Based on a 14th century, Chinese fable ‘The Circle of Chalk’; this is the Black Swan State Theatre Company’s first international collaboration. Presented in the ‘Beijing or Peking Opera’ style that combines music, speech, mime, dance and acrobatics is part of the 2016 Winter Arts Festival.

‘The Chalk Circle’ parable is usually presented as a dramatic tragedy. Here we are taken back to the original folk tale. It is presented with Brechtian techniques, in a traditional setting but with contemporary middle-class dialogue, at times quite coarse. The upshot is approaching an adults’ pantomime, which may come as a shock to the purists, but it is fresh and great fun. Brecht actually wrote music and songs for the play, but these have been added to and refined.

This innovative, 3-hour presentation can be seen nightly in the Heath Ledger Theatre, within the State Theatre Centre of WA in Northbridge. Performances are at 7.30 until Sunday 14th August – the sixtieth anniversary of Brecht’s death. There are also some matinées.

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The story is set in the Soviet Union area of Galinsk around the end of the Second World War.

The stage is like that of a new theatre. There is no backcloth, no flats in the wings, any drapes or scenery of any kind. A few well-chosen props are on the stage, along with wardrobe racks. (Set Designer Richard Roberts assisted by Lui Hong Ping).

As the play begins, three layered, sculptured backcloths are raised from the floor; they give a wonderful appearance of mountains in a mist. A Chinese gateway arch is rolled into position.

The men who are exalted officials wear the stunning, brightly coloured and highly embroidered, Hanfu, and the ladies traditional Princess costumes. The Costume Designer, Zhao Yan, although still young, she has designed for more than six dozen productions.

With little scenery, the demands on the Lighting Designer, Mark Howett to create atmosphere, was high.

      The actors wander onto the stage in their black, rehearsal trackies and T-shirts. They begin their warmup routine, and then select their masks from a rack of specially designed façades (Designer of props and masks, Professor Zhang Huaxiang).

 

‘The Singer’ (Musical Director/Sound Designer, Dr Clint Bracknell) with guitar in hand, takes his seat at the foot of the proscenium arch. Accompanied by a brightly dressed, indigenous singer (Lynette Narkle), the two beautiful voices set the scene.

     The Malaysian percussionist, Arunachala, attacks the timpani – the play has begun.

     In the town of Nuhka, the church is filling for Easter Mass. The slimy Fat Prince (Luke Hewitt) ingratiates himself with the powerful Governor, Georgi (Geoff Kelso) and his egotistical wife, Natella (Caitlin Beresford-Ord) as they sweep past the peasants. The Prince admires the Governess’s new baby, Michael, who has been left outside the church with the maid, Grusha (Alex Malone). Two soldiers are admiring Grusha, when one, Simon (James Sweeny) tells his dim friend (Kenneth Ransom) how he has watched her bathing in the river. Grusha is horrified.

     The Fat Prince has arranged a political coup, and with the Government deposed and her husband dead, Natella escapes the heartless, murdering Ironshirts (Adam Booth, Alison van Reeken). In doing so, she leaves her son behind, yet takes time to collect her expensive wardrobe of clothes.

     Grusha is keen to look after the baby, but with the gestapo-like Ironshirts searching for the child, she accepts the help of a kindly peasant woman (Kylie Farmer, Indigenous name Kaarljilba Kaardn). They escape across the northern mountains to her brother (Steve Turner), Lavrenti’s farm; well away from the Governor’s friends and the Ladies of the Court (Felicity McKay) who may recognise her.

       What will become of Grusha? Her lovers on the way? Moreover, the baby? Who is Judge Azdak?

Directed by Dr Wang Xiaoying, the Vice President of the National Theatre of China, with Assistant Directors, music graduate, Chen Tao and Melbourne based, Hong Kong born, Felix Ching Ching Ho who is an independent theatre director, a new freshness was brought to the Perth stage. The pace was cracking; with stagehands and cast moving the props in and out within seconds, the story retained its drive wonderfully.

Most of the players had several characters to play, and with a different mask for each one, the appearance could change, but the facial expressions disappeared, putting the focus onto the body language. Steve Turner probably had the largest number of personalities to perform, each being rich in detail.

In the first Act, Alex Malone as Grusha was magnificent, giving a full range of emotions. The play requires the occasional song, and her beautifully soft, sweet voice was crystal clear. In Act 2, one of our masters of the stage, Geoff Kelso, proved that he still has that magic touch. His comic delivery was brilliant and his singing left the audience gaping at the quality of his crooning.

