Romeo (BANISHED!) and Juliet by QTC

(Source: Queensland Theatre Company)

To describe Queensland Theatre Company's Romeo and Juliet in the same category of what people are saying (debacle, horrific, atrocious etc.) would be a bit of an over-statement, but it is pretty dreadful - this is the kind of production where you check your watch for the time, several times, wishing that it would just finish so you can go and live your life. It's a shallow adaptation that features a cast which don't gel together, in a design that isn't really unified or used well, under some abysmal direction.

Melanie Zanneti (Juliet) and Thomas
Larkin (Romeo) (Source: Queensland Theatre Company).

I was initially really excited to see the play since the revised artwork is gorgeous, and I love the work of almost all the actors included. Because of the end result, it was pretty disappointing to . . . see them in this work. Melanie Zanneti (who was the best part of Pygmalion last year) gives a convincing performance as a teenager. But much like the pitch of her voice, her portrayed moods are like a yo-yo. There seemed to be no calm in between her genuinely joyous outbursts and her neurotic bemoaning of the world. She has two distinct methods of delivering her lines - one being this youthful, bright and girlish tone which makes her sound like a child, the other being reserved for moments of woe, which is this low demonic incantation which is so cacophonous it could summon the dinosaurs dating from as far back as the early stages of the Paleozoic era back from extinction. It seems as though she hasn't got any direction on how to play the character one way, so each scene is pretty unpredictable. Thomas Larkin as Romeo is pretty much what you'd expect him to be: Thomas Larkin as Romeo. Considering he hasn't even styled his hair differently, the whole demeanour of his character feels identical of his work as Orlando from La Boite's As You Like It earlier this year. I know it's inappropriate to come into a theatre with pre-concieved ideas, but in this case it's very easy to draw parallels since the two shows are spaced so closely together. Between the two of them, there doesn't really seem to be any immense driving passion or spark, and it's very apparent that what you're seeing on stage is just a temporary love story.

The older members of the cast are a pleasure to watch, my favourites being the always wonderful Andrea Moor and Steven Grives who capture the audience when on stage. The star of the show is Caroline Kennison (I love her!!!), her performance is the highlight, bringing the much needed comedic relief and emotion to the stage. Seems though the young ensemble of males spent more time working on their bodies than on forging a concrete emotional connection with the audience, or working on how to enunciate 'Tybalt' properly (sounded like 'Tibbles'). Casting Veronica Neave as Mercutio is a directional decision that is wretched beyond comprehension. She throws herself into the role, animated and raunchy, but she just doesn't manage to conquer the pointlessness of the decision. She's also made out to be a sexual deviant, with every line involving some kind of pelvic thrust - I wanted Jennifer Flowers to personally go and apologise to the LGBT rights movement that was being conducted outside for adding so much embarrassing homosexual innuendo. There are moments where the entire cast work and there is this wonderful confluence between them, but it's so lopsided and rarely occurs.

The opening scene (Source: XS Entertainment).

The design of the show isn't really that impressive, despite the attempt to open with a truly opulent and lavish display. Bill Haycock's set, a disgusting poisonous yellow and green, looks like something summoned out of the ruins of Chernobyl. The front of the stage features a large crescent moon pool, which is featured in the opening with a superbly beautiful spectacle - it then remains almost entirely neglected until the climax of the piece. Although it's not visually appealing, it has potential, which is very misused with some baffling stage direction. The original soundscape, written by Phil Slade, rarely does anything remarkable, and while it has some great moments it serves as ambient music and the transitions being brief, violent rhythmic strikes on strings (which sound very similar to the Rite of Spring). The fight choreography was really flimsy too.

