MYRA IN SPACE: Theatre Review

WHAT: Myra In Space
WHEN: 7 - 17 September 2023
WHERE: Fortyfivedownstairs
WRITTEN BY: Bridgette Burton
DIRECTED BY: Alice Bishop
DESIGN BY: Silvia Shao
LIGHTING BY: Richard Vabre

SOUND BY: Nat Grant
PERFORMED BY: Nicholas Jaquinot, Annie Lumsden, Kelly Nash, Rama Nicholas, and Greg Parker

Kelly Nash and Greg Parker - photo by Jody Jane Stitt

The space race is on again thanks to a few outrageous gazillionaires and it has caused some of us to think back to our youths when space was a frontier and flying into it was a future full of options and adventures. Myra In Space, now playing at Fortyfivedownstairs, explores what that yearning was and now is for the people who lived it the first time around.

It is impossible for the current generation to ever truly understand the hope and belief space travel inspired us to embrace last century. The idea of breaking free from the limitations of this world, this life, and exploring that big blue/black expanse of nobody knew what would be found. A real and urgent commitment to the idea of finding aliens drove science and the imagination. Asimov, Herbert, and McCaffrey wrote endless books imagining life beyond earth and this was the generation taking the first steps. Those first steps on the moon were only the beginning of hope and possibility.

This sense of forward movement was embraced by feminists and when Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space in 1963 the possibilities exploded in the minds of women everywhere. Barriers were being broken down in education and employment and whilst it is not true to say anything was possible, a great many things felt within our reach. They were...are...but it is all taking a lot longer than anyone back then could have ever imagined.

In 2023 we are being told homelessness for women over the age of 52 is rising at a rate exceeding any other demographic. How is it these women who grew up with so much hope and so many doors starting to edge open can be finding themselves so lost and alone and with nowhere to live? This is the question Bridgette Burton (writer) is asking in Myra In Space. 

Myra (Kelly Nash) and Bruce (Greg Parker) are a couple in the latter years of a working life. Bruce is a Supreme Court Judge and Myra is his wife. They have 2 children still finding their careers, but who are no longer living at home. Valli (Annie Lumsden) is a radio shock jock and Phillip (Nicholas Jaquinot) is a young lawyer, following in his dad's footsteps.

The story begins the evening Bruce is to accept an honorary doctorate for his work in the law. In his speech he acknowledges how he couldn't have done any of it without his wife, Myra, dealing with all the stuff at home. A speech we have been hearing from men for decades now, the confirmation of that old adage 'behind every good man is a good woman'. 

Looking on from afar is a strange woman in an orange flight suit. We learn that this is Valentina Tereshkova (Rama Nicholas), the first woman in space, and she seems to have a very special interest in Myra. Around family barbeques and in conversations between Myra and Valentina we learn that Myra did a lot more than tend the home and children for Bruce. Her ambitions were to do an engineering degree and follow Tereshkova into space. Instead she supported Bruce through his law degree and, after 3 miscarriages finally gave birth to their first child, Valli. It doesn't stop there, and over the course of an hour and a half we find out just who should have been awarded that degree.

Unsurprisingly we also learn that depression has dogged Myra and the family are forced to start seeing Myra as she starts moving further and further away from them, in training for a trip to Mars and coached by Tereshkova. Fictional billionaire Fred Chen has created a competition for people to go on a one way flight to Mars and Myra tells the family she has entered. Valli's radio co-host Bob (Jaquinot) makes a very telling point when he taunts her by saying her mother would rather go on a one way trip to a dead planet than stay with her family.

Whilst the scenes are written and constructed in a very realist style, Alice Bishop (director) and Silvia Shao have created a stunning surrealist landscape helping us connect to the inner life of Myra. Shiny black dance floor creates an abyss the family are falling into and space station exo-frames hover and loom overhead pressing the family down into the inescapable gravitational pull of that black hole. Nat Grant's sound keeps the energy and momentum of the family's struggles to see and understand in time to save Myra and save themselves. Richard Vabre's lighting keeps  the world contained despite the show being performed in the round.

One of the great delights of Myra In Space is Shao's costumes. Having given up her dreams to be an astronaught, Myra keeps them alive by playing with her children when they were little. She has an incredible collection of home made space suits which, as she and Tereshkova start training for Mars, start to be worn again. When you see the show you will be amazed at what can be done with plastic bowls, newspaper, and bulldog clips. It is a collection to rival any Paris fashion runway.

Myra In Space is beautiful, magical, and so very sad. It is a tale of now, and a history of yesterday. It answers a question our society has been asking for a few years now. It delves deeper into the difficulties women over 50 are facing in a depth and detail I haven't seen before. It looks at grief and love and hope and defeat. It speaks to a life lived. I life well-lived. A life missed. 

4.5 Stars

SLUTNIK™ 2: PLANET OF THE INCELS - Theatre Review

WHAT: SLUTNIK™ 2: Planet of the Incels

WHEN: 7 - 16 September 2023

WHERE: Theatre Works (Acland St)

WRITTEN BY: Flick

DIRECTED BY: Tansy Gorman

SET BY: Harry Dowling and Tansy Gorman

COSTUMES BY: Emily Busch

LIGHTING BY: Georgie Wolfe

PERFORMED BY: Ben Ashby, Michael Cooper, Matilda Gibbs, Ethan Morse, Sara Reed, Benji Smith, and William Strom

SOUND BY: Jack Burmeister

CHOREOGRAPHY BY: Mia Tuco

AV BY: Derrick Duan

STAGE MANAGED BY: Jemma Law

Sara Reed and Matilda Gibbs - photo by Sarah Clarke

So here is one of life's more incredible ironies. The term 'incel' was actually coined by a woman back in 1993. What began as a website for all people to explore their non-sexual experiences and situations, by 2010, become a range of sites dominated by white cis males extolling hate and violence and strongly linked to the alt right. We heard a lot about them last decade but then a little thing known as COVID came along and they seem to have disappeared back into their dark and lonely spaces...we hope. Playwright Flick is having none of that though and, as expansion 2 of 5, they are dragging the incels back out of their closets and into the limelight in SLUTNIK™ 2: Planet of the Incels which just opened at Theatre Works (Acland St).

I have to confess I did not see Flick's original release SLUTNIK™ but from what I have read the show was a high energy, high camp tale of a group of cannibalistic lesbians who give up on the patriarchically enmeshed Earth and escape into the galaxy with the help of AI character Motherboard (Matilda Gibbs). With Planet of the Incels Flick has brought together the original core creatives - Tansy Gorman (director) and dramaturg Enya Daly - and also kept Gibbs who took over the role of Motherboard at some point in the first productions many iterations across festivals. Beyond that, the rest of the creatives and performers are new to the franchise and Planet of the Incels swaps out cannibalistic lesbians for gay cowboy incels.

