Discussion: Artists & Criticism (2008)

Reading the current blogasphere hoo hah about critics (I'll think about saddling up my high horse about it once I've written about the shows I saw last night and watched the Grand Final sequel) reminded me of this discussion from 2008. It's a look at how an artist deals with reviews.

An Actor Prepares is Eagles Nest Theatre 2008 Melbourne Fringe production. This work was last performed at the 2008 Adelaide Fringe, where it received a scathing review from The Advertiser.  James Adler talks about his reaction to a half-star rating.

Fringe festivals encourage an abundance of people wanting to see unique and courageous productions - but there are almost too many shows for this limited audience to choose from, which leaves many using reviews as their selection guide.

AussieTheatre’s Christina Cass reviewed an earlier version of An Actor Prepares. Her review praised the performances as courageous and said, “The imagery and essence of this play are stunning:  simple and heartbreaking. They challenge the audience to trust their senses.” Chris Boyd from The Herald Sun said, "Word for word it is a mighty script: Poetic, slippery and dramatic.  Deceptively simple and devastatingly effective. "

However, in Adelaide, An Actor Prepares received half a star, out of six, from Samela Harris, one of South Australia’s most respected and experienced reviewers. She opened with: “One can't have a good Fringe without some bad shows. This is the little gem of them all. It is so bad it could almost become a cult. It is almost impossible to tell what it is about.” She concluded by expressing her relief that it is quite short.

I asked Adler how he felt about the review. “In some ways you feel offended and hurt, but your artist’s skin also has to be thinker than that…I have no issue with someone not liking our work - for god’s sake that’s what the arts is all about - but the job of a reviewer is to attempt to engage with a work as well as provide an opinion about it's quality.

“What was offensive... is that she never really made any attempt to review it at all. It seems to me that her desire was to judge the piece as good or bad and to make sure that she, as reviewer, came out looking slick.”

It may be lacking in tact, but what is clear from Harris’s review is that she didn’t understand the intent or even the premise of the piece.

Adler tells me that An Actor Prepares is about “believing and then loosing faith”. This is a universal and powerful theme. He started writing the piece in 2001, on the day “we (Australia) started bombing Afghanistan.”  

 “I wanted to explode. . . go to Canberra and yell and protest. . . (but) my opinon as an individual would be drowned out.” From his personal reaction, Adler developed the metaphor of a bomb and wrote a monologue that interweaves the thoughts and actions of a suicide bomber with the stories of others who find themselves in violent, impossible or voiceless situations.

Musician, composer and director Nela Trifkovic says she came to work because ” for the first time in long time there was a story that I wanted to be part of - even if it was an angry story.” Nela describes herself as a survivor from the war in Yugoslavia. Coming to Australia and going to primary school in Perth, her mixed-religion, mixed-cultural upbringing was met with confusing mix of good intentioned ignorance. She said “a teacher yelled at me for using the term Yugoslavia… an Australian social worker told me you couldn't speak Serbo-Croatian. I try to listen to everybody and that's precisely why it's painful always being told what to.”

Trifkovic’s music adds dimension, perspective and counterpoint to Adler’s monologue. “I decided to offer my music for it does not tell one what to do, but hopefully leaves one on a bitter-sweet chord of self decision.”

An Actor Prepares is a piece that actively forces the audience to make their own decisions about meaning.

Adler finishes by saying, “I am not sure what the value of review is if the reviewer doesn’t try to understand where the work is coming from - and so in the end her (Harris) critique doesn't really seem worthy to be taken into account.”

This is a healthy attitude to criticism, but I wonder if Adler should try to understand where Harris’s criticism came from.

If a show totally fails to connect with an audience member, perhaps there are elements of the work that could be re-thought. Cass understood and admired the work, but she also said the “very personal work needs an outside eye to help take the next step toward a mature piece of theatre.”

I’ve also seen An Actor Prepares. It isn’t a piece that is easy to immediately engage with, as it lacks a traditional narrative, and adopts a more fluid approach to time, space and character. This does make it difficult to understand, but Adler and Trifkovic’s passion for their work is striking and they express an authentic belief, opinion and experience.

Fringe festivals encourage artists to take risks and experiment, offering an opportunity for artists to create the work they really want to make. An Actor Prepares is an ongoing experiment with form that was created with the intent to question and provoke. If it had been created merely to please, the result would be far less interesting, far less passionate and would never have resulted in such extreme and mixed opinions.

This originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

An Actor Prepares

An Actor Prepares

Eagles Nest Theatre

La Mama Theatre

18 October 2007

Review by Christina Cass

Walking into and through the set of An Actor Prepares by James Adler, is a trip through time.  With the ferryman (in this case ferrywoman) musically guiding the audience’s urban raft.  Where you are, you don’t exactly know, but the set by Magdalena Romanuik is heartbreakingly simple and heavy with memory.  Burning sage scenting the air immediately transports the viewer to a mystical time:  hanging Druidic runes; shorn tree stumps; and a white-robed and bearded Mr. Adler all summon up a mystical, religious experience.  I couldn’t help but feel witchcraft – in all its earth-honesty – hanging in the air.  What would Jesus (whom Mr. Adler bears a striking resemblance to) be doing in the middle of a wiccan warren?  Where ancient primal music composed and performed by Nela Trifkovic resonates through the space.

We soon understand the subtitle, “When Does Peace Mean War?” of this new Eagle’s Nest Theatre production at La Mama, has on one level much to do with a struggle against the terrorism of creativity but I came out with more of a, ‘Heck, when does anything mean anything?’  feeling. The imagery and essence of this play are stunning:  simple and heartbreaking. They challenge the audience to trust their senses. Do I see floating runes or shrapnel hanging in the air? Is it a trumpet, a musical instrument of joy (and reveille) or a carefully deconstructed machine gun?  A cradle or a deathbed?  These images beg timeless questions of who are we if we are not what we seem.  None of us are.

That said, the script makes much more sense than in a stand alone context.  It is intentionally fractured, weaving tales through time and, as a work in progress, the performances by Ms. Trifkovic and Mr. Adler are courageous.

They really have something very special, very personal and still accessible here and I hope they take this further because I do think that very personal work needs an outside eye to help take the next step toward a mature piece of theatre.

It’ll be hard to find a director as sensitive and absorbing as Ms. Trifkovic and trust him or her with this piece, but they must to get to the next level.  Once relieved of wearing two hats, I am quite sure that the talent in the room will leap up and continue to punt through these deep waters of the story without fear.

This review originally appeared on AussieThearte.com

Sizwe Banzi is Dead

MIAF 2007
Sizwe Banzi is Dead
Township Theatre, South Africa
Arts Projects Australia and CICT17 October 2007

Review by Christina Cass

Sizwe Banzi is Dead is a richly crafted morality play by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona of the Township Theatre in South Africa. The second in a series of three Statement Plays is sparsely directed by the legendary Peter Brook and performed completely in French with English surtitles. There are times when I go to an Italian opera and become distracted by the supertitles being flashed above the stage or on the back of the seat in front of me – taking both body and mind away from the action on stage. Now that’s not so bad with opera (as ‘action’ is not often used in conjunction with the performance medium) since it’s primarily an aural and atmospheric experience. So taking your eyes off the stage doesn’t mean you’re lost.

However, in dramatic or comedic theatre, surtitles can be a problem. You might miss too much of the unfolding visual story on stage, but not so with Sizwe Banzi is Dead. Habib Dembélé has us riveted from the very beginning. He deftly creates a story about his former factory life at Ford Motors in South Africa with just two rolling racks (the ones you use to transport garments on) and a giant collapsible garbage bag. He spins them around to create entrances and exits and transforms his body and voice to portray multiple characters. Not being fluent in French was hardly a liability for me because this engaging actor embodied each and every one of his characters, so if you missed a few translations, you still understood the story.

Dembélé’s nearly 30-minute monologue sets up the entrance for our protagonist, Sizwe Banzi, played with equal deftness by Pitcho Womba Konga. We are better prepared to understand big city conditions of King William’s Town that Banzi is faced with as a young father far away from home. He cries, “What’s wrong with me? I’m a man. I’ve got eyes to see. I’ve got ears to listen when people talk. I’ve got a head to think good things. What’s wrong with me?”

Ultimately, Banzi’s plight to legitimise his right to work in addition to running from the authorities brings us to a crisis when he is faced with the possibility of stealing a dead man’s papers in order to feed a family who will think he has disappeared. Banzi is forced to confront the deeper meaning of this action and the knowledge that the shift is irreversible. He is told, “You must understand one thing. We own nothing except ourselves. This world and its laws, allows us nothing, except ourselves. There is nothing we can leave behind when we die, except the memory of ourselves.”