There are highlights of the show, which are things that I'll happily discuss. The opening of the production was enchanting, and there is an exquisite interlude when Juliet's body is laid down in the mausoleum. For that 30 seconds or so, everything on stage - lighting, sound, movement - all come together. The show actually had one of the best moments of theatre I'd ever seen - it's the moment was when Mercutio is wounded. She's dragged offstage while saying "A curse on your houses", and just when she's out of sight and you think that it's the end, she CLAWS onto the wall, shakes her fist in the air and wails "YOURRR HOUSSSESS!". All she needed was a witch's hat and a crystal ball to cradle while adding "I'll get you, my pretty!" and I would have given them a standing ovation. I SHRIEKED with laughter at the sheer ridiculousness and subsequently every time I thought of the scene I burst out laughing again, much to the dismay of the weeping teenagers in front of me. I also loved the way the actors all delivered the word 'BANISHED!', which was always conducted in an over-blown wail. It was almost like someone wanted to make the first half of the play into a comedy.

Ultimately the fatal flaw in this production was the direction. Given the timing of the season, the brevity of the script, and the chorus of actors, I'd say that QTC would have assembled this production to be a direct competition with La Boite's annual Shakespeare, and tried to emulate their success. With the amount of six pacs on display (any male under 30 ran around stage with their shirts open or off, for no apparent reason) I'd forgive you if initially thought this was a Berthold production. But unlike a Berthold Shakespeare production, Flowers' vision of Shakespeare is really, really lacking - in casting, contenet, and in the theme. Saying that the theme of the play is 'love' is a little broad, but it feels as if Flowers didn't fully understand how or care to assemble a dramatically truncated adaptation of the text to create a work that brings out the emotion or a long-lasting message or question for the audience to reflect on.

Disappointingly, QTC's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is nothing special, since it just flails in every single element. The cast, while all very talented individuals, have no real chemistry between each other and their portrayal of characters leave much to be desired. The technical design elements, with rare exceptions, are nothing special, and the directing is just so clumsy - it just feels like QTC wanted to do something that made them appeal to more audiences but their design just came across as a knock-off, which is a shame because this could have been something incredible

Tickets for 'Romeo and Juliet range from $30-$79 (plus a $5 booking fee, God knows why because you can print your tickets at home), and is showing until May 13th. Duration of 2 hours and 10 minutes. Book by visiting Queensland Theatre Company's website.

'Fractions' by QTC

Prior to Fractions, the only exposure I'd had with Hypatia had been through glancing over her Wikipedia article, and watching Agora (both were pretty distressing). Based on the life of a female mathematician who is ostracised and later executed by zealous Christians, Marcel Dorney's new dramatisation of the life of Hypatia is magical, drawing upon historical events and recounts as inspiration to create a new telling of her final years and the fate of the Library of Alexandria. Fractions is a stunning piece created by an incredible cast and wonderful technical elements which I really recommend you make the trip to see.

The cast were all magnificent so I'm going to go ahead and write a big ol' block of text to describe them all. Jolene Anderson is mesmerising as Hypatia. She performs with an incredible mix of grace, passion and ferocity, communicating Hypatia's strong values and ethics mixed with the stubbornness that is her undoing. Hugh Parker portrays Orestes in a similar manner, firm and trusting as a paragon of order and justice that tries to resist and maintain the fragile balance of the political and the religious. I tip my non-existent hat to Jason Klaren who played Kyril, the loathsome and detestable antagonist. People around me uttered painful moans and protests whenever he appeared on stage and while he spoke something negative (which was all the time). It was lovely to see Lucus Stibbard on stage again, his characters were performed sincerely and were extremely likeable (he always carries this vibe of youthfulness and energy about him). The audience adored Eugene Gilfedder as the old Rika, the battered and candid soldier who provided some comic relief through his commentary. I was thrown a little by his crazy accent but the tenderness and genuine concern he showed for Hypatia and her obsession was a wonderful touch of humanity. This was easily the best cast I've seen in a professional production this year.

My favourite moment was when Hypatia addresses the audience and snaps that if the crowd want to talk, they can go outside. I burst out laughing and she shot the most FEROCIOUS look at me. Loved it.