Much time has gone by since the original release and the space-faring lesbians find themselves crash landing on a planet (I counldn't quite work out if it was an Earth of the future or another planet with a parallel developmental timeline). At this point I am going to say the information at the start is a bit overwhelming so I have to take a few guesses... Anyway, one of the cannibal lesbians (Sara Reed) [who were they eating for all that time in space once they didn't have men around?] demands Motherboard load her dead mother's memories to ... I don't know why, sorry... The result is the memories are implanted and the mother's last moments are relived through her daughter as if it were happening IRL.

For no reason beyond dramaturgical conceit, Motherboard wraps it all in a veneer of Magic Mike style gay dancing cowboys, a dark and terrible tale is told of a community of incels who are segregated in a dome to live their misogynistic lives. Are they prisoners or did they remove themselves from society voluntarily? Are incels just misunderstood men who, with the right opportunities/women, would happily reintegrate functionally into mainstream society? These are the questions Flick is asking. It's not a question which can be answered in 2 hours of  lapdancing, glitter, and cowboy hats but Planet of the Incels does investigate the complexities of the men and the issues in between the best Collar'N'Cuffs show you will see this side of Vegas. Big shout out to Mia Tuco (choreographer) for some great work!

After the information prelude where Motherboard and the cannibal lesbian set the conceit, the show opens with a rousing hen's night dance interlude which leave the audience hooping and hollering loud enough to raise the roof of Theatre Works with Gibbs lipsynching 'It's Raining Men' in the best Queer tradition. Ben Ashby (Elliot), Michael Cooper(Elon), Ethan Morse (Neo), Benji Smith (Jon), and William Strom (Ben) are great actors but also phenomenal dancers and across the evening the audience is given plenty to drool over no matter which side of the lines you live on.

The story centres around a romance which blooms between Elliot and the mum when first contact is made. Motherboard and the mum find themselves inside this dome of incels. They have no idea how dangerous this environment is and learning is always slower than we ever like or need. What ensues is a dark story of deciept and confusion with a tragic ending. 

What is impressive is how Gorman, Daly, and Flick have managed to keep such dark material so light and bright even though much of the text is verbatim from incel chat rooms, as is all of the projected chat room conversations. The first half of the play packs a huge punch in terms of audience impact. 

I do wonder if it comes at a cost to the second half of the play which loses all of that Magic Mike energy and explores the true depths of danger and trauma? Or is that just because at 2 hours it is a fraction too long? I don't know that answer to that, but I do think I wanted to feel as much horror at the end as the joy and fun I felt at the beginning. Jack Burmeister (sound) could have done more to help change the tone perhaps. 

Planet of the Incels is a wild ride. The gay cowboys are a blast of energy and fun and Motherboard is a fantastic character impeccably performed by Gibbs. I found myself forgetting some of the show parameters such as the gay cowboy overlay but Motherboard reminds us which helps. One thing I did want was better definition by Reed as to when she is the mother and when she is the daughter. Again, this would have helped in following the story because the dramaturgical conceit is such an important driver and is actively worked against the underlying story. 

Gorman and Dowling have created an amazing world for the incels with a very few elements doing a lot of evocative work. The screen design (Derrick Duan) keeps us in the sci-fi world and mainframe managed by Motherboard. Georgie Wolfe's lighting sets the atmosphere perfectly (and she didn't need to kill us all with haze and smoke to create her magic - take note lighting designers everywhere)!

Whilst there is an almost unending list of trigger warnings before the show and time is allowed for people to reposition or leave if they have concerns, in the end I didn't feel anything particularly unsurprising or terrifying was revealed. That could be because I am so inured by patriarchal violence and abuse in society that I can't be shocked. Maybe that is the sadder story.

SLUTNIK™ 2: Planet of the Incels is brilliant theatre precisely because it has me asking all of these questions. As well, it is an emotional roller coaster I loved being on. Flick seems to be exploring ideas of segregation vs inclusion in their SLUTNIK™ franchise. I am thoroughly intrigued to see what the next 3 expansions will reveal about us.

4.5 Stars

WHAT OF IT: Theatre Review

WHAT: What Of It
WHEN: 30 August - 9 September 2023
WHERE: Theatre Works (Explosives Factory)
WRITTEN BY: Rebecca Fingher
DIRECTED BY: Mitchell Whelan
LIGHTING BY: Spencer Herd
PERFORMED BY: Xanthe Blaise, Courtney Cavallaro, and Emma Wright
SOUND BY: Rebecca Price
CHOREOGRAPHY BY: Samantha Hortin
STAGE MANAGED BY: Arky Ryall

Xanthe Blaise and Courtney Cavallaro - photo supplied

Reality has a lot to answer for in this world. Not a lot of it is good, but Geordie Shore has spawned something which perhaps make the world a better place. Riffing off chav culture, an other-than-binary zeitgeist, and feminism, Rebecca Fingher's debut play What Of It has found it's way to the Explosive's Factory to kick off Spring.

What of it is a trio of chavettes hanging in the hood. Bored and restless they see a sign saying the world will end in three days and this begins a journey of indulgence and despair as the limitations of their lives become stark. Rebecca Fingher (writer) has crafted her characters well and their narrative arcs reveal their vulnerabilities and classic tragedy mores. They bring about their own downfall because of their own personality traits as much as because of the people and social structures around them.

Emma Wright's (Daks) piercing blue eyes and looming body dominate at the start, placing her squarely in the role of strongman in this gang of three. Courtney Cavallaro (Luck) embodies the young one, desperate to prove herself, perfectly. It is Xanthe Blaise's (Cory) performance which, in the end, left me amazed though. At the start of the play I thought she was too sweet to be the boss of this girl gang, but as the play progresses the character's psychopathy emerges and Blaise's girl next door demeanour makes it even more chilling than it might have been.

It is tempting in the current social climate to suggest that Fingher is inverting the gender stereotype but the truth is chavettes exist so What Of It doesn't reveal anything about the condition of binary gender constructs although it inadvertently does demonstrate the pathos of girls living in such a harsh patriarchal social system. I think the gender bending is supposed to sit in how Finger keeps the language in the male paradigm even though the characters are female. As such, they call each other bro and they call all the men around them bitches. Beyond that, I don't think there is much to speak of on this topic. Having said that, What Of It wins the award for best meme with their adage 'Big clit energy' and the hairdresser scene is a hilarious counterpoint to whatever a guy gang might have chosen to do at the end of the world.

