comedy?  

Or should we empathise with Barney, with his head in his hands as the lights fade, and feel sorry for this 23-years married, 47 year-old, after he has attempted to explore breaking out of tedium with the sexpot, mad actress and his wife’s best friend, each played brilliantly by Victoria Tyrell Dixon, Stephanie Bailey and Janie Lawson respectively?

I have difficulty agreeing with that first review by Clive Barnes.  Despite the play’s success, and being filmed in 1972, I think Neil Simon’s early plays, The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park, are much better because they were much more original in concept.  

On the other hand, though to me the character and life of Barney is not interesting enough, even to make decent satire, the deliberately over-the-top characters of the three women make the play – and this production – quite fascinating to watch.

And to think about, when you consider the superficiality of Simon’s picture of the new open sexuality – the Sexual Revolution – as he pictures it in 1969.  Could one write such characters, and see them as laughable, today?  

That’s a question which makes the production of the Last of the Red Hot Lovers as REP has done it – strictly reproducing the American accents, style and settings of 1970 – very worthwhile.

David Cannell as Barnie, with
Victoria Tyrell Dixon as Elaine Navazio
Stephanie Bailey as Bobbi Michele and Janie Lawson as Jeanette Fisher
in Last of the Red Hot Lovers by Neil Simon
Canberra REP, 2024

 ©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: How To Have Sex by Molly Manning Walker

 

 

 

 

 How To Have Sex – movie by Molly Manning Walker.  
Canberra Palace Electric Movie Club previews February 17, 18, 25, 27; Dendy Sunday Session Preview February 25. Release date: 7 March 2024

Reviewed by Frank McKone
February 17

Directed by Molly Manning Walker; Written by Molly Manning Walker
Produced by Emily Leo, Ivana MacKinnon, Konstantinos Kontovrakis

Starring    
    Mia McKenna-Bruce
    Lara Peake
    Samuel Bottomley
    Shaun Thomas
    Enva Lewis
    Laura Ambler

Cinematography: Nicolas Canniccioni; Edited by Fin Oates; Music by James Jacob
Production companies:
Film4, BFI, MK2 Films, Head Gear Films, Metrol Technology, Umedia
Wild Swim Films, Heretic
Distributed by    Mubi
Release dates 19 May 2023 (Cannes), 3 November 2023 (United Kingdom)
7 March 2024 (Australia)
Running time 91 minutes
Countries: United Kingdom, Greece, Belgium
Language: English

Plot
Sixteen-year-old best friends Tara, Em, and Skye head to the party resort of Malia on the Greek island of Crete for a rites-of-passage holiday. While Em will be off to college in the autumn, Tara and Skye are less certain of their futures. The girls all look forward to drinking, clubbing, and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. Tara, the only virgin in the trio, feels pressure to match the sexual experiences of her friends.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Have_Sex#Reception


Mia McKenna-Bruce in How To Have Sex. Photograph: Mubi

This is the movie that needs to be shown at the very beginning of Schoolies Week, Saturday morning November 16, 2024. To every participant, and perhaps again every day.

I suspect the Gold Coast venues may not be quite as over-the-top as in, what Anthony Frajman in The Saturday Paper calls “the holiday hotspot town of Malia, Crete”.  If it is, it’s thumping loud, frantic, and openly about getting laid – equally aimed for by girls as by boys.  I don’t remember it being quite like this when I was their age some 67 years ago.  The Modern Jazz Quartet, which my father called jazz on tiptoes, was more my thing.

The essence of the movie is an awful sense of foreboding as Tara begins to realise that this is not all fun and nervous laughter, when the raucous mcee has two boys up on stage holding drink cans out like their penises, and girls come up to have ‘pee’ poured down their throats.  Gross is just not the word for it.  And it gets worse, which I will not try to describe.

Can Tara escape and not become the centre of attention?  Apprehension and dread are strong synonyms for foreboding.  I felt all of that with her.  And her mental and emotional confusion when she is given no choice, losing so much more than just her naivety.