This text is pretty anti-Christianity, and it's pretty obvious that the action of forcing your belief on someone is still socially unacceptable today. But some people just insist doing it.... around every ten minutes there will be at least one statement from a character which incriminates the religion as an erratic organisation that will blindly put their faith before any logic and common sense (all the plays I've seen by QTC have done this... it's pretty delightful). I initially wondered if Dorney had been influenced at all by Alejandro Amenábar's movie Agora, but upon inspection of the programme Dorney started this in late 2007. I was wondering since the political and religious discourses are pretty hard to miss in this play, although I'm not sure what the overall message of this play was unless it was just to point out Christians were in the wrong around 400CE. They are portrayed as being ignorant, incredulous and slanderous towards people with any other faith (so... pretty much not much has changed). The amount of crap they do and get away with in this play (such as harming those who don't share their faith, burning knowledge that doesn't) is sort of disgusting, but the grotesque factor is intensified since most of it did actually happen in real life. Not sure where I'm going with this paragraph, I just started writing it because it looked like I hadn't written enough for the rest of this blog.

Joleen Anderson plays 'Hypatia' in Fractions.

I did love the show but it's not without its problems - it has pacing issues during some of the lengthier speeches in Act One (I found myself wondering if you can buy sour cream that you can just pour onto food, like you see on TV with soup... like, you can get sour cream in a carton and spoon it onto food, but can you get it in a form that's similar to milk?) and I found the flow of dialogue really erratic with the fusion of random modern day words and colloquialisms. I guess I could super-analyse it and look into why the direction was picked but overall I think the choice of some words sounded a little sloppy and disrupted the flow of the piece, and also partially took away from the location of the work.

These are minor concerns though, especially seeing as most of the time I was enamoured with the set. Simone Romaniuk's and Ben Hughes' visions for their design was gorgeous. The stage is a simple set up with doors on each side and a table in the middle. Simple design, but above the actors were shelves that held hundreds of rolled scrolls of various sizes. Combined with the evocative lighting hues ranging from fragile blues to bright gold, the stage was nothing short of beautiful and the library resonated with grandeur. I was also really pleased with Brett Collery's work as sound designer and composer. The main tune of the show was played by a forlorn cello with a crap-load of reverb that evoked a bunch of different emotions at once.  The music was ample, but if anything I would have liked to have heard more of it since it added a lot. I didn't really hear a distinct motif or notice any significance in terms of the music commenting on the action, but it was paired really well and heightened emotion.

The melancholic Fractions is the best QTC piece I've seen (ever) and is definitely one of the better professional productions I've caught this year. The cast are wonderful, the music, set and lighting all compliment each other perfectly, and the text is definitely worth experiencing since we'll never know what really happened to Hypatia (except she was systematically and brutally murdered by irrational Christians).

Tickets for Queensland Theatre Company's Fractions range from $30 to $75, and is showing until December 10th. Book by visiting QPAC's website or by calling 136 246.

Pygmalion by QTC

Melanie Zanetti looks about 40 in this 'photo', but looks about 18 in real life.

If you loved the feel-good score of My Fair Lady, you'll already be familiar with the story of Pygmalion. Directed by Michael Gow, the piece is showing at QPAC's Playhouse after being delayed by the Queensland floods. Since I'd been putting off viewing the show for a few weeks, I finally got to see it last night and thought it was alright. It has a lot of weaknesses, but its cast is lead by two very good actors and experiencing the script was worthwhile.

The cast are pretty good with the stand-outs for me being the two leads. The prolific Melanie Zanetti plays Eliza Doolittle, a shrill street-rat who throughout the story is transformed into glamorous and 'proper' lady. I hated the character, but also feel that Zanetti's portrayal of the character is exactly as it should have been - really tedious to begin with before her transformation to a respectable (hilarious) woman. Robert Coleby's performance of Professor Higgins was thoroughly enjoyable, totally embodying and personifying misogyny through every minutiae of his body as a wonderfully frank and witty character. I disliked Gow's direction for the ensemble, which involved the overplaying of several minor roles. The ensemble seemed under-utilised, and when they did find a use for them it seemed inappropriate - the introduction to each scene by the chorus members were totally unnecessary and detracted from the immersion of the play. Unfortunately Shaw writes gargantuan chunks for Alfred Doolittle to speak every time he enters the stage, so anything involving Chris Betts on stage just made me want to die. I just couldn't maintain my interest in anything being said and couldn't contain my desire to eat the delicious Coles' brand coke bottle lollies in my bag. There were dozens of times where I couldn't hear lines properly because the accents were so atrocious, spoken too fast, or not enunciated properly.

