Review: Pennsylvania Avenue

Pennsylvania Avenue
Melbourne Theatre Company
13 November 2014
Sumner Theatre
to 20 December
mtc.com.au

Photo by Jeff Busby

Last week, Melbourne's two mainstage companies opened shows by Melbourne writers. Both directed by Melbourne directors and featured Melbourne performers and creators. Both were also set in the USA and based on US culture. But the chasm between Pennsylvania Avenue, at the MTC, and Calpurnia Descending, at Malthouse Theatre, is so wide that one can barely wave at the other.

Pennsylvania Avenue gets the Songs for Nobodies gang back together. Written by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Simon Phillips and performed by Bernadette Robinson, Nobodies is a heartfelt work about five fictional nobodies who encounter five famous and broken singer somebodies (Garland, Cline, Piaf, Holiday and Callas). Each story is complete and uses the music and Robinson's talent to mimic to add so much to the stories about how nobody is really a nobody.

Pennsylvania Avenue started with the same idea and ran in the other direction.

Set in the Blue Room, another oval room, in the East Wing of the White House in Washington, it's the story of nobody Harper Clements who worked as a social secretary at the White House from presidents Kennedy to Bush jnr. She's well over 50 (the horror) and it's time for her to leave with her cardboard box of memories, like when she recommended that Marilyn Monroe take her knickers off to get a better line in the dress when she sang "Happy Birthday" to Kennedy and when she accidentally suggested to Reagan that "Tear down that wall" would help his Berlin speech. With photos of her in the background of famous photos, her story begs for more inside knowledge of the White House and the people who live and work there, and for a greater insight into her own politics.

But she's fiction. In all fairness, it's never claimed that she's real, but it was the question everyone was asking after the show because she seemed real enough to wonder.

So why this story? Why is Melbourne's flagship company commissioning a story that has no direct or even thematic connection to Australia? Apart from maybe the fact that side-stepping politics is easy. The post-show treats were even Budwiser and fries with USA stickers on the box.

When did Melbourne become the out-of-town try out city for Broadway? Because that's where this show wants to go and as a bland celebration of USA culture, it might run for years.

The inspiration of the work is Robinson and she continues to sing like the best. This time she sings the songs of people who performed at or visited the White House (including Monroe, Streisand – "she's Jewish – Vaughan, Kitt, Ross and Dylan – Bob). But while there was connection in Nobodies, there was little connection between songs and this character. And this time the mimicing felt weird. Why doesn't Harper sing as Harper? It felt like a drag show without any of the subversion.

Meanwhile, a couple blocks away at the Malthouse, Calpurnia Descending opened. It has already had a run in Sydney, but this is the first time the locally-adored punk camp Sisters Grimm have had a main stage show in their home town.

And it has enough subversion, heart and guts (and drag) to make up for Pennsylvania Avenue.

Calpurnia Descending review.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: True Minds

True Minds
Melbourne Theatre Company
29 April 2013
The Sumner
to 8 June
mtc.com.au

I'll always see a new Joanna Murray-Smith play. She's one of Melbourne's most commercially successful playwrights and she writes terrific jokes about being middle class in Melbourne. Her latest, True Minds at the MTC,  is the theatrical equivalent of a black-and-white romcom that you're happy to watch every time it's repeated on the ABC because it's an easy giggle with some terrific performances.

Daisy (Nikki Shiels) lives in her enviable converted warehouse with a collection of giraffe knick-knacks. She's written a commercially successful book about how men need their mum's approval before they choose the girl of their dreams. It's a bit of a surprise, as neither of her leftie parents – mum (Genevieve Morris) is into beyond-alternative medicine and young men, dad (Alex Menglet) is a drunken academic and philanderer – are into marriage and her last beau (Adam Murphy) is in rehab. But love is strange and Daisy's fallen for the most conservative hunk in town (Matthew McFarlane) and is preparing to meet is his mummy (Louise Silversen), who would call Julie Bishop a raving liberal Liberal. As Dasiy gets the dips ready, there's a storm brewing outside and everyone ends up in her open plan living room.

For all the big laughs and performers who bring extra so much extra to their characters (it's worth seeing for the three women), there's not a second's doubt as to what's going to happen or an opportunity to wish for something different. Couldn't we even like the hunky fiance for a bit and understand why Daisy wants to marry him? The jokes are easy and obvious, the politics are duller than QandA, and the characters are so full of cliches that they become unrecognisable as real people. This leaves the audience safely distanced because there's little chance of really seeing theselves on the stage.

Peter Houghton had written/directed/performed some of our funniest theatre. He builds a manic world where the background action says as much as the script, but he seems to be pushing for True Minds to be farce. It's not extreme enough to be farce and the characters are too likeable to push them to farcical extremes. At the same time, there's not enough guts in the script for it to be social satire: conservative ladies in peach don't like gay marriage while young liberal lefties are all for it, some people are happy not to get married, and it's all about love at the end of the day. Really? There's so much more to explore. (And out of rehab and happily pouring booze all night without any of your loved ones keeping an eye on you?)

