Brisbane-based barrister, Michael Hodge, wrote the book with his brother, Paul Hodge, who also composed the music and wrote the lyrics. Paul has a PhD in musical composition, and has also gained Brisbane’s prestigious ‘Young and Emerging Artist Fellowship’ and numerous other international awards.

This bright and effervescent 2-hour show can be seen at the Heath Ledger Theatre in Northbridge nightly at 7.30 until 11^th September.

The scene is a magnificent representation of the exterior of the White House, complete with majestic central white dome and flag pole (Set and Costume Designer, Bruce McKinven). The musicians are positioned on the top deck, in a ‘bandstand’ just under the cupola. Sensibly, the drums (Michael Perkins) were enclosed in a Perspex area, allowing a superb balance of the instruments. The Musical Director and keyboard player was David Young, with guitarist Jonathan Fernandes and bass player Andrew Weir. Thanks to clever orchestration (Neil Douglas Reilly), the effect was that of a large band.

As the stage revolves, we see the podium for public announcements. The stage wings’ legs and backdrop are in red, white and blue. This theme by Scenic Artist, Marek Syzler, has been picked up and continued by the Lighting Designer, Mark Howett, and used to great effect.

It is rare to have the audience applaud the set, but at the opening this well admired set earned a big round of applause. 

       The proscenium grand drape is a figurative American flag; it rises to reveal Hillary Clinton (Lisa Adam, looking amazingly like the lady herself) inside the White House’s Oval Office. Hillary makes it clear that she is the person in power, and goes on to tell us the story behind her husband’s mayhem as President.

     The President enters the office, and everyone around sees him as one; but because of his parallel lives, he is portrayed by two very different characters who talk to each other. There is the clear-headed leader, in a smart suit – W.J. Clinton (Simon Burke) and the wild, leather dressed, irresponsible philanderer – Billy Clinton (Matt Dyktynski).

     The country is buoyant and politics running smoothly. The Press however – agitated by Clinton’s nemesis, Newt Gingrich (Luke Hewitt), Speaker of the House – try to create debasing news. They drag up the ‘Whitewater Scandal’, a real estate investment of the Clintons that collapsed with little actual humiliation to them. Gingrich, still determined to shame Clinton engaged Kenneth Starr (Brendan Hanson), an independent counsel who lusts after men in power.

     WJ asks his ever-faithful wife, Hillary, for her advice and unexpectedly receives wise words from the ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt (Clare Moore), the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, President during World War 2.

     One day, into the Oval Office came Monica Lewinsky (Megan Kozak), a White House intern. New ‘meat’ for the philandering Clinton?

     There follows attempts at Impeachment and a legal battle, but who will win? Will Bill Clinton leave the post with worthwhile reforms in place? What is Hillary doing in the background?

Director Adam Mitchell is at his best with a musical, but here he gives us something extra special. With a cast of seven performers playing more than a dozen parts, the action moved at jet speed. With the astounding quality of the actors, and their immense versatility, we are soon fooled into thinking that there is a huge cast.

Choreographer, Claudia Alessi, being completely in tune with the uproarious comedy had the cast moving with hilarity. Lisa Adam as Hillary was wild and energetic and her interpretation of ‘Brew It for Your Country’ was dazzling.

Another highlight was Brendan Hanson as Ken Starr, who brought the house down with his rendition of a gay in heat singing ‘Starr Is Born’.

Jenny Edwards’ costumes ranged from the numerous, bright pastel outfits of Hillary to the semi-bondage, ‘cheeky’ ensemble of Ken Starr. Immaculately finished by wardrobe assistants Gail Reading, Elizabeth Buckland and Louise Arcus.

You keep expecting the story to tactfully smudge the details, but this brave musical just gets the boot in, and gives the audience the most fun in a long time. The audience split their sides with Megan Kozak’s execution of ‘Monica’s Song’, as Monica gloated on her conquest by celebrating in song with untamed actions – brilliant.

The lively and interesting sound design was by Ben Collins. There were about a couple of dozen songs with hysterical lyrics, but as the actors wore headsets the words were crystal clear.

A poor American accent can grate and annoy, however Voice Coach, Julia Moody, had the whole cast speaking in the same modest accent. The cast even managed to change this slightly with the multiple characters that they played.

Stage Manager, Claudia Blagaich and her assistant Stage Manager, Rhianne Perrie were dressed in smart black suits and moved in and out of the action moving lecterns, chairs and other props.

There are plays where the acting can be outstanding, the singing melodic and the dancing inventive. There are shows that give the audience a good laugh and you leave the theatre with a smile; but rarely do you get all the features combined in one production. This musical is just one of these rarities. A MUST see show.

Standing ovations are quite infrequent these days, but this production truly deserved theirs.

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.

There really was a Desire streetcar line in New Orleans. The route ran for 30 years, being closed around the epoch of this play. It ran from Bourbon through the Quarter to Desire Street in the Bywater. The character of Blanche may be based on Williams’ mentally ill sister, Rose, who after a lobotomy became debilitated.

