The Year That Was


When I tell people - you know, ordinary people - that I am a reviewer and how often I go the theatre, I frequently get the retort, "I had no idea there was that much going on in Adelaide!" Gosh, is television really that riveting? It was obviously a bumper harvest being a festival year, but with the now-annual Fringe, the odd years won't seem so odd any more.

As in previous Christmas wraps, I'll review only those shows indigenous to our fair state. Take my word for it, some of the professional touring productions that graced our stages from beyond the desert-girded borders weren't worth a cracker. Many amateur productions left them in the shade. No names except two - 'The Woman In Black' and 'Hotel Sorrento' - which were poor value for money.

Artistic director Adam Cook pushed the play button on the 2006 State Theatre program well and truly. The season had an exciting birth during the Festival with the delivery of the world premiere of Peter Goldworthy's and Martin Laud Gray's adaptation of Goldworthy's novel 'Honk If You Are Jesus'. Mary Moore's bright and shiny set comprising what seemed like thousands of test tubes of colourful fluids loomed over the strong performance of the ensemble. Heroine Caroline Mignon showed she's got the theatre gene as her character expressed astonishment with every revelation that the audience had anticipated a quarter of an hour earlier.

Two other State shows were fresh and impeccable revivals of classics. Director Michael Hill's superb interpretation of 'Waiting for Godot' was presaged by the Adelaide Critics Circle who awarded him the Best Individual Award for direction last year. Of course, the first steps are casting and design. Actors Paul Blackwell and Stephen Sheehan played an old couple addicted to sparring with charm and humanity at the crossroads in designer Victoria Lamb's vast empty scenery.

The season's penultimate production, 'Uncle Vanya' was as good as it gets: to see a large cast all perform this well is a rare treat these days. Director Adam Cook and designer Mark Thompson created a claustrophobic household with tightly paced dialogue and a set that flipped in suggesting either the indoors or outdoors according to thought, just like an Escher drawing. I was thrilled by each of the major monologues - one of them delivered by the formidable Jennifer Speake who won the Adelaide Critics Circle award for Best Emerging Individual.

Michael Gow's 'Away' was another highlight while 'Private Lives' was a struggler. Who will soon forget the Paris apartment painted in ochre red and looking like a nonsensical Venetian Whyalla?

The Bakehouse cooked up another batch of entertaining roles: the second installment of fellow Torontonian George F Walker's black comedies 'Adult Entertainment' left me in stitches. Director Michael Baldwin put together a cast that worked like clockwork.

Eddy Knight's direction of Anthony Neilson's 'The Night Before Christmas' was just as funny. Both plays are about ordinary people acting peculiar and often against their own interests.

Stephen House's 'Just Like That' showed he's in top writing form with his compassionate story of the exposure of a husband's covert bisexuality and his wife's reaction. Appealing to a broader audience than most of his work, he'll be seeing a lot of royalties from this one. 'Norway Today' showcased one of the best multi-media set designs I've encountered in a most unusual love story that mixed menace and farce; and 'Roulette x 3' was pretty good, too. Indeed, I enjoyed all the Bakehouse-produced work.

Holden Street Theatres had a hit with the Mormon horror play 'Bash.' Martha Lott and Renato Musolino each had a one-hander and also played together in the final leg of this triple bill. While they both put in excellent performances, Martha Lott won a 'Critics Circle gong for running the show at Holden Street - she's a purveyor of fine theatre. With the closure of the Promethean Theatre, Mixed Salad was at Holden Street with its lively take on the trials and tribulations of gaydom, 'Torch Song Trilogy.'

Another non-stop funny show this year was Unseen Theatre Company's 'Star Trek.' This hilarious satire on the famous TV series was lead by Steve Parker who engineered an uncanny semblance to that all time great fornicator with aliens, Captain James T Kirk.

Speaking of unseen theatre, where was Brink Productions? This year, they only mustered up a reprise of 2004's '4:48 Psychosis' - a play akin to watching somebody die of Alzheimer's disease. With no new work on stage this year and a couple of Kruckemeyers last year, it hardly seems like Arts SA (read state tax payers) got their money's worth.

There are some major works in the pipeline, like next year's State opener 'This Unchartered Hour', by guess who - Finegan Kruckemeyer - but how does this paucity of productions and focus on a single writer serve us? Especially when funding for places that regularly pump out good work and keep underemployed actors and practitioners in form, like The Bakehouse and Holden Street Theatre, are teetering for lack of funding. Go figure.

'Tough Girls' at Vitalstatistix was an intriguing black musical comedy stab by librettist Melissa Reeves and composer Irine Vela at the gangland molls and gals in Melbourne. The Metropolitan Musical Theatre's 'West Side Story' was a musical and dance triumph thanks to strong voice from James Spargo and Belinda Smith, and tight dancing routines choreographed by Carmel Vistoli. Director Hermonn sure can put the crew together but he trips over the odd bits in set design. The Theatre Guild had its best year in the last five with lively renditions of 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Real Inspector Hound'. Brant Eustice took a 'Critics Circle award for his direction of the former while the cheeky ensemble work under director John Wells in the latter was reminiscent of the heady days of the old Footlights.

Matt Byrne took his one-Byrne Benny Hill biography 'Over The Hill' to Edinburgh where it was mauled by the critics, much against my prediction of success. The notices I read objected to his over-flattering view and muticous narrative - all Benny Hill know-it-alls as they are. Maybe Byrne pulled the wool over my eyes, but when you can actually see the Hill in the Byrne, he's doing something right.

Besides the great acting on offer this year, an important part of the theatre experience is the mood and expression manifested by the design. While I have commented on design in the professional shows, it's especially pleasing to be surprised by great scenery and costumes in amateur productions where money is tight and everybody is a volunteer.

The Repertory Theatre and Therry Dramatic Society consistently have impressive sets and costumes, and this year, the Rep won a 'Critics Circle brass gymnast for Best Amateur Group for a show quite unlike any other I have ever seen by them. Director Linda Davey and her creative team threw everything in the design book at 'The School For Scandal' - set, lights, costuming, make-up, TV-like footage - and showed just what a kinky play it is. The Rep gets my award for shedding their skin.

My thanks to the creators of these shows and all the others I have had the pleasure to see. See you in the stalls, not the malls.

David Grybowski