What's On: Mad Women Monologues

Baggage Productions are presenting Mad Women Monologues, 23 short plays over three themed nights.

All the works are written by women, including Jane Miller , Kathryn Goldie, Christine Croyden, Christina Costigan, Bridgette Burton, Cerise de Gelder and Hannie Rayson.

Crime Night has finished, but there's still Crossroad on 20 November and Barflies on 22 November.

All the booking info is at www.madwomen.org.au.

Review: A Narrow Time For Angels - The Musical

A Narrow Time for Angels: The Musical
Wishing Well Productions
Northcote Town Hall
11 February 2010

Like many others, I can see the gorgeous and funny loveliness of Cerise de Geder’s A Narrow Time For Angels, but it’s not hitting its mark on the stage yet.

First performed at the Storeroom last year, a new creative team (Wishing Well Productions) took hold for Midsumma. The biggest difference is that it’s now billed as a musical.

When I heard about this, I thought that it may be the best way for this script to go. The themes of life, death, suicide and after life are epic and the nonsensical comedy of the chatting corpse, her frustrated lover and the repressed mortician open themselves up for heartbreaking ballads and comic sing-a-long tunes.

But the new songs didn’t add to the script. They didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know, didn’t let the characters say anything they hadn’t already said (not just in subtext, but in good old expositionary and explanatory dialogue), didn’t move the story forward, told unnecessary back story and felt like they were just pushed into the script. Too many of the songs could have replaced the dialogue that went before.

Great musical songs are like soliloquies that tell us what the characters can’t bring themselves to say. They show us their hidden longings and fears and draw us further into their story. The music didn’t feel natural and its uneasiness distanced the audience from the story.  I think that the non-musical version had more dramatic punch. 

A Narrow Time For Angles isn’t going to disappear. Apart from being a stunning title, its originality, mystery plot and comedy will keep drawing people to the script. And hopefully de Gelder will keep re-drafting (and perhaps bring in the tough love of a tough editor) and find the tone that has eluded the productions. The script is still deciding if it’s farce, romantic comedy, absurd comedy or pseudo-Tarantino-thriller, and sometimes the playwright’s opinion overrides the characters’ voices. Every writer wants their creations to express their own views of the world, but the skill is keeping it within the authentic world of the character.

Good plays take time to be great. I look forward to seeing what it turns into.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

A Narrow Time For Angels

A Narrow Time For Angels
Lucy Freeman, Walking into Bars and The Store Room
7 July 2009
The Store Room

The Store Room has been presenting some of our most innovative and original independent theatre for ten years and opens its five-show 2009 season with A Narrow Time For Angels by Melbourne playwright Cerise De Gelder.

Apart from having one of the best titles ever, De Gelder’s script presents unexpected characters, creates comedy with situation and plot and sprinkles the absurdity with plenty of jokes. Structurally there are some questionable flashbacks and awkward exposition, but it’s pacy and funny enough to overcome any minor issues that may disappear in any re-writes.

However, the humour isn’t quite working on the stage yet. Lucy Freeman’s direction brings too much drama and reality into the ridiculous world. Maggie breaks into the morgue so she can find her dead ex-girlfriend’s body, but is interrupted by a ghost and a cute forensic mortician, and proceeds to tell a rambling tale of gambling, revenge, politicians and questions of fidelity when your ex-hooker girlfriend knows you need a lot of money quickly. There’s no room for soul searching and understanding; the success of this script depends on a non-stop build of joke and farcical plot. When the pace drops for the serious moments of character revelation, it gives the audience too much space and time to wonder if it’s all meant to be serious. If the comedy consistently leads everything, the empathy, understanding and the heartbreak will come much more effectively through laughter.

Marcella Russo, Hayley Butcher and Georgina Naidu are ideally cast, but each bring a different type of comedy to the stage. Naidu brings a clownish caricature to her multiple roles (we laugh at the performance), Russo lets Maggie see only the drama (we laugh at the situation) and Butcher lets Sam’s internal conflict make her choices (we laugh at the character). Each performance is equally as funny, but the different styles don’t always on the stage.

