Author: Kate Foy

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Review: Escape From the Breakup Forest – The Mixtape Collective at Empire Theatre Studio

Watching the latest offering from the Empire Theatre’s Homegrown Season I was struck by the many similarities in subject matter, style and tone between it and boy girl wall, the escapists’ smash currently touring nationally. As the blurb for Steve Pirie‘s Escape from the Breakup Forest has it: ‘Boy meets girl. Girl leaves boy. Boy meets puppet.’ boy girl wall is also a comedy about a young man suffering the pangs of love while coping with an awful, problem-filled life. And then there are the puppets.

Look a bit closer and you’ll see a gallery of memorable bit-player characters, grotesques who serve as comic butts. There’s an unmissable satirical thread too, and both are filled with smartly-turned comic dialogue accompanied by jokey asides and witty pop culture references. As to playing style, the episodic nature of the play results in non-stop action and an energetic, physical performance from everyone on stage. The spotlight is firmly on the actors and their performance skills.

The plots are nothing alike, of course. This from the program notes for Escape from the Breakup Forest:

Josh has been with his first love for almost five years. On the eve of their anniversary Emma has decided that she wants to leave. She won’t say why. She won’t say whose fault it is. She just says goodbye.

All of a sudden Josh’s world becomes a whole lot smaller. Dinnertime becomes eating cereal on the floor. Work becomes a daily challenge to not punch people in the face. And the hollow feeling in his chest that was Emma’s parting gift just won’t go away.

One morning, Josh awakes in the Breakup Forest – a magical, mysterious place where the terminally dumped are sent until they can piece together the past and move on. Emerging from the forest is his hand puppet spirit guide, Curly. Together, the two must undertake an epic journey through the darkness of the forest to confront Josh’s demons, insecurities and fears.

Will they uncover the reason Emma left? Can Josh get over it? And more importantly, can he get over himself?

Despite any influences or surface similarities to boy girl wall, Escape … quickly establishes itself as a refreshing addition in its own right to the slew of new work being produced in Queensland’s very healthy independent theatre scene. It also marks the arrival of a new ensemble of performers: Steve Pirie, Ell Sachs, and Dan Stewart. Under the direction of Claire Christian and Ari Palani, they are in excellent form for the 90 minutes of  laughs, surprises and theatrical delights that is Escape From the Breakup Forest.

We follow our charming hero Josh (Steve Pirie) through school days, first love  (Ell Sachs) and the joys of the coupled life to break-up and break-down in a life that contains pop music to suit every occasion. The mood gets a little more serious on Josh’s testing ground – the forest where he awakes, and it’s here that the play moves from domesticity into fantasy.

Deep in the forest our hero must face and slay his inner demons in order to be healed and move on. Cue the entrance of some of the characters from his past and the start of the ‘buddy relationship’ with a delightful red puppet Curly (Dan Stewart). Curly, a former Olympian now turned spirit guide bonds with Josh on his quest for enlightenment. Sound improbable? Well, it is a hero quest in a magic forest, after all. Charlie Brown meets Dr Seuss with a pop music soundtrack.

Escape … is splendidly performed by the trio. Ms Sachs in particular is a delight with her gallery of marvellously observed caricatures. The Mixtape Collective have a palpable hit on their hands with this one.

The trio of actors along with co-directors Claire Christian and Ari Palani have a hit on their hands with this one.

It looks great – the monochromatic black and white set, props and costume designs are rendered in cartoon style with beautifully drawn stick figures, while projected slides of text and sketches complement the live action. The production’s minimalist design is not only visually charming but also wonderfully effective in enabling slick scene changes using various configurations of white cubes, efficient prop handling and quick costume changes. The three actors don’t miss a crisp beat in their transformation from action to direct audience address. They move, sing, dance and generally appear to be having as much fun as we are.

The script could tighten up a bit – I thought the ‘Chapter’ treating Josh’s schooldays was a bit long. In fact, about 20 minutes in I wondered whether the show was aimed at a younger demographic – another play about self-esteem for the high-school, perhaps? It moves on into grown-up land once  Josh leaves school, gets into a relationship, goes to work, breaks up etc., etc. If, at times, the script feels somewhat unsophisticated – jocks and sluts do make for obvious laughs after all – and if the epilogue gets a were bit sentimental for my taste, the production more than makes up for it.

At heart, Escape From the Breakup Forest is sweet and funny, and provides terrific opportunities for its actors to work their magic, and work it they do with gusto.

