Independent Theatre Company. Space Theatre. 3 Sep 2015
The American Century began after that nation's late contribution in ending World War I, and F. Scott Fitzgerald was right there with it, naming the interwar period with his collection of stories, entitled, Tales of the Jazz Age, and furthering the fiction of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby, both of which he wrote in the twenties. The great Jay Gatsby was actually a great prohibition-era criminal, directing operations in several large American cities from his Long Island mansion, purchased to keep an obsessive eye on an old flame from the war days, now unfortunately married as Mrs Daisy Buchanan. He hoped that hosting generous and ostentatious high society parties would draw her to him like a moth to a flame, but he needed the assistance of his lowly neighbour - and narrator of director Rob Croser's clever adaptation - bond trader Nick Carraway.
The fantastic art deco set of ivory and marble, designed by David Roach (with assistance from noted Adelaide architect and brother Rod Roach) and Rob Croser, set the mansion and Manhattan scenes in opulent style. Croser picked the right cast. Will Cox hit all the marks as the mid-western east coast initiate, Nick Carraway. Cox had a pivotal role introducing the scenes, and in providing background and thought bubbles, and as a useful tool in the machinations of the mega-rich. Lindsay Prodea did a great job with the complex Gatsby. Green pier lanterns for envy and a yellow car for cowardice were Gatsby's colours. He presented the exterior of a confident self-made man, but also displayed Gatsby's vulnerability, conflict, and willfully blind objectification of his romantic goal.
In condensing a novel for stage, Croser had to choose amongst numerous scenes and descriptions to flesh out the characters and this was successfully done. Alexander Woollatt created an unpredictable and dangerous Tom Buchanan. Madeleine Herd and Kate Bonney as Daisy Buchanan and Tom's mistress respectively successfully presented as high class possessions deeply indebted to a man's world. Herd gave us a distracted attitude (as indeed required) while Bonney produced a lively persona that lifted the show. Laura Antoniazzi got a hole-in-one as female golfing champ and party person Jordan Baker. Three sparkling gems. Nick Fagan did a good snap as the hapless hubby of Tom's mistress.
Where would the story be without the glitz? In the Lower East Side, not on Long Island, where it belonged. The cossies by Sandra Davis, Pattie Atherton and Angela Doherty, along with the make-up and hair, were absolutely stunning! Choreographer Pam O'Grady got the crew gaily flapping at the numerous Gatsby functions. Andrew Steuart had a unique modus operandi that caught my eye in every part he played, especially on the dance floor. The party mood was definitely enhanced by feisty songs of the period sung on stage by Ben Francis.
Opening night though, jeez, I wager, was not as good as any subsequent performance which I implore you to see. At the beginning, things seemed a little forced and uncertain, but the whole shebang built up to speed as the evening wore. The stakes were raised and the mood successfully shifted from party gaiety to psychological drama. The epilogue was very touching. Those familiar with the 2013 Baz Luhrmann film with Leo Cappuccino in the eponymous role will find a much more complete story on stage. Bravo to Croser for yet another world premiere of his own adaptation of a classic!
David Grybowski
When: 3 to 12 Sep
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Arts Theatre. 3 Sep 2015
It is not surprising that this play ranks alongside the Beauty Queen of Linane as most often produced among Martin McDonagh's works. It is a neat little theatrical masterpiece cleverly balanced between poignancy and cruelty while funny on multiple levels.
The magic is in the McDonagh characters, who are as idiosyncratically Irish as praties over a peat fire.
The magic of this Rep production is in the casting.
Director Kerrin White's choice of actors simply nails it, and gives some little-known performers a chance to shine. This applies most specifically to Matt Houston as the eponymous lead in what is only his third production with The Rep. He establishes and develops the persona of the orphaned cripple boy with absolute conviction. It's a performance that sears into the memory.
But it does not stand alone.
As the story goes, Cripple Billy is both embraced and asphyxiated by the oddbods of the isolated community of the tiny Aran Island of Inishmaan. Thus, he is raison d'être for his two spinster aunts who run the local shop which, for some reason in 1934, is stocked almost entirely with tinned peas.
Seasoned performers Sue Wylie and Tracey Walker slap on the wrinkles and age up to fuss around in the quaint little microcosm wherein the only contact with the outside world comes in the form of Johnnypateenmike who trades snippets of overheard gossip for fresh eggs or whatever else he can snag and take home to his alcoholic old mum. Wylie and Walker make a lovely, quirky double act as the old gals with their daily banter covering the disappointments and anxieties of their limited lives.
