Perth Farewells Edgar Metcalfe

With Friends Like These written and directed by Edgar Metcalfe

Presented by Grads, University of WA

With a tear in his eye and an emotional catch in his voice, veteran actor Edgar Metcalfe thanked the cast and crew of his latest project during curtain call at The Dolphin Theatre last night. He flies to England on Tuesday having chosen to return to his boyhood home town of Blackpool on England’s chilly north west coast.

I’ve known Edgar very briefly and regret that I’ve seen him act only once but very memorably in the cheekily irreverant parlour comedy, Two Old Queens in which Metcalfe played the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother opposite John Michael Swinbank as Sir Noël Coward.

His regal charm was such that I have since not been able to resist bobbing him a little curtsy whenever I bump into him at the theatre. It is clear that his colleagues and friends in the Perth theatre community have enormous respect for the contribution that he has made to the dramatic arts over the past 40-something years and regard him with great affection.

Metcalfe opted to end his long career in Australia with an old-fashioned English-style farce, written and directed by himself – With Friends Like These. Set in the smart suburban home of Aussie businessman Frank and his frightfully English ex-pat wife Joanna, the play is a sprightly comedy of bad manners during a Sunday barbeque for some of Frank’s employees and their ‘accoutrements’ as the wives and girlfriends are acidly described by Joanna. Guests of honour are to be Steve and Nell, a young couple who have recently reunited after an embarassing incident of nuptial-interuptus when stammering Steve declared “I d..d..d..don’t” instead of “I d..d..d.. do” at the altar. It’s a case of ‘don’t mention the war’ for Joanna as she impresses upon her other guests the importance of not mentioning the incident during the party.

Enough cocktails are downed to fill the pool in which drunken and lecherous Gloria goes skinny-dipping. Old grievances smoulder like the overcooked steak on Frank’s swanky new barbeque and tawdry secrets come to light over Joanna’s clafoutis pudding course.

Melcalfe is clearly a director of great care and precision with a wealth of hands-on experience to impart to this largely amateur cast – who were terrific from the meat-headed and taciturn Mitch (David Gregory) who speaks mostly in Aussie slang monosyllables to the glorious ghastliness of Gloria, Joanna’s lush of a sister, played with relish by Kerri Hilton savouring her sharp-tongued wit and pointed remarks.

Plays of this ilk were in vogue in 1970s UK with Alan Ayckbourn (Bedroom Farce) and Mike Leigh (Abigail’s Party) who satirised the suburban middle classes and their aspirational lifestyles. Here Metcalfe gently leads us into certain expectations of his characters with their petty domestic power struggles and prejudices and then deliciously unravels those expectations. You are left with a tinge of pity for hostess Joanna (a crisp performance from veteran old-hand Irene French), as her cosy sense of moral and social superiority is attacked from all sides.
Ok, it’s not cutting edge contemporary drama but it’s a heap of fun and a fitting swan song for a much loved performer from a rapidly diminishing tradition. Farewell Edgar. I hope Perth remembers you well.

Don't You Want Me Baby?

WAAPA 2nd Year Acting presents 'Open Cut' a new play by Hilary Bell

On paper, Hilary Bell’s new play about the social fallout and human cost of the mining boom in the Pilbarra sounds as dry and dusty as the arid landscape in which it is set.

Both Bell and director Andrew Lewis claim that the piece explores, ‘a multitude of complex moral questions’ that emerge from Australia’s dependence upon the mining industry. It was quite a relief to discover that it was far more entertaining than the publicity suggests.

Staged in the dynamic and intimate Roundhouse Theatre, Nathan Weyers (set design) and Matthew Hampton (lighting) create a flexible space with ascending steps painted to depict the parched, red-ochre interior landscape. Industrial scaffolding towers above, lit with eerie red spotlights and a rear projection screen allows pictures to confirm various settings. Puffs of dry ice hint at the smoky industry of a 24-hour-a-day operation.

