CHOIR BOY (PLAY)

Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Directed by Dino Dimitriadis and Zindzi Okenyo

Riverside National Theatre Of Parramatta production

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse to 2 April

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

‘Choir Boy’ first opened in London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2012 and went on to have seasons in the USA and on Broadway.  Set in the Charles R. Drew School For Boys, young black and gay student, Pharus Young, is determined to be the best choir leader in the history of the school.  Taunted by another of the all-black choir members with hurtful slurs about his homosexuality, Pharus tries to conform to masculine expectations of the school and his fellow students.

This story of a young gay man desperate to find his place in the world is punctuated with a capella gospel hymns of love and warmth that are in conflict with the young man’s struggle to be liked and accepted for himself.  In this case, it’s his homosexuality that is a ‘problem’, but the fact there is conflict because he is perceived as ‘different’ by his fellow students is really the issue.  How he feels about the way he is treated at an age where fitting in with his peers would be important to him, is at the centre of this play.

The headmaster, played by Robert Harrell, is bound by rules and regulations and proves to be not much help.  An elderly white teacher, Mr. Pendleton, played by Tony Sheldon, employed to help with the boys’ critical thinking, ultimately admits defeat as well.  A happy or tragic ending might have been expected but the play’s actual ending is more realistic.

A plus in this production is the gospel singing.  Music director, Allen Reneé Louis and Associate Musical Director, Zara Stanton, have obtained fine vocal performances by the talented cast of young men.

The drama linking the songs seems not as compelling as the music, but that is not necessarily a problem.  We do not learn much about the characters and the small scenes seem to be snapshots in time, rather than a story with continuity.  A lot of the dialogue is hard to understand as the boys speak with an accent that is unfamiliar to our ears.  We come to realize that the emotion of the scenes presented is more important here than story.

Darron Hayes as Pharus Young, the troubled gay young man, gives a strong, dramatic performance and sings gloriously.  The rest of the cast of students are more notable for their fine singing than for the dramatic opportunities the play allows them.  Tony Sheldon gives an excellent, believable performance as Mr. Pendleton, a white man who thinks that his way of teaching, effective in the past, will work just as well with this group.  The moment where he realizes he is wrong is very moving.

The simple abstract setting by Paperjam productions evokes the atmosphere of an old school steeped in tradition and the directors, Dino Dimitriadis and Zindzi Okenyo, use the acting spaces and levels of the setting well.  The emotional levels in the drama and singing have been carefully realized.

This is a play where feelings have the most importance.  The emotion in the gospel singing and in the dramatic scenes, rather than their story content, carries the play forward.  It does not meet the usual expectations of a play and may concern audience members who want more depth in the story.  It requires that, more on an empathy level, you understand how being intolerant of a person simply because they are different can cause serious emotional damage.

 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/

 

ALLELUJAH (FILM)

Written by Heidi Thomas

Based on the play by Alan Bennett

Directed by Richard Eyre

Screening at Palace Electric and Dendy cinemas from April 6

 

Reviewed by Len Power 22 March 2023

 

The film, “Allelujah”, starts out as a tender and humorous look at old age in a nursing home threatened with closure by bureaucrats.  Based on Alan Bennett’s 2018 play and updated to include a sequence involving the Covid pandemic at the end, the humorous incidents give way to a very serious and unexpected ending.  The result is a film that entertains but it’s also jarring in its sinister conclusion.

Director, Richard Eyre, has gathered together quite a cast including Judi Dench, Jennifer Saunders, Julia McKenzie, Russell Tobey, Derek Jacobi and a host of other accomplished character actors recognizable from British films and television.

Actor, Bally Gill, plays the central role of the doctor known as Dr. Valentine because nobody can pronounce his real Indian name.  This man loves his work with the elderly in spite of the many trials and tribulations that he faces every day.  He strikes up a friendship with the head nurse played against type by Jennifer Saunders.  She is a tough, no nonsense health worker who deeply cares for her patients but is under enormous pressure to find more and more beds.

Alan Bennett’s humour and insight into human behaviour comes through in Heidi Thomas’s screenplay.  It’s often highly amusing but it’s also carefully grounded in reality.  We squirm as much as laugh.  The whole cast give excellent performances.

