Comments Off on Totally Tubular: The Comedy of Errors puts on a radical performance
The return of student theatre in semester two was headlined by ShakeSoc’s The Comedy of Errors with a radical 80s twist. For first-time director Jessica Luff, choosing one of the Bard’s shortest works and, indeed, a comedy proved an incredibly smart choice.
The Comedy of Errors centres on the mistaken identity of not only two twin brothers separated in a shipwreck but also identical enslaved twin brothers. Following a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, including not recognising your own wife, falling in love with her sister and being arrested for stealing a gold chain, chaos in the town ensues. In the end, the pairs finally reunite, uncovering the truth behind the shipwreck that tore the family apart.
With the closure of Kambri Theatre for the remainder of the year, ShakeSoc decided to stage their production at the Canberra Theatre Centre’s Courtyard Theatre. The intimate, sparse theatre allowed for vast creative liberty, featuring well-tiered seating and extensive sound and lighting rigging, aspects generally lacking in the Kambri theatre from our experience. However, we assume that the lack of a backstage would have been troublesome for the cast and crew — although Luff’s clever direction ensured no unnecessary crossing of the stage — so we wonder how this might play out for larger productions scheduled for the Courtyard.
The Comedy of Errors is a more accessible script, meaning that for audiences who are less well-versed in Shakespeare, minor gaps in understanding were bridged by a relatively straightforward plot coupled with Luff’s extraction of every potential physical comedy element. Re-contextualisation in the 80s proved a fun choice, with distinct nods to the decade throughout the play. However, the difficulty with the re-contextualisation of Shakespeare is the extent to which you alter the script to truly commit to the time period. Here, it felt like a slight gimmick to draw in audiences, and we would have loved to see further commitment beyond the music and costuming. Overall, you can see that Luff thought through every single scene in detail, which was particularly highlighted in the cafe date-style scene, which was both well-directed and comedic. All the characters were well-utilised with clear background directing when individuals did not have lines, whilst similarly not saturating the scene with unnecessary bodies on stage. There was a slight slump in the second act, possibly due to many original ideas used in the first half. However, Luff should be applauded as continuous laughter from the audience proved their enjoyment throughout.
As an ensemble, this cast appeared to genuinely enjoy being together on stage. Our biggest stand-out from this production came from the pairing of Oscar Mikic as Antipholus of Syracuse and Ava Ferrari as Dromio of Syracuse. Both remained intensely committed to the slapstick nature of the show, acting larger-than-life at every opportunity. This dynamic was further enhanced by the chemistry between the two, something lacking in their twin counterparts. Ferrari’s ability to change accents ranging from American to Spanish showed an impressive range, with a further comedic moment occurring with dance moves timed to the door-knocking sound cues.
Although rarely appearing together, Ferrari and Julia Wedgewood-Oppenheim were an unbelievably funny twin pairing. Each mirrored the mannerisms and energy of one another, making clear that despite not looking identical, they came across as convincing brothers. While many of the characters relied on physical slapstick comedy, refreshing characterisation came from the sisters Eloise Bisley and Ella Buckley played. Both portrayed the depth of their characters, reacting well to the chaos as it ensued.
The lighting design by Steph Evans remained consistent, with particular highlights occurring with colour changing to red where Satan was mentioned and outbursts of anger arose. However, whilst sufficient, potentially greater variety throughout — especially considering the extensive rigging of the theatre — would have enhanced the production and its 80s charm. Similarly, Tom Lyle’s sound design absolutely served a clear purpose. Well-timed knocking and cartoonish-boingy throwing effects added comedy, amplifying the already slapstick scenes. A crowd-pleasing aspect of this show came from the transition music featuring 80s bops, which had the audience singing along.
Whilst there were very few major set changes, the inclusion of the popular transition music allowed for slightly slower resets without much notice. Further, the team’s commitment to the 80s theme with their period outfits and similar enthusiasm for the music added to the genuine enjoyment and camaraderie of this production.
What most illustrated the time period was the costuming, with shoulder pads, an ET graphic t-shirt, and a fluoro pink skin-tight leotard, which were just some of the nods to the iconic decade. Through innovative colour-blocking, the pairings of twins were made clear, with other characters similarly assigned their own unique aesthetic that showcased their characters’ personalities.
Turning now to the set, when we walked into the theatre, we were immediately met with the familiar comic stylings of the classic 80s music video for Take-On-Me by A-ha. Three white sheets adorned with beautifully hand-drawn locations created by Rose Kenyon and Jeremia Kim covered each third of the stage. Whilst very well designed, the location choices for the differing areas could have better mirrored the settings of the play as it unfolded, with the possibility of a police station making more sense than a dollar store.
Further, props created by Sophie Chiew were another clear nod to the decade. Attention to detail didn’t go unnoticed; small items such as a teen magazine from the 80s and small beanie babies certainly reinforced Luff’s directorial vision.
Overall, this cast and crew should be applauded for putting on a show that screamed, ‘Don’t you forget about me.’ With one final show in ShakeSoc’s 2024 season, we look forward to their upcoming production of As You Like It.
Comments Off on A reminder to feed your dad: “Third Storey” debuts to packed audiences
Easily the bravest choice of NUTS’ 2024 season was their first ever full length student-written play, Third Storey, written and directed by Eli Narev and Adam Gottschalk (pictured above). We had little to no expectations walking into this show, and upon leaving could only describe it as “on crack, but in the best way.”
Third Storey follows prank influencers Jax and Gene, who have been awarded a grant to make a feature film. The play follows the chaos of their creative process as characters slowly stray from sanity in their attempts to adapt Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis into a one-woman motion picture. Locked in a three storey house, the script explores complex systems of rules, family dynamics, the hunger for perfection, and an attic full of possum shit.
The original script was witty, deeply funny, heart warming and often unexpected. Narev and Gottschalk should be commended on the multi-faceted nature of the characters they created, building an ensemble of individuals easily recognisable to a modern audience. Many of the script’s most tender moments occurred between Annabelle Hansen’s Judie and Beth Fuccilli’s Bev, where the writing touched on some of the difficulties of parenting, questioning to what extent we are all impacted by the choices our parents make. A standout writing and directorial moment in the first act came from an attempt by director-character Jax (played by Adelaide Hayes) to shoot the one-woman scene sequentially one line at a time. As the characters scrambled to perform quick changes, the comedic direction of Elizabeth Barnes’ Alison counting down by ones each time she switched personas had the audience dissolving into laughter.
While the script was excellent overall, it could have potentially benefited from further editing. The production — especially the first act — felt overlong at times. This length can be attributed to attempts to give too many characters tragic backstories, which were at times rushed, and lengthy duologues that could have been shortened or cut.
Turning now to the cast, both of our stand-out performances came from Fuccilli and Mischa Rippon as Bev and Graham, the loveable, stereotypical Aussie parents. The moment they stepped on stage they brought a refreshing lightness that cut through the length of Act One, being comedic, touching, and most importantly giving a sense of humanity to the show. The pair’s talent was further highlighted in the dramatic twist at the conclusion of the show, where despite blood pooling from his mouth Rippon, with stoic determination, refused to break character, whilst Fuccilli continued to movingly comfort her husband.