The flight home to London is not an easy ride.  Molly Manning Walker tells Frajman (The Saturday Paper, February 17-23, 2024) How To Have Sex is ‘partly drawn from [her] holidays in Majorca and Ibiza as a teenager and in her 20s, but it also reflects her experience of being sexually assaulted in London on a night out when she was 16.  Echoing the frankness of How To Have Sex, she speaks about her assault with incredible candour. “No one talks about it,” she tells me.  “And when [an assault] happens, it sucks the air out the room and you can’t talk about it openly, and as a victim, it makes you feel even more shame and even more guilty about it because you’re like, ‘Maybe it’s my fault.  Maybe they don’t want me to talk about it.’”

As Tara begins, just a little, on her way home, to laugh like her friends again, I knew she was covering up, pretending it’s ok enough to not completely lose her social life.

And I knew what the issue of ‘consent’ is really about.  And I thank the writer/director of How To Have Sex, and the actors who make the story so real.

And hope the movie is seen widely, and definitely at the next Schoolies Week, where it might be renamed “How To Have Sex, Not”


©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: The Great Escaper

 

 

 

 

 The Great Escaper – movie. Release date: 7 March 2024 (Australia)
Media Contact: Sue Dayes suedayes@tmpublicity.com

Reviewed by Frank McKone

Directed by Oliver Parker; Written by William Ivory; Produced by Robert Bernstein, Douglas Rae
Starring: Michael Caine, Glenda Jackson
Cinematography: Christopher Ross; Edited by Paul Tothill; Music by Craig Armstrong

Production companies:  Pathé; BBC Film; Ecosse Films; Film i Väst; Filmgate Films
Distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment UK
Original release date: 6 October 2023 (United Kingdom)
Running time: 96 minutes

Cast:
    Michael Caine as Bernard (Bernie) Jordan
        Will Fletcher as young Bernard Jordan
    Glenda Jackson as Irene (Rene) Jordan, Bernard's wife
        Laura Marcus as young Irene Jordan
    John Standing as Arthur; Jackie Clune as Judith, manager of the care home
    Danielle Vitalis as Adele, Brennan Reece as Martin – care home workers
    Wolf Kahler as Heinrich; Ian Conningham as LCT Commander Parker
    Elliott Norman as Douglas Bennett; Donald Sage Mackay as Nathan
    Carlyss Peer as Vicky; Isabella Domville as Susan Everard
    Joe Bone as Tim; Victor Oshin as Scott

I find myself thinking of The Great Escaper, with its quite simple storyline, as if it were a stage play.  The central set would be of the rather well-resourced room in a retirement home where Bernard Jordan, who was born on June 16, 1924, lived with his wife Irene (‘Reenie’).  In real life Bernard died at 90 in hospital on December 30, 2014, and Irene a week later at 88 on January 8, 2015.

The dates are especially significant because the story is about Bernie’s determination –  as a retired sailor who had been on duty that day – to attend the 70th Anniversary in France of the Invasion of Normandy – D-Day – on June 6, 1944.  This was a ceremonial event attended by Queen Elizabeth and Barack Obama, with travel and accommodation arranged by the returned soldiers.  Reenie is not well enough to go.  But the real issue is that Bernie forgot to book a place in time.  What will he do?  Make his own way across, of course; especially to visit one of the 5000 graves in the Bayeux War Cemetery.

Approaching 90, needing a walking stick, but otherwise apparently in reasonable health, he leaves for a morning walk on the beach (at Hove, East Sussex, where he was born and died).  

On stage there would be scenes such as when Bernie meets other old soldiers like Arthur and even a German pilot, Heinrich, who may well have shot at Bernie’s landing craft on the day, on the forestage, while Reenie remains in their room dealing with the retirement home staff and her own health scares.  Then there would be projected scenes on screen of when they were young, meeting up at a wartime dance and of what happened on the landing craft, until the final scene at that huge war cemetery.

There are 3000 such cemeteries cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemorating over 575,000 men and women in France.  “What a waste!” says Bernie.

On stage with the live actors communicating directly with the audience, I can imagine the depth and strength of feeling we would experience.

But there is an awful irony in watching this film.  Michael Caine turned 90 in March, 2023.  Glenda Jackson died aged 87 in June.  Filming had been planned for June 2021; finally got underway in September 2022; and “Parker screened the finished film for Caine and Jackson a few weeks before the latter's death on 15 June 2023.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Escaper

I feel somewhat hesitant to criticise the film in the circumstances, but it doesn’t achieve the dramatic power I imagine as live theatre.  This is not to do with the quality of the acting.  

