Monkey - Review

Review originally posted at www.suzygoessee.com
Venue: UNSW Io Myers Studio (Kensington NSW), Mar 11 – 15, 2014
Director: Ben Winspear
Playwright: Les Winspear (based on the traditional Journey To The West)
Actors: Students from UNSW School of the Arts & Media

Theatre review
The enduring tale of Journey To The West is one of enlightenment and aspiration. It is also about mentoring, development and progression, all of which come together to make Les Winspear’s contemporary retelling of Monkey a natural thematic choice for a production involving young people. The characters in the story are mischievous, imperfect and unafraid of failure. This serves as great catalyst for students to approach their play with a sense of playfulness and daring.

Director Ben Winspear’s style is brave and bold. He is faithful to the story, but is audacious in vision. Rules are made to be broken, and one is tempted to conclude that rule-breaking is a method he cherishes when creating magic in the theatre. Or perhaps, it is simply his outrageous imagination that reaches beyond convention and the predictable, into a space that feels refreshing and original for contemporary audiences. Indeed, the director’s ability at materialising the fantastical details of Monkey, not only gives us a work that is dynamic and highly amusing, it provides a safe and spacious springboard for his student actors to experiment and perform. The wildness of this world they create, encourages lively expression but also comprises a healthy protection for those who need it. This is a stage so full of colour and vigour that nothing can look out of place.

Design is excellent. All aspects, from costume and props, to set, sound and lighting are thoughtful, inventive and confidently executed. It is by no means a show about polished production values, but what this crew achieves with a minuscule budget in the most basic of venues, is impressive. It is a beautiful collaboration of disciplines that works together to tell a story with clarity, wonder, and a lot of fun.

All performers appear to be students. It is a big cast, with varying degrees of ability, but unified by a common level of enthusiasm and commitment. Some seem to be appearing on stage for the very first time, and others are brazen and ambitious. Most are allowed their moment in the sun, and each bask in their own, in idiosyncratic, joyful ways. There are performers who impress with their use of voice, and some with their dance. Actors who charm us with comic timing, as well as those with outstanding physicality, and presence so strong, they steal our attention for a second or two.

Although Monkey and his friends reach a penultimate moment of glory, what we remember most after all the dust has settled, are his qualities of mischief and joy. We often forget the importance of the light, for the weight of darkness makes for easy victories, especially in the arts. It is unimportant what the scriptures at the end of Monkey may contain, if the journey that is taken fills itself with all that is gallant, and good.

https://sam.arts.unsw.edu.au

Balmain Sinfonia - Review

European journey 

Balmain Sinfonia, conductor Gary Stavrou 

Reviewed by Ben Oxley

Dvorak, My Homeland - Donizetti, Una furtive lagrima for wind quintet 

Enescu, Romanian Rhapsody No. 2 

Mozart, Bassoon Concerto, soloist Ben Hoadley 

Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade

Is there room in Sydney's arts calendar for another orchestra? Would you go out to Macquarie University to hear them? Balmain Sinfonia's opening concert of their 2014 season began in middle Europe: Czech charm well balanced and assertive in the popular My Homeland overture. It is cast in the composer’s best national style, with effective use of folk tunes, set in chromatic passages well handled by the players. Part of the work includes a song that became part of the Czech National Anthem. Here it was given a stirring and aptly heroic performance by Stavrou and the full orchestra.

Then we left for Italy, and an item not set down in the program: Una furtiva lagrima for wind quintet. Lovely interlude - where was the tenor? Perhaps we could count this as an early encore. The quintet gave the aria refinement, with clear ensemble, solos handled well by the horn and bassoon.

Off to Romania, and a lavish birthday gift from a doting husband. In fact, according to our conductor you can 'have' the orchestra - at a very reasonable price. Beethoven for banknotes? Or bars of Bach for gold bars? Yehudi Menuhin (a former student and friend) poignantly described Enescu as “the most extraordinary human being, the greatest musician and the most powerful influence ever exercised upon me.” The unison string writing reminiscent of Bartok has a lustre even in the Macquarie Theatre's somewhat dry acoustic. The advantage is that each solo instrument is heard with clarity. Oboe and cor anglais gave distinctive colour to this traditional tonal piece.

