Friday Five: First Shows of the Year

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Supersonic Australia, The Domain, Sydney: As part of the Wild God Tour, the band played two shows in January featuring a messianic performance by Mr Cave, a 17-piece ensemble, some of the best backing vocals I have head in a long time, and a supporting cast of bats flying overhead at dusk (the lack of Release the Bats from the set was the only disappointment). Nick Cave is a consumate performer, whether belting out fan-favourites Tupelo and O Children or baring his soul with tunes about his dead son, I Need You (with the repeated refrain, 'just breathe') and Joy. Warren Ellis does Warren Ellis things at the side of the stage as Cave roams, struts and surfs about the place, equally comfortable pounding the piano or stroking the keys, his energy through two and a half hours is obvious in every gesture and facial expression. Jubilee Street is a deliverance for the ages, while more mainstream hits Red Right Hand and The Weeping Song invite the crowd to sing along until there is barely a dry eye in the domain by the time he finishes (us) off with Into My Arms.
2. The Book of Mormon - Anne Garfino, Important Musicals and Suzanne Jones, Capitol Theatre, Sydney: A delightful and irreverent pastiche of a show that mocks every genre of musical theatre, cultural hegemony and organised religion while still maintaining a moral code. From the team that brough you South Park comes a musical that skewers itself with outstanding acting, singing, choreography, sets and costumes. From the opening number, Hello! in which we are introduced to a cast of missionaries of the Latter-day Saints, we know there is earnestness up for lampooning. Elders Price (Sean Johnston) and Cunningham (Nick Cox) are paired up and sent to Uganda - not quite the cushy Orlando posting they anticipated. Cue jokes about dictatorship, AIDS, child abuse, blasphemy, and myth making. The songs are memorable and amusing, the sacriligeous Lion-King-inspired Hasa Diga Eebowai and the toe-tapping Turn It Off about supressing unwanted feelings are highlights, and the dream-a-dream ballad Sal Tlay Ka Siti is the version of the song that goes like this (performed by Paris Leveque with wholly convincing naivety in her professional debut). Spooky Mormon Hell Dream is a wonderful excuse to play with props, character and lighting, and the breathtaking audacity of I Am Africa had me wondering how they got away with it. The last word should go to Trey Parker who writes, "There's this line that you can cross all you want as long as you have a reason for doing it. If it has a point and it has a story and it has genuine, real character and emotion, then you can pretty much do whatever you want. There is no line if you're being truthful. We learned that lesson a long time ago."

3. You Tell My Mum I'm Dead - Sunspot Productions, The Courtyard Studio: This is an interesting new work from a promising young writer (Emily O'Mahoney), focussing on the Australian 'schoolies' phenomenom where hoards of 18-year-old school leavers descend on beach towns (particularly the Gold Coast and, in this instance, Bateman's Bay) to celebrate their new-found freedom. Gangs of youths, many of whom are away from parental control and experimenting with excessive drugs and alcohol for the first time, flirt, fight and try to figure out who they want to be as they emerge blinking from the confines of adolesence into the bright lights of adulthood. What could possibly go wrong? Director, Kathleen Dunkerley makes some bold choices in their use of space, light and sound effects, accompanied by straightforward acting decisions as they play to the cast's strengths. We spend time in the company of three young women: Cara (Emily O'Mahoney), whose natural performance and final decisive monolgue capture the insecurity of being on the cusp of womanhood; Max (Breanna Kelly), who brings energy and sincerity to an assured performance with unexpectedly emotional anguish; and Layla (Ainslie Bull), with a metaphoric speech about lambs being led to slaughter which could be the crux of the play if delivered with more power. The commitment and engagement from all involved make this an exciting ensemble to watch in future.
4. La Souris Blanche - ReAction Theatre, Street 2: Nancy Wake was a New-Zealand born Australian nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive during World War II and briefly pursued a postwar career as an intelligence officer in the Air Ministry. Known as the White Mouse, part of her legendary appeal is due to her insistence on maintaining her femininity amidst guerilla warfare, often taking silk nightgowns, Chanel lipstick and red satin pillows on spying missions in the French mountains. This production, written by Christine Croyden and translated by Véronique Duché is performed entirely in French, to immerse the audience in the language and the atmosphere of the resistance. Surtitles as well as wartime images are projected onto sheets hanging from the top of the stage, ripped and layered to provide entrances and exits, suggesting forests, apartments and nightclubs, all while evoking torn parachutes of downed airmen - both practical and imaginative. Nancy herself is performed by Ionna Gagani and Natalia Nour (as young Nancy) as the agent provocateur prepares to receive a belated award from the Australian government and reflects on her life and the choices that led her here. Flashbacks of her training and actions, including learning to kill silently and the consequences of that ability, are executed with passion, wit and candour. Director Louise Howlett doesn't shy away from the violence, while incorporating the romance and an artistic element through song and dance. There is a lot to the story, and this 80-minute play only peels back a partial couche d'oignon, leaving audience members craving more information, which is surely one of the purposes of drama, n'est-ce pas?
5. Bedroom Farce - Canberra Repertory Society, Theatre 3: The play can be pretty dated with its casual references to domestic violence and defined gender roles, as four couples talk about the things that happen behind closed doors. The title is misleading as it is not a farce so much as a sit-com where character interplay matters as much as precision timing. In this, the older couple, Ernest (Pat Gallagher) and Delia (Sally Rynveld) are perfect as the slightly stuffy and bewildered moral compass (think Richard Briers and Penelope Wilton in Ever Decreasing Circles). Their son, Trevor (played with too much posturing and insufficient presence by James Grundoff) has a combative relationship with Susannah (Lara Connolly whose histronics elicit ridicule rather than empathy), who crash the house warming party of practical jokers Malcolm (well-executed bonhomie from Lachlan Abrahams) and Kate (Antonia Kitzel as the centrepiece of the play with a fun and thoughtful performance). Making up the octet are Nick (Rob de Fries has a good line in physical theatre and condescending disdain but is way too old for the role which makes it ick) and Jan (Azerie Cromhout), Trevor's former girlfriend. Although the script frequently mentions her strength and how she would have been a better match for the tempestuous Nick, this is not evident on stage. All the action occurs across a series of bedrooms, delightfully designed by Andrew Kay, showing the character of the couples and allowing continous sightlines and theatrical flow. Despite some good acting and technical elements, the zeitgeist-blind casting of a couple where the man is old anough to be the woman's grandfather and the tone-deaf approach to domestic violence are insurmountable issues.

