Sleeping Beauty - Zealous Productions (20 December 2023)

On the drive home after a fun night at the theatre my mind wanders to two topics. One is how savvy Zealous Productions and Founder/Creative Director Dixie Johnstone are when it comes to staging these big, end-of-year pantomimes; the other is the wonderful impact they have on their audience. The two go hand in hand and there's no doubt that the Christmastime panto is making a mark on the Perth theatrical scene. Let's start with the savvy...

First and foremost they feature top line talent both onstage and off. Yes, the shows may be silly in nature but the creative skill involved is formidable. Then there's the commitment to local talent but also nurturing the next generation of stars with a willingness to cast performers who've only graduated from WAAPA mere weeks ago in key roles. In this case, Cameron Taylor who plays Prince Frederick the First of Fremantle... son of King Kevin the Kourageous of Kwinana, obviously. 

Stage the shows at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco, a big venue that will attract big crowds as the quality of the production makes itself apparent with the right content at the right time of year. Ratchet everything up to eleven from the choreography (Allen Blachford) to the lighting (Richard Timms), the costuming (Katie Elizabeth Williams) and wigs & makeup (Manuao Teatonga), the choice of musical numbers, the eagerness to embrace the silliness and engage an audience of all ages, and, perhaps most notably, have fun doing it. In all this Sleeping Beauty is a major success. 

The roster of talent is undeniable and there's clearly a core group of trusted creatives and performers the company keep returning to. For good reason. They're bloody good at what they do. Brendan Hanson who played one of the 'ugly step-sisters' in Cinderella two years ago is back as director this time. He knows the rhythms and key beats of any good pantomime and plays up to those elements with aplomb. The call and response is set up early. The positioning of key items on stage and their significance is made clear. The good and evil of it all is established with clarity. Hanson also sets up the eighties vibe from the get go with a Cyndi Lauper classic that acts almost as a mission statement for the show. Girls, goblins, princes, fairies, evil sidekicks, and Cameron from the front row all just wanna have fun.  

Musical Director and Arranger Joshua James Webb runs with the retro theme to deliver the perfect mix tape of well-known songs tailor made for the vocal talent he has on hand. And, oh my goodness, what voices they are, crisply presented with sound design by Michael Fletcher. Amongst all the zaniness there comes a time when a gem emerges and here it's A Thousand Years by Christina Perri that is beautifully sung by Taylor and Joshua Firman. But such interludes of quiet introspection are rare because there are aisles to be danced in and wands to be waved to a diet of classics such as You Can't Hurry Love, The Loco-motion, a wonderful mashup of Aretha Franklin's Think and Respect by the duelling fairies Fairy Nuff (Maree Cole) and Carabosse (Elethea Sartorelli), Time Warp, Holding Out For A Hero, and many more before we end with a Wham classic (don't worry Whamageddon devotees, you're safe) and a Christmas staple. My favourite was the arrangement of I Put A Spell On You, a song perhaps made most famous by Nina Simone, that Sartorelli makes her own in the most delightful of character driven ways.

There is an embarrassment of riches with the whole cast - Amy Fortnum looks and sounds divine as Princess Beauty and has a wonderful sequence with Firman during a quintessential 80s movie song. Maree Cole establishes and maintains the fun tone immediately with her good fairy. Sartorelli is glorious as the evil fairy who reminded me of Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein... if Blucher held a twenty one year old grudge and owned a schpinning veel. Firman is a crowd favourite as the loyal court jester who mysteriously turns into John Howard a hundred years hence before regaining his vim. Timothy How revels in one of pantomime's great traditions playing Queen Doreen with imperious scorn, never more so than when puns fall flat which is bound to happen when they're being fired off with machinegun regularity. Taylor prances around as any brave prince should while Tate Bennett slinks in evildom as Lurgy. They're supported by an excellent ensemble that enhance the energy and crowd interaction. Props too for ZP's regular band of Webb, Jarrad Van Dort, Tommi Flamenco & Alex Barker. 