Despite its child-like appearance and emphasis on play, the work is sophisticated in theme, direction, and execution

Any deficiencies in the script are more than made up in this excellent production. I hope this show gets a chance to sprinkle some more joy around in a remount production.

This production is another in the 2012 Homegrown Series from the Empire Theatre Projects Company. With these new works, the emphasis is on the local, giving artists and creatives in the region a chance to develop their work. So far, the series has produced some real winners. If you are in Toowoomba on Friday or Saturday, do get along to the Empire for a 7pm start.

By the way, as wonderful as they are, I wonder whether it’s time for a moratorium on hand puppets. Just putting it out there …

You can follow the Empire Theatre and keep up with the latest on their Facebook Page.

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Towards Diversity: La Boite Unlocked – 2

Along with David Berthold (Artistic Director La Boite Theatre) and Jo Pratt (BEMAC) I was part of the provocateur triumvirate at last night’s La Boite Unlocked series. After the Q&A at the end of what was a very relaxed, thoughtful hour and a half, someone asked if our talks would be made available. Here, with a few tweaks, is what I had to say. I followed David’s talk which you can find on his blog Carving in Snow. There were, of course, a few ad-libs and diversions along the way which inevitably happens as one speaks. This is the gist of it, though.

Image: Greenroom

Towards Diversity

The title of tonight’s session is telling – towards diversity. The towards part. I’m going to have to use a much overworked metaphor – the idea of a journey towards something – or maybe journeys because, if we’re talking about diversity, then there isn’t just one road. For women, the journey is part of a process that started about 2000 years ago, and it’s one that meanders off the beaten track from time to time, and starts and stops intermittently.

To put things into some kind of perspective, it was really only about 150 years ago that the first blips on western culture’s historical timeline marked the coming to legislation of various women’s rights issues. They’d been a long time coming – are still coming – and the journey to equality for women as part of the wider civil rights movement (as David mentioned) has been one of the great political challenges and civic engagements of the 20th century. As to fits and starts in a field closer to home – the theatre – a comment in the recent Australia Council Report on Women in Theatre (WIT) notes that about every 10 years or so someone asks ‘Where are the women?’ There is usually an explosion of outrage followed by a flurry of discussion and a gradual settling down into silence and inaction. Gains are lost in the one step forward, two steps back routine. Maybe creeping or stumbling towards diversity would be a better descriptor for the journeys we’re on. Continue reading “Towards Diversity: La Boite Unlocked – 2”

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Review: Chasing the Lollyman – Debase Productions with Artour Queensland – Empire Studio (Toowoomba)

As I sat in the near full Studio at the Empire a couple of nights ago, I was conscious of the fact that there were Murri audience members all around. Now, that doesn’t happen very often in Toowoomba. Why not is another question.

Why such a mixed audience was there on a cold night on a Thursday was because deBase’s production of Chasing the Lollyman was in town. The play, which had its first production in Brisbane in 2010, is currently on tour through the auspices of Artour Queensland. It was NAIDOC week and the only opportunity locals would get to see a play whose reputation has preceded it. It was, in fact, a perfect time to come together and spend an evening with Mark Sheppard one of the funniest stand-up comedians working today. Chasing the Lollyman is a very personal one-man show about identity, and grounded in the idea and power of family. Mr Sheppard’s story as a gay, Aboriginal man – a Muluridgi man from Mareeba, a small country town in far-north Queensland – unfolds over  75 minutes in a space framed by a perfectly-designed touring set – a series of poles decorated with indigenous-style motifs. They are actually boxes that contain items to accompany the stories he tells, either as symbols or costume pieces and props.

Mr Sheppard traces his background in a series of yarns, terrific contemporary-traditional dance pieces, song, and audience interaction – for once, the interaction part isn’t embarrassing. He kicks over a lot of barriers along the way, all without a trace of bitterness. He talks to us, with us – now a part of his ‘family’ – and, for me at least, gave permission to lose the guilt for a bit and laugh along with him at the really, really funny stories about his own family and the patronising liberal attitudes to indigenous Australians. Chasing the Lollyman‘s laughter and gentle approach mask generations of hurt and sadness, but they are never far from the surface, and why should they be?