It's a funny and enjoyable show, but it's so safe that it's inoffensive and forgettable.

Photo by Jeff Busby.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Songs For Nobodies

Songs For Nobodies
Duet, A Melbourne Theatre Company Production
4 January 2012
Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne
to 13 January, then touring
songsfornobodies.com

Somehow I'd missed Bernadette Robinson in Songs for Nobodies. If you also missed it, or know that you have to see it again, it's back in Melbourne at the Arts Centre and it is as great as everyone said it was.

I admit that I'm always dubious about a showcase work – and it's not like Melbourne has a shortage of  Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday or Maria Callas impersonators – so I went along mostly out of curiosity. Sure, curiosity sometimes kills, but it also uncovers choice treats and pillowy warm spots to rest and dream.

First seen in 2009, Songs for Nobodies was created to show off Robinson's astonishing singing. And rightly so; hers is a voice that grabs your heart at first note and doesn't let ago until there's silence. Director Simon Phillips saw this and, knowing that it had to be more than a cabaret, brought playwright Joanna Murray-Smith on board to find the story for this remarkable voice.

The soul of this new work comes from Murray-Smith's decision to not write about the divas whose songs Robinson sings, but to create stories about five nobodies whose lives were changed after encountering one of the great singers. From a 36-year-old ladies room attendant fixing Judy's hem after her concert at Carnegie Hall to a young journalist interviewing Billie and an English librarian telling how her father saw Edith perform in a prison camp, each story is complete and perfect and, for everyone who has seen this show, now inseparable from the well-known songs that accompany them.

Robinson's performance as ten different women is as magnificent as her singing and what makes this show so unforgettable is her seamless merge between characters without any hint of herself in between. For a work all about the performer, the performer is nowhere to be seen and she lets the five nobodies and five broken somebodies soak in the audience love.

This sadly leaves us with  no idea who Bernadette is or how she sounds when she's singing as herself. I'd have loved to see a sixth story or even an encore song, but I wonder if that revelation would take away from all that went before?

Songs For Nobodies is for Judy, Patsy, Edith, Billie and Maria fans and for anyone who hasn't heard them.  Robinson grasps what was unique and incredible about each singer and makes each song sound like it had never been sung before. It's on in Melbourne until Sunday 13 January, then it's off to Sydney and Adelaide.

This appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Day One. A Hotel, Evening

Day One. A Hotel, Evening
Red Stitch
20 November 2011
Red Stitch
to 17 December

The only thing that over shadows Joanna Murray-Smith's complex plot and labyrinth structure is her delicious and quotable wit. Back in a small theatre and with Red Stitch's boutique creators, the world premiere of Day One. A Hotel, Evening delivers a world so familiar that it could hurt to watch, if it weren't so damn funny.

There are two 40-something couples (Kate Cole, Dion Mills, Sarah Sutherland and John Adam) who are attempting to "build a postcode" and develop an outer-city suburb that they would never visit. They're wealthy enough to still need to be good looking, bored enough to drift from any middle class notions of fidelity and hurt enough to contemplate revenge. Throw in a promiscuous and pretty 22-year-old actor (Anna Sampson) and her philosophising hit-man husband, and there's a made-in-Melbourne farce that's guaranteed to please – unless it's meant to be a dark comedy.

In farce, we can laugh 'til we cry at hurting characters because we don't love them enough to care (like Basil Fawlty or anyone in The Importance of Being Earnest), but in dark comedy, we see their broken souls and the laughter comes at the cost of feeling their pain (like David Brent or the likes of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf ). All are as witty as a wit in a wit competition with a superior wit, but the freedom of farce allows the pain and confusion to create bigger and heartier laughs without the cost of empathy.

Murray-Smith's clever jokes, satire and mirror recognition bring easy laughs, made easier by the gorgeous performances, but the tone skates and slips without control. Sutherland's aggressive aggressive (it's easier than passive aggressive) Stella delights in her over-the-topness, then Hayward's Ray makes us want a happy ending, and for all the brilliant banter between Mills and Adam (can "fuck plagiarist" please enter our vernacular), I have no idea what they were hoping we would feel or if we were meant to feel anything other than admiration.

I'll remember "Love is not a guinea pig", but I've already forgotten the names of the characters and, I suspect that I'll quickly forget the ending because I didn't know if I was meant to fall off my chair in crying shock about the cost of love, or laughingly wet myself at its inevitability.

