Egg

Renowned local theatre critic, Peter Wilkins, described it as an "eggcelent production" and I must agree.  I missed some of the gags, it being quick and witty and we weren't too close, but the story of the annual quiche breakfast of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein meeting in whatever community hall with five leaders / members up front and the audience as part of the action was a strange and welcoming and joyous outing despite the dropping of a nuclear bomb and the need to remain indoors for 4 years and the accidental door issue at one time.  But there were also self-relevations, some unexpected, and challenging alternatives to save the world from nuclear annihilation and all round hilarity and consternation and love for quiches and their and others' eggs.  Great fun hinting at issues and fears that we should be better ready to deal with today, this being way past 1956 and the bomb and the Cold War.  I can see why this won a NY Fringe award.  One thing, though.  We all got labels with women's names.  Megan found her middle name and I did too, but mine was the traditional male spelling.  A very minor and somewhat amusing slip up in a wonderful outing.

Jarrad West (director) led Everyman (?) Theatre in 5 Lesbians eating a quiche at the ACT Hub, the 100yo Causeway Hall.  The cast was Crystal Mahon (Lulie Stanwyck), Steph Roberts (Wren Robin), Meaghan Stewart (Veronica ‘Vern’ Schultz), Sian Harrington (Ginny Cadbury) and Ylaria Rogers (Dale Prist).

Wondering on one history

Casanova is a legend, of course, a challenge for men and a dream for women. I guess. We went to see Canberra Rep's take on Casanova last night and it was a frolic (labelled "fast, fun, unforgettable") but even touching. They did a great job, busy, interesting, convincing, entertaining, great costumes and stage set and lots of that blast from the past, the rotating stage. It all worked. I'm not so much one for laughing at all this, but I admired it and it got me musing over Giacomo Casanova and the story. The show is presented as the old Casanova recounting his story to a chambermaid. There's even a seduction by the old man but it's more education than flirtation. I was taken by the young and old Casanovas and I could imagine they were one character. I even thought I could see similar facial structures (Megan doesn't agree). The young Casanova was attractive, energetic, playful and surprisingly respectful. It's not a picture we have. Core to the plot was a love story for Henriette who also rose from poverty and was locked into high marriage and duty. Marrying for love is a modern, post-romantic obsession of wealth and I wonder if this twisted the history we are presented with. A number of modern obsessions appear in the performance, even gay marriage, although the castrato who GC falls for turns out to be woman in disguise and amusingly GC had guessed that at the start. There's a duel with Henriette's wealthy, powerful, high-born husband and several scenes of debauchery and a coronary-inducing confession and a prison scene. But there's attractive honour and dignity in Casanova's love for Henriette and his advice to an illegitimate son (who he'd influenced without conscious guidance) and even a certain decency in his sexual conquests. This is the attractive side of GC and it was offered here. There's a scene where he is saying men don't talk with an implication of his awareness of, and attractiveness to, women. This attractiveness is intriguing and central. So, despite his notoriety, he's presented here as not just the raw and disrespectful seducer. I'm wary of believing history when portrayed in film and the like so I downloaded his memoirs (free online) but they are lengthy and I know I will never do other than skim some pages. But in the search, I learnt that "Casanova" (also Don Juan) as an adjective dates to Victorian days and I expect that's the source of our image of GC. The warning at the start of my downloaded "Rare unabridged London edition of 1894" typifies it: "Transcriber's Note: These memoires were not written for children, they may outrage readers also offended by Chaucer, La Fontaine, Rabelais and The Old Testament D.W." So, Casanova continues to appeal and to fascinate and the Canberra Rep performance did an excellent job in continuing that fascination in this town.

Casanova was directed Jarrad West for the Canberra Repertory Society. The play was adapted by Mark Kilmurry from the screenplay by Russell T Davies. The performers were Ben Russell (Casanova), Tony Turner (Older Casanova), Amy Dunham (Henriette), Riley Bell (Rocco), Steph Roberts (Edith), Bojana Kos (Bellino), Chris Zuber (Grimani) with an ensemble comprising Kate Blackhurst, Geoffrey Borny, Liz Bradley, Kayla Ciceran, Alice Ferguson, Sam Hannan-Morrow, Bradley McDowell, Emily Ridge, Teig Sadhana.