The piece is structured as a steady stream of vignettes showing a frustratingly brief snapshot of each character’s personal dilemma. Some of the issues are rather clumsily spelt out, the arrogant youth earning $150k a year throws his cash around in a city bar and argues with the barman (a student on an acting course) about money versus passion as a motivator for life and work. Liz, who did gender studies at University is horrified to find herself working in a ‘skimpy’ bar to pay off a debt she owes to a drug dealer. Director Andrew Lewis and the ensemble cast did well to make us care about so many of these sketchy one-dimensional characters, hampered by the lack of emotional depth to be found in them. Some character and story arcs are followed through with brief embellishment and Bell contrives to weave these narratives together in a way that suggests interconnectedness and serendipity but doesn’t quite manage to convince.

What lifts the patchy writing is the use of musical interludes in a style reminiscent of Dennis Potter. Musical director Drew Livingston (also part of the live accompaniment with drummer Garo Tanzi) uses a handful of pop songs to add emphasis to the action, Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me, Baby’ was a recurring motif throughout. Choreography is energetic and robust courtesy of three cast members.

The fly in-fly out nature of the mining industry is worth some dramatic analysis alone and Bell has explored those issues as well as touching briefly, if a little simplistically, on the pros and cons of the environmental impacts of the mining industry. The message seems to be clear, that there is a price to pay for the high standard of living we enjoy and sacrifices must be made to maintain that lifestyle. ‘What are you prepared to give up?’

**NEW REVIEW** Singular Women, four monologues by Stewart Permutt

Onward Production in Association with The Brainbox Project - Downstairs At The Maj

The first ever production from Perth's newest theatre patron, Sally Burton. SINGULAR WOMEN by Stewart Permutt. A funny and poignant night out.

See my full review in Thursday's West Australian. Show runs to Saturday 5th September 2009

**NEW REVIEW** Parade, a musical presented by WAAPA

WA Academy of Performing Arts 3rd Year Musical Theatre students present the powerful and moving Perth premiere of Tony-Award winning musical, PARADE - the true story of America's only recorded lynch-mob murder of a Jewish man in Georgia, 1915.

Book by Alfred Uhry, music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown.

See The West Australian on Thursday 27th August for my full review. Show runs to Saturday 29th August 2009.

Season final: The Last Enemy

The series wrapped last Sunday on ABC1 (16th August) with the good guys, or at least those who we have come to sympathise with, failing to blow the whistle on the moral and political corruption that they have spent so long investigating. There is no cosy triumph of idealogical dissidents over the power-crazed politicos to leave us feeling smug. Instead, a chilling and disquieting feeling of powerlessness seeps through you during the final 15 minutes of the episode.

The plot turned out to be a great deal simpler than first impressions let on. A group of rogue scientists, with government approval it seems, developed a vaccine that also contained an indentity tag and set about testing it in overseas refugee camps. The nano bio-technology proves fatal to certain ethnic types, a terrifying prospect for the ongoing war of terror. The British government then go to great lengths to cover up the fatalities and the tag’s existence – yes in the name of self interest but also, as Home Secretary Eleanor Brooke points out to the dumb-struck Stephen Ezard, terrorists would inevitably use the information as a reason and justification for further acts of aggression.

Poor Stephen, who only returned to England to bury his brother, finds himself in the final scene much as Winston Smith does in 1984. Utterly broken, at the mercy of the state. Confined to the shores of a country that can track his every movement through a tiny ID tag implanted under his skin and estranged from the woman he loves who will never be allowed to return to the UK.

The ethical conundrums were life-like in their untidiness and the moral ambiguities very satisfyingly complex. Ezard is not the man he was at the start of this wonderful thriller. In that final shot, as he sits at his desk, staring out of his window you sensed a maelstrom of internal conflict itching to burst forth and fight against the massacre to his civil liberties. There’s obviously room for a follow up story; it’s a sci-fi world (or ‘predictive’ world as producer Gub Neal describes it), that has all the hallmarks of a returning series but, I kinda hope there won’t be one. It’s good once in a while to accept a drama in which the ends don’t tie up neatly.

Culture's Traffic Wardens

I don’t rate Les Misérables. If you read my review, (or at least the one by Abi Taulbat, my Hebrew alter-ego!) in last Monday’s (10th August) West Australian you’ll be aware of this, It’s pompous, pretentious and ripe for a bit of mickey-taking. Fortunately, it’s also a ‘critic-proof’ musical, and as such the MS society of WA need not fear that my lightly satirical response will damage their box office returns. ‘Les Mis’ is a Titan, a broad-shouldered bouncer at the nightclub door of its more fragile cousins – those poor but exciting innovators of the Blue Room (Jeffrey Jay Fowler, Tim Watts and Alexa Taylor for example).