What Mozart conjured in Salzburg at eighteen years of age, our bassoon soloist Ben Hoadley really brought to the fore, his reed dancing along with the strings, oboes and horns. Ben Hoadley is a bassoon graduate of Tanglewood and the New England Conservatory in Boston. He has played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, and NZSO. The evenness of Hoadley's sound across the instrument was admirable: several entries started high and light, all gaining from his finesse.

Discussions with the aproned staff at interval over the name for Australian sparkling wine (can't say Champagne) sent us back north to Russia in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Alastair Duff-Forbes led the symphonic splendour in the skillful violin solos. Full brass complement balanced the lush strings and winds. Percussion featured too in excellent ensemble.

I was pleasantly surprised - messaging a colleague to confirm that the Sinfonia are the real deal. "What's in the next concert?", I asked. "We'll know after the committee meeting", the box office lady replied. What we do know is that it's on Sunday 15 June and details will be online at http://balmainsinfonia.com/concerts/next-concert/. See you there?

The Renaissance Players performing British Birds, Beasts and Bards - Review

Reviewed by Regina Su
On Wednesday the 26th of March, I entered the Great Hall at Sydney University with a critical eye, with my reviewer hat on. I walked out in awe, impressed at what I had seen, enthralled by what I had heard, with not a negative thought in my head. The concert was a performance by The Renaissance Players and directed by Winsome Evans. Each of the eleven performers had beautiful timing, wonderful expression and they held complex Renaissance music in their capable fingertips. Some musicians played multiple instruments and collectively, their sound was so very suited to the acoustics of the Great Hall.

Not only did we hear Renaissance music, but instrumental pieces from the 12th century, as well as tunes all the way up until the late 1970’s. The music was wonderfully adapted and transformed by the Snave Pluckpayers and had a wonderful edge of humour to it, where appropriate. They played tunes from the Beatles on the Great Hall organ, as well as performed Beatles tunes with traditional Renaissance instruments; at times it borderlined a parody, without any disrespect. The final song was the famous “Jerusalem” which rang though the hall with mighty spirit. I felt I had stepped into period drama, perhaps the Lord of The Rings or even straight back into history. The performance was excellent and mesmerising.

The program uses sentences describing some of their pieces as having a “continuous series of simultaneous, rhythmically syncopated and melodically elaborate variations”, and while much of this jargon went over my head, as a blank state-like audience member, I was awestruck. Jessica O’Donoghue and Susie Bishop were excellent sopranos, performing alongside magnificent baritone Mitchell Riley. Geoff Sirmai presented cleverly-chosen performance poetry; poetry that sported a dark satire, witty humour and excellent expression.

The Renaissance Players performing British Birds, Beasts and Bards, was a marvellous performance. It’s the kind of music that needs to be seen and experienced. The music would be wonderful to catch on LP or CD, however the players performed with full gusto, having the acoustics of the Great Hall behind them, clever costuming and an excellent arrangement by Winsome Evans. I would definitely see them again.

SHORT AND SWEET GALA FINALS - Review

Reviewed by Regi Su
Photo by Sylvi Soe
This year, the world’s biggest little festival, celebrated their Sydney Gala Finals at the Seymour Centre to conclude the 2014 festival. During this year’s Short and Sweet Festival, over 162 plays were performed out of around 1000 nominated internationally. To date, the festival has catered for more than 3000 original new theatre works globally, since it began in 2002.

The top twelve at the Sydney Gala Finals were as follows-

1) Guided By Voices- This piece was creative and original. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this piece as it opened the set with humour, good nature and a quirky insight into the little voice commentary we often have while we humans make decisions. Excellent timing and excellent acting.

2) Nana- During this play, the audience roared with laughter at the sexually explicit humour presented by a little old lady. The synopsis states that the play “explores some of society’s most taboo topics: love, loss and sexuality among the aging.”

3) The Blue Balloon- I really enjoyed this play. For me it was touching, metaphorical and it showed excellent use of props and lighting. The use of space was very creative and the idea was very innovative, with undertones of human loss, even depression. Very poignant.