Paralleling their parents’ dynamics, the sibling duo of Hayes’ Jax and Callum Doherty’s Gene highlighted the range of these actors. In particular, Doherty’s raw, haunted expression at the end of Act Two silenced the audience. Another actor of note was Thomas Neil in his portrayal as the dorky, golden retriever boyfriend Dom who arguably had one of the more significant character developments throughout, emphasising Neil’s versatility as an actor. However other characters, like Pip and the Producer, felt a little rushed and underdeveloped.
An unconventional inclusion for this production was an original garment from Bridget Matison who created a one-of-a-kind cockroach inspired showgirl costume. This bold choice highlighted the eccentricity of the film being created, enhancing Barnes’ dramatic interpretation of Kafka’s Gregor as a cockroach. Additionally, the evening wear used for the award show scenes provided contrast to the otherwise ordinary costumes used throughout the rest of the show. Overall, the costume design led by Lara Connolly was cohesive and enhanced the portrayal of each of the characters.
The set for this production was exceptional. Credit must be given to set designer Katja Curtin and assistant set designer Grace Fletcher who managed to transform Kambri drama theatre into a convincing family home. There were two major sets, the first being the exterior of the house, with well-executed painting of black flats making the set look three-dimensional. The second set displayed the interior of the home, utilising a raised stage to highlight two of the three storeys. The set was further enhanced by the cohesion of the actors’ entrances and exits, at times circling behind the stage to illustrate the journey of travelling to the second floor. Furnished with effective props, this set is certainly a stand-out from the sets we have seen in Kambri this year.
Unfortunately, during the blackouts where set and numerous prop changes occurred the backstage crew moved at what felt like a glacial pace, with a lack of transition music, forcing the audience to hone in on the movements of the crew. Where the script was already long, this elongated the show further.
The lighting design by Jessica Peacock was effective, using spotlights and blackouts where necessary for the script. Whilst at times slightly delayed — Kambri lighting is notoriously unreliable — more creative lighting may have enhanced the script. An inclusion we might suggest would be varying the lighting when the camera was rolling to dramatically differentiate. Further, Genevieve Cox’s sound design was apt for purpose and well-timed.
Neither of us were quite prepared for the dramatic twist at the denouement of this production. All we can say from that ending for those who did not get to see the show is…remember to feed your dad. Overall, the show proved an immense success and we are excited to see what is next for the witty writing duo of Narev and Gottschalk.
Comments Off on ShakeSoc’s TIBB: Bitchin’ Teens in Togas and Romeo as a Sparkling Vampire
For those who have never experienced Then I’ll Be Brief (TIBB), it is essentially ShakeSoc’s annual Year 10 camp-vibe theatre show. Full of comical skits from your favourite Shakespeare plays alongside some original modern renditions, this production serves to highlight the range of ShakeSoc as a theatre society. This year’s show consisted of six skits each with their own director, with some extra ‘TIBB bits’ in-between.
One of our favourite skits was the ‘Julius Caesar Toga Party’ directed by Georgia Motto. Recontextualised in American Greek life, Motto took Shakespeare’s work and enhanced its comedy by introducing caricatures of the kind of college students we all love to hate. Leading the scene were seasoned ShakeSoc Treasurer Liat Granot and newcomer Zara Sheldrick-Aboud, whose comedic timing enhanced the raunchy nature of Shakespeare’s work. Motto’s witty decision to incorporate the well-known Gretchen Wieners monologue from ‘Mean Girls’ had the audience agreeing “We should totally just stab Caesar!”
Another scene that we and the audience enjoyed was ‘Hammy’ directed by India Kazakoff. Inspired by one of Shakespeare’s most famous works Hamlet, Kazakoff amplified the ridiculousness of Shakespeare’s plot as Hamlet attempts to cover up the murder of his prospective father-in-law. All actors in this scene stood out, and perhaps credit should again be given to Kazakoff for bringing out the best in her troupe of performers. Whilst difficult to single out a standout from this performance, James Phillips and Féy Etherington as the iconic duo Rosencrantz and Guildenstern utilised their bro-energy to captivate the audience.
When entering the theatre that night, the last thing on either of our bingo cards for this show was a Shakespeare inspired Twilight scene, but that was exactly what Olivia Hobbs delivered. Conflating modern star-crossed lovers Edward and Bella with Romeo and Juliet, Hobbs took the audience on a journey through all five books in the Twilight Saga, utilising a mix of traditional lines from Romeo and Juliet and dialogue from the cult-classic movies. Complete with Zac Mccutcheon’s glittery chest and Georgia Mcculloch’s awkward Kristen Stewart mannerisms, the pair sped through the fever dream that was the Twilight-era. What made this scene stand-out was perhaps its distinct differentiation from the other recontextualizations by truly taking creative liberty with the Bard’s work.
An entertaining feature of TIBB is the ‘TIBB bits,’ snappy parodies more similar to the types of skits you would see in a revue. From the three included in this year’s show, the ‘Leo’s Monologue’ starring Sheldrick-Aboud, making fun of DiCaprio’s penchant for younger women, and ‘Directors Cut’ on the seemingly endless Shakespeare adaptations in popular culture proved humorous inclusions. However the third skit, the ‘Rappeth Battle’, fell on deaf ears.
Both adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing were entertaining, providing laughs, but not especially memorable. TIBB’s inclusion of a short musical comedy ‘it was so…’ was the weakest of the night. The cast appeared disinterested and awkward while singing live, making it difficult to understand. Unfortunately, when choreography was introduced it did not elevate the skit, rather highlighting the lack of enthusiasm. Directors and the artistic director walked on stage from the audience to join the dance, an interesting choice that could have been better supplemented with some of the under-utilised cast.
Now to the crew. TIBB isn’t a show known for its flashy set or costumes. Instead, the scene changes rely on a basic stage fit for multiple purposes. When some simple set pieces were brought on stage, the crew at times were fumbling and seemed under-rehearsed. Similarly, the costumes are often singular pieces over the top of stage-blacks that, whilst indicating different characters, rarely add significantly to the show. But kudos can be given in this department for the spot-on representations of Bella Swan’s 2010s layered fashion and Edward’s sparkling chest immediately identifiable as a reference to the film.
On opening night, prior to the commencement of the show, artistic director Charlotte Harris made an announcement that technical issues with the lights had occurred. Consequently, there was an inability to remove a green hue from the stage. Keeping this in mind, the lighting design was a little simplistic — potentially due to further difficulties — leaving us wondering whether the scenes might have been enhanced by more creative lighting.
Sound design by Tom Lyle was technically proficient. During the scenes, the occasional sound bite made up for the lack of set, creating the appropriate atmosphere. Music in between skits whilst the crew moved set pieces had us bopping along in our seats, making the gaps between scenes feel significantly shorter.
Overall, this year’s TIBB proved an entertaining 90 minutes. Despite the highs and lows, the audience left the theatre amused by the creativity of the six directors. Possibly concluding with a remix of ‘I’m Just Ken’ as ‘I’m Just Dead’ was a misjudgement by the creative team, as we would have preferred to be left with the crowd-favourite Twilight scene.
ShakeSoc have concluded their first semester of shows on a high note, and we expect to see the tradition of TIBB continue on to a fourth year in 2025.
Comments Off on The Chemistry of Theatre: The Effect is more than just a placebo
National University Theatre Society’s (NUTS) production of The Effect, silenced the audience both during and after the show with its breathtaking illustration of the human experience in heightened circumstances.