I read an interview where Fingher says the idea for What Of It was spawned by a chilling event which happened in Perth around the behaviour of private school boys and how scared that made her feel. I am disappointed that, rather than facing those boys in her work, Fingher has descended to the low hanging fruit of people in poverty to work out her fears, thus enforcing the stereotype of poor people as dangerous. What Of It is good, but in terms of impact it is no Trophy Boys.

Now let's talk about the accents. I will begin by saying they are excellent and authentic - to the point where I almost felt I needed surtitles at the start! But then I started asking the question why. Why has an Australian playwright written a play specifically placed in a subculture which is not hers/ours? Why would you perform this play in this manner for an Australian audience and thus immediately alienate us from the story and therefore limit its impact? It could be argued that the accents are essential to the rhythm and meter of the work - and there is spoken word poetry within the text placing it in a rythmic realm. 

I kind of feel a bit more cynical about the whole exercise though and found myself wondering just how was this researched? Parts of What Of It felt like outtakes of things I have seen on TV and in films. Whilst Fingher finds beauty and depth in the pain of these wonderful characters I want to just bring a word of caution about authenticity. If the intention is to go international you don't need to pretend to be  something you're not. The thing which will bring international acclaim is authenticity. There is a basic adage amazing writers follow - write what you know. I just can't help wondering how powerful and real What Of It would have been set in the eshay subculture of Perth. 

What Fingher does do so well in What Of It is to examine sororal relationships. Cory, Luck, and Daks explore bullying, teasing, rites of adulthood and peer pressures. Their bonds to each other are dangerous and strong. What Of It starts a conversation about decision making and turning points. They say everyone has choices, but these three young women only have bad ones and for all the right reasons keep making things worse. 

I wish the play had gone a bit further. I think the natural end still hadn't arrived when the play ended. Daks, for me, became the most intriguing character. As tough as she is, her veneer cracks early and she is called out for it by Cory. In the ultimate rave scene she is pushed to decide who and what she is, but we never find out. We know Luck only has 2 possible outcomes and both see her ending up in a dark place. We know Cory is lost forever. What we don't know is what Daks' next move ends up being. Perhaps that unknown is deliberate. I really want to find out though!

Rebecca Price keeps the subculture vibe alive with hip hop rap and Samantha Hortin brings fun and powerful choreography for our gang girls. One of the strengths of What Of It is the endless array of tongue in cheek moments, lifting it out of the dark morass of chav culture, doing so through words and movement. Spencer Herd's lighting is dark and shadowy, evoking lane ways and night time. The places where cockroaches are free to roam, this is the home of our poor chavettes.

I think this review has been confusing, but that is because I am confused. On all technical levels What Of It is a superb play: excellently designed and directed for touring; exquisitely performed; and the writing is structurally strong with some beautiful phrasing and meter. I guess I am just tired of hearing English stories. I am not English and I do not live in England. I am sure they are all very jolly fellows but what I care about is Australians in Australia. I want my theatre to speak to me about me. I want to be offered insight into my world and my place in it. Otherwise, why am I even there?

4 Stars

HOW TO SAVE A TREE: Theatre Review

WHAT: How To Save A Tree
WHEN: 22-26 August 2023
WHERE: Gasworks (Theatrette)
WRITTEN BY: Louise Hopewell, Megan J Reidl, Bruce Shearer, and Gregory Vines
DIRECTED BY: Elizabeth Walley
SOUND BY: John Jenkin
LIGHTING BY: David Silvester
PERFORMED BY: Rhys Carter, Lansy Feng, Alec Gilbert, Cosima Gilbert, Cassandra Hart, Rohan D Hingorani, Carrie Moczynski, and Gabrielle Ng
STAGE MANAGED BY: Isabella Gilbert

Rohan D Hingorani, Cosima Gilbert, Lansy Feng, Gabrielle Ng - photo supplied

Melbourne Writers' Theatre has become known for their seasons of short play collections around themes of place and people. The latest iteration is How To Save A Tree which is being presented in the Gasworks Theatrette this weekend and the theme this time is protest.

Four short plays by member playwrights have been selected for performance to commemorate moments which have incited protest for social change - to varying levels of success. Bruce Shearer has tackled the suffragette movement with 'Jennie Baines versus The World'. Megan J Riedl investigates the art world occupations of the climate change movement in 'The Time is Now'. Louise Hopewell interrogates the absurd connection between Novak Djokovic and the asylum seekers locked up at the Park Hotel in her play 'Waiting Game'. Finally, Gregory Vines brings us a surprisingly heart warming look at the camaraderie which has built over the years with the Albert Park Grand Prix protestors in his piece 'Good Trouble'.

I personally love a good protest and firmly believe no significant social change has ever taken place without aggressive disruption. How To Save A Tree reaffirms my beliefs. As a woman I have a real soft spot for the suffragettes and I was quite excited for the program to start there with the life story of Jennie Baines. Whilst Shearer managed to condense Baines' whole life into this little play and Cassandra Hart did a magnificent job of bringing her to life I personally think the short play tried to do too much. Full of tiny snapshot moments across her entire career as a Salvation Army member in the UK through to her senior years in Melbourne as a Magistrate there is little time to really appreciate the impact of her work or the struggles she must have faced to be seen and heard and honoured the way she was. Shearer has tried to give some emotional depth by infilling a love story with her husband (Rhys Carter) but it is too little and none of that really speaks to the social change she effected.

Carrie Moczynki and Alec Gilbert brought a bundle of energy and zeal in Riedl's 'The Time Is Now'. The two actors recreate the 2022 occupation of NGV where two protestors glued themselves to the Picasso painting 'Massacre In Korea'. The genius of this play is how Riedl layers in the current climate change protest with Picasso's protest informing his art. Flitting across time long past, the present and a time in the perhaps not so distant future, Riedl links Picasso's rebellious painting style, the rebellious content of the art work itself, and the current protestors disrupting in the face of climate change. Perhaps one the of most compelling scenes is the one (pictured above) where a grandmother (Lansy Feng) tells the story of a time when the last car filled up with petrol and other intriguing anecdotes before the climate crisis event took place. 

Adding to the beauty and power of this short play is how Elizabeth Walley (director) has the ensemble replicate the painting in the background - an ever-present reminder of violence and ignorance. Walley has a talent for moving and shaping an ensemble. It is a talent she gets to exercise regularly in these Melbourne Writers' Theatre seasons, and to be honest, it is the thing which saves How To Save A Tree from tedium because, as interesting as the topics are, much of the writing is expositional and this is not the strongest acting ensemble the team have ever gathered on stage. Some of the cast are strong (Alec and Cosima Gilbert and Cassandra Hart for example) but even performers I have seen and admired in other shows were disappointing. Moczynski and Feng, for example, seemed to have real trouble with their lines. On the other hand, some of the other ensemble members were barely even used.

