Non-fiction Book Review | Brian Rope

Title: Max Dupain - A Portrait

Author: Helen Ennis

Publisher: Harper Collins

Helen Ennis, author of this portrait of Max Dupain, one of Australia’s most famous photographers, has previously written numerous other books including an acclaimed biography of Dupain’s first wife Olive Cotton. I have no doubt this almost identically long new book also will be highly regarded.

Ennis starts this book with a 1984 staged photo of Dupain by Melbourne photographer John Gollings, describing it as an “irreverent homage to a dominant figure in Australian photography” and using it to argue Dupain was “obviously determined to exercise as much control as possible over the terms of his own participation” despite appearing vulnerable. 

The author then describes the three worlds of Dupain – his domestic situation, his work, and his world of “his own creation.” Three things he sought to keep separate throughout his life. In the discussion of this there are a few observations I found myself immediately relating to. Another Australian photographer David Moore, one of Dupain’s long-term friends, is quoted as saying about him “he needed to photograph like he needed to breathe.” I would say the same about many people (including myself) – whether their passions are photography, sport, gardening or anything else.

Ennis also tells us that Dupain’s cousin Lucille thought his photography was a way of escaping from what was going on in the world. And that he, himself, saw his creative task as being to get to the essence of things. She also quotes from a foreword to Dupain’s 1948 monograph written by Hal Missingham, then Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, “Whatever he is photographing there is the same penetration of essentials.”

Those observations by Lucille Dupain and Hal Missingham both ring absolutely true for me. Being creative with their photography is the thing which truly motivates many people. No matter how good their documentary photos, their traditional landscapes, or the portraits taken for paying customers, their real joy comes from creativity during those times when they conceive an idea and then seek to produce artworks in response to that concept.

Ennis shares with her readers some unpublished advice Dupain himself prepared for graduating photography students. Drawing on personal experience, he clearly expressed his view they would have to photograph such things as lousy furniture, industrial complexes, brides and babies to earn sufficient money, because it wasn’t possible to live on “art” photography. However, the author’s book goes on to show and speak favourably about Dupain’s commercial photography as well as his artworks.

Amongst those of Dupain’s images reproduced in the 500+ pages, there are shots of his mother Ena (drying dishes), father George (in his library) and his wives (Olive Cotton and Diana Illingworth). There are some of his paid advertising pieces, beaches and beach culture, nudes, flowers and more. As Ennis discusses the images, we learn about photographers Dupain emulated, the “great creative minds” who most inspired him, his relationships with models, his interest in surrealism, his use of darkness to create mystery, his hatred of war, and the interweaving of his life and his art. There is just so much covered providing, as Ennis intended, a detailed and fascinating portrait of her subject.

Max Dupain - Evening wear advertisement for David Jones (Zara Gaden, Francis Bradford and Douglas Channel), 1938, National Gallery of Australia, purchased 1984

Max Dupain - Jean with wire mesh, c. 1935, National Gallery of Australia, purchased 2006

Max Dupain - Silos through windscreen, 1935, National Gallery of Australia, purchased 1983

There are some famous photos included, including Flight of the spectres made when he was just 21, and which very much impressed another high-profile photographer, Harold Cazneaux. Sunbaker, an impromptu shot of a friend taken in 1938 but not publicly exhibited until 1975, is his most well-known portrait and probably Australia’s most iconic image.

Max Dupain - The Flight of the Spectres, bromoil, 1932, National Gallery of Australia, purchased 1979

Max Dupain - Sunbaker, c. 1938, National Gallery of Australia, purchased 1976

Near the end of the book there is another portrait of Dupain - taken in 1991, just seven years after the Gollings one at the start of the book. This latter image is by another well-known Australian William Yang who also says Dupain sought to assert his control over the session, seemingly to project vitality whilst the resultant image actually reveals a “clearly unwell man.”

In her concluding words Ennis talks about Dupain idolising rare individuals who could rise up and create something extraordinary and poses the question of whether he had done so. She tells us he suspected he was not one of the exalted few, but rather an ordinary man with an exceptional talent. Obtain a copy and read this fascinating book, then decide for yourself.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

If only we could take the time: contemporary Australian photography

Ying Ang, Katrin Koenning and Anu Kumar

National Portrait Gallery I 30 November 2024 – 1 June 2025 

This show is being staged alongside the major exhibition Carol Jerrems: Portraits. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG)’s website says that it spotlights the work of three contemporary Australian artists whose work sits in dialogue with Jerrems’ legacy.

The exhibition title is taken from Jerrems’ preface to her 1974 publication, A book about Australian women. ‘There is so much beauty around us if only we could take the time to open our eyes and perceive it. And then share it.’ The NPG correctly suggests that contemporary Australian photography considers how the impulse to observe, to record and to share continues to propel photographic practice in Australia.

The images by each artist have been arranged in groups and each arrangement is an artwork in itself contributing to the narrative. There is also a display case containing three books – one by each artist – adding further to the overall experience.

Ying Ang is an acclaimed photographer and author with an extensive exhibition history. Like Jerrems she also produces photobooks. Her 2021 self-published illustrated book The Quickening: a memoir on matrescence is being exhibited here – both on the walls and in the display case.

Installation view featuring The Quickening, 2022 by Ying Ang

Sample of the text on reverse side of Ying Ang’s installation The Quickening, 2022

The Quickening, 2022 (detail) Ying Ang. Courtesy of the artist. © Ying Ang

The Quickening, 2022 (detail) Ying Ang. Courtesy of the artist. © Ying Ang

Katren Koenning is an artist who carefully considers colours, textures, and tones. She also produces photobooks as well as exhibiting. She groups images, using works possibly created decades apart to reveal a portrait of family, friends and kinship. In her exhibit titled where will the story take us, 2002-24, we see a tattered book and its shadow on a dusty surface, a cat at a window, people, and more. A trawl through her Instagram account reveals the diversity of her imagery and her passionate approach. The individual pieces in this installation do not disappoint. Her illustrated 2024 book between the skin and the sea is in the previously mentioned display case.

Installation view featuring where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) by Katren Koenning

where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) (detail) Katrin Koenning. Courtesy of the artist. © Katrin Koenning

where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) (detail) Katrin Koenning. Courtesy of the artist. © Katrin Koenning

I met the third artist, Anu Kumar, at the exhibition launch party whilst exploring her Untitled images. I had asked another viewer of the artworks if he knew where a named place, Ghaziabad, was in India. He said it could be described as an outer suburb of New Delhi. Then he introduced me to his cousin – the artist. She told me Ghaziabad definitely wasn’t a place that tourists would want to visit.

And yes, like Jerrems, Ang and Koenning, Kumar also produces photobooks as well as exhibiting. Some of the works here are from two of her books – Ghar (meaning home in Hindi) which is displayed features images from her birthplace - Ghaziabad, and After the Havan (a prayer ritual). We see an excellent visual articulation of her exploration of family and place that she had left when just one year old. There are images of everyday objects and people - including an aged, framed photo in an unused sink and the worn feet of (probably) a family member. The totality of the displayed work is very much a portrait.

 

Installation view featuring Untitled, 2024 (detail) by Anu Kumar

Untitled, 2024 (detail) Anu Kumar. Courtesy of the artist. © Anu Kumar

Untitled, 2024 (detail) Anu Kumar. Courtesy of the artist. © Anu Kumar

So have these three photographers taken the time to see the beauty around them? I certainly saw beauty in their varied imagery. Have they chronicled intimate relationships and used their cameras to connect us emotionally with the things they experienced? I believe they have, but emotional responses must be your own.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

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To quote from the play, Antigone in the Amazon is “the magic of theatre which transcends violence”.

This is no mere academic claim. The Europeans have worked with the people in Brazil in the Latin American tradition known as magical realism, creating the most emotionally powerful theatre I have ever experienced.  

We normally experience theatre as illusion used to help us reflect on reality – we stay at a degree of ‘distance’ to keep ourselves ‘safe’.  But when we see on huge screen video the people who survived that massacre, and the actors live on stage in front of us, as they tell and re-enact what happened to the people as they were being killed, it feels as if we are present at that moment of awful reality.

The worst – and best – moment was when we found out that the police were ready to ban the blocking of the road for the annual commemoration of the massacre, on this occasion when the filming was underway, just as the junta’s police had done in 1996.  But instead of arresting and shooting people, they listened to a woman who spoke to them about the importance of the event to the whole community – and allowed the re-enactment and filming to go ahead.

Otherwise we might have seen a repeat of the refusal to allow Antigone to properly commemorate her brother’s death – recorded by Sophocles in Ancient Greece.  Perhaps his play was a theatrical fiction about the rights of the ordinary people, but yesterday Antigone’s story became real.

You have only another day or so to see Antigone in the Amazon.  Do your utmost to get to Sydney to see it.  If you can’t – and even if you do – remember how great theatre transcends violence, and seek to make this your motto in action.  I am in awe not only of the Swiss Milo Rau, but of all those non-violent activists like the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) members who played their part in Antigone in the Amazon.