It’s big enough and ugly enough to take the odd knock back I think.

Given that my job is to offer opinion and dish out judgement on the work of Perth theatre creatives, it surprises me that more people don’t exercise their right of reply. Only 3 times have there been letters of response where readers have queried my views – naturally always for productions that did not receive positive reviews; no one has ever taken issue with a rave.

A while ago, ‘disgruntled theatre-goer of Peppermint Grove’ voiced objections when I suggested that Black Swan’s Cyrano de Bergerac was not up to much. They said ‘the entire audience I’m sure found it thoroughly entertaining’. He/she goes on to praise the ‘enormous effort’ of the whole cast adding that, ‘the arts in Perth should be encouraged and supported as much as possible’.

Similarly, ‘outraged theatre patron of Subiaco’ was convinced that my views on the woeful Doctors dot Com were the result of a ‘personal vendetta against someone or all of those involved in the play.’ Again they make the plea to ‘support and encourage our local writers and actors, not destroy them.’

Believe it or not, I welcome feedback, I don’t get very much of it. There are very few theatre critics in Perth and the wellbeing of the theatre industry depends upon us all airing our honest views about what’s what.

If the people who take pains to write into the letters page are indeed regular theatre lovers without professional connections to the industry then one can understand their misaprehensions about the function of criticism. My view is that critics are not there to represent the majority audience opinion and most would never dare to suggest they could. We are also, and this will be a surprise to some theatre producers and audience members, not a part of the marketing team. ‘[critics] contribute to debate and discussion about the arts’ says the UK Guardian newspaper’s theatre critic Michael Billington.

When you attend as many stage performances as I do, it’s an automatic response to compare each new experience with a long-standing and evolving history of theatrical output. That for me includes not just Perth in the past 5 years but some of Broadway and London’s finest practitioners. This contextualising enables me to be sufficiently detached and objective. This doesn’t make me a perfect theatre critic, but it gives me my individual perspective.

Let’s have some intelligent and sensible professional discourse about Perth theatre. By all means question my opinions; illuminate and explain if you think I appear not to be understanding the intentions of a piece. I beg you though to stop believing that I am unaware of the efforts that are behind theatre production or that I am anything but one of Perth’s most enthusiastic and passionate supporters of theatre arts.

As A A Gill concludes after noting that ‘Critics are culture’s traffic wardens.’ ‘If you want to be loved work with puppies.’

I urge you to take a look at Alison Croggon’s wonderful blog theatre notes and pick out the link label: ‘criticism’. As ever she engages in her usual intelligent manner on the subject of criticism. It’s a very topical issue here and among the UK pundits, well worth getting in on the debate.

Onward Productions - Exciting new theatre venture from Sally Burton

Sally Burton – wife of the late Richard Burton has announced the launch of a new theatre company for Perth during an elegant champagne reception at the Western Australian Club in the city on Wednesday of last week. ‘I am passionate about theatre and very excited that at this point in my life I am able to pursue a new venture.’

During her witty address to the hoi polloi of Perth’s theatre community, a relaxed Ms Burton explained how Richard Burton’s savvy agent had ensured that some of his film deals included a percentage of future sales – so-called residuals. She now receives a substantial income from this source and has decided to spend it for the cultural good of Perth and Australia.

Onward Productions will produce 2 plays per year, the first will be presented Downstairs at the Maj later this year. Singular Women written by Stewart Permutt will feature mother and daughter team, Jenny and Rebecca Davis. Following this will be Seven Deadly Sins, Four Deadly Sinners by Norman Hudis & Marc Sinden, which will be presented in association with Black Swan State Theatre Company with artistic director Kate Cherry at the helm.

Playwriting Award

To complement the Sally Burton Award for Third Year Acting that has been available to students at WAAPA since 2007, Sally will be funding an annual award for playwriting. $20,000 will go the the best new play and $10,000 for the runner up. This award is open to playwrights throughout Australia and not just in WA; Black Swan will be involved in the assessment and selection of eligible scripts.