Theatre Rant: Hands down, best night at the theatre I’ve had all year happened this month, in August, with Fefu and her Friends. A brand new theatre company Red Rabbit (launched by a couple of lovely NIDA grads, Sophia Roberts and Rebecca Johnston) delivered a gorgeous, Caroline Craig directed, version of Maria Irene Fornes’ deliciously feminist play. The really exciting element to the evening was watching a story about women, staged and performed and directed and executed almost entirely (the team was almost all women with the exception of Nate Edmonson who designed the brilliant sound) by women. Watching 8 women on stage is a profound experience and not one audiences are treated to very often. (the last all female cast I saw was Marion Potts’ The Taming of the Shrew in 2009 for Bell, It again, was completely rad to be treated to watching so many women perform, but, sadly, was gimmicky and ill-thought-through, and didn’t really work) There are way more roles for men written, and, most of the time the female supporting characters are bland or caricatured or stocky. So the play had me on side right away, just cos watching women do their thing, brilliantly, is awesome, and then just to make it more awesome the play was captivating and so were the performances and the choices and the set and everything was just yum. It’s a short play and more about atmosphere and relationships than actual plot. Not to say that stuff doesn’t happen. Stuff happens. And stuff has happened. The story, or stories, marinate through the actual weekend-on-Fefu’s-property over which the play is set. The play is about friendship, and love and the experience of being a woman. The play (and production) is laden with Sapphic undertones, and there’s also an explicit lesbian storyline between Celia (Harriet Dyer) and Paula (Sophia Roberts.) Their love is angsty and full of pain and hurt and repression. Dyer and Roberts depict their story beautifully and I was damn well about to choke I was so moved. They found the absolute truth in the little moments the lovers shared. Just stunning. The whole cast is gorgeous. Emma Palmer, as Julia, did the best work I’ve seen her do since she graduated. She was captivating and haunting and commanded the wisdom of a much, much, older actress. Megan O’Connell as Emma, (who I loved last year in Kate Revz production of Three Sisters for Cry Havoc) was incredibly magical and wonderful. Georgina Symes, as Christina, was a riot, utterly compelling and intoxicating performance. Suzannah McDonald, as Cindy was fucking hilarious, and it was great fun to see Julia Billington play a really dorky character role. She nailed all the comedy without losing truth from the role, however, I’d have dearly loved to have seen her in the title role of Fefu. Her or Symes would have been excellent choices for the role. Rebecca Johnston delivered and admirable performance, however, I feel she was ultimately miscast. I sound petty but her voice isn’t quite strong enough and I feel like had Symes or Billington played the role they’d have each brought a sort of prowess that each of those actors imbue (in different ways) in buckets. Fefu is a strong, autonomous, clever, magical, woman and I’d have liked to see someone who could have played with all the irony and nuances perform the role. That’s my only somewhat complaint though. The set was exquisite, the lights and sound perfect, and the performances, as I’ve said, fucking wonderful. The production is brilliant and it needs to get another run. We need it to get another run. The best show in Sydney this year only ran for a week! Criminal. I also went along to see a friend of mine, Nicholas Papademetriou, in a play called Drake the Amazing (Dir: John Kachoyan) at Darlo. Very watchable. And Nico did some great character work. It was Another ooo-look-at-the-magic-of-theatre text, which is a pretence/story that I do enjoy, but I found this play less imaginative and exciting that other texts. I didn’t find the actual work very magical so found it hard to sincerely ponder the magic of theatre that the play was exploring. The performers were rad though, and worked really hard, and, like I said at the outset, it was a very watchable show, I had a good giggle, I had fun. And I did tear up at one point, but I think I was pre-menstrual, so I’m not sure if it counts. I also checked out the new space ‘The Old 505 Theatre’ to see a one woman show called Shakespeare’s Will directed by Gareth Boylan. One man or woman shows usually annoy me a bit. I find it hard to focus on one actor for so long and end up daydreaming and writing shopping lists in my head, but I did manage to sit still and pay attention to Lucy Miller in this one. She did a great job and wove a complicated story, jumping across time, doing service to many different characters, she also sings a few numbers, and has a very lovely voice, which is nice. I think I’d rather if the story was told with a full cast, what can I say? I like watching actors interact… but this was rather good and I can see why it was written as a one woman show. You know, loneliness, isolation, abandonment, estrangement, those sorts of things… and I see the merit now of taking a really intimate journey with a character. The show is coming back to 505 for a Sydney Fringe Festival run, so go see it if you’re interested in a fairly good show about Shakespeare’s wife. I’m not a big history buff so I’ve now Idea if any of it is true, but it’s a very interesting tale, fact or fiction. And the space is really rad. I’d go just to check out 505. It feels very New York and spacious and full of creativity and excitement. It’s not the jazz place on Cleveland street. It’s where the jazz club used to be on Elizabeth St in that big warehousey artistic community apartment block that seems to go by a different name every time I go to it. They’ve given the 505 space a coat of paint and rigged up a really sweet little theatre and you wind your way up through corridors, and walkways, and bits of cityscape and the smell of fresh graffiti… If you want another excuse to check the space out, you must must must go see Tahli Corin’s new play there in November. It may or may not be called: The Memory Muse, or One For the Ugly Girls. I went and saw a reading of it at Darlo’s Parnassus' Den thing. It’s shaping up really awesome. It’s about art and beauty and love and grief and it’s really fucking funny. It’s going to be sensational, and (I suspect) might even vie for my favourite night at the theatre, when it happens. Mirrah Foulkes, Tony Llewelyn Jones, and Alice Ansara did great work at the reading. I’m unsure who is going to be in the cast when it’s mounted, but if we do get to see these three in the production, we’ll be very lucky punters. Really rad work. EEEEEP!
Flicks Rant: I saw a rad little Aussie film, that hasn’t been released yet, but I’m betting will be, called Wish You Were Here. I found it slightly xenophobic, but if you ignore the slightly racist premise of ooo-isn’t-Asia-dangerous-and-corrupting, there’s a good film in amongst the awkward. The performances are truly touching, and it definitely held me. I also saw Tree of Life. I realised I’ve got to stop going to films people invite me to. (I was also dragged to film-I’ll-never-mention) So fucking awful. Cinematic torture. Religious, indulgent, pretentious, wank. I’ve never been so bored shitless. And friend in question who suggested seeing it has stopped talking to me cos I didn’t like it. See? Seeing wanky cinema is dangerous, people get all invested in it and it wrecks friendships/homes/lives. Watch what you watch, okay?
Be Safe,