Photo by Jodie Hutcinson

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Review: The Gift

The Gift
Melbourne Theatre Company
2 June 2011
Sumner Theatre
to 9 July 2011
www.mtc.com.au

We must thank playwrights who show just how hard it is to be wealthy, middle aged and white. It can't be easy, especially when nasty povo commy bloggers create sites like White Whine or Stuff White People Like. How dare they make fun of things they don't understand. It must be really horrible seeing satire on your iPad2. So it's wonderful that the MTC is there to assure their subscribers that it's OK; it really is OK to be better at spending than making money.

The Gift is another poor rich us story. Dammit, they have feelings too!

The design is so similar to last year's production of David Williamson's Let the Sunshine that I had to check that I hadn't been duped into another night with our national treasure. The characters weren't too different either, but the relief of Joanna Murray-Smith's fresh wit took away the fear.

Sadie and Ed are at a very expensive resort for their 25th anniversary gesture. Naturally, there are jokes about firing their personal butler and when will hotels learn that people don't like paying $9 for a box of mini-bar of Pringles. I find it so much easier to stay in cockroach-infested hostels just to avoid this kind of stress. Anyway, they meet Chloe and Martin, a hip young artists couple who won their getaway in a competition. Away from home, sculling posh wine and mojitos (really?) and clearly attracted to each other...

No swinging isn't middle class enough for them. They talk about the value of art (it's good) and take a boat trip.  And yes there's a literal storm to strengthen the metaphorical one. Actually the program blurb tells you everything that happens in Act 1 (why?), so Act 2 is about firing all those early foreshadowed empty wombs.

There's quite a moral dilemma presented, but not explored. In Act 1, the rich couple talk about watching other people and making up stories. The Gift feels like watching without being involved.  The observation is astute – we recognise these people – but don't know them enough to care what choices they make or feel any relevance to our lives (apart from the Pringles).

Richard Piper, Heather Bolton, Matt Dytynski and Elizabeth Debicki are all terrific performers and Murray-Smith's gorgeous wit shines, but I don't care what happens to these people. So if you see a post on White Whine saying, "My free theatre ticket didn't make me care as much as Masterchef does", you'll know who it's from.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Photo by Jeff Busby

The Female of the Species

The Female of the Species
Melbourne Theatre Company
2 September 2006
The Playhouse, The Arts Centre


If you love a good “he’s behind you” gag, or you appreciate a deconstructed joke about Derrida deconstructing a piece of toast, you should enjoy the The Female of the Species. Joanna Murray-Smith’s script is witty, funny and intelligent. It is easy to laugh with, but a difficult play to enjoy.

The Female of the Species is a farce about the ironies and hypocrisies of feminism. Farce meaning the comedic tradition and structure, complete with mistaken identity, innuendo and unbelievable situations all liberally sprinkled with vagina jokes and the obligatory oral sex ‘gag’. It is also full of very witty and sophisticated jokes about the history of feminist literature (make sure you look at the wonderful book covers). If you don’t know your Dworkin from your de Beauvoir, there is a reading list in the program.

Ironically, the deliberate irony of combining two styles of comedy is unsuccessful and frustrating. The play opens with a delightful portrait of famous feminist-intellect Margot Mason and her young nemesis Molly. When Molly pulls out a gun, the structural and directorial descent to farce is immediate and almost …well.…farcical.

The direction and acting are uneven and reflect the conflicting styles. Director Patrick Nolan draws on every expected tradition of the farce genre. The characters find themselves in sexually compromising positions, situations are resolved as new characters suddenly appear through the french doors, and each time the plot loses momentum – a gun is fired to wake the audience up. I am unsure if this was meant to be a satirical deconstruction of farce, or just lazy direction. The final moments of the show do detour from the expected structure, but this moment fizzles, rather than jolts.

Conflicting acting styles add to the frustration. Some cast play with the farce, complete with sly glances at the audience, while others play it as a fourth wall drama with some funny lines.
Nonetheless, it is the engaging performances from all cast members that make The Female of the Species an enjoyable evening. Sue Ingleton is the standout. I’m sure many members of the audience were cringing or cheering, as they recognised Margot. Margot is also the most broadly drawn character and given a real (if not fulfilled) emotional arc. Roz Hammond (as her daughter) and Bojana Novakovic (as her captor) ably support her. Each character is original and tightly drawn, but their reactions and behaviours were frustratingly expected and clichéd. Roz continues to prove herself as a wonderful comedian (or comedienne – depending on which wave of feminist thought you chose), using the farcical style to full advantage. Bojana plays her character straight. Both styles work well, but not together.

The male characters are far less believable than the women. Again, I am unsure if it was meant to be satirical, but they seemed to fall straight from the pages of “Stereotyped Men and the Women who Love or Hate Them”. There was the namby-pamby SNAG; the angry, but sensitive black guy; and the big old queen. Each did exactly what we expect these characters to do if they appear in a daytime soap.

Murray-Smith’s script is a very funny observation of the impact of feminist thought. The jokes and the performances sustain the evening. However, I would have like to see it directed with more purpose and irony, rather than indulgence.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.