The unsettling ending will surprise and shock audiences.  There is a surprising revelation at the hospital under threat of closure and then a tender but chilling sequence set in another hospital some time later during the height of the Covid epidemic.  Dr. Valentine, exhausted at the end of his shift in the busy Covid ward, makes an impassioned plea for the National Health Service and health workers that is heart-felt but seems at odds with the tone of the rest of the film.

This is an enjoyable and often amusing film with great performances but be ready for that ending.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

 

TRIOS FOR FOUR (CONCERT)

Apeiron Baroque

Wesley Uniting Church, March 25.

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

Newly formed Canberran Early Music ensemble, Apeiron Baroque, performed “Trios For Four”, the first of four concerts for 2023. Apeiron Baroque, named after a Greek word normally meaning “infinite”, is also equated with evenness, plurality, motion and even their apparent opposite, badness.

John Ma, (violin/viola/d'amore), and Marie Searles, (fortepiano/harpsichord) were joined for this concert by two Canberran specialists, Lauren Davis (violin) and Clara Teniswood (cello).

Their concert of nine works spanned the entire breadth of the Baroque era. Amongst the composers represented, there were works by the lesser known composers, Marco Uccellini, Andrea Falconeri, Isabella Leonarda and works by the well-known Georg Philipp Telemann, Johan Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Handel.

Apeiron Baroque Ensemble

John Ma gave entertaining introductions to the works throughout the concert, presenting facts of interest about their lives and works, often with humorous anecdotes in his friendly, relaxed style.

The concert began with Aria Sopra “La Bergamasca” by Marco Uccellini.  It was the perfect opening, being bright and colourful.  Ma described it as a “lusty courtship dance”. Maria Searles then played the First Movement From Harpsichord Partita #1.  It was a haunting, melodic work and Searles played it beautifully.

Handel’s Trio Sonata in B Flat with its nicely reflective second movement was sensitively played and Falconeri’s “La Suave Melodia” was a melodic highlight, played by John Ma on violin and Clara Teniswood on cello.

Isabella Leonarda’s Trio Sonata Prima was another melodic work, beautifully played. John Ma explained that Leonarda, who spent most of her life in a convent, was one of the most prolific composers of the baroque era and a rare female composer from that time.

Ma then played Telemann’s First Fantasia in B Flat for Solo Violin, a highly appealing work, which he performed very well. “Sonata Representativa” by Heinrich Biber was nicely lyrical and punctuated, surprisingly, with imitations of various birds and animals such as the nightingale, frog, cuckoo, cat and rooster, amongst others.

A bright and busy work by Nicola Matteis, “Ground After The Scotch Humour”, was then energetically and finely played, bringing this very interesting and enjoyable concert to a close.

 

Photo by Hayley Manning

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 26 March.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs. 

HOLDING THE MAN (PLAY)

Written By Tommy Murphy

Directed by Jarrad West

Everyman Theatre production

ACTHUB Theatre to April 1

 

 Reviewed by Len Power

 

Based on the best-selling memoir by Timothy Conigrave, “Holding The Man”, adapted for the theatre by Tommy Murphy in 2006, is one of the most successful Australian plays of recent times.

 A reasonably faithful adaptation of the book, the play captures, in its account of a 15 year relationship, what it was like being young and gay during the ‘80s AIDS crisis. It starts with a young gay boy in an all-male school in 1970s Melbourne who has a crush on John, the captain of the football team. Their developing relationship plays out through the rocky path of the many difficulties gay men faced at that time, until the AIDS crisis finally parts them.

Conigrave won a place to study at NIDA during this period and director, Jarrad West’s production reflects the exercises and improvisations of that drama school in his spare production. Puppetry is also used effectively at particular moments. Besides the main characters of Tim Conigrave, played by Joel Horwood and Lewis McDonald as John Caleo, the other cast members play multiple roles, often swapping genders as required.

 Joel Horwood gives a superb performance in the marathon role of Conigrave. He is particularly effective as the young school boy honestly expressing his homosexuality in a time when it was not acceptable and as a young man stoically bearing up through the loss of his partner.

 Lewis McDonald as Caleo also gives a fine performance in the difficult role of a young man often at odds with his homosexuality. There is a quiet depth and, at times, almost a remoteness to his performance that is very real, making us understand the pain and uncertainty of this character.

