French Connections, Festival Theatre, Adelaide

Paying homage to the legendary Ballets Russes, the Australian Ballet treated Adelaide audiences to a sumptuous triple bill featuring works by Krzysztof Pastor, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine.

Set to Hector Berlioz’s magnificent score, Symphonie Fantastique, Krzysztof Pastor in collaboration with designer Tatyana van Walsum produce a visually stunning palette of projected clouds, rain, wheat and red poppies in a new interpretation of Leonide Massine’s symphonic ballet.

A work in five parts, it allows Robert Curran as the Artist to shine, amply demonstrating his ability with a rounded performance, as does Danielle Rowe as his obsession. Rachel Rawlins and Remi Wörtmeyer as the pastoral couple bring a subtle warmth and some fine choreography to the roles.

Set in a gauzy dance studio, Jerome Robbins has stripped away the mythological aspects of Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun. As the young couple, Olivia Bell and Adam Bull are full of wondrous yearning. Playing no defined roles, they dance, trance-like, as though the steps are only now occurring to them. A mesmerising beautiful performance.

Considered a tribute to the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and Tchaikovsky, George Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial was a glorious finale to the evening as the dancers presented a dazzling display with plenty of Joie de vivre, with Hugh Colman's tutus looking stunning juxtaposed against a backdrop of a menacing sky.

Set to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2 magnificantly played by Lachlan Reed and accompanied by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Nicolette Fraillon, Curran and Rowe return and are joined by Lana Jones in a triumphant display that ensured rapturous applause.

French Connections

Australian Ballet. Festival Theatre, Adelaide.
Saturday 24 May 2008. Review by Rohan Shearn
Season closed.

Image: Robert Curran in Symphonie Fantastique – photo by Jim McFarlane

Les Miserables, Scott Theatre, Adelaide

Do You Hear the People Sing? You certainly do in this new production of Boublil and Schonberg’s modern classic, Les Miserables, currently being presented in Adelaide by the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Les Miserables is not an easy show to stage, and full credit has to be given to David Lampard for his directorial vision and for assembling one of the finest non-professional casts seen in Adelaide for sometime, drawing on his experience as a veteran of a number of productions to deliver a new look, that doesn’t include a revolving barricade.

The main stage consisted of a number of levels connected by a series of ramps and stairs and a small revolve to facilitate movement in some of the lengthier scenes. Utilising a series of black curtains that sweep across the stage and an oversized French flag that flies in and out, Lampard creates a number of intimate areas at the fore-stage to accommodate the scene changes behind.

However it is the barricade that excels; a series of 200 window frames in various shapes and sizes that fly in, in three parts for the inevitable revolution, only then to disappear in the aftermath.

While there was the occasional opening night glitch with sound, projection and a wig malfunction, Lorraine Wheeler’s lighting with French inspired hues was apposite, though more attention could have been paid to the forestage scenes, as they tended to be starkly over lit and lost the required intimacy needed.

Ross Curtis as Musical Director has good control over his orchestra producing some very impressive sounds that extends to the cast with some wonderfully rich singing, especially the men who produced a wonderful energy.

The principal cast is outstanding, each bringing their own to their performance. Rachel Rai as Eponine and Rebecca Raymond as Cosette are subtly fine in voice, while Andrew Crispe as Marius and Paul Talbot as Enjolras produce well rounded performances.

Rod Schultz and Megan Humphries as the Thenardiers are superbly divine milking every grotesque moment, and Tom Millhouse as Javert is menacingly strong. Leah Harford and Zoe Borchardt are delightful as the Young Cosette and Eponine respectfully, while Tom Russell steals the show with his performance as Gavroche.

However, it is Mark Oates as Jean Valjean that is the standout performer of this show. A powerhouse performance from start to finish, with his rendition of ‘Bring Him Home’ a fitting highlight, full of depth and emotion that momentarily paused the show due to much applause.

Les Miserables continues to remain a firm favourite of amateur musical societies all over the country. In the absence of large scale musical productions visiting Adelaide in 2008, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society have filled the void with a magnificent production that is worthy of much praise.

Even after playing for more than twenty years, Les Miserables still manages to insight new fascination and awareness each time it is experienced.

Les Miserables

Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Scott Theatre, Adelaide.

Thursday 22 May 2008. Review by Rohan Shearn

Season - sold out!

Image: Mark Oates as Jean Valjean (photo by Eric Sands - Photopool)

Sanctuary - Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide

Bob King, renowned foreign correspondent for his coverage of events in Cambodia, East Timor, Kuwait and Guatemala, is confronted in his luxurious home, his sanctuary, by an under whelming PhD student, John Alderston, whose thesis is a critical biography of King unearthing some hidden facts disguised as truth.