_______________________________________

PS   If you would like to understand the Latin American magical realism tradition, and its place in responding to colonialism, look up the article in the The Brown Daily Herald by Aalia Jagwani, Arts & Culture Editor, October 6, 2022 at

www.browndailyherald.com/article/2022/10/latin-american-literary-traditions-through-time

Emily Edmonds (Cinderella) - Emma Matthews (Fairy Godmother) in Opera Australia's "Cinderella"

Music by: Jules Massenet – Libretto: Henri Cain

Conductor Evan Rogister – Director & Costume Designer: Laurent Pelly

Costume Associate: Thomaz Le Goues - Choreographer: Laura Scozzi

Revival Director/ Rehearsal Choreographer: Karine Girard 

Set Design: Barbara de Limburg – Lighting Design: Duane Schuler

Sydney Opera House: December 31^st  2024 to March 28, 2025.

Opening night performance on January 2^nd reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Emily Edmonds (Cinderella) - Jennifer Black (Noemie) - Angela Hogan (Madame de la Haltiere_ - Ashlyn Tymms (Dorathea) in Opera Australia's "Cinderella"

Not only had Massenet’s version never been staged by Opera Australia, but as almost all the principal roles in this version were written for females, it provided a perfect opportunity to showcase the strength of its local roster of female singers, as well as provide the opportunity to invite three singers who’ve been forging impressive careers overseas, to make their Sydney Opera House debuts in this production.

Originally conceived in 2006 by French director, Laurent Pelly, as a four-act, French language production for Santa Fe Opera, this version, which ran for 2 hours 30 minutes, was also presented in London’s Royal Opera House, in 2011 under its original French title “Cendrillon”.

However, rather than present the original four-act French language version, Opera Australia opted for an abridged English language version of the same production commissioned and performed by The Metropolitan Opera in 2021, which runs for just on one hour and fifty minutes including a twenty minute interval.

No doubt the reasoning was that the shorter English language version would be more attractive to first time opera goers, summer tourists and even, perhaps, as an introduction to opera for children.

Ashlyn Tymms (Dorothea) - Angela Hogan (Madame de la Haltiere) - Jennifer Black (Noemie) Emily Edmonds (Cinderella) - Margaret Plummer (Prince Charming) -Richard Anderson (Pandolfe) Iain Henderson (Dean of Faculty) in Opera Australia's "Cinderella"

But while this version has much to commend it, especially given that it retains Pelly’s quite wonderful costume designs and Laura Scozzi’s delightfully quirky choreography, both of which were much praised overseas for their originality and sparkle, it is hard to escape the feeling that something crucial has been lost in the conversion, particularly in relation to the storytelling.   

Massenet’s melodious score is given a marvellous reading by the Opera Australia Orchestra under the baton of American conductor Evan Rogister, making his first Sydney Opera House appearances, and the production is as beautifully sung as could be wished for.

Margaret Plummer as Prince Charming in "Cinderella"

Ashlyn Tymms (Dorothea) - Angela Hogan (Madame de la Haltiere) - Jennifer Black (Noemie) in Opera Australia's "Cinderella".

It was left to Emma Mathews, returning to the SOH stage after a long absence, to inject excitement into the proceedings by glittering and gleaming, both vocally and physically, on her every appearance.

Described in the publicity as OA stalwarts, Richard Anderson, Shane Lowrencev, and Iain Henderson did exactly what they do best in roles for which they are perfectly cast.

No doubt Pelly’s original direction and choreography from the Metropolitan Opera’s 2021 English adaptation has been meticulously reproduced by the Revival Director, Karine Girard, but direction and design which may have appeared extraordinary in 2006, tends to look a little pedestrian in 2025, and certainly in need of some revision to allow it to achieve its original affect, particularly as regards to the storytelling.

Even so, the design and choreography for the ball, and glass slipper fitting scenes, exuberantly performed by the Opera Australia Chorus, are still extraordinary and hugely enjoyable.

Emily Edmonds (Cinderella) - Richard Anderson (Pandolfe) in Opera Australia's "Cinderella".

Regretfully though, any other magic appears to happen off-stage, particularly for the crucial transformation scene. For this scene the Fairy Godmother does her magic offstage while Cinderella is sleeping. Cinderella simply reappears (unmagically) in her ball-gown. following which the coach drawn by four cute white horses arrives and whisks her away to the ball.  

When Cinderella arrives at the ball, it seems that the Fairy Godmother had neglected to read the dress code because Cinderella is the only one at the ball not wearing red, with her dress in a completely different style to the rest of the guests.

More perplexing still is the slipper fitting scene. Earlier, Cinderella, now back in her ragged kitchen waif attire, sings a solo recounting her experience at the ball and reveals that she has the remaining glass slipper. However, when she arrives to have her shoe-fitting she is costumed curiously in all her ballroom finery.

Given that their courtship had been relatively cursory, the audience is left wondering whether it was the gown or the girl that captured the prince’s imagination.   

Even Barbara de Limburg’s much lauded story-book setting retains its original French text written all over walls and costumes. Given that this version is sung in English, it might have reasonably been expected that the text would have been changed to allow an English-speaking audience to understand whatever messages it was meant to convey.

If, however, none of this matters, why not just present the opera as Massenet intended? At least then the  opera purists may have been satisfied, having experienced the main course rather than an entrée.

                                                     All images by Rhiannon Hopley.

      This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

Circus of Illusion. 

Produced by Michael Boyd. Canberra Theatre. January 10-11 2025 Bookings 62752700

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Circus of Illusion returns to Canberra with all the glitz and glamour of a Las Vegas show. Trained at his grandfather’s knee producer and illusionist extraordinaire Michael Boyd has created two hours of magical, mystical and mesmerizing entertainment with a capital E. E for exciting. E for electrifying and E for engrossing. There are acts to astound like Sascha Williams’s increasingly perilous rola bola act. The heart skips a beat as Williams slips but amazingly maintains his balance . Aleisha Manion proves herself to be the mistress of the hula hoop, spinning them about the body in a gracefully gyrating display of whirling lights.

Sascha Williams on the rola-bola

It is Michael Boyd who takes centre stage with eye-teasing feats of magic, escapology and levitation. We wince as a sword appears to pierce Boyd’s rotating body, accompanied by his helpers and showgirl dancers, Tegan and Annie. Eyes blink in amazement as , with a wave of a cape, one of the dancers vanishes into thin air only to be instantly replaced by Boyd. Performers disappear before our very eyes. Even simple magical tricks defy explanation.

In a show that is both slick and sophisticated each act leaves the audience enthralled and  filled with wonder. How does he do it.? What’s the secret? But then the best magician will never reveal his secrets and Boyd is among the best. Boyd and his performers keep us guessing to the very end. How is it that three random members of the audience can come up with the answers to three simple questions that will be revealed in a box locked high above the stage. There is no collusion. No time to write the answers down upon the paper and put them unseen into the locked box. Boyd is truly the master of his art. Or is there more to magic than meets the eye? “What??!!” exclaims the audience member behind me in disbelief as a glass disappears and a host of snowflakes float into the air from a single paper snowflake. In the inexplicable realm of magic Boyd teaches us that seeing is not always believing. But then if you believe in magic anything is possible.

Idris Stanbury is the Ringmaster

When it comes to scene stealing, inviting young children to witness and perform magic before a heart-melting audience does the trick. With his poker face and remarkable, unbelievable sleight of adult-sized hands, Luke deserved his souvenir programme and bag of Michael Boyd tricks. It’s enough to make a child run away to join the circus. Five year old Sienna  after seeing a table levitate by itself and a red kerchief vanish and re-appear believed more than ever as she left with her reward that magic is indeed real.  Boyd is truly the master of mystery and the Lord of the Illusion.

Michael Boyd is the master of illusion

Circus of Illusion is his show and Boyd is the master of his art. His two major support acts, the graceful aerialist Manion and the heart stopping rola-bola balancer Williams appear too briefly to thrill and delight Boyd’s audience. The show moves slickly with moments of danger like Stanbury’s chain saw juggling, Williams’s agile recovery from a sudden slip and Boyd’s anxiety fuelling escape from handcuffs and chains to the rousing sound of Carmina Burana. It is circus for everyone, young and old and the audience hooted and cheered, clapped and laughed and had a thoroughly entertaining night at the theatre. Who could ask for more?

At two hours including an interval the show is a tad too long,  I would have preferred no interval but who can resist the opportunity to buy a light sabre and Boyd’s book of magical secrets from the merchandise store? It’s another way to ensure a complete experience at Michael Boyd’s fantastical, magical Circus of Illusion

Aleisha Manion Aerialist Photo by Cam Tree Photography

Circus of Illusion was originally reviewed on Canberra Critics Circle in January 2023 at the Canberra Theatre. Contemporary updates have been included in this review

Produced and Directed by Michael Boyd – Choreographed by Matt Downing

Costume design by Cathie Costello - Sound design by Tom Hawkins

Stage Management by Journey Malone - Lighting and Technical Manager: Jeremy Dhen

Canberra Theatre 10^th& 11^th January 2025.

