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The Ennio Morricone Experience Space Theatre Sat 19 June, Season closed Back by popular demand after the success and popularity of last year's Cabaret Festival season, the gifted Melbourne five-piece delighted the tightly-packed Space Theatre audience with their interpretation of the scores of Ennio Morricone, adding snatches of obscure spaghetti western film dialogue and a range of clever sound affects. One of the funniest things about the Ennio Morricone Experience is the theatrical use of props. With stacks of phone books pushed over for falling bodies, microphones in a box of Special K for bootfalls on gravel, two wire coat hangers whipped through the air for birds fluttering and myriad other amusing objects, there seems less concern on what will give the most accurate sound and more on what will look the most ridiculous. Another great source of humour is the tight control the performers use in keeping absolute dead-pan faces even throughout the dramatic spoken dialogue pieces. Against this blank canvas, the slightest expression used sparingly but deliberately seems amplified and so much more powerful, adding to the crowd's astonished amusement. Far more than a musical concert, imagine a practised and well executed theatrical performance where the players just happen to be talented multi-instrumentalists obsessed with the works of Ennio Morricone. From the opening track, there was no doubt The Ennio Morricone Experience knew their instruments (and in most cases everybody else's), and there was even more laughter watching the five musicians clamber from one instrument to another (timpani, vibraphone, double bass, euphonium, piano, tuba, drums, sousaphone, tin whistle and more) in order to recreate the effect of a full orchestra. The Theme From Once Upon A Time In The West and The Theme From The Good The Bad & The Ugly were back from last year, but most of the dialogue snatches were new and there were a few other unusual Morricone score pieces and songs added this year as well. Most of the performance steered away from the popular pieces and into more territory, including compositions from 'Guns Don't Argue' and 'Machine Gun McCain'. The Space Theatre proved the perfect venue for The Ennio Morricone Experience, large enough to fit a sizeable crowd but small enough to allow an intimate atmosphere and allow the smaller sound effects and the slightest movements to be appreciated. So moved were the audience that by the close of the encore audience-participation piece, Santa Fe Express (from 'Seven Guns For The Macgregor's') there was scarcely an arm left unraised in the optional choreography. A fabulous night out.  |
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