| Reviews: July-September 2004
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God is a DJ Queensland Theatre Company I gave this play every chance, I really did. Terrified of being condemned as a Boring Old Fart who doesn’t understand the modern mind, I searched for meanings in the lower depths, tried to find metaphors in the dazzling visual technology that confused my brain and worried my eyes, reached below the cacophony of noise that modern music is to me, and worked out elaborate parallels between the real and the virtual. But in the end, in spite of Bruce McKinven’s brilliant set and Scott Witt’s inspired direction, in spite of the glorious performances of Sarah Kennedy and Jason Klarwein (and Carol Burns’ clever filmed caricature of Margaret Pomeranz), I could only come up with one conclusion — that if God is a DJ, then he’s definitely male, and he’s stuffed the world up very seriously. The play begins by suggesting that heaven is a place where everything is legal, and the doors of perception are open to everyone who wants to make the effort to go through them. But as He (Klarwein) follows Her (Kennedy) around the room with his video camera, which is then projected on to a big screen at the back of the stage and thence to a television set, we begin to wonder if this is Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, or a modern remake of Sylvania Waters. Is it deeply metaphysical or just pretentious twaddle? She (Sarah Kennedy, looking like a cross between Barbie, Madonna and Charlotte Rampling, remains silent for the first 30 minutes while He explains himself to Her) has her own reality TV show, where she is on camera non-stop just taking about anything at all. From the clips that we see of her, she makes the Big Brother candidates seem like raging intellectuals. Kennedy gives the second-best performance of her life here (remember Sylvia?), a glamorous slip of a thing in a glamorous thing of a slip, first ignoring her cameraman lover then giving him the full sexual come-on, but when this neglected worm finally turns, we see Him through Her eyes, and what a lot of phoney rubbish his reconstructed radical commercialism really is. Yes, we are willing to suspend disbelief and allow his post-deconstructionist ramblings some credibility, because the way we communicate is perpetually changing, and a written text is no longer seminal to our understanding of anything. But as He stumbles his inarticulate way through his post-cool exploration of Truth and the Big Questions, he loses the plot, and the play descends into chaos as reality intrudes. By the end of the play we can no longer believe Him, so when the reality of a potential baby arises, and we are subjected to his all-too-predictable account of the incestuous paedophilia he suffered as a child (oh pur-lease!), we can no longer accept the playwright’s premise, because he has blurred the boundaries once too often, and to descend into straight psychological reality at this stage of the game is to ask too much of an audience. The character He may be a tiresome little junkie who makes us wonder what he’s on, and thankful that whatever it is hasn’t crossed our paths at a dance party recently, but He is only so objectionable because Jason Klarwein is able to make him so. The contrast between Klarwein’s loveable baby face and his portrayal of this self-deluding wannabe artist who is going to create a new world order based on sound is astonishing, and Klarwein gives us the son that every parent must mourn because he’s got everything so wrong. I’ve read the director’s notes and the playwright’s notes, and I’ve tried to relate what Leonardo, William James, Marie-Laure Ryan (who?) and Michel Foucault (misspelled twice in the program notes, if you want a piece of typical BOF pedantry) say to what is going on in this play, but I failed miserably. I’ve thought more about what it means and how it’s presented than I have about any play in a long time, but I remain as baffled and irritated by it as the many people who walked out during its 110 minute stretch. This is not to say it’s a dreadful experience, because the set, which catches perfectly the fragmented life style and values of the twenty-somethings, is a joy to look at, and a relief from the human-faces-reduced-to-pixels that the back screen constantly projects, and there are some very funny vignettes, like Carol Burns inarticulately interviewing the dead-pan dumb blonde She, and a hilarious send-up of television cooking shows. I’m very glad I saw it, and I urge anyone who is keen to follow new directions in modern theatre to swallow their prejudices and go along, but my initial reaction, that it’s full of sound and fury, and signifying very little, remains unchanged. —
