At the beginning of this year, ‘The Open Lid Ensemble’ presented ‘Halina’, one of the most admired plays of the Perth Fringe World programme.

Performed as part of the 2016 Fremantle Festival, this charming but dark play can be seen in the Red Room at Creatures Next Door nightly at 7.00 until 4^th November.

The Red Room has the seating ‘in the round’ under a colourful, Big Top canopy. To the side is a stage, showing a grey city skyline and the detritus of urban squalor.

        The dimly lit room is filled with a low echoing bass voice (Michael Biagioni), sounding a little like the haunting of a whale crying in the ocean. The live melancholic music, in a lower key, builds up, completing the feeling of a vast, lonely and open space. A beautifully melodic, ethereal voice (Isaura Malika) sensitively completes the mood.

       A raggedly dressed, pale-faced girl (Courtney Turner) lies on the pavement. As she sleeps, the black spirits of the night flit around. As morning dawns, she wakes, grabs her Salvo’s free cup of soup, before the pandemonium of the commuters (Kat Shaw, Amanda Watson, Sinead O’Hara, Hannah Evelyn) hit the streets.

       These wealthy automatons move around with no consideration for anyone except themselves. In a desperate attempt to make some money for food, the poor girl tries to sell them matches, ever hoping for a morsel of their abundance – without success.

       That night, she has graphic dreams of a large, crackling warm fire, only to find that her surroundings are still cold and miserable. Then, she meets a set of fun loving girls who are out for the night. She joins them. At last, she has found friends that she enjoys being with, and can trust.

     Until Risscht (an ancient Danish – or German – word for ‘cracks’), in this flash, has the match girl’s life at last turned around?

 

The breakthrough standard of the contemporary dancing is truly amazing. When blended with artistic movement, the whole, energy packed, choreographic effect is deeply moving. I have never seen a dance or mime routine that could depict such depth of emotion in a performance. The audience developed a genuine empathy with the poor girl that left them semi-traumatised.

The lighting (Scott Corbett) and soundscape was most effective. Again, I would like to mention the unique skills of the two musicians who took us through the poor girl’s life; with the misery depicted by a rasping violin, to the happier moments with a muted trumpet. The duo played several instruments each, all of which perfectly complemented the performance.

Terrific teamwork, and truly moving piece of dance and acting. Wonderful.

The story has been adapted and developed from Mary Shelley’s 200-year old classic by the Feet First team especially for this production.

The performances are 80 minutes without intermission. They take the audience through the ancient, innermost rooms of Fremantle’s iconic Moores Building with its Contemporary Art Gallery at 46 Henry Street, Fremantle. The voyeuristic audience members are required to stand, walk and climb stairs (on several occasions) during the performance, as they move from one intimate location to another.

Please note that the Moores Building does not have wheelchair access to the first floor.

The performances are at 7.00 and 9.00 pm, nightly until 6^th November. The numbers for each performance are strictly limited so booking is strongly advised.

The scene is the year 1800, in Frankenstein’s Gothic family home. There are several rooms used for this presentation, all of them have been carefully furnished with antiques. Towards the end of the performance, we arrive in a cold forest. Exhibition, set and costume design by Olivia Faraone and Olivia Tartaglia, with costume construction by Bianca Roose and Hannah Miller. Props by Kelly Fregon.

     On arrival, the audience are guided into a large, old-fashioned dining room, furnished with quality antiques even including a Grandmother clock. On the large dining tables are flutes of wine and an array of nibbles (generously provided by Moore and Moore Café). Two young girls in cream silk dresses, mingle with the assembled guests, introducing themselves as the bridesmaids. They are Mary (Bubble Maynard) and Justine (Jessica Moyle) relatives of Victor Frankenstein (Andrew David Sutherland).

     Into the room strides Henry (Declan Brown), Victor’s manservant. He is dressed in top hat and tails. After warmly welcoming us to the Frankenstein home, he tells us that we are guests at the wedding of Victor and Elizabeth Lavenza (Zoe Hollyoak). The doors from the street open and the happy couple enter.

     The lights flicker, there is loud clash and Victor appears to go into a trance. Time for the wedding party seems to stand still. The reception takes an evil turn. The lights return to normal and the warm, convivial atmosphere returns to the celebration. Strains of a violin – being played rather poorly – can be heard from upstairs. Victor invites us to join the happy couple and watch his young brother playing the violin.

