What I loved 2013: the Best of Melbourne Theatre

I was determined to see more than 100 shows this year and on my rough count I made it to 187. (If I count Life and Times as three shows, I get to 190; and if I count all the short plays, I can bluff a 250+!)

And I still missed too many!

Over December, we've heard what 51 people from Melbourne's theatre community loved in 2013, but here are my What I Loved awards.

There's still nothing shiny to take away.

As always, my criteria is simply what I loved the most; what shows and artists I remembered beyond the final applause.

Some were easy picks, while others were impossible to choose between and there are shows that I can't believe didn't make my own list!

Outstanding Artists 2013

WRITING

Patricia Cornelius for Savages, fortyfivedownstairs

Patricia Cornelius

Special mentions

May Jasper for Not a very good story, La Mama

Lally Katz for Stories I want to tell you in person, Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir

Sarah Hamilton and Justine Campbell for They saw a thylacine, Melbourne Fringe

DESIGN

Sunday in the Park with George

Anna Cordingley for Sunday in the Park with George, Victoria Opera
and
Kate Davis for Story of O, The Rabble at NEON

Special mention

Eugyeene Teh, design; Russell Goldsmith, sound;  Rob Sowinski, lighting for Palace of the End, Theatre Works

LIGHTING 

Richard Vabre for night maybe, Stuck Pigs Squealing, Theatre Works

PERFORMANCE

The Sovereign Wife

Hannah Norris for Palace of the End, Theatre Works
and
Mary Helen Sassman for Story of O, The Rabble at NEON
and
Ash Flanders for The Sovereign Wife, Sisters Grimm at NEON
and
The cast of Death in the Family, Ward Theatre Company

Special mentions
(or who to watch out for, because wow!)

Peter Paltos
Emily Milledge
Emily Tomlins
Genevieve Giuffre 

DIRECTION 

Palace of the End

Leticia Caceres for Constellations, MTC (and a special mention for The Tall Man, La Mama)
and
Emma Valente for Story of O, The Rabble at NEON

Special mentions

Daniel Clarke for Palace of the End, Theatre Works

Daniel Lammin for Columbine, MUST

Stephen Nicolazzo for Psycho Beach Party

EVERYTHING THEY DO ROCKS

Summertime in the Garden of Eden

Marg Horwell for her astonishing design for Constellations, MTC; By their own hands, The Hayloft Project at NEON; Savages, fortyfivedownstairs; and Summertime in the garden of Eden, Sisters Grimm and Theatre Works.

Marg consistently bring a visual narrative that's far beyond what the writers could ever have imagined, but makes the world look like it could never have been anything else. 

Story of O

and

The Rabble for  Story of O at NEON, and  Room of Regret, Theatre Works at Melbourne Festival.

I've run out of words to describe this company. I love them to pieces. All I know is that there's nothing on a Rabble stage that feels out of place. For a company with such a complex improvisational development process, they let process be process and only bring what's absolutely necessary to the stage.

Outstanding Productions 2012

CABARET

Between the Cracks

Between the Cracks, Yana Alana at Melbourne Cabaret Festival

Special mention

Stranger, Geraldine Quinn at Melbourne Fringe. 

COMMERCIAL SHOW

Constellations, MTC
and
War Horse, National Theatre of Great Britain and Global Creatures in association with Arts Centre Melbourne

MUSICAL

Flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story

Sunday in the Park with George, Victorian Opera
and

Flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story, Magnormos

Special mention

Wolf Creek, the Musical, at Melbourne Fringe

COMEDY

Happiness is a bedside table

Happiness is a bedside table, Hannah Gadsby at Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Special mentions

Slutmonster and friends

Slutmonster and Friends at Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Famoucity!, Lessons with Luis at at Melbourne International Comedy Festival

DANCE

Conversation Piece, Lucy Guerin Inc, Belvoir and Arts House

OPERA

Nixon in China

Nixon in China, Victorian Opera

And the Melbourne Ring Cycle was very cool, even the not-for-review dress rehearsals.

