MUSE'S 'A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC' dissected by James

'A Little Night of Music', written by Stephen Sondheim and directed by Alexander Andrews, at the Seymour Centre’s Everest Theatre is a charming production put on by MUSE. It’s MUSE’s ninth year of bringing theatre to us and the standard of their productions is definitely rising. While I find this musical one of Sondheim’s least accessible, I found the overall experience of the performance rather pleasant. 

The set was comprised of a raised platform resting upstage adjacent to a grand piano, above which hung a tree branch suspended from the ceiling. A three piece table setting and bed were moved on and off stage depending on the scene. Lights were used on the cyclorama to produce startling silhouettes and deep sunset hues. It was a simple, sleek vision of the text’s world and wisely sought to preference the performer’s abilities rather than produce a spectacle.

While there were of course some weak performers amongst the bunch, as is expected from any volunteer based production, there were some fantastic stand out performances. Anna Colless, as Petra the maid, negotiated her character marvellously and her solo ‘The Miller’s Son’ was easily the highlight of the production. Additionally, Christie New as Charlotte Malcolm was a stand-out performer, and while perhaps not the strongest singer, her comedic timing and dry delivery was wonderful especially in relation to Stuart Bryan, whose Fredrik Egerman was light and charming. Other honourable mentions go to Louise Flynn (Desiree Armfeldt) and her softly sombre ‘Send in the Clowns,’ Gavin Brown (Mr. Erlanson) and his striking tenor voice amongst the chorus lines and Sarah Gaul who played the elderly and often scathing Madame Armfeldt.

It was a production where you really felt the love and passion of the performers on stage. It is pleasing to watch actors have fun performing, and the whole cast listened well to each other, committed themselves to their actions, and enjoyed the cleverness of the text. Likewise the orchestra was delightful, and comprised of members from the conservatorium and elsewhere, they were a talented and tight bunch of musicians.

The atmosphere of the production was light and enjoyable and it was a good night out.
I look forward to what MUSE bring us next.

Show Dates:

25^th – 28^th of March

NEW THEATRE'S 'WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING' dissected by James

'When The Rain Stops Falling' written by Andrew Bovell and directed by Rachel Chant at New Theatre in Newtown, is an ambitious piece of theatre.

The production has many good things going for it; an experienced cast and creative team, an accomplished writer and an emerging director. However these quite substantial boons to the production did not quite live up to their expectations. That being said, I was surprised to find there was no Director’s Note in the program. I went into the production feeling somewhat blind, which isn’t always that unpleasant I suppose.

Bovell’s text is a large, sprawling piece of writing that spans three generations of a family. It negotiates each generation through a fragmented storytelling trope – flicking between short scenes to paint a picture of the greater whole. At first this is pleasantly confusing; we wonder who is who, and eventually work it out through subtle hints, however Bovell and perhaps Chant take it too far. It became obvious, sometimes through lines and sometimes through action, and once obvious it seemed to be continually reiterated as if the audience wasn’t expected to have worked it out. The horse was well and truly dead despite all efforts (see: beatings) to finish the race.

Part of the way in which these relationships between characters in different timelines were made was through the use of repetition. Phrases and ideas were repeated, sometimes word for word between scenes that take place 20 years apart. While a quaint and sometimes amusing piece of writing, this too was drastically overused. It ended up turning from somewhat amusing to terribly cringe-y and seemed to continue the whole way through the two hour piece. I’d like to mention that there was no need for Bovell to rely so heavily upon such a writing device. His dialogue is interesting, his themes bold, and the monologue at the commencement of the performance showcases his talent for text. His text is at times light and hopeful, and at other times disturbingly dark and sad. 

However, Chant’s interaction with such subject matter was confused, as if she didn’t really want to put on a show that deals with paedophilia in the first place but realised towards the end that it’s probably important. Paedophilia ends up being a convenient means to an end attached onto the home slope of the production. The topic’s inherent darkness felt like it sat completely outside of the world of the play, despite being so intrinsically connected to it – It’s the root cause of all the damage in the production. I think it’s kind of an odd thing to think about dramaturgically, and a difficult hurdle to jump certainly, however I don’t believe Chant or the creative team truly made the jump unfortunately. Perhaps I wouldn’t have noticed as much had the performance not run for what felt like a Lord of the Rings marathon. I think by the clock it was two, but it definitely feels longer. This could have been avoided through snappier transitions I think. There were a lot of pauses, watching stage hands move tables into position.

