2024: Lord of the Flies

 

 

 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams.  Canberra REP July 25 – August 10, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 26

Directed by: Caitlin Baker and Lachlan Houen
Voice and Performance Coach: Sarah Chalmers
Set Designer: Michael Sparks OAM
Lighting Designer: Chris Ellyard; Sound Designer: Neville Pye
Costume Coordinator: Antonia Kitzel

Cast:
Ralph – Joshua James; Jack – Ty McKenzie; Piggy – Winsome Ogilvie
Simon – Lily Willmott; Roger – Robert Kjellgren; Sam – Brandon Goodwin
Eric – Zoë Ross; Maurice – Alex Wilson; Henry – Phoebe Silberman
Perceval – Tara Saxena; Naval Officer – John Stead; Bill – Caitlin Baker

Canberra REP have been brave to take on Lord of the Flies with a young cast who have produced a worthy result.  It is an exercise not only in giving up-and-coming actors an opportunity to gain experience in a substantial work, but in providing us all with a reminder of the possibilities and the weaknesses of human society in the real world.

Golding’s novel is an allegorical fiction – that is, it is a story which parallels real life.  It works well in that form because while reading and turning pages (or screens), our imaginations visualise what is happening, our feelings are engaged in response, and our intellect makes the connections between the fiction and fact.

On stage the designers and actors do the imagining for us.  We see and hear what’s happening.  Our feelings are as much engaged in responding to how effectively the staging and acting is done, as they are in response to the story; while our intellect may catch on to some of the meaning as the action goes on regardless, outside our control.  

Adapting Golding’s story for stage, unfortunately, results in long periods of young people yelling at each other, without enough of the character development and variety of volume and intensity levels which I remember imagining when I first read the novel as a teenager soon after it was published in 1954.

The value in Canberra REP presenting Lord of the Flies is the strength of the allegory and our need to come to terms with the truth that we humans are lost on our Island Earth, and have never learned to manage intransigent ‘leaders’ who tell us to go back to where you came from; who manipulate us into ritual dancing which turns into ritual killings; and who steal the fire from those who would be responsible citizens.

Though I can’t say I exactly ‘enjoyed’ Lord of the Flies, I can say that there were some dramatically strong points, such as the deathly silence as it was realised that Lily Willmott’s Simon was dead; and the anguish expressed in horror by Joshua James’ Ralph at the very end of everything.  

And though there was a laugh at John Stead’s Naval Officer berating the British boys for not behaving well as British boys should, it didn’t take much imagination to realise that there’s no-one out there to come and rescue us on Planet Earth.

So REP’s production of Lord of the Flies is certainly worthwhile going to see.

©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: Mary Stuart adapted by Kate Mulvany

 

 

Mary Stuart adapted by Kate Mulvany after the verse play by Friedrich Schiller (the play Maria Stuart had its première in Weimar, Germany on 14 June 1800): Currency Press 2020.  

Presented by Chaika Theatre at ACT Hub, Kingston, Canberra July 24 – August 3, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 25

Director: Luke Rogers; Designer: Kathleen Kershaw
Sound Composition: Rachael Dease; Sound Design: Georgia Snudden
Sound Editing and Arrangement: Luke Rogers
Lighting Design: Disa Swifte; Voice and Text Coach: Sarah Chalmers

Cast:
Mary Stuart – Steph Roberts; Paulet – Cameron Thomas
Mortimer – James McMahon; Young Girl – Lily Welling
Burleigh – Richard Manning; Queen Elizabeth I – Karen Vickery
Ambassador Aubespine – Blue Hyslop; Leicester – Jarrad West
Shrewsbury – Neil McLeod; Davison – Lachlan Herring


Chaika Theatre very effectively uses what I call ‘presentational’ style for Kate Mulvany’s modern feminist approach to the historical story of Queen Elizabeth I executing her cousin Mary Stuart in 1587.

Schiller’s fascination with the story was more focussed on political philosophy, perhaps – about the use and misuse of monarchical power – rather than emphasising the women’s relationships.

You don’t need to know the history, but Life and Deathline of Mary, Queen of Scots, is at the National Museums Scotland site:
https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/scottish-history-and-archaeology/mary-queen-of-scots/mary-queen-of-scots/life-and-deathline-of-mary-queen-of-scots

Roger Paulin, in his introduction to the Flora Kimmich 2020 translation, helps explain my term ‘presentational’: the [original] play is written mainly in a blank verse suited to the close confrontations and the interplay of repartee that are conditional on both moral and political argument and the clash of principles. This enables words and notions that are related in sense to be thrown back at each other in rhetorical encounters, such as those to do with right, justice and the law.

So Chaika has taken the right path in this adaptation, not towards what we call ‘naturalism’, but to show characters in a dramatic plot in order to bring out ideas.  And they do that very successfully, except I think for one brief moment.  

The setting, of course, is not strictly 16th Century, though it is suggested by the costumes and the mix of older formal and modern colloquial language.  But the opening of the second half as a social-media dance party scene really seemed inappropriate for a drinking session for Queen Elizabeth and her presumed lover Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

Otherwise, the accompanying sound composition and design by Rachael Dease and Georgia Snudden (originally for Performing Lines WA) and the sound editing and arrangement by Luke Rogers captured the mood perfectly, drawing us in emotionally to so many scenes where concentrating on the words and their significance was crucial.

