Theatregoing Year in Review - 2024 (Part Two - Practitioners)

Part of my evolution as a reviewer is continuing to learn more about all the technical roles that go into making a show work at an optimal level. My background is as a screenwriter so I have a pretty good handle on story and acting, however, at times, it leaves me a little weaker in other aspects. No, I'm not a theatre kid! Which, I believe, actually works in my favour in terms of being an outsider with no direct ties to the theatre world other than going to lots of shows and trying to write honestly about the experience.  

Thank you then to sound designer Michael Fletcher who met with me earlier in the year to give me a better insight into all the factors he needs to consider in making a production sound great. I also appreciate him taking the time to talk me through specific challenges like when he saw me at a tech rehearsal for Carrie.

Speaking of Carrie, thank you to now graduated stage management student Elysia Harris who I sat with to write a story for the Friends of the Academy before watching her call that tech rehearsal (and subsequent performance run) as deputy stage manager. Another insight into the makings of a great show.

I'm now probably going to disappoint you both by naming a lot of actors... but I'm trying to better understand the offstage aspects, I promise!

I also have an apology to make. I sometimes get tied up in faux rules about how to do these end of year write-ups which means I left off someone I shouldn't have last year which has subsequently nagged at me. Belated apologies to Patrick Volpe who had a sensational 2023 playing the title role in Sweeney Todd, Chuck Cranston in Footloose, and my favourite feline miscreant, Macavity, in Cats.  

To this year's theatre practitioners who caught the eye!

Kieran Ridgway (Director) - Evil Dead The Musical (Wanneroo Repertory)

What an auspicious directorial debut with Ridgway presenting an ingeniously over-the-top experience that clearly showed a deep affection for the material. 

Tara Oorjitham (Musical Director) - Young Frankenstein (Darlington Theatre Players)

Silhouetted at the rear of the stage, many patrons still believed it was a music track playing which is how good the orchestra was under Oorjitham's baton.

Solonje Burns (Performer) - Top Girls (GRADS)

A superb performance in a demanding role where Burns was nothing less than full tilt as she kept "running up hills" of the character's imagination and own circumstances. 

Anna Head (Performer) - The Deep Blue Sea (Melville Theatre Company)

"What a performance. Full of layers, complexity, and contradictions. Head plays her at times as bursting with emotion verging on the melodramatic and, at others, as repressing her true feelings whilst putting on a brace face."

Amy Fortnum (Performer/Producer) - She Loves Me (Western Sky Projects) 

Displaying very good comedic chops and a superb singing voice, Fortnum leads the standout show of the year with grace and class whilst impressing at the aftershow Q&A with her producer hat on.

Matthew Jones (Performer) - Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Koorliny)

If you ever doubted how powerful a tool an actor's voice is then Jones' performance as Mina and Van Helsing would set you straight right quick. His vocal command and variation was exceptional and drove a lot of the comedy here. 

Yvette Drager Wetherilt (Wig Design) - Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Koorliny), Young Frankenstein (Darlington) & The Addams Family (Roleystone)

Wetherilt went on a tear with horror themed shows where her wigs were an integral part of the look and tone of those productions including a sequence in Dracula that was inspired lunacy. 

Amberly Cull (Performer) - Same Time Next Week (Presented by Nick Pages-Oliver & Scott McArdle) 

"...special mention goes to Amberly Cull who is extraordinary as Drew, Freya, and the startling puppet incarnation of Lady Morinth. While the others give a good account of themselves in the singing department, Cull is superb vocally."

Alexandria Henderson (Performer) - Nora: A Doll's House (WAAPA)

"Alexandria Henderson excels as a modern woman trapped by circumstances she can't control. Henderson's emotional responses are exquisite especially when Angelo Torres' Daniel imparts shattering news." 

Paige Fallu (Performer) - Hairspray (HAMA Productions) 

The pandemic meant I never saw Fallu whilst she was a student at WAAPA but she sure made an impression as Tracy Turnblad here, singing beautifully and radiating such an enthusiastic stage presence.

