Best Production - The Method Gun (The Rude Mechanics) Best Play -La Voix Humaine (Motherboard Productions/La Boite Indie) Best Professional Work -The Method Gun (The Rude Mechanics) Best Independent Work -Knee Deep (Casus) Best Student Work - The Country (SUDs/Festival of Australian Student Theatre)
Best Recording/Album - Passion (Stephen Sondheim) Best Instrumental - And I Will Kiss (Underworld) Best Soundtrack -Moon (Clint Mansell) Best Live Artist - Warmwaters (Warmwaters/Room60) [?]
EVERYTHING ELSE
Best Day of the Year - November 9th Best Word - Ineffable
Best Exhibit - Cross Stitch (MetroArts) Best Movie -The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki (Mamoru Hosoda) Best Event -A Tribute of Sorts Opening Night (Monsters Appear/La Boite Indie) Best Book/Text -The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern) Best Game -Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet)
THEATRE COUNT
72 (includes repeated viewings, not including productions operated/performed in)
The Orphan of Zhao promotional artwork (Source: Royal Shakespeare Company).
About three years ago I read Arthur
Murphy’s The Orphan of China, and
since being taken by the story I’d dreamt of seeing it on stage. My dream came
true this week when my Dad and I took a roadtrip to Stratford-upon-Avon to see
James Fenton’s new adaptation The Orphan
of Zhao. Presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company under the direction of
Gregory Doran, the new production is a sumptuous and vibrant staging of an
extremely compelling, epic story, performed by an exquisite ensemble of actors.
The play is often compared to Hamlet due to its epic narrative – the
real parallel can be found in the theme of revenge. Following an elaborately
staged shaming by The Emperor’s usurping minister Tu’an Gu, the disgraced
Minister Zhao’s entire clan is annihilated from history with the exception of
his wife, the daughter of The Emperor. Matter are complicated further since the princess is pregnant, and when she gives birth Cheng Ying, a doctor, rescues Zhao’s son
by sacrificing his own child to ensure the Zhao line can live on, and so that
the Zhao clan one day can seek out their revenge. Although it loses a bit of
momentum in the second act, the piece is extremely compelling work. There has
been a lot of churlish bitching about this behind this production before it
even began, which has viciously attacked RSC for only casting three Asian
actors in this production. It’s very clear that rather than adhere to a
gimmick, attempting to present an austere and gruelingly traditional staging of
the text, race has been cast aside as a casting criteria and only the best,
most talented actors into their respective roles.
Joe Dixon as Tu'an Gu (Source: Royal Shakespeare Company)
On that note, the ensemble cast are easily
the strongest I’ve ever seen on stage, with multi-talented seventeen
performers handling puppetry, voice acting, and movement all while managing
to navigate around the theatre and entirely engross the audience. The
ensemble are well used and all have a moment which shows exceptional talent,
including mimicking the cries of a baby, bringing a ferocious dog to life, and
executing precise choreography and stagecraft to evoke assassinations and duels.
There are a few stand-outs due to their significant roles, where Jake
Fairbrother’s pure and serene Cheng Bo is slightly effeminate but somehow
beautifully other-worldy, and Graham Turner’s unwavering sense of duty as Cheng
Ying also communicates his suffering in every line he speaks. Joe Dixon steals
the stage and is a phenomenal highlight as antagonist Tu’an Gu – his portrayal
of the character is unlike anything I expected from the role, while being
calculated and virile, but also managing to be wickedly comical where
appropriate.
Paul Englishby’s score is beautifully
appropriate, with many soft passages presented with subtle Chinese rifts and
flavors with the live orchestra mixed with some authentic instrumentation. This
adaptation also included translations of the original songs, which I had not
heard before and was very surprised (and glad) to hear. Niki Turner’s design is
gorgeous, including a simplistic but striking architecture based set which allow
actors to travel into and through the audience to fill out the entire theatre,
and beautiful and authentic period costume designs.
The piece is everything I hoped it would be
and more. Fenton’s new adaptation and Doran’s vision to the piece is an utter
revelation to the original English translation. This epic is brought to life
through an incredible cast, surrounded in a beautiful design with wonderful
live music. It’s regrettable that the production has been attacked for a
trivial matter of casting, since this production is oozing with talent and is
easily one of the most gripping pieces I’ve seen perhaps not just this year,
but in my life. I feel so lucky to have seen this piece, and wish I could see
it again.
Tickets for Royal Shakespeare Company's The Orphan of Zhao are £16 - £38, and is showing at Swan Theatre until March 28th. Duration of approximately 110 minutes. Book by visiting Royal Shakespeare Company's website.
Throughout this year I've been working like a bitch on a number of shows. I've worked in community theatre, student productions, and professional and independent theatre. I've volunteed hundreds of hours for projects I've loved and been paid a little for others, and I've also given my time to ushering, facilitating, and teaching for many different organisations. I've also blogged for two professional theatre festivals and enjoyed blogging, either by invitation or just to share my thoughts on theatre, and supported a number of shows and collectives financially through Pozible and another fund raising schemes (buying lots of fund-raising chocolates . . !). So here is a comprehensive list and explanation of what I've been in - bring on 2013!
Sweeney Todd.
The first of show of the year had actually started rehearsals at the end of November of 2011. I was involved in my first musical, Ignatians Musical Society's Sweeney Toddwhere I was a chorus member among a cast of over 30. Although I was going to skip my audition, I ended up being offered a place in the ensemble and as a result spent over 400 hours in rehearsal, with included rigorous vocal rehearsals and exhausting all day rehearsals every weekend up until the show day. The show opened on March 21st and ran 18 performances until April 13th, and was my first time I had sung in front of a paying audience. I got to be creep around, wear a delightfully/dreafully tacky looking beard, get my throat slit, sing my favourite lines and run around the stage like a lunatic. Simply awesome, and if Ignatians stages any other Sondheim pieces, I'll be there (or if Passion comes up, watching the show and weeping gently every evening).
Of Little Matter.
