Gloria's Glorious Gloryhole - Fringe World 2016 (1 February 2016)

Ah, the Eighties. That glorious decade of high fashion, big business, pop music the likes of which the world may never hear again, and the return to prominence of the dance movie. When Walkmans were all the rage and the bigger the shoulder pads the more important you were.

Based on this criterion our hostess Gloria (Chloe King) is very important indeed with shoulder pads that would make a third world dictator blush. Then again, that’s not the only part of Gloria’s routine that would make a person’s cheeks burn. The sexual innuendo flies thick and fast as the cabaret singer welcomes the audience into her ‘warm and wet glory hole’. It’s all in the name of saucy good fun as pulses race, smiles widen, cheers grow louder, and various audience members both male and female get a little extra attention in a way only Gloria can provide.

While recounting the highs and lows of the decade intermingled with her own hilarious personal experiences, Gloria belts out a roster of instantly recognisable pop classics. In this she is aided by Blondie (Mia Brine) on keyboards and guitar. Blondie never misses an opportunity to upstage Gloria much to the star’s instant annoyance.

Now, I’m a musical child of the eighties so any show that starts with a slightly rearranged working of the introduction to Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy - “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called Fringe” – is going to meet with my approval. To double up with pop royalty by next launching into a Queen song is positively going to have me in its clutches. Now, to be fair, Don’t Stop Me Now is NOT an eighties song. Gloria obviously sensed my discomfit at this fact by pointing out to the ‘pedants’ (I prefer the term ‘80s pop purist’!) in the audience that it was the launching pad for the decade to come.

A decade of Laura Branigan, The Human League, Yazoo, Madonna, The Divinyls (no prizes for guessing which song Gloria picked here!), Spandau Ballet, Whitney, Wham, and Bonnie Tyler. Then there were the dance movies – Fame, Dirty Dancing, Footloose and their ilk – that had their own musical highlights. All delivered with style, gusto and more than a dash of cheek. The audience loved it, even the ones squirming under Gloria’s rapacious gaze.

This is a fun show that engendered a raucous response as the packed Frisk Small Bar picked up on the slightly naughty, sexy vibe. From laminated photos of your favourite 80’s icons – Tony Hadley, Simon Le Bon, George Michael, and Princess Diana – to the playful flirting with the audience; to the full throated (yes, pun intended) delivery of songs you couldn’t help but sing along to this is an entertaining hour reliving a decade that was slightly cheesy, always over the top, but nothing less than fun.

Gloria’s Glorious Gloryhole is on at the Frisk Small Bar on Francis Street until 4 February. 

Keeping Time - Skylight Ensemble Theatre (31 January 2015)

Let’s start at the ending first for ends are very much on this play’s mind – what happens when our time on this plane of existence comes to a halt? Where do we go? What occurs when we get there? What of those we leave behind? Do the memories of people and events become imbued in the very fabric of a place? What is the world between the living and the dead and why could it exist?

All of these are big questions to be sure.

Memories abounded at the historic Victoria Hall when local Freo personality, 92 year old Norm Wrightson was asked to share his experiences at the end of the play. In remarkable good health and with more than a dash of sly humour Norm told of his time as a band member playing at this very venue in the Forties when Fremantle was buzzing with seamen and migrants. You could almost see his fellow band members and their enthusiastic audience as they played, danced, loved and fought. Maybe this is what ghosts really are – our imaginations fired by memories summoned from those who preceded us.

The play itself was written specifically for this venue with its high ceilings, wonderful stage and real sense of atmosphere. The subsequent stories were based on real life characters with no small amount of embellishment of course, unless there really are ghosts that walk and laugh and wonder amongst us.

After an awkward start where we hear a recording of… an argument of some sort that is then replayed, a character called Ed (Jeremy Mitchell) slowly makes his way from the back of the hall onto an empty stage. It soon becomes clear that Ed is deeply troubled… and hangs himself. His wife (Chloe King) discovers his death which knocks her and their daughter Skyla (Kira-Che Heelan) into a cycle of paralysed grief and, in the daughter’s case, self-harm. This is exacerbated by the accidental death of her boyfriend Johnny (Obe Oldmeadow) who falls from the scaffolding at this very hall.

Johnny acts as our guide as we are introduced into a netherworld of ghosts who cannot cross over and are trapped in their own sorrow and regrets. A couple from colonial times, Elsie (Jessica Dalwood) and James (Caleb Olsen) who lost their 6 month old baby in a fire; Henry (Fraser Shepherdson) who went to Europe searching for his father during World War I who had by that time already died on the battlefield; a coquettish young woman Ethel May (Jitana Jamieson) who loves to dance; and various other ghostly apparitions all dressed in white including Sir Joseph Talbot Hobbs (Christopher Wortham) the actual architect of Victoria Hall who acts loosely as a mentor figure. Then there’s Ed himself. Johnny has a little trouble coming to terms with his ‘condition’ and those around him. Much philosophical discussion around the nature of life and death ensues.

Meanwhile Skyla and her Mum are literally haunted by the ticking sound of the clock Ed so loved in life. Johnny’s work colleagues, two painters (James Gill and Kai Arbuckle) who work on the ceiling, add humour as well as historical facts about the hall. It is indeed a character in its own way.