With a focus on identity, humanity, truth and survival, Banzi is Dead blurs the lines of repression and makes this journey universally accessible. An absolute must see.

This review originally appeard on AussieTheatre.com.

MelBorn

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2007
MelBorn
Melbourne Writers Theatre
26 September 2007
Carlton Courthouse

The Melbourne Writers Theatre celebrates its 25th year in true Fringe style with MelBorn. It’s is a collection of 10 terrific stories, written by 10 great writers, told by 10 skilled directors and 10 hot actors. This is what good independent theatre is all about and may be the best value ticket of the Fringe season.

MWT was formed by playwright Jack Hibbard in 1982 and, obviously, focuses on developing great writing for the theatre. Scripts at MWT are developed with panel discussions, readings and workshopping by professional directors and actors. A MWT production will always showcase some of the best written and developed scripts from this town.

The success of Short and Sweet in Melbourne has fanned our interest in short scripts. MelBorn is unique because every work was written by a Melbourne playwright. 150 plays were submitted for selection. The final 10 demonstrate very different styles of writing and different explorations of the short form.

My only concern is that sometimes the focus was on the writing, rather than telling the story. Ironically very good, well crafted writing can actually distract, rather than support a work. At times I found myself listening to the writing, rather than engaging with the characters and their journey. Do we write plays to tell a story or to show how well we can use language?

The New York influence of Artistic Director Christina Cass is evident throughout the production. Cass has ensured that the 10 plays work as a sustained piece, rather than individual moments. This is supported with the highly creative and inventive design by Magdalena Romaniuk.

At two hours, MelBorn is long for a Fringe show, but don’t worry - it’s never dull and even if one story doesn’t interest you, a new one will start very soon.

The Ten Plays

The Elevator
Do we our real personas cease to exist at work? What happens to our work selves out of the office? An exploration of communication and power among women in the corporate world. The dialogue was a bit clumsy at times, but the characters and story keep our attention.

Protocol
Any book about writing will tell you a sure fire way to create a story is to change the status of your characters. This technique works especially well in the short form. Protocol is unexpected and creates the tension needed to capture and sustain the audience’s interest. Sure it’s about a car space, but the writer draws parallels to a much bigger picture, as “you’d be surprised how touchy people get over territory.” This story may work better ending without the obvious resolution though. Very powerful performance by Matt Maloney that at times overpowered Simon Kearney.

Itchy
This is a piece written for the language. A simple story is created to use every clichéd piece of work place jargon. This is clever, witty and playful writing. The story and characters are not that relevant. Itchy is successfully directed for its humour and will tighten up as the performers react to the audience’s enjoyment of the piece, rather than trying to show the audience the funny bits.

Can’t Wait For Love
This is a very well written portrait of an original character, told beautifully though Phil Robert’s performance. He’s engaging and interesting, but it’s illustrative. There is no story, no action and no drama. After a while he’s just telling us things we already know about him, so there’s no real journey for the character or the audience. He belongs in a larger story.

10,000 Cigarettes
A love poem to the cigarette. I think this piece would work very well on paper. As a free form poem, I love its use of language, its humour and its references to brands and famous smoking moments in film. It’s written for 30 and 40 somethings who used to smoke and, in our non-smoking world, many of the jokes were completely missed by younger audience members. I don’t know why it’s a short play. The only action in the script is some coughing. Sorry for the spoiler, but it ends with the hint that those smokes may kill you. That’s no revelation, so why not keep it as the love poem? 10,000 Cigarettes is enjoyable because its very well directed and performed to create life and movement.

Transactions
This was my stand out winner of the night. Scott McAteer has created authentic characters who we care about, a situation that surprises and plot that is always one step ahead of our expectations. Tightly directed by Harry Paternoster and honestly performed by Simon Kearney and Bobbi-Lea Dionysius.

Waiting For Derek
What happens when you husband doesn’t know you, or your best friend, and they both proceed to tell you about their affair? A very clever piece about dementia with a bonus twist that makes the ending more satisfactory than expected. Relies a bit too heavily on exposition and may benefit from more action in the present.

A Drop Would; Be Nothing
There’s an ongoing joke in television that children are only put in stories to get cancer or die in accidents. There is nothing more heartbreaking than a dead child, but sometimes they are just plot devices. There’s some very good writing and exploration about hate and anger in this piece. It questions why people stay in situations when common and every other sense says to leave. It’s sustained by very strong performances, but did it need a dead child cliché to create the situation?