Hopewell's 'Waiting Game' juxtaposes modern celebrity outrage with a great Australian shame. When tennis star Djokovic was detained during the Australian Open COVID scandal he was placed in the same hotel the government had been keeping asylum seekers in for years prior. Gabrielle Ng plays an ABC TV journalist interviewing an asylum seeker advocate (Moczynski). Suddenly the tennis player turns up at the hotel and we enter a dream sequence where the advocate sits Djokovic (Carter) and an asylum seeker (Rohan D Hingorani) down to share some tea. The absurdity of the attention Djokovic got and the speed with which he was released is heightened when placed against the plight of the men held in indefinite detention. 

The style of this play is a bit too expository for my taste but it could have been powerful if Moczynski didn't struggle with her lines so much. I also think Walley needed to spend more time with Moczynski to really drill down and find the dynamics in the writing. Hingorani's understated and truthful performance spoke volumes about us and about the circumstances these men find themselves in.

How To Save A Tree ends with a sweet little play about the Albert Park protestors. Vines introduces us to all of the characters who have been protesting the Grand Prix since it was first proposed. Yes, they are still at it and yes, the police are still arresting them. A holding cell becomes packed to the rim with all the repeat offenders who have somehow come to form their own little extended family. This event may be all they have in common, but they see each other every year and a beautiful bond is formed, emphasised by the chorus of 'Do You Hear The People Sing' (from Les Miserables) at the end. 

The song invites us all to join in. To join in the song and also to join in the act of protest. Find your passion and fight for your beliefs. This is the message How To Save A Tree is trying to impart. John Jenkin's sound design reminds us that protest is not a quiet act, and it is not a safe act. The playwrights remind us how essential that act is though.

2 Stars

CYGNETS: Theatre Review

WHAT: Cygnets
WHEN: 16 - 26 August 2023
WHERE: Theatre Works (Explosives Factory)
WRITTEN BY: Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, and Harry Haynes

DIRECTED BY: Harry Haynes
DESIGN BY: Juliette Whitney
LIGHTING BY: Nicholas Moloney
SOUND BY: Miles O'Neil
PERFORMED BY: Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, Tom Richards, and uncredited ensemble.

Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, and Tom Richards - photo by Matto Lucas

I think one of the great truths being revealed in the 21st century is that our understanding of women - who we are, how we behave, what we feel and experience - has historically been man-washed by the great creative writers and artists of Western History. In a desperate rush to scream 'we are human in all it's good and bad' playwrights are looking back at iconic historic/mythic female characters and ripping off the Eve mask to see the flesh and blood of what must have really been going on. The latest in this zeitgeist is Cygnets being presented by The Liminal Space at the Explosives Factory until 26 August.

Clytemnestra and Helen are two such iconic women. They are twin daughters (or quads if you include their brothers Castor and Pollux) born from an egg laid by Leda who had been raped by Zeus when he took the form of a swan. (Those Greeks really like to make their mythology complicated!). Both daughters went on to marry kings (Agamemnon and Menelaus respectively) who were important players in the epic poems of Homer.

It seems to be standard fare in Greek mythology that women begin all their relationships with rape and in Cygnets Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, and Harry Haynes explore what that really means for these women and their familial relationships. Being the result of rape, how bonded was Leda to her daughters and how do those daughters choose to remember her? Playing lovingly as little girls, how damaged was their sibling relationship after Helen was abducted by Theseus? Was she the same little girl when she was returned to her family? 

In particular, in Cygnets Brooks and Carton explore their sorority. They play as little girls and move on to joint pre-wedding celebrations as both girls prepare to marry their kings. They settle into their fates and all the while Tom Richards is circling with his video phone, watching them and live streaming onto screens for the audience to watch. Do you want to watch them through his gaze or look at the real women in all of their totality? You get to choose in Cygnets - sometimes.

It really helps to know something about who these mythic women are to fully appreciate Cygnets. In particular, the journey of Helen is painful and magnificant. Without recounting the story of Helen of Troy, Brooks and Carton manage to expose all the ugliness she must have held inside of her as a result of the traumas inflicted. In Cygnets they make them part of her external visage. This 'face which launched a thousand ships' (as cited by Christopher Marlowe and, earlier, by Lucian) becomes a slobbering drunk with matted hair and cake smashed over her face, her body covered in rivers of blood - menstral, but also the blood of the men who died in the battle of Troy. 

As she poses opposite Richard's perfect David, Brooks cries out "I am not yours to die for!" Just as Eve is blamed for eating the apple and getting everyone thrown out of Eden, Helen is blamed for the war at Troy. Once again men blame women for their own mistakes, atrocities and weaknesses. Helen was just a woman. A woman raped. A girl abducted. A child spurned.

Carton's Clytemnestra is less transparent than Brooks' Helen. The start of her reminiscences with Helen are full and engaging, but after her marriage to Agamemnon it becomes opaque. There is no reference to her first marriage, and no significant reference to the fate of her daughter Iphigenia. They do speak about her murders (Agamemnon and Cassandra) but we don't really see the journey towards that or impact thereafter. 

What we see of Clytemnestra is a development into someone hard and uncaring towards her sister although how and why this happens is unclear. At one point Helen tells Clytemnestra she thinks she is pregnant and Clytemnestra says 'Don't be silly!' and then becomes quite aggressive. I don't get it because Helen had children so it is not as if she was making a false claim...Anyway, my point is I lost my place in Clytemnestra's story at that point and it never really seemed to go anywhere which is a bit of a shame. 

Beyond that I really loved this production. It begins with a live art element for the audience to explore, juxtaposing Ancient Greek iconography with modern costume items and living bodies (the uncredited ensemble). Juliette Whitney (designer) has created a stunning aesthetic of white and red and Nicholas Moloney has lit it well despite the constraints of traverse staging. I loved the choice of the traverse by Haynes (director) which emphasised the public gaze on these tragic women just trying to live their lives. The power of Whitney's design is coupled with the driving force of Miles O'Neil's sound design. 

Nothing in this space is comfortable, but everything has impact. Everything is beautiful, but nothing is pretty. Cygnets is a story about women. It is about the person behind the visage. It speaks to celebrity today through celebrity of ancient times. It speaks about women as people, not as icons. It shows women unveiled from the male gaze. It shows us.