The acting across the board by a mainly young teenage cast was very good. Skyla is well played by the striking Heelan who doesn’t allow the character’s anger and grief to verge into melodrama. Likewise, Jamieson is all wide-eyed innocence and yearning as Ethel May. Johnny is played with suitable earnestness by Oldmeadow and the two painters add a common touch and a more ribald sense of humour. There is the occasional song accompanied by a piano at the back of the hall. Dalwood's Elsie who sang to her long dead child was convincing in her utter sorrow and there were lovely touches throughout such as the soldiers who kept watch even in death. King does a lot of the heavy lifting as the grieving widow and fearful mother in a fine emotional performance. 

The space was set up as cabaret style seating and while many people liked that some scenes were played amongst the audience I was near the stage so most of that was behind me. Lots of twisting and turning for those who wanted to follow the action. The acoustics were terrific where I was with the soundscape from the front speakers and the dialogue crystal clear. The stage was simply set with scaffolding at the back and a coat rack stage right where Ed’s overalls hung with great significance.

The deaths were well handled as were the tales from the ghosts as they shared the cause of their predicament. There was a pivotal scene, however, where Ed talks to his wife and physically interacts with her. This came out of nowhere and I think it needed to be established earlier that the ghosts could physically affect the living otherwise it opened up a whole host of questions. Why couldn’t the painters see Johnny? Who could see who under what circumstances? If Ed could visit his wife why couldn’t Johnny visit Skyla or Henry his Dad etc? 

That Johnny ultimately does go to his girlfriend seemed more like script mechanics than an organic decision even though the use of a linking song device was good. It would be nice if the spurned Ethel May told the tyro ghost that this was possible and released him. Skyla’s reaction was also interesting though her immediate response was masked as she turns away from the audience to face Johnny. I wanted to see her face, the confusion or fear or joy or disbelief in her eyes so this felt like a lost moment.

Other than those quibbles this was an atmospheric and interesting exploration of grief and loss with a tale anchored in the very building it was set. I did wonder though whether the audience should also have been a ‘character’ of sorts as we were in the ghosts’ space but only obliquely acknowledged. It all ends in a lovely moment as the cast, scattered throughout the hall, beseeched us to live life to the fullest before being taken by the darkness… then blew out their candles. Nice touch. 

Written and directed by Julia Perkins (in collaboration with cast and crew) this was a very mature and intelligent piece of theatre. 

Improvisation Performance - Perth PlayBack Theatre Company (14 September 2014)

I was invited along to the Chrysalis Montessori School in Glendalough to witness an improvised performance held after a daylong introductory workshop to Playback, a form of improvisational theatre. The performance featured actors well versed in this process and proved to be a fascinating experience as both an audience member and as a writer.

The audience was made up of people who had attended the workshop and members of the general public either interested in acting or there to watch family or friends who were participants. The atmosphere was very supportive which was important not only for the performers but also, as I was about to find out, those of us who supplied real life stories as the catalyst for the improvisations.

Actor Zane Alexander (who I had recently seen in Romeo and Juliet) conducted proceedings and started by giving a brief explanation of Playback and the importance of empathy in the process. The theme of the day was “What if…?” which is, of course, a question all writers ask when creating a new work but had even more resonance here as we were encouraged to apply it to our own lives. Zane was very good at teasing out the threads of a variety of real life stories, himself showing great empathy as he gently probed for, not so much details, as emotional signposts. “How did you feel about…?” was an important question throughout.

While this was going on there would be four actors ‘on stage’ at any one time out of a roster of 8-9 performers and it was interesting watching them. One of the hallmarks of a good actor is the ability to listen and they did so with utmost attentiveness. After the story or scenario had been offered and discussed with Zane he would nominate, in effect, a technique. The actors would then take the information they had gleaned to ‘playback’ that story in improvised form. For example, I offered the moment in my life when I resigned from a managerial job in Sydney to come home to Perth to be a writer and the feelings associated with that – fear, relief, concern I’d be seen as a failure etc. That translated into a physical interpretation of literally breaking free.

The techniques used (and my most likely inadequate descriptions) were:

Pairs - where tandems of two actors would represent opposing internal viewpoints suggested by the story.

Fluid – which seemed to be the four actors working together to present a continuous flow.

Chorus – the actors mirroring each other to reinforce the emotional and story beats.

Comic Strip – where we were asked to close our eyes then open them to a still moment of the story, repeated 3-4 times with different poses by the actors.

Story – where the 4 actors performed a more traditional though truncated set of scenes.

Transformation – a technique that was mentioned but not utilised on the day.

The actors would rotate on and off “the bench” (to use a sporting term) so that there were always different combinations. The only props used were four milk crates, two blue, two green; and a selection of long, coloured strips of fabric. Music was improvised on the spot in the wings with a mix of - a bell, keyboards, saxophone, flute, occasionally vocals and sound effects. Talking to one of the actors afterwards, Nichola Renton (who was wonderful recently in Concussion), this added to the emotional depth and provided cues as well, notably action changes and end points to ‘scenes’. It was clear there was a great sense of craft and trust at play here with the group working seamlessly together.

I won’t go into details of the stories graciously offered but they ranged from the personal to the light-hearted and gave the actors plenty to work with. I do, however, now know about the importance of hydration at sporting carnivals and the dangers of bedbugs on romantic holidays! Indeed, humour and a sense of play were important aspects of the performance but always with that sense of empathy shining through as justice was done to each story.  

Thank you to the director of the Perth Playback Theatre Company, Chloe King, who asked me along but also was a performer (as actor and musician) and even ‘conducted’ one of the story sessions. The afternoon was well received and on the basis of this glimpse into the process is a valuable tool for any performer to acquire within a supportive and friendly environment.

For more details of the Perth Playback Theatre Company go to their facebook page here.