This ‘Jeffrey the Cat’, 70-minute Elinor King production has adult concepts, and is part of the City of Perth’s Winter Arts Festival.

This superbly written and structured drama – with a great twist at the end – can be seen at The Blue Room Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge where the performances start at 7.00 each evening until Saturday 16^th July.

Chris Brain’s set design is stunning. The scene is the back alley at the rear of the ‘Man Hole’ gay club. There are mountains of black bin bags rotting amongst the decaying brickwork, along with discarded shopping trolleys and boxes.

The lighting designer, Chloé Ogilvie came from the wilds of the bush (well Tom Price) to WAAPA to train. Her subdued lighting and subtle control of the faders helped developed the most realistic slum conditions. The whole effect is topped off by yet another WAAPA trained student, Taylor Everitt, who provided the soundscape. This show has a great deal of work for the stage manager, Rebecca Davidse.

       Tank (Maitland Schnaars) is an Aboriginal down-and-out, living with as much pride as society allows. He spends his day listening to his portable radio and drinking bottles of wine ‘acquired’ from the local grog shop. His best friend and arguing partner is Fred (James Hagan) an ex-radio announcer who lost his family, job – everything.

      One night, a half-dressed gay man is thrown out of the club and into their alley. This is Terry (James Taylor). Terry is less than polite to Tank, so the hobo forces the young man to drink his cheapest and nastiest grog. The man becomes comatose, and this is where the problems begin.

 

This story is a superbly observed piece, the dialogue is true to life and fits the characters perfectly; the topic may be a little heavy, but there is dark humour and raw ‘real life’ contained within, giving the tale the necessary lift. Just when you think you have the full picture of the characters, and you know where the story is going, the detrimental effects of the grog show in a most unexpected and dramatic way. Splendid writing from an author who developed his creative skills with ‘Playwriting Australia’.

Talented director, Ian Wilkes has gathered three very experienced actors, who were filled with unrelenting energy and wonderful chemistry, the result was three amazingly powerful performances. Not much wonder there were gasps and ‘wows’ from the audience at the final curtain.

This quality theatre is difficult to fault, and I am pleased to announce that the show is going to travel across to the eastern states to demonstrate WA’s capabilities.

In previous years, the Upstart Theatre Company has given us memorable plays such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as it was meant to be seen, raw and in the round, with the audience literally moving around. Here, the audience are seated for the whole show.

The set is simple, comprising various sized pine boxes. The lighting is almost ‘as available’, but this seemed perfectly acceptable. The costumes are dark blue vests for the lower class and soldiers, with white shirts and shorts for the nobility. There are no scene changes, the action simply moves from one area to another.

      The year is 1915. Singing ‘Once a jolly swagman’ a Venetian army of soldiers enter the auditorium.

      In a corner, an argument is taking place between the rich, but irresponsible, Roderigo (Ben Wilkinson) and Othello’s twenty-eight years old, standard-bearer, Iago (Patrick Downes). It appears that extremely jealous Roderigo is angry as he has given Iago money to arrange his engagement to the determined and self-possessed, Desdemona (Maja Liwszyc) but has not yet won her.

      Desdemona’s father, Brabanzio (Garreth Bradshaw), is a loud-mouthed and arrogant senator, who feels betrayed when he finds Othello (Maitland Schnaars), has secretly married his daughter and taken her to Cyprus. Army hero Othello, is a caring, well-respected man but because of his age and race (he is a Christian Moor – a black man), tends to be vulnerable and gullible. To make things worse, Othello has given the post of lieutenant to a fledgling soldier, handsome Michael Cassio (Geordie Crawley) and not Iago. Iago is furious so tells Brabanzio that Othello has actually kidnapped his daughter. Brabanzio is frantic and accuses Othello of witchcraft.

      When Brabanzio discovers that Othello is meeting the Duke of Venice (Tegan Mulvany), he decides to accuse and embarrass Othello in front of all the politicians. Surprisingly, when Othello explains how he really courted Desdemona the senate are very sympathetic. Desdemona confirms her love for Othello. Later, the Governor of Cyprus, Montano (Garreth Bradshaw) and several others go to the harbour to meet Othello. As they wait, Cassio clasps Desdemona’s hand. The cunning and conniving bigot, Iago, spots them. When Roderigo again challenges this heinous villain, he decides to implicate Cassio as being one of Desdemona’s lovers. On hearing this, poor Othello suffers tremendous mental anguish.

       That night, Cassio is slipped a Mickey Finn by Iago, and becomes extremely drunk before starting a fight with Roderigo. Cassio, who is subsequently stripped of his rank by Othello, stabs Montano. Iago convinces Cassio that by manipulating Desdemona, he will gain Othello’s favour; but in the soliloquy that follows, Iago explains how he intends to frame Cassio and Desdemona as lovers. Desdemona finds Othello feeling unwell. She offers him her handkerchief but lets it drop to the floor. Her maid, Iago’s wife, Emilia (Tegan Mulvany) picks up the handkerchief and gives it to Iago. This handkerchief, planted in Cassio’s room, is found by a Cyprian harlot, Bianca (Kat Shaw), who has Cassio as a much-loved ‘punter’.

      Desdemona arrives with Brabanzio’s kinsman, Lodovico (Chris Ratcliffe) who is carrying a letter calling Othello home and re-instating Cassio. Othello is shattered by the news.

    With Iago’s cunning and Othello’s depression, can there be any hope for the love and marriage of Othello and Desdemona? 

This is a fast moving play, presented by a company that always gives more than expected. The director is the well-respected Perth actor and comedian, Paul ‘Werzel’ Montague. The cast have captured the full depth of their characters, and with so much trickery, duplicity and passion this is essential. Although every actor was very good, Patrick Downes as Iago really proved to be outstanding – a truly nasty bit of stuff.

The director often had his actors performing straight to individual audience members, in Iago’s case, his shifty eyes really sent a shiver down the spine as he plotted his miserable schemes. Desdemona and Emilia had a wonderfully warm relationship that ended in genuine tears as their lovers cheated and lied.

Othello’s love for Desdemona could be seen in their eyes and the tragedy that ensued was tangible, as Iago’s lies became enacted. Plenty of action, packed with emotion – wonderful performances all around.

Powerful voices were often called for, but in the large open space of this theatre space, the odd reverberation distorted some lines of dialogue. This experienced cast soon learnt that good volume control gave a much better delivery.

There were a few laughs, songs to lighten the brutal tale. This is a play that is rarely performed, but even people that had no idea of the story thoroughly enjoyed the riveting performance. Most enjoyable.