Lucy Prebble’s The Effect follows two protagonists entering a four-week clinical antidepressant drug trial. The pair grapple with the nature of the trial, wondering if their sudden desires are true love or merely a side-effect of the drug.
The decision by Director Paris Scharkie to open the NUTS season with this heart wrenching drama was an inspired choice. Staged as a theatre-in-the-round, the audience was truly immersed, experiencing the highs and lows alongside Connie and Tristan. The simplistic technical proficiency of the show left the audience with questions about the efficacy of drug trials and whether emotions can be manipulated by chemical compounds propagated by pharmaceutical companies.
With only four members of the cast, there was nowhere to hide — especially considering they were on stage the entire time. Fortunately, there was no need. Eli Powles’ fast-paced and sharp Tristan brought the lighter moments, making the contrast in his moments of crisis more poignant. Tash Lyall’s Connie drove the story, with the highs and lows of her character truly showing her incredible range. A testament to the creative team and the pair, their chemistry could not have been questioned by the audience.
Just as Lyall’s performance showed her range, so too did Amy Gottschalk’s Dr Lorna James. Her astute clinical professionalism contrasted with a deep psychological turmoil brought the character to life, with her Act Two monologue reinforcing Gottschalk’s versatility. Another monologue that demonstrated the talent of this cast was the Ted Talk-style monologue of Isaac Sewak’s Toby Sealey. The sudden shift in pace provided a shining moment for Sealey, who was otherwise under-utilised.
The highlight of the show for both of us came at the end of Act 1. Scharkie’s direction coupled with Kathleen Kershaw’s movement coaching narrated its own story of a couple in the early-stages of love. Individual freeze-frames mixed with effective lighting and the chemistry of Powles and Lyall illustrated through movement the small-moments in a developing relationship. Ending Act 1 with this masterpiece meant the intermission allowed audiences a chance to sit with the dopamine produced alongside the uncomfortable knowledge the play was about to intensify. The return of the freeze-frames in the medical episode was another piece of brilliant direction, portraying the chaos of what was occurring. Utilising this directorial style in a drastically different situation complemented the earlier scene.
Despite the simplicity of the set, the utilisation of innovative lighting and technology transformed the often-barren space of Kambri Theatre into an immersive clinical experience. Watching Marty Kelly and Charlotte Harris’ lighting design it was evident that unlike many other shows, this design had been well thought through, with a clear understanding of the script, a testament to the amount of work that must have gone into this part of the show. Not only were standard overhead lights utilised, but also LED lights surrounding the stage, multiple projectors, a glowing tablet and two light-boxes sitting on the stage. The sheer amount of coordination that was required and went off without a hitch on opening night was masterful.
The only improvement that could have been made to this show was the sound design. Reading the program and hearing there would be an original score sparked our interest. Unfortunately, we were left slightly disappointed and unsure where the original score was. What sound was utilised didn’t often lessen the atmosphere of the show, but paled in comparison to the proficiency of the rest of the production.
Similarly, the costuming was simplistic yet effective. It did not detract and fitted its purpose for this show, however was not of particular note. Regardless, costuming was not a crucial part of this play, allowing the audience to focus on the raw performances of the actors, however, played its role in ensuring the character’s ease of movement.
As a theatre-in-the-round show, the stage was raised in the centre reinforcing the immersive experience. Rather than a stand-alone set, the cast utilised white wooden cubes to create the scenes. The seamless transitions of the movement of the blocks by the cast was both well-directed and well-rehearsed. Whilst limited props, those used were instrumental, with a highlight being the jellified brain dripping with goo.
Another area of improvement was the hanging and centring of the projectors at either end. In comparison to the rest of the well-done set, it looked tacky and rushed. Nonetheless, the projectors added small touches – such as the counting down from intermission and dosage sizes – reinforcing how well thought through this play was.
Overall, this did not feel like a show that had been put on in seven weeks. The attention to detail and overall collaborative effort helmed by Scharkie made it seem as though she had been working on this show for years. We attended opening night, which was not packed, and hope more people had the opportunity to see this incredible show — we know we certainly raved about it to friends. If this is how NUTS is opening their 2024 season, we are very excited to see their upcoming shows.
Rating 4.8/5
Comments Off on ShakeSoc’s “Macbeth” Makes a Bloody Splash in Kambri
Before we start this review we want to preface by saying we are not professional critics, so please don’t try and track us down. We are merely loyal ANU theatre enthusiasts who go to more shows than are healthy. Because of this addiction we have decided to review all of the student shows put on this year — from NUTS, to ShakeSoc, to MTC and college productions. We can’t wait to highlight the amazing talents of all the people involved in these shows in the reviews.
Macbeth is arguably one of Shakespeare’s most famous works, centring on deceit, ambition, power with a fair share of blood and gore. Shakespeare Society’s (ShakeSoc) production of the Scottish play — although it appeared the cast were confused about geography with their accents — proved an exciting choice to a packed opening night crowd.
What this play certainly was not lacking was ambition. ShakeSoc’s decision to stage Macbeth without re-contextualisation in roughly a seven week period proved a brave choice for the society and first-time director Natasha Ludlow. The choice of Macbeth was a production guaranteed to fill seats due to its popularity…and the trauma of year nine English. However, as the first of the 2024 season, this production failed to make as much of a bloody splash as it may have hoped. Where credit should be attributed, is to the tenacity of the directorial and production team in organising this show so early in the year.
While with humorous intentions the stabbing reference made during the introduction about looking to your left and right wondering who may have a knife left the audience uncomfortable. The joke felt in poor taste before the production had even started.
Matthew Wooding as the titular lead (pictured above) provided a stand-out performance, not only furthering the plot but providing a nuanced portrayal of the complex and often fraught Macbeth. Where a stellar performance by Wooding captivated the audience, unfortunately for Lara her Lady Macbeth was outshined by her counterpart. Lady Macbeth is well-known as one of Shakespeare’s most difficult female roles, and with the added pressure of a seven-week rehearsal schedule, Lara’s portrayal at times felt one-dimensional. Ultimately the pair’s chemistry aided both their depictions, with the scenes focused on the couple providing a sense of intimacy to the violent background of the play.
A personal standout in the cast came from Ash Telford as Banquo, whose ghost at the end of Act One left the audience gasping. Despite blood drooling from the mouth, Telford remained in character, providing a chilling portrayal haunting Macbeth and the audience long after the scene had concluded. A surprising standout scene came in the Second Act. Marcelle Brosnan’s Lady MacDuff alongside Marlon Cayley as her son showcased a different side of Shakespeare’s work, with a touching vulnerability accompanied by a maternal passion that provided a much needed refreshment to the latter half.
A hallmark of Macbeth remains the trio of witches. The choice to double-cast this production, whilst not unusual for ShakeSoc, proved ill-advised, with the decision to double-cast Lady Macbeth with a lead witch serving to confuse rather than enchant. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far, and despite both of us having read, studied, and watched the play prior, we found ourselves having to check the script at the conclusion of Act One. Perhaps a costume change could have justified the directorial choice, as where a witch remained crowned and in an evening gown, the production failed to convey a change in character.
Despite costume changes needed to underpin character shifts, the costume team consisting of Archie Church, Isabel Moller, Alana Flesser and Georgia, provided a clean look to the large ensemble. Colour blocking different pairs and groups dependent on the character was a nice touch, showing the team’s attention to detail.