4) Stalemate- This was a wonderful play; innovative, original and terribly amusing, with relevant pop culture references. It magnified the frivolous in a fresh new way, as the protagonist had chosen to bake a cheesecake with a biscuit base, but the biscuit backfired with a lengthy lawsuit demanding his rights. There were puns galore.

5) Some Other Toy- This play engaged with an original futuristic concept, while the audience were in stitches over the dilemmas that arise when the use of a sex toy goes horribly wrong. Great use of lighting and well-acted by the two women who held the scene.

6) Wild Flowers- This play finished the first act with a bang and led us into the interval with a food fight. The fight arose from high-pressure tension between three ladies at a tea party and their social etiquette, rules and psychological bullying. An exaggerated flare up that left the audience in high morale by the night’s half-way point.

Motherhood Out Loud - Review

Reviewed by Lydia Cheng
Motherhood Out Loud made its Australian premiere last Wednesday at the Craft Bar, with the intention of showing that “it takes two to tango,” not just in bed, but also in life.

With an opening scene of screams and agony-filled grunts as the actors simulate childbirth, the audience is immediately drawn into the world of newborns, modern families and growing older. The point of the play is to show the complexities of raising a child. While many of the references are American, there is a universal sort of language: that family is family, regardless of the situation that it is grown in.

Each act is a well-contained story and many deal with complex family situations. The actors are all skilled, having performed in multiple venues, and convincingly portray mothers and children. The children are not always so ideal, the mothers are not always so perfect, and each story-line is cripplingly accurate.

One discusses having a transgender son: Brooke Davidson takes on the role of a New York-Jewish mother who is completely unsure about how to address the fact that her son loves dresses more than toy trucks. Another is about a new mother, learning how to “squeeze, hold, and release” with her child. She has to squeeze her baby, hold onto her child, and eventually release that child into the world.

Andrew Mead performs a fabulous piece about a father at Christmas time, who has to explain that his daughter doesn't have a mother. Instead, she has a “Daddy” and a “Poppa” that love her very much.

Another skit involves a simple concept: how do you address having an adopted child? As the act progresses, Bridie Connell shows that you address it with aplomb, growing irritability, and the understanding that no matter what you do, you will always have to prove that you love your children, adopted and biological.

Finally, Jennie Jacobs plays the role of an aged mother. Instead of the traditional concept of motherhood, motherhood is now another concept, where the child she has reared for so long must now look after her. The mother who has sheltered, cared for and loved her child, must now be resigned to her future.

Motherhood Out Loud will run March 19 until April 6. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go ring my mum. There's about 18 years of my life I need to apologize for.

Clybourne Park - Review

Clybourne Park
BY BRUCE NORRIS
FROM: MARCH 13
DIRECTED BY:
TANYA GOLDBERG
CAST INCLUDES:
PAULA ARUNDELL
THOMAS CAMPBELL
BRIALLEN CLARKE
NATHAN LOVEJOY
WENDY STREHLOW
RICHARD SYDENHAM
CLEAVE WILLIAMS

DESIGNER: TOBHIYAH STONE FELLER
LIGHTING DESIGNER: VERITY HAMPSON
SOUND DESIGNER: DARYL WALLIS

'honoring the connection'

Reviewed by Ben Oxley
With the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2012 Tony Award for Best Play and Olivier Evening Standard Awards, it's helpful to backtrack to the play's prequel "A Raisin In The Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. This serves as context to the shape of  Clybourne Park, and the integrity of its structure.

A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, an African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. The matriarch Mama puts a down payment on a house for the whole family. She believes that a bigger, brighter dwelling will help them all. This house is in fictitious Clybourne Park, an entirely white neighborhood of Chicago. When the Youngers’ future neighbors find out that the Youngers are moving in, they send Mr. Lindner, from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, to offer the Youngers money in return for staying away. The Youngers refuse the deal.

As we enter Clybourne Park, we have a handle on the tense racial and societal pretext, but not on the real 'elephant in the room'. What we discover is the ache of parents for loss, and an inability of those around them to listen to their problems. After all, this was post-war, politically genteel middle America.