Robert Coleby (Higgins) and Melanni Zanetti (Eliza).

It needs to be said that the first stage of Eliza's transformation and meeting with Mrs. Higgins was nothing short of incredible. Perfectly orchestrated, Zanetti parades around the stage awkwardly shouting "HOW DO YOU DOOO?" at the cast, and her long winded statements about the weather and how her aunt died of pneumonia had me howling with laughter - I didn't have a problem being the only one in the theatre laughing. I loved the follow up with a delightfully excited Kerith Atkinson as Clara tries to emulate her behaviour believing it to be stylish. Combined with the snide comments of Professor Higgins the scene is an absolute riot. 

What I LOVE about Pygmalion is its witty script. It's oozing with all these cracking situational comments, tongue-in-cheek remarks on society and misogynistic slander. I don't care what other people think, misogyny is funny because it's so absurd - and when people get offended by it, it's hilarious. I think the script, of Act One at least, was probably my favourite aspect of the play. It's a glorious mirror to what Victorian society was like, and to an extent Gow has directed the piece in areas to have relevant commentary on how our modern society works. My absolute favourite moment was during the fantastic scene at the end of Act One, when discussing the word 'fuck' ('bloody' in the original script) Clara remarks "Such nonsense, all this early Victorian prudery!". I think it's genius of Shaw (and Gow) to make a teasing observation of the social hierarchy - why all this stuffy behaviour over a word? "And it's so quaint, and gives such a smart emphasis to things that are not in themselves very witty." Too fucking right. Regrettably the script does seem to lag at moments in Act One, and then eventually curls up and dies at the end of Act Two. By the piece's conclusion, all around me people were yawning, sighing and examining their nails. I just wasn't invested at all, and I was just thinking about eating ice-cream (you know, those cheap, nasty ice-cream cones from Maccas for 50 cents) and imaging how hard it would be to play the keyboard part in Iris. The final scenes are exasperatingly long and it seemed like everything was just going around in circles.

Robert Coleby (Higgins) and Melanni Zanetti (Eliza).

The sound design was unbelievably boring. I'm not sure if it's the Playhouse, or QTC, or both, but the sound was just dead since it didn't go anywhere across the audience. The voices of the actors seemed to be hollow and didn't resonate (that's definitely due to acoustics), and due to the lack of the noise surrounding us in the voices and effect there was no immersion into the play. It was very obvious that the audience was watching a play rather than being drawn into another world. It's difficult to say why the choices of songs seemed inappropriate, particularly the ending song, but the over-romanticised soundtrack that was ripped from the 50s or something didn't fit into a 19th century setting. It would have been more suitable to have an instrumental soundtrack, there could have been some great musical commonality with The Entrance of the Queen of Sheba as it was mentioned in the script.

I enjoyed the set design, which was a use multiple scrim to reveal different areas and locations of the play. A clever use of the scrim was using a small follow-spot navigates around a gigantic detailed map of London to shift the action of the play without the need to move the set. While I mostly liked what was happening on the stage overall there is so much wasted space. There is a wonderful sense of Victorian lavishness in the set, but above the actor's shoulders there was nothing going on. Too much wasted space for such a witty and intimate show. I have no idea what they could have put up there, but anything would have been better than the nothing that was there.

So overall I liked Pygmalion due to the acting and the script, but there were some poor direction choices in terms of the cast, the sound is a disappointment and the set has a lot of wasted space. Since the script also lags in some areas overall there wasn't enough immersion from the production to keep an audience totally captured for the duration. Regardless, the show was enjoyable for what it was. Whatever that is. And it's worth seeing so you can live that glorious scene at the end of Act One.

Tickets for Queensland Theatre Company's Pygmalion range from $30 to $75, and is showing until November 27th. Book by visiting QPAC's website or by calling 136 246.