Written and directed
by Angus FitzSimons
Bunbury Productions
The Playhouse,
Canberra Theatre Centre, 12 February.
Subtitled as “a three-person one-man show”, the comedy “Mono”, which played recently at the Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, was an opportunity to see three of Australia’s much-loved comedy actors performing live onstage.
Noeline Brown is a household name on stage and in television in this country. She appeared in the Phillip Street Revues in Sydney in the 1960s and went on to the notorious “The Mavis Bramston Show” on television. “The Naked Vicar Show” followed and she has had numerous roles on stage and in films in a career spanning sixty years.
Max Gillies became a national sensation with his performances on television in “The Gillies Report” in 1983. He had been a major stage performer long before that and has appeared with most of the major theatre companies in Australia. He continues to enjoy a busy career onstage and in films and television.
John Wood rose to fame on television in “Power Without Glory”, “Rafferty’s Rules” and “Blue Heelers”. He also had a busy stage career prior to those successes and continues to be one of Australia’s most recognizable actors.
In “Mono”, the performers take turns in nine solo scenes and a short wordless finale in which they all come together. There are the hectoring Headmistress, a bad Bush Poet, a puzzled Policeman, a meandering Minister, a chaotic Conductor, a mindless “Mindfulness” teacher, a surreal Sotheby’s Auctioneer and a very, very sozzled Mother of the Bride.
There’s a definite feeling of having seen it all before and none of the scenes are more than mildly amusing. Some of the sketches felt laboured in spite of their short running times. Only two sequences stood out from the rest and that was due to Max Gillies. As a music conductor in ‘Guide’ and an art gallery visitor in ‘Perspective’, Gillies showed his remarkable comic skills without saying a word.
The audience chuckled their way through it all, but these three performers are quite capable of having you rolling in the aisles. It’s a pity they were limited by a script by Angus FitzSimons that didn’t give them that opportunity. It was a pleasure to see these iconic performers onstage but the play itself was a disappointment.
This review was first
published in the Canberra Citynews digital edition of 13 February.
