My Favourite Local Writers 2012-2018

In the last of my retrospectives covering the years 2012 to 2018 I wanted to highlight those people perhaps closest to my creative heart, that being local playwrights and collaborators. The people who have created wonderful plays, musicals and cabaret acts that, at their very best, can compete with any new work anywhere else in the country.

There have been outstanding individual works - Stephen Lee's Madame Piaf immediately springs to mind - but this list is made up of those writers where I have seen more than one example of their creative output.

Thank you for the drama, the laughs, the entertainment, the discovery of new worlds and characters, of reflection and debate.

Tyler Jacob Jones & Robert Woods

A duo that is synonymous with award winning one act comedy musicals. Jones is the showman with dazzling lyrics and inventive books that skewer everything from reality television to the movie industry to our obsession with celebrities. Woods is the more stoic of the two when it comes to being onstage but his music is just as inspired. Together they are a perfect creative match. They also have a shared love of movies and movie making that is abundantly clear in how they approach their material. It's perhaps why their work resonates so deeply with me. Above all, they create smart, witty, laugh out loud funny musicals that are a joy to watch. They are also prolific as a Holiday Special and recent Retrospective amply demonstrates.

Highlights: Point & Shoot: A New Musical; Dr. Felicity Rickshaw's Celebrity Sex Party; Gravity the Musical

Tyler Jacob Jones is a fine dramatist in his own right with F**k Decaf and Becky Peterson Will Punch You In The Face notable examples. He also contributed to the excellent Skin Deep which lambasted the cosmetic industry with typical flair.

Jeffrey Jay Fowler & Chris Isaacs

Members of independent powerhouse The Last Great Hunt, Fowler and Isaacs combined their considerable writing talents to create two wonderful pieces of theatre featuring the same characters (that they also played) - FAG/STAG and Bali. There is a compelling honesty to their writing that comes from sharp observation and pointed social commentary. They can have an audience roaring with laughter in one moment then deathly silent the next. Consummate storytellers, they have an innate grasp of storytelling rhythms honed, I suspect, over many performances together.

Each has individually written notable plays with Isaacs' The Great Ridolphi an engrossing one man tour de force and Fowler impressing with perhaps his most mature work, The One.

Scott McArdle

McArdle was like a supernova at Murdoch University when I first came across him - from writing original works to acting, directing, lighting design, pretty much everything. Such indefatigable multi-tasking has continued since he graduated, adding publicist amongst other functions and being a popular fixture on the independent theatre scene. The scope and ambition of McArdle's writing has been a feature - contemplative dramas; a full superhero themed musical; bringing science fiction front and centre to the stage; and adapting Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a passion project of considerable skill.

Highlights: Bye. Gone; Coincidences at the End of Time; Frankenstein; Between Solar Systems

Will O'Mahony

Perhaps the finest local exponent of dialogue writing I have witnessed over the last seven years. I adore his rapid paced rat-tat-tat exchanges between characters and the density of the information he has them impart. He builds in verbal motifs and repetition that has my Aaron Sorkin loving heart swooning. There is a somewhat off-kilter approach to his storytelling that I enjoy as it allows for such theatrical treats as a talking panda. But he doesn't shy away from emotionally wrenching drama as the final moments of The Mars Project and his contribution to the Loaded double bill attest.

Highlights: The Mars Project (WAAPA version); Tonsils + Tweezers; Coma Land

Hellie Turner 

Always in demand as a dramaturg and mentor, Turner seems to have specialised of late in bringing true life stories to the stage. Notably in uniquely Australian tales set during World War I and a searing reportage-based production tackling rape culture. There is often a lyrical quality to Turner's writing that suits the historical dramas even with their sense of doom and glimpses of impending horror. Project Xan, however, grabbed you by the throat and demanded you bear witness.

Highlights: The Dreaming Hill; The Lighthouse Girl; Project Xan

Tiffany Barton

The aspect I respect most about Barton's writing is the no holds barred, in your face approach. She illuminates extreme characters and behaviours with a forthrightness and honesty that you simply can't look away from. There is no guile or ego here. It may be blunt, it may shock, but it makes for riveting drama.

Highlights: Metalhead; Diva 

Noel O'Neill

To say O'Neill is prolific would be an understatement. He seems to have at least two to three of his plays being performed every year and is a fixture in the community theatre scene. His comedies are so popular he has even turned two of them into franchises. But it's his dramas that most impress.

Highlights: Under Any Old Gum Tree; Holly & Ivy; It's All Greek To Me

Izaak Lim & Nick Maclaine

Specialists in a certain type of cabaret show - take a musical theatre icon from the past and weave a tale about their life story while incorporating their most memorable songs. It's a winning formula that has seen entertaining explorations of Cole Porter and, I confess, someone I did not know much about beforehand, Dorothy Fields.