As for the second part, the impact? This is where a little magic happened. I ended up talking to a lovely woman from a remote country town in South Australia who had brought along her young daughter to see the show. They were in Perth for a fortnight and had never been to a theatre production before. To watch her daughter dancing in the aisle, waving a fairy wand (purchased at interval), and to see the beaming smile on her face was absolutely priceless. She wanted to meet the cast and outside I saw her having a picture taken with Sartorelli and Cole, still in character, in another smart move by the company. There was a long queue down Rokeby Road of children with their parents waiting to do the same. What a gift for that young girl and what memories she might always retain. That is why shows like this are so vital and alive. I hope you remember it for a long time, Letty!

Sleeping Beauty runs right up until Christmas Eve with 1pm and 6pm shows each day. 

Marat Sade - WAAPA (13 March 2015)

One of the great joys of the initial season in a new year of WAAPA productions is witnessing the second year students being unleashed on the public for the first time. In this case the acting students but it was lovely to see so many of the second musical theatre students in the audience as well (whose turn comes with Hiawatha starting tonight). Both classes will become very familiar to those who regularly attend WAAPA shows over the next two years. For now it’s getting to know who these talented performers are and what an introduction this play, indeed quasi-musical, provides!

Set in 1808 where a play is being performed in an insane asylum directed by none other than the Marquis De Sade (Angus Mclaren), it explores the events leading up to the murder of revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat (Will Mcneill) by Charlotte Corday (Kate Betcher) in 1793. The inmates play the roles while Sade watches on amused as their re-enactment morphs into an indictment of the French Revolution and the very institution in which the play is being staged. 

This is observed in growing horror by a representative of the Bonaparte regime, Coulmier (Lachlan Ruffy) who insists that it is now a different, enlightened time. The inmates’ disagreement leads to events that parallel the very revolutionary fervour they act out. All the while Sade, playing himself, has philosophical discussions with Marat about the nature of revolution and of human nature itself. In the end the poor are still poor and the revolution delivered a greater dictator in the form of Napoleon than the king they overthrew and beheaded. What then was the point? Does man’s essential nature render revolution redundant?

This play within a play is a dense dialectical discussion delivered in rhyme and song with several complex layers that make it challenging but also entertaining and unpredictable. The songs, as noted by Musical Director Timothy How in the program, are not in the accepted tradition of musical theatre but are deliberate interruptions to the narrative flow to provide commentary and reinforce political and social points of view. 

The work of Gabrielle Mickel, Rory O’Keeffe, Giuseppe Rotondella and Brittany Santariga as the four major singers was a real driving force in their colourful and energetic representation with full throated vocal performances. In the intimate configuration of the Enright Studio there were times they were up close and their eye contact was very good with the audience as they mocked and cavorted and implored.

George Pullar as the Herald who sets the play within a play in motion and announces the scenes (and reminds inmates of their lines from time to time) was a strong presence throughout. There was a slyness to his performance that I enjoyed. Mclaren is ever the provocateur as Sade with his showcase moment coming when he is voluntarily whipped by a female inmate as he rails against the revolution. Betcher has a sweet voice as Corday but was much stronger in the second half as the deed is finally done and her depiction as a narcoleptic inmate seemed more credible.

Alexander Daly injected earnest urgency as Jacques Roux who beseeches the inmates and revolutionaries alike to open the granaries and feed the poor all the while being straight-jacketed and ill-treated by the male nurses. Kieran Clancy-Lowe plays (an inmate who plays) Duperret as a fop who only has sexual designs on Corday but is thwarted at every turn. Given that it’s the notorious Sade directing the play within the play, carnal desire and sexuality is an ever present undercurrent that bursts into a tidal wave of frenetic energy during the ‘Copulation’ sequence that is bawdy and gleefully performed.

