No Man's Land

 University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. The Little Theatre. 2 Aug 2014

A rare production of a 70s Pinter play with some of the landmark names of South Australian theatre behind it. This Theatre Guild show is a hot ticket.

‘No Man's Land’, most particularly, is a vehicle for two very strong mature actors - to which end Michael Baldwin and John Edge come into their own. They are Adelaide's Gielgud and Richardson.

Director Warwick Cooper cast Baldwin as the parasitic lost soul of a poet, Spooner and Edge as the liquor-sodden celebrated man of letters, Hirst. Hirst, one believes, has brought Spooner to his Hampstead home for a drink after meeting at a local pub.

Garrulous Spooner is sycophantically grateful for Hirst's hospitality and the two men solidly hit the bottle. Spooner indulges in egocentric banter and Hirst steadily drinks until, taunted, he stands, throws his glass, falls down drunk and crawls off stage - in this case, right up the stairs of the little Theatre. It is quite a scene and, one is tempted to applaud as Edge makes it to the top.

The delicious contrasts and tensions of the play devolve from Hirst's caretakers - two very dubious Cockney retainers. Foster is his "secretary", educated, well-travelled and rather highly strung. Briggs is the tough guy manservant. Both are dedicated to their employer's wellbeing but also bristle with an implicit relationship of their own. They not only add a sense of threat to the play but a new degree of humour which Warwick Cooper has upped to the hilt.

He has Matt Houston play Foster not just as the "neurotic poof" Briggs namecalls him but as a screaming, off-the-wall nutcase. Foster enters dressed as a pseudo hippie and swiftly hits the decibels with high-camp histrionics. In the confines of The Little Theatre, it's enough to waken the dead. One can't imagine the distinguished old writer living with such a loon. When he rocks up in Act II, dressed in billowing plus-fours and a cap so strident that it dominates the stage, one just wonders why.

Perhaps it is for added laughs.

The actors play for laughs - none getting more than Jonathan Pheasant as Briggs. He is a joy. A wonderful performance.

As for the two oldies, one can just tip the proverbial. Baldwin is pathos and bathos as the conniving and needy Spooner. Edge is dissolute elegance as Hirst.

Between them, as the play evolves through the booze-haze night and into the strange next morning, there are verbal thrusts and parries which spark - and moments of immense sorrow and puzzlement. We are never to be quite sure if Hirst is fully on the amnesiac alcoholic skids or if, perhaps, the two men have a history.

The play intends to confuse, as it intends to amuse.

And, of course, it is a wonderment of words and timing - an actors' play. In the Guild's hands, it is utterly engrossing and surprisingly funny.

Also, with the deft skills of designer Max Mastrosavas, it is exquisitely aesthetic. From floor to ceiling, The Little Theatre become a Hampstead literary den, long red bordello curtains stretching to the floor, flanked by massive portraits of great playwrights which obscure the mezzanine completely. The proscenium is blocked by many bookcases full of old books. There is handsome wooden chest for the liquor and glasses and well-placed writing desk, chairs and lamps creating a cosy sense of affluence.

 
With good lighting from Joe Sperenini and sound from Gavin O'Loughlen, ‘No Man's Land’ goes down as another vivid feather in the UATG's very well-adorned cap.

Samela Harris

When: 2 to 16 Aug
Where: The Little Theatre
Bookings: adelaide.edu.au/theatreguild

The Importance of Being Earnest

State Theatre Company of SA. Dunstan Playhouse. 30 July 2014

The audience erupts from the theatre in a haze of happiness. A good Earnest is a delicious experience - the theatrical equivalent to the perfect cucumber sandwich. Well, maybe this one is not quite of that traditional custom. Cucumber and rocket, perhaps, since Geordie Brookman has pushed the conventions, as is his wont. He's a young director who likes to put a dash of the fresh in the classics.

Thus is this production of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ set upon a circular pedestal of richly polished red wood and enclosed by giant shower curtains which, dragged to and fro by human hand, serves as backdrops to the scenes. Ailsa Patterson is the clever designer who has produced this talking point of a set which turns the expanse of the Dunstan Playhouse's proscenium stage into a more intimate space: the drawing room with its quaintly minimalist furniture, surrounded by silvery, gossamer layers, and the country garden swathed in a wall of roses. Gavin Norris's lighting emphasises its bold aesthetic statements and while reigning large upon the eye, falls short of stealing the show.