Technically, Ella Ragless’ sound design created an occasional atmospheric ambiance to slower scenes, with the cast’s voices easily projected across the small theatre. The simple yet effective lighting done by Charlotte Harris and assistant Elinor Hudson showed a contrast between battle scenes, dinner parties and emotional soliloquies, adding excitement to the lack-lustre black set.
Walking into the theatre, the only set on the stage was a few pieces of dirty cloth hung limply from the black curtains and unfortunately the stage design rarely became more advanced than that. Whilst a simple set can be effective, watching the cast walk between sides of the stage between scenes and the door to backstage occasionally visible to the audience was an unwanted distraction. The one attempt at a major set piece in the feast scene regrettably did not go to plan on opening night, with stage crew having issues with the tables.
Overall, despite Macbeth being one of Shakespeare’s shorter works, this production proved too lengthy. Potentially the inclusion of more action and gore in the latter half may have re-captivated audience attention. Ultimately, ShakeSoc’s production could have made a bigger and bloodier splash into the 2024 season with the overall disjointed and rapidly put together production falling short of our high expectations.
All in all, the play set the tone for a dramatic season for ShakeSoc. We look forward to their next show Then I’ll Be Brief in Week 10.
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Comments Off on An Official Ranking of (most of) ANU’s Student Theatre
Before I start this ranking-slash-review, I want to establish two things. A list before the list.
First of all, I’m not a theatre critic. I don’t have any professional qualifications. I’m just a guy who’s been to a lot of ANU theatre productions, so if you don’t like my ranking you can tell yourself I’m wrong and dumb and just don’t get the sacred art of the stage. Or send Woroni some anthrax in the mail, whatever makes you feel better.
Second of all, every one of these theatre productions were worth seeing. While I enjoyed some more than others, I have an incredible amount of respect for everyone involved. As somebody who got a solid 60 in high school drama, I can’t imagine all the work that goes into making these performances actually good, and definitely couldn’t do it better.
But not all art is created equal, and it is with a sort-of-heavy heart that I must rank (most of) this year’s ANU theatre productions. (Apologies to the Musical Theatre Company, I’m sure Grease was great.)
Away
Michael Gow’s Away follows three sets of parents and their high-school-aged children (or lack thereof, in the case of grieving Coral and Ray) as they embark on their summer holidays. It’s mercifully set in Australia, and therefore none of the actors speak with American accents. As you’re about to learn, bad American accents are an inexplicably common pitfall for ANU student theatre.
Mothers Vic (India Kazakoff), Gwen (Genevieve Cox) and Coral (Grace Fletcher) are standouts, especially Gwen and husband Jim (Eli Narev). Cox and Narev work so well together you’d believe they really have been unhappily married for decades. Their troubled connection with daughter Meg (Chloe Tyrell) made for some of the play’s most dramatic and moving moments. The play deals with some heavy themes – classism, terminal illness, grief – and the actors are talented enough to handle these themes with care, even bringing humour and light to the darkness.
The costuming (Tess McClintock) and hair and makeup (Zara Faroque) were show-stealing: Coral’s blue dress and Leonie’s (Lily Wilmott) green look deserve their own special mention.
However, despite a strong cast and excellent costuming, the play was a little slow. While some scenes would have you laughing or on the edge of your seat, others dragged. No disrespect to Michael Gow, but directors Maeve Ireland-Jones and Ellie Shafir could have been more ruthless in cutting down the script.
Accent ranking: No complaints.
Then I’ll Be Brief
For those who aren’t as dedicated to ANU theatre as I am, Then I’ll Be Brief (TIBB) is an annual show made up of scenes from various Shakespeare plays adapted, reimagined and reprised in whichever way their director chooses. For example, this year I was treated to a bogan version of King Lear (how dare Cordelia go off to ANU), A Midsummer Night’s Bush Doof, and a skit delivered alongside a video of Subway Surfers gameplay, for the iPad babies in the audience.
It’s hard for a show of snippets and skits to stand on its own against the full-length plays on this list, but TIBB is quick and funny. It feels like a bunch of theatre kids (complementary) having fun, and the audience is drawn into that fun too. The atmosphere is mostly light and silly, with songs like Something Rotten’s ‘God I Hate Shakespeare’ breaking up scenes of fratboy Sir John Falstaff and modern-day Merry Wives.
I say mostly, because there were one or two surprises. Macbeth’s final speech was performed Shakespeare-accurate and serious, except for the fact that Luke Lourey’s Macbeth was dressed like a character from the Matrix and the scene was lit like Upstairs Moose, for reasons unknown. I spent half the scene waiting for a punchline, but that’s the fun of TIBB: you never know what you’re going to get.
Accent: Good and normal.
The Taming of the Shrew
The fact that this is fourth is a testimony to the quality of the shows above it, because ShakeSoc’s The Taming of the Shrew was probably the funniest play I saw this year. It’s inexplicably set in the Wild West, which just means that the actors wear cowboy hats, say they’re from Reno, Nevada, instead of Pisa, Italy, and speak with a Southern drawl (more on the accents later).
The thing that really brings the humour of this centuries-old comedy to 21st-century ANU is the performance of the actors. Adam Gottschalk’s Tranio is fine-tuned right down to the facial expressions, and Annabelle Howard’s Baptista incorporates some impressive cane choreography. My personal favourite, however, was Jarrah Palethorpe’s brief but inspired performance as the random merchant pretending to be concerned-father Vincentio. There’s no way I can really describe this, except for saying it was like watching an alien in a human suit. I mean that as positively as possible: it was hilarious.
Now, onto the accents. They have their moments – there is something inherently comedic about country-and-western soliloquies – but the play is long and sparsely edited. The accents hamper the already-unwieldy Shakespearian, and at some points it’s difficult to understand what a character is even talking about.
This is most apparent in the ending. I’ll admit, before this my exposure to The Taming of the Shrew had begun and ended with 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). But I’m pretty sure in the original Shakespeare, the shrew, doesn’t walk her new husband offstage with a gun.
Maybe it was meant to be a feminist twist, but somewhere between the accent and her assumedly ironic speech about why women suck, the ending gets lost, and you’re left with a confused ‘good for her?’
Accent ranking: High highs and low lows.
Mr Burns
Anne Washburn’s Mr Burns, directed by Lachlan Houen and Isiah Prichard, is split into three sections, and there was no point at which I knew what was coming next.
It opens on a world without electricity a year after some vague apocalypse, where strangers bond over their attempts to recall a particular Simpsons episode. The tragedy of this situation was accompanied by the tragedy of my realisation that, once again, they were all going to be speaking with American accents.
The first section was a little slow, as you’d expect from a scene that is just people talking around a campfire, but there were genuinely poignant, painful moments. You watch each character’s hopes rise as they encounter a newcomer, and fall as they are told no, they haven’t seen their loved ones. Seven years go by, and these same characters are struggling together as a troupe of actors. Colleen (Natasha Lyall) and Quincy (Tess McClintock) are excellent additions, and Gibson’s (India Kazakoff) breakdown as the pressure of their dog-eat-dog world gets to him is a heartbreaking watch. It’s almost immediately followed by a post-apocalyptic Pitch Perfect-esque mashup, thanks to musical directors Lachlan Moulds and Paris Scharkie. You really never know what’s coming next.