Alison Cotes (Performance seen: 24 September 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine The Venetian Twins Queensland Theatre Company QTC’s production of The Venetian Twins is a most enjoyable demonstration of the fact that comparisons are not always odious. I went into the theatre with clear memories of the wonderful version put on by La Boite in the mid-'80s, with riotous performances by Drew Forsythe as the twins and Anthony Phelan as the superbly hissable villain, and wondered both whether this production could match those memories, and whether the musical itself had stood the very tough test of time. It is, after all, a '70s update by Nick Enright (of the words) and Terence Clarke (the music) of a 1700s comedy by Carlo Goldoni. Happily, the answers are yes and yes. Focusing on the time test first, not only is Enright and Clarke’s Twins as fresh and funny as ever it was, but it stands up very well in another comparison — with the huge hit currently playing in Melbourne, of The Producers, which I had seen just the day before. And fun though The Producers also is, I’ve got to say that most of the music in that musical is pretty boring while the words and music in the Twins are a perfect match, with your toes tapping to the zippy and catchy songs while your sides are aching with laughter. This production is an absolute hoot, from three minutes into the show up to the fun-filled finish. The slightly wobbly first-night start is due mainly to the blandness of the Judge, Penny Everingham, who takes a while to get into her vocal stride (but shows what she can do by the time of her big number), so that there isn’t the requisite spark between her and Mitchell Butel’s very dumb twin, Zanetto in the opening scene. But forgeddabout that, because it’s all set to rights as soon as Zanetto encounters the thrusting bosoms of the Judge’s equally intellectually challenged daughter Rosina, a deliciously hammy role for Carita Farrer. From that moment on, it’s a hilarious roller coaster ride for everyone in front of, behind and below the scenes. Because this is one of those shows where a vital and active role is played by every element of the production, from costumes and set design to the miracle of timing and co-ordination that is a sine qua none throughout, and not overlooking the delightful interplay (rarely made as explicit as it is here, in the Twins) between the actors on stage and the ensemble of musicians in the pit. Director Michael Gow is well served by the likes of musical director Paul White and his ensemble, Fight/Slapstick director Scott Witt (whose talents are visible in just about every scene), designer Robert Kemp, choreographer Neridah Waters…… and all the rest of the production team listed on Page 3 of the program. And, oh yes, there is also the cast. The queen of this cast is, without a doubt, the utterly superb Bridget Boyle, as twin Tonino’s Beatrice. She is a theatrical treasure of whom we have not seen nearly enough to date: a brilliant comedian with a virtually operatic voice that makes her mock operatic renditions of her several musical numbers an aural pleasure while she splits our sides with her glorious array of gestures, including a mini-homage to Munch’s recently stolen Scream. And she is well matched by Mitchell Butel’s flawless switches between the two twins who are identical only in appearance. As the bold and dashing Venetian sophisticate, Tonino, he does a mean Travolta in full Saturday Night Fever flight, that is as unlike as a pea and a pear in a pod from his long-lost, nasally congested and udderly befuddled country bumpkin twin Zanetto. Although this is a play with a subtlety by-pass, and peopled with the whole gamut of music hall stereotypes, the witty one-liners and the general mayhem keep the laughter on the boil while the confusion between the twins is given a free hand to block each one’s every attempt to make out and make up with the woman of his dreams. And, of course, there are also the usual complications of competing suitors for the hand of each of the maidens, with Rosina’s being sought by the dapperly dressed and moustachioed Pancrazio (played impeccably by Sandro Colarelli, who captures the ambivalence of a villain who not only wants to be hissed, but kissed); and Beatrice’s by the frenetic Lelio (Bryan Probets, who skips around the stage like a demented cat on a hot tin roof), as well as by Tonino’s friend-in-a-dilemma, Peter Marshall’s Florindo. Marshall’s blond locks, surely intended as a homage to Tony Gould’s, get considerable hair play in that part. At other times, however (and as is not noted in the program), they are variously covered as Marshall takes on two other roles which are each laugh-aloud vignettes of humour: the policeman and the jeweller (whose death scene is quite priceless). In among all the mayhem the nubile lady’s maid Colombina (a feisty Rebecca Murphy) and the peppy gentleman’s gentlemen Arlecchino (Mark Conaghan in sparkling form) keep a wry eye on the goings-on while giving the glad eye to each other. Bottom line? Everyone on stage is having fun, and it’s completely infectious. This is old-fashioned entertainment that hasn’t dated, and a show that all ages can enjoy together. So take the whole family! (We did, all those years ago, and our now adult children still look back on that production with fond memories.) —