Performance on 10^th January reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Michael Boyd in "Circus of Illusion"

Michael Boyd has built a strong following in Canberra for his superbly presented variety shows, outstanding examples of which were his “Cabaret de Paree” with Rhonda Burchmore in 2023 and his lavish, “The Christmas Spectacular” presented in Canberra just last month.

This show featured a topline cast, headed by Prinnie Stevens, eight excellent dancers, Hula-Hoop extraordinalist, Aleisha Manion, and Boyd himself performing a selection of his most mind-boggling illusions.

This is the third Canberra season of his “Circus of Illusion”, which although slickly presented, was for this visit a much more stripped back version than those of its 2022 and 2023 iterations.

Again Boyd repeated his illusions, still amazing, but mostly the same ones that had dazzled and intrigued only a month earlier. Similarly, Aleisha Manion repeated the two elegant and encore-worthy routines she had performed in the December extravaganza.

Eleisha Manion performing on her lollipop lyra.

Amiable Canberra juggler and clown, Idris Stanbury returned to host this program, as he had done in 2023, spent the first 10 minutes of the show warming up the audience by instructing them in the correct responses to his signals as to how to show appreciation for the efforts of the specialty artists, and feigning disappointment when the audience failed to get the point of his amusing  asides, before surprising them with a hair-raising display of juggling expertise involving a chain-saw and  two lethal looking swords.

Sascha Williams on rola bola.

Britain’s Got Talent finalist, Sascha Williams also returned from 2023 with his nerve-wracking rola bola routine which proved to be every bit as dangerous as it looked.  

Two lithe, lovely and accomplished dancers, Tegan and Allie, did their best to create spectacle on the vast Canberra Theatre stage, executing Matt Downing’s inventive choreography with vivacity and charm. However, despite their best efforts, and some spectacular costumes by Cathie Costello and Jeremy Dhen’s colourful lighting, these routines lost much of their impact when performed by just two dancers rather than eight. 

Tegan and Allie were also kept busy, along with stage manager, Journey Malone, assisting Boyd mystify and intrigue with his lavish illusions.

Idris Stanbury demonstrates his juggling prowess

Two young audience volunteers kept the audience enthralled during the inevitable but well-managed audience-participation sequences. Five-year-old Sienna, charmed with her unselfconscious fascination as she assisted Boyd with a levitating table, and nine year old Luke, who expressed his ambition to become a magician, picked up some tricks-of- the-trade, assisting Idris Stanbury with some tricky double-handed juggling.  

“Circus of Illusion”, even in this stripped-back version, still provided a welcome couple of hours of meticulously presented quality variety entertainment, particularly for those experiencing Boyd’s spectacular illusions, and world-class specialty acts for the first time.

However those attracted by his lavish large-scale revues, the latest of which was seen in Canberra only a month ago, may have experienced a sense of deja vu at the inclusion of so much material seen so recently in that show.

   This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

Writer & Director Sheridan Harbridge -  Musical Director Glenn Moorhouse

Musician:  Francesca Li Donni -  Lighting Design Trent Suidgeest

Wharf 1 Theatre , 14^th January 2014. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

It's not every night you attend a cabaret which ends with the leading lady dressed as a blue dinosaur kicking huge inflated penises into the blissed out audience, but that's what happens during the finale of Christie Whelan Browne's excoriatingly brilliant cabaret, "Life in Plastic", which was given a single sold-out performance in chandeliered glamour of the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 1 Theatre as part of the 2025 Sydney Festival. 

The reason for the dinosaur costume is revealed early in the show and provides one of many hilarious highlights in a cabaret that is at times hysterically funny, deeply moving, brave, dangerous, but always riveting. 

Helpmann Award winning, Whelan Browne has starred in a succession of major musicals, plays, television dramas, soapies, and satirical shows, most recently, Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell. But for many it is for her appearances in a series of high-profile court cases resulting from her participation in the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show that she is best known.

However, "Life in Plastic" is not about her theatrical and television triumphs, nor about her court appearances, although the court appearances are cleverly acknowledged and dispensed with early in.  

Christie whelan Browne

Instead, Whelan Browne’s complex, life-long relationship with her body and beauty, represented by her on-stage Barbie Doll bestie, and her real-life battles with endometriosis and failure to conceive, that are the focuses of her show.  

Perhaps not the usual subjects for a light-hearted, entertaining evening of cabaret, but in the hands of Whelan Browne and those of her writer and director, Sheridan Harbridge, these topics, presented with such disarming candour and wit, become both fascinating and inspiring. 

 Whelan Browne doesn't shirk naming names. Her revelation of Rob Mills as her less than gallant first love drew audible gasps from her audience. The reason for the floating penises is explained in her references to her court cases.

Christie Whelan Browne in "Life in Plastic"

 

Threaded through the show is a well-chosen repertoire of songs, given fresh new arrangements by Glenn Moorehouse, and performed on-stage, occasionally a little too-enthusiastically, by multi-instrumentalist, Francesca Li Donni. These include “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”(Robert Hazard), “I Was Born This Way (Lady Ga Ga), “Barbie Girl” (Aqua), “Natural Woman” (Aretha Franklin) and an outrageous ode to body hair which has to be seen to be  believed.

Christie Whelan Browne as a blue dinosaur.

Impeccably conceived and performed with a frankness that was at times almost unnerving and enhanced with a lucious lighting plot by Trent Suidgeest which highlights  every mood change, “Life in Plastic” is an extraordinary creation which offers an uncompromisingly frank and intimate insight into the thoughts and motivations of one of country’s most admired and accomplished leading ladies.   

                                                   Images by Neil Bennett

This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

Adelaide Fringe 2025. 

Director and Chief Executive. Heather Croall Adelaide Fringe Ambassadors Michelle Brasier, Nancy Bates, Rhys Nicholson and Tessa Palmer. Adelaide and regional South Australia. February 21 – March 23 2025, Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au Call 1300 621 Buy online at adelaidefringe.com.au

Previewed by Peter Wilkins.

Heather Croall. CEO and Director of Adelaide Fringe

“There’s no way you could turn up in Adelaide during the Fringe and not be aware that it is on. Like Edinburgh we take over and transform the entire city”  I am talking with Heather Croall, CEO and Artistic Director of the Adelaide Fringe who has guided the festival and helped it to flourish and grow financially and artistically for the past ten years. Flags flutter and banners span the main road from the airport to Adelaide’s CBD.  Victoria Square, in the centre of the city is a bustling hub. Buskers ply their trade in the shopping heart of Rundle Mall and the eastern parklands throng with visitors to the Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony. Across the road at Tandanya  First Nations performers provide insights into indigenous art and culture.

For many years now I have reviewed this remarkable showcase festival of comedy, circus, cabaret, physical theatre and theatre, film, music, exhibitions and digital experience. Last year ticket sales reached the magic million mark with all proceeds Croall proudly tells me being paid back to the artists. In a festival of 1300 shows in 500 venues I am keen to discover how many Canberra artists will join the hundreds of local, national and international performers who come to the Fringe from Australia and across the world

Christopher Samuel Carroll in The Cadaver Palaver

Marcel Cole in Smile-The Story of Charlie Chaplin

“We’re really seeing great theatre, great story telling coming back again and again.” Croall says. With titles like Why I stuck a flare up my arse for England it’s no wonder that audiences flock to Holden Street Theatres for top quality, intimate theatre shows from Australia and abroad. 

The Dome Experience

I’m interested to find out what is new and different. What experiences are new to the Fringe and new experiences for Fringe-goers.  Exclusive to Adelaide is the stunning Chihuly Nights at Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens. At sunset visitors will be amazed at the soaring sculptures by internationally renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. This feast for the senses will feature live music and food and wine are on hand at the bar. It’s an unmissable visual feast.

With so many shows and events to see, it will be hard to choose from the Fringe guide of almost 150 pages, clearly sorted into categories. But apart from the spectacular Chihuly exhibition there are two very unique experiences that visitors should get to. At the Dom Polski Centre in Angas Street, the Dome Planetarium promises to astound young and old alike. Visitors lie back in Bean Bags and get taken to outer space past planets to the soundtrack of Holst’s  Planet Suite. There is an underwater experience with whales at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. Another documents the lives of emigrants who came to South Australia to establish copper mines. Letters relating the stories of home sickness and finding a new life are read out. From Deakin University comes The Earth Above which goes through tens of thousands of years of history told from a First Nations perspective.

Sleeps Hill Tunnel - Photo: Anastasia Comelli

Sleeps Hill Tunnel - Photo: Jenny Kwok

And for the thousands of artists who come to Adelaide each year to perform the Adelaide Fringe provides unequalled opportunities.  For Fringe goers Adelaide Fringe 2025 offers an unrivalled chance to experience the vibrancy of Adelaide at festival time.

Red Riding Hood - The Wolf - The King - The Prince - Princess Aura - the Queen - Cinderella - Prince Charming - The Lilac Fairy.