Joe Dinn and Joel Horwood

Amongst the many characters played by the very capable supporting cast of Amy Kwalczuk, Joe Dinn, Tracy Noble and Grayson Woodham, each of them were memorable in one or more roles as friends, mothers and fathers of Conigrave and Caleo. The playing of some of their other characters, though, bordered on caricature rather than cameo.

The director, Jarrad West, has obtained fine, heart-felt performances from his cast.  It may have been in the script but a lot of the depiction of the sexual antics of the characters seemed more than was necessary. The sleeping bag group masturbation scene, for example, made its point early and then overstayed its welcome.

While there was no difficulty hearing Joel Horwood when he addressed the audience, conversations between characters were often hard to hear, lacking volume and clarity. The final dinner scene between Conigrave and Caleo, a key moment in the play, suffered particularly because of this.

Overall, this is a fine production of an important play, reminding everyone of the AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and that today’s acceptability and understanding of sexuality in all its forms was not won without a fight.

 

Photos by Janelle McMenamin and Michael Moore

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 24 March.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

JULIA (PLAY)

 

Written by Joanna Murray-Smith

Directed by Sarah Goodes

Sydney Theatre Company production

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse to March 25

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

In ‘Julia’, the new play by Joanna Murray-Smith, the playwright imagines the woman and the psychology of the ‘misogyny speech’ famously made in Parliament by former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, on the 9 October 2012.

Gillard was responding to a motion by the then leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, which accused Gillard of sexism and called her leadership into question.  After months of criticism in the media and by politicians, Gillard’s response was a speech inspired by the hypocrisy that she perceived to be motivating the accusation of sexism.  It became a world-wide viral sensation.

Murray-Smith gives us flashbacks to the young Julia, her developing sense of values, her formidable determination to effect change that led her into Law and, ultimately, into Parliament.

Justine Clarke gives a memorably strong performance as Julia, showing her passion and drive as well as her sensitivity.  It’s a marathon role that sees her onstage for the entire ninety minute show.  She gives her own version of Julia, not a copy.  At the end of the play we see her theatrical transformation into Julia to deliver that famous speech, which Clarke does brilliantly.

There is also a young woman, played by Jessica Bentley, who is silent for the most part and represents the younger Julia and also the younger generation of women.  She is the witness and the watcher, a difficult role that Bentley performs with quiet skill.

The setting by the production designer, Renée Mulder – a mirrored room with a square carpet and projected video - serves as a public arena as well as the space that represents Julia’s inner thoughts.  With subtle lighting by Alexander Berlage, sound and music by Steve Francis and video design by Susie Henderson, the atmosphere of Parliament and Julia’s world is cleverly created.

Director, Sarah Goodes, brings all the elements together to produce a show that is insightful, fast-paced and funny at times.  Her production gives the play an added dimension that helps to provide a deeper understanding of Julia Gillard, her time as Prime Minister and the political climate of the day.

Playwright, Joanna Murray-Smith, has produced a fine play that not only looks at Julia Gillard, her life and that famous speech, but also takes on the wider issue of hypocrisy within our Australian culture and its effect on our democracy.

 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

 

 

LOVE LETTERS (PLAY)

 Written by A.R. Gurney

Directed by Kate Blackhurst

Canberra REP Theatre to March 26

 

Reviewed by Len Power 16 March 2023

 

“Love Letters” was first performed in the USA in 1989. The play centres on two fictional well-to-do Americans, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. Covering nearly 50 years, we witness their early hopes and dreams and share their disappointments, successes and failures through their correspondence with each other as they lead their mostly separate lives.

The play needs skilled performers who can carry this two-handed play in a minimal setting. Luckily, Canberra REP have Michael Sparks and Andrea Close, two Canberra actors with formidable acting experience. Seen together in last year’s electrifying “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?”, they again create believable characters that we believe in as they change over a large number of years.

Michael Sparks (as Andrew Makepeace Ladd III) and Andrea Close (as Melissa Gardner)

As they read their letters from each other, we are drawn into their lives and hang on every word. Michael Sparks as Andrew Makepeace Ladd III is a young, awkward boy who is drawn to the smart-talking, young Melissa Gardner of Andrea Close. As the play progresses, both actors’ skilled body language as well as their voice modulations and acute sense of timing add considerable colour to their changing characters over the years. Both performers give superb performances.

The audience is drawn into the details of the lives of these people against a background of the manners and morals of these particular fifty years or so in American history.