Then there is Marat himself who is afflicted with a skin disease that forces him to take soothing baths administered by his carer Simonne (Sarah Greenwood). Mcneill has the tricky task of playing a damaged inmate while also rising to the task of debating Sade as the revolutionary who still plots and schemes on the very day of his murder. It is a conceit of the play that a dysfunctional patient could hold his own in such discussions but Mcneill does well particularly in the more rousing moments as Marat. Greenwood gives Simonne a physical affliction and is all twisted and shuffling as Marat’s carer. More than once I felt her malevolent one eyed stare as she glowered at the audience.

Timothy How adds musical texture on the harpsichord while the costuming and makeup is excellent. Director Andrew Lewis makes full use of the black box space with actors clambering up poles along the wall and moving behind and through the audience who are seated on all four sides. 

Talking briefly to an audience member who saw the original production at the Playhouse Theatre in 1966 the one element that was perhaps missing was a sense of ‘danger’ – the audience is a surrogate for those watching at the insane asylum but at no point is there any real sense of ‘threat’ from the inmates. Having said that, I enjoyed this dense and layered play and it is a promising introduction to the second year acting class.

Written by Peter Weiss, Directed by Andrew Lewis, Musical Director Timothy How and featuring the 2nd year acting class of Miranda Aitken, Anneliesse Apps, Kate Betcher, Kieran Clancy-Lowe, Alexander Daly, Joel Davies, Sophia Forrest, Sarah Greenwood, Angus Mclaren, Will Mcneill, Gabrielle Mickel, Rory O’Keffe, Emma O’Sullivan, George Pullar, Lukas Radovich, Giuseppe Rotondella, Lachlan Ruffy, Brittany Santariga and Megan Smart, Marat Sade is at the Enright Studio until Thursday 19 March.

Skin Deep - Pickering Productions (14 February 2015)

With over 500 shows Fringe is always going to prove to be a little hit and miss. You’ll see some fabulous performances and every now and then there’ll be a dud or two. I’ve seen quite a few wonderful ones this festival which means I’m pretty much batting ahead of the curve. I don’t state it lightly then that for sheer entertainment value Skin Deep is my favourite show to date. What a fantastically crazy and hilarious mash-up of mashed up pop songs and insight into the quest for beauty through the ages!

When the answer to “what price beauty?” comes in the form of botox, arsenic, insect larvae, nightshade and other remedies you know you’re in for a helluva ride. Throw in some creative interpretations of a variety of pop songs (I’ll never hear The Eagles' Take It Easy the same way ever again) with a few, um, judicious tweaks here and there to the lyrics and it’s a rollicking night’s entertainment. I’m known for having a big laugh but the lady next to me was literally having kittens. Yes, literally! In fact the whole audience loved this with a standing ovation at the Hellenic Club after a suitable finale with a Carole King classic.

The set-up is that three generations of beauty therapists (all the most important jobs end in ‘ist’) reveal the secrets of the trade with several ‘exhibits’, Law and Order style. They range from invasive beauty procedures to client confessions to mother-daughter wrangling over the school ball with a little murder thrown in for good measure. The performers in question are Lindsay McNab, Cynthia Fenton (also co-writer), and Grace Edwards with the seemingly ever present Timothy How on keyboards.

They work tremendously well together with each getting a moment to shine. A sense of what we were in for arrives early when the three women excel during ‘Exhibit A’ that involves plenty of sight gags as ‘Lins’ undergoes a certain delicate beauty treatment. Other highlights included:

Fenton gives a whole new meaning to the song Defying Gravity which was as inspired as anything you’ll see at Fringe this year and had me laughing from How’s opening bars.

Edwards, hard on the heels of The Dummies Guide to Opera, gives another vivacious performance with standouts including her turn as a put upon 17 year old railing against her domineering mother (Fenton); and who could go past that classic piece of shtick I’ve Never Been To Me for comic potential?