Simultaneous with Sweeney, I was also involved in two other projects. One of which was helping Sarah Winter realise her incredible concept for a floating feast through her PhD studies. We had a week in February of trial and error, brainstorming, and realising things that were out of an enchanting dream. The project went on to become a dinner with gravity, which had a two week run at La Boite Indie across the 28th of June til the 8th of July later in the year. The other project was the first Vena Cava Production's show of the year, Of Little Matter, which had rehearsals through February and March and performed from March 26th - 31st. Under the direction of David Morton the show is one of the first of it's kind, a show with an ensemble of actors who helped bring a story to life by animating characters exclusively with their hands. Despite not being able to dedicate myself fully to the project, I was the composer and sound designer on the show, a couple of pieces being some of my favourite things I've written this year. Although I'm no longer involved with the project, it went on to do a creative development at Brisbane Powerhouse in November this year, and with it's potential it's not going to stop there. I also spent a lot of time during late February as a featured blogger in Brisbane Powerhouse's World Theatre Festival, where I saw A Spectacular of Sorts, the prelude to a very special show I would be later working on in October.
a dinner with gravity.
The next saga I got involved in was Copstitutes! Professional Lovers, Amateur Detectives! Concieved, written, directed and also partly acted by Nicholas K Watson, this piece had its read through in April before entering a very vague rehearsal process in May, where in performed May 25th for one performance, with an oversold audience that flowed out of The Studio. We reunited for another special showing after we were selected as a wildcard contestant in August for Short + Sweet. We had a good performance on the 18th, but were unsuccessful going any further (not really a surprise to us, though). During the entire Copstitutes process I was also writing reviews for productions in Anywhere Theatre Festival, a cute little emerging festival which aims to solve the issue of having independent theatre presented in a theatre by having them present anywhere - cafés, parks, roads etc. Earlier in May we were also working on our Production 2 show, Performing, Seriously! which was facilitated by Benjamin Schostakowski and had one performance on the 30th (we got a very high mark for it!).
June and July rolled by with a dinner with gravity (which had a sell out season)and I also joined onto Vena Cava's third production of the year, Iphigenia 2.0,which was directed by Dave Sleswick. I was sound designer, composer and operator for the show, which was an adaptation of the original text Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides by Charles Mee. The new text is a vicious attack on consumerism and the evils of war, and the season ran from July 30th until August 3rd. After having fun with Copstitutes again, I hopped straight into doing sound design for David Stewart's honours piece, Cotton Pony. Following the unfortunate life of Ebony Zedler, the piece examined how far theatre could be taken before the audience renders it unacceptable. Despite its darker nature, the piece was very funny, and it was so much fun to be able to pick and choose any music I wanted without having to worry about copyright.
A Tribute of Sorts.
September (and later December) was the only month where I wasn't involved directly with a production, so I enjoyed seeing a lot of works at the Brisbane Festival. I did also volunteer the entire duration of the Festival of Australian Student Theatre (FAST) from the 7th-9th, which is a fantastic annual event which invites students from all over Australian to travel to Brisbane and present their work at La Boite's Roundhouse Theatre. In October I started work on two shows, one of which was my best friend's writing/directing debut for a piece in 2high Festival called Propagation. I was sound designer/operator, although I'm ashamed to say that it was never priority and I wish I could have worked on it more - it was a big success though, and a lot of people were very impressed by its one showing on the 10th of November. In October I also started to work as an assistant stage hand (read: moving things around behind the seasons as quietly and quickly as humanly possible like a bitch) on my favourite show of the year. A Spectacular of Sorts changed into A Tribute of Sorts, which was written and directed by Benjamin Schostakowski with Emily Curtin and Dash Kruck. The narrative revolves around cousins Ivan and Juniper Plank, who take it upon themselves to coordinate a grim but hilariously inappropriate homage to children who find death "a little too quickly". The show's season, which ran from October 25th until November 10th, was an absolute sell out and the best fun I've ever had on a show - as Lucas Stibbard said, I'm very "heart sore" to see it go, but hopefully it will have another life somewhere, someday . . . :0).
Cover of the Les Misérables highlights album (Source: Amazon).
Casting actors rather than singers in movie adaptations of musicals are always at best a necessary evil. Les Misérables has been one of the most anticipated musical adaptations of all time, and a lot of emphasis has been put on acting and pulling out emotion over singing. Unlike the usual filming process of recording tracks months before shooting begins, Tom Hooper's adaption of the world's second longest running musical featured actors singing in realtime on the set and then mixing an orchestra to suit the product after. Claims from the actors insinuate that this 'revolutionary' method allows more flexibility and emotion to be put into the singing, but the reality is that few manage to pull it off properly. Despite fantastic new orchestral arrangements and some wonderful chorus works, there is too much 'acting' in the singing, too many lacklustre singers and bad mixing really detract from what could have been an excellent recording - there are some great moments, however.
At the helm of the recording is Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, and he's just bad. He's acceptable on shorter passages and in songs that don't require such strenuous vocal demands, but star moments like 'Bring Him Home' and 'Soliloquy' are laden with dreadfully nasal vibrato it's unbearable, and he sounds like a squeaky puppy in phrases on 'One Day More' - he's also the worst contender for blubbering through lines and drawing out the emotion too much. Russell Crowe is awful - while no-one was expecting him to be Philip Quast, his gravely part-time rock voice is totally unsuitable as he lacks the vocal power that the role of Javert demands, but his timbre makes it sound as if just sounds like he is shouting as he clambers though 'Stars' and Suicide. It's remarkable how unmelodious his voice is, and shocking how amateur they both sound.
Elsewhere the cast are fine. Eddie Redmayne is surprisingly nice as Marius and Amanda Seyfried's voice is thin but lovely for a quiet Cosette, both are appropriately toned down for the movie but Seyfried is barely present on the recording. The same goes for Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter, who have the usual unremarkable vocal skills but communicate a good performance through the Thénardier characteristics. The two singers who have performed their respective roles on stage are less than stellar - Samantha Barks returns with her signature wooden-but-pleasent Éponine, as does Aaron Tviet as a passable-but-boring Enjolras who lacks any presence and authority since he sounds significantly demasculinized (look up David Thaxton for a good idea of how the role should sound). The star of the recording is Oscar touted Anne Hathaway as Fantine, who shreds 'I Dreamed a Dream' with ineffable passion and such conviction it's simply breathtaking. While she's not the definitive Fantine, her performance communicates an immensely impressive equilibrium which balances the harrowing anguish and pain of her character with a sensitive delivery of tone and melody.