Composer: Piotr Ilyrich Tchaikovsky - Choreography: Marius Petipa

 Production and additional choreography: David McAllister.

Costume and Set Design: Hugh Colman (originally created for Maina Gielgud’s 1984 production of “The Sleeping Beauty” – Lighting Design by Jon Buswell

Presented by The Australian Ballet - Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse – January 16 – 19, 2025.

Performance on January 17^th reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Catalabutte - Prince Charming - Cinderella.

Although a tad outside the recommended age limit, 3 yrs and upwards, The Australian Ballet’s annual visit with Storytime Ballet is one of the year’s guilty pleasures for this reviewer.

Conceived as an introduction to ballet for children, it is always so impeccably conceived and presented as to provide as much pleasure to even the most fastidious balletomane, as to the young audience for whom it is intended.

This year the ballet being performed is The Sleeping Beauty. Utilising Hugh Coleman’s lovely costumes and set designs were originally created for Maina Gielgud’s 1984 production of The Sleeping Beauty.

David McAllister has repurposed the original costumes and set designs to devise a production which cleverly delivers the entire ballet without compromising the storytelling or the dancing, and performed without an interval, in less than an hour. 

The choreography, based on the original by Petipa, remains authentic, but cleverly edited, so that when the young audience get to see the full production, they will recognise the elements they saw in the Storytime Ballet version,

As well, the cast of ten young emerging AB dancers get the opportunity to share and perform roles that they would otherwise have to wait years for an opportunity to perform, carefully coached with admirable attention to detail by repetiteur, Paul Knobloch.

At this performance Madeline Flood was an enchanting Princess Aurora, not only dancing with confidence but acting the role with commitment and intelligence. Ben Obst danced the dashing Prince who rescues Aurora from her 100 year sleep.  

The Queen, Princess Aurora, The King, Catalabutte

Eliza Hickey and Lucas McLean gave a sparkling account of their pas de deux as Cinderella and Prince Charming, and Chantelle van der Hoek and Cieren Edinger earned screams of delight from the young audience with their duet as Red Riding Hood and her cheeky wolf.

Zoe Horn impressed with her confident handling of the spectacular costume Coleman had designed for the Queen, while Alexander Mitchell was her attentive and noble King.

 As the vengeful fairy Carabosse, Elena Salerno got to wear one of the most beautiful and recognisable costumes in the Australian Ballet Wardrobe. A remarkable black and red creation which somehow conjures up the vengeful personality of the character for which it was designed.

The Fairy Carabosse

For those with a special interest in historical costumes, The Australian Ballet always includes a wardrobe of original costumes not used for the performance, for budding dancers to view close-up. No touching though.

Essential to the concept is the role of Catalabutte, in this production the King’s avuncular chief advisor, who not only cops the blame for neglecting to send Carabosse an invite to Princess Aurora’s sixteenth birthday celebrations but also acts as a narrator keeping the young audience informed as to what is happening in the ballet.  

Sean McGrath brings considerable charm to this role with a script that is delightful. Not too much information. Just sufficient keep his young audience informed and engaged.

Catalabutte -The Fairy Godmothers - The King - The Queen.

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried Fischbacher) - Kanen Breen (Roy Horn) in "Siegfried" - Photo:Neil Bennett

Composed by Luke Di Somma – Libretto by Luke Di Somma and Constantine Costi

Conducted by Luke Di Somma – Directed by Constantine Costi

Movement Direction by Shannon Burns – Set and Prop Design by Pip Runciman

Costume Design by Tim Chappel – Lighting Design by Damien Cooper

Sound Design by Michael Waters – Puppet Design by Erth Visual & Physical

Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1 Theatre. 8 – 25^th January 2025.

Performance on January 14^th reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

It’s hard to think of a more perfect subject for an opera than the story of Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried and Roy. Their lives, lived on a grand scale, were as illusionary as the feats of magic with which they intrigued audience throughout their stellar careers.

Yet it’s taken the imaginations of a couple of creatives from down under, both with impressive operatic chops, Luke Di Somma (Music) and Constantine Costi (Direction), to recognise the potential of their story and bring it to the stage as a sung-through, tragicomedy opera (their description).

German magicians and entertainers Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, met on a cruise ship and began performing magic together as Siegfried and Roy on the European nightclub circuit. Their act involved a white tiger. 

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried) - Kanen Breen (Roy) at the beginning of their careers. Photo: Wendell Teodoro.

Publicly living a life of operatic proportions, Siegfried and Roy shrouded their private lives and lavish lifestyle in a manufactured mystique that echoed the mystery and magic of their extraordinary Las Vegas extravaganza.  

However, in 2003 their careers, though apparently not their partnership, came to a sudden halt when on his 59^th birthday, during their act at the Mirage, Roy was sensationally mauled by his favourite white tiger, Mantacore in an incident so catastrophic for Roy that the show had to be closed down.

Di Somma and Costi have managed to compress their remarkable story into a tight 90-minute tragicomedy performed without interval, which succeeds in   capturing the essence and spectacle of Siegfried and Roy’s stage show, while cleverly alluding to some of the less savoury aspects of the price paid for their lives at the pinnacle of show-biz.  

The show commences with Siegfried and Roy being introduced at the end of their careers with Siegfried supporting Roy as he struggles to take a bow at his 60^th Birthday Party.

As Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, Christopher Tonkin and Kanen Breen, both fine opera singers, brilliantly create unforgettable characters who dazzle on the surface but leave an aftertaste of seediness, especially with their startling but very funny sex scene which they accomplish with considerable aplomb.

Having been introduced the duo disappear in a swirl of their voluminous cloaks as the action reverts to 1947 where Roy is discovered performing simple magic tricks at the beginning of his career.

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried) - Kanen Breen (Roy) - Kirby Myers (Showgirl) with Mantacore. Photo: Neil Bennett

The details of how Roy acquires the tiger,  Mantacore, the third ominous character in their story,  then later persuades Siegfried, to whom he is immediately attracted after watching him performing advanced illusions on a cruise liner, to join him in a double act;  then  how their act at the Folies Bergere in Paris attracts the attention of the Rainier’s in Monaco, eventually leading to an invitation to perform in Las Vegas, and the fateful performance that ended their careers, are all enacted in a series of clever vignettes  devised and directed  by Costi.

A small ensemble of multi-talented opera singers, mostly alumni of Opera Australia, portray the major movers and shakers in the lives of Siegfried and Roy for whom only the names have been changed. 

Russell Harcourt (Ensemble) - Danielle Bavli (Tabby Chateaubriand) - Simon Lobelson (Randy Reggiano) - Louise Hurley (Tyler D"Amor) - Cathy-Di Zhang (Nancy White)  Photo Wendell Teodoro

Danielle Bavli portrays an ambitious social climber, Tabby Chateaubriand.  Louis Hurley is Roy’s young protégé and lover, Tyler D’Amor.  Simon Lobelson portrays an opportunistic agent, Randy Reggiano, who attracts the pair to Les Vegas, while Cathy-Di Zhang, surely the only soprano ever to sing a stratospheric aria while cut in half, portrays their manager and confidant, Nancy White.  

Kanen Breen (Siegfried) - Christopher Tonkin (Roy) with the singing half of Cathy-Di Zhang (Nancy White) -  Photo - Wendell Teodoro.

Russell Harcourt provides the voice of Mantacore, while Kirby Myers, besides her role as a leggy showgirl, assists puppeteer Tomas Ramaili breathe life into the amazing adult tiger puppet that is Mantacore.  

Following the well-worn path of many acclaimed opera composers, Di Somma has included references to composers of the ilk of Wagner, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sondheim to create a compelling, accessible score which captures the grandeur of opera as well as  the ambiance of a Las Vegas showroom, while providing testing arias to showcase the powerful voices of both Tonkin and Breen, as well as a series of clever choruses for the excellent on-stage ensemble.

Particularly notable throughout is the clarity of the diction of all the singers, which allowed Di Somma and Costi’s clever libretto to be enjoyed without the need for surtitles, as was the attention to detail of composer, Di Somma, who conducted the impressive orchestral ensemble himself.

Another surprising aspect of this production was how quickly it established itself as a serious opera rather than the clever satirical romp it could have so easily have been.

Costi has exhibited directorial brilliance by keeping a tight rein on his concept to maintain a high camp ambiance demanded by the storyline, while creating believable, entertaining characters.    

By surrounding himself with brilliant collaborators, in sync with his concept, he has been able to successfully tell a larger-than-life story with comparatively limited resources.

Christopher Tonkin (Siegfried) - Danielle Bavli (Grace Kelly Rainier) - Mantacore Kanen Breen (Roy) - Kirby Myers (Showgirl/puppeteer) - Photo:Neil Bennett

Drawing on the lighting wizardry of Damien Cooper, set and property designer, Pip Runciman has achieved miracles by successfully transforming the Wharf 1 theatre into an approximation of a Las Vegas showroom, incorporating glittering chandeliers, cabaret seating, glowing table lamps, proscenium arches and  thrust stage in an arrangement that facilitates dazzling quick changes in time and locale, almost as impressive as Adam Mada’s skilfully accomplished large-scale illusions.