The whole cast worked unrelentingly to give the audience an inventive, novel production.

‘Part One’ of the play caused ructions and the ire of morality groups when it was released, yet it went on to win every major award, including a Pulitzer Prize and two Tony Awards for Best Play.

This wonderful mammoth, 3-hour drama can be seen at the Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre, Northbridge nightly at 7.30 until Sunday 19^th June.

The stage is devoid of the normal flats and scenery, instead the sides of the stage have walls of lamp rigs – spots, floods, the full range; there are about 70 lamps on each side of the stage arranged at a dozen different levels.

The whole ‘ceiling’ of the stage comprised dozens of opaque Perspex panels, lit from above. The set and costume designer, Christina Smith, has selected numerous superb props, which completely satisfy the audience, giving a full mental picture of the venue, wealth etc.

The back wall consisted of black drapes that blended into infinity. They subtly opened and closed, allowing props and cast to enter. The numerous props / furniture entered silently and smoothly on travelling floor belts. Stage manager Peter Sutherland and his assistant, Claudia Blagaich certainly had to work for their crust in this show.

The work of the company’s mechanist, Nathan Fry, is often taken for granted, but here the directors and designer have created moving furniture, fly wire harness, the incredible wrath of God, inclement weather, a descending coffin and a spectacular final scene that left the audience speechless. Superb work.

On this occasion, it was good to see the major stage teamsters being invited to join the actors for the curtain call.

This synopsis of the story is more informative than usual, and for some, may contain too many spoilers; however, for others it may help them follow the unusual storyline.

      It is 1985 in New York City, and we are at the funeral of Louis’s grandmother, with the aged Rabbi Chemelwitz (Toni Scanlan) blundering his way through a vale. After the service, ‘word processor’ Louis Ironson (Will O’Mahony), a neurotic lover, meets Prior Walter (Adam Booth) his partner of four years. Prior tells Louis that he has contracted AIDS. After months of caring for Prior, unable to cope, Louis deserts his friend in his final hours of need.

     Louis then embarks upon a relationship with the apparently ‘straight’ Mormon lawyer, Joe Pitt (Stuart Halusz) who, due to his latent homosexuality, has been having difficulty living with his wife, Harper. Agoraphobic ‘Buddy’ Harper (Jo Morris) is a Valium-addict, who fanaticises her way out of her misery, by planning holidays with imaginary travel agent, Mr. Lies (Kenneth Ransom).  

     True-life, brutal, right-wing solicitor, Roy Cohn (John Stanton) – who is gay, but despises other gays – offers Joe a senior post in the Washington Justice Department.

      We next see Prior desperately sick in bed. In a dream the daunting Angel of America (Felicity McKay) with a divine presence, has descended from Heaven and nominates Prior to become a prophet and spread the message. He declines the offer, but poor Prior could not start to contemplate the suffering in store for him. Prior turns to his best friend, dependable, ex-drag queen, Belize (Kenneth Ransom) for support. Prior tells Belize how he hears an Angel’s voice saying that she is coming for him – the angel’s help turns out to be an AIDS cure, and Prior goes to a hospice under the care of compassionate nurse Emily (Felicity McKay).

In one fantasy episode, Harriet is informed by Prior that Joe is a closeted homosexual and, in a touching performance, she challenges her husband on the topic. Now exposed, Joe and Louis become closer, and one night whilst drunk, Joe phones his mother, Hannah Pitt (Toni Scanlan) to inform her he is Gay. His mother panics, and wants to move to New York to help guide Joe back onto the straight and narrow. She puts her house up for sale with real estate agent, Ella Chapter (Felicity McKay).

     On visiting his GP, Dr Henry (Toni Scanlan), Roy finds he too has AIDS – but in denial calls it ‘liver cancer’. After high pressure from Cohn and his pathetic senior assistant, Martin Heller (Jo Morris), Joe decides to turn down Cohn’s job offer. Furious, Cohn calls Joe a wimp and goes on to say how he achieved his exalted position, even boasting how he executed Ethel Rosenberg (Toni Scanlan) for Treason as part of by McCarthy regime.

     As he becomes stronger, Prior’s ancestors from 17 generations earlier, appear at his bedside. They are a medieval farmer (Stuart Halusz) and a refined, seventeenth-century Londoner (John Stanton), both of whom died of the plague. They are enlisted to prepare for the advent of the ‘Angel of America’.