The gimmick of having the singing live translates poorly from the screen to this recording, and while it's apparently a revelation when it comes to filming, it rarely works to add to the independent musical experience. There are some awful musical decisions such as in 'Castle on a Cloud', where The Grudge graces us with an appearance to cackle "COSETTTEEEE I LOVE YOU VERY MUCHHH" in our ear - it sounds absolutely terrifying out of context. On the other hand, the revised orchestral arrangements are incredibly vibrant, sumptuous and thrilling. Disregarding the vocals, 'Confrontation', 'Look Down' and 'The Final Battle' have never sounded so exciting, nor arrangements like 'In My Life', 'Red and Black' or 'Javert's Suicide' so luscious.
Regardless of both positive and negatives, the recording isn't the most pleasant listen because the mixing is, unfortunately and predictably, awful. The wonderful orchestra is captured perfectly but the recording is marred by the vocals, which are captured with only basic microphones. The result means that there is a lot of hissing and scuffs, with extraneous noises featuring, like people kicking furniture, scuffs of shoes, and over dramatic breathing and lipsmaking. It sounds as though there has been no processing or editing of the vocals - there's not even a basic reverb to unify the numerous tracks together, and it would have greatly improved their placement in the mix - it's very unprofessional and it's irritating to listen to.
There have been some revisions and rearranging to the lyrics, and while they don't do anything major like change the meanings of the song, they're also so minor it didn't really seem necessary (ie. In 'At The End of the Day' - "The winter is coming on fast . . ." becomes "The plague is coming on fast . . .". What's the point? Winter sounds more poetic anyway). 'Suddenly', the new song composed in a scramble to win the Oscar for Best Song, has the complexity of a Christmas carol and is totally unnecessary to the story (if anything, a song should have been written for Cosette). It's not really anything memorable, and I hope it never gets added to the stage show.
All that aside, there are highlights for the CD. Anne Hathaway's incredible rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' is the jewel of the album, and anything with the chorus included is wonderful - 'At The End of the Day' and 'Red and Black' are magnificent. 'The Final Battle' is riveting with the sheer grandeur of the orchestra, and for the sake of nostalgia 'One Day More' is fairly good. My absolute favourite track is the 'Epilogue' which, despite its imperfections, is a luminous adaptation which features an elegant and beautiful orchestra arrangement, thunderous chorus, and includes - finally - the Bishop in Valjean's final moments (I can't describe what that means to me).
All in all, I'm less miserable about the soundtrack than I thought I'd be. There are some awful performances from some of the most prominent actors including Jackman and Crowe, but there are some acceptable performances and Hathaway absolutely steals the show with her rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream', all backed by some glorious orchestration. While mixing is horrible and very amateur, when properly done the chorus shines, and there are a few great moments. This is also only the highlights album, so you can expect another deluxe collector's special Asian limited edition to come out featuring all the tracks at double the price. I'll probably buy that one too. All in all, if you're a fan of the musical then you'll be a sucker for this CD regardless. If you're a fan of the movie and love blindly following crazes, you'll probably like this too. If you enjoy singing rather than acting, perhaps not so much.
The 'Les Misérables' Highlights album is available worldwide December 25th, and is currently available on iTunes. Available on physical CD and digital download.
I found this in my drafts so I thought I might as well post it.
My thoughts on The Danger Ensemble's Children of War are about as messy as the piece itself. Performed by an impressive team of young actors, the piece is packed with potential and has moments of brilliance, but on a whole it's too ambitious. It tries to explore too many issues and agendas, the script doesn't allow focus on characters enough to develop a connection with them, and the design just isn't cohesive enough to cater for the entire production.
The actors are uniformly good, but none of them are really featured prominently since the cast is so big, and it feels like everyone is being given time in the spotlight but don't get enough to create a connection. Eva Rae Smith is magnificent as the tactical and graceful Iphigenia - she's also probably the only actor who can project properly - and Elle Mickel's performance of Polyxena was my favourite, as a cynical and ridiculously impractical character who has some of the best sassy lines. Hats off to Sam Barnett and Taryn Allen, who have a little bit of stage time, but then spend about an hour of stage time just looking blankly at projection screens.
Who are the characters talking to? It seems as though they're telling us a story, but there's no consistency in who we are in relation to them.
The issue with the show is that it tries to explore WAY too many things, and despite the show clocking in at a devestating 130 minutes, its exploration and comments are too basic to have any real impact. The piece is replete with xenophobic, self image and homosexual connotations (to name a few), but they're only lightly explored in one or two character, and since it cuts between eight different stories, focus is very quickly lost and facts are forgotten almost as quickly as they're thrown at you. The text demands the audience to have a lot of prior knowledge, and if
you don't have it, you feel really stupid. There is such a barrage of
information delivered in the first acts including who is who, but it wasn't until a second viewing that I could really follow who was who and what their agenda was. There's also so much contradiction, mostly found in Iphigenia. I like the smell of gasoline - maybe this is a dream and we're still on the airoplane (I don't know!). She wallows on about how she hates war and is against violence and hates being used as a device of her father. But then she turns out to be a suicide bomber, killing many of her peers. What exactly does that achieve? Where did that come from!?
The timeline is frustratingly hard to follow. The characters act like
children in the first half and then act like adults, although they are
still in school and are concerned about the formal. When did the War
start? They don't appear to have changed appearance or age since
Agamemmnon announced the beginning.
Visuals are the director's forte, but there are so many bizarre symbolic
portrayals in the piece and its quite esoteric. It seems like there's
initially symbolism to be found in the colour of hair. The cast half
have either blonde or brown hair; Helen has a mixture of both shades.
There's apparently no significance. I didn't know what 'It Get's Better'
was - and thought it was an integral part to understand Patroclus - but
it turns out it's just a minor detail. I feel like the only reason
Briseis walks around mouthing opera lyrics was so she could have some
more stage time, because it felt unnecessary and if you took it out, not much would change. One example is there is a small amount of grass 'beyond the wall', which
one actor enters into by running backstage and then emerging on to it
through a specific entrance. Okay, it's established that characters, who
haven't entered this space previously, can't enter this area of grass
unless they take the route back stage. Then, irritatingly, a bunch of
characters just step directly into it. It's little things like this that
drive the audience crazy, because it's irritating to see the characters
make rules in this universe and then break them almost immediately.