Johnnypateenmike is a core character, catalyst to the grand getaway plans of the island young. He is not likeable but perhaps he is not what he seems. Dirty, scruffy old thing, he is the social media of the day and an essential part of the community. John Leigh Grey makes him larger than life. It is a vivid and fluent performance and an epitome of Irishness.
Eleanor Boyd as the boozy old Mammy shows just what a delicious gem one can make of a cameo role. She's very funny, as are the two youngsters of the production. They are still at school and they are talents which are definitely going places. Benjamin Maio Mackay playing Bartley, in a fancy school uniform which somewhat confuses as to what sort of school they may have on the island, is a vibrant onstage presence. His endless patter about sweeties is as lively and fun as it is important in establishing the narrowness of island life. Mary Rose Angley plays his sister, Helen and, oh, what a manic, mugging whirlwind of a lost soul she makes her.
Ben Todd plays a good, solid doctor in the middle of the general mayhem while Alan Fitzpatrick, a strong and simpatico young actor, is very lucky that as Babbybobby, he is the one cast member who does not have to keep trying to say Babbybobby and get it right.
But that name is one of the notes in the music of language which carries the play and the cast has worked hard to achieve the lilts and sways of the dialogue.
It's high marks to Kerrin for his tight direction and simple but effective sets and special marks to lighting designer Jo Topperwien for some good aesthetics and apt atmospheres.
The pace of set changes could be picked up a bit and accompanying music better balanced - but there's not much wrong with this neat piece of good theatre.
Try to catch it.
Samela Harris
When: 3 to 12 Sep
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
State Theatre Company. Dunstan Playhouse. 25 August 2015
Shakespeare wasn't the only playwright in town at the beginning of the 17th Century when Ben Jonson was in full bloom during the English reign of King James I (1603-25). Writing wasn't his first career choice - he was apprenticed as a bricklayer to his stepfather when he volunteered for the army and is considered to have killed an enemy soldier in single combat in Flanders. On return to England, he started as an actor. Queen Elizabeth I banned his co-written play, Isle of Dogs, and Jonson did time for "leude and mutynous behavior." A year later, he killed one of the actors in that play in a duel, and also wrote his first successful script, ironically titled, Every Man in His Humour. He was/is regarded paradoxically as a bit of a hot-head and one of the best writers of satire in his time.
Whereas Shakespeare is performed verbatim, Jonson's Volpone (or The Fox) needed a bit of a massage by adaptor Emily Steel. Volpone in the first scene appears bound to his deathbed in Venice and, seemingly soon to be departed from his fabulous wealth, manages to extract even more treasure from three friends who are promised to be his sole heir by Volpone's mischief-making manservant, Mosca. I could see the Jacobean masses ripping laughter at the unadulterated greed of these rich bastards while they manipulate each other for ever more booty, work their way through corrupt courts with crooked, smooth-talking lawyers to protect their assets, and finally get unjust comeuppances.
But that was then and this is now. I didn't peal with laughter or feel anything often enough to make this a great night out. Director Nescha Jelk seemed to have all the design elements in place: Jonathon Oxlade's modern Italianate pillars and arches making a colonnade or peristyle as required, Geoff Cobham's lighting palate complementing Oxlade's colourful personality-bespoke costumes, and Will Spartalis's spoof music. Jelk and her cast invest the characters with over-the-top and physically comedic idiosyncrasies that were at first startling and laugh-fetching. But after the initial intrigue had been set, the script followed the course of a morality tale, and production values that were initially stimulating and unusual became loud and overloaded.
It was great to see some of the old favourites foiled with a younger crop of actors. Edwin Hodgeman charmed with his aged Corbaccio. Geoff Revell made his schtick comfortable in a variety of guises, and Paul Blackwell infused the eponymous role with his comic complexity. James Smith, Patrick Graham and Elizabeth Hay are the future on stage and no doubt we'll see a lot more of them. With Caroline Mignone and Matt Crook, director Welk guided the cast in script-enhancing physical comedy.
I think my lack of enthusiasm for this production is that the characterisations were fully understood once the key creative elements were established, and the story's wending didn't sustain my interest. Upon being told that Shakespeare never blotted (i.e., crossed out) a line when he wrote, Jonson apparently said, "Would he had blotted a thousand!" Careful, Ben.
David Grybowski
When: 21 August to 12 September
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au
Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 15 August 2015
George and Martha. Ever heard of them? You might have a couple like them in your life. That is, the couple that perform their marriage in public. They like to raise the stakes of the dinner party by goading and prodding each other to solicit a reaction, hopefully an embarrassing one, or to "enchant" the evening with witty barbs on the return of the serve. It's a dangerous game, and can spiral out of control. It can also be very disturbing for the guests, but that's part of the idea, to get people out of their comfort zone, push their buttons and to see what stuff they're really made of. Bad marriage turned to blood sport.