Tim Chappel’s costumes wittily combine glamour and gaudiness in equal measure, while the amazing puppets created by Erth Visual & Physical to portray Roy’s tiger, Mantacore, first as a kitten, then fully-grown, manage to steal every scene in which they appear.  

With “Siegfried and Roy”, Luke Di Somma and Constantine Costi together with their cast and creatives have achieved a hugely entertaining telling of a remarkable story about two German magicians who lived an extraordinary life of smoke and mirrors almost as magical as their illusions.  

However, they’ve also created a remarkable opera which deserves to be seen by a wider audience than those fortunate enough to experience it during this comparatively short premiere season. 

An edited version of this review was  first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 20.01.25.

Andre Chez Lewis - Dionne Warwick - Jeffery Lewis

 Canberra Theatre. 19^th January 2025. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Taking the stage of the Canberra Theatre for the final concert of her whirl-wind farewell tour of Australia, before heading off to New Zealand, leaving a trail of sold-out concerts in her wake, Dionne Warwick made her entrance in a blaze of purple sequins to be greeted with a standing ovation from an adoring audience thrilled to be in the same room as this bonafide music legend for just one last time.

Acknowledging the ovation with a dazzling ear-to-ear grin, Ms Warwick settled herself on a stool beside the grand piano and proceeded to delight that audience with a succession of songs that she had made chart-topping hits in a career that has spanned over 50 years.

A smiled signal to her accompanist, Andre Chez Lewis, heralded the familiar strains of her 1963 hit, Walk On By. A string of Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs followed, Anyone Who Had A Heart, You’ll Never Get to Heaven If You Break My Heart, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again and Message to Michael, just for starters.

Acknowledged as the supreme interpreter of the songs of Bacharach and David, Ms Warwick must have sung these songs a thousand times before, yet she appeared to enjoy sharing them with this audience as if for the first time.

Andre Chez Lewis - Jeffery Lewis - Dionne Warwick

Although the voice has aged, and the breathing a little less free, nobody expected otherwise from the 84-year-old singer who's stellar 50-year career is crowded with accolades.   

But despite the blemishes of age, her unique vocal timbre and phrasing remain intact, as does the artistry of her presentation evident in her ability to hold her audience spellbound for the entire 80 minutes of her performance.

No gimmicks, no padding with long reminiscences about past glories, just 80 minutes of her hit songs, with revised musical arrangements that allowed her more freedom for spontaneous vocalisations with which she playfully teased her audience, while luxuriating in the inspired accompaniments of her superb quartet which in addition to Chez Lewis on Piano included Jeffery Lewis on Drums, Renato Brasa on percussion and Danny DeMorales on bass.

Brilliant lighting and sound enhanced the mood and ambiance of the performance to the extent that by the time Ms Warwick had worked her way through This Girl’s in Love With You, I Say a little Prayer, Alfie, Do You know the Way to San Jose? and I’ll Never Love This Way Again and the audience sensed she was moving towards her finale with 99 Miles From LA, What the World Needs Now is Love and of course That’s What Friends Are For, no one wanted to break the mood or the show to end.

Andre Chez Lewis - Dionne Warwick - Jeffery Lewis.

But being the consummate professional she is, and despite another vociferous extended standing ovation, Ms Warwick knows when it's time to make a graceful exit; leaving behind more than a few teary eyes and a memory of a remarkable concert which few who experienced it is likely to forget.     

                    Images by Grant Alexander

        This review also published in AUSTALIAN ARTS REVIEW.

                        www.artsreview.com.au

Circus of Illusion  Canberra Theatre Jan 11-12.

Circus of Illusion has visited before and offers some good  old fashioned circus bits and pieces with an occasional touch of pantomime. There’s a kind of a wisecracking ringmaster in charge and a bloke who does dangerous balancing tricks and a woman who has a gentle hula hoop act and two statuesque showgirl dancers who also become very much the heart of some of magician Michael Boyd’s classic illusions.

These illusions are central to the show. People vanish and reappear in and out of elaborate boxes, swords and the danger of impalement hover and the assistants add glamour as well as considerable skills to support the vanishings and reappearances. Young audience members are frequently pulled in to help with the less dangerous stuff like card tricks.

The setting apart from the apparatus of the various bits of magic is just a few drapes artfully lit with strings of flashing lights but that’s all that’s needed for a bit of mood and atmosphere.

And the wide eyed kids down the front love it all. 

Shades of the old Sydney Tivoli back in the 1950s complete with the under tens being drawn into live performance and live magic. 

Alanna Maclean

Written by Jez Butterworth

Directed by Lachlan Houen

Presented by Red Herring Theatre & ACT Hub

ACT Hub Theatre, Kingston to 1 February

Reviewed by Len Power 22 January 2025

You’ll need a sense of humour for black comedy and a keen ear to fully appreciate Jez Butterworth’s seedy gangster play set behind the scenes in a 1950s English nightclub. In fact, as the play begins, you could be forgiven for wondering if you’ve blundered into the wrong play with the characters speaking what sounds like a foreign language.

This is the world of 1950s Soho in London uncompromisingly presented by writer, Jez Butterworth. The dialogue is part profanity and part colourful Cockney delivered at a machinegun pace by a group of not very bright, edgy and pill-taking young men.  They’re trying to be as tough as their jobs demand, but they’re fearful and desperate to project an image of masculinity that they don’t really feel. When they learn that there has been a particularly nasty murder of the nightclub owner, they’re seriously out of their depth as a battle for power begins.

Lachlan Herring (Baby) and Taj De Montis (Skinny) - Photo by Ben Appleton - Photox Photography

From left: Jack Ferrier (Potts), Lachlan Herring (Baby), Taylor Barrett (Mickey), Taj De Montis (Skinny) and Joel Hrbek (Sweets) - Photo by Helen Musa

This is an impressive achievement for Red Herring Theatre, a new theatre company for Canberra, hopefully a sign of more great theatre to come.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/. 

Playwright: Peter Wilkins
Coach: Julia Grace
Players performing: Rhys Hekimian, Chips Jin, Alana Denham-Preston, Heidi Silberman, Timmy Sekuless, Maxine Beaumont, Rachel Pengilly, Martin Everett
Workshop support players: Kate Blackhurst, Rachel Howard, Sarah Nathan-Truesdale, Wynter Grainger, Phoebe Silberman

Photographer: Daniel Abroguena
Major partner: Elite Event Technology
Principal Sponsor: Willard Public Affairs

The Chalk Pit–  “A true tale of ambition, corruption, murder and betrayal, documenting the rise and fall of the Hon. Thomas John Ley” is presented by Lexi Sekuless “in a stripped back format called An Actor's Investigation. This is reflected in a lower ticket price.  This performance will be quite different from your usual night at the theatre. Each day from 10am, actors will work full time with renowned coach, Julia Grace (Melbourne Theatre Company), to pull apart the circumstances and characters and prepare to present a simple but powerful version of this story for the public at 730pm that evening.”

_____________________________________________________________________

I have mentioned before how the atmosphere of Canberra’s Mill Theatre reminds me of my seeing La Leçon in the Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris where, of the young writer Eugene Ionesco, Jacques Lemarchand wrote in 1952, in Le Figaro littéraire, “Within its small walls the Théâtre de la Huchette has what it takes to blow away all other Théâtres in Paris.… When we have grown old we will be proud to have attended performances of La Cantatrice Chauve and La Leçon.” www.theatre-huchette.com/en/the-ionesco-show

I sense in Sekuless’s manner of working something similar to this: “In the backroom of a café on the boulevard Saint-Michel a group of actors seated around a table roar with laughter. Nicholas Bataille, a young director, reads aloud the first scenes of a play by the young playwright Eugene Ionesco.”  Following each night’s script-in-hand exploration of The Chalk Pit, Lexi and her actors gather together in the foyer to talk with audience members.

This is creative theatre production in a community setting, which I am sure fits admirably into this writer’s career – Peter Wilkins’s work in Canberra began as artistic director of The Jigsaw Company, a specialist in educational theatre.  And there’s plenty to learn from in The Chalk Pit.

I am, of course, stretching connections too far – but in 1948 as Ionesco was getting on his way to showing in fictional characters the breakdown of marriage relationships and the rise of dictatorship, Wilkins shows us the true story of the bombastic, coercive controller, Australian Member of Parliament and corrupt businessman, the Hon. Thomas John Ley, a migrant from England as a child who ended up back ‘home’, found guilty of murder in the chalk pit, sentenced to be executed – but finally commuted to life in an insane asylum, where he died in 1947.

Ionesco couldn’t have imagined a life in his time to be really so absurd.  It’s likely that Ley actually caused, in Mafia style, four or five deaths – and fortunately failed to become Prime Minister.

Ley’s life story is long and complicated, but The Mill’s Actor’s Investigation, working as a team of ever-changing true-life characters, have brought the focus clearly on Ley’s marriage and extra-marriage behaviour.  The effects on the two women make The Chalk Pit a human story of the kind still played out in daily news stories; while on the political side the awful misuse of power around the world is as obvious today as it was to the young Ionesco after the two World Wars – in which the Hon Ley loudly demanded sending Australians as cannon-fodder in support of the British Empire.