The media is okay, occasionally brilliant (the opening, the burning reveal of Iphigenia), occasionally looking like it was shot for ABC kids (Ascanius destroying Helen). I didn't understand the video footage of The Sims and custard being poured onto naked women. The music is big and powerful, industrial and gothic themed movements pop up all over the place, but its tie to the emotion and action of the piece is pretty shallow. The set design is frustratingly bare and not used very well throughout the piece. Initially,
it's presented as if it's a playground - there is a slide that does very
little, except obstruct part of the projections, and is used a grand
total of twice in the first act before it disappears completely.
There's also a swing which characters sit on, but it's unidentified where it actually sits in the world and what the significance of it is. It feels like there is a lot of potential and significance to be found in the playground theme, but it's not explored or utilised deeply enough.
Yes, there a moments of brilliance. The opening montage is propels your interest with the perfect mixture of video, sound and dialogue, there are some awesome lines ("History may not remember me, but I was fucking fabulous", or something similar), and a dress literally evaporates in front of your eyes. But it's not enough to save interest or provide anything compelling or engaging overall. A really ambitious project that is stretched too thin.
Last week I spent a bit of time up in London, and I wanted to share some happenings.
While we did eat out at a few different places, most of the food in London were delicious sandwiches from the eighty thousand supermarket chains, usually Tesco or Marks and Spensers. The best place that we came across was a place called Damson Café, which was a really lovely café on St Giles High St. The staff are super friendly without being annoyingly pandering and in addition to delicious coffee, tea and beer selection they serve some great unusual food. Dad and I both had an awesome larger which I've forgotten the name of, but we all had a bowl of the celeriac soup, which was awesome. My grandma tried a carrot cake which was also made with potato - I think I remember reading that potato helps to make the mixture denser and keeping it moister (hehe), and it tasted great. We were so impressed we went back for a after-breakfast coffee the next day, and I really hope it does well since it was such a nice place, and in terms of pricing compared to Australia it seemed very reasonably priced.
On the note of cakes though, I have to say that the vanilla baked cheesecake (the greatest of all cakes in the world) at Foyles (a staple visit for our family everytime we get to London) was incredible!! It was like a mixture between cheesecake deliciousness and the texture of a chiffon cupcake, impossibly light and very moreish. I want it every minute of my life - it was the most fuck-off incredible cake ever.
Panicking camel.
Dad and I stopped off at the British Museum to take a look at some of the new exhibits, the feature exhibit that we saw this time were the use of Chinese seals, and their significance and history throughout existence. I really enjoy Oriental artwork and the precision and craft of the works are exquisite. We also walked around and saw the usual Egyptian exhibits, which still amaze me that we're in the same room as something that's 3000 years old - and it's in such good shape. My favourite thing was an exhibit in the Asia region, where we found a perplexing statue of what looked like a distressed camel. Super talent, yo!
I didn't manage to see a lot of theatre, but there isn't much on in London that I was interested in seeing this time. I did manage to go and see In the Republic of Happiness at the Royal Court Theatre, which was really fascinating. I wrote about it at some length here, but the piece is a surreal discussion on the nature of happiness. I managed to run into David at the same performance! I insisted on trying to get a photo since I looked very spiffy and was wearing a tie, but the lighting wasn't so great and the photo turned out with no facial features, and I have no proof that I was actually there with him. The play was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the music so much I went ahead and ordered a CD of songs from the show. I was going to try and see Uncle Vanya the next night but instead I got caught up buying some new business shirts (to go with my skinnys. Hah. Viva la revolution). When we get back to London next month we're going to see Cirque du Soleil's Kooza (a marginally better production than Ovo), and hopefully another piece (Slava's Snow Show?).
We also went to a lot of music events and concerts. We went to see the London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican Theatre play the sixth and seventh symphonies by Sibelius, which also included his violin concerto performed with Leonidas Kavakos. The music was striking, very emotive and interesting but I was almost screaming at how tired I was and it was pretty distressing to be sitting down in a cramped position for so long. Someone came up and told me that I was sitting in their seats and all I could do was wail at them until they realised they had the wrong row. On my Dad's birthday we went to a lunchtime concert at Wigmore Hall to see Barry Douglas play some pieces by Brahms. Although he played beautifully and with a lot of feeling, I found it really difficult to enjoy any of the pieces since I was so unfamiliar with them, which was a problem that I also had with an organ recital which we went to in St. Paul's Cathedral. I was glad to go in and see it, because it meant that we got to go into St. Paul's without paying and I'd never been inside, but I found it difficult to engage with.
At the 'conclusion' of Wigmore Hall recital, the audience applauded excessively and Douglas took three bows before sitting down and playing an encore. After which, people clapped while others left, which implies at these sorts of events people pretty much expect an encore, which makes me think that the whole practise is irrelevant and a bit of an oxymoron. In my rage I vowed to myself that if I ever help create a theatre collective/group/company/whatever, I would call it 'Bow Once Theatre', and we would only ever bow once. VIVA LA REVOLUTION.
Me, looking adorable.
While it's not exactly in London, my Mum and I took a trip to Leavesden, where is where the The Making of Harry Potter Tour at Warner Bros. Studio. Leavesden Studios was (were?) the principal shooting location for the Harry Potters films for over 10 different years, and now, after the incredibly hard task of managing to get to the studios - it took us about three hours to get there - you can now see the sets, costumes and props of the series up close and in their original arrangements. There are a few surprises to be experienced and there is a heap of information on how they manage to film and create certain scenes, including how Quidditch works, which effects are used to create spells, and explaining which scenes and scenery of the films are actually real or rendered. There's also a bunch of other fun things you can do, like walking through Privet Drive, Diagon Alley, and see a scaled down model of Hogwarts Castle. You can also try some 'authentic' Butterbeer, which was very nice but it was chilled, and on such a freezing day I would have preferred it hot (like mine). Although I fell out of love with the Harry Potter films, I used to love them like everyone I know, and I felt extremely nostlagic trotting around scenes from my childhood. Lots of things put me off the films to the extent that I didn't even bother seeing a few cinemas, like trashy hairstyles, bad acting, horrible plot cuts and generally being stupid - but regardless, I did really enjoy the tour overall. It's great value for Harry Potter fans, and you can take as long or short time to go around the studio as you like. Photo opportunities are such a novelty too!