4 Stars

NO FORMER PERFORMER HAS PERFORMED THIS PERFORMANCE BEFORE #8 - Theatre Review

WHAT: No Former Performer Has Performed This Performance Before #8
WHEN: 10 - 19 August 2023
WHERE: Theatre Works (Acland St)
PERFORMED BY: Carolyn Hanna, Michael Havir, and Penny Baron 
LIGHTING BY: Bronwyn Pringle
VISUAL DRAMATURG BY: Dagmara Gieysztor 

Michael Havir and Carolyn Hanna - Photo by Dagmara Gieysztor

NFTs are all the rage now in our digital economy. One single digital art work purchased and stored in your block chain to be enjoyed at your private leisure. No Former Performer Has Performed This Performance Before #8, currently playing at Theatre Works, gives you that thrill of having an experience nobody other than the rest of the audience on your night of viewing will ever see. Every night is a new experience. It is exclusive and it is yours.

The members of Born In A Taxi had an idea in 2015. Working with Andrew Morrish, the team decided to create an annual program of improvised performance until one of them dies. That sounds a bit macabre, but the journey for the performers and the audiences following along must be so incredible!

Penny Baron and Carolyn Hanna are physical theatre specialists and Michael Havir is a composer who, in No Former Performer, responds and offers in real time with the actors. He is on stage with them, whilst in the background Dagmara Gieysztor (visual dramaturg) and Bronwyn Pringle (Lighting Designer and Operator) work their special brands of improvisational magic. The aural, textural, and optical architecture shifts and changes, forcing the actors to respond as they writhe and patter their way through intellectual concepts, emotional lability, and an ever-changing environment.

You might think this is a recipe for chaos, but this ensemble know what they are doing. You can tell from the moment they step on stage that, whilst they are exploring what the performance of the night will end up being, these theatre makers are masters of their craft and wherever they end up taking the show, it will be intriguing, exciting, and extremely entertaining. 

Gieysztor and Pringle are newer to the team and perhaps a bit timid in their roles at the moment. My biggest hope is that they will gain the confidence to be a bit more overt in their offers and interventions. It is hard for production people to break down the training of being invisible but it is necessary in No Former Performer. This show demands participation and is stronger in those moments of bravery and interaction. 

I reckon if Tamara Saulwick and Ridiculusmus had a baby, it would be No Former Performer Has Performed This Performance Before #8. It is exciting to go and see a show not knowing what that show will be and this show delivers on all counts. It has mastery, humour, anticipation, heart, and a guaranteed time limit of 50 minutes. What more could you ask for? And you can go back night after night at half price to see what the team create next! 

4.5 Stars

THE CAVE OF SPLEEN: Theatre Review

WHAT: Cave of Spleen
WHEN: 2 - 12 August 2023
WHERE: Theatre Works (Explosive Factory)
WRITTEN BY: Laura Collins
DIRECTED BY: Stephanie Ghajar
DESIGNED BY: Fiona Macdonald
COMPOSITION & SOUND BY: Imogen Cygler and Rachel Lewindon
LIGHTING BY: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez
PERFORMED BY: Amelia Jane, Nisha Joseph, Pia O'Meadhra, and Heather Riley
STAGE MANAGED BY: Piper Knight 

Amelia Jane, Nisha Joseph, and Pia O'Meadhra - photo supplied

in 8BCE Homer wrote the epic poem Odyssey. In 8CE Ovid wrote 'Metamorphoses', another narrative epic poem. In 1712CE Alexander Pope wrote a mock epic poem called 'The Rape of The Lock'. In 2023CE Laura Collins debuts her play, The Cave of Spleen, at the Explosives Factory. What connects these four literary events?

The concept of katabasis is a journey into the underworld where secrets may be revealed which are not available to mortal men. Odysseus was directed to go down to Hades where he spoke with the ghosts of heroes of the past. In Metamorphoses, jealous of her sister, Minerva enters the cave of Envy to get revenge. In his epic parody 'The Rape of The Lock' Pope creates the cave of Spleen. Mirroring the description of Ovid's cave, within this cave lies the Queen of Spleen, languishing on a bed and tended by Pain and Megrin. The cave is populated by misshapen and miserable women (and a man who thinks he is pregnant). In the 1700's it was believed that the spleen sent vapours around the body which caused illnesses. In Pope's poem these sad and broken people were distorted and tortured due to sexual frustration - commentary of the plight of the imperfect woman at Court.

Collins has taken Pope's concept and attempted to draw a more serious analogy between her experiences with chronic pain, the climate crisis, and the continual social pressure on women be silent. Thus, four women find themselves in a cave (I am not sure why or how) and decide to use it as a base of operations to plan a social rebellion against patriarchy and climate crisis denial. They stride around railing at men and how hard it is to create social change. Each woman has different levels of activism ranging from Pia O'Meadhra's softer appeasement through to Heather Riley's radical violence.

I recently reviewed another play by Collins, Bleached, so it will be no surprise to anyone when I say the show begins with a lot of shouty, shouty words, words, words showing how angry and disempowered these women feel. Fear not, though. Under the skilful hands of Stephanie Ghajar (director), The Cave of Spleen has better dynamics and some clever choices which give the audience a way to tune out some of the excessive verbiage which is a feature of all of this current rash of eco-feminist plays which are littering Melbourne stages this year.

After the initial onslaught the women start to peel off, one by one, feeling some vertigo which turns into pain and finds them lying on the cave bed and writhing together replicating some of the images created over time from Pope's work. As Riley continues to rant and rage and plot, O'Meadhra, Amelia Jane, and Nisha Joseph recite side-affects from various medical and homeopathic treatments. Riley holds out right up to the end of the play and one of the more powerful images is Riley screaming silently at the other women as they writhe into their various poses in a dreamlike fashion.The whole thing begs the question when do we stop seeing, hearing, caring?

The performances are dynamic and it is unfortunate that the play shifts between derivative word mush, quotes from 'The Rape of The Lock', and voguing. Collins does make some good observations and has sharp and witty interjections of the cliches people spout to avoid actually having to do something about, well, anything. The problem is that in The Cave of Spleen there isn't a strong enough narrative link between the concepts of pain and climate crisis. 

Due to the non-narrative writing style the links have had to be made visually, but in my opinion what this ends up doing is creating a science fantasy world where, through a temporal and/or interdimensional portal, these modern women are overtaken by the vapours of the original Cave of Spleen and the ghosts of the pasts take over. I didn't see a connection between the physical pain being created by the continued forced silence of women and their anger over climate change. As with Bleached the call to action is missing. What am I supposed to think about or do after seeing this show? I don't know because this cluster bomb approach to all the things making these women angry leaves me in a minefield with no path out. I know all the things which are so very frustrating. I am a woman. What I need is ideas for action and The Cave of Spleen lacks those ideas.

