Review: Almost With You

Almost With You
La Mama and Little Theatre Company
9 July 2012
La Mama Theatre
to 22 July
lamama.com.au

Almost With You opens with music from The Clash and a 40-something-chick having to change her sex position because her knees hurt and the two of them end up talking about tax, back pain and pilates instead of doing it. I was so there.

Lisa (Fiona Macleod) is 45. She's a successful journalist writing a feature about older first-time parents, including her best friend (Helen Hopkins) who became a mum at 46 and her accountant (Raj Sidhu) who became a dad at 48. Lisa hasn't joined the baby or marriage club and knows she has to face what she lost when she was 20 if she's ever going to stop feeling empty and broken.

Elizabeth Colmen's play about grief and survival is clearly very personal and her story is honest and affecting, but the writer is so close to the material that there are few moments of the objective distance that turns a complex and real experience into a moving and embracing stage story.

The characters are a bit too good to ring true and speak to each other without subtext. This honesty from characters creates dialogue that feels unnatural because it leaves no room for the audience to interpret and create meaning – and no one is ever that honest when they speak to people they love and/or are trying to impress.  Meanwhile, the secret/twist and every implication for Lisa is clear from the scene when we meet her brother (Luke O'Sullivan) and so much of what follows tells what's already known.

Kaarin Fairfax's direction respects and loves Coleman's story but, like the writing, this doesn't leave enough space for the audience. Moments of dark humour are lost and everyone is just too damn likeable. The cast are all as lovely as their characters, and Macleod especially brings the missing complexity into her engaging performance, which is what draws us through the story and makes the awkward ending almost moving.

And then there's the nostalgic music from the 80s and I automatically love anything that references The Go-Betweens. There's a terrific scene with 80s punk dancing that works so much to show character and attitude, but the nostalgia mostly serves to mark the time and too many of the jokes and reference are meaningless to anyone who didn't have great taste in music in the 80s. If you don't know that Steve Kilby wrote "Almost With You" in 1982 and the video was set at a seance,  how can the connections be made?

Almost With You is created from the kind of grief that reaches our hearts and the sort of healing that creates hope, but these emotions are having trouble resonating because the work is so close to the writer that there's no room for anyone else.






This review was on AussieTheatre.com

Fiona Macleod had a chat about the show.

Chat: Fiona Macleod, La Mama

Almost With You
La Mama
4 – 22 July 2012

review

Almost With You is a story of love and loss from Elizabeth Coleman (Secret Bridesmaids’ Business) from The Little Theatre Company. With an 80s soundtrack including The Church, The Jam and Simple Minds, it opens at La Mama on 4 July.

Director Kaarin Fairfax (Good People) says, “It’s not often I read a play and feel so moved by the characters and the journey on which they travel… Almost With You is for me a highly creative and sensitive piece of writing that will join ranks with Elizabeth’s earlier successes to become part of Australian theatre history and a great classic work.”

Actor Fiona Macleod (Construction of the Human Heart, The City) talks to Anne-Marie Peard about working at La Mama and performing Almost with You.

What three words best describe your show?
Intriguing, funny, affecting.

Do you remember the first show you saw at La Mama?
I don’t remember the show, but I remember the experience.  Sitting there, amongst the brick and near the open fire, thinking “what have I been DOING all these years??”

What is one of your favourite shows you’ve seen at La Mama?
Angus Cerini’s play Save for Crying.

What La Mama show do you wish you’d seen?
So, so many…

What do you love about working at La Mama?
The cosiness of the entire space – the theatre, courtyard, upstairs, the support of the team there, the sense of being a part of Melbourne’s theatre history, the sense of community and integrity that permeates the brick walls.

What do you love most about this show? 
The rollercoaster journey that my character goes on – I won’t have a second to stop and think.  The story propels me forward, with force.  And the fact that it’s funny, as well as heart-wrenchingly sad.

Where is the best coffee in Carlton?
I’d hate to play favourites, but Brunetti’s is just so close.

Who would you love to see in your audience one night?
My extended family who live in Scotland.

Is there anyone you don’t want to see in the audience?
Yes, but I’m not going to say as it would spark controversy.

What do you like to do after a performance?
Drink red wine and talk to friends.

What was your first time on a stage?
It was either the school play in first form where I played Jane in Pride and Prejudice, or in a church hall doing a dance to “Downunder’ by  Men at Work.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
I try not to have too many as I think they can become compulsive, but I do like to do a physical and vocal warm up – sing perhaps, breathe, and do something to connect with my co-actors.

What’s some great theatre advice you’ve used? 
Trust yourself, don’t forget to listen, and a new one from my director on this show, Kaarin Fairfax – get the thought right and the behaviour will look after itself.

What punishment do you think is fit for audience members who don’t turn their phones off during performances?
The psychic wrath of the other audience members is usually punishment enough, but perhaps they should be made to buy the cast a drink after the show?

What’s your favourite gelati flavour?
Probably lemon.

What role/character do you really want to play one day?
I’m not sure but I’ll know it when it comes.

Matinees: love or loathe?
Loathe, generally.

Do you read reviews?
I do as curiosity gets the better of me, but I think if you are going to believe the good, you have to believe the bad, or take all of them with a grain of salt.  It’s probably best not to though, until after the season.

Do you know of any secret parking spots near the theatres (although it’s such a short walk from the Melbourne uni tram stop on Swanston Street, so driving isn’t necessary)? 
I always have luck in the four hour ones down on that square (don’t know the address sorry – McCarthur Place?)