Anne Ring (Performance seen: 9th September 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine The Comedy of Errors Bell Shakespeare (Playhouse, QPAC) It's extraordinary that this funny play is so seldom performed. Perhaps Shakespeare purists are sniffy about it because it's an early comedy and somewhat slight in comparison with the later works. Yet like early Mozart The Comedy of Errors is still incomparably greater than much if not most of what has been devised by others. I read the play for the first time last year, and found myself laughing out loud at some of the jokes and cleverly contrived situations. To say the Bell Shakespeare do the play justice is a massive understatement. This is a brilliant production, satisfying at all levels. The title of the play isn't exactly subtle, and the plot matches it. A master and his servant turn up in the ancient city of Ephesus in southern Turkey, each of them with an unknown twin brother who are also master and servant. (This unlikely scenario results from their all having been separated during a storm at sea; which also resulted in each twin having the same name as his brother.) So they prowl around Ephesus, being greeted by name by total strangers and taken into the home of the authentic master and servant, who find themselves locked out on the street. Endless misunderstandings occur, involving necklaces, welcomes from wives, the denying of debts to merchants and so on, as well as the mystery of what ever became of the twins' elderly parents. Sean O'Shea and Christopher Stollery are splendid as the two Antipholuses, radiating their superior breeding and their lack of brains. The women, Adriana and her sister Luciana, are played by Blazey Best and Jody Kennedy — a little zanier than I would have imagined, but fittingly within the context of this production. Best is dazzling with her voluble monologues, including extended haranguings of her puzzled husband and his twin. O'Shea and Stollery are equally good at the extended rant. Both Darren Gilshenan & Paul Eastway are cheerfully insouciant as the twin manservants, the Dromios. Gilshenan is of course well-known to audiences in his home town, through his key role in The Servant of Two Masters last year. He has the remarkable power of the comic to make an audience laugh when he is simply poker-faced, such is the anticipation he can build for what is to come. His antics and gestures as well as his plaintive ocker tone are a delight. Eastway does well to match him in so many respects. It is splendid also to see Anna Volska as Emilia, looking so much the part of a contemporary kindly teaching or hospital nun, and letting her gentle words lull us into a frame of mind that is severely jolted when she lets her temper explode. Other players Catherine Moore, David Davies, Robert Alexander and Patrick Brammall all play their various parts well. A wonderful bonus in this production is the use of magician (or as he seems to be called, illusionist) Ross Skiffington. He entertains with a dazzling array of tricks before and throughout the play, adding to the absurdity of the contrived situations in which the characters find themselves, but also helping to emphasise the sense of mystery and bewitchedness that permeates Ephesus. Apart from Skiffington's talents (as actor as well as conjurer), there is much complex and very impressive physical work from many of the cast, which all contribute to the remarkable evenness of the production. The masks, dancing and lighting all add to the enchanting effect, while the original music by Phillip Johnston, together with the design (Jennie Tate) are perfect in eliciting the sense of the Middle East, and, in these troubled times, reminding us of the splendour and humanity of the eastern Mediterranean region. As is normal with Shakespeare, the play can be enjoyed at various levels, and the program guide gives helpful tips in unravelling some of the themes, including family break-up and reunion, as well as the nature of twins (— the play has a lovely conclusion, with a touching little dialogue between the newly-united twin Dromios). One interesting little bypath Shakespeare travels, which again bring to mind Mozart, is the nature of forbidden attraction between in-laws (with Luciana and her sister's supposed husband drawn towards each other). This is a show I strongly recommend. Director John Bell and his travelling troupe have given us an outstanding and memorable production. And a pat on the back to the playwright too. —
John Henningham (Performance seen: 13 August 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine Arsenic and Old Lace Harvest Rain Theatre Company Joseph Kesselring’s 65-year-old comedy Arsenic and Old Lace is quite well-known to even the most novice theatre buff, and it continues to entertain and amuse audiences in the 21st Century. A large crowd fronted the Sydney Street Theatre for Harvest Rain’s adaptation of the classic play on a suitable cool and dark ‘Black Friday’ evening. The title is derived from the custom of sisters Abby and Martha Brewsters (elderly ladies who are known for their kindness and charity throughout Brooklyn) of poisoning lonely old men rather than seeing them suffer. Home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and cyanide is their weapon of choice, used on around a dozen men now resting in their basement. Their estranged and freakish nephew Jonathon returns to their house with his companion Dr Einstein. Together they had been travelling the world committing homicides in Africa, Europe and Australia. Jonathon takes competitive pride in his violent acts, resulting in a bizarre chain of events as he aims to compete with his aunties and take revenge for a childhood of oppression and confusion. The deranged nature of the Brewster family is typified by Teddy, the live-in nephew of Abby and Martha who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt. His constant