THEATRE
Sonya Suares in Hearth at La Mama.Cameron Grant/ Parenthesy
Hearth ★★½
La Mama,until May 29
The View From Up Here ★★
Theatre Works,until May 28
Perhaps it isn’t so odd that,after an election decided partly by mounting support for climate change action,there should be two shows about bushfires opening in the same week. Yet the eerie similarity of these plays doesn’t stop there.
Both excursions into “cli-fi” (aka climate fiction) feature family dramas focused on reproductive issues – surrogacy inThe View From Up Here,adoption inHearth. Both are set against the charred landscape of a country aflame,each beginning wreathed in stage haze. Both can struggle,too,to mix domestic soap,issue play and more lyrical fare into something dramatically coherent.
Hearth takes us to country Victoria on the eve of the Black Saturday bushfires. Brothers Matthew (Martin Blum) and Tom (Kurt Pimblett) are a generation apart in age and don’t have much in common,but Matthew’s standoffishness eases into poignancy as Tom goes off the rails and needs a mentor.
When Matthew brings his artsy partner Abby (Sonya Suares) to Tom’s 18th birthday,there’s a comedic clash of city and country manners. Affectionately daggy domestic humour careers into melodrama when a secret kept by Tom and Matthew’s parents (Geoff Paine and Carole Patullo) gets revealed.
The cast features some well-known television actors,and the characters are drawn with brisk conviction. True,some performances stray into overacting when the stakes are raised,and I’m not sure the way Fleur Murphy entwines family strife and bushfire crisis intensifies either,though the bleak ambiguity of the play’s ending lingers in the mind.
It’s less rugged thanThe View From Up Here,which takes place among ashen desolation in a bushfire’s destructive aftermath.
Maggie and her two adult daughters Eva and Lily (Brigid Gallacher) reunite at their burnt-out family farm. Sibling rivalry erupts between the estranged sisters from the outset,and the tussle between the Eva’s cynicism and Lily’s tormented hope heightens as the latter discloses an ulterior motive for her visit.
As Eva,Chanella Macri generates a brooding fury that swells into savage soliloquy:her case against having children overpowers Brigid Gallacher’s desperate maternal instinct (in an admittedly underwritten part).
Emily Tomlins’ ageing Maggie swings between the poles her daughters adopt,relating her own experiences of motherhood. She can’t help but cling to delusions of rebuilding,even as an oppressive sense of dystopia gathers force – largely through bleak triumphs of design – and an inevitable exodus bears down upon her.
The script meanders too often into grim description;pace flags. Despite well-honed set pieces – verbal duelling between two diametrically opposed sisters,say – the portrayal of family conflict doesn’t have a sustained ring of authenticity,and feels out of scale next to the ecological catastrophe that dominates the play’s vision.Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
THEATRE
Dirt ★★★
Chapel Off Chapel,until June 5
Patrick Livesey and Wil King in Dirt.Jacinta Oaten
A two-hander with the architecture of a psychological thriller,Angus Cameron’sDirt unfurls from a gay hook up at an underground club in Moscow.
An Australian tourist (Wil King) meets a charismatic stranger (Patrick Livesey) offering to be his guide to the Russian capital. Amid vodka and party drugs,the night turns from seduction to unbridled hedonism,traumatic backstory is revealed,and the rules of the game shift as ulterior motives come to light.
Cameron’s muscular script gives the actors plenty to work with. There’s a convincing erotic charge propelling awkward courtship scenes,and whenever King’s babe in the woods hijacks the moment with some opinionated sincerity about the lack of LGBTI+ rights in Russia,Livesey saves it with a dash of sardonic humour.
Livesey also carries the emotional freight of someone who has tasted – rather than merely gabbed about – the grim experience of oppression. The rise of overt discrimination against queer people in Putin’s Russia was enshrined long before the country lurched into the disaster of war,but Livesey’s character doesn’t have the luxury of escape and the dangers of telling his story are all too real.
The result is acting taut with repressed anxiety and primed for a reflex counterpunch at any hint of Russia-bashing or oversimplification,and it changes gear as the play hurtles towards a suspenseful twist.