Perhaps the problem is that the story of Bernard Jordan is real, and appears on film too much like a documentary, a documenting of the events.  But this movie is a fictional recreation based on the true story.  At the same when we watch any film we feel we are seeing reality.

Ivory, as the writer, uses flashbacks to represent actual memories and and their emotional impact, but when filmed, the younger versions of Bernie and Reenie don’t look enough like or their voices don’t have the same accents or manners of speaking as the Bernard and Irene we see in old age.  So the illusion of theatre is broken.  But maybe my reaction was influenced by my being an 83-year-old one-time Cockney.

The flashbacks to the scenes on the landing craft certainly created the horrifying effects of being under fire from the German aircraft, showing what happened to the tank, and the soldier Bernie persuaded to drive it out into danger.  But it was filmed for us as observers, instead of being a memory from within Bernie’s viewpoint.  

Caine and Jackson created their personal relationship very well, so that we (as we would have in a play) easily found ourselves identifying with each of them and feeling the bond between them.  But other scenes, such as Bernie’s meeting up with the Germans, being introduced by a ‘French’ hotel manager who didn’t sound like a real native French speaker, nor like a Frenchman trying to speak German, just didn’t seem real.  On stage it might even have been funny, rather than creating the tension that was likely if it had been real – nor did it create the other sense of recognition between fighters on such opposite sides, and the feelings that made Bernie and Arthur give Heinrich their tickets to the memorial function.

I certainly, though, could recognise the feeling of satisfaction that Bernie achieved when leaving his memento at the grave in Bayeux, after my wife and I had ourselves searched for her grandfather’s grave in Normandy, where he died in 1918, and where we saw the respect with which the local people keep up the maintenance of all those cemeteries.  

So though the film is made with good intentions, and raises important issues about warfare and its glorification, the writing and directing is inconsistent as a 90-minute drama.  

Yet it stands as a recognition of Glenda Jackson and Michael Caine’s acting capabilities, even their determination – like that of both Irene and Bernard Jordan – to go where he knew he must go, despite old age and the expectations of others.  

©Frank McKone, Canberra

Theatre Network Australia 2024

 

 

 Theatre Network Australia – Pre-Budget Submission 2024-25.
https://tna.org.au/tnas-federal-2024-25-pre-budget-submission

Contact: Joshua Lowe, Co-CEO
Theatre Network Australia (TNA) 

Post by Frank McKone
February 8, 2024.

Last month TNA made a submission to the Federal Government as a part of its regular Pre-Budget Submissions process. This is an opportunity to make recommendations to the government on what should be included in the upcoming budget for the next financial year.

TNA consulted with a number of members, our Board, funding bodies, and other peak bodies and service organisations to determine what was most needed and what might be possible in the current economic and political climate. Our recommendations capitalise on growing calls, commitment to, and capacity for interdepartmental and interjurisdictional collaboration, and propose a number of initiatives to grow sector capacity in cost-effective ways.

     Recommendation 1: A cohesive strategy for arts and culture international touring and              exchange.

    Recommendation 2: Support for national touring, exchange, and regional development:
        Coordinate investment in national touring by federal, state, and local governments.
        Increase investment in Creative Australia’s Playing Australia program.

    Recommendation 3: Support for arts and culture workforce development:
        Facilitate stronger implementation and accountability of the Australian Curriculum by requiring states to publish compliance reports.
        A pilot program for a national Creative Schools program modelled on Sporting Schools.
        Reinstate Creative Australia’s ArtStart program.

    Recommendation 4: Increased capacity of arts and culture to contribute solutions to the mental health crisis:
        A national Social Prescribing Scheme that includes arts and cultural activities and specified pathways for mental health referral.
        Support training and accreditation for artists and arts workers active in mental health settings.


TNA will use this submission and our recommendations in our advocacy for the sector throughout the year.

