Short and Sweet 2018: Week Two

Short + Sweet Theatre Canberra 2018 (Week Two)The Courtyard Studio, 24 - 27 April 2018

The premise of Short and Sweet is simple. It features a series of plays that are ten minutes long. If the play overruns the ten minutes, the lights are turned off. There is one venue and no set. Whatever props and furnishings are used need to be carried on and off by the actors. This time was slightly different with a number of items such as chairs, tables and a coat rack hanging from hooks at the back of the stage to be used when required.

There is one lightning and sound operator - sound files and lighting cues must be given to this person by the director a week before the show so that they can all be placed on one file. The sound system and lighting rig are rudimental - no intelligent lighting systems or layered soundscapes are available. It is bare bones theatre, which can be good, or it can be bad.

Every level is a competition. The writers submit their plays and they are selected to be performed. The directors have access to scripts and they apply to direct what is available. Actors turn up for a group audition in front of all the directors and present a short pre-learned monologue. The directors will then decide whether they can use this person in their piece. Or not. There can be a bit of a bun fight. It can also be a great way of learning new skills and working to time-constraints with previously unknown practitioners in a way that is supremely challenging but hopefully rewarding.

The way around this is to set up as an Independent Theatre Company and then you can write your own play, direct it yourself and fill it with actors you've already asked to be in it, having rehearsed it as much or as little as you like. For all of the above reasons, these pieces are frequently the best or the worst of the whole show.

At each performance there are judges, who know about the art of theatre and performance and bring their knowledge and experience to the process in selecting the three best pays in their opinion, and there is a people's favourite voted for by the audience, who get to select two plays: these are often but not always the same thing. The people tend to like to laugh: they vote for comedy; they vote for topical and local geographical references; they vote for plays with multiple characters; and they vote for their mates.

The performances for week two are varied in content and execution - one of the hardest things about judging is knowing what exactly one is judging: is it the writing; the acting; the direction or the whole thing - the elements rarely combine in equal measure.

One of the best-written pieces is Curtain Call by Cara Irvine about the tricky process of ending a play with a bow: who stands where; do you hold hands; how do you indicate to the backstage crew without smacking each other in the face; what do you do if they're still clapping? 'They won't be'. The writing combines comedy and the art of performance, appealing to all stage practitioners - and, let's face it; they're the ones who are in this audience. Irvine also directs it but the presentation of the dialogue is not quick-fire enough to truly hit the mark.

Adele Lewin gives a strong performance in Half a Mind (written and directed by Evan Croker) as an elderly woman whose dementia gives her chronic mood swings. She bullies her adult son (played with a fine level of sufferance by Stephen Walker), and forgets her own name and that of her children although she remembers all the parts she has played on stage, particularly Blanche DuBois - this is an actor's dream role even if the writing is a little unrealistic and over-theatrical.

Simon Doctor and Sarah Greenwood in The Jump

Of course, it's hard to come up with new ideas and often the plots can feel familiar. The person who is about to kill himself until he realises there is a contract out on him (The Jump written by Paulene Turner) seems derivative. Similarly Procrastination by Allen West deals with a writer trying to find actions for his characters on a path that feels well-trodden, and Wannabe written and directed by Laura Griffin tells a fairly well-recognised tale of the reaction of two female friends who discover they are dating the same man. Although the actors involved (Hannah Bennett, Emil Tow and Charlie Wan) all play it with a fresh enthusiasm, there is nothing novel for someone who remembers the eponymous song without any sense of irony.

Dec Hastings, Yarno Rohling and Stephanie Wilson in Procrasrination

Writing a ten-minute play is very tricky: there needs to be dramatic action, engaging dialogue, and plausible characters. The Choir Needs to Get Rid of Trevor (written by John Lombard and directed by Vee Malnar) is nicely acted by Helen Way, Mark Smith and Ryan Pope with some amusing dialogue as the choir committee work out who is going to tell Trevor that he is tone-deaf and doesn't belong here. Knowing how incisive Lombard's work can be, however, the denouement feels a little tame. Madeline Woods displays a comic incredulity when she discovers she has been kidnapped by mistake in Keeping Annabelle (written by Rachel Welch and directed by Melinda May) but this feels like the beginning of a play rather than a whole, and it is intriguing to imagine whether Daniel Berthon will develop more nuance as the amateur abductor.

Madeline Woods and Daniel Berthon in Keeping Annabelle

Helen Way and Christopher Ritchie in Maxwell's House

Maxwell's House written by Arne Sjostedt has some charming acting by Helen Way and Christopher Ritchie, and Cara Irvine does her best to direct a somewhat clunky script about a couple of strangers with a coffee obsession - so very Canberra to have a passion for the bean but nothing new to say about it. Director Amanda Gillespie also tries to wrangle some nuance out of the very one-note The Wedding Night Tweets (written by Daniel Guyton), in which the newlywed bride (Katherine Berry) commits every action and inaction of the groom (Jayme Makus) to social media scrutiny in the hope of a book deal. Writer Frank Legget tries to throw in a few twists to his Late Night Pizza (directed by Paul Jackson) but, although played with commitment by Ash Hamilton and Katherine Berry, they feel a touch too convenient to be shocking.

Katherine Berry and Ash Hamilton in Late Night Pizza

One of the best blends of all the elements is Cara Irvine and Martha Russell's Miss, which Irvine also directs. Presenting both viewpoints of the teacher and pupil trying to get through the workload while feeling misunderstood is thoroughly engaging. While Miss (also Irvine) desperately attempts to encourage her recalcitrant pupil to think for herself, other class members literally clown around, playing guitar, juggling and performing acrobatics which match the convoluted contortions that can underpin the modern education system. The exploration of the abstract highlights both the humour and heart in this brave and sensitive work.