The third section goes completely off the rails. The original cast is abandoned. Now the actual Simpsons – credit to costume designers Malachi Bayley and Natasha Ludlow for an excellent Marge hairpiece – are escaping on a riverboat in the middle of a storm. They’re escaping the titular Mr Burns (Thomas Neil), only this time he’s been combined with Heath Ledger’s Joker to create a villain whose monologues are sometimes ironically overwrought and evil, sometimes just a bit too long. At one point he starts rapping. He and Bart (Annabelle Hansen), who has the pluck and earnestness of a Victorian orphan, duel on the deck of the riverboat as the storm rages around them.
While all the actors were excellent, a special commendation has to go to Eli Powles and Liah Naidoo as Itchy and Scratchy, Mr Burns’ violent animal henchmen. It’s very easy to sit in the audience and write a snarky review where you whinge about accents. It’s undoubtedly much harder to screech and leap and scrabble across the stage dressed as animals. Lesser actors (or cowards like me) wouldn’t have committed as hard as they did, and their resulting performance was both hilarious and more than a little terrifying.
Accent ranking: Eh.
macbitches
macbitches takes place almost entirely inside a dorm room, where five female theatre students celebrate and commiserate after the casting of Macbeth. It explores the complicated, love-hate-respect-devotion-envy ambition dynamics between theatre kids. Watching it, you can’t help but wonder if ShakeSoc is self-reporting.
Trapped in just the one set, the tension builds throughout the play until it’s almost unbearable. You want to look away, but you can’t. Anisha Mujib and Hana Sawal carry this tension with good performances – one feels especially bad for Mujib’s Cam, pathetically in love with a girl who doesn’t seem to care about her – but the eyes-wide, car-crash feel of the play reaches its fever pitch thanks to Natasha Lyall, Winsome Oglivie and Lillia Bank.
Playing new freshman Hailey, who’s snatched the role from the more senior Rachel (Natasha Lyall), Bank nails the grating combination of wide-eyed naivete and constant humble-bragging, but it’s Lyall who steals the show. She is terrifying, stalking the stage, closing in on oblivious Hailey until one can’t help but think of a panther closing in on its prey. I don’t think I breathed during her fight with partner-in-crime Alexis (Winsome Oglivie), who has a sickening scream fit for a slasher movie – sort of what the play devolves into by the end.
But despite its gory twist, this play works so well because it’s grounded in reality. The set design creates a realistic, lived-in college dorm, with dialogue and references that refreshingly reflect how young people actually talk – with the exception of the accents.
macbitches is set in the US, and rather than trust us to suspend our disbelief and accept that these students at a vaguely-American college say words like ‘sophomore’ with an Australian accent, the cast all adopt American accents. It hampers what are otherwise excellent performances – some are strongest when they slip out of the accent altogether.
I saw macbitches with a group, and after we left one of the guys asked us whether this was actually what female friendships were like. The answer was a resounding yes. It’s a warped but strikingly accurate depiction of female group dynamics, as powerful love wars with powerful resentment.
But macbitches goes further than that. Though it’s an all-female cast, it points to the man behind the curtain. Would these women have been pushed to this depravity at all if there were more roles for them, if the roles were better, if they weren’t beaten down by constant dismissal and mistreatment? As director Caitlin Baker puts it, macbitches asks ‘whether the violence lies in the hands of the women we see onstage – or the men off it.’
Accent ranking: Wish they hadn’t.
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
This delightfully gory dark comedy has everything you could want from a play: disembodied torsos covered in blood, Toby Griffiths covered in blood, a stage covered in blood, and Irish accents that are actually good.
Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore (not to be confused with The Banshees of Inisherin or The Cripple of Inishmaan), brings levity to The Troubles, and in her director’s note, Liat Granot writes that cast and crew wanted to ‘[toe] the delicate line between humour and trauma’. While this production falls far more on the former than the latter, it was still an exceptional performance.
If you’ve reached the end of this review you might think I harp on about the accents, but I think here they’re emblematic of why The Lieutenant of Inishmore was so good: its attention to detail. Set and props designers Marty Kelly, Tali Backmann and Jamie Cardillo decked the Kambri Drama Theatre out with all the trimming of a typical Irish home, complete with the essential photo of Queen Elizabeth II (rip) with her eyes scribbled out and ‘die bitch die’ scrawled across her face. The stagehands crept and rolled commando-style across the set in balaclavas, like they were planting bombs rather than moving chairs. Costume designers Eleanor Cooper and Natasha Ludlow blessed/cursed Davey (Wyatt Raynal) with a painfully 90s mullet-hair piece-thing. This was obviously a performance with a great amount of thought and care put into it, at every level, and it really paid off.
Of course, a script making light of such a dark time in Irish history couldn’t have been carried through without an incredible cast. Adam Gottschalk is, again, excellent and hilarious with his equally funny IRA (or ILA?) lackeys (Paris Scharkie and Anna Kelly). Jamie Gray’s Donny and Raynal’s Davey play off each other like a standup duo who have toured together for several years – which they should consider if theatre doesn’t work out.
If you didn’t see this, you missed out. Raise a glass to the cast, crew, and an Ireland free.
Accent ranking: Derry Girls!
An earlier version of this article did not credit Marty Kelly as set and props designer for The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
Comments Off on Women’s Revue: Everything, Everywhere, In 3 Hours
A review of a revue is a challenging thing, not only because it’s a mouthful to say. Watching students perform anything brings to mind my own anxiety of theatrical performance and a desire to know the regular lives of the actors who are probably more similar to me than either of us are to professionals. Add onto that the pressure of comedic performance which, because of the inherent awkwardness if it doesn’t land, makes you doubt the veracity of your own opinion, but it also leaves you wondering what to actually write about.
Sitting in the back row for the Friday night performance of the Women’s Revue, I gauged a lot of it from the audience reaction and so I think broadly it worked. This is to say, most skits received a plausible laugh and quite a few got a real cackle from groups. Only two sketches had anything questionable, but more on that later.
For the uninitiated, revues are put on by various extensions of student organisations, such as the Womens’ Revue, or the Law Revue. They are skit shows, and consist of a series of sketches which range, in this case, from the political, to the social, to the hyperlocal. The set itself is pared back out of necessity – it cannot change every five minutes – and props are limited to the essential wig, jacket or for this play, wand and rollerskates. Womens’ Revue, as acknowledged in the introductory song, is the first of the season, meaning this review must be taken with a grain of salt.
Revues are fun. They are the most fun if both the actors and audience lean into the kitchiness and the amateur aspects of it. Across the revue, the best performances were those where the actors were clearly enjoying the performance. As Directors Meg Dawkins (she/her) and Emma Tuckwell (she/her) put it, the “cast and writing team are the heart of the show” and I think this is what provides the eternal appeal of student theatre, that the audience, who can often relate to the cast, get to watch a group of people have fun for their entire performance. For instance, one overarching skit was that some regular skit was interrupted as soon as a character noticed any form of kilt or tartan pattern. The cast would then descend into chants of “For Scotland.” It’s the zany, wackiness that you find funniest only when you’re actually performing it, but the joy was contagious and it was this kind of kitchiness that I think the audience liked the most.