Ionna Gagani and Natalia Nour as Nancy Wake in La Souris Blanche

Friday Five: Cultural Activities on Australia Day Weekend in Sydney

We went to Sydney for 48 hours over Australia Day weekend and we packed a lot in. I shall write more about each of these activities, but these are the headlines. 

1. Woolloomooloo Sculpture Walk - ARTPark Australia: This is a free public exhibition of outdoor large-scale sculptures made from materials such as stainless steel, bronze, concrete and wood. The sculptures sit along the Wharf Boardwalk and many contain allusions to environmental and sustainable themes.

2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at The Domain: The reason we went to Sydney in the first place, Nick Cave excels again in the Wild God tour. Him Outdoors is a big fan of the Bad Seeds era (he likes The Birthday Party best but it is unlikely they will ever tour that material). We were more than happy to enjoy a two-and-a-half hour set, including new tunes and old favourites as the bats flew overhead in the night sky.

3. Art Gallery of New South Wales: We went to two exhibitions here. The first, Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940, featured celebrated and rediscovered paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and ceramics. The more than 200 works represent the wave of women artists who prevailed against social constraints and left Australia to pursue international professional careers. Some returned bringing back new ideas - realism; impressionism; post-impressionism; cubism; abstraction - and playing an integral role in modernising Australia. Artists such as Nora Heysen, Grace Cossington Smith, Margaret Preston, Dorrit Black, Frances Hodgkins, Thea Proctor, and Hild Rix Nicholas are represented in all their explorations of colour, light, form and movement. 

The second exhibition, The Patchwork Portal, is a newly-commissioned work by Raquel Caballero. Celebrating craft as a skilled art, she invites visitors to contribute to a collaborative patchwork installation. She takes inspiration from her favourite childhood book, L Frank Baum's The Patchwork Girl of Oz, and the psychadelic fabrics of the 1970s are highlighted throughout her works of sculpture and portraiture.  

4. The Book of Mormon at Capitol Theatre, Sydney: I have wanted to see this musical for a while and, seeing it was on its last weekend in Sydney, I was delighted to secure reasonably-priced tickets for pretty good seats. The theatre itself is beautiful and the show was as irreverent and as entertaining as I could have hoped. Parodying everything from virtue signalling and whitewashing to organised religion and musical theatre itself, the production was high-energy and full-on camp with exceptionally tight vocals and choreography, and even a perfectly pitched musical-within-a-musical.

5. The Australian Museum: Again, we saw two exhibitions here, the first being Relics: A New World Rises in which vintage objects meet miniature Lego brick worlds. The concept is that in the future, the human race has disappeared leaving their detritus behind from fridges and typewriters to ATMs and jetskis. The Lego community has colonised them to make a cryogenic health centre, printing press, credit union and holiday resort. The exhibition aims at being both nostalgic and thought-provoking, but there are far too many children present, who have no concept of stepping back to let others see, and what with all the pushing and shoving, it is difficult to get near the displays.