And, finally, the performances by Karen Vickery and Steph Roberts in the scene where they met, and then in their solos – Elizabeth’s anguish over her nightmare decision to sign the execution order; Mary’s confession according to her belief – brought out the depth of empathy from us for these women, because they were women, in our world of uncompromising politics, which Kate Mulvany wanted her adaptation to create beyond even Friedrich Schiller’s ending, where Elizabeth has lost her lover, Robert, Earl of Leicester – “His Lordship begs your pardon.  He is at sea and on his way to France”.

In Schiller, Elizabeth is forced to accept Shrewsbury’s words; “Live, rule content!  Your enemy is dead.  From now on you have nothing more you must fear and nothing you need to respect.”  (She forces herself and stands calm.)  The curtain falls.

In Chaika and Kate Mulvany’s dimming of the lights to black, we felt all that she lost in the awful beheading of her cousin, like her father’s beheading of her mother, Anne Boleyn.  And we felt for all those women who have no choice but to keeping standing calm.

This Mary Stuart is a valuable contribution to Canberra theatre and our culture.


 ©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: Horizon - Bangarra Dance Theatre

 

 

Horizon   Bangarra Dance Theatre at Canberra Theatre Centre, July 18 – 20 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 18

Artistic Director & Co-CEO: Frances Rings
Executive Director & Co-CEO: Louise Ingram
Choreographers: Deborah Brown, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, Sani Townson
            Dancers Of Bangarra Dance Theatre
Composers: Steve Francis and Brendon Boney (The Light Inside);
        Amy Flannery (Kulka)
Set Designer: Elizabeth Gadsby; Associate Set Designer: Shana O’Brien
Costume Designers: Jennifer Irwin (The Light Inside); Clair Parker (Kulka)
Lighting Designer: Karen Norris
Video Designer: Davis Bergman; Associate Video Designer: Cameron Smith
Featured Music Performer: James Webster (The Light Inside)
Filmed Dancer: Phil Walford (Kulka); Rehearsal Director: Juliette Barton
Kalaw Kawaw Ya Language Consultant: Leonora Adidi (Kulka)
Featured Vocalist: Zipporah Corser-Anu (Kulka)
Stage Manager: Rose Jenkins; Asst Stage Manager: Ashleigh King



Horizon is a major work of outstanding cultural significance.  Frances Rings and Louise Ingram have taken Bangarra beyond the company’s traditional horizon, centred largely on the Australian mainland, by commissioning three Islander choreographers.  

From the Torres Strait, Sani Townson is of Samu, Koedal and Dhoeybaw clans of Sabai Island and Deborah Brown’s ancestry is of Mer and Badu Islands; while Moss Te Ururangi Patterson is of the Ngati Tuwharetoa Maori tribe, North Island, Aotearoa New Zealand.

In the 20 minute Act 1, Kulka, the dance is based on the style of the Saybaylayg people of Sabai, and forms an overture or prelude for the 70 minute work combining Brown’s Salt Water and Patterson’s The Light Inside in Act 2.

Absolute respect – for the strength and sincerity in the dance, the remarkable sound design and recorded performances, the lighting and visual design –  is the heart of the emotion and thought that the total work creates.  Technically thoroughly up to date, especially in the ‘reflections’ which represent the spirits (and the spirit) of the physically real figures on the stage, Horizon is the ancient Indigenous world created for us all by modern keepers of their culture.  The history is of resilience, survival and success through all those tens of thousands of years, living in our part of the world.

The production of this work in itself models that history, with a tremendous sense of achievement, felt by everyone in the audience, as the whole cast came together as one in the final scene.  This is art for arts’s sake and art for our sake, all in one.  Not to be missed.

Follow up for more understanding and appreciation: Refugia, Homecoming and Maar Bidi, the Next Generation - the poetry by Elfie Shiosaki, Noongar and Yawuru academic, Associate Professor at the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University, interviewed by Rudi Bremer on Awaye, Radio National, Saturday July 20 2024, 6pm (ABC Listen) – on human rights and the ‘future of peace’; about an ecosystem that survives catastrophic climate change.  “Keep the campfire burning” as a fitting ending to 2024 Naidoc week.


Bangarra Dancers:

Lillian Banks; Bradley Smith; Courtney Radford; Kallum Goolagong; Kassidy Waters
Jye Uren; Kiarn Doyle; Maddison Paluch; Daniel Mateo; Emily Flannery
Janaya Lamb; Chatelle Lee Lockhart; James Boyd; Amberlilly Gordon; Lucy May
Donta Whitham

©Frank McKone, Canberra

2024: Midnight Oil - The Hardest Line -

 

 

 

 I can't do better than ask you to read this review by Richard Cotter in the Sydney Arts Guide:

 

at https://sydneyartsguide.com.au/midnight-oil-the-hardest-line 

© Frank McKone, Canberra