The production elements of The Cave of Spleen are wonderful although I find myself perplexed by the fact that all of these eco-activist plays begin by polluting the air with smoke/fog/haze.  Having said that, Fiona Macdonald (designer) has created the cave with exquisite, simple elements and side from the haze (technically accurate, but conceptually curious), Giovanna Yate Gonzalez has created a powerful and driving lighting design. Rachel Lewindon and Imogen Cygler have worked together to create a wonderfully dynamic and atmospheric sound design which really helps us cut through the journey we are being taken on.

Things I love about The Cave of Spleen include the wonderfully deep literary provenance and Ghajar's control of the elements to reign in the script. As I mentioned, the show looks and sounds fantastic, and the actors do well to try and maintain some differentiation between the women. Riley's performance is powerful as the rebellious hold out. Joseph and Jane deliver some outrageous zingers cleverly crafted by Collins, and O'Meadhra fades skilfully into the Queen of Spleen. Ironically, I just feel the direct references to Pope's ideas overwhelm the connections Collins is trying to make in the here and now.

3.5 Stars

ROUGH TRADE: Theatre Review

WHAT: Rough Trade
WHEN: 19 - 29 July 2023
WHERE: Theatre Works (Explosives Factory)
WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY: Katie Pollock
DIRECTED BY: Anthony Skuse
LIGHTING BY: James Wallis
SOUND BY: Cluny Edwards

Katie Pollock - photo by Teniola Komolafe

People come down pretty hard on Facebook as part of the whole 'let's hate on social media' zeitgeist but this platform has done a lot for connecting people in a positive way if you bother to really look at it. Some of those connections include buy/swap/sell groups and community groups like the Good Karma stable of sites. One fun version of that is the Rough Trade pages. Katie Pollock has decided to let us in on the culture and people who use Rough Trade in her play Rough Trade presented by Rogue Projects at Theatre Works Explosives Factory.

The play begins with a bit of fun about the sex life of slugs and the double entendre of the phrase 'rough trade' which is a term used when men who are rich have sex with men of the working classes. After we get past all that let's get bums on seats stuff, Pollock goes on to tell us a funny, intriguing, poignant, and heart breaking story about the types of trades and people who make them through sites like Rough Trade.

The character (I don't think she has a name) is a 50+ woman who finds herself on unemployment benefits for the first time in her life. She has had to downsize her life to some sort of communal living situation and has become an avid participator in the Rough Trade community. There are rules to the Rough Trade community including no cash - trades only - and no profiteering. Thus we have the question of perceived value. What is a lemon worth? Can someone find value in a bunch of slugs on the doorstep?

Most of the show is funny anecdotes and strange trades but there is heart and soul in the character. Almost as an aside we learn she is 3 days from her next dole payment and has no food, and she never invites her children to her place so they can't see how she is living. The Rough Trade site has become her lifeline, not just a convenience and when Facebook shuts it down for breach of code of conduct the impact is far more than just a shut down page.

This story is the heart of the work and the almost accidently dropping of these key bits of information tugs at the heart strings in ways that being forthright would never achieve. It is that secret life of desperation and shame that the 50+ group of women are hiding in current times which is so powerful and it is a story we aren't telling because as a society we don't seem to be able to get our head around how this demographic could find themselves in these terrible circumstances. To be fair, I reckon the women in question don't know how it happened either.

Pollock is not a trained actor, she is a writer, and it is kind of evident in the way she moves and her voice. I mention the voice for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Pollock doesn't use diaphragmatic breathing so there is not much projection. This is not a big problem because she has a radio mic to support it. 

Pollock tells us the story of the guy on TedX who started with a red paperclip and kept trading up until he ended up with a house. (This is not in the spirit of the Rough Trade sites so don't try it, you will be hammered) and I really wish director Anthony Skuse had lent into that as a performance style rather than creating a theatrical space. Because of Pollock's natural style, Rough Trade would have worked so well as a faux TedX talk. Instead there is a dissonance between the theatricality of the production and the non-theatricality of Pollock's demeanour. It is her earnestness and authenticity and a strong script which saves the show, rather than strong performance choices.

Following on from this I need to talk about the lighting (James Wallis). The lighting design is excellent with beams of open white enclosing Polloc in a square box, with dips and shades of colour as needed. What I am less happy about is the outrageous overuse of the smoke machine. 

This play is static and minimalist and the lighting fixtures are static. There is no dramaturgical reason for the haze and, in fact, it is evident it is causing Pollock harm. Her vocal chords are drying out and tightening and if she continues to work in this environment without good vocal care she is in danger of permanent damage. Smoke/haze/fog are not benign elements and must be used with caution (and dramaturgical intention). In this case the smoke actually distracts from the performance as it draws the eye away from the performer to watch pretty swirls up in the grid and it is pumping hard. I don't want to see you, Wallis, I want to see the world of the play!

On the other hand, the sound design created by Cluny Edwards is sparse yet powerful. The constant dinging of notifications was just the right balance to demonstrate how tethered the character is to Rough Trade without becoming an annoyance.

Rough Trade is quite a powerful story and told in a compelling way. Watching it, it is one of those shows in which it becomes evident that there are a lot of different ways the show can be performed which is exciting for women who are looking for solid, meaty one-person shows to produce. The play is available through Currency Press.

3 Stars

UNDER MY TONGUE: Dance Review

WHAT: Under My Tongue
WHEN: 18 - 23 July 2023
WHERE: Brunswick Mechanics Institute
DIRECTED BY: Belinda Locke
COMPOSED BY: Emah Fox
DESIGNED BY: Claudia Mirabello
LIGHTING BY: Bronwyn Pringle
PERFORMED BY: Amanda Lever and Joseph Stewart
STAGE MANAGED BY: Celina Mack

Amanda Lever and Joseph Stewart

We all know about disability...we think. So often, though, people forget that some disabilities are invisible. Quite a lot, actually. With the performance piece Under My Tongue (and accompanying exhibition) director Belinda Locke interogates the barriers for people with those invisible disabilities and how they are managed. The exhibition juxtaposes respondents' answers with commentary from people with more visible disability which is intriguing and powerful. Under My Tongue is being presented by Next Wave at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute this weekend. Note, it is also available on demand via streaming until the end of July.

Under My Tongue starts with a man (Joseph Stewart) doing the seemingly innocuous act of going to bed. He takes a pill and settles into what we assume is a good night's sleep. An intriguingly contrary start to a theatre show indeed. At some point though, his arms start moving, pointing, dancing in staccato sequences. It resembled an external representation of dreaming until his partner (Amanda Lever) joins him. She notices but continues calmly in her bedtime routine, laying down beside him and gently touching his arm before settling into sleep. This seems to calm Stewart and for a moment there is peaceful slumber for them both.