The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year displays are always excellent and this is no exception (although it is next to the Lego exhibition and there is a spill-over of space-oblivious children). The works showcase the spectacular flora, fauna and landscapes found throughout Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea. "From murky ocean depths, to soaring mountain tops and fiery outback landscapes", they invite us to see nature "in a whole new light".

Glacial Blue by Stuart Chape

Friday Five: Even More Theatre

These are the latest brief reviews of five theatre productions I have seen recently (ish).

Karen Vickery and Natasha Vickery in Collected Stories

1. Collected Stories, Chaika Theatre Company, ACT Hub - This is sensational theatre: a great production of a great play, with superb acting by Karen Vickery and Natasha Vickery, and direction by Luke Rogers. Famous writer and teacher Ruth Steiner (Karen Vickery) takes on aspiring author Lisa Morrison (Natasha Vickery) as a protégé, and their power dynamic shifts subtly throughout the play as the student learns all they can from their tutor, eventually surpassing them in certain ways. Written by Donald Margulies, the play questions who has the right to tell someone else's story and what emotional events can be manipulated for creative and commercial gain. Plays featuring women can be amazing when the protagonists get to talk about something other than having (or not having) babies. Who knew we could actually be imaginative and interesting… 
2. An Evening with Richard E Grant, The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre - The man is charming and knows how to tell a good story. His life is rich with incident, from his childhood in former Swaziland - now Eswatini - (told in his diaries and Wah-Wah, the film he wrote and directed) to being picked to play Whitnail in his breakout role in Whitnail and I, to his relationships with famous celebrities and the death of his beloved wife, voice coach Joan Washington. He talks candidly and refreshingly about it all, saving his dearest love for Barbara Streisand and of course, Joan, whom he clearly loves and cherishes every day. He has a remarkable optimism, which is moving and infectious, and it is a delight to spend an hour or two in his upbeat company. 
3. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Carnage Tour, Canberra Theatre -  I have not seen Nick Cave perform live before, so this was a real treat as I thought I knew what to anticipate, but this still exceeded all expectations. With banter that alluded to their years-long friendship, the pair moved through a repertoire  repertoire of slow, melancholic numbers, to upbeat anthems chanted with passion by the loving crowd.  Ellis showcased his incredible musical versatility, playing the violin, flute and keyboard all with remarkable aplomb and charisma. Lying on a stool with his legs in the air and punctuating the beats with the bow held aloft, his physicality with the violin is not to be surpassed. Nick Cave's voice is distinctive and soulful, and he smashes out those songs with passion and commitment. The gig was breathtaking, heartbreakingly beautiful, bewitching and spellbinding; two and a half hours of solid evangelistic genius.

4. The Torrents, Mill Theatre at Dairy Road - For their inaugural production, Mill Theatre deliver a sharp and affecting piece of social commentary. A young woman, J. (Jenny) G. Millthorpe (played with calm assurance by Lexi Sekuless, who also directs), in a late 19th-century small gold-mining town tries to get a job at a newspaper where only men are employed. She argues her merits and her value so well that she persuades the old blusterers (including Elaine Noon rising to the challenge of playing the gruff Scot Macdonald and Heidi Silberman as the spectacularly unctuous John Manson), the young braggarts (Kat Smally excelling as Ben Torrent) and eventually the owner (Rachel Howard with measured nuance as Rufus Torrent). Meanwhile there are schemes for agricultural irrigation which are opposed by the proponents of mining in an environmental battle that would have been powerfully prescient when Oriel Gray wrote the play in 1955. The examination of the roles of women in a male-dominated industry are highlighted as all the male roles are gender-swapped spotlighting the absurdity (and depressing persistence) of such outmoded ideas. Costumes and props are meticulously of their time, while the scene changes are set to exquisite musical arrangements of contemporary pop classics by prominent female artists - Material Girl by Madonna is a particularly fine choice. There is much to like and much to ponder in this play and it's a great start for what promises to be an exciting new company.
5. Sense and Sensibility, Canberra Repertory Society, Theatre 3 - The current vogue for Austen adaptations is to make them all light and frothy and faintly ridiculous. Director Cate Clelland's version of Kate Hamill's script does exactly that on a fabulous set (also designed by Clelland) which keeps the pace of the action, across multiple times and venues, racing along. The older Dashwwod sisters Elinor and Marianne are in the marriage market because their inheritance is sold out from under them by dint of them being female. The new possessor of their former house, Fanny Dashwood (played with bombastic glee by Kayla Cicerna) treats them with disdain, and they resort to stumbling about in the rain and spraining their ankles in an attempt to ensnare husbands to take them away from all this. If there are subtleties and nuances in the novel (and I am assured there are), they are excised from this madcap mayhem. The cast of gossips remain on stage throughout highlighting the lack of privacy and the fact that these would-be suitors and conquests have to conduct their intimate games (and courtship is definitely a spectator sport) in public with dignity, which is missing in action in this production. Elinor (Karina Hudson) is giddy and deliberately irritating rather the sense which is usually a counterpoint to Marianne's (Annabelle Segler) sensibility.  The Missus Steel (Kate Garrow as Lucy and Sienna Curnow as Anne) make the more appealing double act, as their more minor roles suit the cartoonish characterisation the script bestows upon them. The costumes, designed by Anna Senior are sumptuous and draw the eye almost to the detraction of the main event - for example, when Jack Shanahan stands in the background as a gossip and eavesdropper, the wearing of his fabulous military attire make it confusing as to whether he is still playing the cad John Willoughby, and if so, how this will affect the plot. The point is that it doesn't, because that seems to have been discarded in all the fun and frivolity.  