Highlights: You've Got That Thing!; Exactly Like You: The Magic of Dorothy Fields

Thomas Owen, Cal Silberstein & Jackson Griggs

Emerging from the UWA theatre scene this trio has been tackling that most difficult of beasts, the fully fledged musical with Owen and Silberstein on book and lyrics; Griggs composing the music. The first effort I saw was promising though perhaps trying a little too hard to impress while the followup was one of my favourites from 2016's Fringe World.

Highlights: How We Ruined MacArthur's Markers; Viva La Restoration

Gita Bezard

Another member of The Last Great Hunt, Bezard's writing has a lighter comic touch, oftentimes playing with farce and the exaggerations/preoccupations of youth. Even her most provocative play featured four female teenagers that are literally in a playpen.

Highlights: In A Bony Embrace; Girl Shut Your Mouth; The Talk

The Flatpack Life - University Dramatic Society (3 May 2016)

Have you ever wandered through a large Scandinavian furniture store with a gnawing sense that something sinister was happening behind the plastic insert tab a into slot b facades? What the general public and Dan Brown have failed to realise is that conspiracies run far deeper than Opus Dei. Yes, the greatest force for evil throughout history has been the ever present tentacles of Mobler, a company so named to avoid inevitable lawsuits from the folks at Ikea who are really touchy about their all pervasive criminal past. To keep prices low and dominate the market worldwide Mobler has secretly been smuggling the most exotic and dangerous substance known to man into Australia. Yes, that’s right, fruit.  

Wait, what... fruit? You heard me. Not being an economist I’m not sure how that works but stay with me here...

Into this viper’s den of deceit, the innocent Bjorn, fresh off the plane from Sweden, arrives with dreams of meeting the public’s low cost, pre-packaged furnishing demands while indulging in really good meatballs. I mean the kind of meatballs that make you forget your name (foreshadowing a key plot point so, um, spoiler alert!). He immediately falls for an AFL loving, ballsy customs agent due to the demands of the plot – did I mention the bio security threat of fruit smuggling? Together they... well, he uncovers an illicit shipment of foodstuffs which, in true corporate fashion, leads to a promotion to keep him silent. Except that his conscience then gets the better of him and he tries to leave. Meanwhile our battery toting, nipple frying heroine and love of his life, Rhonda investigates the disappearance of her comic sidekick Beatrice who has stumbled across the truth. Eventually our heroes are saved, evil empires toppled, and meatballs consumed with gusto.

Okay, so the original Book by Matt Dixon and Ralph Thompson doesn’t make a lick of sense and it all descends into James Bond spoof-style silliness with over-the-top villains, smarmy henchmen, more ocker sheilas than an episode of Kath & Kim, and a bland hero wearing sandals and knee high socks. Despite this there are some genuinely funny moments due to a couple of pivotal performances and the sheer absurdity of it all.

The songs, lyrics also by Dixon and Thompson, aren’t particularly memorable and the singing talent on display is relatively weak. A key issue on opening night was the poor sound balance that made the often-times trying to be too clever lyrics difficult to be heard. The Music by Jackson Griggs is a mix of muzak style musings befitting the setting and an almost cabaret lounge feel at times. It is well played by a five piece band including Griggs on keyboard and conductor Ben Hogan on organ. The most effective number was a rap-like interrogation of a hapless smuggler.

There is a twenty strong ensemble that begin the show with the title song, customer greeting smiles firmly fixed in place. The song is reprised two more times including the ending which is quite amusing as we learn the fate of all the characters. Otherwise they felt woefully under-utilised except for one moment when Bjorn tries to leave Mobler and is encircled by the ensemble blocking his path and ultimately engulfing him. I would have liked to have seen more of this direct involvement in the action to add movement, colour, and scale. If you’re going for the absurd do it big and with a flourish!

The show is stolen by Harry Goodlet as the elderly Magnus and especially Erin Craddock as Beatrice. The former creates an unintended highlight after a prop malfunction during a song and dance number. Thinking fast on his feet Goodlet uses the mishap to hilarious effect. There was also a sense of unpredictability about his performance that added to the laughs. I was never quite sure what he was going to do.

Craddock is flat out funny from the get go. Her wise-cracking custom officer sidekick with mean girl attitude and a fondness for “inter-textual references” that range from Grease to Reservoir Dogs steals every scene she is in.  

Nina Heymanson gets to vamp it up as the corporate villain while her henchman Sven played by Nicholas Morlet is amusingly creepy. Emily Gale brings a perkiness to faithful employee Boghild and Lewis Buchanan is effective as a corporate middle-management buffoon (we all know the type).