Directed by two award winners, Kate Cherry and her assistant Joe Lui, this complex story required all of their skills to stop the tale from becoming bogged down, and to ensure it retained the audience’s attention throughout; this duo were magnificent.

The movement director, Lisa Scott Murphy, ensured that the numerous entrances and exits flowed perfectly. Dialect coach, Luzita Fereday thankfully had the cast all speaking with the same understated New York accent.

The storyline has aged a little, but the depth of emotion demanded and the exemplary delivery by this top notch, highly experienced troupe guaranteed a freshness. The cast had the challenging task of involving the audience in their tension, fear and stress for three hours, but by giving each actor a number of characters to play, including women playing males, it kept their performances alive. The script has several very funny sections that again lifted the show from the grim topic, retained the pace and allowed light relief.

Often in Gay plays, the cast feel obliged to caricature the characters, thankfully this cast were subtle, and even the overtly gay Belize had just the correct amount of limp wrist.

Assistant director Joe Lui, renowned for his chromatic use, has worked well with lighting designer Matt Scott to produce a remarkable visual experience from the vast lighting rigs.

Sound designer and composer, Ash Gibson Greig, was at his very best; with a backing ranging from subtle creepy, dirge-like strings to a bouncy Beatles’ tune. There were several unusual sound effects required, and these too were inspirational and dramatic.

The show had a couple of scenes that were daring even by today’s standard, but when the play was first staged, the audience’s reaction was one of horror and repulsion.

This thought-provoking show was not demoralising, but worked at every level of performance, direction and teching. A memorable, remarkable production that makes one hope ‘Part Two’ will be staged in the near future.

Amazingly, the 1992 film despite having an all-star cast with actors like Al Pacino (nominated for an Oscar), Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin, did not break financially even. The script contains references to Polaks, Chinks and the ‘Patel’ family’s way of doing business; whilst filming the producers were forced to remove the derogatory comments about the Indian family.

This enthralling, 95-minute (no interval) production can be seen nightly at 7.30 in the Heath Ledger Theatre, within the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, on the corner of William and Roe Streets, Perth. The season runs until Sunday the 14^th June.

The play opens in an L-shaped Chinese restaurant, with the clients seated in individual, tabled booths. The walls are trellised wood panels, the seating rich scarlet leather. This most authentic effect is topped with the ever-present, lucky waving cat.

The real estate sales office was remarkably spacious, with all of the fixtures of a well-established company. Richard Roberts and his associate, Patrick Howe, designed the stunning sets and costumes – from the slick salesmen’s suits to the cheap baggy trousers of Mr Lingk. Stage Manager Georgia Landre-Ord, assisted by Claudia Blagaich ensured the smooth running of the props and stage rotation.

Jon Buswell’s lighting design was cleverly contrasted; from the warm welcoming atmosphere of the restaurant to the stark, brightly lit office. The mood was perfectly enhanced by Ben Collins’ sound design and soft musical compositions.

        Mitch and Murray is a large group of Chicago real estate agents. The owner, much to the chagrin of the employees, sends his arrogant, cold and calculating nephew, John Williamson (Will O’Mahony) to run a branch office, Premier Properties.

        Shelley ‘The Machine’ Levene (Peter Rowsthorn) was, until recently, the most successful salesman of the decade; but Williamson has his favourite salesmen in the office, and so gives them the only ‘good leads’, i.e. those properties most likely to achieve the best prices.

         The play opens in the local Chinese Restaurant where middle-aged Shelley – who hasn’t made a sale for ages – is grovelling to Williamson for a decent couple of leads, such as the Glengarry Estate, instead of the unsaleable, rundown rubbish that has been sitting idle on the books for months.

        Around the corner of the restaurant, in another booth, are two more employees that are disgruntled. Ruthless, loudmouthed Dave Moss (Kenneth Ransom) has had a bright idea, and is trying to get on board, the depressed, nervous George Aaronow (Luke Hewitt). He wants George to break into their own branch office and steal all the details of the prime properties, in order to sell them to Jerry Graff, their local rival. Aaronow is horrified, but somewhat interested.

        In another corner, top salesman Ricky Roma (Damian Walshe-Howling) who has few morals, is smooth talking a timid, elderly man, Mr Lingk (Steve Turner) into buying a property and is about to go in for the kill.

        Next day the police are called into the real estate office and Detective Baylen (Ben Mortley) gets to work interrogating, determined to solve a crime that has taken place overnight.