McNab had a beautiful ballad as the mood surprisingly turned a little sombre towards the end. It was an interesting counterpoint and I liked that they took their time here. Additionally, her opening refrain from Bohemian Rhapsody was a prime example of taking the lyrics from a famous song and twisting the context for maximum comedic effect. Which is exactly what How’s Mack the Knife does as cosmetic surgery comes under the satirical knife of writers Fenton and Tyler Jacob Jones.

Jones, who also directs, is the writer of that other impressive Fringe piece currently on, F**k Decaf, one of the stars of which was happily chortling along with the rest of us. Skin Deep has all of his trademark wit and is staged with style and energy. 

What elevates this though is that beneath the hilarity there is very perceptive commentary on the beauty industry from all kinds of different angles. This gives it great resonance as it highlights how crazy the pursuit of beauty can sometimes be. There is a positive message at the end, however, that dovetails nicely with the singing of classic pop songs from artists such as The Go-Gos, Cyndi Lauper, ABBA, Katy Perry, and Mike and the Mechanics.

Skin Deep is well performed with deft comic timing and inventive use of songs. The singing is strong with Edwards the standout but they are all terrific in the numerous set-pieces. Timothy How is excellent on keyboards and gets to appropriately ham it up as required. 

Above all this is thoroughly entertaining and a hilarious exploration of an industry that has been around in one form or another for centuries. A must see but hurry, there is only one more performance left this Sunday at 7pm.

The Dummies Guide To Opera - Charlie & Friends (2 February 2015)

Take four very talented singers, one fashion-challenged accompanist, at least one dummy in the audience (raises hand… though in my defence Amadeus is one of my favourite movies and has excerpts from at least three Mozart operas so that has to count for something, right?) and a killer concept and you have a funny, entertaining and yes, damn it, educational show that is perfect for Fringe. 

I mean, I even learnt a new word tonight – Fach – which, contrary to my initial belief that I was being sworn at, is a form of categorising different voice types. Those crazy German opera buffs!

The show races through the entire chronology of opera in a sleek one hour that covers: different periods such as baroque, classical and romantic; giving hilariously twisted synopses of famous operas; explaining the different types of singers and their dominant personality traits; to most amusingly rating the major composers in opera’s long history. There was a wonderfully arcane formula to calculate each composer’s score to pronounce an eventual winner. My dear Wolfgang did not fare well in this exercise. It was, however, a great device to impart all kinds of weird and wonderful information about this roster of greats (okay, I knew of most of them but a couple were a little hazy).   

Then there was the singing; in different styles, from different periods, with many of the pieces instantly recognisable though some were a little more obscure for this dummy. And what wonderful voices they were, provided by Grace Edwards, Erin Jay Hutchinson, Warren Bracken and Charlie D. Barkle. The byplay between all four plus accompanist Timothy How was excellent with a lovely sense of chemistry as they played up to all the dramatic rivalries and stereotypes with glee. It was clear that while they were taking good-natured jabs at all the preconceptions opera can engender, there was a total love, respect, and joy here. I was also left in no doubt as to their knowledge both historical and technical which was impressive. The use of clever humour throughout plus a touch of class made this most entertaining.

Edwards in particular shines with a real twinkle in the eye and sense of flair while Hutchinson relishes the more ‘bitchy’ role with Barkle betraying his burlesque background with a touch of adroit physical comedy leaving Bracken to nicely ground it all with a warmer persona. They do work very well together, vocally and with good comic timing. Timothy How adds some sight gags as he reacts to proceedings before he himself briefly takes centre stage to amusing effect. 

I really enjoyed this – it’s funny, the concept is clever, the singing is first rate (though occasionally there was some speaker static on a stormy Perth night) and the joy on display beneath the bluster is infectious. There is only one show left – Tuesday night at 7.15pm in Teatro 1 in the Perth Cultural Centre – and I would recommend this as a great festival show.

And if you think Game of Thrones is full on, wait until you check out the murder, mayhem and flat out infatuation going on in all these librettos – those dwarves, Gods and love-struck humans sure know how to have a tragically good time!