The set, designed by Tom Bannerman, was impressive, given the size of the space. A broad rake rises to the back wall, covered in a loosely bunched fabric, while an alternate ‘rake’ is suspended from the roof above it. This ceiling rake could change its angle through the use of a motor which raised and lowered its upstage side. What results is a clever trick of the eye, making the set appear to be longer than it is, and we the audience are looking off into the horizon, either over the ocean or across the desert. There are moments in the performance where this is used to great effect; the lighting shifts and the landscape changes dramatically. Where it felt tacky is mostly in the fabric. The entire floor was covered in a red sheet which not only seemed an uncomfortable surface to act on, also made moving chairs and tables across the space difficult. 

There were problems with the lighting as a result of the hanging set piece, as the majority of the performance had to be side lit from booms. The production encountered problems with this, as often members of the cast were unable to find their light, or were often obscured by other performers. Truthfully there wasn’t much Benjamin Brockman, the Lighting Designer, could have done with these issues given the nature of the set.  All things aside, however, the lights interaction with the set was at times beautiful and both Tom and Benjamin are to be commended for their efforts.

The acting across the board was quite refreshing, however it felt like many of the more experienced performers rested a little on the laurels. It was the younger performers, Renae Small (Gabrielle York) and Tom Conroy (Gabriel Law/Andrew Price) that really stood out in this performance. They developed a really nice chemistry together and listened well to each other. They were believable performances if perhaps a little nervous. 

Additional mentions go to David Woodland (Gabriel York/Henry Law). His opening monologue was impeccably performed and gave the show the momentum it needed to get through into the second half. Hailey Mcqueen (Elizabeth Law) dealt with the realisation and horror at discovering her partner’s affinity for children superbly and Peter Mcallum’s (Joe Ryan) patience and tortured love for his slowly declining wife was moving.

When The Rain Stops Falling runs Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays with the final production on the 18^th of April. There is no performance on Good Friday, 3^rd of April.

EPICENTRE THEATRE COMPANY'S 'THE REMOVALISTS' dissected by Lauren

I've never been a huge fan of Williamson's text. I often find myself questioning why this play, in particular, is staged so often. I understand the play's themes of masculinity & violence, domestic violence, and corruption of those in power are more relevant today than ever, but it's the way in which Williamson's play treats these themes that makes it problematic: it trivialises them, turning them into something to laugh at which, given the current political and social climate, seems counter-intuitive and a little regressive.It is probably its inclusion in the school curriculum that gives it such a good workout but I wouldn't mind seeing it rested for a while.

There was an attempt to modernise the piece by updating the scenery (adding an apple macbook, printer and digital camera to the police station set) and costumes but, if the text is left unedited, certain phrases become anachronistic in this 21^st century setting. 'The Removalists' does read like a period piece, firmly entrenched in the 70's and updating it can feel contrived.

Despite this, I thought this was a production made up of strong technical elements. The moments of comedy I enjoyed most arose via the juxtaposition of representative masculine hegemonies in the forms of the tough talking, punch throwing sergeant Simmonds; the sensitive, young constable Ross and; the witty, macho ape-man, Kenny Carter. It is mostly fun to watch them staking out their territories (and their women). Some might argue that Simmonds seemed too old in this production and so the sense of menace might not read as strongly.

There was some nice acting on display, which I was glad for. Although I must say, I did have to suspend a bit of belief with both female characters, they just read a little young - particularly Kate. Don't get me wrong though, it was forgivable as both actors were a pleasure to watch. The arrival of the removalist character was a strange experience. It was overacted and there was some upstaging happening which took away from the scene, although at least it kept the younger audience engaged.

Despite my earlier protesting of Williamson's text, this is a well-put-together production. It's nicely paced, the space has been well considered and so the blocking feels rather logical and unforced. 

The ensemble have worked hard and produced something pretty solid.

PACT'S 'RAPID RESPONSE TEAM' dissected by James

PACT Centre for Emerging Artists' 'RAPID RESPONSE TEAM', hereby referred to as RRT, is a clever, often amusing piece of conceptually driven theatre. Its title is as much a descriptor as it is a moniker, as the group of artists given themselves two days to respond creatively to the stories from the previous news week. 