Director, Kate Blackhurst, has ensured that the gradual changes in the actors’ characters over the years is well-balanced and has a believable depth. The simple setting by Andrew Kay keeps the focus clearly on the actors.

Letter-writing may be a dying art in this digital age but human beings still need to communicate. The means may be different these days, but the sentiment portrayed in the play is still something we can identify with. It’s not surprising that we are spell-bound and ultimately moved by these two friends as they correspond over the years.

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 17 March. 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

QUINTETO ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (CONCERT)

 
The Street Theatre March 15

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

It was an evening to remember at the Street Theatre when Quinteto Astor Piazzolla gave a spell-binding concert.

These five virtuoso soloists that make up Quinteto Astor Piazzolla have been touring the world and playing the music of legendary Argentinean composer, Astor Piazzolla.

Modelled on Astor Piazzolla’s own ’60s quintet, the ensemble was founded by his widow, Laura Escalada Piazzolla, with the mission to protect and promote her late husband’s legacy.

Pablo Mainetti on tango music’s unique bandoneon instrument, Bárbara Varassi Pega on piano, Serdar Geldymuradov on violin, Armando de la Vega on guitar and Daniel Falasca on double bass make up this extraordinary group.

From left: Serdar Geldymuradov (violin), Pablo Mainetti (bandoneon), Armando de la Vega (guitar), Bárbara Varassi Pega (piano) and Daniel Falasca (double bass)

Piazzolla’s music is an unorthodox mix of traditional tango, classical, jazz, and popular music like Neapolitan songs and klezmer.

With only a brief introduction at the start of the concert, the group played one number after another without a break. It was all Piazzolla’s distinctive music and there were a couple of well-known items presented, but most of the concert showcased less familiar works.

What was heard was spell-binding as these masterful musicians moved through the colourful repertoire of this extraordinary composer. While the music is complex, it is accessible and enjoyable to listen to. At times fiery and passionate and then moody and reflective, it’s hard to guess where each piece is going with the unexpectedly changing tempos. Driving, sensuous rhythms and beautiful melodies surprise and delight you.

Each of the musicians displays their virtuosity with dominant solo moments within the works, but it is when they are playing together that magic is truly created.

The audience appreciated their playing so much that these musicians returned for two encores.

 

Photo By Maurizio Velez

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 16 March.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

TIME IS A RIVER (CONCERT)

Omega Ensemble

Ainslie Arts Centre, 4 March

Reviewed by Len Power

 

Described as a restless flow of time and memory, “Time Is A River” was the Omega Ensemble’s concert of four works in which four composers deal with personal memories.  It was performed in the Ainslie Arts Centre.

Performing in the Ainslie Arts Centre, the Omega Ensemble from Sydney consisted of David Rowden, clarinet, Peter Clark, violin, Neil Thompson, viola, Paul Stender, cello and Vatche Jambazian, piano. Jessica Oddie was an additional guest violinist for this concert.

“Mozart Adagio” by Finland’s Arvo Pärt was composed in 1992. It was written in memory of Oleg Kagan, a leading Russian violinist and friend of Pärt, whose sudden death affected the composer greatly. “Mozart Adagio” is neither an arrangement nor a collage. Fragments of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F Major are balanced with Pärt’s idiomatic “Tintinnabuli” style. The resulting work is sombre and reflective and was played with great feeling by cello, piano and clarinet, creating the mood for the rest of this concert.

The well-known “Death and the Maiden”, String Quartet No. 14 in D minor of Franz Schubert, was next. Composed in 1824 in a period of serious illness that would ultimately result in his early death, Schubert based his work on a 1774 poem about death by Matthias Claudius. The entire ensemble gave this work a superb performance with particularly sensitive playing of the second movement.

The Omega Ensemble

The ensemble has a mission to champion new Australian work and commissioned the next work of the concert by composer, jazz saxophonist and Yuin woman, Brenda Gifford. “Ancestors” is a call to ancestors and country, remembering all of those people from the past and their link to country. It is a colourful, memory-laden work of great beauty where people and country are enchantingly intertwined. It was played with a moving delicacy by the whole ensemble. Gifford attended the concert and took a well-deserved bow with the players.

