Douglas Day Stewart, the Officer and Gentleman who wrote the screenplay for the iconic film An Officer and a Gentleman and co-wrote the world premiere musical which debuted last week in Sydney, has written a piece published on the national newspaper’s website rebutting Deborah Jones' review of the show.

Douglas Day Stewart:

It was an “execution” by someone clearly unable to feel human emotion, or to put it in a kinder way, by someone whose highbrow tastes do not represent you.
Douglas Day Stewart, The Australian

Read full article: Douglas Day Stewart hits back at review of An Officer and a Gentleman The Musical

Deborah Jones:

An Officer and a Gentleman — the film — may not be a masterpiece, but it has heart and the scrappy world it creates is believable. The musical offers only a bloodless facsimile with a borrowed image at the end to satisfy the customers.Deborah Jones, The Australian

Read full article: Empathy goes AWOL as cliches rain

Read: Cassie Tongue's review on AussieTheatre

The Response on Twitter:

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An article from AussieTheatre.com

The Rat Trap — Polytoxic

The naughtiest Circus is in Town!

Polytoxic Dance Theatre’s latest ‘mongrel mash-up of technicolour theatricality’, The Rat Trap has transformed QTC’s Bille Brown Studio into a Cabaret Tiki Bar where the audience in lock-down are at the mercy of the burlesque rat pack.

This colourfully chaotic production with it’s sexy, talented troupe, kitsch décor, surprise lighting effects, clever installation art and incredible soundtrack is a visual and aural feast for the eyes, ears, and soul, in which the audience obviously gorged on with great abandon.

The mash-up of styles will delight the adventurous theatre-goer with a mix of circus, gender-bending burlesque, physical theatre, vaudeville, voyeurism, carnival freak show, pop culture, and comedy, with pacific island influences.

It’s mystifying how director and co-directors Anni Davey, Fez Fan’anana, Lisa Fa’alafi, Natano Fa’anana, Leah Shelton, Mark Winmill, and dramaturg Kathryn Kelly, managed to harness this eclectic work, but to best explain it, I borrowed from the programme creatives who would have spent hours coming up with the most precise description:

The Rat Trap spins a melodramatic tale around five decadently seedy characters who drink, fight, seduce and despair in the bowels of a bawdy tiki bar — Programme Notes

As a bit of an academic, I like my theatre to have a deep meaning with a profoundly well-written script, even if it is cutting edge or experimental. The Rat Trap is not that – and I LOVED it! Pure escapism, this jaw dropping spectacular show elicited quite a few squeals of delight, surprise and shock. In fact, I think I pulled a neck muscle from having my jaw open so much.

I’ve also never contemplated buying a soundtrack CD before (apart from Bladerunner), but if Polytoxic bought out a performance soundtrack CD (with sound design by Busty Beatz and composition by Ben Walsh), I’d buy it. It high impact is a driving force for the energy of the show.

A highlight of the show is the aerial fighting scene – so ingenious and fresh. Another clever piece of story telling were the Siamese twins Helena and Marlena whose costumes acted as the puppet-show backdrop for the story of how they were separated in a freak anchor accident at sea.

Now let’s talk about eye-candy. Whatever side of the fence you are on, you would jump it for Mark Winmill. With his talent, physical prowess, charisma, 6-pack, and drool factor, it’s not hard to imagine why he is the reigning Las Vegas King of Boylesque. And if you thought hula-hoops were for girls, think again.

The Rat Trap — Polytoxic

Other members of the troupe, all with equally eclectic and impressive backgrounds includes body adorned Samoan chief (Natano Fa’anana), a hot brown bitch (Lisa Fa’alafi), a fabulous femme fatale (Leah Shelton) and a seven-foot Islander drag offender (Fez Fa’anana).

It’s great to see QTC step out of its comfort zone to present such as edgy, exciting work. QTC has some remaining sentiment of being the older, more conservative theatre company in Brisbane, but with the introduction of the Greenhouse initiative, Artistic Director Wesley Enoch, Artistic Associate Todd Macdonald, have injected a little botox and sparkle into the company, appealing to a younger fringe audience.

With cabaret styled seating, this would be a memorable night out with a group of friends – the perfect Hen’s night comes to mind!

The Rat Trap by Polytoxic Dance Theatre is not only the pinnacle of theatrical escapism; it goes beyond to provide an experience. One so visceral and intangible that to try and project that experience through words would be like describing the emotions of a fish. You simply must buy a ticket and experience this dirty delightfully decadent treat for yourself.

 “I don’t know what I just saw, but I loved it!” – Jemma Lanyon.