The play has a slow start, taking a few minutes until you know where the men work and what their ‘good lead’ is. Voice and dialect coach, Luzita Fereday, has taught the cast a soft, unobtrusive, Chicago accent and thankfully all of the players have the same drawl.

I have seen this play three times in the past, and come away totally unmoved, thinking ‘what a lot of words about nothing’, consequently I was quite reluctant to see this play again. Luckily I did go, as under the guiding hand of director Kate Cherry the whole meaning, depth of the rich dialogue, the tension and hateful competition suddenly came to life. This is one of these magnificent plays that either works brilliantly or dies miserably – with nothing in the middle. It takes a special team of fine actors to bring such a play to life, and here we have the cream. As a fly on the wall, you learn of the tensions, dirty tricks and heartbreaks of working in the real estate business.

Every actor has captured their richly written characters superbly; however, a special mention must be made of Peter Rowsthorn, who performs a whole spectrum of emotions, an outstanding and moving dramatic performance from one of the country’s funniest comedians.

There is frequent coarse language, and 90 minutes of solid, unrelenting bitterness with no light relief; however, you are left a little drained, but certainly not depressed.

It is rarely that you leave a theatre so overwhelmed by the standard of acting you have just seen. Black Swan at its very best.

When her 44 year-old father died in a car crash, Moira was only 4 years old. Her Mum was left to bring up three young children by herself. After studying English and Drama at London University, Moira went on to train as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Despite being nominated in 2003 for an Olivier ‘Best New Comedy’ Award, ‘Dinner’ was extensively rewritten at the end of the opening run. With a score of plays to her credit, often written between auditions, Buffini’s works tend to have a dark, satirical theme, and this is no exception.

This wonderfully moreish, WA Premiere is being presented by the Black Swan State Theatre Company, and can be seen at the Heath Ledger Theatre, within the State Theatre of Western Australia, 146 William Street, Northbridge. The 105-minute performances commence each evening at 7.30, with the season running until Sunday 29^th March.

The set is in a country home on the outskirts of London, the scene is a massive, sumptuous conservatory with 4 metre high, glass panels on three walls. A beautiful bronze and gold candelabrum hangs in the centre of the room, above a Perspex and glass dining table, with six clear acrylic chairs around it. The table is immaculately set for a banquet.

The set and lighting designer, Trent Suidgeest, has used a similar set to that of His Majesty’s ‘Equus’ – the multiple windows allow us to see the inclement weather outside, and to remind us that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. The stylish props are by India Metha.

        The curtain rises to show a beautiful woman in a scarlet dress kissing a waiter.

       Thrilled that his new, Nietzsche style, psychology self-help book, ‘Beyond Belief’, is a best seller, smug Lars Janssen (Steve Turner) is about to celebrate. His finicky, acid-tongued, bitch of a wife, Paige (Tasma Walton) has decided to host a glitzy dinner party in his honour.

Paige is resolute to have everything flawless. Digging into history, she carefully creates a strange and nauseating menu. A ‘bad taste’ dinner in every sense. She even hires a waiter (Kenneth Ransom) just for the event, however, when she pays his service fee of 25,000 pounds in cash, we are left wondering why.

       Why does she want to demean her husband and affront their guests?

       To help the evening flow smoothly with her weird collection of narcissistic, killjoy guests, Paige has a list of interesting topics to discuss over dinner. The guests include a Freudian artist, Wynne (Alison van Reeken), a feminist who should carry a health warning, ‘may be nutty’. Then there is the chauvinistic, divorced microbiologist, Hal (Greg McNeill) accompanied by his ‘new babe’, outspoken journalist, Sian (Rebecca Davis).

       As the acerbic and venomous hostess’s memorable celebration gets underway, East Ender (Voice coach Luzita Feraday) Mike (Stuart Halusz), a hoody-wearing driver has crashed in the fog, and arrived requiring help.

Another exquisite musical score, mainly cellos and bass adagio, from sound designer and composer, Ash Gibson Greig helps set the threatening atmosphere.

India Metha created most of the costumes, but Michelle Tindale designed Sian’s dress. It is a full length, backless black silk dress, with a subtle light grey print at thigh level. Alvin Fernandez and Ae’lkemi have designed a stunning scarlet number for Paige; the dress is mainly of scarlet lace with matching embroidered and feather trimmings. Sheree Dornan was the designer of Wynne’s knee length dress of olive and brown crushed velvet, with a simple faux pearl pattern on the hem.

The central dining table rotated very slowly, allowing us to see the diners from different perspectives (Stage Manager Peter Sutherland). One course of the meal had most effective animation that made the audience squirm.