In the lead roles, Lucy Rossen portrays Rhonda with a straight ahead, no frills earnestness that works well in combination with Craddock’s showier Beatrice; while Caleb Donaldson inhabits the naive Bjorn with a pretty boy blandness that suited a character with pretty much no agency in driving the narrative forward.

This is sporadically very funny but the deeper we went into the production the more it felt like a sketch revue show than a cohesive musical. Directed by Rupert Williamson with Musical Direction by Ben Hogan, The Flatpack Life is on at the Dolphin Theatre on the UWA campus until 7 May. 

Viva La Restoration - Fringe World 2016 (11 February 2016)

Imagine a world where colour doesn’t exist. Where people only vaguely recall it from a children’s fairy tale about golden and crimson monsters battling black and white knights. Where the powers-that-be consider colour dangerous as it incites emotions such as red for anger, blue for sorrow, yellow for fear, and orange for… well, let’s forget about orange for the moment.

Of course, this horrifying dystopian nightmare is quite familiar to anyone who is colour-blind (raises hand sheepishly). But this is the premise for the originally written musical Viva La Restoration or, more accurately the reworked version as this initially premiered back in 2013. Back then it was under the auspices of the University Dramatic Society (UDS). Featuring the same creative team of Jackson Griggs (Music) with Book and Lyrics by Thomas Owen and Cal Silberstein, this production has now been picked up by The Midnite Youth Theatre Company and directed by Gregory Jones.

It stars an excellent young cast of musical theatre performers, headlined by Olivia Everett as the whimsical Gwen Archer; Rupert Williamson as the intense Elias Kane; and Erin Craddock as Mayor Vera Donahue. To quell stirrings of unrest in this black and white world, Craddock’s Mayor announces a competition where Archer’s painting of an eye trumps Kane’s own creation. Both, however, are dissatisfied as something is missing. That something is of course colour that each discover in startlingly different ways. Archer through seeing colour in the eyes of her friend Lucy (Amy Fortnum) and Kane in more brutal fashion as red blood flows freely from one of his admirers Anna Meeler (Amber Kitney).

While Archer sets off to find the almost mythic Professor Perkins (Ben McAllister) who was banished for insisting that colour exists, Kane dazzles the local populace with his bloody art. Red becomes all the rage. The Mayor, advised by a bumbling duo of Councillors (Daniel Kirkby and Kieran Lynch), struggles to keep things under control, instructing her chief enforcer Officer Ambrose (Luke Wilson) to restore the monochromatic peace. It all ends in a showdown between Kane’s towering ambition fuelled by blood and Archer’s childlike idealism aided by the Professor’s dubious science in the creation of true colour.

The show started a little slowly but I really enjoyed this. The predominantly black and white design in costuming and projected images with splashes of colour, particularly red, is striking. The lighting also created great atmosphere with movable wooden frames holding old fashioned blinds rearranged in different combinations to diffuse light and provide the background for those images.

It showcased an excellent piano and guitar driven score that was very well played by the band of Ben Hogan (Keyboard/Conductor), Josiah Padmanabham (Guitar/Keyboard), Gwyneth Gardiner (Bass) and Andrew Silberstein (Drums) that added a lot of mood and texture.

Everett continues to impress with a deft comic touch that I really enjoy. Williamson was all brooding malevolence while Craddock presented a sleek and stern Mayor. Kirkby and Lynch worked well together as comic foils while Fortnum’s change in allegiances was heightened by the earnest loyalty she imbued Lucy with. McAllister gave an offbeat performance as the Professor but gets away with it because we immediately recognise the mad scientist archetype. The ensemble provides great support with strong vocal talent amongst its ranks.

Unlike their previous collaboration How We Ruined MacArthur’s Markers where the lyrics attempted a Sondheim level of complexity, the songs here are simpler and far more effective because of it. Highlights included the dark Living Masterpiece and the lovely Horribly Horrible where Everett’s Archer, faced with the failure of her quest, sings of how she wanted statues. Yes, both lead characters are not short of ego!

But this is one of my quibbles – it took a while for the show to settle into a groove that I thought I’d found when Archer meets the Professor and we get some shtick and the light-hearted I Believe In You. Ah, musical comedy, of course! The very next scene dashed that thought entirely when things took a very dark turn indeed. These two competing tones battled each other throughout the production – the light comedy styling that Everett pulls off so well versus the intense psychological drama that Williamson embodied. It sort of works as both represent diametrically opposed forces on the colour spectrum but the changes in style could, at times, be jarring.

The other minor suspension of disbelief issue emanates from the Book – in a colourless world colour exists in nature as depicted by the eyes and the flow of blood. It was as if no-one had ever noticed this before, not even after a minor cut or scratch.