True,argument overstretches the play’s canvas of casual seduction. As it examines the issues,dialogue sometimes strays into the sort of soapboxing that can deplete an otherwise sustained atmosphere of vulnerability and menace. Yet the script has no fat on it,so it never strays long,and the pace doesn’t relent.
Dirt delivers a one-night stand with a frisson of erotic danger,but much of its dramatic interest stems from the way it doubles as a coiled encounter between Russia and the West – one that shies away neither from cultural complexity,nor from being a cri de coeur for human rights to be respected.Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
THEATRE
Hercules ★★★½
North Melbourne Town Hall,until May 28
Director/ writer Daniel Schlusser and cast members of Hercules Mary-Helen Sassman and Katherine Tonkin in rehearsal.Simon Schluter
Known for bold,intricate adaptations of canonical works,the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble has turned its gaze on everything from Ibsen’sA Doll’s House to Tennessee Williams’The Glass Menagerie. It now tackles the legend of Hercules,striking up a conversation (or a dream of one) with one of the paragons of heroic Greek myth and drama.
Everyone remembers that Hercules performed twelve labours,and perhaps we focus on his superhuman feats for a reason. The part about him slaughtering his wife Megara and their children in a fit of madness tends to get airbrushed out of the story:it’s a horrific act of domestic violence to rival Medea’s but remains overpowered by heroic gloss.
This production finds a liminal crawlspace from which to draw it out.
Three women (Katherine Tonkin,Edwina Wren,Mary Helen Sassman) emerge from the half-light into a pocket dimension of domesticity. They’re trapped in a nursery haunted by the absence of children – though backpacks,toys,and other material reminders are everywhere – and at first the tentative,agonisingly sustained visual theatre generates a powerful sense of unspeakable violence.
Tragedy,it seems,has already struck,and the play echoes with its long aftermath,following the logic of nightmare and pulling a monstrous legacy from the protean shadows of myth into a contemporary frame.
These female figures are not simply passive victims. Domesticity keeps lurching expressionistically toward primal horror,but fear and abjection pave the way to inviolable grief,achieved through a magnificent coup de theatre.
Are these women some afterecho of the Fates,destined to draw measure and cut the thread of a cultural knot that’s Teflon-coated toxic masculinity for millennia? The suggestion is there,even if the mythic gravity of the piece gets rebelliously upended at regular intervals.
Deflationary dialogue,some of it arguably too flip,makes a Procrustean bed for the heroic within the domestic realm. I don’t think it’s as strong – either at the level of critique or in aesthetic impact – as the slow burning suspense of the visual theatre,and some off-beat flashes of humour can seem feeble or forced in the face of the wrenching sense of menace that enshrouds the world of the play.
Yet at its height,Hercules is a haunting contemporary reckoning with ancient myth,and possesses such arresting visual strength,creative intelligence,and dramatic intensity that it almost demands a second viewing.Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
JAZZ
Rajiv Jayaweera Quartet ★★★★
The Jazzlab,Sunday 22 May
Originally billed as a quintet,Rajiv Jayaweera’s band became a quartet at short notice after one of the musicians pulled out due to illness a few hours before Sunday’s gig. COVID,of course,has made jazz musicians (already improvisers at heart) even more adept at mutation and adaptation.
In this case,Jayaweera had only a brief rehearsal with his specially assembled group,along with some quick discussions to reshape the music for a quartet setting. The rest came together on the bandstand,thanks to the clarity of Jayaweera’s writing and the palpable rapport among the players.
Jazz drummer Rajiv Jayaweera.supplied
Jayaweera (an Australian drummer now based mainly in Europe) shares a deep bond with bassist Sam Anning,the pair having played together for years in New York. Their intuitive empathy allowed the nimble rhythms on Sunday night to dance back and forth between them,giving Jayaweera the freedom to add textural accents while Anning tended to the supple pulse.
Trumpeter Mat Jodrell brought the leader’s appealing melodies to life with precision and vitality,while Brett Williams (an American pianist who had never played with Jayaweera before this gig) slotted into the ensemble’s dynamics with remarkable ease.
