Brave New World Order
By Clarry Evans and Brett Heath
a Dianne Gough Production at the Powerhouse Visy Theatre
Season has ended.
Hamlet, Evita and the Rocky Horror Show collide in this contemporary rock musical that mounts a virulent critique of global monopoly capitalism. There is nothing like a comedy to bring home current world issues of greed and socio-economic crisis. Brave New World Order has it all wrapped up in a fast-paced, fast-talking all-singing highly entertaining show.
Very loosely based on the dysfunctional family of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (courtesy of Shakespeare) Claudius the uncle (Chris Herden), an ageing hippie, arranges the murder of his brother, Rhino Ron Pucker (Warwick Comber), the chief executive officer of Global Corp.
He then quickly becomes the supposedly widowed Gertrude’s ( Alice Barbery) lover and takes over the company. Ophelia (Candice Leask) is a finance analyst trying to bring down the board of Global Corp, the sinister manipulator of global finance and arms dealing. Horatio (Noel Sheridan) is a slimy corporate lawyer, but not gay, who manipulates all sides of this board room fiasco.
Rosie Gee (Rachel Burke) cleverly played as a vacuous self-seeking media personality reveals herself as a clever vixen. Hamlet (Vanja Matula) plays a true-to-life Mummy’s boy whose consciousness of Ophelia could not be raised upwards past his navel.
The Hamlettes are fantastic in their support of Hamlet who truly does not deserve them. In true Shakespeare form the stage is littered with corpses in the closing scene. For those of us bilious at the thought of more reality cooking shows, Connor Comstock (Steven Grives) the celebrity chef’s performance makes Gordon Ramsay a perfect saint. An excellent role well played by this English actor.
But actually the stage presence for the play is definitely Warwick Comber who stole the show in his larger than life cabaret portrayal that left the rest of the cast in the margins. The libretto of the songs were highly entertaining for the residual lefties – even if the music was not memorable- but most of the words escaped me when I left the theatre.
The Visy Theatre gives the director Flloyd Kennedy, good opportunities to spread the action, do great lighting and allow interaction with the band – a very efficient and talented team of players.
The auditorium was filled with hipsters aged between 15 to 25 and this show will bring all the New Farm/ Valley Kulture Krowd out in droves. This is not to be missed as the the rock musical of the year but I guess there will not be a ticket left after this weekend as soon as the word gets around.
This must be produced again, even yearly, to keep these issues paramount in our brains. Bring on Macbeth the contemporary rock opera.
Some sons do have ‘em
Mother & Son
By Geoffrey Atherden
Stage Door Dinner Theatre, Bowen Hills
Until July 24.
Bookings: 3216 1115
Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald are icons of modern Australian culture, which is probably one of the best reasons to visit the drama that made them so.
Stage Door brings this celebrated TV series to Brisbane with its usual panache. With its laugh-out-loud one-liners and all too true scenes of dementia, sibling rivalry and coping with one’s mother rather badly, this is a show that seems to fit well on this particular stage.
The audience are intimately drawn into the kitchen where all the drama takes place and sometimes it is hard for the actors to continue their lines as the laughs are continuing so long.
For those of you who have long loved the TV series, it must be hard to imagine how this can be put on as a play. Here the two acts have themes with as many scenes as are in a two hour TV show, and with all the humour to boot.
The first set has Maggie Bear (Marie Millette) suffering from loneliness as all her old neighbours have been replaced by non-English speaking migrants. Costa (Damien Lee) comes on to the scene to befriend Arthur (Shane Drury) and to bring his mother Mrs Arkon (Colleen Crisp) and Maggie together.
Then there is the scene full of pathos where Maggie reads her will and announces that Robbie gets the house but she will leave Arthur a million dollars which she is sure she will win in Lotto one day.
The funniest scene is where Maggie’s search for a friend ends in a crisis at her birthday party dinner as her beloved first son Robbie (Chris Chambers) and his wife Liz (Susan Fenn) fight and her new boyfriend Lionel (Damien Lee again) gets blown up by the stove.
Director (Lynne Wright) is to be congratulated for keeping the characters so authentic, a very good piece of work as the pace was good and the actors kept their energy right to the last. And where did you find such a great Maggie in Marie Millette? She was outstanding and had the Ruth Cracknell accent down without a fault.
Chris Chambers also made a clever job of Robbie which made the play so much more satisfying when you have this character being played true to the original.
The set design by Bradley Clarke is excellent and unusually clever. Damien’s cameos brought the house down as Costa, the policeman, and then as Lionel with the unbelievable comb-over and mullet.
For a small stage this performance packed a lot of punch. It is absolutely a must-see for those of you who remember Mother & Son fondly – you will be thrilled to see them again with laughs galore!
BAT closer to mark for excellence
Closer
By Patrick Marner
Brisbane Arts Theatre, Petrie Terrace Until 19 June.
Closer affirms the BAT place in the Brisbane theatre landscape. This current production demonstrates their dedication and talent in presenting an award-winning adults-only play.
Penned by Patrick Marner in the late 90s for an ensemble of two men and two women engaged in an intimate entanglement of lust, love and betrayal; the play also provides a clever look at how the English class system underlies many of the characters’ motivations.
Alice (Katie Dowling) is a self-described waif and stripper who picks up Dan (Peter Norton) an obituary writing journalist and talentless author.
Dan exploits this affair to write a salacious novel based on Alice’s life. It’s a flop, but whilst being photographed for the dust-jacket he becomes obsessed with the intelligent classy photographer, Anna (Izebela Wasilewsa).
In the cleverest scene of the play Dan manipulates Larry the doctor (James Fitzgerald) in an Internet sex chat room whereby Larry attempts to realise his caveman sex drive through a meeting with a mysterious sex kitten and there ensues a comic coincidence when Anna turns up at the rendezvous.
A relationship follows leading to matrimony, but the obsession by Dan leads Anna into an affair with him and their respective partners are sent packing. Thus Dr Larry then pursues Alice who to his delight has gone back to her occupation as a stripper.
Explicit sexual desire and its satisfaction are hurled across the stage in a painful, scab-lifting psycho-social drama. The audience cringe as they are confronted with detailed infidelities and betrayals that make up these contemporary relationships.
This must have been a challenging job for the director John Boyce but the actors came up to the mark with their delivery and pace. It can stand alone as an excellent play where the sexual politics of the day were expounded by the cast, but the added depth of the English class-based politics which required the necessary English accents, were left unrevealed.
Definitely a recommendation if you want a good play with all the guts, bearing in mind that it may be offend those with ‘family values’ and recovering nicotine addicts.