BEST OF THE BEST

The Rape of Lucrece

The Rape of Lucrece, Royal Shakespeare Company, Arts Projects Australia

Einstein on the Beach, Arts Centre Melbourne, Pomegranate Arts

Story of O, The Rabble at NEON

The Sovereign Wife, Sisters Grimm at NEON

Kids Killing Kids, MKA and Q Theatre Company at Melbourne Fringe

MY FAVOURITE SHOW OF 2013

Life and Times: Episodes 1–4, National Theater of Oklahoma at Melbourne Festival

2012 Lovies

2011 Lovies

2010 Lovies

2009 Lovies

2008 Lovies

2007 quickies

What Melbourne loved in 2013, part 11

Daniel Clarke, Penelope Bartlau and Matt Kelly: Melbourne really had some wonderful people.

Daniel Clarke
CEO and Creative Producer, Theatre Works

Photo by Eugyeene Teh

DAN: The audience response to the opening night performance of Psycho Beach Party (Little Ones Theatre, Theatre Works, Midsumma). I remember thinking it felt like we were somewhere between a rock concert and a football game. I think people were screaming and clapping before the first line was spoken. Amazing. A brilliant way to start the year.

Threepenny Opera (Berliner Ensemble, Perth Festival). I didn't have a ticket. No tickets available. Then Stephen Nicolazzo was offered a ticket at the last minute and gave it to me. One of those shows where you go, "Yes it all makes sense. Without a doubt this is why I love theatre".

Story of O (The Rabble, NEON). I remember saying "fuck me" as I walked into the Lawler. I could not believe what I was walking into. The transformation of that space. I felt exhilarated throughout the whole show. Kind of like how I felt when I saw my first La Fura Del Baus show in the 1996 Adelaide Festival.  I just want this show to tour – everywhere.  I'd be a very proud Australian to have this work touring the international stages.

The casting of The Sovereign Wife (Sisters Grimm, NEON). I'd love us all to look through the same lens as Sisters Grimm.  The world I'd like to to live in.

This year I went to Edinburgh as a delegate with the British Council Showcase.  I saw over 35 shows in one week. It was intense; my body experienced so many different emotions daily. It was real but un-real at the same time.  It was like I was inducing the most extreme feelings every few hours. It was a gift and I saw, took part in, and experienced some of the most inspiring work for me of 2013.

I also became very passionate about showcasing our homegrown work on the international stages,  because there is a lot of extraordinary work being made by artists I love that deserves to be seen in an international context.

Edinburgh Fringe favourites: Adrienne Truscott's Asking For It, The Worst of Scottee (Scottee Inc), Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model (Bryony Kimmings), Brand New Ancients (Kate Tempest), Black T Shirt Collection (Inua Ellams) and You Once Said Yes (Look Left Look Right).

I'm pretty hopeful you are gong to be able to see  most of the above works for yourselves over the next couple of years in Australia.  So please keep an eye out for them.

And the first preview of M+M (Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, Theatre Works, Melbourne Festival). I think I will remember this night forever.  My words won't do it justice.  Thank you.

What Dan's looking forward to in 2014 at issimomag.com.

SM: Over the last three years that Dan has led the Theatre Works team, it's become a welcoming hub of creativity that's presenting and producing theatre the likes of which no one else is presenting. The year started with a Midsumma program that defined the festival (Psycho Beach Party, Here Lies Henry and The Dead Ones) and to even think that M+M or Room of Regret might not have existed at the Melbourne Festival without Theatre Works ...

And he found time to direct Palace of the End, which was one of my favourite opening nights of the year. And Gaybies, where he found the love in each verbatim story told and created a bigger story on the stage that welcomed everyone.

Penelope Bartlau

Artistic Director, Barking SpideVisual Vheatre

Photo by Sarah Walker

PENELOPE: I have to say, it's when Leah Scholes (Barking Spider's Artistic Associate) persuaded me to see Slava's Snow Show in the middle of this year. I was assuming, it being such a big and well-worn show, that it wasn't really going to be that inspiring; daggy, in fact. But, it was so wonderful.

The audience's engagement and response to this show blew me away. It ignites wonder and playfulness on a grand scale; it was completely inspirational.

That show has clarified what it is Leah and I love about theatre, and has given us an aesthetic vocabulary which is now an underwriting starting-point for our thinking and our creation.

SM: Penelope and Barking Spider tell intimate, delicate and insanely gorgeous stories. They're not made for the masses; they're made for the lucky few who are at the right place at the magic time.

The Lucian Swift Chronicles: A tale of magic in Melbourne was one of them. It was at the Magic Festival and told a story that was such a part of this city, but belongs to everyone. Just beautiful.

See what Penelope's looking forward to in 2014 at issimomag.com.