The final work, “Time Is A River”, a 2010 work by Australia’s Graeme Koehne, was composed in memory of his mother. Performed in a new arrangement for the Omega Ensemble, it was a work full of nostalgia and warmth as well as passion and calm. The Ensemble brought out the sense of loss and nostalgia in this work so clearly, bringing this memorable concert to a close.

 

Photo by Peter Hislop

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 5 March.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs. 

CATS (MUSICAL)

 

Based on ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’ by T.S. Eliot

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Directed by Jordan Kelly

Canberra Philharmonic Society

Erindale Theatre to 18 March

 

Reviewed by Len Power 3 March 2023

 

These days a global phenomenon, ‘Cats’ was first performed in London in 1981 and it played on the stage there for 21 continuous years and 18 on Broadway.  Investors had initially shied away from backing the production when told of its unpromising storyline.  A tribe of cats called the Jellicles come together one night to make the ‘Jellicle Choice’, deciding on one cat who will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.

Now, in 2023, local director, Jordan Kelly, was under pressure to come up with a show that worked for an audience, many of whom knew the music by heart and would have pre-conceived ideas from earlier productions and films and video of the show.  The result is an excellent production that works on all levels.

The huge cast sing and dance very well and the principal ‘cats’ are impressive with their attention to character.  Particularly outstanding amongst this powerful group of performers are Garrett Kelly as the Rum Tum Tugger, Philip Marlan as Asparagus, David Cannell as Bustopher Jones, David Santolin as Skimbleshanks and Kirrily Cornwell as Grizabella.

    David Santolin as Skimbleshanks and the company of 'Cats'

Music direction by Alexander Unilowski was superb and his large orchestra played the score brilliantly.  This show relies heavily on the choreography throughout and Caitlin Shilg has given the cast movement that suits the moment and character it and pleases the eye throughout.

Set designer, Ian Croker, costume manager, Pip Muller, and makeup designer, India Cornwell, have produced a spectacular look to the show that gives it atmosphere.  Lights by Alex Clifford and sound by James McPherson add extra magic to the show.  Jordan Kelly and his whole production team as well as the cast should be feeling very proud of what they have achieved.

Anyone seeing this for the first time will be enchanted.  In the past, I’ve struggled to enjoy this show, but the magic worked for me with this production.

Photo by Ben Appleton 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

 

I HAVE NO ENEMIES (PLAY)

Created and performed by Christopher Samuel Carroll, Rachel Pengilly, Brendan Kelly and Ash Hamilton

Directed by Christopher Samuel Carroll

Bare Witness Theatre Co.

Ralph Wilson Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, Braddon to 11 March

 

Reviewed by Len Power 2 March 2023

Four actors embark on a morally-ambiguous sociological experiment to untangle the reality of life online.  It’s a play about surveillance, data collection, and how we make sense of our place in the digital world.  It’s also a bit of a detective story and a nod to certain technology paranoia films.  There’s also plenty of fast dialogue and absurd action plus a few soapbox lectures delivered direct to the audience.

Besides the actors on a typical office set, the digital projection, designed very well by Chloe Brett and Brad Moss at Silver Sun Pictures, almost becomes another character in the play.  There’s a clever lighting plot, too, designed by Antony Hateley.

Much of the play gives us a rapid fire, very physical tour through the development of the various stages of the internet.  The experiment embarked on by the four actors earlier in the play then comes back to haunt them as they get caught up in a paranoid situation of legal and technical difficulties.  They realize they’re out of their depth and an absurd fight to extricate themselves takes place.  It’s amusing, but unsettling, as we acknowledge how much we’re caught up in this on-line world, too.

From left: Christopher Samuel Carroll, Brendan Kelly, Rachel Pengilly and Ash Hamilton

The cast of four perform this show with great skill, keeping the pace constantly at a frenetic level.  Both Rachel Pengilly and Ash Hamilton need to pay more attention to their diction, though, as they were occasionally hard to understand.

Two hours of non-stop intense dialogue and manic action does make it feel like quite a marathon, especially sitting on those hard seats in that theatre (bring a cushion).  An interval or some editing should be considered.

 

Christopher Samuel Carroll and company

If you’re hopeless with the internet and still have passwords like 1234, you have a real need to see this show but you might have trouble keeping up with all the information coming at you.  For savvy internet users, who know a lot about the pitfalls anyway, it’s not going to make you change your online behaviour.  You’re hooked and the play ruefully acknowledges that.

 

Photos by Novel Photographic

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.