     We pass into the master bedroom with its tasteful décor of drapes and furnishings. Soon we venture into Victor’s eerie laboratory, where we observe the pathetic sight of The Creature (Haydon Wilson) with numerous wires attached, he is strapped onto an operating bench.

     As the story progresses, the lonely Creature begs for a true companion and friend – a female friend.

The Director and movement coach, Teresa Izzard, has been nominated for prestigious awards, including an Equity Award, for her previous productions. Teresa, who is an inaugural member of the Australian Directors Lab, is assisted in the directing by actor and TV personality, Bubble Maynard. She has further dramaturg advice from the admired playwright, Finn O’Branagáin.

Because of the number of room used, the lighting and sound had to be operated remotely with instructions from the stage manager, Georgia Smith or her assistant Kennah Parker. This unusual prompt system worked perfectly, with all of the lighting cues (Lighting Design, Dana Ioppolo) and sound effects precisely cued (Sound and AV Design by George Ashforth).

Thanks to the vocal coach, Donald Woodburn, the cast delivered their lines in a style compatible with the era. The Creature – Haydon Wilson – was magnificent as he portrayed a poor soul attempting to achieve co-ordination of movement and speech; he really grabbed your heart and sympathy.

Unlike the clunky, mindless cinema monsters, this creature had an exceptional brain and could sum up those around him. Sutherland’s Frankenstein was disturbing as we watched his bipolar, schizophrenic tendencies. Hollyoak was strong as the heartbroken bride, coping with her new marital world. Master of Ceremonies, Henry, had a joie de vivre that contrasted perfectly with the turmoil. Sensitivity was brought to the play with the beautiful, caring bridesmaids doing their duty and protecting the bride.

The visual and auditory effects of the laboratory were clever, inventive and thoroughly disturbing. Who was really the monster? Could things have ended differently?

This play was fresh, innovative and succeeded on so many levels. Possibly draining and disturbing for the actors, but thank you, it was worthy your suffering. Congratulations.

This fastmoving, comical production showcases the immense talent of the younger, acting students in Curtin University’s Theatre Arts programme. It is presented at, and in conjunction with, the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, 1 Short Street, Fremantle, as part of the Fremantle Festival. The short season runs until Saturday 29^th October with the 90-minute performances at 7.30 pm.

It is an open stage without any cover or flats on the wings.

As the lights rise, a table and chairs are placed onto stage. A muslin screen appears centre stage; this acts as a backcloth, or as a translucent screen allowing shadowgraphs, or a ‘private look’ at action in another room. Production designer was Julie Reeves. Set design Olivia Dugandzic, and set construction and properties by Matt Arnold and Max Gipson

        Heidi (Kharla Fannon) is sitting at the dinner table with her mother (Ellen Dimitriou) and father (Alex Gerrans). They are a strange couple, who only talk to Heidi through marionettes that are dressed as they are (puppets by Jiri Barec). The parents announce that because they are going out for the evening, that Heidi should stay with the next-door neighbour – The Ogre (operated by Frazer Shepherdson). The Ogre is a strange, bunyip-like creature that has a long tail (designed by Zoë Atkinson, who constructed it with Jiri Zmitko).

        The Ogre is madly in love with Heidi, but he is constantly rejected. The babysitter opens an ancient book of tales and starts to read to Heidi. As piano plays softly in the background (Taisiya Payne), the stories become alive. An old miserable cook (Holly Mason) can be seen stirring her magic bowl in the kitchen. She produces three magical bread rolls (food puppets made by Bec Thorman and Helen Rice) that represent the King’s three daughters. The three daughters sang perfectly in A cappella. Their voices were clear and powerful, outstanding madrigal work (Song arranger Dylan Dorotich).

      The bad tempered and miserable Princess (Shanae Tuxford) demanded to be entertained and made to laugh. Anyone not succeeding was to be beheaded. A series of entertainers (Lizzie Howard, Chelsea Gibson, Caitlin McFeat) tried their best to make her smile, by forming life-sized puppets with lengths of tubing for the arms and legs and balloons for the head. Sadly, after several hundred attempts, the miserable regal child still did not smile.

      Will happiness ever come to the Royal Family and poor Ogre?