Greener Pastures
Sometimes the telling of a joke can and should take ten minutes. For 9 and a half minutes this is a one joke piece, but the final 30 seconds are the real joke. Greener Pastures is just the telling of a joke, but it’s done very well.

The Painter
This is the second piece of the night that told a complex, authentic and sustained story. What happens when you have a dead rat rather than a Nobel Prize? The main joke of the play is in the title and for too obvious, but it doesn’t detract from the characters or their situation. Original, authentic writing that knows who it’s talking too and never lets the writing become more important than the story.


This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Short and Sweet 2006 Week 1

Short and Sweet 2006 Week One Top 10
29 November 2006
The Arts Centre, Fairfax Theatre

Forget the big shows that are on at the moment, the best night of theatre in Melbourne for the next couple of weeks is at the Short and Sweet 2006 festival at The Arts Centre.
 
From over 800 entries, 60 short plays have been selected, which are presented in three weekly programs. Each week has a top ten running nightly and a Saturday afternoon ten play “wildcard” session. Of the 60 plays, ten are chosen by the audience and a professional judging panel to complete in the final.
 
With so many outstanding writers, directors and actors involved in the program, I can’t begin to name everyone, but must give suitable cheers and accolades to Carla Hartog and Alex Broun from the Arts Centre program team for creating and producing this positive, supportive and exciting program. Short and Sweet proves the abundance of original and well written work that is being created, whilst showcasing so many of Melbourne’s independent and emerging directors and actors. It’s fabulous.

Week One Top Ten

Memoirs
Beautiful, captivating physical theatre that proves you don’t need words to create emotion and capture an audience’s heart. (And choreographically – it does for couches what Fosse did for chairs.)

The 11 O’Clock
Wit and word play worthy of Shaw. A psychiatrist treats a patient who thinks he is a psychiatrist.

Moving Fast
What happens when you come home from getting milk and your unemployed husband has decided to convert to Islam, claim his aboriginal heritage and stage a political coupe? Absurdism is alive and well, but it would have benefited by a clear decision about whose story it is telling – his or hers?

When We Fall
Slow to develop, but worth the wait. “An angel is floating in front of me and waiting to fall.” Poetic without sounding contrived, with direction that allows us to care about each character, whilst slowly revealing their tragic connection.

The Emotional Anatomy of a Relationship Breakdown
Undoubtedly and deservedly the crowd favourite of the night. Standard dumper and dumpee story made complex and compelling by having six actors represent different facets of the two characters. This enabled a unique and complex picture of the each person, which was supported by a simple, yet perfect design, very tight direction and an excellent cast.

Relics
This one just got better as it went along. Three of the most unlikely characters create genuine tension, mystery and surprises.

Charlie
Nice characters, well performed, but was too dependent on its offstage story and needed more of an onstage story to create the empathy needed with each character.

Eight Gen X Women
I’m too young to be a baby boomer and too old to be Gen X, but nothing ever changes about women talking about love, sex, men and babies. This was material that could have so easily been clichéd and boring, but it maintained a sense of humour and relevance and didn’t allow its characters to slip into stereotypes.

Jack Rabbit
Good performances and well written characters, but the writing seemed to concentrate too much on showing the similarities between the disparate group, rather than telling an engaging story about them.

Spring Session
Simply a funny, cleaver and original piece about Canberra, politics, picking up, work and dogs. (directed by Yvonne Virsik.)

Week One Wildcards

Miracleman – 1956
Possibly the most original staging I’ve seen in along time, but it didn’t work a venue with an audience on either side. A very funny and cleaver work about a 1956 comic book hero, but the staging didn’t allow for clear story telling and we never really got to know the characters. Right venue and a bit of a re-work will make this a winner.

Bound for Jerez
I really liked the concept of showing a woman’s changing perceptions from her latter years backwards to her to teens; each presented by a different actor. What didn’t work was telling the audience the end of her story in the first scene. We know that she never achieves her dreams, so are never allowed to hope for her on her backward journey. The writing also seemed to just be about women reacting to men. Of course, most writing is about relationships, but characters become more real when they are given a broader spectrum of experiences.

Black Dog
Well performed, with a surprising and fabulous twist. This piece shows the shame of depression and its external control on the sufferer. Where it did suffer was its concentration on the topic. It was a play about depression, rather than a play about Melanie – who suffered from depression. It needs to be her unique story to create the emotional impact that this work should have.

Is His Hers
Another physical theatre piece, with highly creative and engaging choreography that takes us on an exploration of what lies under the flannelette shirts of the ‘burbs.

North by East of Eden
Actors Studio versus Hitchcock……. What could have happened if James Dean had been cast by Alfred Hitchcock? It’s a great scenario and it a well written work, but the audience’s knowledge of the characters made it difficult to fully enjoy. In the end it wasn’t more than a set up for the final joke – which was funny – but could have been anyone – not specifically Dean and Hitchcock.

Mirrors and Smoke
Two actors face each other in a mirror. They are the same woman twenty years apart. This was another one that I really wanted to work, but it suffered the same problem as Bound for Jerez – we knew the end of her story, so how could we care what happened to her at the beginning? The flashback to her early marriage didn’t reveal anything new or offer any surprises.

Full Spectrum
Another work about women, but - finally - one not just about their relationships with men. Three women of very different incomes and “social standings” experience the loss of work. Written to show their changing expectations and show the unexpected similarity between having your AMEX declined and being forced into a homeless shelter. The direction allowed us to understand and care about each woman, without judging their lives or their choices. The writer also knows that drama comes when your characters face serious challenges and make unexpected choices. (Directed by Christina Cass.)

The Entrepreneur
Non-stop laughs, with broadly drawn characters that could easily appear on Kath and Kim. It would not have worked so well if the characters were not taken to the comedic extreme. The ending should have stopped at the punch line - the explanation of the final ironic joke (what was in the bag) wasn’t needed.

Celebrity is the New Bleak
One of the most original concepts I’ve seen. Magazines personified. It could have gone so wrong, but it went so right. Pure fun, topical, relevant to right now and the best plastic wrap joke ever.

Paradise Can
Acapella, pirates, bananas and disease! Another delightfully enjoyable and totally absurd work by another writer who understands that you have to do bad things to the characters you love in order to make good drama.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

The Opera Burlesque

The Opera Burlesque
19 November 2006
The Famous Spiegeltent

Review by Christina Cass

“Opera singers can sing but they sure as hell can’t act”, are mutters often heard while the audience files out of Carmen or La Traviata. That’s what keeps many people away from embracing the opera format – the stiffness of the performers we often see (which, by the way, has loosened up quite a bit lately). Ah! But the music is so dreamy that watching Pavarotti poke around the stage barely physically connected to the text of the story – much less barely resembling the character – doesn’t matter.

Not so with Ali McGregor’s The Opera Burlesque triumphantly back from the Edinburgh Festival for another Melbourne engagement at the Famous Spiegeltent. Ali McGregor, Antoinette Halloran and Dimity Shepherd make up the trio of lovely laced-up vocalists who can also act! That’s what struck me about halfway through their show – how wonderful it was to enjoy beautiful, classically trained voices wrapping their delicious vocal chords (not to mention corset chords) around uniquely mixed interpretations of Puccini, Madonna, and AC/DC all while being fully invested in their characters.

Okay, okay, bad boys and horny babes -- love gone murderously wrong and songs about tongue-tied ‘cunning linguists’ may not bring these ever-so-slightly-tarnished lilies a Tony Award, but to see a well-structured kabaret performed with polish is a great treat. This cheeky burlesque business can sometimes be just haphazard, titillating vaudevillian fare – which in itself can be very fun, don’t get me wrong, The Opera Burlesque has plenty of that but it also has a bit more structure than just getting down and dirty.

McGregor, who also directed the show, was apparently inspired by a late 19th Century group of opera singers who used to creep out of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, dash across to the East End and perform their arias in corsets and drawers for the vaudeville loving public. Parodying popular theatre of the day, these ladies gave the audience a taste of opera that they may not otherwise either experience or care for and that’s exactly what The Opera Burlesque ladies are leaving its audience today.

The Opera Burlesque has one final show, November 20, 2006 @ the Spiegeltent 9:15pm – try not to miss it!

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

The Debutante Diaries

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2006
The Debutante Diaries
Kate McLennan
7 October 2006
The Festival Hub, The Raglan

Review by Christina Cass

Kate McLennan (The Wrong Night and Let Loose Live) had me absolutely howling with laughter during her new show, The Debutante Diaries, now playing at The Raglan in the Fringe Festival Hub until 3 October.

Directed by Fiona Harris (SkitHOUSE and Flipside) and written and performed by McLennan herself, I laughed; I cried (really, I really cried) but was mostly astounded by McLennan’s seamless work depicting the trials and tribulations of preparing for that classic teenage right of passage – The Debutante Ball.

McLennan morphs between eight different characters and with aid of only a prop or two. She completely embodies the bitchy “mean girl”, the perpetually perky socialite, her jock boyfriend and the lecherous perv teacher/organizer of the Ball. They’re great fun to laugh at and make fun of, because we all know these people – we dealt with them in high school and we’re probably still dealing with them today. That’s one of the reasons her writing is so successful – it smacks of truth – and when we witness her most poignant character, Sophie, negotiating the confusing maze of preparation to her “fairytale night” it can break our heart.

Harris’ direction is for the most part spot-on. Less is more in a one-woman show and although McLennan is a master at transformation, she would be greatly aided by better technical transitions. Perhaps by watching a recording one of Lily Tomlin’s classic one-woman shows, one can see how sound and light can truly act as a buffer between characters and help the actor propel the story forward rather than continually stop-starting.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Blind Date

MIAF 2006TY
Blind Date
Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Melbourne International Arts Festival
25 October 2006
the Arts Centre, State Theatre

Review by Christina Cass

Blind Date is a multi-sensory experience unlikely to make you casually walk out of the theatre and drive back to your nice, safe home nestled far away from the madding roar of war.

I was unhappy at first that this hugely layered undertaking by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company seemed to be some more trite America bashing – the U.S. national anthem, army fatigues, symbolic death on the battlefields juxtaposed with peace protectors…… I’m just tired of people taking jabs at Uncle Sam and here I had to sit through an hour and a half of a visual and aural bombardment of political and social atrocities performed by a highly acclaimed American dance troupe. “Whaaaa!?!?!?” you may say, but therein lays the spirit of Jones’ work: pushing buttons so we ask ourselves, “Why are we so uncomfortable with this?”

Not in the mood for a psychotherapy session either, I reluctantly took a stab at it: “What is it about Blind Date that was such a turn off?” Was it aural and visual overload with all the videos and spoken word and live music and dancing and poetry and gigantic dead yellow duckies floating above the stage that kept me from zeroing in on the theme? Was I frustrated that I wasn’t able to find more than the obvious anti-war message? That I couldn’t ‘get it’?

It turns out I was totally off the mark to look for a message from Jones hidden somewhere in the work. It was in plain view the entire time. Jones believes our global culture is awash with “toxic certainty” – the right or wrong of a particular position and in Blind Date, he takes on the concept of patriotism. To him, honour, sacrifice and identity are best observed in the phenomenon of young soldiers willing to participate in a misguided war. If those of us, who are not fighting, reject this idea of patriotism, then we must ask ourselves, “Do we believe in anything with the same passion that we are willing to die for it?”

Good point.

Jones, as many artists do, takes a social stand laced with political poison. Rather than ram his own personal opinions down the throats of his audience, he asks us to merely take a bit more care in understanding our own philosophies and where they come from. He asks us to take a stand, not point a finger.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

blessing the boats

MIAF 2006
blessing the boats
Melbourne International Arts Festival
20 October 2006
the Arts Centre, Fairfax Studio

Review by Christina Cass

blessing the boats, written and performed by Sekou Sundiata, is one man’s personal mythology into and out of the depths of a prolonged near-death experience – of five years. The profound imagery Sundiata portrays through his gorgeous baritone spoken word transports the listener to another continent – Harlem, USA – to be exact, where Sundiata discovers he has renal disease.

By 1997 the undiagnosed warning signs of hypertension, chronic fatigue and flu-like symptoms are merely chalked up to his busy lifestyle: writing and performing his poetry and music. Not until he passes out in an elevator where he remains unnoticed for “two minutes or twenty minutes?” does his medical nightmare of kidney failure begin.

This story of “unearned grace,” as Sundiata describes it, is one with earth angels who come from unexpected places to aid a man who clearly doubted his own life was worthwhile. After years of dialysis and 18 months on the kidney transplant waiting list, there are five friends who stepped up to the offering plate – four of them were perfect matches; there is a woman with the cell phone who literally saved his neck after a car accident; and the list goes on. By the end of the performance, we are inclined to take pause and appreciate the everyday blessing that we ourselves are graced with.

Sundiata uses video imagery, music and multiple impersonations of his no-bullshit subconscious, medical “practicing” doctors and death stalking his hospital bed to take us to the ultimate celebration – life. He moves slowly and with purpose, around the stage into and out of lights, but perhaps therein lies my only complaint. I wish there was more energy in the overall performance. It may be due to a bit of ennui performing blessing the boats for several years now around the world, or most likely jet lag kicking in and kicking butt, but Sundiata’s normally commanding and rich voice didn’t carry nor did the celebratory nature of his story resonate through his body.

It would be a shame to say this coloured my experience of the profound poetry that is uniquely Sekou Sundiata, but it did. I can only hope that he is more well-rested for his second highly anticipated show of the festival, the 51st (dream) state.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Ngapartji Ngapartji

MIAF 2006
Ngapartji Ngapartji
Melbourne International Arts Festival, UWA Perth International Arts Festival and Sydney Opera House
13 October 2006
the Arts Centre, Fairfax Studio

Review by Christina Cass

 
“Ngapartji Ngapartji” translated from Pitjantjatjara is, “I give you something, you give me something”. This is also the title and themeof the emotional new work written by Scott Rankin of Big hART. Perhaps play is not the right word – it’s more an experience of a nation’s journey told by master storyteller and co-creator of the work, Trevor Jamieson, and it is not to be missed.

The uniqueness of this ‘experience’ is that the journey includes the audience. Rather than pay a few dollars, see some Aboriginal tale come to life, go out to dinner afterward and talk about the stock market, Rankin hopes the audience will take home history, language and new ideas based on age-old themes. “I give you something, you give me something”, is ancient barter. On one level, the ensemble teaches some songs and phrases from Jamieson’s homeland in exchange for coming to the show; but on another deeper level, it is about exchanging nations’ narrations.

No one is immune from the collective consciousness. Ngapartji Ngapartji is meant to blur the lines between cultures. Aboriginal, Japanese, Afghan, Greek and English stories are told. The language of experience during the Cold War of the 1950s-1980s is the common bond. The production explores the greater themes of dispossession and displacement from country, home and family through Jamieson’s own Pitjantjatjara story.
The set is an austere landscape of black sand and white powder with a large copper relief/mountain/desert where the story unfolds. Rankin cleverly uses this set piece to help Jamieson transform into his characters but also allow the supporting cast to tell their own cultural journeys. Through monologues in native tongues and English translations, and sublime movement and projection we begin to understand that this is not one man’s tale, but the tale of many. The tale of Diaspora – or the displacement of people and cultures throughout man’s history – unfolds before us.

For Jamieson’s family, who lived in Spinifex country where his nation encompassed an area in central Australian larger than that of Great Britain, it begins with his grandfather during the Cold War. The English Prime Minister, Clement Atlee asked then Prime Minister Robert Menzies if England could use the deserts of central Australia as a testing site for its newly developed atomic bombs. Menzies, without consulting Parliament said, “Sure, nothing’s out there anyway”.

These Maralinga atomic tests and their effect on one of the most ancient and isolated cultures in the world still have repercussions today. Jamieson takes us through the subsequent generations of his family with great skill – he switches between English and Pitjantjatjara and moves with catlike ease and humour that the audience barely realizes they’ve been witness to 60 years of cultural history. That is something to emphasize. Although this shameful topic is uncomfortable for many people, it is performed with great humour and intelligence. No finger pointing here, just a story that’s been missing from this nation’s narration; a story that should not be overlooked any longer.

Ngapartji Ngapartji is scheduled to perform in Sydney and Perth, then perhaps overseas. I believe Jamieson’s and the ensemble’s performance is not only highly entertaining and timely, but it is pure Aussie-born and bred theatre. There has been much discussion in the papers lately about the lack of a voice for Australian theatre, and the fact that Kristy Edmunds has shepherded this project through the 2005 and 2006 MIAFs, shows that there is commitment to make a change. Supporting this project may open the gate for others – benefactors and artists alike – to soon follow.

Learn more about the history, language and culture of the Pitjantjatjara people by signing up for online language classes or attending performances. You are not only broadening your own scope of knowledge, but you are helping a nation rebuild and redefine itself: “ngapartji, ngapartji”.

This review originally appeard on AussieTheatre.com.

Ethel’s Greatest Hits

MIAF 2006
Ethel’s Greatest Hits
Ethel and Melbourne International Arts Festival
14 October 2006
the Arts Centre, Hamer Hall

Review by Christina Cass

Last night at Hammer Hall I went to see the Australian debut of Ethel, one of concert music’s most exciting and energetic string ensembles. Their irreverent style – not a tux in sight – included casual interaction with the audience and spontaneous improvisation showing how important communication is within an ensemble.


Trust, skill and fearlessness separate the men from the boys, and the women from the girls, in creating truly unique and personal interpretations of music and theatre. Flying hair, shredding bows and broken strings are all part of the speed and heat with which Ethel plays. Let’s put it this way, I hope Ethel doesn’t drive the way they play; otherwise they will be locked up in no time.

This Julliard-trained, all-star foursome is Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), Mary Rowell (violin) and Cornelius Dufallo (violin). They have been shaking up the New York music scene since 1998. Ethel has brought to its music an exciting, beautiful and rare combination of tastes and talents that has developed from each member's unique experiences in the music world. Members of Ethel have performed and/or recorded with Bang On A Can, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York Chamber Symphony, CONTINUUM, and with Sheryl Crow, Roger Daltrey and Yo-Yo Ma, among many others.

Ethel’s first piece, the bluesy Sweet HardWood (1998) by John King, had three movements which made me think of The Devil Went Down to Georgia, sex on the bayou and the unmistakable feeling of dark heat and loneliness of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. I just had a stupid smile on my face that made me bob and weave back to the sweaty, Southern shores of the USA.

Next, New York composer Phil Kline wrote The Blue Room specifically for Ethel in 2002. He describes, “In four movements of alternating moods, two meditations are followed by urgent dances; juxtaposing, as it seems to me now, how the earth is doing versus how the world is doing.“ When I closed my eyes, I saw cockroaches in a dark and damp New York apartment building. Now that’s not a bad thing – but clearly the work brought about some very specific and powerful images.
The very complicated Shadow Quartet (2005) by Neil Rolnick is an homage and celebration of his own father’s life and death. Here Ethel has interwoven the pre-recorded electronic sounds of a hospital room with their live music to a startling effect of discordant sounds paralleling the terrible counterpoint of a dying man’s last breaths. Not easy listening by any measure.

The more successful Early That Summer (1993) by Julia Wolfe, was the final piece of the evening and brought back the sheer energy and power of Ethel. They introduced the piece as “incredibly difficult to play” and as anticipation slowly climaxed into shredded bows igniting the stage with heat and sound, the audience was finally released into a steady stupor.

We had truly witnessed an ensemble of extraordinary skill and passion. Ethel is playing two shows as part of MIAF and then go on to Shepparton and Bendigo. Try not to miss Ethel’s unique experience.

The Wrong Night

The Wrong Night
The Six
23 October 2006
The Spiegeltent

Review by Christina Cass

The Wrong Night presented by the roving comedy troupe, The Six, should have been passing out Pampers with the price of admission – for all the hilarious pant-wetting that ensued.

The Six have been playing around Melbourne for some time now, honing and toning their irreverent comedy, but for this packed one-night only show (sadly) at The Famous Spiegeltent, they roped in several guest comedians to polish off the evening with a more professional shine.

MC/Diva and Green Room Award nominee, Wes Snelling, was the stumbling, gin-swizzling Tina del Twiste. She kept the night rolling effortlessly with her velvet-dipped dagger wit and dress and book ended the show with two songs including a fabulous rendition of “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”

Also performing were the highly entertaining Die Roten Punkte – a tongue-in-cheek brother/sister punk band from Germany; a sublime Geraldine Quinn who should never, ever be allowed to handle sharp objects while drinking and singing “Bitch with a Bone”; Wilson Dixon’s clever cowboy philosopher strumming “A Man with No Name,” and the cheeky Caravan of Love ladies.

The Six (Josh Cameron, Jon Peck, Mandy Mannion and Kate McLennan with guests Cara Mitchell and Bridget Bantick) scattered their sketch comedy between the guest acts and not always so successfully – Chastity Jane was sooooo wrong – but heck, that’s what the show was all about, The Wrong Night. Thankfully the overall wrongness was oh-so-right with the tone of the night; but next time, dear Six, book a longer run so Melbourne doesn’t blink and miss a delightfully mischievous evening.