Review & photos: Whale

Whale
Speakeasy
2 May 2019
Northcote Town Hall
to 11 May
darebinarts.com.au

Sonya Suares. Photo by Theresa Harrison

With two works opening within a week of each other in two of Melbourne's significant independent theatre venues, playwright Fleur Kilpatrick might be a bit overwhelmed. Hopefully in a good way. A remount of her remarkable adaption of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five (which she also directed) has just finished at Theatre Works in St Kilda, and Whale – which won the 2018 Max Afford Playwright's Award and was supported by crowd funding – is part of Darebin's Speakeasy program at Northcote.

Whale is participatory theatre.

That's all that a lot of people need to know as they book tickets without a moment's hesitation; the rest are shuddering and deciding to watch TV instead.

But there's no need for fear. Really.

Ok, there's a real need for fear as this work is about climate change, but not about the participatory nature of this night.

Whale is as much about theatre as it is theatre. In Kilpatrick's theatre stories, the audience are, to different degrees, characters and participants as much as observers. Theatre isn't just what happens on the stage, it's how we feel watching it, it's what we talk about afterwards, it's whether we go home and forget it or are still thinking about it days and weeks later. It's what we do.

Whale is all about what we do.

It opens with host Sonya Suares, in a Ted-Talk-suitable vest and matching pants, welcoming everyone as if we know the purpose of our meeting. Meanwhile Sarah Walker takes photos so that this important event is documented. It doesn't take long before we know we've gathered to make a group decision that will end climate change. Pretty good, huh? But there are consequences, and when there's choice, there's disagreement.

But none of this matters if participatory independent theatre saves our world, right? May as well give it a go, because anger and despair aren't working. And we've given up on politics.

Theatre is not a void. And even when knowing  Suares, Walker and Chanella Macri are performing,  the audience are fully engaged and committed to the result.

Director Katrina Cornwell and the design team (composer and sound: Raya Slavin, set and costume: Emily Collett, lighting: Lisa Mibus, AV: Sarah Walker) create a world that is far more than the one envisioned in Kilpatrick's writing. Whale is written to allow other creatives to make a work that belongs to everyone. In the same way that the audiences are trusted to be so vital to the result that everyone puts on their party hats without hesitation.

There are party hats. And chips and drinks. And penguins, projections, rocks, bad congratulations certificates, flooding and a discussion about if a play called "Whale" has to include a whale. It's unexpected theatre that's easy to get lost in and be a part of. And it might even make you do something new when you leave.

Photo by Theresa Harrison

Photo by Theresa Harrison

Photo by Theresa Harrison

Photo by Theresa Harrison

Photo by Theresa Harrison

Photo by Theresa Harrison

Photo by Theresa Harrison

MIDSUMMA: Cock

MIDSUMMA
Cock
15 Minutes from Anywhere
30 January 2019
fortyfivedownstairs
to 10 February
fortyfivedownstairs.com

UK playwright and tv writer Mike Bartlett wrote this play in 2009 and it's been on stages ever since. Its content about gender and sexuality already felt a bit dated at the time but it's not what Cock is about.

John (Matthew Connell) is the only named character. He's in his early 20s and living with his sorta-serious boyfriend (Shaun Goss). On what seems like a regular break, he meets and shags a woman (Marissa O'Reilly) and they like each other. The boyfriend is upset, more so because she's a woman. The boyfriend's dad (Scott Gooding) is also confused and is an active fighter in his son's corner.

Designer Emily Collett uses the pillars in fortyfivedownstairs to create an intimate in-the-round space. This creates the feeling of a boxing ring – especially on a far-too-hot summer night – and the instinct to cheer for a winner. And it forces the audience to look at each other as much as the action. It's much easier to pick a side when you can get your cues from the rest of the room and know who to cheer for.

What makes the script continue to be fascinating – even when the characters get a bit ranty – is that there isn't a hero to cheer for. As John can't make a decision, neither can the audience. Seeing John with both lovers lets us see him lie and do his best to protect everyone, mostly himself. In his mind, he has to make a choice and, as much as he wants someone to make it for him, no one gives him that easy way out.

Watching each relationship spa, there are so many more questions asked than the characters ask themselves. Some answers are obvious from the outside; who doesn't think they know the solution to other peoples' relationships?  If it were rom-com destined love, it'd be a cinch to choose. But the cast make sure that their characters don't see the bigger picture; they don't romanticise them or let them see beyond their own wants and needs.

While the characters are almost unsympathetic, director Beng Oh (co-founder of indie company 15 Minutes from Anywhere) keeps the action so close to each character's unknown emotional truth that, even if we don't easily like them, it's easy to find empathy and sympathy for them. And, as the tension builds, it becomes just as emotionally difficult to decide what we want them to do.

Or, of course you want Cock for Midsumma!


The MTC production from 2014.

Review: Merrily We Roll Along

Merrily We Roll Along
Watch This
30 June 2017
The Lawler, Southbank Theatre
to 15 July
watchthis.net.au

Nelson Gardner, Nicole Melloy & Lyall Brooks. Merrily We Roll Along. Photo by Jodie Hutchinson

My review is on The Music.

Guest Reviewer: MelBorn 2010 Season 2

The Premiere 
and 
Mrs Robinson Comes to Town

MelBorn ReBorn, Melbourne Writers Theatre

September 2010
Carlton Courthouse
www.melbwriters.org.au

Review by James Adler

The Premiere

As those of us in the under resourced indi-theatre game know all too well: it takes a long time to get a show to tick all the boxes. So hats off to the Melbourne Writers Theatre, Broken Mirror and MelBorn for giving us this play loaded with potential.