Director, Kate Cherry, adeptly starts the evening with friendly, soft-spoken banter at a laidback pace. Subtly, this wonderful cast crept the volume and aggravation slowly up until the unexpected final climax. Tasma Walton has been given a huge challenge with her part and has blossomed – what a bitch! The other insincere characters start off ‘all smiles’ but got positively nasty as the meal progressed. Kenneth Ransom was a man of few words, but his elegance and demeanour spoke volumes. Halusz as the jack-the-lad was the breath of fresh air in this dark – yet hilarious – tale. Davis played a deep thinking journalist, and we never really got to know what was going on in her head. Then there is poor dippy Wynne, who is shocked at the swearing and most of life’s encounters.

The actors, many of them Equity Award winners, had numerous characteristics each to conquer, and this they did with finesse.

Forget fast food with old friends, this is a dish to savour alone, but what would The West Australian’s Rob Broadfield score the meal? A play that livens your taste buds, but could it have a bitter after taste? Make a meal of it, have an excitingly different night out.

Composer Gordon McIntyre was for several years in the Scottish, post-punk band ‘Ballboy’. McIntyre explains that the songs do not tell the story (as in opera), but expresses the feelings of the characters – his play with songs – besides ‘the term ‘opera’ or ‘musical’ can frighten away the punters!’

First performed at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival, this hilarious Black Swan State Theatre Company presentation is showing at the Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, 176 William Street, Northbridge.

The 90-minute performances run nightly at 7.30 until Saturday 23^rd. There are matinees on Saturday the 16^th and 23^rd November at 2.15, with one Sunday matinee on the 24^th November at 5.00 pm.

It is the Midsummer long-weekend, and in an Edinburgh pub a lonely, attractive young woman, Helena (Georgina Gayler) a divorce lawyer, is sitting alone. Across the room, she sees a scruffy man, Bob (Brendan Hanson). Bob is a bland man with no particularly desirable features; he is also drinking alone and so, fancying a ‘bit of ruff’, Helena asks if she can join him. Bob cannot believe his luck, but he shares a few wines – and hopes his dreams will come true.

Next morning it becomes obvious that their quick ‘one night stand’ is not going to be that simple. As the friendship builds, we learn their secret thoughts about each other and their screwed-up lives in general.

For the whole, ridiculous, decadent and wild weekend, we follow them through the historic streets of Edinburgh, as they create their own hysterical history.

The accents were indeed from Edinburgh (as is my wife), slightly shaky, but most admirable as the two superb actors kept up the characterisation for the full 90-minutes. At least they did not fall for the mistake of having a Billy Connelly-style Glasgow accent. Congrats, go to accent coach Julia Moody.

There are many references to areas and buildings in Edinburgh, and so the Edinburgh Festival programme included a map of their adventures. Some of the jokes were very local such as ‘I appeared on Radio Four (our equivalent to 720), well actually it was Radio Forth (originally a pirate pop station)’ which, not surprisingly, the audience missed.

The small group at side of the stage supplied the live music. With Andrew Weir (guitar), Harry Oliff (bass and keyboard), Elliot Smith (drums) and the leader was sound designer, Ben Collins (sax, synthesiser and percussion). The songs were solos in the folk-singing genre. I would have liked to see more made of the music, although the last two numbers were excellent as they allowed the gifted couple to show their talents in this field.

Fiona Bruce’s set was straight from a typical, down market Edinburgh pub, with its scruffy oak frames around coloured glass. Fiona has created numerous alcoves and cupboards for minor props to be hidden. Every few seconds yet another hilarious prop would appear, there must have been a great deal of fun producing Bob’s friend. Fiona’s costumes were boring for ‘featureless’ Bob, along with a gorgeous bridesmaid dress for Helena.

Trent Suidgeest, lighting designer, had a slightly easier run than usual, but still created plenty of atmosphere, from the dark, wet streets to sunrise on the Forth.

The cast of two had to carry out all of the scene shifting, speak with an Edinburgh accent, perform puppetry, sing, be dramatic actors but most of all be madcap comedians. There was a strong chemistry as they adeptly flowed through the demanding script. Director Damon Lockwood, who has worked many times on Improvisation with George, encouraged their cheeky humour that kept the show fresh.

The show’s trailer on Facebook and Vimeo is well worth watching.

A very funny, sexy show, with a down to earth portrayal of lower life in Edinburgh, all delivered with an enormous amount of energy and talent. Many congratulations.