I’ll start by saying that the production is conceptually appealing. In an information saturated world it’s kind of refreshing to sit and watch a group of artists filter through the content, and then reflect upon it creatively. Additionally, there was something interesting in the way the production offered a perspective on how we view and interact with news as a piece of entertainment. This was seen most clearly at the commencement of the piece as the performers watched a constantly updating news feed in silence. Every minute or so a new news story would appear, to which the performers would cheer and drink from their beers. The audience would laugh, and then read the title of the story; “Wife waits for word of Husband caught in killer cyclone,” to which the audience, like the performers, would quickly feel the pang of sadness, and perhaps guilt at utilising this story for entertainment. Yet is that not its purpose anyway? It produced an interesting dynamic to say the least.

The other appealing aspect of the concept was its creative limitations. The set was simple and largely bare. A rug adorns the floor, some tables (including the lighting desk) occupy the sides and back with a scaffolding rig sitting back-right. There is a screen against the left wall. The lighting is low and warm. It’s quite a welcoming space, and feels very natural. The performance isn’t trying to sell you anything, it’s simply practical; born out of the creative process. The team, Aslam Abdus-samad, Nick Atkins, DA Carter, Marie Chanel, Stephanie King, Ryan McGoldrick, Kevin Ng and Claudia Osborne, are obviously all very talented theatre makers, especially considering the amount of time they have to put each performance together. Before the show begins, we are told the performers started creating the performance the previous day, culminating in approximately 15 hours creation and rehearsal time. This produces a feeling of risk, while simultaneous provoking admiration at the team’s ability to create smooth, entertaining theatre with so little time.

Strangely enough, the inherent feeling of risk adds something to the performance. The question or threat of things going wrong is a constant presence throughout the piece. Rather than be a negative experience however, it’s quite pleasurable to watch the performers succeed with so much against them. It is a credit to their ability as theatre makers.

That being said however, there were some elements to the performance that were lacking, and I think this largely correlates to the amount of time the performers have to prepare.

Transitions between scenes/sections are at times long winded and a quite clunky. This isn’t a consistent thing, but certainly occurs enough to warrant attention. There were moments where the performance felt empty; we were moving from one brief segment to another brief segment, and the transition itself seemed to take the same amount of time as the segments it connected, leading to what felt like a drawn out empty procedure. Perhaps this feeling was a result of not knowing the subject matter the performers were drawing from, something which at times was frustrating and other times pleasurable (It became something of a riddle to solve).This was by no means the general experience of the show, simply something felt at various points.
I think it’s also important to note that no two performances of RRT will be the same and because of this, I wager the team will develop their process as they go along. The problems of this show will not be the problems of their next and will no doubt improve dramatically. 

Rapid Response Team was accessible, interesting, amusing and thought provoking. It is an interesting way to digest the news in an information heavy world, and an enjoyable night out. Definitely worth a watch.

RAPID RESPONSE TEAM performances take place on:

11^th April 9^th May 13^th June 11^st July 8^th August 12^th September 10^th October 14^th November

'THE BIG FUNK' disected by Lauren Scott-Young

 I hadn't been to the Tap Gallery before so I took my mum along as my date and buffer of social awkwardness. The place is cool -  some art to look at, drinks and canapes and an air of 'relaxed hipster' about it.

This piece sits really nicely in this gallery setting, the show is a comedy - a mixture of absurdist scenes and monologues exploring masculinity, mythos and 'the big funk': a movement that has stifled humanity, caused by our inability to acknowledge our fear, our mortality or our nakedness. All of this driven home with a monster monologue, delivered (with great conviction, I might add) by Jasper Garner-Gore.

The play is an ensemble piece, and this ensemble was strong. Jess Loudon, who plays Fifi, and Michael Drysdale, who plays her husband, Omar, share a great chemistry which results in a lot of laughs, and some of the best comedy lies in a cafe scene between Gregory, played by Bali Padda, and Jill, played by Alixandra Kupcik - they both really hit gold here.

 The set was nice and simple, white walls and floor in a little open space, not separated from the gallery. Red tape marks broke up the floor space delineating where set pieces, and sometimes humans, were placed. One of the more memorable scenes involves a bathtub - it's nothing too fancy, a fibreglass tub in a purpose-built wooden frame on wheels. But it's what happens in the tub that defines this scene: Austin (Garner-Gore), bathes Jill (Kupcik) “like an innocent child” and she is cleansed, in both literal and figurative senses. It's the centrepiece of the play and it was handled with great delicacy and warmth by director, Michael Dean. Thumbs up.

The Big Funk runs 11 March - 21 March; previews 11 and 12 March. Mon-Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm @ The Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst.