SYDNEY FESTIVAL - THE BOYS

January 12th 2012 1:32 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

THE BOYS, Griffin Theatre at the SBW Stables Theatre, 6 January-3 March 2012; photos Brett Boardman: Jeanette Cronin and Josh McConville; Johnny Carr and Josh McConville.

WHEN Gordon Graham's The Boys was first staged by director Alex Galeazzi at The Stables in 1991, Sydney was still reeling from the hideous gang rapes and murders of Anita Cobby in 1986 and Janine Balding in 1988. The aftermath – the harrowing trials and eventual convictions of "the boys" in both instances – and what was revealed in those trials about them and what they did, caused continuing shock waves of bewilderment and horror throughout the community. Why? Who were they? What made them do it? What made them? These questions and more were almost visible in the air in the decade following those brutal killings and both young women – the nurse-beauty queen Cobby in particular – came to symbolise goodness and innocence versus mindless, violent evil.

In 1998, the play was adapted for the screen by Stephen Sewell and has become one of the legendary movies of the modern Australian industry. It made David Wenham a star and continues to haunt audiences with its depiction of the toxic, twisted "love" between the brothers and their mother and girlfriends and its dire consequences. In 2003, the exhibition Anita and Beyond, at Penrith Regional Gallery, stirred the somewhat settled silt of public imagination again with a series of works by 12 artists, including Adam Cullen. It aimed, in the words of Anne Loxley, the SMH art critic of the time, "…to tell personal stories that examine the realities of life after violence, in an attempt to heal …the sober, sensitive exhibition conveys a sense of the real Anita, interrogates her place in Australian mythology, forcing unanswerable questions about humanity."

Much the same can be said of Graham's play – now tweaked and updated by the playwright in collaboration with its current director Sam Strong . It's as fresh and shocking as the (in)famous portraits by Cullen from Anita and Beyond that currently dominate the Stables foyer and is possibly even more potent and relevant today when domestic violence, street violence and sheer bloody-minded unpleasantness seems to be even more prominent in everyday city life than it was just two decades ago.

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SYDNEY FESTIVAL - BABEL (WORDS)

January 10th 2012 6:48 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

BABEL (words), Sydney Theatre, 9-11 and 13-14 January 2012; photos Koen Broos.

THE PATH to Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Babel (words) is a lifetime journey from his roots of Moroccan father and Flemish mother and Belgian upbringing (a Muslim in a Christian culture) to a dance career that began ridiculously late and unconventionally. As a teenager he watched and imitated dance videos, took ballet classes, studied Prince, did hop hop, modelled his teenage movement on clips of Sylvie Guillem so that, by the age of 19 and his father died, he was already on his way to a now legendary place in world dance with a mind and body saturated in this extraordinary melange of influences.

Not surprising then that Cherkaoui the choreographer is a collaborator rather than a singular autocrat; his most famous partner in creation to date is probably Akram Khan, but Babel (words) has brought him together with co-choreographer Damien Jalet and sculptor Antony Gormley to produce a dance-theatre work that seems to be the distilled essence of all of the above. He has said that he doesn't enjoy competition, which is why he prefers collaboration and why he turned to dance rather than sport; nevertheless, Babel (words) is a frequently funny, moving and often profound depiction of the competitiveness that is to be found in human relations: English is best, French is best; we are cleverest – no, we are; and so on.

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SYDNEY FESTIVAL - BURIED CITY

January 9th 2012 7:10 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

BURIED CITY, Urban Theatre Projects & Belvoir at Belvoir St Theatre; 6 January-5 February 2012; photos Heidrun Lohr: Hazem Shammas and Valerie Berry; Meyne Wyatt.

THIS IS AN ambitious project, a co-production between two of Sydney's best known theatre generators and one conceived and directed by Alicia Talbot with co-devisors and high calibre performers, Valerie Berry, Perry Keyes, Russell Kiefel, Effie Nkrumah, Hazem Shammas and Meyne Wyatt.

According to the blurb, "this is a big-picture show about a city and society redefining itself. Late one night in the gutted façade of a building primed for redevelopment, a group of security workers, labourers, and a local teenager find themselves haunting the same territory. One by one they rule a line in the sand, and by dawn they’re set for a showdown over who builds the future and who gets to own it."