To read the TNA Submission in full, go to

https://tna.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/TNA-Federal-2024-25-Pre-Budget-Submission-1.pdf

©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: Alone It Stands by John Breen

 

 

Alone It Stands by John Breen.  Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, January 25 – March 2, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
February 3

CREATIVES
Playwright: John Breen
Director: Janine Watson
Cultural Consultant: Tiana Tiakiwai
Set And Costume Designer: Emma White
Lighting Designer: Matt Cox; Composer And Sound Designer: Jessica Dunn
Dialect Coach: Linda Nicholls-Gidley; Fight Director: Tim Dashwood
Intimacy Coordinator: Chloë Dallimore; Stage Manager: Lauren Tulloh
Costume Supervisor: Renata Beslik; Art Finishing: Sasha Wisniowski

CAST
Tristan Black: Tony Ward, Munster player; Russ Thomas, All Black Manager;
John Ashworth, All Black player; David, posh Cork supporter; Monica, child;
Jasper, child; Bunratty singer; Brendan Foley, Munster player,
Wayne Graham, All Black player; Dan’s Friend 1; Mark Donaldson, All Black player.

Ray Chong Nee: Spider, child; Fox O’Halloran, President of Shannon Rugby Club; Tom Kiernan, Munster coach; Andy Haden, All Black player; Graham Mourie, All Black player; Relative at funeral; “Locky”, Gerry McLoughlin, Munster player; Dan’s Friend 2; Spectator.

Briallen Clarke:  Mary, Gerry’s wife; Dandy, child; Moss Keane, Munster player; Marjorie, posh Cork supporter; Bunratty singer; Gary Knight, All Black player; Top of big NZ fan; Ball; Brian McKechnie, All Black player.

Skyler Ellis:  Lanky, Munster fan; Donal Canniffe, Munster player; BBC commentator; Rodney, posh Cork supporter; Brad Johnstone, All Black player; Bunratty singer; Bryan Williams, All Black player; Nurse 1; Eddie Dunn, All Black player.

Alex King: Stu Wilson, All Black player; Ferret, child; Sinbad, dog; Bunratty singer; Pat Whelan, Munster player; Jim Bowen, Munster player; All Black fan 1; Taxi Driver; Nurse 2; Bottom of tall NZ fan; Colm Tucker, Munster player; Greg Barrett, Munster player; All Black forward.

Anthony Taufa: Gerry, Munster fan; Seamus Dennison, Munster player; Dan Canniffe, Donal Canniffe’s father; BJ Robertson, All Black player; Bridie Walsh, barmaid; Irene, posh Cork supporter; Bunratty singer; Priest.


Maybe Alone It Stands is not a Great Play, but it’s a very funny celebration human togetherness.  It must also stand alone for the most number of characters per actor.  This makes it a very cleverly written play, and demands absolutely tight timing when each ‘scene’is here and gone again within a couple of minutes.

All praise therefore to all the cast, individually and as a team.  No-one missed a beat, even when someone briefly patted a knee of a mature woman in Row A.  Row A’s were warned as they took their seats to ‘watch your feet’.  It’s such togetherness that keeps the small in-the-round Ensemble cosy.  Some call it ‘intimate theatre’.

Funny as it is to see the amateur Irish Munsters play Rugby (Union, of course) against the best team in the world Maori New Zealand All Blacks – and win! – yet there’s a touch of serious thought being thrown around.  There’s a little symbolism going on.  

On the political level, why historically have the Irish not won great wars against (or even with) Great Powers?  Or does this mean this is how they have won their freedom?  

On the family level, does Gerry do the right thing by Mary?  “It’s only a couple of hours,” he says, deciding not to miss the All Blacks game.  After a wild Irish taxi drive to the hospital, “Did I miss it?”.  “Them” says Mary.  “Two boys.”  

Is it enough, at the post-game celebration with the biggest bonfire ever, for everyone to toast Mary and her twins – while Gerry will bring them up to play the All Blacks and win in their own good time?  Is singing Erin Go Bragh (Ireland Forever) good enough?

You won’t miss the laughs, even if like me you only ever played soccer, or even that Aussie game Rugby League.  But keep a look out not to miss Mary at the end.  She’ll be right, though – won’t she?

And don’t miss the performance of Alone It Stands.  It’s a terrific example of the work of the Dialect Coach Linda Nicholls-Gidley, Fight Director Tim Dashwood and Intimacy Coordinator Chloë Dallimore.  Maori’s with Irish accents are one thing, but rugby player, dog and taxi driver Alex King, and even Briallen Clarke as the oval ball itself is something special to see.