The joint directors were Curtin University theatre’s senior lecturer, Leah Mercer and Spare Parts Puppet Theatre’s executive Philip Mitchell. Caitlin McFeat and Anna Lindstedt who aided in the dramaturg ably assisted them.  Mary Zimmerman cleverly employs unusual costumes and lighting to fashion the desired effect, here we have the extra gifts of the quality puppets.

This was a wonderful play to watch, filled with magic, terror, song and dance, but it must have been a complex play to present. It was stage managed by Paris Fields, who was assisted by Jack Bengough. Although there is plenty of humour, because of the dark themes and storylines, the ideal age for the audience is probably over 9 years.

The ghostly white costumes were created by Alicia Turner, Sally Davis and Ashleigh Ryan, with assistance of the construction sewing by Maddie Earle-Sadler, Cameron Norton and Bethan Walmsley. The complementary white make up was by Lauren Beeton and Ashleigh Ryan.

The atmosphere of the play relied heavily upon the clever technical effects (lighting designer Stephen Carr), the sound design by Sam Johnson and Julian Sewell (under the mentorship of the highly respected professional, Ben Collins) was superb, blending perfectly with the live music. Likewise, the lighting was vibrant and beautifully paced by Molly Earnshaw and Sam Ireland.

It is easy for a cast to think, ‘this is a children’s show, so we can get away with an average effort’. The truth is that you have to work twice as hard for youngsters; they can be your biggest critics. This show had tremendous pace, filled with athletic action – cartwheels, dancing – beautiful singing; in fact every acting talent was demanded of the performers, and as a terrific team, the cast gave their all to this vibrant production. Most professional and great fun.

This drama is a joint project between Creative Collaboration and the Fremantle Festival programme. It can be seen in The Victoria Hall, 179 High Street, Fremantle nightly until 30^th October. The eighty-minute performances are at the earlier time of 7.00 pm.

 The Victoria Hall is a listed building and so in the past the lighting rig and scenery was limited by having to take extra care to preserve the interior. The hall has now been fitted with a massive complex rig, suspended on a few chains it is capable of holding a large quantity of lights. The whole proscenium arch is filled with a projection screen, and then flooded with some stunning and dramatic photographs of the Pilbara (multimedia by Curtis Taylor and Tony Gajewski).

 The seating is tiered and on two adjoining sides. The stage acts as another wall. The performance takes place mainly on the hall floor, where there is a layer of the rich red soil from north WA covering it (set by Cherie Hewson).

     It is a couple of years ago in the north-west settlement of Violence. Violence is like any other town in the region, populated by no-hopers. Young, handsome Aboriginal Jake (Rubeun Yorkshire) is playing soccer with his friends whilst his fifteen-year-old sister, Jackie (Maja Liwszyc) is teaching herself to box. A misplaced kick and Jake is in trouble, he has broken a window with his football.

     Jake’s father spends his time shared between hitting family members and drinking. Jake is petrified; but his father catches him, beats him and then abuses Jackie for good measure.

     We jump forward to the present day. Jake’s parents have disappeared from the scene, and the kids do not know where. Sadly, Jake is now becoming more like his father. Jake’s main friend is a giant of a lad, Baloo (Amri Mrisho), one of the few people that seems to have any control over Jake.

     Jake enjoys the excesses of life mainly at the expense of poor, naive Michaela (Caitlin Jane ‘CJ’ Hampson), whom he treats a sex object. One day a couple of free spirits, nomads, blow into the town from the desert, they are Mercy (Della Rae Morrison) and Freeman (Maitland Schnaars).

     Can things change in this township? Or on the other hand, will standards continue to collapse?

Directed by Monica Main (a major figure in WA theatre) this simple storyline, that has been richly written and cleverly structured, weaves its magic between reality and ghosts. There is plenty of movement, tension and realistic violence as Monica brings the audience face-to-face with reality of some communities. The acting is powerful and convincing, a great cast working perfectly together.

As well as the drama, we are treated to short dance routines (choreography by Claudia Alessi) and singing. Coupled with the superb sound effects of sand storms (sound design by Max Porotto) and wonderful lighting.

Cherie Hewson’s costumes for the spirits were remarkable in their design and construction. The red dust brought alive the north-west situation, although stage manager Rebecca Garlett must have a terrible job cleaning up the dust thrown around in the fight sequences (fight choreography by Andy Fraser and Nastassja Kruger) and washing the costumes that were scarlet by the end of each performance.

A powerful play in an intimate setting, congratulations all concerned.