Matt Kelly
list maker

r + M = Listies

MATT: "Things i enjoyed this year." By Matt Kelly (aged 34).

Far and away the best theatre I saw this year, and close to the best I've EVER seen was The Sisters Grimm's The Sovereign Wife. I wish I could write articulately about how much I enjoyed it, but I still can't.  I'm sure someone else has already done it much better than me and used loads of fancy words.

The rest I'll do as a list (the order doesn't matter, so I've randomly selected numbers).

5. Zoe Combs Marr's Dave at Comedy Festival
12. Last Tuesday Society's Don's Party
4. Isabell Rachael's Edge at Melbourne Fringe
666. The Last Temptation of Randy at Melbourne Fringe
69. Dan Savage at The Festival of Dangerous Ideas
9. Bello the Clown at The Royal Melbourne Show
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,2,3,4,5,6,7. Einstein on the Beach
4. Dr Professor Neil Portenza at Melbourne Fringe.

SM: If Matt tells me that something is funny and that I should see it, I believe him.

My moment for the year was taking a 5-year-old to her first Listies (Matt and Richard Higgins) show, Earworms at the Melbourne Festival. Snot came out of one of us and the other one sat and watched very seriously. I was a bit scared that I'd scarred her for life – or that she'd never fart again in case a mosquito came out – but she was just taking it all in and repeated all the jokes to me on the tram ride home.

And now I'm singing the *%#$!!!! banana song again.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10
Part 12
Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

2012 part 1, with links to the rest

FESTIVAL: Earworms

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2013
Earworms
The Listies, Melbourne Festival

19 October 2013
Federation Square, Deakin Edge
to 20 October
melbournefestival.com.au

Here's my list of things that are funnier than The Listies:

1. ummm
2. errr
3. I'm thinking
4. maybe ...? Nup
5. more of The Listies

Matt Kelly and Richard Higgins are The Listies and they rock the socks off everyone who is lucky enough to see them.

Five-year-old Ella, who took me and let me sit in the front row, said that her favourite bit was "all the silly bits". And when we deconstructed her opinion on the tram ride home, she realised that it was all silly, so all of it was her favourite bit. (However, she was concerned when Matt farted out a mosquito.)

Earworms was recorded as a podcast (available soon) and there were aliens, games of "Hey, Cow", machines that go 'ping' (supplied by Glen 20), lists of things to do in the holidays (like go to South A-Free-Car) and discussion about earworms – those songs that you can't get our of your heard.

Everyone knows that the only way to get rid of an earworm is to replace it with another song and if there's anyone not still singing Matt's "I like bananas", it's because they weren't there. With a dance, a costume and lyric flash cards, you didn't even need ears to start singing along.

The Listies make theatre for kids because they know that kids are smarter than most groan-ups and that they deserve shows that never forget what it's like to be a kid or to be silly.

A gazillion billion mazillion stars.

And, I dare any groan up to not laugh as much – and sometimes more – than the kids.



This was on AussieTheatre.com.

FESTIVAL: Life and Times

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2013
Life and Times: Episodes 1–4
National Theater of Oklahoma, Melbourne Festival, Debbie Dadon and Naomi Milgroam AO
26 October 2013
Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
melbournefestival.com.au

Over ten hours with the Nature Theater of Oklahoma may have ruined theatre for me.

Ten hours wasn't enough.

The eventual plan is a 24-hour show, and if the next 14 hours are as joyfully glorious, astonishingly complex, and deliriously insane as the first ten, then I have to make sure that I live at least as long as Kristin Worrell, whose life and times it's based on.

Episode 1 of the Life and Times mararthon started at 2.00 pm, Episode 4 finished just after midnight and, despite hints of DVT from sitting too long in cramped seats and the mania of over-triedness and too much sugar, I wanted to go back in for Episode 5, which has been created but wasn't brought to Melbourne.

There was only one marathon performance in Melbourne, so the next chance to see it is to join them in Paris for their next stop or hope for a return to Australia, with more parts. There were individual performances of the three sections earlier in the week, but seeing them meant missing director Pavol Liska introducing the show in floral pyjamas and the cast barbequing the audience burgers after Episode 1. And there were chocolate brownies with fresh cream after Episode 2 and extra-chocolatey hot chocolate waiting in the foyer after the post-midnight standing and squealing ovation for Episodes 3 and 4.