Kate Naunton Morgan (Performer) - Emma (ARENA Theatre Productions) & Antigone (GRADS)

Freshly graduated from Curtin University and straight into lead roles as diverse as the two titular characters here. A delight in Emma, it's in Antigone, however, where Morgan soars as the tragedy unfurls and she rises to the heightened emotional state needed. 

Mahali (Performer) - Come From Away (Koorliny) 

Showcasing a powerhouse voice and empathy to burn, Mahali is absolutely riveting to watch. The long foreshadowed reveal, when it comes, is still devastating because you feel the intensity of her emotion.

Tadhg Lawrence (Performer) - Come From Away (Koorliny) 

I'll confess, it took me a good twenty minutes to figure out where I knew Lawrence from - Iago in Othello! I did not know he had such a wonderful singing voice and in a superlative ensemble he makes his presence felt with an assured performance.  

Ben Clarke (Performer) - The Drowsy Chaperone (Stirling Players)

You couldn't ask for a better stage debut. He has the audience in the palm of his hand as Man in Chair and immediately sets the tone for the antics to come. 

Ben Goldsbrough (Performer) - Legally Blonde (WAAPA) & Pinocchio (Zealous Productions)

"Goldsbrough brings real empathy and a genuineness to Emmett that I found charming and quietly compelling." (Legally Blonde)

"Goldsbrough is terrific as the comic foil quickly winning audience empathy with his deliberately bad puns and dubious pizza making skills. It's such an assured performance for his first professional gig." (Pinocchio)

Ellen Ebbs (Performer) - The World Goes Round & Legally Blonde (WAAPA), Pinocchio (Zealous Productions)

From the moment Ebbs strode onto the stage and blew the roof off the Roundhouse Theatre in the Kander & Ebb revue show; to her stellar turn as Paulette in Legally Blonde; and then as Pinocchio in the big Christmas panto, it's been clear that she has an enormously bright future. A major new talent to watch. 

Georgia Unsworth (Performer) - Sydney II: Lost and Found (Theatre 180) 

A good music theatre performer, Unsworth caught me totally by surprise with a fantastic dramatic performance opposite two seasoned actors. Her vocal command, accent work, and portrayal of different ages - including a young boy - was excellent and had me buzzing afterwards. 

Ones to Watch For Next Year:

Iris Warren (Writer/Deviser/Performer) - Femoid (WAAPA)

I was super impressed with the quality of Warren's writing in Femoid and keen to see how the extended version turns out. 

Kimberly Rose (Performer) - Carrie The Musical (WAAPA) 

Rose gives the lynchpin performance as Carrie's mother that makes the whole show work tonally. Scary good in such an intense role. 

Pippin Carroll (Performer) - The Laramie Project (WAAPA)

It's difficult to define that elusive quality some actors have but when Carroll started his first scene I exchanged a look with the person I was with and it was clear we could both feel it. Need to see more next year but it was a tantalising glimpse. 

That's me done for the year. Back to my screenwriter's lair to work on my own projects for a while. 

Have a great festive season all and see you at the theatre in 2025!

Richard Hyde 

   

Emma - ARENA Theatre Productions (11 May 2024)

How exhausting polite society must be. All that scheming for social advantage. All that matchmaking. What mischief one might get into if one so chose. And choose Emma Woodhouse (Kate Naunton Morgan) does at the behest of Jane Austen herself (Ashlee McKenna) who propels her heroine from imagination onto the page and into the theatre itself. 

Emma makes Harriet Smith (Millie Hillman) a project for whom to find an agreeable suitor, certainly one far more agreeable than one Robert Martin (Callum Vinsen) who is a mere, gasp, farmer whilst avoiding romantic entanglements herself. Along the way, many other families from the fictional village of Highbury will become inevitably embroiled in Emma's machinations before Emma herself succumbs to an unforeseen fate. It is a very particular comedy of manners set in a world where such things are paramount. 