Another Ensemble success.

Alone It Stands by John Breen
Ensemble Theatre, Sydney 2024

 ©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: Jungle Book Reimagined by Akram Khan

 

 

Jungle Book Reimagined.  Akram Khan Company presented by Canberra Theatre Centre, February 2-3, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Feb 2

Director/Choreographer: Akram Khan
Creative Associate/Coach: Mavin Khoo
Dramaturgical Advisor: Sharon Clark
Composer: Jocelyn Pook; Sound Designer: Gareth Fry; Lighting Designer: Michael Hulls;
Visual Stage Designer: Miriam Buether
Art Direction and Director of Animation: Adam Smith (YeastCulture)
Producer/Director of Video Design: Nick Hillel (YeastCulture)
Rotoscope Artists/Animators: Naaman Azhari, Natasza Cetner, Edson R Bazzarin

Rehearsal Director: Nicky Henshall, Andrew Pan, Angela Towler

Dancers: Maya Balam Meyong, Tom Davis-Dunn, Hector Ferrer, Harry Theadora Foster, Filippo Franzese, Bianca Mikahil, Max Revell, Matthew Sandiford, Elpida Skourou, Holly Vallis, Jan Mikaela Villanueva, and Lani Yamanaka


When theatre is presented as a grandstanding significant work, I must consider if the result achieves a depth of artistic sincerity or is not much more than a self-indulgent display.

The dancers in this production of Jungle Book Reimagined must be praised for their performance of a demanding choreography and presentation of characters, but the show as a whole is a confusing collection of bits and pieces supposedly derived from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

The book publishers write “First published by Macmillan in 1894, The Jungle Book is the classic collection of animal tales that shows Rudyard Kipling's writing for children at its best. The short stories and poems include the tale of Mowgli, a boy raised by a pack of wolves in the Indian jungle. We meet the tiger Shere Khan, Bagheera, the black panther, Baloo, the 'sleepy brown bear', and the python, Kaa. Other famous stories include the tale of the fearless mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and that of elephant-handler Toomai of the Elephants.”
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/rudyard-kipling/the-jungle-book/9781509805594
They also note it is “A collection of Rudyard Kipling's animal stories, wonderfully told and interweaving moral lessons with classic tales.”

Kipling’s story is, of course, entire fantasy – a British Empire story probably vaguely influenced by the story of Romulus described on the History Channel: “Left to drown in a basket on the Tiber by a king of nearby Alba Longa and rescued by a she-wolf, the twins lived to defeat that king and found their own city on the river's banks in 753 B.C. After killing his brother, Romulus became the first king of Rome, which is named for him.”

I’m guessing that’s how the pack of wolves got into the Indian jungle.  As jungleroots.com explains: “Indian Wolf - They are less territorial than other wolf species and rarely howl. Unlike Mowgli's wolf family in The Jungle Book, they usually avoid the jungles and stick to the more open areas like grasslands.”

So what is the purpose of  Akram Khan ‘reimagining’ Kipling’s obviously romanticised picture of their Empire for British children in 1894 – with pictures drawn by Kipling’s father in so-called Indian style.  The Canberra Theatre Centre publicises the show, saying “Following seasons throughout the world including Sadlers Wells (London), The Lincoln Centre (New York), Canadian Stage (Toronto) and Theatre de la Ville (Paris) we are thrilled to present this gripping, exquisitely crafted and timely work to you here in Canberra….  It is exciting that this week, the Akram Khan Company will present a masterclass for local dance practitioners.” (Dan Clarke, Head of Programming).

I can’t, therefore, dismiss this show lightly.  Yet, the first comment I overheard at interval, was ‘rather boring’.  That, I’m sure, was not about the dancers’ technical skills or the clever individual characterisations, some quite humorous; but too often group work in the style seen in the program cover (above) was repeated time and time again for no apparent purpose, and with no development of the story.  In Act 2, the story development gathered some pace – but I never felt properly engaged with the central character – the girl, named by the animals as Mowgli, and given the impossible task of proving her superiority among animals as a human – seemingly perhaps the last one left on earth, after defeating the hunter.