The Nature Theater of Oklahoma are from New York. Directors Liska and Kelly Cooper took the name of a troop from an unfinished Kafka novel called Amerika. Liska grew up in Slovakia and came to Oklahoma for work when he was 18. There he learnt English and went to philopsophy and writing classes at night, and worked during the day. He met Cooper in 1992 at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and in 2004 they founded their company in New York with a commitment to  “making the work they don’t know how to make".

Since then they've toured to festivals in Europe, been commissioned, won awards and I want to go to New York and work with them.

Life and Times is a verbatim re-telling of 16 hours of phone conversations with 30-something company member Worrell. (She's on the stage, but by the time it's clear who she is, it no longer matters.) She was asked, "Can you tell me your life story?". She stared with birth and told her unremarkable, white, middle class suburban story.

And by verbatim, I – um – like mean – it's really like – well – like everything she really said. Hahaha.

There are wrong words and half thoughts and tangents that go nowhere and the endless ums and ahhs that come with finding and telling memories.

One of the, many, genius moments is also having it surtitled; so, from the first sung notes, it's clear what's going on.

Yes sung. Episode 1 is kind of like, umm, well, kind of a musical.

With choreography that's part rhythmic gymnastics and part end-of-year school concert, it begins as a solo, then there's a trio of women in grey 1970s t-shirt style uniforms who are eventually joined by three men and the four musicians – all of whom are the same person telling the story. And there's a rabbit.

The juxtaposition of un-written, un-controlled words with composed music and precise choreography makes the umms and whatevers of the recitative and harmonies unexpectedly magnificent.

Dialogue and song are never written to sound natural, because natural conversation makes so little sense. But when it's scored and controlled by rhythm and sound, this stream of blahblahblahs makes endless sense and draws us in with its perfect imperfections.

Meanwhile, her story is quite dull; as are most of ours. And this might be why this work is so heart-gripping.

With so much time being taken to recount the likes of a yellow bedroom and a scary Balinese mask, the audience have time to remember their own stories.

I don't know if it's possible to watch this show without the barrage of personal memories. Someone said to me it was so intense that he wanted his memories to stop so that he could watch the show!

I could see photos of my first birthday party that I don't remember; I remembered being terrified when I wasn't much older because a rooster (a rooster that attacked) was between me and the back door, and my mother told me to just ignore him; I remembered whispering secrets to a kindergarten friend, but I don't remember her name or the secret; I remembered breaking my milk bottle on my first day of school and being more embarrassed than I could cope with; I remembered being friends with Vanna Morrasini in grade one and telling her she was wearing the wrong shirt, but it was just the summer uniform; I remember my grandmother buying me a new doll and telling me not to take it to school in case I lost it – I took it to school and lost it;  I remembered my cousin and I wondering if we could get married; I remembered my animal wall paper; I remembered eating almonds from an almond tree in our back yard; I remembered screaming when I saw the results of putting tadpoles in my goldfish tank.

And that's what it's like for the three-ish hours of Episode 1.

And Episode 1 is just birth to 8.

So going into Episode 2, there's the attachment to this child telling her story – we know her so well by now and want her to be happy – and the simultaneous anticipation of what memories are going to come flooding back. And not all memories are welcome or expected.

Briefly, Episode 2 covers 8 to 12. It's still a musical, but it's moved into the 80s with recorded music, wonderful atrocious rock-eisteddfod choreography, and brightly coloured tracksuits. And a choir.

Episode 3 is the continued verbatim story (14 to 18), but presented as a parlour murder mystery. Complete with endlessly brown back drops with a painted fire place. And aliens.

And also throw into the mix, performers who look like people. There's body fat, pale skin, frizzy hair, untamed beards, lanky legs, glasses and all manner of beautiful normality.  My first uncontrollable tear was the first scene when a woman who could wear my size of clothes walked onto the stage and danced.  One of my last was as a big-bellied, bearded American bloke dressed like a sea captain with an eye patch sung about the 15-year-old girl's first real kiss. (Oh, those first kiss memories.)

Life and Times was ten hours of pure insane joy created by people who love life and theatre, and know that they will find like-souls all over the world. And it was spent with friends, writers and a good chunk of Melbourne's theatre makers. A day at the theatre doesn't get better than that.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

And in honour of The Lonely Owl book from Episode 1, here's a page from my equivalent, Milo the Mouse. This is the climax, where Milo tricks the new neighbour's cat into running into a pond. Hehehe. And if my brother had drawn birds all over is (as happened in The Lonely Owl), I would have been shattered.