I'm now down in Cardigan with my grandma, where we will celebrate Christmas, New Year and then her 90th birthday. It's a sleepy town, but very relaxing and the days are going surprisingly quickly.
Promotional artwork for In the Republic of Happiness. (Source: Royal Court Theatre)
Martin Crimp's new piece In the Republic of Happiness is a fascinating and surreal discussion on happiness, exploring what it is and what it has the potential to become. With a fantastic cast, inspired concept, and a score of unexpected songs, the play presents the audience with a play in three phrases - happiness as it is when influenced by environment, how people personally perceive their happiness, and how happiness is dictated by other people.
I should probably preface this with two things, one being the show was still in previews (though unlikely it will change much, as the script is already published and being sold in the lobby). The other being that I was heavily jelagged, and I'd gone to bed about 4pm the previous day, so seeing a show at 7:30pm that ran to 9:30pm was devastating.
Crimp's idiosyncratic writing style is exactly what you'd expect from his plays, with reoccurring motifs, actions and subjects being shared by characters in a script that makes even the most mundane phrase have a sense of significance behind, while it's also crammed full of striking phrases ("I suddenly appeared.", "It's more than that/It doesn't go deep enough.", "I don't think you understand how happy you are."). Both are apparent in the premise of the piece, a slice of life realism and naturalism which quickly descends into the surreal when a bland Christmas dinner becomes propelled by uncomfortable and cracking tension through the arrival of the estranged uncle.
The ensemble during one of the brilliant musical breakdowns
(Source: The Independent).
The second section abruptly segues the petite house into a sterile talk-show setting, and has the characters transform into representations of their respective age brackets - there's the young, old, middle aged, and 'about 30' year old personalities. Their commentary on achieving the five foundations of happiness is (obviously) reflective of the postmodern zeitgeist, and influenced by politics it's packed with consumerism and self satisfaction. Although the segment eventually loses momentum due to the barrage of repetitive political statements of freedom and happiness, it's a dazzling moment since it manages to be both profoundly uncomfortable but also an intriguing and somehow relatable experience. It's all topped off with bizarre karaoke interjections composed by Roald Van Oosten which are hilarious. The final segment returns to Uncle Bob and Madeleine in another sterile white room, which hints Bob being lost with dementia in a dystopian society. It's the quietest and most perplexing section in the production, and after the conclusion of 'The Happy Song' we're left in darkness to ponder what exactly there was to be happy about.
The ensemble cast, including Anna Calder-Marshall, Michelle Fielding, Seline Hizli, Ellie Kendrick, Stuart McQuarrie, and Peter Wight, are all just fantastic, perfectly portraying their characters in correlation to their age and political identities with . In particular, Paul Ready as the sinister Uncle Bob is so compelling to watch, and his appearance and presence totally flips the style and mood of the piece. Michelle Terry, playing his wife Madeline, is also just as stunning, furthering the disruption of balance on stage and pushing the family into a deeper level of distress - her sudden break into singing was just hilarious and I adored and wanted to watch the scene over and over again.
In the Republic of Happiness is an intriguing and compelling production which examines happiness in a way unlike I've ever seen before. It's not Crimp's strongest work in that, compared to Attempts on her Life or The Country, it didn't manage to engage me for the whole duration, most notably in the middle which seems to meander too long on too many political issues. However attention is maintained through the excellent songs, and the opening scene is Crimp's typically brilliant style of hybridised naturalism with surrealism with many intelligent and humorous lines, and the pensive and unsettling ending leaves a profound impact in that is just baffling. I still maintain that Crimp is one of Britain's best postmodern playwrights, and although it's not easy to sit through it some times I recommend this piece just as much as any other of his previous works. It's poetic, brooding and compelling, and will leave you considering it for days.
Tickets for Martin Crimp's In the Republic of Happiness are £10 - £28, and is showing at Royal Court Theatre until January 17th. Duration of approximately 110 minutes. Book by visiting Royal Court Theatre's Official Website.
World Theatre Festival Launch at Brisbane Powerhouse (Source: Facebook).
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the 2013 World Theatre Festival at Brisbane Powerhouse. In February next year, eight countries (Australia, Belgium, Iran, Ireland, Germany, Malaysia, UK and the USA) will be represented in the line-up of over 30 items over 11 days.
I've no knowledge of any of the theatre companies represented in the main program, and with not much to go off I'm not exactly feeling any urgency to see any of the productions. A lot of people murmured in approval when Gob Squad's Kitchen was announced, which will be a bizarre adaptation of Andy Warhol's film of the same name. A Doll House by Ireland's Pan Pan Collective is potentially a good choice, but given what a certain other company did with an Ibsen text this year, it's probably wise to approach this work with extreme caution. The festival staples such as the controversial stuff to make the audience feel challenged (The Economist by MKA) and the theatre of the oppressed (White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour) are also here. The one that really piqued my interest is The Last Supper by Reckless Sleepers. The collective, comprised of artists from the UK and Belgium, will present an intermedial dinner party where the audience join figures experiencing their last dinner. The final moments and sentiments of figures ranging from condemned prisoners to Beethoven will be represented.
What I'm most looking forward to is the Scratch program. Scratch gives creatives a chance to trial their work, simultaneously allowing them to develop their work, receive constructive feedback for the final product, and also make a much needed profit. While last year the program unfortunately included one of the worst things to appear at Brisbane Powerhouse ever (Disappearing Acts by Kelly Ryall & Martyn Coutts), it also featured some incredible gems including A Spectacular of Sorts and Murder. Those pieces that gleamed with potential and delivered so well - this time the lineup includes Horrendo's Curse by Imaginary Theatre will feature the wonderful Lucas Stibbard and Neridah Waters as their leading actors - I don't care if it's created for kids, I'll be there. Robert Davidson and Topology (the best thing about The Lady from the Sea), return with a new work that fuses together melodies with recorded voices of the worlds leading thinkers in a piece titled Nature/Nurture. Oedipus Schmoedipus by Post also looks like it could be a good one considering the company's history. The best thing about Scratch is that all the tickets are $10, so that's what I'll be attending most of the time in the festival.