A summer of musicals

Is this becoming the summer of musicals? Sunset Boulevard, Sound of Music, now La Cage aux Folles. I hadn't tweaked that Canberra had such a strong musicals scene. We won an ArtSound prize ticket to La Cage aux Folles and again, I was stunned by the quality of the outing: great costumes, music, voices, acting and this one had plenty of fun. All done by a local amateur troop: this one by Supa Productions. And a lesson in musicals, too. The program quotes music and lyrics writer Jerry Herman at the Tony awards saying "There's a rumour ... that the simple hummable show tune is dead on Broadway. Well it's alive and well at the Palace" (where Cages aux Folles was playing at the time). Similar to Sound of music; nothing like Sunset Boulevard. La Cage aux Folles is known well enough. La Cage is a drag nightclub in St Tropez. George is MC and drag-queen wife and mother Albin performs as Zaza with the chorus line La Cagelles. George's hetero son, Jean-Michel, comes home to prepare for a visit by his new love's parents. The father-in-law-to-be is a rabid anti-gay politician and JM seeks to put on a straight family face. After various twists, the lovers will marry and the gays win heart-rending approval. It's entertaining, joyous and effective in getting messages of gay love and a parallel theme of living for today across to the masses. So, it's a success as a musical and a political statement and this was a massive success as a performance. Peter Wilkins says that "in a production so carefully conceived, exquisitely staged and superbly performed, the line between amateur and professional becomes blurred". I concur. It's feel good, so lends itself to a good reception. But it's also deserving, even stunning or excellent. The Cagalles were always luscious and it was great fun to try to distinguish males from females. The program helped and it was needed (well, maybe more obvious with some later costumes). George had a great voice. Albin was wonderfully played as touching or outrageous or just plain motherly. Jean-Michel was every bit the straight heartthrob (think Titanic). Jacob was an insanely flamboyant maid. Anne is the love match daughter of politician father Edouard Dindon and mother Marie who is later seduced by the camp joy of it all. There are a few other characters, audience, a fisherman, the local cafe staff, restauranteur Jacqueline who is central to the resolution. It's entertaining theatre, but it's also a political theme and this musical, later film, with its gentle and personable approach, can likely lay considerable claim towards rapid political change. As for the music, it was also so well done. Apparently, the charts are copies of hand-written originals, which I'm told is often the way in the pits. The pit included a quartet of singers, not least to strengthen the voices of six very busy dancers. I was also intrigued by the electronic set, big LED screens that changed with scenes. All in all, a great night out and an excellent production. Peter Wilkins suggests you "save yourself the cost of a ticket to Paris and treat yourself to a night at La Cage Aux Folles". I don't go quite so far (there are other wonders in Paris) but otherwise I'll happily agree with the sentiment. As for discovering musicals in Canberra, how much time does one have after jazz, classical, choral and more? Hello also to drummer Ron Tito, a veteran of local musicals and a relative of Megan's.

Supa Productions presented La Cages aux Folles at the ANU Arts Centre. The central characters were played by Jarrad West (Georges) and Ben O'Reilly (Albin) with Garrick Smith (director) and Rose Shorney (musical director).

Peter Wilkins' review in Canberra Times

Strobe no warning

Live dangerously. Strobe light. No warning. So we joked in the car as we drove home. Megan and I had just seen two short plays, God and Pool (no water) performed by the Everyman Theatre Company. This is local theatre, performed in a small space, the Courtyard Theatre, for a small audience, and thank God/s that this theatre exists. It’s a place for experimentation, challenge, humour, even if it does have its rough edges. The two plays were quite different, but the commitment and thought was evident.

God is an early Woody Allen play. It starts with playwrite Hepatitis and slave/actor Diabetes planning how to win a drama competition. Then through interactions with audience from Gunghalin and a quest to the King and the arrival of Zeus as the veritable deus ex machina to the accidental murder of the doll-God. It’s obviously corny and jokey but also sited in its relationship to Ancient Greece and it even deals with some meaty issues of courage and protection and perhaps adulthood in metaphor. The cast did a great job with lots of energy, slapstick presence, audience proximity and mock involvement and some minor props. I wondered how the script had changed for the original (was a phone call to Woody Allen in the original? Northborne Avenue and Gunghalin certainly weren’t). Nice to see a fellow workmate on stage, too, but it’s not the first time. God was written by Woody Allen, directed by Duncan Driver and performed by Jarrad West (Diabetes), Duncan Ley (Hepatitis), Wayne Shephard (Trichinosis), Euan Bowen (King and a Fate), Amy Tinycray Dunham (another fate), Zach Drury (guard). Three others (who came from the audience) are not mentioned in the brochure, Steph Roberts (Diabetes’ girlfriend) and an unnamed other.

Pool (no water) is a weightier production dealing with jealously, success, schadenfreude and such. Four unsuccessful artists visit a fifth who had been part of the team years back, but in now rich and successful amd owns a pool. They party and, later in the night, go to recreate their skinny-dipping exploits, but, in the dark, the successful woman dives into an emptied pool and is seriously injured. The four photographically record her time in hospital and recovery over several months while enjoying the wealthy lifestyle, then destroy the photos after the successful one turns them into a sellable exhibition. The successful one derides the failures and they end happy in suburban life, presumably accepting their artistic failure. The characters and carry on are not likeable or attractive. You can understand the frustration and subsequent pleasure in misfortune but, of course, you don’t admire it. There’s an awareness of failure by these four. It’s not conscious, but spelt out in drugs and sex as they delude themselves. Drugs and sex thus strobes and Hendrix, and skinny-dipping thus (discrete) nudity. This was performed with lots of energy, with four actors playing fives parts, with considerable drama and evident innocence. I was satisfied with the plot finale of settling to family and suburbia although I was uncomfortable that it came so suddenly after the successful one’s climax speech. But the presentation was involving and the theme was challenging. Pool (no water) was written by Mark Ravenhill, directed by Duncan Levy and the cast was was Jarrad West, Steph Roberts, Amy Dunham and Zach Raffan.

Everyman Theatre Company performs the repertoire (Richard III was mentioned) as well as these lesser known works. This was quirky and intelligent and relevant theatre and that’s how I like it.