Mini review: Love, Sarah

Love, Sarah
Panopticon Collective
1 July 1015
Scratch Warehouse
to 5 July
panopticoncollective.com

Love, Sarah. Photo by Shannon Ly Photography

Another day, another new independent theatre company in Melbourne performing in an amazing warehouse venue that I have to trust my GPS to get me to.

Panopticon Collective focuses on new Australian work and was founded by University of Ballarat Arts Academy graduates Jeni Bezuidenhout and Sebastian Bertoli. They invited Kathryn Goldie (Love Triangle, 1919, Short + Sweet, Baggage Productions) to write their first work.

Love, Sarah is about Sarah and her grandmother (Bezuidenhout and Penelope Langmead) and the realtionship between the generations who love each other but know that age creates distance, misunderstanding and separation. Told through flashbacks and Sarah's travel postcards to her Nan, it's a gentle story that creeps up on you with heartfelt performances and the hope that the conclusion isn't inevitable.

Goldie's writing is at its best in her creation of complex characters that welcome actors to bring themselves to the roles, and in creating honest and real relationships between her characters. It's ultimately Sarah's story, but it's about how her relationship with Nan is a part of her, and it leaves space for the audience to think about their own grandparents. (I'd like to see a bit more conflict though to add a couple more questions.)

Bertoli's direction is at its best in supporting the actors to create that relationship on the stage, but could benefit from looking at the work as a whole, especially in how design, music and blocking can work together to tell the story rather than just support the story.

New companies come and go in Melbourne. Early productions are about finding voices and finding the audience that the company speaks to. And the only to discover new companies is to see their work.

MIDSUMMA: Two Short Plays

MIDSUMMA
Two Short Plays
Ladymullet Productions
23 January 2014

Brunswick Arts Space

to 25 January

midsumma.org.au

Melbourne writers Belinda Bannerman and Kathryn Goldie recently formed Ladymullet Productions and for their Midsumma debut, each wrote a short play. Their three-night season of Two Short Plays sold out, but there's talk of a Fringe season, which would be terrific because both deserve to be seen by many more people than could squeeze into the Brunswick Arts Space on those very hot summer nights

The L Wing, by Bannerman, is set in a not-too-distant-future lesbian retirement home where 60-something resident Sal (Kim Givens) meets new resident Andrea (Natasha Broadstock) and recognises her as her long-lost love Andi, even if Andrea doesn't remember Sal – yet.

With heart-felt performances by the cast (also Jane Menz and Hannah Smallman), it's a rom com that pushes all the right buttons of love and hope, but has enough darkness in the comedy to keep it grounded and to ask if honesty is best if deception keeps everyone happy.

Love Triangle, 1919, by Goldie, starts as a simple love story between governess Flora (Stephania Pountney) and stablehand Edward (Hayley Lawson-Smith), but Flora's once-potential boyfriend, Joe (Tom Carmody) returns from the war and threatens to reveal the secret that Joe trusts will tear the lovers apart. It's no secret to the audience that Edward is a woman, but the story's tension and hope lie in not knowing how Flora will react if and when she finds out or how far Edward will go to keep the secret.

Goldie's writing lets all three tell their version of the story, and, by placing the audience throughout the space, Christine Husband's direction lets the jumps in time and space feel natural and intimate as the three move among and speak to the assembled crowd. This is writing that lets its performance space enhance the telling and, by doing so, lets the audience get closer to the hearts of the characters.

Ladymullet Productions say that they want to make great theatre and film, and what's going to get them there is continuing to tell the stories that they want to tell.

What Melbourne loved in 2103, part 9

After a day off to talk about NEON, here's Keith Gow talking more about NEON. And Jason Cavanagh talks about how a moment of crisis got him acting again, and Kathryn Goldie talks about taking the plunge into unemployment.

Jason Cavanagh

artistic director, 5pound theatre

JASON: Half way through acting in 5pounds of Repertory Theatre last year, I had a bit of a crisis.  I remember sitting outside the theatre, literally with my head in my hands thinking, "I've lost it, I can't act anymore". But that program moves so fast you just don't have time for that sort of nonsense so I just had to get on with it. By the end of the five weeks, I'd resolved that I needed to focus more of my attention on my acting.  I couldn't let it go.

One thing lead to another and I ended up in a Mockingbird Theatre show, as the peodophilic rapist Uncle Peck in How I Learned to Drive.

It was such a juicy character and such a rewarding experience. I really had a great time playing that role (as bad as that sounds). It felt nice to be doing what I felt to be a good job, it was warmly received which makes me happier than I like to admit, it was amazing to be able to tread the boards without having to also produce the show and, just generally finding the spark again was… a great relief…. Cause what else would I do?

And I beating you by one show in the fringe-a-thon ;)

SM: He had more Fringe stamina than I did! To make great theatre, you have to see a lot of theatre. Jason sees a lot of theatre.

I loved his performance in How I Learned to Drive, but my moment with him was his performance in The Joy Of Text (Robert Reid's play at La Mama earlier in the year). I thought I'd written about it, but I didn't. It was around house move time; I'm impressed that I even remember seeing it.

There's more with Jason at issimomag.com.

Kathryn Goldie
writer, director

KATHRYN: 2013 saw me become unemployed and, although that was my own choice, it meant I wasn’t going to be buying a lot of theatre tickets. But I did volunteer at Fringe because although I didn’t have a whole lot of cash but had a whole lot of time—and a volunteer pass means free tickets to Fringe shows. While I don’t believe in scamming freebies and/or ripping off fellow artists, getting some free tickets was fantastic because it allowed me to see a range of performances I wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise, and it added another audience member to shows that weren’t sold out. (For the record, I did buy a few tickets as well.)