The joy of theatre is that every performance is different and A Narrow Time For Angels will settle and change as the season continues. Under the artistic direction of Todd Macdonald, The Store Room has presented the first performances of some the most remarkable scripts created in Melbourne and, as works need that first production to iron out the creases, it’s always worth a trip to North Fitzroy to see what’s being uncovered.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Short and Sweet 07 Week 2 Wildcards

Short and Sweet 2007 Week 2 Wildcards
15 December 2007
The Arts Centre, Fairfax Theatre

Short and Sweet Week Two Wildcards exposed a lot of lovely writing, but not enough stories. And there was a general imbalance between direction and writing.

Keeping Annabelle

Rachel Welch’s script is a very satisfying dark grey. The plot twists and heads in unexpected directions and she never reveals all the information. Keeping Annabel and the reason for her kidnap a secret, ensures that the story is always about the people actually on the stage.

All The Way To The Top

There were some terrific comic performances in this offering from Pregnant Goldfish productions. It was tightly directed and a lot of fun, but there was no story. It was a great sketch though. Some work on the individual stories of the characters would take it a step further.

4 Seconds

Leon Foo’s protagonist is scared of clichés, but Foo has written a short play full of clichés. The lover’s story was told in a very interesting, original and potentially engaging fashion, but every moment of their courtship and relationship was as predictable as a Home and Away episode. Too much focus on agenda, rather than character and story.

The Anniversary

No where is safe. Two Brooklyn women have found themselves in Siberia. We assume because New York isn’t the safe place it used to be. Drew Larimore’s script combines good characters with mystery, tension and comedy. Nicely paced direction and performances.

Just Another Tuesday Night

Natalie Lopes’ script is one of the best written pieces I’ve seen this festival. It gently unfolds a complex and authentic story without ever letting any one character dominate or distract. Unfortunately the direction of this piece dominated. The choice to double cast may have been fun, but I never saw a reason for it. It didn’t add to the story. It did distract from the story. Uneven performances from the large cast added to the distraction. We were watching how it was told, not what was being told. The best direction goes unnoticed.

Sally’s Choice

Cerise de Gelder’s created authentic characters and gave them a funny, original story and a divine dilemma. This should have been a laugh ‘til it hurts farce. The ingredients were perfect. It became a bit of a girls “why doesn’t me love me” ho-hum whine. Then it got good again. A much faster pace, a couple more twists and getting rid of the relationship speeches would turn this into a total winner.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Who knew life as a suffix could be so complicated? Michael McManus loves his metaphors and his complex nouns. It all works pretty well on the stage. The direction needed to be tighter and a few bits can easily be cut, but the concept was original. Nice to see language literally playing on the stage.

…I AM…

Julianne Donavan’s performance was stunning. Without doubt the most engaging and emotionally real performance of the afternoon. Mary Ann Butler’s script would have been so much more powerful with more work on story. Give this woman something to motivate her thoughts and actions. Give her a problem that leads to this exploration of herself. I kept expecting her to reveal that she’d had sex with her son’s friend or something along those lines. The sentiment was superb and let’s see more writing for women who do have grey pubes.

Notes of State

I wonder how much of the staging and direction came from Felcity Decker’s script. This was another play where the direction was so distracting that the story became secondary. What was the point of the upstage action when the character was narrating it anyway? The drunk/sober personalities didn’t even resemble each other and there were no consequences for his actions. Give him a tragic or a funny consequence to motivate his change. I’m not sure how the standard getting a bit pissed at work drinks scenario led to his actions.

UnAustralian

Let’s hope that the sentiment of Darinka Kralj’s script becomes more and more historical everyday. Very funny and perfect snapshot of the unAustralian Howard years, complete with sorry jokes, clever country jokes and the inevitable map of tassie reference. My pick of the afternoon.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com