interruptions of loud, irrelevant orders and charges up the stairs create a thoroughly enjoyable presence in the play. Mortimer Brewster is stuck in the middle throughout the production. The dramatic critic is the only Brewster with a hint of reason in the midst of murder and insanity, and he is the only one who can find a way to end the madness. Angel McIntosh and Jeni Godwin are dynamic as the deranged sisters Abby and Martha. Their use of accent, body language and expression perfectly accentuates their dotty, fussing and hospitable characters, keeping the crowd in stitches for most of the evening. Mortimer’s somewhat arrogant and fussy characteristics are portrayed well by Jason Chatfield, who displays his diverse range of skills within the one role. His loud, clear and bossy voice penetrates to the back of the theatre and keeps the audience’s full attention. It’s more than likely that John Stibbard was born to play Jonathon Brewster. His tall and thin frame, shoulder-length hair, spidery hands and creepy voice suit the character superbly. His posture and stance on stage develop the character further, along with the realistic and horrible make-up which was designed and applied by John himself. Jack Bradford adds great comic relief with his portrayal of Teddy Brewster. His constant calls of “CHHAARRRGE” before running up the stairs were a crowd favourite, along with his insistence on saluting local police officers O’Hara and Brophey. The interplay between characters is smooth and the intensity is never dropped throughout the play, a credit to director Robbie Parkin. David Parkin’s set design is both intricate and very suitable. No detail is spared in the living room of the Brewster sisters, including photos and clocks on the walls, trinkets and even their family china. This is complemented by the lighting, which is brilliantly used to highlight time of day, weather and dramatic effect. Harvest Rain’s production is the total package — entertaining, amusing and thoroughly enjoyable. The actors are one with their respective characters, and the effect is completed well with the props, sets and lighting. They have created a superb night out for everyone — from the average family through to the most learned and experienced theatre fan. —
Michael Fedrick (Performance seen: 13 August 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine Eating Icecream With Your Eyes Closed Queensland Theatre Company Sadly, Eating Icecream With Your Eyes Closed demonstrates that a good play needs to be written with more than good intentions. Icecream comes with a lot of worthy ideas, and it is unfortunate that the playwright doesn’t trust the audience to find them for itself, but marks them with giant arrows, starting with the title as the none too subtle and overarching theme that runs through the play. It is not giving too much away to say that the plot, for want of a better word, focuses on three ocker Aussie blokes from different backgrounds who meet in a bus shelter on the fringes of a small rural town. They talk and brawl their way through the night towards some sort of understanding while waiting for the bus that is their escape route to where they want to go, or from what they want to leave behind. As someone for whom the blokey, ocker culture is alien corn, I was looking forward to getting some insights into this other world. So it could just be my ignorance when I say that the dialogue simply does not ring true, and that I suspect that that culture may be as alien to the playwright as it is to me. I would be happy to stand corrected on this, but — overridingly — I was reminded of that element in some detective novels, where an expert analysing an anonymous note points out that while the writer is trying to sound like someone who is barely literate, they’ve got all the punctuation correct, as well as the spelling of certain key words. Nonetheless, it should be noted that this play by David Brown certainly must speak more positively to at least some others, as it has been shortlisted for both the 2003 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and the 2004 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. And it has been extremely well served in director Jean-Marc Russ’s production, including sound performances from its cast of three. Aaron Pedersen plays Indigenous Macca with warmth and sensitivity, and does his best with the message shtick that his character has been assigned to beat periodically through the play. Lucas Stibbard is suitably wussy as the persecuted and would-be runaway Dayne, and Hayden Spencer does Doug, the bemused and brawling wild card, with an appealing mix of gusto and pathos. Bruce McKinven has designed a most suitable shelter for the brief encounter between these three protagonists, and it is permeated with a sense of the isolating elements of rural and remote life. So it is interesting to read about the audience that Brown envisaged for this play. “I actually wrote this play," he says, “for the person who doesn’t go to theatre in Australia. The Australia Council identified this person as a white Anglo-male, 40+ and lives in a regional area. So I actually wrote this play for him.” Meanwhile, back in the city, the snappy dialogue generated a lot of laughs among the first night audience, and from comments overheard at the end of the production, many enjoyed the play overall. I didn’t, but then I’m about as far from a white-Anglo-male-40+-and-living-in-a-regional-area as you are likely to meet. —