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Melissa Bergland will host Twisted Broadway 2012. Image by Jeff Busby

Winners and Losers star Melissa Bergland will support Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity Fights Aids as she takes to the stage to host the highly acclaimed charity event, Twisted Broadway 2012. 

The three year old fundraiser, founded in Melbourne by the Benge Group, will premiere in Sydney this year at NIDA’s Parade Theatre on July 2 before heading back to Melbourne’s BMW Edge Theatre on July 23.

Tickets are on sale today for both concerts (see below for booking details).

The concept is very specific - males performers singing female songs and females belting out the male show tunes — and anyone who saw last year’s concert at BMW Edge Theatre can attest to the colourful evening at the theatre it creates. Modeled on the highly successful New York charity concert Broadway Backwards (which supports sister charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS), Twisted Broadway 2012 will feature some of Australia’s premiere music theatre performers singing songs originally written for the opposite gender.

An official line up of performers will be announced shortly, but audiences can rest assured that members of the casts of Love Never Dies, A Chorus Line, Annie, Moonshadow, Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins and South Pacific (among others) will be featured. It is understood that each state’s line up will be slightly different, although Bergland will be hosting both events.

All proceeds from Twisted Broadway 2012 will go to Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a charity formed as a result of the Australian entertainment industry’s dedication to those living with and those touched by HIV/AIDS.

To donate to the cause or to find out how you can help, visit oscefa.org.au

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A Chorus Line tells the tale of 17 dancers auditioning for eight stage roles in the ensemble of a musical. In an empty theatre, on a bare stage, this audition is the chance of a lifetime. Their personal human stories are told through captivating song, riveting drama and stunning choreography.

Venue:               Capitol Theatre, Sydney
When:                From 20 July for 21 performances only
Cost:                 From $69.90
Bookings:          Ticketmaster - 1300 723 038

The prize is for the FINAL PREVIEW, 20 July 2012.

The competition will close at 6:30pm AEST on 10 July. The winners will be chosen at random and will be notified by phone or email.

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Broadway Icon — Eden Espinosa

If I were a smoker I would be chain-smoking. I am pacing up and down my apartment like a caged animal and my housemates have made themselves scarce to avoid my telling them for the six-millionth time what is about to go down and the significance of it. It hasn’t sunk in at all – I am about to talk to Eden Espinosa and I am in no way emotionally prepared.

When interviewing people I like to go for an organic feel. Let the mood carry the questions and the conversation will form itself. But this is a major Broadway star and I’m nervous so I’ve prepped studiously with strictly researched questions and lengthy conversations with friends as to what I should ask her. Even so, I’m drinking coffee like it’s going out of fashion and watching the clock like it’s going to run away somewhere as High Noon (9am – the time of the call) approaches. Finally the phone rings and a lady from Telstra tells me I’m going on hold as she reaches Eden in New York.

I restrain myself from asking her why my wireless coverage isn’t all that, and down some more coffee.

Eden comes on the line. She has a voice which completely belies the fact that she is one of the most dynamic beltresses on Broadway. It’s low and lyrical and very Californian – although you can hear the influence of over a decade lived in New York. I know well from many, many, many hours on YouTube that, in person, Eden is a beauty with a very striking and expressive face and eyes almost the same shade as the Elphaba make up she wore for so long.

I ask where she is and what time it is and she turns out to be in Manhattan where it’s about 7pm.

My mind floods and after a gushing “it’s so wonderful to get to talk to you,” instead of introducing myself I dive straight into the interview!

I ask if this is to be her Australian debut. Consummate professional she doesn’t even skip a beat!

“Yes! Yes I’m so honoured and so thrilled to be able to perform at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. I’m really looking forward to coming to Australia. I’ve never been and I’ve always wanted to and so this was just such a great opportunity for me.”

Me: Will you be in Sydney at any point?

“Well the flight takes me from New York with a layover in Las Angeles, and then we fly to Sydney and then on to Adelaide. It’s going to be quite a long trip!”

I ask about the possibility of a concert and she’s genuinely astonished by the idea that people would come!

“I honestly didn’t think about it” she says. “I didn’t think people would know who I am, and yet when the Adelaide line-up was announced people got in touch with me straight away on Twitter and were asking me ‘any chance of a concert?’ in Sydney and Melbourne. So next time for sure I’ll try and be more extensive. As it is I’m just really looking forward to seeing Sydney and seeing Adelaide. I hear Australia’s just the most incredible place.”

I promise her it is and add that the buzz surrounding this year’s Adelaide line-up has been phenomenal. I ask what the show is going to be like.