FESTIVAL: Room of Regret

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2013
Room of Regret
The Rabble, Theatre Works, Melbourne Festival
22 October 3013
Theatre Works
to 3 November
melbournefestival.com.au

No one makes theatre like The Rabble do. It's like co-creators Emma Valente and Kate Davis take the concept of theatre and re-create it into something that looks like theatre, but feels like a trip – I don't mean holiday – that simultaneously assults and calms and awakens bits of your brain that you didn't know existed.

Room of Regret is their reflection on Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Compared to their recent Story of O and even last Festival's Orlando, it's close to being a literal re-telling. But don't expect a lot of words from Dorian's tumble through perfection, hedonism and despair.

Instead, expect to be immersed into, sometimes almost drowned in, a pool of pure emotion. With no restraint, it batters and confronts, but there's love and comfort around the next corner and the only fear is that of missing out.

The audience (40; there isn't room for 41) are taken into the theatre in groups. All have their heads covered in a lace veil and are lead through a house, with plywood walls and floor covered in gold leaves, and are left sitting in different rooms. No group can see the other, or really see their own group as all sit like statues covered in dust sheets waiting for the summer return of the household. As the lighting brings an eerie autumn twilight, the other draped statues come to life.

Description can't justify this experience and no experience can be the same because of the different views. Sometimes the action is in touching distance, other times it's heard, glimpsed through a doorway or projected onto a screen.

Nothing is lost by being in a different room, but nothing is gained by staying put. If a hand is offered from the cast, take it. My favourite moment was one that no one saw: there was a top hat, a dance, a whisper and a cuddle.

Technically, what's so astonishing about such a complex piece is that it sustains its changing pace and tone throughout the space. The cast (Pier Carthew, Alex McQueen, Mary Helen Sassman, David Harrison and Emily Milledge) show no favour as they dash or slink from room to room and often choose one person to tell their story to. There's repetition that's never the same and reflection is left to the audience, often very literally with mirrors.

Valente's lighting (as glorious as her direction) establishes the changing mood and Davis's design entices with lace, beads, silky leopard print and furs that begged to be felt. But (finally) there's the ability to touch her world. Here the synthetic falseness of the gold leaves can be picked up, the distortion of lace-covered eyes controlled and the touch of flesh is welcomed, but never forced. (I've never come so close to touching and comforting an actor. The only thing that stopped me was seeing my own reflection in a mirror; I now wish I had.)

I've described The Rabble's work like a dream before and it's still as close as I can get. In dreams, illogic makes perfect sense and all that really matters is how you feel, and how you still feel when you wake up relieved or devastated to be safe in your own bed. Description and interpretation only take the felt meaning away from the dreamer.

Room of Regret might be at living nightmare or leave you floating and hoping to never wake up. Whatever, it's not work to force meaning onto because whatever you feel is what it's meant to mean.

It left me feeling elated and awake wanting to do it again.

And if you want Wilde's telling of the story, read the book.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

FESTIVAL: The Shadow King

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2013
The Shadow King
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Festival
16 October 2013
Merlyn Theatre, The Coopers Malthouse
to 27 October
melbournefestival.com.au

We're here to tell you one of your Dreamtime stories and make it one of ours.

Kamahi Djordon King's Fool had me from those words.  The Shadow King is the King Lear story re-told as an Australian Indigenous story.

Even if you haven't read it or seen a production, it's a story that existed before Shakespeare's version and it's hard not to know about the King who divides his land based on his daughters professed love for him.

This version is co-created by Tom E Lewis (who also plays Lear and is best known from The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith) and Michael Kantor. With live music, five spoken languages and an understanding of the story that's so much deeper than the text, this is the first Lear that made me care and wish for a happier ending.

Maybe because its a Lear that's all about telling "our" story, rather than one that focuses on the actor playing Lear and the sacrosanct language.

With a floor of red earth – which cries to be walked on in bare feet – a rusty moving stage, and projections of outback houses (complete with dogs and kids) and the land that surrounds them, it's a world that's instantly recognisable to Australians, even if we've never been beyond our cities and beaches.

There are tweaks to the known story, but it's still about a greedy powerful man who divides and gives away his land, with its mineral riches, only to realise that it was never his. This Lear also does what the Bard wasn't terrific at: recognising the power and position of women in society. Here Gloucester is a mother (Frances Djulibing) and her a dilly bag is as significant as Lear's crown.