As it should be, Oscar Wilde's script is the real star here, with some skilled assistance from the cast and with an impish eye from the director.

The play required no explanation for much of the audience. One of the challenging things about it is how well people know it and how many of its lines have such a place in popular reference that audience members are just hanging out to hear how they are delivered this time.

The action opens in a London drawing room where foppish Algernon and his visiting friend Earnest, gentlemen of class and manners, discuss the double lives they have created as escapes from the constraints of their parlour lives of gentility. One calls himself Earnest in the city and Jack in the country. The other weekends in the country for the sport of "Bunburying" whereupon he creates out-of-character adventures for himself.
These odd indulgences become both spurred and hampered by affairs of the heart.

Brookman has re-imagined some of the characters. Most pointedly and absolutely brilliantly, there is the new Gwendolyn who is not just coquettish but also dripping with innuendo and bursting with highly-corsetted lust. She has never been funnier than as portrayed here by Anna Steen who delivers the Wildean wit with wickedly well-placed emphases. "Little Cecily" who, at 18, is the product of a sheltered private education in the country, is less ingenuous in this interpretation of the play. Instead she is petulant, wilful, and knowing. Lovely young Lucy Fry hams her up with non-stop mugging and a death-defying totter in her very tight long frock.

Brookman's casting of Earnest is bold. In Yalin Ozucelik he brings an almost Groucho Marx element - dark, balding, moustachioed, an outsider in a black tail coat.  Set beside the height and evidently Celtic genes of Nathan O'Keefe as Algernon, he adds another element of the ridiculous.

O'Keefe swaggers and flops, whines and connives in a perfectly-pitched over-the-top characterisation as Algie. He has Wilde down to a tee, or should one say cup of tea and plate of muffins. It is a glorious performance, an enunciational triumph.

And then there is Nancye Hayes. There's a round of applause as she enters the stage in the most eye-blastingly violent orange outfit topped by an extra-planetary eruption of ostrich feather haberdashery. Oh, it is a big and fussy frock. It would swallow a lesser actress. But Hayes, as Lady Bracknell, is all presence and composure, timing, and eloquence. She is lynchpin to the plot and conveyor of the greatest lines. She does it all with consummate expertise, the "handbag" line emerging not as an indignant exclamation but as a glorious gasp which visibly resonates through her torso. In the country scene she is not so much frocked as upholstered. The costumes are their own comic statements.

Caroline Mignone may be disadvantaged by her good looks as Miss Prism, but not by her acting. She emotes very sweetly and one rejoices for her relationship with the Reverend Chasuble. He is one of three characters played by the inimitable Rory Walker whose expressions and timing are responsible for some of the funniest moments of the production.

And an eminently amusing production it is. Brookman has delivered a proper comedy of manners, a Wilde with a wild streak. He has dared to add a smatter of shtick and some visual assaults to heighten some of the silliness. He has pushed it, but stopped short of offending Wilde purists.

And thus does The Dunstan Playhouse resound with titters, giggles, guffaws and belly laughs - and enthusiastic applause.

Samela Harris

When: 25 Jul to 16 Aug
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au

Man in a Bag

 Polygraph Collective. Holden Street Theatres. 19 Jul 2014

‘Man in a Bag’ is forensic and sharp as a scalpel as it lays bare before the audience, the truth of what happened to the dead man in the red sports bag found in the bath in his small rented flat; an intelligent and well-crafted first production by this new ensemble, Polygraph Collective.

In 2010, Gareth Williams, an M16 officer, was found decomposed in a red bag in his bath tub. The bag was padlocked on the outside and the keys inside under the body of Williams. How it happened? The could-be truth; the questionable truth; and the real truth; is the expose of this 55 minute production. Who was the man behind the M16 officer? Was it murder? Was it a set up by ʻothersʼ? Was there a mysterious woman involved? Was it all a horrible mistake by Williams who thought he was Harry Houdini? Playwright Emily Steel has collected the facts as reported in the UK press at the time and presented them as a sort of police investigation; running commentary; and post death revelation by the man in the bag. Lean and clean writing.