The second act is a sequel in a sense, cleverly lifting the story to our time, capturing the progress or lack of social inclusion and dialogue. Nonetheless, the house is made over for the transition, and the staircase is as strong a silent player in the unfolding tale.

To get this to work as drama today it takes a fine cast, and we have strength in depth in every role. Paula Arundell, herself an award-winning actor, straddles the dual roles of Francine and Lena superbly. Both strong figures, and essential to play against Nathan Lovejoy's overbearing Karl and Steve. Around the room, Wendy Strehlow fastidious Bev and Richard Sydenham as Russ double speak their way through the fog of shared but singular grief.

Thomas Campbell gives Rev. Jim an unctuous touch, and brings poignancy at the end with his handling of Kenneth. Briallen Clarke did a believable job of deaf expectant mum (there's a stereotype) Betsy, and in turn expertly plays the placating Lindsey. The one compassionate figure comes from solid Cleave Williams, with Albert and Kevin both harried by willful women and more articulate men.

Tanya Goldberg extracts the gut-wrenching social text with the smartly satirical observations to create a careening train crash in Act One. The 'chorus interruptus' continues in Act Two, revisiting the history, explicitly unveiling the divide between cultures in the house.

Sets and costume made Clybourne very believable, and Tobhiyah Stone Feller deserves credit for creating the tone and taste. Verity Hampson's thoughtful lighting design led us through the tale, as did Daryl Wallis' evocative audio.

Cheers to all hands at Ensemble for a mighty success, and I left to discover what the capital of Morocco really was. What was the point?

The Dark Side of the Crown - Review

Reviewed by Lydia Cheng

There is much to be said about belly-dancing.  With the many styles, interpretations and re-imagined versions of the tradition, often times, it is the musical selection and lighting that can have the greatest effect on the audience's mood and enjoyment of the show.

With The Dark Side of the Crown, the audience is at times amazed, amused and confused.  The show began with several side acts.  Seven different Australian and New Zealand troupes displayed their belly dancing abilities. Of the seven, Awakening the Goddess and Qanundrum were among my favorites: they showcased high technical skills.  Meanwhile, Diamonds and Shaabi Evolution involve more comedy and urban expression, presenting an amusing show.

To be honest, there are moments where someone might lose the plot, but the general gist is this: in a matriarchal kingdom, a queen must choose one of her three daughters to rule.  However, on the night of the celebration, tragedy strikes as the queen is murdered and the kingdom is lost as to how to proceed.  With some magic, a ghost, and a few love interests, perhaps the truth of the matter will be revealed.

In fact, at times the audience might feel the need for a guidebook: there are moments when the the performance feels like a talent show, focusing only on the skill of one dancer, and not on the story, such as the opening of the show.  At other times, such as in the act The Flirts, the dancers play up their individual persona, making the story stand out more.  After all, a coquettish belly dancer seducing a B-Boy on stage is not an every day occurrence.

Strobe lighting and thick smoke can also obscure the audience's understanding of certain scenes.  At one point, it seems like the adviser and the priestess are in cahoots to  take away the crown from the daughters.  In another scene, it seems like the youngest daughter schemed to become queen, while the oldest daughter is simply biding her time to rule.

However, there is a great scene, where even audience members are included.  In the scene Discipline is Needed, the new guards of the palace amuse themselves with the musicians, only to be caught by the acting queen.  With that, the scene is set up: they drag a new guard out of the audience, up onto the stage and begin another dance that is a mix of traditional belly-dancing and modern music.

Within the cast, there are multiple talented performers, each with their own style.  Several of the troupe members were winners of the Bellydance Evolution competition.  B-Boy Ju and Daneilo Mendes offered a great contrast as b-boy dancers.  Jilliana, the artistic director and creator of Bellydance Evolution, took the stage to show how truly intensive belly-dancing can be.

All in all, The Dark Side of the Crown is a wonderful visual display. The interplay of  music and lighting tends to help showcase the cast, while the costume changes would make any drama department envious.  As the troupe continues their Australian experience, hopefully other people will begin to discard their preconceived notions of bellydance and enjoy the show.