Then Stewart starts up again and Lever tries to calm him, using more and more directly suppressive actions such as smothering. At some point Lever also starts her own manic contortions. Eventually they both end up out of the bed and dance a beautiful duet  of pain and awkwardness. Thus ends act 1 and it is beyond impressive in all ways. The big red curtain and bed evoking a mouth and tongue as well as the contradictory symbols of comfort and danger. 

In act 2 the red curtain is paged and the warmth of the boudoir is replaced by the cold blue of a hospital waiting room. Designer Claudia Mirabello has juxtaposed two incredibly different spaces with minimal, yet impactful backdrops. Lighting designer Bronwyn Pringle weaves her powerful magic emphasizing the architecture in sophisticated ways. The strong, grey blue vertical lines of the concertina backdrop, industrial chairs and the ECG style beep in composer Emah Fox's design work together as one to tell us where we are and how we might feel about being there.

Stewart and Lever find themselves in the cold, beeping environment after their tussles. It seems at this point Stewart morphs into a simple companion sitting in the waiting room. For most of the rest of the show it is Lever doing the dancing in a series of solos, her body enmeshed in Fox's synth pop creations, her body contorting at the music beeps and crackles, both human and music collapsing and rebuilding under stress and strain.

For most of this I was strongly affected as Lever contorts and strains with her illnesses and barriers - completely invisible to Stewart sitting patiently by her side. After the second solo though, this is where the show falls down for me. As good as Lever is, and as amazing as the music is, I felt myself falling into a bit of a slumber because it started looking and sounding the same to me. At the same time Stewart just keeps sitting around doing nothing. 

There is no choreography credit for this work so it is hard to know how to talk about this problem. There is a dramaturg though. It is unclear to me how both Locke and Julian Dibley-Hall (dramaturg) have failed to identify this big hole in the narrative structure. Towards the end of the piece the couple return to the bedroom and Stewart does become involved again, but the show is 50 minutes. There is just a LOT of time where he is a bystander, and a lot of time when Lever is dancing but it is hard to know what she is representing. I don't know if the various solos are different types of invisible disorders but there is not enough diversity in the choreography or the sound tracks to help the audience follow in my opinion.

Having said that, every aspect of technical execution for this show is world class - the design, the dancing, all of it. The accompanying exhibition is also edifying. I have a personal fondness for Andy Jackson's contribution and was touched by his comments about his partner and how important her loving gaze is for him. I love the light Locke is shining on invisible disability and the unseen struggles. She also invites us to share our own experiences to become part of the exhibition. Under My Tongue is thought provoking and revelationary.

4 Stars

BLUE TO THE HORIZON: Musical Theatre Review

WHAT: Blue To The Horizon
WHEN: 18 - 22 July
WHERE: Bluestone Church Arts Space
WRITTEN BY: Sarah Wynen
MUSICAL DIRECTION BY: Daniel Kim
DIRECTED BY: Daniel Kim and Tess Walsh
CHOREOGRAPHY BY: Tess Walsh
DESIGN BY: Elaine Mackaway
LIGHTING BY: Opal Essence
PERFORMED BY: Stephanie Beza, Jackson Cross, Mathew Dwyer, Zoe Harlen, Lucy May Knight, Nicole Rammesh, and Kristie Thai
STAGE MANAGED BY: Jordynn Hocc

Mathew Dwyer, Zoe Harlen, Stephanie Beza, Nicole Rammesh, Jackson Cross, Lucy May Knight - photo supplied

It really is true that some of the best theatre comes when you least expect it. I admit I was cold and tired last night and just wanted to curl up at home and stay warm and cosy. Instead I braved the night air and made my way to the Bluestone Church Arts Space only to have my socks knocked off with a wonderful and tight little musical Blue To The Horizon. Presented by Sevenfold Theatre, this show is only on until the 22nd of July so you need to jump on it quickly, but it will be worth it. Trust me!

Book, lyrics and music written by Sarah Wynen, Blue To The Horizon is a dystopian thriller. A nuclear bomb is dropped 100Km away but the blast devastates the east coast of Australia in very little time at all. Six hapless randoms find themselves fleeing to the ocean on a small boat. After staying confined in the small cabin for two weeks they brave the open air and try to decide on their next move. In a show full of life and death situations, romance, betrayal, and starvation, Blue To The Horizon is akin to Lord Of The Flies with a brilliant political kicker at the end. I truly think this show has the best ending I have ever seen and you never see it coming!

Wynen always intended Blue To The Horizon to be a minimalist musical theatre show, but I have to say I would be so excited to see this develop into something spectacular. It is a musical loaded with great characters, exhilarating music, and layered with ideas - some of them very dark indeed. All of it is sugar-coated with standard musical theatre tropes which only makes the dark edges sting even more when they appear.

Part of what makes Blue To The Horizon so good is the music and Daniel Kim (Musical Director) has layered in so many incredible harmonies it is like having an extended ear orgasm. I'm not going to lie, there is some pitchiness across most of the cast, but they hold it all together well enough and when they sing in chorus, with all of those clever harmonics, it fills the room and the soul. Kristie Thai is excellent on the piano and the clever composition and harmonies makes it sound as if there is more than the one instrument in the room. It really is incredibly well done!

Whilst I am talking about the ensemble, I need to say how amazing they all are as actors. Nicole Rammesh (Sophie) holds the show together with her nuanced portrayal of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood in an end of the world scenario. Jackson Cross (Bronson) has a charming pubescent vulnerability. The show does get stolen towards the end by Lucy May Knight's performance of the less than mentally stable Chris. Zoe Harlen (Anne) is very credible as a doctor and Stephanie Beza plays her partner Rae with a strength needed to balance out the cast. Mathew Dwyer's character Beau sits in a wierd space but Dwyer plays it with restraint, delicately avoiding turning him into a monster.

Another key element to this show working is the choreography (Tess Walsh). Walsh honours the minimalist aesthetic, working with repeated etudes, and clever symbolism to help the cast tell the story.  

Elaine Lackaway's set and costumes do their job nicely, but I did find the milk crates on the dolly really irritating. The cast just keep moving it around for no significant purpose most of the time. It is just silly 'business'. Forget about the crates. This is not a show about crates (despite the writer's description).  Opal Essence does a good job with very few lights and the important notes are hit with precision and boldness.

I alway love a raw, new musical. In fact, that is pretty much the only kind of musical I do enjoy. Blue To The Horizon is fresh and strong. It is shocking. It is outrageous. And yes, it is beautiful too. Don't miss it!