Anne Ring (Performance seen: 6 August 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine One-Act Showcase Phoenix Ensemble The Phoenix Ensemble’s inaugural season of one-act plays, Showcase 1 and Showcase 2, is chockful of emerging talent, lots of laughs and plenty to think about. It’s on at the cosy and comfortable Pavilion Theatre in the Beenleigh showgrounds. In Showcase 1, playing for the final time, a new writer and a cast of experienced actors and novices get the chance to present their stuff. And they are all terrific. The first short play, "Double Bourbon, a Backseat and a Book", by new playwright Paula Weston is superb. With an autobiographical theme, it tells the story of a young woman’s search for spirituality against the backdrop of her excessive drinking and aggressive behavior. But it’s not about religion per se and it’s not maudlin — it’s hilarious. Penny, perfectly played by Lisa Killeen, is a young journalist working on a suburban newspaper. Here she is the only reporter without a university degree who struggles to meet her own vision of competence even though she’s good at the job. Lisa Killeen shows the audience how the jeans-and-tee-shirt-wearing knockabout Penny is wracked by guilt about her search for meaning through Christianity. The double-bourbon swilling tough guy image is her defence against her quite false perception that an adherence to Christian faith is “weak”. There is plenty of comedy wrapped in pathos that has the audience completely in the actors’ grip. Claire Pearson as Penny’s somewhat uppity colleague, Prue, masterfully presents the character as one of those overzealous but genuine women’s righters we have all worked with in the past 40 years — she’s deliciously funny and convincing. Directed by accomplished vocalist, actor and director Heather Scott, the play moves swiftly to its inevitable and satisfying conclusion while the supporting cast amasses stage presence and experience that is already polished. Astute use of the stage area to depict three settings adds to the audience’s unavoidable immersion in the play. The lighting is great and the sound is perfect. The second play in this series is Westley Pederson’s "Take Five". This quirky little script is about what can go wrong when putting on a play. But it’s more than that. Again the gags are terrific and the intellectual aerobics the audience needs to toggle between the two quite different scenarios is stimulating and all-pervasive. On the one hand the audience is watching a nice little play with a cute but predictable story line and on the other hand, because of a series of mishaps, the “audience” and even the stage hands are on stage. Confused? Don’t be. When you see this play you will be immediately caught up in the intertwining stories and you will get enormous satisfaction out of the very clever dialogue. I can’t give any more of the plot away. The most outstanding feature of this performance is that four of the six actors are making their debuts in "Take Five". Director Jo Castle has done a splendid job in getting these novices to a very acceptable standard. Young Jason McKell as stage hand (on stage) is one example of the talent in this cast. His line delivery is right on target and his facial expressions (so important in comedy) give the already side-slapping humor that added zing. Another debutant, Nadine Lewis, as Gladys, is a natural on stage. According to director Jo Castle, Nadine joined the company recently after she drove past the theatre for three years and thought about having a go at amateur theatre. Nadine, you should have been on stage a long time ago! Tamara Savic and Peter Jones as expectant parents Alex and Sharon are the other first-timers. They combine beautifully to carry the script’s humor and support the veterans Rob McFarlane and Alex Milosevic whose experience is obvious. Both these productions are well worth a quick trip to Beenleigh for a wonderful night of comedy. —
Desley Bartlett (Performance seen: 7 August 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine The Food of Love Opera Queensland Jason Barry-Smith and Narelle French have devised an entertaining and sumptuous banquet of vocal items loosely linked with the theme of amour in their offering The Food of Love. Five soloists including Barry-Smith together with French on the piano and members of the Brisbane Concert Choir conjure up a rich and varied musical feast. Opera Queensland young artists soprano Janelle Christie, mezzo-soprano Giselle Baulch, tenor Henry Choo and baritone Lee Jae-Hyeok are impressive in their solo and group items. In developing what may well have been just a series of items, the co-creators have woven a series of amusing characterisations and story-lines, for which their singers and choristers act up well. The production features moments that are variously nostalgic, sad, wistful, joyous and comic, all of which are performed with precision and control. Among many imaginative approaches, soloists take the string parts of Pachelbel's "Canon" to the words of Shakespeare's opening to Twelfth Night, Ïf music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it...". The production containa many musical