The Chalk Pit is a great example of creative theatre work, in writing and production, especially in the context of Canberra, the Nation’s Capital – which our current Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, says today (Canberra Times Page 4, Saturday 25th January) is “a fantastic place to live”.

MOJO by Jez Butterworth.

Directed by Lachlan Houen. Red Herring Theatre Company and ACT HUB. Produced by Gwyneth Cleary. Stage Manager Maggie Hawkins. ACT HUB Spinifex St. Kingston.

Cast: Lachlan Herring, Jack Ferrier, Joel Hrbek, Taylor Barrett, Taj De Montis, Joshua James.

Wednesday January 22 - Saturday February 1 2025  

Bookings:  https://acthub.littleboxoffice.com 

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Jack Ferrier (Potts), Tayler Barratt (Mickey) Joel Hrbek (Sweets( Taj De Montis (Skinny) Photo Helen Musa

In  March 1995, notorious East End gangster twin Ronnie Kray died in prison. In July of the same year Jez Butterworth’s debut play,opened at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Set in a seedy night club in Soho, Mojo is set during the era of 50’s rock and roll and in the early days of the rise of the  underworld Kray twins with their penchant for murder, extortion, money-laundering, corruption and every vice known to the criminal world. This is the world of psychopaths, sociopaths, enforcers, big time gangsters and their thuggish henchmen. It is 1958. Rock and Roll has rattled the establishment as the young generation rock around the clock to Bill Haley and the Comets, or gyrate to the hip-swivelling affrontery of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock. Lachlan Houen, Director of Red Herring Theatre Company’s inaugural production blasts the auditorium with tracks of the songs of the rock and roll revolution. Times are changing and Soho sees the rise of gangsters and crims like Potts (Jack Ferrier) and Sweets (Joel Hrbek), nightclub manager Mickey (Tayler Barrett), stooge Skinny (Taj De Montis) and nightclub owner Ezra’s son Baby (Lachlan Herring). This is the world of kill or be killed, violent power struggles and shady deals to snare the greatest prize, which in this case is rising teen singing sensation, Silver Johnny.

Jack Ferrier (Potts), Joel Hrbek (Sweets)

At the start of the play, nightclub owner Ezra’s body has been found gruesomely sawn in half and stuffed in two rubbish bins. Suspicion falls every which way and the inhabitants of the Atlantic Club are out for revenge in a play that mirrors the East End of Harold Pinter and the violence of Tarantino. Houen keeps the energy racing along. Characterizations are tightly coiled ready to spring into Sweet’s ADHD, Potts’s unstated menace, Skinny’s anxious panic, Mickey’s cool control and Baby’s explosive and violent unpredictability. Houen has cast MOJO brilliantly. An all male cast inhabit their world with riveting conviction. Only diction confounds performance at times as spitfire Cockney and East End accents lose the diction to fully tell the story. The opening scene between Potts and Sweets, beautifully played by Ferrier and Hrbek with a perfect sense of physical character lose much of the dialogue, so that I was left reeling until Barrett’s Mickey clearly revealed that the owner had been murdered and the thriller could get under way.  This production of MOJO, so splendidly performed with detailed attention to the unsavoury and largely unlikeable characters of the period would have benefited from the careful attention of a professional accent coach.

Lachlan Herring (Baby), Taj De Montis (Skinny)

Having said that in the hope that the actors will pay careful attention to the impact of their dialogue, Red Herring Theatre Company’s debut production promises a very bright future for the company. The actors sport excellent training credentials and their entirely believable portrayal of character and tight physical characterization indicates a level of professionalism that Red Herring aspires to. I wish them every success with future ventures.

In its premiere year Butterworth’s MOJO received an Olivier Award for Best Comedy. On the surface this may be an unusual award for a play that is about highly unlikeable thugs, fools, deadly neurotics and power-mongers.  Houen and his company play the absurdity and stupidity for laughs with an eye for the sudden twists and surprising moments of danger. In 1995 audiences who remembered the Krays and the rebellion of the rock and roll era could view Butterworth’s play with humourous detachment. That detachment is even more pronounced in 2025, and the small matinee audience in the intimate ACT HUB theatre obviously saw the black comedy in this almost farcical gangster thriller.

Red Herring Theatre’s production of MOJO and the promise of things to come makes a welcome addition to Canberra’s expanding stable of excellent talent. This is a debut well worth a visit.

Photos: Ben Appleton  Photox Photography

Norma Robertson at the School of Arts Cafe in 1989

NORMA ROBERTSON – 21^st March 1941 – 8^th January 2025 - Musical Director and Accompanist Extraordinaire.

Friends gathered at the Canberra Repertory Theatre recently to celebrate and reminisce about the life of one of their most admired and respected members, Norma Robertson, who died earlier in the month.

A life member of Canberra Repertory, Norma was best known to the wider community as the brilliant pianist and Musical Director for Canberra Repertory’s Old Time Music Halls.

For 26 years she and fellow pianist, Andrew Kay delighted audiences with their unique skills as duo-pianists.    

What set Norma apart from most other musical directors was her ability to play by ear, transpose any song instantly, often mid-song if necessary, and her inexhaustible good humour during rehearsals.

I learned this during my very first production, “Stairway to the Stars”, a revue I directed for the Griffith Amateur Musical Revue Company in 1958 and for which Norma - then a 16-year-old schoolgirl who had passed all her AMEB examinations - was my Musical Director.

She would be my musical director for five of my shows, until she won a scholarship to the Wagga Teacher’s College in 1961.

After graduating she married director Ross McGregor and they settled in Gundagai where in addition to Ross directing a series of theatrical productions, they produced four children.

In 1973 Ross McGregor was appointed artistic director of Canberra Repertory and in 1974 Norma McGregor, as she had become, was teamed with local dentist, Andrew Kay, to provide the musical direction for the inaugural Old Time Music Hall.

By 1976, having established my family in Queanbeyan, I directed a revue, Up Tempo, for Tempo Theatre, my first production in Canberra and the Kay/McGregor duo became my musical directors.

In 1986, my wife Pat, son Tim, and I purchased the School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan, which soon became the longest-established full-time cabaret venue in Australia.

Norma was now Norma Robertson, having married Graham Robertson in 1980, and agreed to be accompanist for a season at the café with American lounge singer, Connie Strait, whose talent for being able to sing just about any song from the Great American Songbook, was a perfect match for Norma’s ability to play just as many of them.

A poster on the School of Arts Cafe wall featuring a review of Connie and Norma's show.

After Connie returned to America in 1987, Norma, by now raising eight children (as the result of blending her four with Graham’s four) continued as accompanist whenever she could.

She resolutely refused to perform a solo in any of the shows, preferring to provide a safe and supportive ambiance for the artist she was accompanying.

But she did appear in group shows, including numerous editions of the annual Bull N Bush Christmas Parties, where she could hold her own as an entertainer with the best of them.

The cast of the 1992 Bull & Bush Christmas Party Alan Cope - Graham Robertson - Kirsty McGregor - Norma Robertson - Rosemary Hyde

In their 1989 show, I Love a Piano, she and Kay showcased their duo-piano skills, with polished narration, as she did when accompanying Jon Finlayson and Jon Stephens for their 1998 Flanagan and Allen show, Underneath the Arches.

Nothing if not a perfectionist, Norma Page-McGregor-Robertson, didn’t abide fools gladly, but neither was she dictatorial. Rather, she was a wise and knowledgeable mentor, whose counsel was sought and respected by every artist with whom she worked.

BILL STEPHENS

                                                         Photos by Robert Roach.

An edited edition of this article first published in the digital edition of  CITY NEWS on 27.01.25

Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest January 31

Reviewed by Len Power

It’s hard to believe that in 2025 Salut! Baroque celebrates 30 years of presenting Baroque music.

Their first program for this year celebrated the entire spectrum of baroque music – from its near-beginning to its near-conclusion – presenting various composers who were either an influence for what was to come or influenced by what had already taken place.

A feature of a Salut! Baroque concert is the presentation of obscure or never heard before composers from the era. This concert offered works by Giovanni Antonio Guido and Jan Rokyta as well as works by several other composers.

The concert commenced with Tarquinio Merula’s canzona, The Nightingale, from 1615. Anna Stegmann, Sally Melhuish, Alana Blackburn and Alicia Crossley, playing recorders, gave this work a delightfully atmospheric performance.

On Baroque instruments, John Ma (violin), Julia Russoniello (violin), Isaiah Bondfield (violin), Brad Tham (viola), Tim Blomfield (bass violin) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord) then played Pietro Antonio Locatelli’s 1741 Concerto in E Flat Op. 7 No. 6, subtitled Arianna’s Tears. The sombre and contrasting bright and melodic sections were given a sensitive performance of great depth.