Other than that this was well played, well sung, looked terrific and featured a great young cast. Plaudits go to Messrs. Griggs, Owen and Silberstein on continuing to develop this 90 minute, one act musical. It’s a devilishly tricky form to get right and this is an enjoyable production that showcases great potential for future endeavours. A recommended addition to the local music theatre scene.  

Viva La Restoration is on at the Subiaco Arts Centre until 20 February.  

How We Ruined MacArthur's Markers - Ludicrous Displays (24 June 2015)

One of the exciting things about independent theatre in Perth at the moment is that there are new emerging creative teams that are young, ambitious, and staging challenging work. They are surrounded by a troupe of regular performers such as the case with Ludicrous Displays that appears to have its origins at UWA. Members of the production team, cast and band have worked together recently in varying combinations on productions such as the musicals Spring Awakening and Assassins, as well as The Importance of Being Earnest. Here, however, not only are they presenting an original musical comedy but a revival of said show! I understand this is a pared down version of the original incarnation with more emphasis on comedy and a smaller cast number with the chorus removed.

There may be nothing more challenging in the performing arts than writing musical theatre, in this instance a 90 minute one act musical comedy. Last year I saw a couple of (good) productions that were billed as musicals but felt more like plays with songs. There is a crucial difference and How We Ruined MacArthur’s Markers certainly is a musical with the songs moving the narrative forward and informing the story. In the early going though the songs felt like they were striving to be too clever with overly elaborate word play and rhyming patterns. This meant that they were not, as Sondheim himself made mocking reference to in Merrily We Roll Along, “humma-mamumma-mamum-mable melodies”. Once this settled down the show found a nice groove and was much stronger after the mechanics of the set-up.

The story itself was a little hazy for mine as I wasn’t entirely clear on motivations and backstory but the decision to de-emphasise the drama and push the comedy meant it kind of gets away with it. In essence, the Patriarch has died leaving his eldest son Marcus (James Cohen) in charge of a business that sells pens. Unbeknownst to that heir he has a brother Felix (Ben Thomas) who still lives with their mother who is dying of *cough cough* The Cancer. He applies for a job at the company but doesn’t reveal his true identity while charged with saving it from demise and falling for the Head of R&D, Erica (Amy Fortnum). Marcus has a close relationship with his financial advisor Lewis (Sven Ironside) while loathing his mother Lillian (Olivia Everett). All the while company lawyer Alexandra (Madeline Crofts) amuses herself with booze and writing severance agreements. Ultimately plans are hatched and plots are gleefully foiled.

It’s told in flashback with Crofts’ boozy lawyer giving a wry, almost film noir style commentary on events as she immediately breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience. It’s a jaunty performance that is snarky and funny as the lawyer becomes increasingly drunk at a bar recounting the tale. Crofts also has an excellent voice as she demonstrated in Spring Awakening and her showpiece number More Fun That Way as she extols the virtues of booze is a highlight.

The other standout is Ironside playing the loyal and protective advisor who is wary of Felix typified by his number Head Down. He has some funny moments but it is in the more dramatic aspects that he excels. Cohen has perhaps the most unforgiving role as the son who fails to live up to his father’s business acumen and is unaware of who Felix really is. I never really understood the venom he directs towards his mother but Cohen has a strong moment in the second ballad of the show after his own personal epiphany. Thomas, who was impressive as Algernon in Earnest, displays a very good singing voice but is essentially playing the straight man role (and mummy’s boy) and he does this with unadorned, ahem, earnestness.

Fortnum gives Erica a bubbly persona that is a nice counterpoint to Alexandra’s cynicism and she has the strongest song with the ballad Just A Little, itself a catchphrase that is paid off nicely. Everett continues to impress with her comedic talents playing another off-kilter character in the supposedly *cough cough* cancer-ridden mother who manipulates her son and anyone who gets in her way. The conceit is that she’s playing a much older character but her showpiece You’re Fired is feisty and sassy. The band of Benjamin Hogan (keyboard), Scott Collison (reed), Gwyneth Gardiner (bass) and Rosie Taylor (drums) under the baton of Jackson Griggs plays the jazz influenced score well though there were times they were a little too loud for the unmiked singers.    

This started a little slowly but had a certain charm with some genuinely funny moments and, when not trying to over-impress with lyrical dexterity, good songs. How We Ruined MacArthur’s Markers is playing in the studio at the Subiaco Arts Centre until 27 June. Book and Lyrics by Thomas Owen and Cal Silberstein with Music by Jackson Griggs, it is directed by Owen and stars Ben Thomas, James Cohen, Amy Fortnum, Olivia Everett, Sven Ironside, and Madeline Crofts.