treats, including "From the depths of the temple" from The Pearlfishers and the lovely trio "Soave sia il vento" from Cosi fan tutti, as well as Papageno and Papagena's duet from The Magic Flute. Barry-Smith and French resisted the obvious temptation with a love theme to include contemporary genres such as servings of 20th century popular music. Yet they have added spices in such forms as the lovely Korean song "Snow" sung by Lee and even some religious works like the "Cantique de Jean Racine" which is absolutely beautifully sung by the choir (the two baritone voices doing very well as anchors). Comic diversions come from the interpolated Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, including the "Nightmare Song" from Iolanthe. Barry-Smith shows his great gift for patter in his rendition of this tricky piece (and also does a great job with the difficult Purcell piece). Similarly, Henry Choo entertains with his "A tenor can't do himself justice" from G&S's Utopia. The (mainly "mature") audience relished the program, and some turned out to be repeat customers. It recommends itself as the kind of production which would do well on tour. —
John Henningham (Performance seen: 30 July 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine Ratbags Centenary Theatre Group A modern day version of the Pied Piper where the roles are reversed, Ratbags addresses an evident problem within our society in the form of a brand new light-hearted musical. The Centenary Theatre Group and director Susan O’Toole present the delightful story about the trials and tribulations of a small town overrun by street kids. When Freak (played by Brendan Jeffrey) causes chaos in the town with his gang of street kids, the townspeople and Mayor (Kerrie Lang) call Major Piper (Ray Pittman) to clean up the streets. Jane Nielsen and Owen Gray’s script contains many witty and ironically cheesy but humorous episodes, and when combined with Mathew Bass’s catchy musical numbers, makes for an enjoyable and original show. Set designer Catherine Abel has created a simple but fitting atmosphere, but it would have been better with more props and lighting techniques to differentiate the scenes and heighten the ambience. While the musical numbers are catchy and accompany the scenes well, they some times become repetitive and too long. Perhaps it was opening night nerves, but the cast’s performance didn’t live up to the play’s potential, as the delivery was a bit flat, as if stuck between whether to deliver a serious or more tongue-in-cheek act. To provoke emotions in the audience, the performers need to express their charcters' emotions more effectively. Despite this, Chris Farrell, playing Wart, Freak’s sidekick, and Kerrie Lange as Mayor Stevens deliver excellent performances with their quirky characters, bringing great comic relief to the show. Ray Pittman (Major Piper and the Chef) and Kym Brown, (Daisy, Townsperson, Street Rat) also portray their characters well, while special mention must be made of Brendan Jeffrey for his commendable performance, despite having only two weeks to prepare. While Susan O’Toole’s Ratbags won’t be cleaning up at the Tony awards for best musical any time soon, it is nevertheless an entertaining production that audiences young and old can enjoy for a pleasant night out. —
Simon Massey di Vallazza (Performance seen: 24 July 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine Don Pasquale Opera Queensland (Conservatorium Theatre) Opera Queensland's production of this funny and musically satisfying opera by Donizetti is a great team effort, in which no individual is vastly superior to any other — nor where anyone lets the team down. The show sparkles from beginning to end: Cathy Dadd and assistant director Kelly Redhead have succeeded admirably in bringing out the movement and energy of original director Andrew Sinclair's concept, while the Queensland Orchestra under Graham Abbott sets a strong pace and provides a consistently rich and full sound (sometimes a little too full for the vocalists, in the acoustically generous Conservatorium Theatre). Musically the piece is obviously challenging: vocalists and instrumentalists alike do well in mastering the complex music and giving the impression that all is froth and bubble. Andrew Collis presents a sympathetic and multifaceted buffoon as the elderly bachelor Don Pasquale. His strong baritone which has already impressed Opera Queensland audiences twice this year is united with a fine ability to establish character. Helen Donaldson as Norina is an absolute delight. Brisbane audiences may remember Donaldson from her vocally thrilling Mabel in the Simon Gallaher/Jon English Pirates of Penzance of 1994. It is good to have her back in a role where she demonstrates her versatility — shifting from demure novice to rampaging shrew in an instant, and making both convincing. Her admirer, Ernesto, is beautifully sung by Henry Choo, whose soaring tenor voice is combined with an aptitude for sly comic work. The comedic master in the ensemble is Jason Barry-Smith as Dr Malatesta, the wickedly clever physician who adroitly manipulates all and sundry. Particularly memorable is his rapid pace duet with Collis. Shaun Brown as the notary also contributes well, both in singing and acting. Tony Tripp's design is a comic masterpiece in itself. In