There are also a couple in-conversations, workshops and music events to attend, many of which are free. The one that I'm dreaming most about is the in-conversation and four day masterclass with Richard Schechner, a renown theorist and practitoner who actually wrote a good number of text books that I've studied with. Unfortuantely the cost is extortionate for a student, and his talk has already filled up on reservations. I imagine it would certainly be a worthwhile and invaluable experience to do - if you can afford it!
It's a few months before the festival, but it was a great evening to preview what would be featured at Brisbane Powerhouse next February. I'm looking forward to attending many Scratch works and a few of the mainstage shows - onward and upward!
Brisbane Powerhouse's World Theatre Festival 2013 will be running from 13-24 February 2013. The complete program can be viewed online at the World Theatre Festival Official Website.
Last night I saw the #1,472,505th outcome of Some Dumb Play, which under the direction and creation of Nathan Sibthorpe, is currently showing at Metro Arts until this Saturday. The ambition and premise of the piece is absolutely phenomenal - the audience interact through a specially developed website that allows them to pick three options, with the most popular choice being taken and performed by the cast. There are over 1.5 million possible outcomes, and every night you see it you're practically guaranteed a different performance. I love audience interaction and think it's the most effective way of getting an audience engaged with your performance, so giving the audience a say in what goes on onstage is a fantastic initiative.
All the actors are very good, extremely proficient at improvising with such ecstatic energy. They're prepared for everything and anything, each exercising an expertise . The acting is pretty good for what little characters they have, in particular the two driving actors are Toby Martin playing a ridiculously devoted actor catering to the whims of the audience, and Cameron Clark's snarky behaviour attempting to boycott and ruin the entire endeavour.
The quality and substance of the scenes varies. The opening gives the audience a choice between cheating spouses, police cop drama and something else that no-one even considered. With the style established, the following choices allow the audience to pick the method of which the story is communicated. There's the choice of singing, dancing, kung-fu, nudity, and racist jokes - some scenes seemed to be just added in as gimmicks, such as a political 'satire' which took up a lot of time with sexual innuendo to simply tell the characters to go through a portal. While some scenes drag along and seem under prepared, a number of others are simply fantastic. There are high speed car chases, bizarre medical phenomenons and song and dance numbers. The most entertaining turn was an interpretative medi-drama dance to t.A.T.u's 'All The Things She Said' - it's a melodramatic moment which is hilariously good fun, and everyone applauded after. If the piece had been entirely filled with work like that, it would have been considerably more rewarding.
The problem I have with the show is its ambiguous story, and its seemingly pointless progression. During the transitions there are mumbles of how frustrating and irritating the scenes are to stage - gradually the show descends into chaos, although I didn't really understand why. I think I was looking down and voting at the turning point where you were supposed to pay attention, because the next thing I heard was an announcement that Law had been injured (but he looked fine) and was being replaced. The characters then stage walk-outs, swap roles and sabotage the performance. I just never understood why, and furthermore, who are these characters? I don't care if they're unhappy and want to stage a coup d'état because I don't even know why they're making this show. Someone told me the whole thing is an allusion to the degeneration of human interaction through the force of technology - that didn't come through at all?
Lighting was very minimal which was appropriate and effective, since it's difficult to cater for so many potential scenes and outcomes. The sound design is excruciating. The voting takes place over 90 second periods and each interval there is horribly loud white noise transmitted constantly - this is always immediately followed with a slightly less unpleasant crackling fire (no idea why). It actually hurts, someone needs to change that. The rest of the sound effects and music cues are miscellaneous stuff to quickly move the audience into the next scene.
This play would be pretty wretched if you didn't have a smart-phone. An elderly woman sat behind us, and approaching the end of the play sniggered various comments about the audience's choice. I couldn't control myself so near the end I gingerly said "Ah old people . . . not long now". But the fact she was so annoyed could probably be attributed to the fact she didn't have a smart phone, and was unable to have a say in what was going on - it sort of defeats the purpose of seeing the show.
I wanted to enjoy the piece a lot more than I did, but in the end it's a very bold endeavour and it's a stupid oversight to not be impressed by the sheer scale of the production. It was also very cheap and supporting emerging young artists is essential for our industry to survive, and the plethora of possible outcomes and scenes is absolutely worth experiencing once. However, I wouldn't recommend it if you didn't own a smart phone, since without a device you have no input and I imagine you'd be feel pretty left out. The weak writing of the actual story lets the piece down, but it's held together by great actors who can improvise exceptionally well, interesting concepts for scenes and the novelty of being able to impact on what's being performed. There's such a huge amount of dedication, energy and potential crammed into this piece, and it's worthwhile to be seen and experienced.
Tickets for Nathan Sibthorpe's Some Dumb Play are $12-$20, and is showing at Metro Arts Sue Brenner Theatre until November 17th. Duration of approximately 50 minutes. Book by visiting Metro Arts website.
Well, music is obviously a big part of my life and sharing
it is a pretty important thing for me. I wanted to share some thoughts of all
the songs that have meant a lot to me over this last year, with one for each
month from October 2011 to September 2012.
October
'The Broom/Scarlett Flying' by Cirque du Soleil from Iris.
Danny Elfman started composing the music for Iris in 2009, for the shows premiere in
2011. On average, composers for film take around 3 -4 months to complete a
score, and Elfman had 2 years. One of my favourite pieces of all time, ‘Scarlett
Flying’ is included on Iris.
This piece is important to me because the first time I heard
it was at a time in my life where everything was going right. I remember the
day I first heard the song (Tuesday 11th of October – I was on my way
into university to work on my Performance Innovation assignment), and
TaylorJeffs on CT announced that the entire Iris album was available for
streaming online. I jumped on the bus and eagerly loaded it up, and actually
started crying upon hearing the first few notes because I was so glad Cirque du
Soleil could still produce magic in their music.