This revue had live music which is impressive for a number of reasons. Firstly, the trumpeter, Jess Hill (he/they) in the corner who also conducted the band must be commended. Having played the saxophone briefly in primary school, I can only imagine how difficult it is to both play an instrument and simultaneously coordinate the other musicians. Secondly, the live music underpinned a series of impressive and imaginative musical acts. Popular songs ranging from those famous on TikTok to the ‘Room Where It Happened’ from Hamilton were parodied successfully for several numbers. Not all were funny but I also don’t think they were intended to be, and the Directors were clear that aspects of the show are meant to be thought-provoking. Every one of them, though, worked, with lyrics to fit the tunes and no doubt there is some more musical theory to be unpacked there, but for the average watcher, I was thoroughly impressed. Apparently the songs were written collaboratively and thus are an achievement of the whole cast. Particular favourites was the sharehouse anthem to the tune of Frozen’s ‘Fixer Upper’ and ‘Can I Interest You in Centralism all of the Time?’
There is likely no perfect concoction of skits, but I noticed that those about the ANU prompted the most laughs. A Lighting McQueen skit about parking on campus, or about Mike who studies Computer Science replacing ChatGPT, did very well. Politics sketches will always be challenging, least of all because by the time a revue gets around to it, the ABC and social media will have thoroughly dissected the underlying material. However, a reference to Scomo shitting himself will probably never not be funny.
I would have enjoyed more jokes about the university experience, both because they were the funniest but also because this is the niche of a student comedic performance. Something about the unjustifiably confident bloke in a tutorial or Schmidt’s Tesla would not have gone awry. I imagine that there is pressure to always do something different from last year, but that was a year ago, and some audience members, like myself, are new to the scene. Oldies can still remain goldies.
The acting and singing were good. Comedy is always difficult to perform, as is an Irish accent which features in an early skit, and yet the cast did well at both. I did take a mild delight at deciding who clearly preferred the acting over the dancing and who was clearly there to sing, but being unable to personally do any of the three, I respect everyone’s commitment. Maddy McQuin (she/her) stood out to me as fully committing to each role and nailing the pantomime facial expressions as required.
At the most, I could only ever be consistently funny for five minutes or approximately 1,000 words. Three hours is a stretch for anyone, I feel, particularly if it starts at 7pm. I would baulk at a three hour play by professionals, and most stand-up routines go for around an hour and a half. It is, in short, probably too long.
I would like to make an aside about the quality of the audience. I yearn for the day we return to silent or near-silent viewing of films and plays. A group of people sitting next to us simply wouldn’t shut the fuck up. I don’t expect complete silence but one of them would, like a dog, loudly say “Ally” anytime a character said “Slay.” I’m as gay as the next doc-wearing, non-binary twink but Jesus did I want to hit a bitch. A similar thing happened when I saw Barbie recently and I believe it stems from being too saturated in social media’s incessant need for a joke every ten seconds.
In three hours of skits, there are bound to be some that don’t land perfectly. But, two skits wandered beyond the unsuccessful and towards the uncomfortable.
The revue had three skits about an ordinary person dating various Australian Prime Ministers after their time in office, which included Scott Morrison, Harold Holt and Julia Gillard. Gillard’s skit I fear became an odd moment of woman-bashing. She was characterised as a shrill, alcoholic woman and her famous misogyny speech was compared to a fight with what was implied to be an ex of sorts (bizarre, I know). The message was unclear to me, and fell into some deeply problematic tropes in the representation of Gillard, from her being an emotional, loud, complaining woman, to comparing Abbott to an annoying ex and not a misogynist who led the federal opposition and launched a campaign of vitriol and sexism that set female leaders back decades. Likewise, to liken Gillard to a stereotype about alcoholic middle-aged depressive women is both problematic and unjust. Gillard was no perfect leader and no perfect feminist, I am not defending her record here. But her misogyny speech was a groundbreaking moment in Australian politics and her success as Prime Minister was an important moment for feminism in Australia. That skit made all the wrong jokes. During the intermission, a stranger sitting next to us remarked unprompted about how the scene was simply “not it.”
I also think the revue would have benefitted with more Queer jokes, which is to say, it would have benefited from less of a focus on heterosexual issues and characters. One of my favourite skits was of two lesbian librarians using a series of literary double entendres to flirt, and the audience loved it too. Theatre has always been a Queer space, I believe both the cast and the audience would have found jokes about Queer dating funny and simple to write. Conversely, the skit in which two podcasting dude-bros confessed their homosexuality was confusing; a little more nuance would be needed to convince me that the joke was not the very fact that they are gay.
Comedy is challenging, and these two skits sit within dozens of others than landed well. It happens, and I would never attribute them to malice, but it must also be remarked upon. Overall, it was an amusing evening, with a clearly dedicated cast which the audience cannot help but enjoy.
A review of a revue is a challenging thing, not only because it’s a mouthful to say.
Comments Off on Greenwashing Our Drowning Futures: A Call to Action from the South to the North
We are not facing a climate crisis that is imminent in the distant future. But we are in the middle of a climate catastrophe as we speak. While here in Australia, much as in the rest of the Global North, we convene in siloed conferences and policy forums; discuss climate resilience and mitigation in hallowed halls and ivory towers; deliberate on what the future may hold in a still distant 2050 – a future with a projected global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius – for millions of people across the world, 2050 is already upon them.
One-third of Pakistan has been submerged in the recent catastrophic floods. Between June to August this year, Pakistan’s southernmost provinces faced a 400 percent increase in their average monsoon rainfall. In addition to this, Pakistan is home to 7200 glaciers, the largest number in the world outside of the polar regions. Rising temperatures due to global warming are accelerating the Himalayan glacial melt in Pakistan at a much faster rate than previously anticipated by scientists.
Just in the recent catastrophe alone, 33 million lives were affected – more than the total population of Australia. This includes 16 million children, and 650,000 pregnant women without access to proper health services, with much of the infrastructure devastated. Four million acres of farmland has been destroyed, causing an acute crisis of food insecurity, and large swathes of the country are still underwater. While it has been estimated that the waters will take six more months to recede, the flood-ravaged lands are becoming breeding grounds for water-borne diseases – cholera, malaria, dengue – while experts warn the coming of a “second wave of death and destruction.”
Pakistan merits our attention for the sheer injustice of its people facing the worst brunt of climate catastrophe, while the country’s global share of carbon emissions is only less than 1 percent. An injustice that is compounded by a severe debt burden of $130 billion and crippling International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities, including taxes on oil and electricity, at a time of an unprecedented disaster. Or the entrenched effects of colonial and imperial entanglements that relegate the country to a ‘no man’s land’ – whose worth is dictated merely by imperial interests and ‘strategic’ relevance to the Global North; and whose calls for immediate debt relief, as demanded by the Pakistani activist community, are drowned out by racialised tropes of ‘violence’ and ‘danger’. But Pakistan is also a glimpse into our collective future – a symbolic front for our advocacy as a country that is already ‘ground zero’ for the climate catastrophe and exhibiting the impact of the dreaded mark of 1.5 degree Celsius.
In this context, we are fast approaching the 27th Annual UN Climate Change Conference of Parties, or COP27. Previous conferences settled upon emissions reduction agreements as outlined in the Kyoto protocols or the Paris Agreement. Not only have these agreements been inadequate but they have also allowed governments to perpetuate climate vandalism through an ostensible facade of seeking climate solutions. Greta Thunberg called last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow more of the same “blah blah blah”. She called for protests around the conference to reject the same old greenwashing, saying that “our hopes and ambitions drown in their empty promises.” The nature of the current climate catastrophes, if anything, expose the hollowness of such initiatives. Even if governments fully adhered to their emissions reductions as agreed upon in the Paris Agreement, the world would still reach apocalyptic levels of climate catastrophe everywhere in the coming decades. A worsening of the disastrous effects is already being felt.