The gossips in Sense and Sensibility

Friday Five: Best films of 2014

The list is fairly self-explanatory, but a couple of things to note are that I'm only including films that were actually released in 2014. I saw Still Life in 2014 and it is excellent, but its release date was 2013 (even 2012 in some places) so it can't qualify for the list. It was too hard to whittle it down to five, and, as it's my blog and I can do what I like, I kept it at seven. And they're in alphabetical order because I couldn't pick the very best.

7 of the best films from 2014:

1. 20,000 Days on Earth – Not only a fascinating insight into the more-than-mildly-bonkers mind of Nick Cave, but also a discourse on the transformative power of performance. Sharply directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the fusion of documentary and drama with talking heads and concert footage is absolutely excellent. It won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival; it deserves to win many more at many more.
2. Calvary – Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, and starring Brendan Gleeson as a good priest, this film has all the commanding scenic shots, black humour, depth of plot and characterisation you would expect. Its combination of deeply disturbing morality and theatrical reverence is both subtle and shocking, reverberating long after its short (1hour 40mins) running time.
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Sort of like a combination of Fawlty Towers, Allo Allo, and a bumbling prison escape/ murder mystery/ chase-sequence thriller: wonderfully weird, impeccably acted and every scene fantastically framed – I love this sort of description-defying stuff! Wes Anderson directs the tale of the adventures of Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), the legendary concierge of a famous European hotel between the wars, and exceptional actors fall over themselves for a bit part.
4. Mr. Turner – Timothy Spall is brilliant in Mike Leigh’s earthy and grimy biopic in which humanity is ugly, and the only beauty is found in the paintings and the scenery. The film is as much about the nature of fame and celebrity as it is about art and the passing fads in the cultural consciousness. While J.M.W. Turner is the major planet around which all the other actors orbit, they all shine brightly in this firmament.
5. Nightcrawler – Excellent and disturbing film about how we get the news delivered to us in the way we deserve. Jake Gyllenhaal gives a chilling performance, Rene Russo mines the emotions behind the cut-throat news service industry, and writer/director Dan Gilroy offers up a lot to think about.
6. Paddington – Paddington Bear was one of my childhood favourites, along with Bagpus, The Clangers, The Magic Roundabout and The Herb Garden. I loved the books, I loved the TV series, and now I love the film – feel-good film of the year. Everyone gives a top-notch performance from Ben Wishaw as the voice of the bear, to Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins as Mr and Mrs Brown. Whereas Disney would have ruined it, Heyday Films, you looked after my bear. Thank you.
7. The Trip to Italy – Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are back and as brilliant as ever. Their (largely unscripted, as is director Michael Winterbottom’s wont) blokish banter of insults and continuous non-sequiturs is reminiscent of the rambles you used to have down the pub in the good old days before someone would whip out their smart phone and kill all creative discussion. The back-drop of scenic Italian countryside, gourmet meals and plush hotels is merely a bonus.

Portrait Gallery - Part One

When I go to a new country, one of the things I love to do is go to their national portrait gallery. I think you can learn a lot from these places, such as who is important to the nation and why.

The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, contains a visual snapshot of Australians. The portraits are predominantly of politicians, athletes, generals and soldiers, activists and Indigenous rights' campaigners, chefs and restauranteurs, newsreaders, fashionistas, artists, authors and musicians, architects, doctors and scientists.