"The most coruscating moment on the album is the exquisite and flawless 'The Broom/Flying Scarlett' arrangement. Beginning with a reprise of the opening tune shared delicately between woodwinds and a solo violin while strings flourish softly behind, the piece evolves into something utterly stunning. It provokes this incredible but practically indescribable emotion that resembles something like yearning. It's an ephemeral and achingly beautiful piano waltz paired with this forlorn, angelic voice which fragments and harmonies itself, and slowly layers with chimes and glockenspiels which leads into the striking, driving and powerful orchestra accompaniment. The arrangement is sweeping . . . I'm listening to this right now and I am covered in goosebumps - it's just so good. "
The piece is also now included on Le Best of Cirque du Soleil 2, which I'm very happy about.
November
'Downside Up' by Peter Gabriel from New Blood.
I’m not a Peter Gabriel fan in general, but ‘Downside Up’ is
a song I really fondly remember. Originally it was released on the album Ovo in 2000 (not the shitty Cirque du
Soleil one with ‘dodecaphonic melodies’, the soundtrack to the show from the
show at the Millennium Stadium). The rendition there is nice, but really
heavily synthesised and with mixing that’s a bit boring. While it’s an okay listen
it’s not compelling or uplifting. The new version is subtle and mellow to begin
with, but the chorus introduces an entire symphony that evokes a visceral and
celebratory atmosphere, with a melange of fluttering strings and woodwinds
which sound regal and wood-nymphesque.
This version was released in November 2011 on his album New Blood, and is a re-imagined
rendition that is performed entirely on orchestra, with new vocals featuring
Peter Gabriel and his daughter Melanie Gabriel. At this time, we were just
about to open for our Production One performance, The After Dinner Joke. In
between rehearsals I busted out this song almost all the time, and I still find
listening to the chorus to be an elating way to spend my time . . !
December
'Musique Pour Gabrielle' by Jorane from 16mm.
I’d known about Jorane since 2007, when I saw her first
perform on a Cirque du Soleil DVD (Soleil de Minuit), and was really taken by
the piece she performed. Like most performances Cirque do, they’re not particularly
good at crediting who does what and what the songs are actually called, so she
fell of my radar pretty much entirely until last year. Her new EP, Une Sorcière Commes les Autres, was
released last year, and it came recommended to me after I bought another Cirque
CD (hurr).
‘Musique Pour Gabrielle’, which was originally released on
her album 16mm, is no exception. It’s
a quirky, feel good piece that has an eclectic mix of instruments and moods. It
starts off very brightly and later moves into a closing phrase that features
some of the most gorgeous and earnest cello music that I’ve ever heard. It
evokes feelings of wanderlust and homesickness simultaneously, and I love the
filmclip because it just shows ordinary people smiling, doing the jobs, dancing
at home . . . it makes me feel very nostalgic.
After the La Boite 2012 Season Launch, I walked around the
city about 3am. I had a lot to think about and I wasn’t sure what to do with
myself, so I just walked and listened to this album. The following morning, I
went to the GOMA, and this song played while I sat in the atrium, looking out a
huge glass window onto the river – I realised I’d come a very long way since
the start of the year. While the launch was in October, I started planning
ahead for Of Little Matter in December,
and that’s’ where the piece (and a lot of Jorane’s music) came to be a huge
influence in my style of composing. I hope one day I’m able to write music that
moves other people in a similar way.
January
'En Plein Face' by Harmonium from Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison.
I got introduced to Harmonium through Jorane – after enjoyed
The You and the Now so much, I went ahead and picked up Une Sorcière Commes les Autres and discovered that all the songs
were covers of French Candaian songs. I particularly enjoyed the cover of ‘En
Pleine Face’, which I found was originally buy a folk group called Harmonium
(in English the title literally manes “In Your Face”).
The piece, included on one of the bands only EPs Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison, is very
gentle because evolving into a somewhat hypnotic and inspiring ballad, and then
transforming to something that seems to represent some pleading disappointment
– very difficult to describe, and it’s hard to grasp, especially as the song is
in French. The band, especially in the closing moments of the song, sound very
much like the Beatles.
I alternated between listening to the original and Jorane’s
cover. I ended up including this one as I thought it’d be boring to list the
same artist twice, though I do like both versions, and both have their
advantages over the other. I just like the song because it’s so easy to sing
and it’s so memorable – I remember singing it a lot during a dinner with gravity, and one evening I ran into Liesel Zink who
laughed and complimented my singing skills in French. Winner.
February
'Sunday' by Stephen Sondheim from Sunday in the Park With George.
Sondheim’s ‘Sunday’ is far from anything like “an ordinary
Sunday”. For some reason I had avoided Sunday
in the Park with George for a long time because it just hadn’t appealed to
me, but during one rehearsal of Sweeney Todd, Sarah recommended I give it a
listen and showed me ‘Sunday’. Even then, it took me a few weeks to get into
it, but once I did I was so glad I’d found it. I ordered the CD and when I
received it I really enjoyed a few songs (‘Sunday’ the most), although the
score is really difficult to engage with initially.
In the musical, the song is performed at the end of Act One,
and is then reprise at the end of Act Two to close the show. It is probably
Sondheim’s strongest ensemble piece, holding a hauntingly beautiful melody that
utilizes the entire ensemble of the show – the version below is from the 2010
Proms. The delivery is stunning, with a huge orchestra and choir which conveys
the grandeur and rich texture of the score.
Thematically the song’s lyrics discuss the observations of
idyllic surroundings, suggesting the simplicity of life can supply even the
most beautiful and inspiring art in the eye of the beholder. As someone who
wants to create art, I find that message very special and important.
March
'Losing My Mind' by Laura Michelle Kelly from The Storm Inside.
Oh, to be young and incredibly good-looking. A very cute and
vastly different adaptation to Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Losing My Mind’. Originally
it’s a heartbreaking ballad about the uncertainty about the perception of love,
but here it’s just something you can bop your head to. I can easily see it in some
kind of romantic comedy movie, starring Zooey Deschanel doing various
sad-single women things – like doing her hair, diving under covers, eating
ice-cream all while simultaneously wailing irrationally.
I’m a director.
Just something to relate a little crush too. :0)
April
'The Vegemite Song (The Black Death)' by Amanda Palmer from Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under.
