Friday February 14, 2025
ARIA
Review

ARIA

By Diana Simmonds
February 1 2025

ARIA, Ensemble Theatre, 24 January - 15 March 2025. Photography by Prudence Upton

There is nothing like “a new Williamson” to set a theatre’s box office alight and Aria, David Williamson’s latest, is no exception. The Ensemble is doing boffo business – look to March for best ticket options. Meanwhile, with Angelina Jolie currently on big screens as Maria Callas and Opera Australia’s summer season in full swing, more melodrama and music can’t be all bad, surely?

Well, maybe, maybe not! Monique (Tracy Mann) is the long-reigning queen of her family of three sons, twins (42) Daniel (Sam O’Sullivan) and Liam (Jack Starkey-Gill), and Charlie, 39 (Rowan Davie). They share a birthday and if, as loving mama begins to sharpen her verbal claws on her beloveds, you get a whiff of gender-reversed King Lear – fear not, no one’s eyes are gouged out, at least not literally.

On the birthday it’s tradition to gather at Monique’s comfortable home for lunch. After lashings of French champagne, she will make her speech. Then she will sing her aria. Last year it was Madama Butterfly. A laugh a minute for the boys as the abandoned woman sings of her hope that she and her son will one day see his father again.

ARIA

As she always relates, she gave up the promise of a brilliant career for love and children. She would undoubtedly have sung at La Scala and Covent Garden, if not for them and their now-gone-on father, but regrets? A few, but then again, too few to mention – as she mentions at length and on repeat, year after year. All while smiling and looking svelte and great for her age.

This year, however, things are different. Charlie is divorced and has an alarming young wife. Alarming because she’s a long-legged beautician, which means he’s crossed the class divide. And that means Midge (Tamara Lee Bailey) is not as predictable as Liam’s wife Chrissy (Suzannah McDonald), or Daniel’s wife Judy (Danielle King). Chrissy is the perfect political wife for ambitious MP Liam. According to high-flying ad man Charlie, Liam’s a prick and always has been. No one disagrees including – this time – Chrissy. She’s finally had it with their four out-of-control brats and his covert dinners for factional schemers.

Meanwhile, class warfare is at the heart of marital trouble for lawyer Judy – a partner at Clayton Utz – and her low-paid draftsman husband Daniel. On the sly, his mother dangles a juicy financial carrot under his nose if he’ll leave Judy – a Westie who went to public school and wants to remove their daughter from Monique’s $47k p.a. alma mater. Concord High will be good for the girl because she’s turning into a snobby little snot, Judy says.

ARIA

As is customary in a Williamson play, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune are delivered as one-liners that all but guarantee steady laughs and gasps of recognition. The characters are well crafted and introduced in a series of ones and twos (a bit stilted but good for the less neurally nimble). Janine Watson’s sure direction makes the most of her fine cast, particularly Tracy Mann who is at ease with the mix of eye-watering nastiness and eventual pathos.

Set and costume designer Rose Montgomery is also at the top of her game with Monique’s elegant living room and equally chic black and white outfit. Then there’s Chrissy’s ghastly sub-Laura Ashley frock, Judy’s very Utzy black suit, and Midge’s minimal red tube dress and $300 hair. Telling details in the brothers’ wrist-wear stand out to comical effect: Daniel’s multi-coloured Tay-Tay friendship bracelets, Charlie’s pistachio Apple Watch, and Liam’s macho metal – Rolex Submariner? Whatever – each element is perfectly judged.

Also perfectly imperfect, and coached by Donna Balson, is Monique’s aria for this cataclysmic celebration. As secrets and lies come tumbling out, those on stage are not the only ones aghast at the prospect of the deluded diva giving us her Queen of the Night. Mozart’s F6 above top C has been the sword on which many sopranos have fallen, never mind the fiendish coloratura. As she trills – in German – “The wrath of Hell has filled my heart with fury … You’ll kill him now, or cursed will be your name,” Tracy Mann defies gravity and cruel anticipation. And all in 90 minutes. Amazing.

 

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