all sorts of ways Pasquale's stingy lifestyle is contrasted with the opulence conjured up by his bride. The show has many amusing touches — such as the ever-changing clothing hanging on the line to represent the current character, and the ragged old military jacket donned by Pasquale, emitting clouds of dust and even a live moth. Donn Byrnes' colourful lighting design rounds off the effect. There isn't a great deal of work for the chorus. They don't even make an appearance in the first act. But their moments on stage are consistently pleasing, with their rich sound and well-choreographed mayhem as undisciplined servants. (Their numbers sometimes crowd the boxed set: I would have preferred to see the whole stage used.) The production leaves the impression that the whole ensemble derived enormous fun from putting it all together, and their enthusiasm vibrantly spreads to the audience. It's a splendid choice for Opera Queensland's forthcoming August regional tour with conductor Ollivier-Philippe Cuneo, encompassing the Gold Coast (5th), Maryborough (7th), Toowoomba (10th), Rockhampton (14th), Mackay (17th), Townsville (19th) and Cairns (21st). —
John Henningham (Performance seen: 10 July 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine Copenhagen Sydney Theatre Company (for Queensland Theatre Company) (Playhouse) Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen has been a long time coming to Brisbane, but this production by the Sydney Theatre Company is well worth the wait. In a way, what Frayn has created is a verbal symphony, with a series of themes introduced, reworked and orchestrated towards climactic insights that use some of the most complex concepts in physics to explain the vagaries of human nature. However, while the musicians in an orchestra have their notes in front of them, John Gaden as Niels Bohr and Robert Menzies as Werner Heisenberg display dazzling feats of memory as they weave their way through the intricate reworkings of a past remembered differently each time fresh light is thrown on it. Copenhagen is, at the same time, both a virtuoso celebration of language and ideas, and a tragic demonstration of how difficult it can be for people to understand what someone else is saying, and even what they themselves want to say. As Samuel Johnson once said, "when the notion (of things) is various in various minds, the words by which such notions are conveyed …… will be ambiguous and perplexed". And Frayn shows how this can happen when close friends and colleagues who once could finish each other’s sentences are divided by the bitterness of divergent allegiances coloured by fascism and anti-Semitism. In a continuing debate over the past that has overtones of Kurosawa’s Rashomon, there is — however — an adjudicator: Bohr’s wife Margrethe. Played by Jane Harders as a somewhat aloof presence, she makes no secret of her partisanship, but periodically fires crisp bursts of reality through recalled observations that contradict, correct or augment a debatable point. As directed by Michael Blakemore and designed by Peter Davison, this production offers no distraction from the intensity of the dialogue between two brilliant minds who cover the past in ways that are all too relevant to our present, in matters ranging from the global and ethical to the personal and psychological. In Frayn’s fascinating program notes on his play, however, he is careful to distinguish between the characters he has developed, and the real people that they are based on. And he distances himself from them even more by the clever artefact of recreating them as ghosts or "shades" of themselves, inhabiting an anteroom in the next life while they are still trying to make sense of the previous one. It is, as always, a sheer delight to watch John Gaden disappear into the role that he is playing. This time, he is a man who struggles — with all of his considerable intellectual powers — to understand the unknowable about another’s motives while still being haunted by actions of his own that ended in a personal tragedy. It is through Harden’s acerbic comments, however, that we get more insights into the unequal battle that was fought, in life, between his family and his work. As his wife, Harden is the epitome of Scandinavian cool, combining undemonstrative love for Bohr with matter-of-fact appraisals of his shortcomings as a husband and father. In sharp contrast, Menzies plays the part of Bohr’s enigma passionately and powerfully, if at times somewhat unevenly so that it is more difficult to get the sense of the man in his own right rather than as a nuclear reactor. Together, they are a fine ensemble cast who do justice to a play that draws you in as an individual, and rightly demands your full attention and concentration, as it both expands your knowledge of physics, and challenges your ideas of how to reconcile conflicting personal and national loyalties, and even whether — ultimately — it is possible to do so. And for those members of the audience who want to cross the line and be drawn right into the play, this production offers the stimulating opportunity of being (silent) members of a jury in tiered seats at the back of the stage. —
Anne Ring (Performance seen: 8 July 2004) www.STAGEDIARY.com: Queensland's Online Stage Magazine |
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