My excellent Fringe viewing consisted of Edge! (which deservedly won Best Comedy), Laika and Wills, Songs for Europe, Kids Killing Kids, A Chekhov Triptych, and some others I won’t mention. Festivals are always a mixed bag, which is part of the fun.

I’m a fan of well-written, well-acted narratives that make me feel something, and the plays I mentioned did just that, each in under an hour. Each had something to say and said it—no bells and whistles, no self-reflexive “Look at what I’m doing here! Get it? Aren’t I clever?” posturing. Some surprised me; all entertained me.

Of course, volunteering at Fringe is an experience in itself, by turns performative, meditative and simply random: explaining to visiting Perth teenagers that the questions on the survey are about Melbourne Fringe, not Perth Fringe; guessing which of the hungover Sunday morning Chapel Street crowd would fall over when playing the immersive virtual reality game; predicting which fellow volunteers would pronounce “homage” with a fake French accent or an ocker twang; reading about Lithuania’s history while waiting for latecomers; and finishing an admin shift early to find myself stacking cartons of beer for the vollies party.

In a year where I didn’t see much theatre, Melbourne Fringe was an accessible, entertaining and thought-provoking godsend.

A second highlight would be Baggage Production’s Madwomen Monologues, now in its third year. I’ve been lucky enough to have two of my monologues performed by these folk, and their shows are going from strength to strength, with a pool of terrific actors and directors.

SM: I haven't seen or read anything of Kathryn's this year. That's not good. But I was so impressed by her giving up her job to make the time to write. Sometimes you have to take that plunge if it's what you really want to do. You can't be a full-time writer if you have a full-time job.

Keith Gow
playwright, blogger

KEITH: After spending most of the first half of this year being disappointed or frustrated with the theatre I was seeing, both on the main stages and from independent companies, the turning point came almost exactly at the half-way point of the year - coinciding with my trip to Sydney to see Angels in America (Belvoir) and The Maids (STC).

In Melbourne, though, the turning point was an entire festival: MTC's Neon Festival. Five shows from Melbourne's most exciting indy companies on the Lawler stage, sold out for ten weeks, bringing in audiences – many of whom had never stepped foot in the Southbank Theatre complex before.

And it wasn't just the shows,  it was the supporting discussion panels, the Theatre Network Victoria meet-and-greet, the Writers' and Directors' workshops. It was the Neon Bar inside Script for a discounted drink and a natter with other theatre-goers, theatre-makers and the creatives whose shows we'd just seen.

Many of the great theatre experiences I had this year embraced the community aspect of going into the theatre together. Whether it be the epic marathons of Angels in America or The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma's Life and Times - or a show like The Rabble's Room of Regret, we were drawn together to have a collective experience while also having our own intimate reactions in that same space.

SM: I first met Keith on Twitter and finally in real life and we were part of the Life and Times crowd.  I was also nearly at his Dr Who play (Who are you supposed to be?) play reading earlier in the year, but the people I was with thought it started two hours before it did. They waited, I went home. But writing Dr Who plays is cool.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

2012 part 1, with links to the rest

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: Short and Sweet 09 Top 30 Week 3

Short and Sweet 09 Top 30 Week 3
Short and Sweet
5 December 2009
Chapel off Chapel

Three cheers for Week Three! The final top 11 for Short and Sweet 2009 proved that, even with a few duds, this festival needs to stay around, as original stories and a sense of fun came back to the stage.

Pat Sheil’s A Safe Pair of Hands is a funny and original look at an Anzac legend, and what a treat to have John Derum on the stage.

A Matter of Taste was as light and complex as a beet foam infused with basil, and as intriguing as the Masterchef  final. I love that writer Kathryn Goldie knows that audiences are clever creatures and left the ending open.

The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe was the Queen Mum, when she was just Queen. I liked the idea that she was really Eric’s mum, but there were some holes in the plot that left too much unanswered.

You May Kiss The Bride is a lazy title for a delightful work. Emma Moore immediately makes the audience part of her story and doesn’t let them go. It may work better to keep where they are a secret for a bit longer and let the audience figure it out before the characters do.

Jane Miller continues to writes great short plays that reveal complex characters, and it was wonderful to see her working with comedy in The Tea Break. Anyone who has ever worked in an office has wanted to do exactly the same thing.

Suburbia was bogans fucking. It made fun of stereotypes and anal sex and no one seemed to use condoms.

Difficult Circumstances With Time Bomb (and ‘yuppies’). When there’s a bomb in the room and the title, you have to make us really care about the folk in peril. It was very funny though, even if it ended a few seconds too late.

Paul Tolton’s This is Heaven made up for it’s lack of real story by being gorgeous and sweet and showing a wonderful relationship that we cared about.

Carl Sorheim’s It’s All The Rage made me uncomfortable. I didn’t enjoy the experience – which is so much better than just not caring.

Short Sharp Shock is a terrific joke that was eight minutes too long with an ending that must be binned before its next outing.

Wonderful puppets, the best costumes of the festival and some beaut jokes, but Limpets came unstuck with story.


PS - Last week I suggested that a Best of Short and Sweet program would be great and, if I’d read the program fully, I would have known that there is one already planned.

This review appeard on AussieTheatre.com.

Week 1
Week 2