I was unprepared for the powerful way the play’s humour, biting satire, and the personality of Mr Sheppard himself was able to work on us. God knows, many in the audience would have been aware of the cloud of white guilt that invariably hangs around any gathering dealing with the treatment of indigenous Australians present and past. It is a tribute to the writers (Sheppard co-devised with Liz Skitch) that these issues are never skirted but met head on. They are dealt with in that most powerful of ways – laughter. ‘Sit beside a Murri,’ he suggested at the show’s start, ‘and you’ll know when to laugh.’ Satire is deadly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z00tny9JF1g&feature=player_embedded

The most powerful part of the evening is reserved for the final 10 minutes where, for this very short time indeed, Mr Sheppard assumes the role of the first indigenous Prime Minister of Australia, and calls us into a collective dreaming of reconciled unity – as family. He invites us to imagine the potential this would have for every Australian. It is stunning in its theatrical power to imagine and rehearse an as-yet unfulfilled idea. You could have heard a pin drop.

Chasing the Lollyman is currently on tour throughout south-east Queensland. Check the website for details on where it is heading. If it plays in your town, see it.

It is also the second in the new Homegrown Series of independent works being produced and/or presented by the Empire Theatre Projects Company. The first was the Australian play Blackrock which played last month. Greenroom will be following and reviewing the remainder of these independent productions in the Studio Series.

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Yana Taylor (Interview 29)

I got to speak with Yana Taylor yesterday afternoon just after she had emerged from a tech session. As one of the performers (with Irving Gregory) Yana is also part of the team of collaborator-creators for version 1.0 (Version One Point Zero’s) production of The Disappearances Project which opens tonight in its Queensland premiere at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts. The company’s website acknowledges its ‘innovative political performance’ and (in a footnote) its work as ‘a cultural gift to the nation … .’

The company has been working on various ‘social-issue’ projects since its formation by David Williams in 1998. As to the form of their work Yana describes it as ‘socially-engaged documentary theatre. We create forms to reveal our relationship as artists with the spectators. It’s immersive for everyone involved.’

The Disappearances Project treats the topic of those left behind when someone goes missing. As we chat I learn that 35,000 people are reported as missing every year in Australia and, although the vast majority of these are found within a month or so, up to 2,000 are not located. It’s quite a staggering figure, one larger than the national road-toll. Yana notes, ‘Time is the thing that is at stake for everyone left behind. Lives have been transformed by that time – the moment of vanishing. The million close bonds and attachments to that moment often mean that those left behind have a sense of being frozen, of being in an ambiguous state. There was a perception that they should move on with their lives which, whilst they retain ‘an external social shape … are, nevertheless, transformed. There is a cascade of things that draw them back.’

The project was born out of a commissioned residency by the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre. Project 1.0 were asked to work with local artists in the creation of a topic that had relevance to the city. There had been high-profile cases of missing persons, and the received wisdom seemed to be that these high-profiles typified Bathurst. The company wanted to find out if that was true. Continue reading “Yana Taylor (Interview 29)”

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Review: Hairspray – Harvest Rain Theatre Company at Playhouse QPAC

Musical theatre – what some believe to be America’s great gift to the theatre – is as Ronald Harwood puts it, a meeting of realism and razzmatazz. Traditionally musicals have taken social issues and reworked them into a confection of story, song and dance. The musical Hairspray follows in this tradition. With book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music by Mark Shaiman with lyrics by Scott Whittman and Mark Shaiman, Hairspray is as sweet and light as a root-beer float, and positively dripping in nostalgia for a time that was, perhaps, not as carefree and breezy as the play might suggest.

We’re in 1962 Baltimore, MA. JFK’s the President – for another year or so, anyway – and the Civil Rights movement is gathering momentum. There are pockets of ignorant, outmoded white resistance to what will be a bright, new, integrated tomorrow in the USA. Kids who don’t fit – here black or ‘pleasantly plump’/fat – are figures of fun, bullied by various grotesque authority figures, and excluded by their peers. They long for acceptance, and dream of being part of the great American success story. But never fear, this is musical land and, by the play’s end, all’s right with the world.

No wonder Hairspray has been such a hit on screen (1988; 2007) and stage, (8 Tony Awards on Broadway) and why it’s currently the pinup musical for pro-am companies all over the country. It’s bright and colourful, the music is sweetly nostalgic, the sentiment uplifting and hopeful. It’s no Showboat or South Pacific or Rent any of the other great musicals that took burning social issues and thrust them in the audience’s face, but then, Hairspray doesn’t set out to. What we get is a larger than life – the words ‘fabulous’ and ‘fantastic’ spring to mind – technicolor rendition of a time we wish there might have been. Continue reading “Review: Hairspray – Harvest Rain Theatre Company at Playhouse QPAC”