The upcoming conference is set to be held in Egypt this year, even as Egyptian climate activists are protesting this charade of greenwashing and demanding more. The Sisi dictatorship has enforced draconian laws to limit access to information, including their country’s net carbon emissions and is continuing to warehouse hundreds of political prisoners in state prison cells. Recently, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a high-profile democracy activist on a hunger strike, wrote a letter “about global warming because of the news from Pakistan” and raised concerns about the impending climate catastrophe that will reach us all. Highlighting the 33 million lives affected by the floods in Pakistan, he questioned the (in)adequacy of state responses as global warming continues. This letter, too, has been suppressed by the Egyptian authorities. Other democracy activists in Egypt have also called on climate activists around the world to not allow the Egyptian government to greenwash the dictatorship through the upcoming COP conference.
In Australia, we have a particular responsibility to answer these calls of solidarity from Egypt and Pakistan. Australia is one of the largest contributors to global fossil fuel emissions per capita, particularly from coal export emissions. These emissions are conveniently not counted in the Australian Labor Party’s latest climate bill. Such creative elisions and the absence of any enforceable targets have allowed the Labor party to plan a significant escalation of fossil fuel emission exports, by greenlighting the opening up of 106 new coal and gas projects whilst posturing to address the issue of emission reductions.
There is no lack of academic seminars on the impending climate crisis at the ANU. But beyond these siloed academic engagements, it is pertinent to ask where the university – as an institution – stands on climate change. It is imperative to move from knowledge production to action. The ANU itself has been the subject of a nearly decade-long divestment campaign. Students have overwhelmingly called for full divestment from fossil fuels in two referendums run by the student union ANUSA, first in 2014 and then again last year. The most recent data available to students indicates that our university still has large-scale investments in fossil fuel companies. There is also a shroud of opacity on the specificities of their investments. Without a clear breakdown of companies that ANU invests in, such as what they provided in 2016, we can’t be sure if ANU still invests in companies like Woodside Petroleum or big banks that finance coal projects as they did in that year. What we do know is that ANU’s infrastructure portfolio, which includes millions of dollars invested in the Kwinana gas-fired power station, actually increased its total carbon emissions by almost 23 percent last year. There are no enforceable targets in ANU’s investment portfolio as part of its ‘Below Zero’ campaign and its reports rely heavily on the discredited ESG exposure scores to demonstrate how environmentally sustainable they are.
That is why we have organised a speak-out for climate justice this Friday, the 28th of November to maintain the pressure. We cannot allow for the green-washing and climate vandalism carried out in our name. Or turn the demands for climate justice and debt relief from the Global South into “feel good” opportunities for the Global North to give paltry sums in “charity.” Despite the platitudes offered by elite institutions and state actors (be it ANU’s Socially Responsible Investment reporting, the Australian Labor Party, or those convening COP27) to set out tentative and non-enforceable targets, we are witnessing an unchecked expansion of fossil fuel extraction. Meanwhile millions of lives are already in the throes of disaster, their homes washed away, their farmlands and infrastructure devastated, with no return to normalcy in sight. This is only just the beginning. It is no longer tenable to discuss the climate crisis in terms of a projected future – when this future is already upon us.
Heba is a Pakistani student at ANU and Nick is a member of Socialist Alternative.
This article was written on the stolen land of the Ngunawal, Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty has not been ceded. There is no climate justice without Indigenous justice.
Comments Off on Ancient Greek Tragedy Ages like a Fine Wine: NUTS’ Bakkhai
I’m thinking it, you’re thinking it, let’s not mince words; Bakkhai is kind of a funny name for a play. But we needn’t be embarrassed to think so. Sitting down with director Kieran Knox just before opening night, the cast me-mi-ma-mo-mu-ing in the background, he told me it was precisely the funny spelling that initially drew him to the play. However, when he cracked it open, he found a sexy, blood-soaked gem and began a four-year odyssey culminating in the production we were about to see.
For context, Bakkhai is a modern translation by Anne Carson of a fifth-century BC Athenian play by Euripides. Maxine Eayrs (who plays Dionysus) cheekily described it as “the best thing since Homer”. The play centres on the coming of Dionysus, god of wine, theatre, and revelry, to Thebes, and her revenge against that city’s impious king Pentheus (Jamie Cardillo). All the while, the play weaves in a discussion of toxic pride, gender dynamics, and a queer narrative that became a central focus for NUTS’ rendition.
When discussing how the play was translated, both in language and production for a modern audience, Cardillo was visibly thrilled. Especially to talk about how the cast and crew explicitly worked to run their character Pentheus as a trans woman. And this decision makes for some great moments. After seeing Pentheus for who she is, Dionysus casually refers to the king of Thebes with she/her pronouns among her followers. This scene was an early delight, although the swapping of pronouns doesn’t always go down so smoothly. There are a few points late in the work where the decision caused some friction with the plot, but this was a small price to pay for what it added to other areas.
There’s a small scene near the midpoint where Dionysus dresses Pentheus in women’s clothes. In a different production, this might have been played for laughs – but because of the direction the cast took with it, it became the emotional centre of the production. Both Jamie and Maxine spoke about the importance of this moment. They also highlighted how their experience as trans people, and their memories of introduction into queer communities, helped shape the scene into a touching moment of self-realisation and mentorship.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised, given Bakkhai is about the god of theatre, but the blocking and set design render the play’s bloody antics in startling, visceral, and creative ways. In this fashion, Bakkhai punches well above the weight of a student production. While the abstract layout of the stage’s first iteration took time to wrap your head around, the lengthwise setup made Kambri Theatre feel bigger than any other production I’ve seen there. On the other hand, the post-interval stage setup, reminiscent of an amphitheatre, felt tense and claustrophobic – an excellent complement to the tragic finale. The choreography was also of exceptional quality, keeping a foot grounded in both storytelling and spectacle, and it didn’t spare an inch of theatre space. It is a credit to both the cast and Knox, the first BIPOC director NUTS has seen in years, whose inclusive and collaborative approach has been lauded by everyone I’ve spoken to. Overall, the production doesn’t just feel at home in Kambri Theatre; it feels like it was born and raised there.
Outside the physical set, Bakkhai is a tour de force for Jessica Luff’s now-famous lighting design. The gorgeous and dynamic setup for Dionysus’ opening monologue was a personal standout. And while the recorded sound was minimal, the chanting, stamping, and wailing of the cast members – both on and off stage – filled that space in an immediate and thrilling way. While perhaps not as tight as some other ANU productions, what the performances lacked in precision was often made up for in energy. With its poetic language and larger-than-life emotions, a play like Bakkhai is a tough ask for a performer. But when the cast lands the balance between subtlety and violence that the work requires, as they often but not uniformly did, the effect is spectacular. Outside of the duelling protagonists, standout performances included Darcy Hoyle’s Agave, whose blood-craved reverie was a joy to watch, and Marty Kelly’s Tiresias, who was an island of calm in a play that is anything but.