4.5 Stars

AWAY: Theatre Review

WHAT: Away
WHEN: 8 - 22 July 2023
WHERE: Theatre Works (Acland St)
WRITTEN BY: Michael Gow
DIRECTED BY: Stephen Mitchell Wright
DESIGNED BY: Greg Carroll
COMPOSITION & SOUND BY: Rachel Lewindon
LIGHTING BY: Ben Hughes
PERFORMED BY: Iopu Auva'a, Rupert Bevan, Linda Cookson, Stefanie Falasca, Bailey Griffiths, Justin Hosking, Eleanor Howlett, Cait Spiker, Stephen Tall, and students from Collarts

STAGE MANAGED BY: Brigette Jennings

Stefanie Falasca and Rupert Bevan - photo by Danial Rabin

There are probably only a handful of what we might call true Australian modern classic stage plays - mainly because we don't revisit them in repertory seasons. Amongst that venerable cohort sits Michael Gow's Away which is being presented this month at Theatre Works (Acland St). This play is pretty much a permanent fixture on the education curriculum so this is a great opportunity for students this year to see what happens to a play between page and stage and explore that dynamic journey.

Away, written in 1986 but set in 1968, takes place in an era of international tumult (the Vietnam War) and comes after longer periods of social tumult including struggling out of the World War years and all of the economic difficulties and insecurities which resulted. Whilst the over-riding link between the characters is losing sons in various ways, the underlying link is the economic strata which had developed as Australia entered its Golden Age of recovery with the emergence of our secondary industries. A constantly repeated refrain in the play is 'We're living in a country with one of the highest standards of living on earth...' and 'There is a price that has to be paid, of course. And we should all be prepared to pay it.' The inference being the price is our sons. What makes this play's context interesting is it was penned in the decline of that secondary industries boom which allowed Gow to pose the question was the cost too high?

Stephen Mitchell Wright's production probably doesn't really focus on this level of social commentary. Instead he has concentrated on the theatrical lineage of the work. Gow bookends the play with that grand old man William Shakespeare. The play starts with the ending of a high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and ends with the first read through of King Lear at the same high school. The middle structure of the play mirrors the elemental reckoning of The Tempest. The play is also written in The Bard's 5 act play structure. This adds another interesting layer to Gow's choices because during the Golden Age interest in Shakespeare and veneration of patriotism were at all time lows which begs the question was Gow honouring The Bard or linking him to lies and failures of that era?

Of course we are now in 2023. We lie in the wake of that not very venerable Tony Abbott and his following cohort. Patriotism is at an all time high as is the love of Shakespeare (we can blame that on the old man's 400th anniversary). As such the reading of this production, with it's heavily layered Shakespearean aesthetic - particularly in the first half of the show, becomes a tad confusing and perhaps problematic. In contrast, the second half is intensely powerful as it eschews most of the ruffles and brocade and the characters are able to look at the post-Tempest wreckage and mourn their lives and losses.

Greg Carroll (designer) has worked hard to establish a very traditional Dream set, with ash-washed trees lining the wings, and a faux white cyc. There is even a mobile Juliet balcony which allows Wright to play with vertical space which I really appreciated. They even have one of the best moons I have seen staring down on the shenanigans. The creative team has taken the surrealism of the Dream and made it the over-riding aesthetic mixing costuming and props from all eras. You haven't seen anything until you have seen a Hawaiian shirt next to an Elizabethan ruffle!

On paper this concept works, but I personally felt it would have been better for the audience if they costuming stayed with the cast of the opening play. By having non-Dream cast in full Elizabethan made it confusing at the beginning to understand family relationships and social strata. In particular, I felt it messed with my reading of Harry (Iopu Auva'a) and Vicky (Stefanie Falasca). Those two characters are supposed to be exhausted, poor factory workers, the immigrants bringing the Golden Age to its luminescence on the back of their labour and poverty. Instead they look sprite and lively and lack the foil needed to play as relief to Gwen (Eleanor Howlett) and Jim (Justin Hosking) who are Great Depression survivors who now live a comfortable life in a white collar middle class Australia, holding on to their privilege with iron fists. 

I will say, however, the use of the Collarts students as supernumeraries was powerful perfection with their pantaloons and spears, watching, waiting, looming... Oh, and big props to Gow for not letting Meg (Cait Spiker) take the easy, expected route! That is, perhaps, his one overt nod to a more modern feminist aesthetic and I loved it even as I sat on the edge of my seat expecting her to give in to Tom's pleas for sex, and it sets up Coral beautifully for her final moment with Roy.

Roy (Stephen Tall) and Coral (Linda Cookson) are an intriguing and odd couple. Having lost their son in the Vietnam war Coral becomes obsessed with Kim Novak and seems to be living out the story line of The Mirror Crack'd to cope with grief. I would have loved for Wright to have pushed the bread trail Gow left inferring her potential as a sexual predator. It would have brought an intriguing question about trauma or reward to Tom's (Rupert Bevan) story line and truly heightened the real play within the play in the second act. It would possibly have also brought some humanity to Roy's threats and anger towards Coral. We forgive all with his glorious aria in the final act though. 

Overall, I think this is a really strong production of Away and the second act is everything you want in theatre - cathartic, painful, sweet, sad, and fulfilling. It wouldn't take much to really lift this production to complete excellence. My recommendation would be a wind machine which starts blowing slowly from New Year's Eve until the raging storm at the end of the first half. As the wind blows the layers of the past (costuming) could be swept away. I can't help thinking how powerful this would read for the Gwen storyline in the second half with all of those habits and rules which are her safety net having been blown away. This kind of subtextual detail is perhaps what I miss most in the first half of the play. 

The wind machine would also have the added benefit of blowing away all of that redundant haze and the smell of the herbal cigarettes... Ben Hughes' lighting is functional but lacked a bit of punch. It was probably hard to get definition with a set so ashen though. Rachel Lewindon's sound and composition was powerful and potent but I think the storm needed to grow, not just appear at the end of the first half. Winds of change and all that sort of thing... There is such a strong overlay of Shakespeare you can afford to bring in old theatrical technologies and it will work much better than more modern techniques like the haze.

As you can tell by what I have written, Wright's Away is an intriguing production and a wonderful example of the kinds of choices every production of every play has to make. The script is all potential, the production is all applied art. In this tension comes the magic and the conversations which follow. Context, meaning, emphasis... What better way is there to study VCE drama?

It has also been quite delightful to see Away, a very early Australian post-dramatic text, juxtaposed with When The Rain Stops Falling earlier in the Theatre Works 2023 season. Both plays share a lot in common in style and structure and level of interpersonal investigaton. You can easily follow the lineage from Gow 1986 to Andrew Bovell 2008 and to look at their plays reveals a lot about Australia in the intervening time frame.

4 Stars