Performances were nervous on opening night, but it took nothing away from the heart of The Shadow King. And with many cities and festivals to tour to, it's going to develop into something unforgettable.

In his welcome us to country, Uncle Jack Charles said that this is theatre that should be seen all over the world. I can't agree more. After all it's a story that continues to be told all over the world in countless languages and forms; so, maybe our Dreamtimes aren't as different as we think they are.

Photo by Jeff Busby

This was on AussieTheatre.comaussietheatre.com.au.

FESTIVAL: Teenage Riot

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2013

Teenage Riot

Ontroerend Goed, Melbourne Festival

15 October 2013

Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne

to 18 October

melbournefestival.com.au

Belgium’s Ontroerend Goed makes theatre with teenagers for adults. It’s nothing like an end-of-year school concert; this company tours the world.

In Teenage Riot, eight 17ish teens shut themselves in a large box. Hidden from curious/suspicious adult eyes, the space is theirs and they let the audience peek with a hand-held camera.

Like confessing on the internet, the camera offers an intimacy and a distance and lets the performers (and co-creators) control what’s seen.

From a hand covering the view of a bikini-clad girl to close ups of ambiguous fondled flesh, they reveal genuine teen frustration and, with pedophile and fingering jokes, a tongue-in-cheek look at what adults expect of teen angst.

They still yell at the “so awful wrong” adults, but there are times when they should be screaming because adults aren’t looking after or loving them. But this anger is swirled with friendship and a humour that’s as much about the audience as the performers.

As it continues, the need to physically see the performers in the box is overwhelming, even if they don’t seek approval or our acknowledgement of remembering what it’s like to not have the right words.

This first appeared at issimomag.com.

And here's Kerith Manderson-Galvin's wonderful response on AussieTheatre.com.

FESTIVAL: The Rite of Spring / Petrushka

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2013

The Rite of Spring / Petrushka

Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Melbourne Festival

13 October 2013

Comedy Theatre

to 14 October

melbournefestival.com.au

In 1912, Paris’s theatre elite loved Stravinsky’s ballet score Petrushka. In 1913, the same crowd rioted because his new work offended their sense of harmony and the choreography kneecapped classical ballet traditions.

The Rite of Spring is considered the beginning of modernism and is music that’s still impossible to forget.

As is the new version by the, perfectly named, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre from Ireland. Presented in two parts, the choreography reflects the first Rite but puts it firmly in our urban now.

Rite’s primal earthiness begins on a snowy city street, where homeless huddle with cardboard boxes and stomp to wake the spirits and find warmth. As their aggression builds, they turn into vicious dogs that sacrifice the weak and finally find the sun and floral dresses of spring.

Petrushka is like a memory re-telling of the Rite with hints of its coming violence, but told in a clean-white world that looks for love and hope instead of rape and despair.

With a four-handed piano accompaniment, the stomping and panting on the stage are part of the score, which makes it so human that the audience are left as breathless as the dancers.

This first appeared at issimomag.com.

FESTIVAL: Brief Encounter

MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2013

Brief Encounter

Kneehigh Theatre, Arts Projects Australia, Melbourne Festival, John and Janet Calvert-Jones, The Brenda Shanahan Charitable Foundation

12 October 2013

Athenaeum Theatre

to 27 October

melbournefestival.com.au

In their West End and Broadway hit, Cornwall’s Kneehigh Theatre pay enthusiastic homage to the 1945 film Brief Encounter.

In 1938, Laura and Alec meet at a train station. Both are married with children, but meet on Thursdays and develop something far more than they’ve ever experienced.

The award-winning film, based on a Noel Coward play, is considered a classic of contained naturalism or a dreary melodrama. Whatever the perspective, it’s a product of its time in look, morality and its very earnest and precise-pro-nun-ci-a-tion acting.

With an almost verbatim script, Kneehigh capture its unmistakable style, but inject a nudge and a wink of joy into its constricted morality, and play with the unearned passion of its melodrama with touches like replacing the Rachmaninoff music with Coward songs.

For all its likeness to the film, its telling is pure theatre with puppets, pull-along trains, film screens and a bright-pink velvet curtain that declares that this isn’t a show for soppy tears.

Brief Encounter’s re-imagining is enchanting and so full of unexpected delight that the love story is secondary. Watch the film for that.

This first appeared at issimomag.com.