The 7 member acting ensemble consisting of Chrissie Page, Holly Myers, Charles Mayer, Sam Calleja, Sara Lange, Lochlin Maybury and Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, enter and exit in their turn, some playing cameo roles, some nearer the plot core, but all essential to laying out the body, so to speak, of the play.

There are strong individual performances leading to a solid theatrical experience for the audience. The co-directors, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight and Ben Roberts worked on ‘Man in a Bag’ during its first incarnation at the Adelaide College of the Arts. The staging is impeccable. The action is well paced and the plot development is clearly presented. If I were to carp on one small point, it would be that the almost UK provincial accent of the rental flat manager’s husband could have been brought into line with the other non-specific accents of the rest of the characters.

The set design by Olivia Zanchetta was effective; movable white screens; a red sports bag; a black chair. All locations were created by manipulating the screens. One small jarring element of the set was the rustling of the white screen material whenever the screens were being manipulated. A case of ‘silence would have been golden’.

The costumes by Olivia Freear were functional and unobtrusive. Sound design by Callan Fleming and Lighting design/ operation by Alexander Ramsay worked hand in glove with the set and the onstage action; choreographed precisely. For example: the bell of the lift as the door opened and closed; the pulsing lights and the almost tribal rhythm of the following scene’s soundscape; and the interaction between on stage voices and pre-recorded voices.

It would be remiss of this reviewer not to mention Gilbert Kemp Attrilʼs opening video component, Will Spartelʼs sound operation, and Sofia Caladoʼs intriguing production image. Henry Arrowsmith and Clara Solly-Slade in the production department completed the Polygraph Collective’s ‘Man in the Bag’ team for this fine intro to the company’s work.

The moral: Donʼt try the ‘Man in the Bag’ trick in your own lounge room… and always look under the surface of what you hear, see and read in the media.

Martin Christmas

When:  22 July to Aug 2
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: venuetix.com.au

The Sound of Music

Gilbert and Sullivan Society. The Arts Theatre. 19 Jul 2014

You'd better get in quickly. The "Sold Out" sign was out in Angas Street and opening night won't be the only night. That's one terrific production in The Arts Theatre.

And this is a rave review.

The G&S Society has a track record for classy shows but this one, stepping away from G&S and into Rogers & Hammerstein, may just have created a new benchmark.

From the opening moment, it is a voyage into excellence.

There are the nuns massed beneath the mighty stained glass windows performing a superb piece of a capella choral work. It is just ethereal. The orchestra slips seamlessly into action for Maria out there singing to the mountains. It's a large orchestra down there in the pit and sound designer Matthew Curtis has it pitched perfectly against the singers. The singers all are miked and the sound is well balanced - right up there with the big-budget professional shows.

The Sound of Music is an old favourite which means audience expectations are high. Everyone thinks of Julie Andrews in the lead. Claire McEvoy is not she. Her voice is not Andews-esque soprano. It has its own character and she makes of Maria Rainer a character more earthy and credible. From that first night when the children come to Maria's bed in the thunderstorm, McEvoy owns the role and wins the audience.

She is well supported by Kim Clark as the reserved Captain von Trapp and, as for the children; they are a little pack of pros, many of them former Theatre Bugs and choir singers. They each capture the requisite classic character and Kate Price as 16-year-old Liesl has a lovely voice and stage presence and is definitely a young performer to watch.

Expectations are high for the Mother Abbess, too, in this show.  Marsha Seebohm has it all under control. She brings the house down with the power and beauty of her delivery of Climb Every Mountain. Richard Trevaskis is lots of fun as the family friend Max Detweiler and Bronwen Palmer establishes just the right hauteur as the wife-to-be, Elsa Shraeder. There are strong performances all around and wonderfully tight and cohesive direction of the massive cast from Trish Hart who also designed the sets.

If ever there was a case when the backstage skill and speed deserved credit, this show is it. The sets are many and complex, hoisting and trucking in all directions. They are splendid to look at and they hit all the cues. The same can be said for the impeccable costumes and the lightning costume changes.

The big choral numbers are luscious.  The choreography is spot-on. The stage swarms with talent and commitment. There's attention to detail. The whole show is well-groomed and the overall song it sings is one of theatrical expertise and discipline.

Samela Harris

When: 20 Jul to 2 Aug
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: gandssa.com.au