Either the script and characters have changed quite drastically between the writing of that description and the opening night performance, or I am a monkey's aunty. Contrary to the dynamic sounding precis above, my note – scribbled during the performance – reminded me that: "nothing happens, a bit more nothing happens … even more nothing happens … a fight that isn't a fight happens ... a plastic chair is dismantled …" Then I gave up notes as it was too dull, too fitful and too repetitive to bother. The almost overwhelming impulse during a painfully drawn out hour and 20 minutes was to continually interrupt the "action" with the questions "why?" and "what's the point?"

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SYDNEY FESTIVAL - I AM EORA

January 9th 2012 11:40 am | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

I AM EORA, Carriageworks, Bay 17, 8-14 January 2012. Photos: Prudence Upton – Miranda Tapsell and Wilma Reading; right: Jack Charles.

MUCH ANTICIPATED and long awaited are two descriptions for what is a hard-to-pigeon-hole event, but which could be characterised as an urban song cycle theatre work. Hooked loosely to three central historical figures – Pemulwuy, Barangaroo and Bennelong – the simmering anger, fierce pride and boundless optimism of Sydney's traditional custodians are depicted in music, dance, word and spectacle. 

Bold, imaginative, uncompromising and exciting are all words that spring to mind to relate the journey of the hour and 20 minutes that begins with Suit Man (Luke Currie-Richardson) strolling on to a vast, empty, sloping stage. He is dressed in a smart dark business suit, shiny black shoes, crisp white shirt and dark tie, the epitome of modern Indigenous man. With exquisite care and elegant deliberation he begins to remove his clothes: untying the laces of one shoe, removing the shoe, setting it down, removing a sock, rolling it up, placing it in the shoe; then the other shoe and sock; then his belt – doubled and laid beside the shoes; then the jacket and shirt – laid out and carefully re-buttoned; the tie is removed and set beside the shirt; and finally the trousers – shaken out and painstakingly laid beside the rest. Then he stands before the audience, naked and beautiful, smeared with white ochre, symbolising everything that's different and similar about 21st century Australia. It's a memorable beginning.

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THE MAGIC FLUTE

January 7th 2012 5:59 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

THE MAGIC FLUTE, Sydney Opera House, Opera Australia by arrangement with the Metropolitan Opera; 6 January-23 March 2012. Photos by Branco Gaica, 

In Christopher Lawrence's program essay for this fabulous production of The Magic Flute he writes a true thing – of opera in general, Mozart in particular and even more specifically, of this production – and it is the observation that "…Mozart's message would appear to be that the magic of music lies not in how it is made, but in how we choose to receive it."

The word "choose" is the key: do we choose to be as open and imaginative as Mozart himself (and his collaborator here, the American theatre maven Julie Taymor)? Or do we go along with the lemon-suckers who demand that an opera be staged "traditionally"? And if it's the latter, what do they mean? In the manner of its first production, 220 years ago? In the way it was done 20, 50 or 100 years ago? In all cases Mozart would be spinning in his grave as sticking to the original script or score was not something he ever did or ever intended.

And that's the problem with "historical accuracy" and "faithful versions"  – whether it's restoring an old house or remounting an old opera – it's not actually about either as both states are more about myth and legend and personal foibles than correctness (whatever that is). So…

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ANNIE

January 6th 2012 12:13 pm | Theatre | Review - By Diana Simmonds

ANNIE, Lyric Theatre, The Star, Sydney, 5 January 2012 for 12 weeks then Brisbane and Melbourne. Photos by Jeff Busby: Ella Nicol and Jade Gillis; right: Todd McKenney and Chloe Dallimore.

Rig up a Fun-O-Meter in the foyer of the Lyric Theatre right now and – thanks to Annie – you could watch it go right off the dial. The old musical is not only a favourite with kids of all ages, but, in this instance, is so well done that its innocent fun and sheer euphoria are simply irresistible.

It begins with the troupe of little girls – Annie and her fellow orphans – whose joie de vivre and sheer excellence in the opening "It's a Hard Knock Life" permeates the entire production. The opening night team (there are three alternating sets of eight) were a convincingly charming Ella Nicol in the title role, Zoe Ioannou as Pepper, Kirsten Tsoultoudis as Duffy, Morgan Townsend as Kate, Emily Roach as Tessie, Kayley Smith as July, Natasha Mills as Friday and a totally scene-stealing minx, Jade Gillis, as Molly. 

Clad in their rather fetching Depression era drab (costumes by the late Kristian Fredrikson) the girls are a credit to their various stage schools in that they are neither saccharine nor precocious but inhabit their roles and the stage with conviction and purpose. Choreographer Kelly Aykers has to be thrilled with the way they manage her sophisticated routines; while the grown-up performers have been given a high standard to maintain by these talented kids.

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