Written in the mid nineties, David Williamson’s Sanctuary departs from the light-hearted social commentary that we have come to expect, presenting a script that is fused with a resenting undercurrent on both sides, rich with black humour that ignites a time bomb of ideological and pragmatic dilemmas.

Joh Hartog’s direction allows the actors to fully expose their characters as flawed and lacking any moral conviction. Peter Green as Bob King and Kurt Murray as John Alderston handle the wordy script well, confronting the issues of truth and responsibility, life and death, building up each act to reveal a disturbing conclusion.

Bakehouse Theatre Company’s latest production, while morally challenging, is politically and psychologically engaging.

Every man may have his price but in the end will it buy him his Sanctuary?

Sanctuary
Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide; Bakehouse Theatre Company
Saturday 17 May 2008.

Review by Rohan Shearn.
Plays till 31 May. Bookings: (08) 8227 0505

Headlock, KAGE Productions

In an exploration of the male psyche, Headlock examines the role and identity of masculinity and the invisible armour that young men wear in order to survive.

Presented as part of the ASSITEJ Festival for a limited number of performances, KAGE productions Headlock has all the makings of being a great production, physical theatre, stunning design and hard hitting material.

Using a wrestling ring as a metaphor for a prison, this work relies heavily on physical theatre with very little dialogue for the narrative. As the audience is catapulted into the lives of three brothers, we are provided flashbacks of happy memories of their childhood, as one of them spends his first 24 hours in prison.

While the content may confront some of the younger audience members this work was clearly intended for, with television shows like Oz and Prison Break, the grim reality of prison life in this performance is quite tame, retreating into clichéd portrayals.

For the most Kate Denborough’s direction is punchy, demonstrating her skills as an adept choreographer, but unbalanced as a director, as confusion reigns within the juxtaposition of youthful flashbacks and the depravity of isolation and terror of jail life.

The three cast members Tim Ohl, (stepping in for an injured Byron Perry), Luke Hockley and Gerard Van Dyckwork hard in developing the physicality of the piece. They hurl, flip and turn their bodies within the confines of the ring, only slowing for some poignant moments, all set against a backdrop of an oversized time clock, displaying the passing 24 hours.

Bluebottle’s (Ben Cobham and Andrew Livingstone) set and lighting design was visually stunning, with all the hallmarks of a wrestling match, while Byron Scullin’s hard hitting sound design rounded off the excellent quality production elements.

Headlock has gained critical acclaim since its original 2006 season in Melbourne, this work left myself and others around me somewhat bemused to what all the hubris has been about. While the narrative is weak, it is the powerful physicality of the performers and the visual elements that standout.

Headlock
Kage Productions, Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide
Thursday 8 May - 7.00pm. Review by Rohan Shearn
Season Closed

Pilobolus, Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide

Making their Australian debut and exclusive to Adelaide, the renowned American Dance company Pilobolus, presented an exciting program of five works that encompasses their 38 years of performing.

The ensemble of four males and two females display their amazing physical and artistic dexterity that not only mesmerizes the individual through a combination of athleticism and humour, but makes one forget how demanding their choreography really is.

Opening with the full ensemble in Aquatica (2005), we are presented with an exotic marine life fairy tale to probe the depths of the human psyche. Full of leaps and amazing forms, Aquatica is set to Marcelo Zarvos’s playful score.

In a change of pace and drawing inspiration from a bustling tumbleweed, Jun Kuribayashi performs a tumbling solo with contortionistic skill set to an all-percussion score in Pseudopodia (1973).

Completing the first half, Gnomen (1997) is a ninteractive exploration for four male dancers. Andrew Herro, Jun Kuribayashi, Manelich Minniefee and Edwin Olvera roll slowly onto the stage, offering a lyrically reverent work full of male sensuality that exercises unusually inventive and physical sculptural poses.

The second half of the program opens with Jenny Mendez and Manelich Minniefee in Symbiosis (2001), a duet which traces the birth of a relationship between two creatures that is sinuously and sensuously intertwined.

Set to a soundtrack from Brian Eno and Talking Heads, a modestly attired ensemble returns for the final work of the night in Day Two (1980). Enacting the second day of the creation of the world, this amazing work is tribally primitive in its formation, as the ensemble display an intense physical commitment to each other.

To only then emerge from under the tarquett, as if to take flight, as the dancers playfully slide across the flooded stage, splashing the audience and spouting water from their mouths.

Pilobolus set out to excite and amaze, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Adelaide audiences were treated to an evening of intense and physical sensuality. One can only hope we will see Pilobolus again on these shores in the not so distant future.

Pilobolus
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide
Tuesday 6 May – 8.00pm. Review by Rohan Shearn
Plays till 10 May. Bookings: BASS 131 246

Image: courtesy of Pilobolus