Category: Reviews

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Review: Escape from the Breakup Forest – Mixtape Theatre Collective at Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts

Main Image: Simon Hall

I first saw this show in its infancy, at the USQ Arts Theatre in Toowoomba. It was a one-man job (well, one man and one puppet) created by Steven Pirie who was a first year theatre student at the time. It was raw, fun and silly, but most importantly, it was the seed that grew into the marvellous Escape from the Breakup Forest that made its Brisbane debut in the Shopfront of the Judith Wright Centre on Saturday night.

The show is now a three-hander and comes to us from the Mixtape Theatre Collective. Hailing from Toowoomba, Mixtape is proudly regional and relatively new. Read more about them here.

Directed by Claire Christian and Ari Palani, Steven Pirie is joined onstage by Dan Stewart and Ell Sachs, who play a host of minor characters and manipulate Curly the puppet with obvious joy and skill.  The plot is thus: Geeky teenage boy, Josh (Steven Pirie) meets quirky teenage girl, Emma (Ell Sachs). They fall in love and embark on a five-year relationship. Girl dumps boy for reasons unknown, boy collapses into an abyss of self-loathing and all-encompassing hatred for three years. One morning at the end of the third year he wakes up in a fantasy forest, ‘the breakup forest,’ and must embark on a quest to escape (whilst also overcoming his loss), with the assistance of a puppet spirit guide, Curly (Dan Stewart). Continue reading “Review: Escape from the Breakup Forest – Mixtape Theatre Collective at Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts”

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Review: End of the Rainbow – Queensland Theatre Company and QPAC at the Playhouse

Image (supplied QTC): Christen O’Leary

At the time Judy Garland was destroying herself behind closed doors and on stage at Talk of the Town nightclub during her last concert season I also happened to be in London.

It was the winter of 1968-69 and I remembered seeing snow then for the first time. I didn’t, however, see any of Ms Garland’s shows during that 5 week season not only because I couldn’t afford it, but also because I wasn’t interested. Judy Garland was somewhat passé, known less for her artistry and more for the sad scandals that continued to plague her life – a bit of an embarrassment, really and old, after all.

I remembered hearing about her death in 1969 and, although finding it sad, was not surprised. At the time of her death aged 47 – what I had thought of as old – she was already iconic but the legend that was ‘Garland’ – the tragic, self-destructive artist – continued to grow after death. It was via the legend that I got to know about Judy Garland and heard her songs and saw her movies and watched black and white documentaries of her performing solo and with daughters Liza and Lorna and then Liza talking about ‘Mumma.’

Then, along comes Peter Quilter‘s semi biographical play with music End of the Rainbow in a co-production by Queensland Theatre Company and QPAC. First produced in Sydney in 2005 and subsequently world-wide, this big, new production directed by David Bell focusses on the last seven months of Judy Garland’s private life – that time we ‘shared’ London – she in a suite at the Ritz Hotel, me in a basement bedsit in Shepherd’s Bush. Continue reading “Review: End of the Rainbow – Queensland Theatre Company and QPAC at the Playhouse”

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Review: Holding the Man – La Boite Theatre at the Roundhouse

Main Image: Jerome Meyer and Alec Snow. All images by Al Caeiro

I confess to loving a good play title; it can occupy a fruitful seminar for ages – that’s the recovering academic in me talking.

I’m also very fond of theatricalism in design and execution – the challenge and frisson created when it bumps up against realism in a production and, as it pulls naturalistic acting into its embrace, gets to be over the top and obvious, understated and true. Sometimes you can be wrong-footed but the dance is always enjoyable. And so, on opening night of La Boite’s latest Season 2013 offering Holding the Man by Tommy Murphy and directed by David Berthold, I found a lot to like.

Mr Murphy’s much-admired play has a new production by Mr Berthold who has directed it previously to great acclaim: at Griffin Theatre and the Opera House in Sydney (2006) and subsequently in Melbourne, the Brisbane Powerhouse and in London (2010). This was my first time. The play has been adapted from the late Timothy Conigrave‘s biography of the same name. It is also unknown to me though it’s gone to the top of the must-read list. I want to hear more of the singular voice of Conigrave who, in the play at least, is not the most likeable of characters but certainly a most compelling, and isn’t that the way with so many of the best roles going?

Alec Snow_Holding the Man_Image by Al Caeiro
Alec Snow

Alec Snow, making his professional debut at La Boite, is cast as the man who is held by John Caleo (Jerome Meyer) the light to his dark, the chalk to his cheese, the athlete to his artist. Mr Meyer is also making his first professional appearance in this production. And here’s where the play’s title is food for thought. ‘Holding the man’ is a term taken from AFL football – it defines a transgression that incurs a penalty. Conigrave the actor and Caleo the footballer (and Essendon fan) were lovers. The many personal and societal transgressions that accompany the lives of the protagonists from childhood through adulthood provide the narrative with its subject matter and tension. Continue reading “Review: Holding the Man – La Boite Theatre at the Roundhouse”

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Review: cloudCUCKOOland – heartbeast Vicious Theatre at Trinity Hall

A karaoke musical based on Aristophanes’ The Birds entitled cloudCUCKOOland? I don’t really know what I expected.

Stepping out of a rainy night into the beautiful Trinity Hall in The Valley, packed for opening night of this original work, I was excited – as we know, I love a musical. Unlike any of the dodgy joints where my girlfriends have deigned to grab the mic and give Madonna’s Borderline a good flogging, this glittering karaoke bar was shiny and new, complete with slick barman and posh drinks. cloudCUCKOOland was written by Michael Beh (the company’s artistic directed) and co-directed with Michelle Carey who also plays Stevie in the show. It is heartBeast’s eighth show. Continue reading “Review: cloudCUCKOOland – heartbeast Vicious Theatre at Trinity Hall”

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Review: The Pitch and The China Incident – Queensland Theatre Company at QPAC Cremorne

Image: Queensland Theatre Company

Sometimes you see a production that so beautifully pulls form and content together that it becomes the perfect icing on a delicious cake. This is the way I feel about Queensland Theatre Company’s first for the 2013 Season, a double-bill by Peter Houghton: The Pitch (directed by Catarina Hebbard) and The China Incident (directed by Daniel Evans).

Both plays are about role-playing. To hit their marks both require actors of imagination with a mastery and control of stagecraft – the key ingredients for great role-playing. Both plays are monodramas – extended monologues – requiring stamina and all the power of concentration their cast can muster. The one-person play is the supreme test for the actor; the risks are high but the rewards marvellous if it all works. Fortunately and marvellously for us Barbara Lowing and Hugh Parker fit the bill and their roles like a glove.

Two characters Bea Pontivec (Ms Lowing) and Walter Weinermann (Mr Parker) are under pressure: he’s a writer preparing to pitch a new movie to potential producers; she’s a high-level, political PR consultant jockeying clients and a family wedding. Their respective clocks are ticking – Walter’s got an hour to get his movie together; she to wrangle a genocidal African general, the President of the US, the UN, her in-laws, stroppy daughter and …. you get the idea?

Continue reading “Review: The Pitch and The China Incident – Queensland Theatre Company at QPAC Cremorne”