As we wait for The Premiere to begin, I take a moment to admire the design work of Emily Collett. It is a simple but beautiful set of folding flats, made out of light stained timber and canvass. It almost makes us feel like we are in a church. There is huge potential for the set to be used in exciting dramatic ways and had the added advantage being able to be quickly removed, which is often necessary with multiple shows a venue, as is this case. One frustration I did experience is that the potential of this stunning set was never realised.

Suddenly it snaps to black. The show begins.  A male and a female voice speak urgently about acquiring weapons. This opening dramatic effect is strong. Immediately I am engaged, looking around, trying to work out who it is, where they are and what’s happening.

As the lights open up we find ourselves in a police in cell. The inmates are: a young-and-ready-for-action couple Seb (Leon Durr) and Livia (Karla Sylvie), and an imprisoned activist, Matt (Fred Rowan). The three get acquainted and chat about the state of affairs in the world outside the cell, in world of the Democratic Dictatorship of Robert Fellows. Initially I guessed that Robert Fellows might never appear and would, instead, serve as a symbolic point of reference, but this thought was quickly dispelled. In fact the question of how to deal with Robert Fellows (Bruce Langdon), a former freedom fighter who ran out of things to do other than become a dictator and then make a movie about his own demise, quickly becomes the focus of the play.

On the surface The Premiere is quirky, abstract and comic. The healthy smattering of witty one liners and the sharp satirical characterisation from all four performers alone make it worth a look.

That said, my feeling, is that overall many audience members found the piece difficult. While the abstract and satirical style and direction was, in some ways, a positive, they also served as barrier for that stopped the audience getting into the meat of the play. If you were up for the challenge it was clear that writer Amel Kenza is offering more than a gag and a smart turn a phrase. Beneath the surface there was clearly some serious intellectual meat worth gnawing on this bone.

The play is really an investigation of our contemporary movie-mass-media-homogenous-cyber world. The questions being asked are: we’re has our acceptance of our culture become form of passive self-imposed dictatorship? If so how did it get that way? When and how we just give up believing there was a better world to fight for? And if we are going to regain our hope do we A: fight back and try to regain control of the physical world or B: submit and gain power by becoming the lawnmower man and entering completely into the cyber market of the future.

These are indeed important questions and in The Premiere they are woven in an interesting web to that gives us a new perspective from which to consider them. At the end of the day, I say this is a play that has some serious potential but may need to go through another phase or two of development before this potential is fully realised.

With all new work some weakness are to be expected, but it’s important to focus on the strengths and The Premiere has plenty of them. I look forward to seeing where it goes next.


Mrs Robinson Comes to Town

Part two of the evening is Ms Robinson Comes to Town Written by Caroline Rowan and Directed by Renee Palmer. Again this production does a good job in bringing another script with strong signs of potential to daylight. 

Sorry if I seem obsessed, but would one of the directors please spend some time with the set designer and make use of her brilliant work. There is a golden rule in theatre: if there is a gun on the table in the first act then someone needs to get shot in the last act. What I am getting at is that if you promise the audience something you need to deliver. That’s how the contract around the suspension of disbelief works. This set had the potential to make all sort of shapes, be moved and altered between scenes, and be used as a shadow screen and as a scrim – why oh why did nobody do anything with it at all?

Ok, that’s enough of Mr Grumpy Pants because there’s a whole lot of good things about this story.

It’s kind of a half love story for geriatrics and half a satirical feminist/post feminist critique and review of contemporary society. Our protagonists are Grace Robinson, a somewhat heavy-by-nature, been-through-the-wars, both personal and political, die-hard feminist and her would be friend/lover Benny Grubb, a very working class but basically good natured fella who talks a hell of a lot too much.

The plot is simple but effective. Benny comes over and sees he can find a way to alleviate his loneliness by helping Grace unpack.  Grace despite feeling quite put upon, is talked into getting Benny to reveal all sorts of things about herself including her political views and painful personal history.

Ms Robinsons story starts with dead and lost husbands, gay children and climaxes with a revelation about her past rape. In a similarly somewhat two dimensional style Benny, is uncomfortable talking about himself. We get to know few details other than he was in a horrifically prudish marriage.  Throughout the piece Benny’s emotional incompetence is revealed as he constantly deflects personal enquiry with odd facts about Anne Banks who play Mrs Robinson in that film.

This is all aimed to somehow seduce Grace and climaxes with a failed attempt to kiss her. I must comment that while the performances were in general good – this moment in the performance was so badly staged and performed it almost made me gag.

As I said in general the performances were quite strong. The notable short coming on this front apart from the kiss scene was that Gris Gaffney did such a realistic job of his occa accent that he was at times almost impossible to understand. Both actors, but in particular Margaret Younger (Grace) did a good job of creating three dimensional and emotionally accessible characters. This was important because at the end of the day this was a story about two one-dimensional people growing up a bit in their old age and making a new friend.

Overall I think that the script was pretty strong. It got me to have a good think about a couple of ideas. Sometimes men in unwillingness to face emotional problems, might equally well be describe as just trying their best to get along in life, and that sometimes the intellectual rigor of serious politics feminist (or otherwise) has some kind of aesthetic link with the sense of needing pain or having to overcome problems to have a sense of self.

Anyway, I reckon it was a pretty good little piece. The script might need a bit of a nip and tuck and it would be good to see the gag of Benny talking too much and being irritating develop because at the moment that character really runs the risk of driving not only Grace but also the audience to violence.