That world is stylishly realised with effective costume and set design with well considered use of lighting (Design Jayden French, Operator Mark Belstead) and sound design (Sound Operator Liam Tickner, Audio Advisor Jon Hoey) to represent the various households and surrounds. The indoor set is well dressed with elegant furniture and props that are easily moved for larger moments such as the ballroom scenes. The costumes are also elegant and suggestive of the period while I particularly liked the attention given to the hairstyles of all the women characters. There is clever use of lighting to denote evening scenes stage left where there is a bench under a tree on the grounds, and McKenna's Austen is often spotlighted in one of her primary positions stage right. Sound incorporates everything from birds in the gardens to a piano forte to add nearly a sense of whimsy to proceedings with music credits adding class with selections from Vivaldi to Mozart. 

As Director Simon James says in the (also stylishly presented) online programme, this is a minimalist production as befits a community theatre undertaking and to focus on the performances. The credits reveal it has indeed been a shared endeavour with several members of the cast involved in costumes, props, stage management, choreography and even IT support! James himself is credited for not only Director but Script Adaptation, Set Design, Props, Sound Recordist, Set Construction, and Publicity Design!

To those performances and there are three in particular that are the bedrock on which the play is built. I first came across Kate Naunton Morgan in two shows last year at Curtin University's Hayman Theatre - Dead Man's Cell Phone and The Pillowman - where she showcased a gift for comedy that serves her very well as the titular character here. With excellent projection and elocution Morgan handles the mannered dialogue with a devilish twinkle in the eye. Her facial expressions and affectations more than once reminded me of Annie Murphy of Schitt's Creek fame. Morgan is one to watch as her knack for physical comedy and deft timing are invaluable tools.

Millie Hillman proves an ideal foil to Morgan as her guileless and sweet portrayal of Harriet Smith is a delight. Hillman also demonstrates a light touch as she responds to the hapless girl's lack of success in whatever ploy Emma has contrived with resolute goodness. 

Then there's Ashlee McKenna as Jane Austen. James has chosen to thrust Austen front and centre in this adaptation which causes a certain imbalance. That's because McKenna is devastatingly charming in the role, looks amazing in perhaps the most prominent costume, and delivers her narration with panache. She pulls focus from the primary action of any scene by her mere presence; whether that be observing, directing the action, controlling the tempo, giving line reads for 'her' characters, or simply writing as they speak. Often she would walk into a spotlighted area to accentuate her presence, or interact with characters, and other times she would fade into darkness and watch from the wings. At all times I was conscious of where McKenna was which tended to distract from the focus of a scene. It's the case of a compelling performance overshadowing an interesting idea on the page.  

This also happened to a lesser extent with Callum Vinsen's Servant who was doing different forms of light shtick on the periphery of scenes. Perhaps more successful was the broad comedy provided by Robert McDonough's Mr Woodhouse whose concerns about the health effect of, amongst other things, draft was a running gag; or Maria Passalacqua whose double act with Taneal Thompson as Mrs and Miss Bates provided another running gag about the decrepitude of old age. 

Jack Riches amusingly gives his put upon Mr Elton a broad comic touch with plenty of pratfalls and a certain Blackadder-esque sneer at times. His antics only increase in the second half when the cyclone that is his newly betrothed, Mrs Elton, vibrantly played by Kellie White, wreaks havoc with a forthright demeanour even Emma, especially Emma, finds insufferable.

To the other gentlemen of interest, Garrison Cox is a little stiff as Mr Knightley which kind of works as the older family friend who professes to be Emma's sole critic. James Ford is a stout and pleasant presence as Frank Churchill, albeit one who conceals a secret that sabotages Emma's plans. 

Another Curtin alumna, Poppy Lindsell, is demure and bright as Jane Fairfax while Nathan R Bonham gives a good-natured portrayal as Mr Weston. The cast did work well together, no better typified than in the dance scenes which seemed like barely controlled chaos but were charming nonetheless because the performers were all smiles as they corrected various missteps. Some did seem to tire though in the latter stages as the demands of the dialogue and style of delivery took hold.

Not normally the sort of play I would gravitate to, this was stylishly presented with a trio of key performances that demonstrate the depth of young talent in the community theatre space.