Finally, in speaking with Eayrs, I asked her to define what it meant to be Dionysian for her – and I’ll quote her in full:
“It’s something that is fake at its core, yet real in how it affects people. Its pure social construct – pure theatre. Theatre is a fake story, and nothing that’s happening on stage is really happening. And yet, at the end of the day, everyone goes home having learned something – or been affected in some way. It’s the pure social construct of pleasure and letting go that is, at once, completely empty but is made meaningful because of the emptiness it offers.”
Another word for emptiness is space. And I think that is at the core of this production, which is vacuous and sensational but creates space for its cast and crew to tell their stories and show off their experiences. Like the goddess herself, Bakkhai is all surface, which allowed this production to put its own heart into it.
Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.
Comments Off on Mind the Crust: Canberran Comics Rise to the Occasion
Last night I had a dream. It was… strange. I was sitting in a packed-out theatre in Belconnen. There was some kind of comedy show on. They were singing a song about hay fever. And then another one about… erectile dysfunction? Then I was transported to a motivational seminar about how to do a little bit of white-collar crime. The last thing I remember was Mikhail Gorbachev trying to stop his alternate-universe neoliberal self, Reagan Gorbachev, from introducing the free market to the Soviet Union.
Imagine my surprise when I woke to realise that it wasn’t a dream at all. No, it was Bread Revue’s debut show, Mind the Crust. Developed by Synan Chohan, Rohan Pillutla, and Anna Coote, Mind the Crust was a one-night-only sketch comedy show at Belco Arts. A wacky and provocative performance of twenty-six sketches by eight local actors, it struck an impressive balance between esotericism and broad appeal.
For a highly wheaty title, there were hardly any bread references in the show. Producer Synan Chohan shared that the idea began with ‘an undeniably bad in-joke: to create a live sketch comedy show where every skit is bread-themed. However, our plan crumbled when we realised that, much like a carb-only diet, you can’t sustain a performance on bread-based jokes alone.’ So the bread-themed comedy was jammed into just one sketch. Two Mafia types discuss a hit on some poor victim, only to reveal that the ‘hit’ was more of a ‘kneading’ and the ‘dough’ they earnt was a golden loaf of bread, hot from the oven. There was some bread at the close of the show too: baguettes thrown onto the stage by well-prepared fans in lieu of flowers.
It was weirder than most things I’ve experienced recently, or maybe ever, but the team also knew when to pull in the reins. Quality acting was the talk of the post-show crowd, and every actor brought something different to the stage. Take the sketch with two wartime comrades meeting at a park bench in Tuscany, for example. One sits on the bench, face covered by a newspaper. The other, Lloyd, pontificates about the complexities of war, before the first drops the newspaper and reveals herself in a tux and a Cthulhu mask. Cthulhu speaks in garbled screams. ‘You were an idealist once, Cthulhu,’ Lloyd responds, understated and serious, ‘Don’t you believe anymore?’. It would have been slapstick, but the execution was spot on.
Most of the sketches felt like they were based on a ‘wouldn’t it be funny if…’ question taken to its humorous conclusion. Wouldn’t it be funny if Hamlet’s ‘to be or not to be’ was reimagined in an Australian pub (‘VB, or not VB’)? Wouldn’t it be funny if glass-ceiling-smashing feminism was used to get women into gambling? Wouldn’t it be funny if there was an army whose only weapons were sex toys? And for most of them – not including that uninspired last one – the answer was yes, it would be hilarious.
The sketch of the night would have to be the self-absorbed poet, played by Jack Foster. Lounging at Smith’s Alternative with Ulysses and a coconut water, he waxes lyrical to himself. “I’ve always said Canberra in the wintertime was like living in limbo. I never elaborate on that statement.”
A woman walks into the room. His thoughts continue, “I was frozen in her presence as she passed, perceiving me in my insecurities. Baby, I’m the most emasculated man alive! I’m all withered from your gaze, can’t you see?”. He takes to the stage with some nonsensical slam poetry and bathes in the resounding clicks of his audience. The woman, impressed, approaches him, but he’s too shy to talk to her. “Ugh,” she storms out, “I’m so done with poets!”. Back in comfortable solace, he returns to his asinine soliloquy: “Like parallel lines, we were two ships in the dark. Destined to converge but never interact.”
Interspersed among the performances were skilfully produced video sketches, giving both the actors and the audience a break from the live format. In one, reminiscent of La Moustache, a woman is driven to insanity when no one but her, not even Google, remembers the hit 1997 Robin Williams film Flubber. “Why does it matter so much?” her therapist asks. She gravely responds: “It doesn’t. It’s Flubber.”
Minimalistic sets provided only what was needed for the scene, combined with props and audio-visual elements where necessary to drive the jokes home. A bird-hating scientist in Broken Hill uses a microwave time machine to go back and extinguish the very first bird, butterfly effect be damned. The main street of Broken Hill on the projector suddenly changes to a futuristic utopia: Fixed Hill. Lloyd is forced to assassinate his friend Cthulhu, scattering a bag of polaroids across the stage. On screen, we see an animation of each polaroid floating to the ground, showing various shots of the two friends knocking around in their wartime heyday. Even the sex toy army sketch was somewhat enjoyable because of the magnificently crafted papier-mâché penis sword, with veins and dangling balls and all.
I feel obliged to discuss the Gorbachev sketch, but I’m not sure it’s possible to fully translate into words. In an Everything Everywhere All at Once-style multiverse mash-up, Mikhail Gorbachev – the last leader of the Soviet Union – puts an end to Reaganomics with a little help from his alternate selves: Skateboarder Gorbachev, Goku-chev, Gorba-Chef, Simpsons-head-in-a-jar-Gorbachev, and somehow several more variants, all with detailed costumes. Like the previous sentence, it was a little too much Gorbachev, and it dragged on a bit long. But as the second last sketch of the show, by that point the crowd was won over enough to appreciate the silliness.
The show was advertised with this description: ‘Mind The Crust is sure to be your night’s delight. Or, you may be left concerned why a group of twenty-somethings spent their own money into creating a live performance just to temporarily cope with the hollow ennui of their youth.’ I certainly experienced the former, with just a healthy pinch of the latter. While there was little to take away from the show except for a good time and some funny quotes, I felt like I had been witness to a momentous event to forever be inscribed in the history of Canberran twenty-somethings post-COVID comedy. It was certainly worth a bit of dough, especially with the profits donated to HelpingACT, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next. I’ll be there, front and centre, armed with a bouquet of baguettes, bagels, and maybe even a croissant.
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Mind The Crust was a one night show at Belco Arts Centre written and performed by Synan Chohan, Rohan Pillutla, Kayla Ciceran, Jack Foster, Alana Grimley, Lily McCarthy, Claire Noack and Jack Shanahan.
Writers: Lily Ievarsi, Eldon Huang, Elroy James, and Ella Serhan-Sharp
Production Manager: Anna Coote
Set and Costume Design: Roz Hall
Choreography: Gabi Izurieta
Marketing and Graphic Design + Backstage Crew: Jamie Leonard
Stage Manager and Lighting Designer: Evelyn Perry
Musical Directors: Kian Shayan
Assistant Musical Directors: Ryan Yu & Kahlil Perusco
Cinematography: Jeremy Tsuei Backstage
Crew: Anna Coote, Roz Hall, Jamie Leonard & Kahlil Perusco
Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.