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.  

Memento Mori - University Dramatic Society (23 September 2015)

I had a brief conversation at the interval that continued after the show about science fiction in the theatre. This was after I had remarked online how rare it was to see this genre on stage in reference to Between Solar Systems at The Blue Room. The person enthused, “Well, that’s two in a week.” In some ways he is right about Memento Mori – it does have that classic “scientist goes mad in pursuit of revolutionary discovery/invention that he cannot control” story arc that powers everything from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to movies like The Fly. In this case not the elixir of immortality but manipulating human DNA (I think) to double humankind’s lifespan. However, writer and lead actor Rupert Williamson appeared to have a much more mythic spin in mind.   

The title itself is taken from an ancient Roman tradition and the multitude of references to the first great literary epic, Gilgamesh, and indeed the name of one of the characters (Ninsun - Gilgamesh’s mother) laid out the framework for the story.

Williamson’s scientist Leo is driven to crack the secret to enhancing the human lifespan. In this he is assisted by fellow scientist Damian (Ritwik Ballal) and research assistant Zoe (Kate Hotchkin) with another scientist Thomas (Giacomo Groppoli) seemingly more interested in partying than actual scientific breakthroughs. But progress has been slow and their benefactor has recently passed away meaning the program comes under the razor gang gaze of Jade (Sally Clune) who demands results or she will shut them down.

Meanwhile Leo’s partner, a doctor, Claire (Nina Heymanson) helps her father Harold (Tim Lorian) move into a retirement home while struggling with Leo’s growing obsession with work. A colleague of Leo’s, an esteemed academic (Xavier Sweeney), deteriorates before our eyes as his brain becomes enfeebled by an unnamed condition.

Then there’s the robed Ninsun (Allegra Di Francesco) - beautiful, ethereal and disquieting - who periodically comes to Leo and talks to him of time and death. Leo becomes more frantic as his arc moves from driven to obsessive to, ultimately, madness and desperation.

There was much to like about this play – the scope of the ambition in the script; solid acting; and it was well-staged and presented within the large space. Sweeney and Lorian excel playing significantly older characters as both exhibit the signs of ‘decay’ that comes from old age or disease. Heymanson provides a grounded foil - a voice of reason - as Leo’s behaviour spirals out of control while Hotchkin added a little sparkle as the research assistant.  

The play didn’t quite work for me, however, and this centres predominantly around two characters – Leo and Ninsun.

Williamson’s Leo is problematic because I never understood the drive that blossomed into fully blown obsession and worse. Leo quotes the fact that man is the only animal that knows it will die and this becomes his motivation to create a serum to increase the human lifespan. It’s a little abstract and more of an intellectual position than a compelling reason for a protagonist to act so brazenly. This meant I struggled to find an emotional connection to the character and Williamson plays him in the first act as closely guarded and aloof. Yes, he conveys the physical and mental deterioration with increasing force during the second act but in many ways this is an impenetrable character positioned as the modern embodiment of Gilgamesh, a myth. Indeed it’s Claire who brings a richer emotional landscape especially in the scenes she has with her father. I needed a better catalyst for Leo’s quest. I needed something tangible.

Which brings us to Ninsun - I thought I had found that catalyst towards the end of the first act when she comes to Leo like a spectre of impending death. Ah, he is in some way afflicted and this is the cause of his urgency I assumed. Yet we soon discover that the silent spirit is something else (though I was never sure exactly what) as she is given voice in the second act and is either – his presumably deceased mother (who removed all the clocks when he was young); Gilgamesh’s actual mother as she hints at an inhuman lifespan; or simply a voice in his head that reinforces his fear of death. This lack of clarity about whom and what Ninsun was robbed the character of potency. There was even a false beat in hindsight when she appeared briefly in a scene without Leo present (the academic’s faltering lecture) that contradicts subsequent interpretations of her nature.

Those issues aside this was an ambitious production and first time script by Williamson as playwright. Director Ben Thomas makes full use of the deep Dolphin Theatre stage though it did feel a little one paced. Perhaps the second act needed to accelerate and get a little crazier as Leo’s descent into physical and mental torment deepened. This UWA arts student dropout found some of the technical jargon a little highfalutin’ but the gist of what was being attempted was easy to follow. The play had a clear thematic intent and was thoughtful in how it tackled the issues of mortality and the elusive nature of time as our lives progress.

Directed by Ben Thomas, Written by Rupert Williamson, and starring Williamson, Nina Heymanson, Ritwik Ballal, Kate Hotchkin, Giacomo Groppoli, Xavier Sweeney, Sally Clune, Tim Lorian, Allegra Di Francesco, Clare McMath and Jess Baldock, Memento Mori is on at the Dolphin Theatre, UWA until 26 September.