Salut! Baroque

Moving to an unexpected 1969, Balkanology, by Jan Rokyta for four recorders, this haunting, mysterious and complex work with Romanian and Turkish influences was given a superb performance by the four women on their recorders. The thunderous audience applause at the conclusion was well-deserved, making this another highlight of the concert.

There were also works by Johann Christian Schickhardt, Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Each of these was given a fine performance by these musicians.

The concert concluded with a work written towards the end of the baroque period in 1750, Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto in A minor TWV 43. The combination of strings and recorder produced a rich sound that was at times dreamlike. It was memorably played and the perfect end to a concert that was educational as well as charming.

Photo by Dalice Trost

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 1 February 2025.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

Creek I Kirsten Wehner

M16Artspace, Gallery 2 I 30 November 2024 - 2 March 2025

Wehner is a Co-Director of Catchment Studio, an ACT-based independent creative platform transforming people’s relationships with waterways. She is also Co-Chair of the Board of the Cad Factory, an artist-led organisation based in Narrandera, NSW which collaborates ethically with people and place to create a local, national and international program of experimental work. And this busy artist also contributes to the committee of Plumwood Mountain, a unique 120-hectare heritage-listed private property near Braidwood, NSW which was handed back to the Walbunja people of the Yuin Nation in 2024 - the first time such a property has been gifted to an Aboriginal community.

Wehner is the M16 Artspace/ConceptSix Environmental Artist-in-Residence for 2024/5. Significant recent projects in which she has been involved include the National Museum of Australia pop-up touring installation River Country, the documentary More than a Fish Kill which explored how artists, fishery managers, and First Nations custodians processed 2019 and 2023 fish death events along the Darling River, and Finding Weston, Considering Country, a Traditional Custodian-led series of on Country walks. She has explored how disordered and unloved waterways can be re-imagined as holders of story and sites of cultural/ecological potential.

So where and what is Weston Creek? Located in south-western Canberra where a suburb carries its name, the creek was in the past “an intermittent stream, a system of rills, soaks and wetlands vibrantly alive with plants, insects and birds. Today, the waterway is largely piped and drained, forced underground or encased in concrete, struggling with pollution from street run-off and largely invisible to people who live in the area. And yet the creek is still there. Wehner says it is “flowing as it can, supporting life as it can, creating traces that ask us to know it.”

Immediately upon entering the gallery to see the artist’s exhibition, simply titled Creek, I was drawn to the framework of gathered sticks which invites us to imagine the creek as it once was. That, of course, is very much a part of what good artists do – they imagine things and invite those of us who see their artworks to do likewise.

Kirsten Wehner_Creek (installation view)_2024_Image Brenton McGeachie, courtesy the artist

Creek explores life along the Weston Creek waterway, asking what it might mean to care better for this particular disordered place. Inspired by talks and walks with Ngunawal Elders Uncle Wally Bell and Aunty Karen Denny that considered the creek as Country, Wehner explores some of the ways in which people connect with and seek to look after places along this waterway.

Just to the left of the stick structure some words about the exhibition pose a few questions adding to what we might think about. How might we respect and nurture Ngunawal wisdom? How does the work done by local park care groups sit alongside the invasive re-engineering of the creek’s flows? How can we listen to such waterways?

In what she appropriately describes as the “bends and eddies of the stick structure”, Wehner shows us some delightful watercolour and pastel works revealing what volunteers have done. Can we see how their efforts near to invasive engineering have contributed to the restoration of native habitat, despite the legacies of concrete drains?

Kirsten Wehner_Channel_2024_Image Brenton McGeachie, courtesy the artist

Other artworks in this excellent show incorporate ideas of fracture, using multiple panels or separated surfaces so we might avoid seeing the waterway simply as a ‘view.’

Kirsten Wehner_Flow Story_2024_Image Brenton McGeachie, courtesy the artist

Kirsten Wehner_Liferafts_2024_Image Brenton McGeachie, courtesy the artist

The Cast of "Titanique".

Written by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, Tye Blue.

Produced by Michael Cassel and Eva Price.

Directed by Tye Blue – Choreographed by Ellenore Scott

Australian production directed and choreographed by Cameron Mitchell

Musical Direction by Hayden Barltrop – Costume design by Alejo Vietti

Sound Design Lawrence Schober, adapted by David Tonion

Lighting Design by Paige Seber adapted by Kathy Pineo.

The Grand Electric, Sydney until March 30^th 2025.

Matinee performance on February 1^st 2025 reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Drew Weston (Jack) and the cast of "Titanique".

The inventors of the jukebox musical – a stage or film musical that uses popular songs instead of original music – have much to answer for.

The writers of “Titanique”, have played fast and loose with facts for this cleverly conceived concoction which purports to tell the probably untrue story of what really happened on the Titanic prior to its bingle with an iceberg.

The story is narrated by Celine Dion (Marney McQueen) who may or may not have been on the Titanic that night, assisted by a cast of characters, who, according to the film, definitely were, and some ring-ins like Tina Turner and Kathy Bates who definitely weren’t.

The result is a gloriously funny, superbly mounted and brilliantly performed example of high camp silliness guaranteed to uplift the spirits of even the most jaded individual attempting to reconnect with the real world while leaving the theatre with the song My Heart Will Go On still ringing in their ears.

There are plenty more of Dion’s songs threaded through this show, performed by an accomplished cast of eleven singers and actors who achieve polished harmonies and showstopping solos and duets, while revelling in the surfeit of witty double entendres that punctuate the clever script, and supported by a switched on four-piece band, Hayden Barltrop, Sam Loomes, Debbi Yap and Alysa Portelli who sometimes find themselves involved in the action.  

In the well-worn tradition of jukebox musicals, “Titanique” doesn’t confine itself to the repertoire of Celine Dion. A couple of surprises including Who Let the Dogs Out? and another particularly popular Aussie anthem, which must remain nameless because, as Dion confided, the producers don’t have the rights to it yet, find their way into the chaos.  

Sydney is the first city outside New York to experience this delightful piece of nonsense which has been running in New York since 2022 with new productions scheduled to open soon in Toronto, Montreal and London.

The Michael Cassel Group were quick to recognise the potential of the show and have certainly done their Australian production proud. The witty script is supported by excellent production values and a topflight cast directed and choreographed by Cameron Mitchell.

Marney McQueen and the cast of "Titanique".

Marney McQueen anchors the show, obviously relishing her role as Celine Dion. Georgina Hopson plays Rose, Drew Weston is Jack, and Matt Lee is Victor Garber.

Stephen Anderson is outrageous as Rose’s mother Ruth, (Yes! That’s right) chewing up the scenery at every opportunity, while Abigail Dixon gives him a run for his money as Molly Brown. Keane Sheppard-Fletcher oozes suave entitlement as Cal, Jack’s creepy rival for the affections of Rose.

Jo-Anne Jackson, Jenni Little and Trent Owers are kept busy providing sweet harmonies as well as impersonating the Titanic’s passengers, miscellaneous necessary others, and icebergs.

Talking of icebergs, another of those is artful scene stealer, Abu, who not only services the passengers as The Seaman, but also contributes a show-stopping turn as Tina Turner.   

At the matinee reviewed here, covers Artemis Alfonzetti and Matthew Predny played the young lovers, Rose and Jack, while Tyran Stig played Victor Garber. All were so good as to provide an excellent excuse to revisit the show.

In fact, several surrounding audience members were already on their second or third visit, obviously keen to share their experience with besties. No doubt the discovery of The Grand Electric Theatre, a cute heritage venue tucked away up a narrow lane in Cleveland Street, Sydney, may also have been a compelling attractor.

“Titanique” is a superior well-produced party show that doesn’t depend on audience participation for its success but of course embraces it with gusto. It is fast becoming a word-of-mouth sensation in Sydney, so it might be quite a while before you get the opportunity to see it elsewhere.

                                                         Photos by Daniel Boud

 An edited version of this review published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 04.02.25

Based on a novel by Emily Bronte – Adapted and Directed by Emma Rice

Composer: Ian Ross – Set and Costume Design: Vicki Mortimer.

Sound & Video design: Simon Baker – Lighting Design: Jai Morjaria

Movement and Choreography: Etta Murfitt.

Presented by Liza McLean & Andrew Kay in association with A National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal.

Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney. 31^st January to 15^th February 2025.

Opening night performance on 1^st February reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

This short, exclusive to Sydney, season at the Roslyn Packer Theatre gives Australian audiences an opportunity to experience a production by acclaimed British director Emma Rice.  

For those who have devoured Emily Bronte’s sprawling Gothic novel, this production will prove a fascination, not the least because of the economy with which the director and her creatives have managed to compress the myriad of detail contained in the epic novel into a production that runs less than three hours.

The story traces the convoluted lives of two wealthy families who lived in the Yorkshire moors in the 19^th century. It is complicated by the fact that many of the highly strung characters bear the same names as their ancestors.

For her adaptation, Rice approaches the story from the point of view of the moors, represented by a Greek chorus of actors who also play various characters from the novel as the play progresses.