The cast of Miss

This is a great night out at the theatre demonstrating multiple talents and providing a fantastic platform on which emerging artists can perform.

Defining Details: Art in the Gardens with Friends

Telopea specioissima by Margaret Steele

Botanical art fascinates me; there is such a high level of detail and the lack of background showcases the specimen in an exemplary manner. The Friends' Botanic Art Groups were holding their 11th Annual Exhibition at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, so I went along to admire their work.

One of the curators explained to me that the Botanic Art Group consists of three groups each of which get together once a month at the gardens to sketch and paint. They are provided with specimens they wouldn't otherwise have access to and they do their initial work here, then augment it later at their leisure. Botanical art requires close attention to detail and each work can often take many weeks to complete.

Of course, there is a form and structure to botanical illustration which pleases me. The images depict the form, colour, and details of plant species and must be scientifically accurate, so the artists must understand plant morphology, but they often also have an artistic component. This marriage of art and science appeals to me, as well as the ability to discover the elements of creativity within a prescriptive framework.

Each BAG member is entitled to submit one work that is an artist’s choice but all other works have to be vetted by a team of judges comprised of botanists from the ANBG and botanical artists to ensure a high standard. Just having work accepted for exhibition is an honour. A commission from the sale of each painting goes to the Friends to support the ANBG, and the annual event has been increasingly successful in raising funds.

The artworks generally vary in price from $150 - $500, although there was an $800 price-tag on Magdalena Dickinson's watercolour Eucalyptus macrocarpa. It is a beautiful large picture with a soft wash rendering the budding flowers a sensual appeal - lush and rich; succulent and bold, they appear almost edible like a ripe juicy fruit. I didn't buy any artwork, but I did purchase a couple of raffle tickets, first prize in which is one of the pictures, so I may yet have something beautiful to hang on my wall (fingers crossed).

Callistemon sieberi by Kristen O'Keeffe

I like the inclusion of aspects that help to inform the narrative, such as a bird or beetles to indicate size and the plant's position in the ecosystem, such as the above image by Kristen O'Keeffe. On her website (which features examples of her work and a blog), she explains that she loves the process of collecting specimens and working up compositions. She continues, "I find the medium of watercolour technically challenging but extremely enjoyable. In the future I would like to explore a more scientific approach in keeping with the traditions of botanical art where all aspects of a specimen are described to form part of a scientific record."

This particular exhibition was made all the more pertinent due to its focus on works featuring threatened and endangered species, many of which are in the Gardens. These fine representations are more than just works of art; if the species should be lost, the pictures will provide a scientific record. This seems to mirror the original use of botanical illustration to register 'new discoveries' as scientists and botanists explored the globe and presented their findings to their financiers.

The artists use a range of materials and methods including watercolours, coloured pencils and graphite, pen and ink, and scrapeboard. Their subjects feature banksia and eucalyptus; tamarind; orchids; waratah; pine nuts; karrajong seed pods. Marjorie Roche's Ephemera is crafted from graphite on pulped paper: the greys, browns and golds showcase the fleeting existence of leaves and seed pods. Meanwhile the entire development of the plant is recognised in Sue Grieves's watercolour, Eucalyptus youngiana. The colours of rich and vivid red to dark green depict the pods at multiple stages including closed, open, dead and empty.

One might have thought that development of photographic plates could make botanical illustration obsolete, but this has not been the case. A botanical illustrator is able to create a compromise of accuracy, an idealized image from several specimens, and the inclusion of the face and reverse of the features such as leaves. Additionally, details of sections can be given at a magnified scale and included in the margins around the image. For example, there are a couple of brown seed pods in the lower left quadrant of Maria Boreham's watercolour, Grevillea fleuosa which otherwise depicts the leaves and flowers in many shades of green. Also, Joan Pukis faithfully records the curved droopy leaves and little gum nuts, some with minor blemishes in greens and browns in her watercolour, Eucalyptus canalicilata while the pencil shadows are like ghost leaves in the background.

Brachychiton sp. Ormeau by Eva Henry

There are some of the more 'showy' specimens on display, such as Jann Ollerenshaw's Caladenia actensis/ Canberra Spider Orchid (a watercolour of the critically-endangered plant rendered very simply with exquisitely fine hatching detail in the fringes) or Vivien Pinder's collection of Sun Orchids (individual circles encompassing the flowers of different colours: gold; purple; pink; mauve and yellow; cream and splattered with russet). I admire them all - I have no artistic talent in this department and shall stick to the Performance Arts while appreciating the Visual Arts from a distance. 

Most of these artists are female and I find it interesting that the art of painting flowers has passed from the predominately female highly-skilled practitioners of still-life paintings during the Renaissance (when women were generally excluded from painting grander subjects such as histories and allegories due to their gender) to the mainly male scientists of the eighteenth-century explorations, and back to the ladies of the Victorian era with their watercolour flower paintings. Confined by social restrictions to the seclusion of their home (and certainly not permitted to study the human figure in a life class), subjects such as still life and flowers were considered particularly suited to women. 

Interest in botanical art is undergoing a resurgence as people like to connect with the natural world, and feel they are documenting plant life not only for art, but also for science and environmental research. Researching and recording that which we have before we lose it is of crucial importance to science and society alike. Painting plants has once again become political. And viewing the exhibition inspired me to look at the plants in a new light when I walked around the gardens taking photographs.