Just over half the tunes in the program were drawn from the drummer’s latest album Pistils,inspired by his grandparents and his Sri Lankan heritage.Hirimbura was pinned to an irresistibly cruisy strut;The Elephant moved between precise,skipping lines and a more emphatic flow;andPistils was delicate and atmospheric,filled with vibrato-laden trumpet,feathery brushwork and rippling piano.
A handful of newer compositions paid tribute to the drummer’s current home in Malaga,Spain,including the warmly invitingSierra and the Latin-tingedCalle Quitapenas. Throughout,Jayaweera was a master of understatement,shaping the contours of each piece without resorting to showy gestures,and gently guiding this freshly formed group that somehow radiated the assurance of a seasoned ensemble.Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Conductor Graham Abbott.supplied
Pines of Rome ★★★½
Hamer Hall,May 21
This valuable and mutually enriching collaboration between members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Youth Orchestras was a potent reminder of the profoundly productive musical alchemy that comes from blending age,experience,youth and enthusiasm.
Graham Abbott led the combined forces in a wonderfully varied program that presented plenty of technical and stylistic challenges,culminating in a stirring account of Respighi’s popular suiteThe Pines of Rome.
It was here amidst this score’s lavish orchestration and evocative harmonies that the players sounded most at ease and most unanimous in their sense of artistic purpose. The lustrous string tone that enhanced the haunting third movement was particularly memorable,as were polished contributions from trumpet,cor anglais and percussion. There was also no doubting the energetic conviction that galvanised the outer movements,even if,sadly,the finale was robbed of its floor-shuddering organ part due to Hamer Hall’s scandalous lack of a pipe organ.
Poulenc’s suite from his balletLes Biches promised an elegant opening,but there were moments when tighter ensemble and a greater sense of showmanship would have prevented the music from sounding more careworn than carefree. However,a short,impressionist-stylePrelude to a Ballet by the virtually unknown Jean Roger-Ducasse elicited subtle,atmospheric playing.
Digging into the dazzling brilliance of Peter Sculthorpe’s seldom heard modernist masterpieceSun Music III,the orchestra valiantly negotiated the work’s complex demands to deliver a reading of considerable,if not overwhelming intensity. The percussionists effectively underlined the composer’s colourful allusions to Indonesian musical practice while the strings dramatically summoned up the unrelenting,oppressive heat of the Australian sun.
Blending the dedication and talent of the MYO with the MSO’s commitment to furthering the experience of young musicians does indeed result in a rich and fruitful alchemy that augurs well for Melbourne’s musical future.Reviewed by Tony Way
LIVE MUSIC
Guy Sebastian ★★★½
Margaret Court Arena,May 20
The range of ages at Margaret Court Arena on Friday night testified to the cross-generational appeal of Guy Sebastian – as does the fact it was the first of five dates at this venue.
Guy Sebastian at Margaret Court Arena.Rick Clifford
Kids as young as six years old wearing Guy Sebastian T-shirts,hoodies and crewnecks stormed through the doors,waiting for the man who’s brought them joy on television as a coach onThe Voice to sing some of their favourite songs.
Sebastian opened the night’s proceedings with an epic rendition ofBefore I Go:his stellar band,including a trio of violinists,generated a cinematic atmosphere alongside noisy electronic rumblings and heavy drums. The theatre of the evening continued with an impressive screen show,filled with bright red lights for the singalong-worthyBattle Scars, and flashing cathedral windows forStanding with You.
Unexpectedly awkward moments came in the forms of the sold-out audience uninterested in dancing to the funkyOut with My Baby until Sebastian asked for hands in the air,and polite clapping for the plethora of ballads. And a self-congratulatory vibe coloured his speeches in between songs.
Ending the night on a high note,Sebastian closed the show with the four-times-platinum singleChoir,bringing back positivity,relatability,and the message to stay in touch with loved ones. His most enthusiastic fan,11-year-old Amelia,cried a few times during the concert,with her mum,Dani,an emergency department nurse explaining that his music had helped them through tough times. Unity and celebration of live music was the theme of the night.
Special guest andThe Voice 2021 winner,Bella Taylor Smith,played songs with her fiance,Josh,from her newly mintedLook Me in The Eyes EP. Working with sparse stage production,the crowd’s familiarity with past performances paid off;she had people of all ages believing they were.Reviewed by Mary Varvaris
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