Fond conversations with Steven Mitchell Wright drew me back
to this one. How could this not be on anyone’s list? Perfectly surmises my
thoughts on the subject and I usually redirect people to it when asked for my
opinion.
May
'Libertango' by The Swingle Singers from Too Cubed.
We had been working with Ben Schostakowski in a university
unit called Production 2, where we devised a work of theatre under supervision
and guidance of an industry professional. We used Ben’s starting point,
eisteddfods, to create a work that was a satire on the preparation and process
of children competing at eisteddfods.
We were fairly up in the air about what we wanted to focus
on, and Ben suggested that we bring some music into the room to add some
inspiration. We found this track by the Swingle Singers that unintentionally
embodies the entire vibe that we wanted for the production – a melodramatic and
over the top creation that regardless of how intense characters were, the
ending result is something ridiculous.
I’ve been a fan of Piazola’s music since I heard an
interpretation of ‘Libertango’ on bond’s album Shine. The piece is somehow quite romantic, sort of hypnotic with
its repetitive descending passages and carries a sense of allure. The vocals of The Swingle Singers, who provide everything and use nothing beyond their
voices, adds a complexity and grandeur to the work, and added in the Glee vibe that we were trying to create
. Tom and I still bust this one out every now and then.
June
'Rainbow High' by Andrew Lloyd Webber from Evita Broadway Revival Cast Recording.
I had actually bought a copy of Evita in 2010, entirely based on the fact that Philip Quast played
Juan Peron in the 2006 version. I didn’t think much of it, and I found the
music to be pretty unpleasant and the instrumentation to be pretty week. I left
it alone for about 2 years until I somehow got very enthused about it in May
this year. As it turned out, Evita
was currently being revived on Broadway and a new recording came out in June.
The new recording got me enthused about the entire score
(probably due to fact that it’s a complete recording) -I'm crazy about Elena Roger, who is perfect in
the title role of the trashy and calculated actress who clawed her way to the
top and seduced a nation. Her voice has an earthly quality, slightly rough and
raw, but powerful and engaging. She is captivating, and while she has attracted
a lot of criticism for being too nasal, she is ferocious on the brutal highs and
lows of the score, and manages to balances explosive exuberant with a quietly
modest and candid.
Roger’s performance in 'Rainbow High' is simply bitching,
and she absolutely smashes the ending with these incredibly crazy notes that I
imagine would bring the house down. It’s a high paced, hypnotic and a bit of a
bizarre song. I regularly scream out passages from this – it’s an insanely
catchy piece and a lot of fun to belt out. I sang this a lot all through adinner
with gravity, and frequently ever since.
July
'You Woke Me Up!' by Andrew Bird from Noble Beast.
Through July I was working with Dave Sleswick on the show Iphigenia 2.0 for Vena Cava Productions.
We were one day away from our preview and Dave and I decided that one scene
(‘The Bridesmaids’) in particular needed music. We weren’t sure what the mood
should be, so Dave tried ‘You Woke Me Up!’ as the temporary soundtrack.
I instantly fell in love with the track and Andrew Bird’s
work. The final we ended up using I wrote and recorded the day that we opened
for a preview, and although it’s in a different key with a different melody and
different instrumentation, I drew a huge amount of inspiration from this track.
I love its simplicity and nonchalant mellow mood. It’s sweet and calming, but
also warm and playful. I listened to it everyday through the process after and
ordered the album from Amazon as soon as I could.
August
'And I Will Kiss' by Underworld (feat. Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Pandemonium Drummers) form Isle of Wonder.
Written by Underworld for a section in the opening of the
2012 Olympics, this 17-minute mega-mix accompanied a breathtaking and stunning
theatrical segment called ‘The Pandemonium’. Around 90 drummers swarmed around
the crowd while hundreds of actors pulled up the entire lawn of Olympic
stadium, while towers and buildings emerged from the ground.
The piece is led through a thunderous percussion section dominated
by Dame Evelyn Glennie, a deaf artist who drums in time based on the vibrations
she feels with her bare feet. The piece is an inspirational and explosive
anthem. It builds through the use of layers, gradually adding melodies in
electronic synthesizers, percussive loops, and chanting, ritualistic vocals. To
me it really embodies the atmosphere of the Olympics – an uplifting and
indescribable event that really celebrates the world coming together for a few
days to celebrate human spirit and athletic talent.
I remember watching the opening (a few days after, since we
were in bump-in during the time) and not thinking much of it, but once this
came on I thought I had to look up this song. Its like a massive journey across
17 minutes, which can be used to entertain yourself on the train (four listens
from Dakabin to uni!), to block out boring people who don’t understand criteria
sheets, and just to motivate me whenever I have to do lots of research.
Listening to it at full volumes makes my ears ache, but it’s beyond words to
describe how much I love it.
September
'Loving You' by Stephen Sondheim from Passion.
The third Sondheim composition to reach the list, Loving You
is the most hummable piece included in the 1993 musical Passion. The piece is brief, a candid and subtle moment which
represents a short explanation and resembles a breath - it is the major turning
point of the show, where Fosca communicates that her relentless pursuit of
Giorgio is not a conscious choice she has made, it is simply who she is.
Fosca is one of the most complex fictional characters I have
ever heard of – she is repulsive and impossibly ugly, in the original stage directions and Tarchetti’s original
novel she is described as“an ugly, sickly woman: incredibly thin and sallow,
her face all bones and nose, her hair pulled tightly back. Just as there is a
beauty that surpasses all possible description, so is there an ugliness that
escapes every manifestation”. Her character is fragile, occasionally erupting
into uncontrollable hysterical outbursts upon accounting thoughts and emotions
that she cannot endure. She pursues Giorgio in a fervour that is terrifying,
although this piece explains why she does the things she does.
It’s hard to express the deep connection and appreciation I
feel towards the story, music and lyrics of Passion.
This piece, along with the Passion
original recording, played on repeat through September and the start of October
as I was writing a professional plan and proposal for a staging of the show for
Directing Theatre subject at university. The piece is firmly engraved inside my
brain, and I find it simultaneously beautiful and harrowing to be able to
acknowledge within Fosca the possible emotions that people are too afraid to
express.