The Black Swan State Theatre Company is presenting this star-filled classic at the Heath Ledger Theatre, in the State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge. The performances are 3 hours 20 minutes, and run until Sunday 6^th April. The curtain goes up each evening at 7.30.

This play has been so amazingly popular that it now has an extended season, so please check for new performances up to the 13th April.

The amazing set (designed by Christina Smith, assisted by India Mehta) is of a two-storey apartment block in the French Quarter of New Orleans just after World War ll. It is colonial style, with a metal spiral staircase on the outside. On the ground floor is a poor, dishevelled, one room flat.

Matt Scott’s exceptional lighting design creates an extra sleaziness to the house. He has lit each small area separately, often having several cool patches of greens and blue blended with the warm colours to change the mood in the room. When a streetcar rumbled past (very convincing sound design, Ben Collins) the flashing car lights lit up the room, heightening a climax in the script.

        The neon sign of a bar shows through the steamy heat of the evening. The soft jazz music of an alto sax (played by composer Ben Collins) drifts from the top floor. A woman dressed smartly in a white suit and carrying an expensive handbag is searching for a house.

       This is Faubourg Marigny, a poor quarter of New Orleans where Stella and Stanley Kowalski survive in their small Elysian Fields Avenue apartment. Although grubby, the neighbourhood is alive, vivacious and with a sensual ambiance.

       Two women are sitting on the spiral staircase, Eunice (Alison van Reeken) and her Negro friend (Irma Woods). They spot the striking, Southern Belle, Blanche DuBois (Sigrid Thornton) an alcoholic who has delusions of grandeur and pretensions to culture. Blanche is truly a delicate, disturbed woman desperate for security in her life. She explains, ‘They told me to take a streetcar named ‘Desire’, and then transfer to one called ‘Cemeteries’. After a recent traumatic period, Blanche is essentially seeking sanctuary with her sister, Stella (Jo Morris). Eunice has a spare key for Stella’s flat. On entering, Blanche is horrified by her sister’s poky apartment, especially after the ancestral Southern estate she has just left.

       Her deceptive poise is not solely to attract male partners, but is a personal shield of delusions and fantasy from the reality of having lost her family fortune and home. Neither will she face the truth about her homosexual husband’s suicide, nor her sacking for seducing a young pupil at the school where she taught, instead she tells Stanley and Stella her problem is nervous exhaustion. Blanche turns to alcohol at every chance.

      As Stella welcomes Blanche with some trepidation, she is terrified of what her husband Stanley (Nathaniel Dean) will say about the new visitor. From the beginning, Blanche is appalled at her brutish brother-in-law. Like all of the other women in the area, Stella is compliant in sex, oppression and in love with her husband.

      One evening, Stanley has some friends around for their weekly poker night. There is Pablo (Benj D’Addario), Eunice’s husband, Steve (Steve Turner) and a middle-aged mummy’s boy, Harold (Luke Hewitt). During their game, Blanche, seeing a possible answer to her prayers, snuggles up to Harold. The anger in Stanley is immediately aroused by this intrusion.

     Next day, when a young collector (Callum Fletcher) calls for the week’s newspaper money, Blanche pays him in her own way.

     Stanley, suspicious of the circumstances that led to Blanche leaving her hometown of Laurel, finds some strange truths about her affairs. Blanche’s grip on reality is becoming more fragile. By now, Stella’s first baby is due any day. A doctor (Michael Loney) and his nurse (Rhoda Lopez) arrive at the house to care for the patient.

 Black Swan’s resident artistic director, Kate Cherry has been capably assisted in the directing by Lawrie Cullen-Tait and also by renowned choreographer and movement specialist, Chrissie Parrott. The team has produced a visually exciting production, with an especially good interpretation of the script. Every nuance has been demonstrated.

Only one thing is worse than a false American accent, and that is when each member of the cast has accents from different States of America. Voice coach, Melissa Agnew has skilfully guided and blended the cast’s intonations into one authentic New Orleans’ southern drawl. This is not simply an American accent, but it has that extra roughness and Hispanic overtones of the poorer class. Although the actors were most impressive, it took me quite a few minutes to ‘tune in’ and understand the dialogue. Initially, I wished that their skills had not been quite so precise.

The delightful Sigrid Thornton nailed the part from the opening scene. There is a point where she is about to compliment Stella on her youthful looks, and pulls back and insults her clothes and hair instead. These tiny expressions and movements took the whole performance into a different league. Without spoiling the tale, the change in Blanche throughout was subtle in voice, movement and whole body demeanour, a superlative performance.

The beginning of the second Act started with a charming love scene, where poor Harold pleaded with Blanche for her hand; this was particularly well handled. Both Jo Morris and Nathaniel Dean had brilliant chemistry throughout the wild mood swings in their life.

I often wonder if it is harder for the costume maker to create luxurious gowns or to make clothing that looks well worn. A few tears and a bit of dirt rubbed in never looks authentic. The garment makers Lexi Hobbs, Susi Rigg and Rachel McCabe have created some admirable apparel from gold threads to local ethnic attire.

This is a classic play that calls for tight direction, good interpretation and excellent teamwork. Here we have a talented cast giving us a production to remember.