I can’t deny Akram Khan’s genuine intentions about the theme of how “climate change is and will continue to affect all living creatures on this beautiful planet” and how “we are now living in unprecedented and uncertain times, not only for our species but for all species on this planet.  And the root cause of this conumdrum is because we have forgotten our connection to our home, our planet.  We all inhabit it, and we all build on it, but we have forgotten to return our respect for it.”  And about “the lessons of commonality between species, the binding interdependence between humans, animals and nature, and finally, a sense of family and our need to belong.”

But there is a terrible irony in the design of Jungle Book Reimagined.  The most effective aspects, theatrically, are in the sound effects and the original approach to visuals.  Since COVID-19 lockdown, Khan writes, “I have come to appreciate technology [which] allowed me to stay connected with my loved ones, my artistic team and the wider world.  Without the use of technology, I would have felt truly alone.”

The irony is that the living performances of the dancers take place behind screens (though transparent) where remarkable moving images of all sorts from elephants, giraffes, birds and even mice take all our attention, while the choreography, often in stylised representation of the animals, never takes us fully into feeling a sense of human or animal family.

In the end, the final image of the drama is defeatist.  Despite the dancing in unison seen in the first program image above, the program also shows the image below, representing what we saw full size on the backdrop screen ending the performance.

  

The image of Mowgli, at the edge of an endless sea, becomes a video of her climbing back on a raft of human-made metal drums or boxes, like the one that saved her from the climate-change induced floods at the beginning of the show.  As she begins to float to nowhere towards a blank horizon, the show ends.

Mowgli, the superior human, has failed to fulfil the hopes of the animals.  She may have used human technology to kill the hunter, and like Prospero who breaks his magic wand in The Tempest, she destroys the gun.  

But, if human technology saves the theatrical show, it shows us Mowgli left truly alone.  

And it left me feeling the technology had taken precedence over the living dancers.  Yet Akram Khan writes “We must not forget that most often, great storytelling can be told by the simplest of tools.  Our bodies, our voices, and our conviction in that story.”  

I agree – but the show became a display of complex technology without the warmth of humanity that dance is really all about.  What is the moral lesson here?



©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show

 

 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, adapted for stage from the book by Eric Carle, incorporating characters from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, 10 Little Rubber Ducks, and  The Very Bust Spider. Produced by Rockefeller Productions (NY).

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse, February 1-3, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Feb 2


The Creatives
Created by Jonathan Rockefeller
Based on the books by Eric Carle
Composer: Nate Edmondson
Set Design: Tyler Schank
Puppets by Rockefeller Studios

Leads:
Jessica Marie Lorence and Peter Brown

With (Australian Tour): Abbie Knoshaug; Atticus Stevenson; Genna Beth Davidson
Janet Castel; Kaden Woodward; Lindsay Cavallo; Maria Medina
Mariette Ostrom; Nate Hernandez; Robyn Coffey; Samantha Martino
Skylar Peak; Toria Sterling; Tyler Quick; William Ward; or William Galameau




Never perform with children or animals is a standard theatrical dictum  Don’t worry, these performers are wonderful with their puppet animals (including Teacher!), and with the children, from babies up to the occasional octogenerian reviewer.

In the past I have often been disappointed by blockbuster children’s shows because they have been too slick and lacking a sense of personal connection with the audience – showing at rather than showing for and with.  Today’s performers were in contact as much with humorous facial expressions and dance-like movement as with words, letting the story reveal itself to us – no pushing or hurrying – in a quiet mood without engineered excitement.

They didn’t need to tell the kids to count to ten, or name the animals (though perhaps ‘flamingo’ was a bit of a surprise – and a terrific puppet), or name the days of the week.  You could hear the kids and their parents just naturally joining in.

Quite fascinating was when a section of the story ended, like famous arias in opera, the kids, without parents needing to take the lead, just felt it was right to applaud.

This production is quality theatre – meaning that the children are learning that live performance is way better than anything on a screen.  And, in addition, the players begin by showing the books, opening the book of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and so the children realise that there are wonderful stories to be read in books.

Then, finally – after the very hungry caterpillar has learned that eating leaves is much better for them than filling up on ice creams and cup cakes – the Teacher takes up the Book, shows it open to all, and neatly ends the show by closing the book.

What a satisfying experience in living theatre for littlies and oldies alike.  Highly recommended.

The Canberra Cast in action

 ©Frank McKone, Canberra