Some are against blank backgrounds; others have elaborate settings, which can be as significant as the subject themself and can help you guess their occupation.

Dr John Yu by Ah Xian

A glazed ceramic head of Dr John Yu by Ah Xian was my starting point. Dr John Yu was Australian of the Year in 1996; as a paediatrician and administrator, and noted for his collection of Chinese ceramics and love of art and music, this torso with little child figures crawling over it makes perfect sense, and it is the first 21st century porcelain bust in the National Gallery's collection.



HRH the Crown Princess of Denmark by  Jiawei Shen

I love this portrait of Mary. She stands in a stunning blue gown with a sash, accessorised with a Danish elephant, looking frankly at the viewer. On one side is a Danish column, and on the other is an open widow, through which can be glimpsed the Opera House which, as it was designed by Dane Jørn Utzon, cleverly combines her background with her future representing the two countries.

George Tjungurrayi by Matthÿs Gerber

George Tjungurrayi was an artist, of the Pintupi/ Luritja/ Ngaatjatjarra language group from Kintore, NT. He has become one of the masters of Pintupi art, and his huge dazzling paintings of the Tingari Cycle are represented in the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, as well as European collections. Matthÿs Gerber has painted his image as a series of coloured planes, contour-mapping the artist's face as a cartographer might, to evoke Tjungurrayi's colourful depictions of the country.

Nick Cave by Howard Arkley

Howard Arkley's synthetic polymer on canvas portrait of Nick Cave (1999) is one of my favourites. It combines bright colours and bold sweeps of spray paint with the singer's uncompromising glare. The two knew each other vaguely in Melbourne in the late 1970s. Arkley came to see no sense in the Australian preoccupation with paintings of the bush, when such a small percentage of the population engages with the bush itself.



Instead, over twenty years of experimentation, he developed a distinctly psychadelic and incandescent airbrush style, which he employed in immaculately finished depictions of suburbia. After representing Australia with such works at the 48th Venice Biennale in June 1999, he travelled to London to plan an album cover for Cave, and then to Los Angeles for a sell-out show of his paintings. He died a few days after his return to Melbourne, and this was one of his last completed works.

Christos Tsiolkas by John Tsiavis

When you look ast the photograph of author Christos Tsiolkas by John Tsiavis, the first thing you see is your own reflection against the black background covered in glass, and then you notice his judgmental look as he seems to lurk in sepia in the top corner. Unnerving.

Simon Tedeschi unplugged by Cherry Hood

The giant canvas of Simon Tedeschi Unplugged (by Cherry Hood) in watercolours that run down his bare torso makes him look more like a swimmer than the pianist he apparently is, so you can't guess them all!

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu by Guy Maestri

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu's portrait (by Guy Maestri) is another huge and powerful work. He was born blind, learned guitar, keyboard, drums and didgeridoo to play in The Saltwater Band. His debut album in 2008 (entitled Gurrumul) won four ARIA awards. The portrait seems to reflect depth and harmony.

While I was roaming aimlessly between galleries, the chap I had previously left my stuff with in the cloakroom approached me. He was finishing his shift and said he wanted to show me some of his favourite works in the gallery. I'm pretty sure that wasn't a euphemism, because the first thing he showed me was Ned Kelly's death mask!

Captain James Cook by John Webber

Next he showed me a fabulous portrait of Captain James Cook by John Webber. It used to hang on the wall of Alan Bond's office until he was declared bankrupt and it was given to his liquidator. The National Portrait Gallery bought the painting for $5.13 million - it is the most expensive art-work in their collection.

Deborah Mailman by Evert Ploeg

The guide also showed me the People's Choice Award, which is a portrait of Deborah Mailman by Evert Ploeg (1999). She is an actor of Maori and Aboriginal parents, and the rendering of oil on jute makes for an interesting background.

Nora Heysen self-portrait

His own favourite is a self-portrait of Nora Heysen which he points out (correctly) has a 3-D-like effect, and wherever you stand in the room it appears as though she is watching you, and her image stands out from the canvas.

Still of Cate Blanchett from a video by David Rosetzky

Finding out what I liked, he took me to a video by David Rosetzky of Cate Blanchett explaining her acting process, and he left me to watch the ten-minute documentary. She explains that acting is a "constant pull between wanting to be seen and not wanting to be seen." To assume a character you've got to get to a place of neutrality; to see the horizons of a character and know you won't fall off the edge. Characters are there to do something, like figures in a dream. They are real, but when you wake up... they're shadowy. "Who I am is constantly changing." She stands, sits and dances in an empty warehouse, and it is entirely compelling.