Choice Cuts - WAAPA (9 September 2017)

A greatest hits 2015-2017 megamix to help raise money for the upcoming showcases and to celebrate three years of studies coming to an end.

In that spirit of learning here's what I gleaned from this hour long revue...

In what surely will become the industry standard, Martin Quinn's pre-show announcement to the audience did more than merely remind me to check my landline, but filled me with confidence that in case of an emergency ECU's multitude of physicians would save me.

Quinn later explained, whilst disguised as a Noel Coward character, the latest state of the art theory in how to write a play. Apparently it involves a basket, a river, and a 7 day wait. Revolutionary.

Corpsing is a skill best taught in a safe, supportive environment such as The Roundhouse Theatre. Mitchell Bourke, Roy Joseph, and Katherine Pearson excelled under extreme provocation; baskets, hats, melodies and all.

If you're not doing Shakespeare with rap are you even doing Shakespeare at all?

Why hand someone a business card when you can surprise them with a hat instead as Jack Scott so ably demonstrated.

One cannot truly experience their first kiss without a little one hit wonder pop embellishment. Even if you're a doomed Jewish girl.

Stephen King has it all wrong. Clowns aren't scary at all. Unless you get dragged onstage pre-show and asked if you have a "tight 5 minutes".

The lyrics of Mack the Knife, suitably altered, prove a fitting send off for this graduating class. Until, you know, their last show in October, The Threepenny Opera.

This was a fun, breezy, hour long restrospective and the chemistry of this group is very strong. It's a really good graduating class.

It was also witnessed by, unless I'm mistaken, Perth girl Katherine Langford who might have ended up on this very stage if not for successfully auditioning for the show that has made her a star, 13 Reasons Why.

Present Laughter - WAAPA (17 June 2017)

I had a great time with this Noel Coward comedy - witty and elegant this featured a handsome set, was stylishly costumed, briskly paced, with many wonderful performances by the third years.

Foremost was Martin Quinn as Garry Essendine with the trio of Natasha Vickery, Rhianna McCourt, and Laura McDonald all excellent.

Sasha Simon and Mitchell Bourke give notable support; the latter exhibiting the physical comedy and mannerisms of a young John Cleese.

The Q&A afterwards featuring Quinn, Vickery, Set Designer Kelly Fregon, and Stage Manager Radek Rubinski gave insight into the construction of the play both from a performance and technical perspective.

A classy production all round.

*originally published at facebook.com/perththeatrereviews

Sally Burton Awards (6 June 2017)

An entertaining evening of Shakespearean delights as the graduating acting class vied for the two $2000 awards courtesy of Sally Burton, widow of the legendary Richard Burton.

Stephanie Somerville (as Queen Margaret from Henry VI, Part 3) and Mitchell Bourke (as the eponymous king from Richard II) were deserving winners and the standard was high across the board including an inspired excerpt from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

If there was, implausibly, any lingering doubt about the talent pool at WAAPA the "light entertainment" provided by 2nd year actors Mia Morrissey and Adam Marks surely dispelled that with an exclamation point.

Morrissey blew the doors off The Roundhouse Theatre showcasing a superb singing voice that gave the audience collective chills in a holy ****! kind of moment.

*originally published at facebook.com/perththeatrereviews

Victory - WAAPA (13 June 2016)

Without letting the head completely out of the bag this a fascinating production by the 2nd year acting students.

Howard Barker's play set in Restoration England seems to deliberately go out of its way at the start to alienate the audience with obscene language and provocatively staged sexual acts. Then it eases into the bleakest of possible black comedies culminating in two truly intense and disturbing scenes at the end of each act that would sit comfortably in any Game of Thrones compendium of perversity. Its humour is uncomfortable, its essential tragic nature compelling.

It also reminded me a little of the sort of attention to detail and scope David Simon deploys in his television writing, notably The Wire. Here we see points of view from the people, the monarchy, the bureacracy represented by the newly formed Bank of England, and the arts represented by Clegg and the great John Milton. It creates a fully realised world with competing perspectives and desires.

What I really liked is that the stage, essentially a perfectly raked sand pit on the Enright Studio floor, ends up littered with props, items of costuming, fake blood, and any manner of detritus as the actors cavort and contort in the space. It's messy and ugly and real.

Stand out performances - Stephanie Somerville covers a wide range of emotions as the widowed Bradshaw whose husband's body she sets out to retrieve and is excellent in the lead role; Jack Scott projects Droog like menace as Nodd; Kingsley O'Connor's Charles II is a more conflicted Joffrey style monarch who both chills and cajoles; while Jake Fryer-Horsby is amusing and later affecting as the pragmatic McConnochie. A mention as well to Mitchell Bourke who plays the tragi-comic fool Ball with a swagger that is cruelly cut down.

Commendations though to the entire cast for attacking such a difficult play with inhibition-free exuberance. No easy thing given some of its content.

I really enjoyed this but it's not for the faint-hearted as exemplified by eleven audience members not returning after intermission. But if theatre is there to provoke thought and reaction, and if dark humour is your thing, then this is the type of play you're not likely to see too often outside the walls of WAAPA.

Written by Howard Barker, Directed by Glenn Hayden and starring the second year acting students, Victory is at the Enright Studio until 16 June.