A surrealistic stripped-back set design by Vicki Mortimer consists largely of cleverly stacked chairs. Wheeled on screens represent various locales. Lowered chandeliers differentiate the residences. Puppets are utilised to represent children and savage dogs. Atmospheric lighting, sound, and video, together with choreographed ensemble scenes provide additional atmosphere and spectacle.

 

Characters address the audience directly to express feelings, while members of the Moors keep the audience updated with hand-held blackboards on which are scribbled in chalk, the names of characters and the dates of the action taking place.

Throughout a haunting score played by onstage musicians and sometimes sung by the ensemble add to the other-worldly feel of the play, especially during the sections featuring the cello, played by TJ Holmes, who also portrays Dr Kenneth in the show.

Only John Leader as Heathcliff, Stephanie Hockley as Catherine and Nandi Bhebhe as the Leader of the Moors play a single character throughout. Each offers a memorable portrayal.  The other eight members of the company each play at least two or more supporting characters.  

On opening night, not all the actors had adjusted their vocal delivery to the size of the theatre, resulting in the loss of vital information. This, coupled with the heightened acting style, the ever-changing procession of neurotic characters, and Rice’s frenetic direction, although admittedly clever, provided a significant challenge to those trying to keep track of the convoluted storyline.  

This was particularly evident after interval when thirteen-year-old Cathy Linton is introduced and the story of how three years later she falls in love with Heathcliff’s son Linton commences. Despite the skill of the actors, the over-the-top melodrama of the pair’s story began to elicit nervous giggles, even belly laughs, rather than empathy.

Some laughs had also occurred in the first half of the production, and although it may have been the director’s intention to insert a few laughs into the proceedings to lighten the mood, although welcomed by some, they felt incongruous in the context of the storyline, and raised questions as to whether they were purposely placed or accidental.

For devotees of “Wuthering Heights” there is much to enjoy in this striking production. For those yet to be persuaded, this is your opportunity.

                                                    Photos by Steve Tanner

   This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

…Is somebody gonna match my freak? is an exhibition by two multidisciplinary artists Asil Habara and Sophie Dumaresq. They were the 2024 recipients of the M16 Artspace ANU Emerging Artists Support Scheme residencies.

The exhibition’s title is taken from the lyrics of Nasty - a 2024 pop song by an American singer and songwriter Tinashe which went viral. “Match my freak” means finding someone who matches your weirdness and enjoys the same niche interests as you. Are we all a bit freaky? Is it a good feeling to find someone whose energy precisely matches yours? That was the philosophy behind this surging new bit of internet culture slang that also became a Trending TikTok sound.

The show is a tongue-in-check reference to the two artists shared sense of humour and interest in online popular culture, shit posting and the very real-life currents behind driving viral trends. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, shitposts on social media are of little to no sincere insightful substance. They may well be posted, as their sole purpose, to confuse, provoke or entertain. They are not specifically designed to evoke reactions.

Addressing topics ranging from the religious, to a popular reality dating television show “Love Island” and online consumer influencer culture, Asil Habara invites audiences to reflect on the profound intersections of culture and technology. This artist’s works in this exhibition are visually arresting and have amazing titles. Some are digital prints on satin cloth or on poly fil. Others are screenprints on paper or linen. The vibrancy of their colours is astoundingly powerful. Visitors may well find themselves simply feeling immersed in them. The artist is seeking to engage, to question and to be part of a larger dialogue shaping the cultural landscape. There are also some other types of works – found heels covered with colourful “saucy” images on collaged paper, and a found hat similarly improved via decoration.

bom cha cha cha cha, 2024. Digital print on satin cloth – Asil Habara a new bombshell has entered the villa, 2024. Digital print on satin cloth – Asil Habara

Community is being in the third space with five hinge matches, at least two people who have seen your hole, ex housemates that went horrible, ex housemates that went well, a subleter who u rejected, friends with mutual distancing, three people that are currently in your dms, a secret crush or two, people who pretend not to know you from Instagram, randomly someone you went to primary school with, a guy with allegations but people for some reason are still friends with him, a string of lesbians who have all seen each other, a string of gays who have all seen each other, everyone being a dj while being all burnt out and everyone talking about moving to melbourne, sydney or berlin, 2025.Satin cloth, wood – Asil Habara

Crucifixion, 2025. Recycled timber, paper. Asil Habara and Conor Ward

u know my swag not my story (i), (ii) & (iii), 2025 Screenprints on linen – Asil Habara

Valley girls giving blowjobs for Louboutins What you call that? Head over heels, 2025. Found heels, collaged paper - Asil Habara

Sophie Dumaresq’s artworks feature her trademark pinks. As we have come to expect, she has used hand dyed and felted human hair. Other different elements in the artworks include rabbit and red fox skulls. The catalogue also reveals her use of plywood, a car hood, oil paint, hair spray, invisible blood and spit and UV reactive ink. She has provided UV torches to point at photos enabling us to see the otherwise invisible additions to their surfaces.

The titles of Dumaresq’s works are equally fascinating – “Like that one sex scene in Mulholland Drive” and “Manic Pixie Dream Rabbit Feet #1” are just two examples. Interestingly, in a new review of Mulholland Drive following the death of Director David Lynch, the reviewer Steve Palaski wrote “isn’t the kind of film that can be adequately explained, but I’ll give it a whirl.” If particular titles don’t move you and evoke feelings of familiarity within you, search for them on the Web and you should quickly identify clues as to why Dumaresq has used them. If you find yourself having trouble explaining to yourself, or to your friends, what this exhibition is all about, don’t be afraid, do the hard yards and give it a whirl. You’ll soon be showing your friends how vast your computer knowledge is!

Sophie Dumaresq - At it like f$$$ingrabbits (come find me hunny bunny), 2024.

Sophie Dumaresq - You can be my full time, baby, hot or cold, 2024.

Sophie Dumaresq, Like that one sex scene in Mulholland drive, 2024.

Together these two artists invite us to question the currents that shape our own material reality and cultural landscape, both online and IRL - come on, you must know it means In Real Life and is used to differentiate between online and offline worlds!

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

Visual Art Exhibition Review | Brian Rope

VIEW 2025 I Cailyn Forrest, Adam Hsieh, Fiona Lee, Aia Solis, Emma Winkler

16122024, 2024 - Silver gelatin print on hand-coated rice paper on board – Cailyn Forrest

Adam Hsieh is a digital artist. Guided by his experience as a queer Chinese migrant, Hsieh’s art practice seeks to explore the dynamic tension between places and place-makers. He uses multi-sensory interventions, manipulating systems of light, sound, moving images, code, and AI.

In I Didn’t Come Here for Love here Hsieh has used juxtaposition – wide-angle views of Hobart’s Mount Wellington alongside exchanges had with others on the geosocial app Grindr. Words from those encounters are superimposed on the well-chosen views of the famous mountain. The resultant video installation runs for 10 minutes showing limited movements in each channel as it screens.

I didn’t come here for love, 2023 - feature image from three-channel video installation – Adam Hsieh

Fiona Lee is an artist based in Elands, NSW. Using installations, photo media, and sculpture, her practice engages with critical social issues, focusing on climate change and the post-natural world.

In her Future Critical artwork here she seeks to confront ecological loss and political inertia, arising from the experience of losing her home in the 2019–2020 bushfires. Using an inkjet print of video stills, a clock and audio, this work explores the lack of necessary action by political systems through visual disruptions, layering, and fragmented imagery. Their portrayed remnants speak to us of the destruction of our precious forests, reminding us of the terrible impacts the fires had on the natural environment.

VIEW round - inkjet print of video stills – Fiona Lee

Aia Solis is a Filipino artist based in Australia. Her photographic practice explores themes of learning, unlearning, and relearning through an experiential approach. Her work explores emotional tensions experienced in personal and cultural transitions.

In her work Taranta Muna, Solis merges past memories and present realities, using some quite delightful stitching on photo collage plus video. On her Instagram account she has written that this is “an ongoing project that reflects the unspoken dissonance of not fully belonging to the past or being entirely rooted in the present - a state of instability and uncertainty. Threads weave together images of past memories and present realities, creating a layered dialogue between control and chaos, seeking strength not in resolution, but in embracing the uncertainty of the in-between.”

These works were some of my favourites in the exhibition and I look forward to seeing more of this project as it evolves.

01 - stitching on photo collage - Aia Solis

Emma Winkler’s practice uses collage, painting and animation to explore the relationship between anxiety and death. She has a personal yet playful approach, inviting viewers to laugh in the face of death - or at least start a conversation about it.

The exhibition catalogue informs us that, in Shadow Puppets, Winkler fuses painting, photography, and animation into textured narratives infused with “existential absurdity.” I had to do some web browsing about that term, learning (amongst other things) that it underscores the conflict between our desire for order and the chaotic nature of the universe. Certainly, Winkler’s paintings (including a hand-painted stop-motion animation) here are fascinating combinations of diverse things wherein the end compositions to my eyes seemed appropriate.

Sinking Feeling, 2023, oil, acrylic and spray paint - Emma Winkler

This review is also available on the author's blog here.