What’s the best book you’ve read recently? 
The Privileges by Jonathan Dee.

What question do you wish I’d asked?
What are your hopes for this show?

How would you answer it?
That it affects people, and that it has many more lives.

This was on AussieTheatre.com

Review: The City

The City
Red Stitch Actors Theatre
3 September  2010
Red Stitch Theatre
to 25 September
redstitch.net

Fortunately there's still time to see The City at Red Stitch before the Melbourne Fringe takes all our free nights away.

If you haven't experienced a world created by UK playwright Martin Crimp, Red Stitch defty grasp the threatening tone, the unsettling humour and unnatural naturalistic style that make Crimp one of the most talked about writers, who is either loved or loathed.

Director Adena Jacobs says "I wouldn't dare attempt to explain The City. It is a puzzle not meant to be solved - entirely."

The puzzling mood begins with Dayna Morrissey's design and Danny Pettingill's lighting that brings dimension and scope to the tiny stage making it contradict itself by looking huge and feeling claustraphobic.

Clair (Fiona Macleod) works as a translator and has a comfortable life with office worker husband Christopher (Dion Mills) and her children (we see the daughter in a role shared by Fantine Banulski and Georgie Hawkins).  Living in an apartment over looking their garden is Jenny (Meredith Penman), a nurse whose husband is away at a secret war where he sees people cling to life. Jenny doesn't like hearing the noisy kids during the day and she looks remarkably like a woman Clair described from her morning where she met a famous writer at the train station.

Crimp never lets his world balance.  His not-right world is less obvious than rhinoceroses running around the streets, but just as perfectly confusing.  (Crimp is also known for his translations of Absurd king Ionesco's work, including Rhinoceros.) From the way his characters talk over each other with dialogue that indulges in repetition, or the audience trying to figure out how many kids are locked in the room without a key,  The City continually draws attention to its artifice and makes its audience re-think, re-interpret and re-remember everything they thought they understood.

The game pays off beautifully, but the satisfaction of finishing the puzzle is slightly soured by the realisation that the story was a game that didn't have all the love and self-reflection that we adore in theatre.

However, this production is such a winner, because Jacobs and her actors bring the heart back to the work. Each time I see Macdonald on a stage, she captures the essence of her characters and brings a depth and connection that makes me forget that I'm watching an actor. As Crimp's world reminds us that it's not real, Macdonald brings an emotional grounding to Clair that lets her sit in the centre of the whirlpool. Her scenes with Penman are riveting. They are one with Crimp's world, making every oddness and contradiction seem as natural breathing. There's a subtle difference in Mills performance, which is bloody good, but it doesn't feel part of the world. It's like Christopher, as a character, is in on the solution with Crimp, leaving Mills playing the end from the beginning, which feels more comfortable as the story progresses and his behaviour becomes more extreme.

The City is on for another week and might sell out, so it's best to book rather than waiting to see if you're in the mood.


This review appears on AussieTheatre.com

Here is Theatre Notes' terrific discussion about the The City.

Construction of the Human Heart

Construction of the Human Heart
Malthouse Theatre
Melbourne Writers Festival
August 17 2006
Tower Theatre, CUB Malthouse

A white box, two chairs, two actors and a courageous script create some of the most evocative and beautiful images I have seen in a theatre. Construction of the Human Heart proves the exceptional quality and originality that emanates from Melbourne’s independent theatre artists.

Under the direction of Brett Adam, every element of this production reflects an understanding and ownership of the text. The artists used a positive collaborative process to create. The result is moving, intimate, confronting, honest and emotionally engaging.

Playwright Ross Mueller wrote in his programme notes that Construction of the Human Heart is:

“For all of us who want to sit in the dark with other people and experience something that cannot be replicated beyond this night. I wanted to tell a story that could only be told in the theatre.”

This is a production for people who love and understand theatre. It would not work in any other medium. It demonstrates how to use, twist and break every rule about form and structure.

Mueller does write for a very specific demographic. Mid 30s to early 40s / living in inner city Melbourne (preferably north) / over educated / know too much about theatre (please laugh at the “it’s David Hare, not Williamson” joke) / struggling with your own creative career while trying to earn an income / loath the concept of IKEA, but have too many Ikea items in your house / and have experienced the kind of love that leaves you empty and broken at its loss.

Fortunately that is most people I know (except some of us live on the south side of the river). Construction of the Human Heart is written for now and written for us. In doing so, Mueller shows how honest, personal writing can connect with universal themes. Even if you don’t get every cultural reference and joke, the emotion of the work sustains it.

Fiona Macleod (as Her) and Todd MacDonald (as Him) deliver two of the most honest and real performances I have seen on a stage. Neither dominated and both gave more to the other actor than they took for themselves. I wanted to see this production having seen them perform Jane Bodie’s Ride. Playwrights like Mueller and Bodie, please keep writing for these two.

Ron Irwin’s lighting design accentuates the text, empowers the performances and creates mood using nothing but light and dark - no colours, no specials. Construction of the Human Heart is all about the greys between our black and whites. The joy of this production is the integration of every element, so Casey Bennetto’s sound design (and voice over) must also be mentioned.

Thank you to the Malthouse’s Tower Theatre Program and the Melbourne Writers’ Festival for enabling independent work like this to be re-staged and seen by a wider audience. This was originally produced in the INSTORAGE season at The Store Room, so keep an eye the next season. If, like me, you missed the first production of Construction of the Human Heart, do not miss it this time around.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.