American playwright Edward Albee caused a sensation in 1962-3 when his psychological drama during a long after-party drinks session hit Broadway. He was rewarded with a Tony and a New York Drama Critics' Circle award for best play, and went on to win three Pulitzer prizes.
In Albee's hyper-version of this damaged marriage phenomenon, George is a clapped-out history (read yesterday's academic) professor at an upstate New York university. His marriage to Martha, the university president's daughter, for 23 years, has not resulted in the expected advancement. After a party at Daddy's house, Martha invites over a couple new to town, a young biology (ie; the future - genetics, etc are discussed) prof and his rather simple wife. It's on, as George and Martha play psycho-games with the guests and each other.
This production is an absolute ripper. Director Geoff Brittain has marshalled his forces into a fighting team. The creeping barrages are laid thick and fast, and the swordplay is expert. "the Woolf" is a necessarily lengthy play so that the audience gets the wearing-down effect and both barrels in the denouement have maximum effect, but Brittain's production is action-packed throughout.
In spite of a delayed season due to an illness in the cast, they were a well-oiled machine of rapid-fire insults and slanging matches. There are four-out-of-four terrific performances. Julie Quick played a great Martha - mercurial and a superb drunk. Her venomous barbs lingered in the air and from the front row were rather frightening. Chris Leech as the harried George was every inch the has-been prof, but a cunning one as he invents new games, like Hump the Host, and Get the Guests. Mark Healy's Nick had the necessary unbalance while Jessica Carroll's Honey's descent into an alcoholic haze was palpable. But it was the way that Brittain had them working together with repartee, and in creating changes of mood and pace. Martha and George encircled their prey and used them like bait that ends in a winner-take-all end-game. Tony Clancy's study/lounge room set was just the ticket, but the soundtrack added nothing.
This is another Theatre Guild production delivering the goods and should not be missed. Double bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 12 to 22 August
Where: Little Theatre, University of Adelaide
Bookings: trybooking.com
Windmill Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre and AJZ Productions. Space Theatre. 14 Aug 2015
"the book of loco" won the 2013 Adelaide Fringe Festival Award for Best Theatre Production, so I was mucho looking forward to my first viewing and this faithful reprise with writer, creator and sole performer, Alirio Zavarce, and original director, Sasha Zahra, after a second season at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre last year.
This one act play is an extremely creatively expressed autobiographical amble through Zavarce's earlier and unsettled life, prior to current contentment with his wife Juliette and their two kids. He has a lot to get off his chest, and if he's not still terribly angry about it all, he certainly acted like he was. And that's probably why I left the theatre feeling rather sad, as if the trespasses against him, and those he saw in life, were not forgiven, in spite of a plea to the audience to be kind and considerate of one another, politically and even when exiting a burning building.
Many of his life's incidences struck a parallel with mine, but some serious ones I have not had to endure. Desperate phone calls with the recent ex- telling him to buck up had me recollect some pathetic moments. I have not endured the racial profiling from customs that Zavarce relates on return trips back to Australia, however, I share with him the dislocation of the life of a migrant to this country, and terrible visits back home to ailing, dying or dead parents. A kind of a running theme was what to do in an emergency (and airplane trips figure prominently here again) - later it emerges why. No, I haven't had that happen to my family.
Zavarce, stuffed into a black suit, and sweating profusely, is variably charming, frightening, funny, pathetic, threatening, throwing away anger and the next moment, defeated - driven crazy by manipulating authorities, bad behaviour, or just bad luck. Moment by moment, you just don't know what will be the next turn in the tale.
Director Zahra and Zavarce employ a panoply of theatrical tricks and script devices to keep one off balance - not quite knowing where something is leading and then bringing it all together. Every action seemed to be loaded with symbolic content, although I found selling the plate of shit irrelevant and he could have saved himself the 20 bucks, which must be adding up to quite a sum by now, the third season. The set, comprised of walls of cardboard cartons, designed by Jonathon Oxlade, provided me with a sense of transition or change - on the move, so to speak. As the wall was dismantled in various ways, the boxes lent themselves to all kinds of makeshift props and purposes.
"the book of loco" is like a book from the bible - allegorical, historical, mythical, entertaining, educational, functional and above all, human. A plate of poo and all the rest not to be missed.
David Grybowski
When: 15 to 22 August
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au