“Well I’ve been touring extensively for the last few years in the States with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and I’m about to release my first solo album. I’m really looking forward to performing on an intimate scale like this. The show is very organic, it’s songs I love, songs I’ve performed before – so we’ll see how it goes!”

There have been Broadway stars on the stages of the Cabaret Festival before so I ask if there is anyone she spoke to for advice about her forthcoming trip.

“Well I knew Shoshana Bean had performed there so I went and spoke to her. She told me it’s just the most amazing experience.”

Shoshana Bean – a fellow Broadway Elpaba – debuted at Adelaide in July 2010, followed by performances in Melbourne and Sydney. I was at her performance at the Factory theatre and she tore the place apart! I press for more details.

“Well I know Shoshana from when I was understudying for Idina Menzel [in Wicked on Broadway] and we are both friends with Megan Hilty – who was Galinda then.”

The name Megan Hilty instantly distracts me as I have spent the night before obsessing over an episode of the hit NBC TV series Smash – in which Megan Hilty is starring. I ask if Eden watches Smash. She laughs.

“Yes! I love it! It’s such a great show – and of course I have friends in it so I just can’t not watch it! Wasn’t last week’s episode great? I texted Megan afterwards and said ‘Ivy Lynn – you’re such a bad girl’!”

I ask if she has any details about the season final cliff-hanger.

She doesn’t – so I move on and ask about the show that marked her Broadway debut – Brooklyn.

“I’m actually headed out to a reunion later tonight with some of the cast!” she gushes. “Brooklyn was such an incredible experience. And it always makes me so pleased when people say they loved the show. It was important for me because it helped me get to New York.”

“I was living in LA and I wanted to go there but then after having been in the workshop for Brooklyn the Creatives spoke to me and said they wanted me to be in it. So moving to New York was suddenly much less daunting because I could go there and work.”

Brooklyn is what Anyone Can Whistle must have been to Broadway babies of the 60’s. It’s a show with a fiersomely dynamic score and what sounds like such a great premise that bombed so heavily on Broadway – having never seen it, for years I was astonished as to why.

I ask about her most defining role to date as the iconic Elphaba in Wicked.

“Defying Gravity” is the most recognisable Broadway showstopper of the last 30 years – and any shortlist of the finest performance of that song would be incomplete without Eden. I tell her that from a multitude of YouTube stalking I consider her performance as Elphaba to be one of the most spectacular I have ever seen and I ask how she can build to such a fire and brimstone dynamic?

“Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz have done such a good job with constructing Wicked and the character Elphaba – really, by the time you reach “Defying Gravity” you are in this incredible emotional place. And you just go with it! I played Elphaba for seven years, and each time I was contracted to play her again, on Broadway, on tour, in Las Angeles and San Francisco, each time I think I had grown as an actress. And the directors told me to just go with everything I had learned as a person, as a woman and just add it to the character. There was always a new layer there every time I played Elphaba.”

As part of my researched a friend has asked me to confirm or deny with Eden the urban legend that began during the course of the Australian tour of Wicked that actresses are told to train for “Defying Gravity” by singing it full out while jogging on a treadmill.

“… I never did that! How fascinating – I can’t speak for what the Australian cast did, but I was never asked to do that. Before you sing “No Good Deed” you have to run a bit to get to your position and so I was told to run up and down a flight of stairs before rehearsing it to give myself an idea of how it would be to perform. But never a treadmill. I do know that Jerry Mitchell, the choreographer of Legally Blonde on Broadway, made the cast do that. But then you just have to look at the choreography for that show to see that it was a good idea!”

(Erika Heynatz – take heed!)

Another question I have been told to ask is if the green Elphaba make up ever proves stubborn and won’t come off.

“Around the back of my neck – my Mom noticed once there was a line of green around the roots of my hair. She pulled me over and said ‘what’s that?’ and I checked in a mirror and went ‘Oh!’ So I was always more careful to scrub there more thoroughly every time after that.”

So no build up over time?

She laughs. “No – just a lot of time spent putting it on and taking it off!”

Now I have to turn to the future. Eden is an established Broadway star in the prime of her vocal powers with the cult of Wicked firmly behind her. A debut album is on the way. What’s next after Adelaide?

“Well I’m coming back from Adelaide and walking straight into the recording studios. The album comes out later this year. After that – there’s a new club opening up beneath the old Studio 54 called 54 below. I think Patti LuPone is going to play there and then my cabaret is next.”

“Beyond that I’m just so delighted and so humbled to be able to come to Australia and make my debut in Adelaide. I’m just looking forward to it so much.”

Eden Espinosa will be playing from Wednesday June 13 to Friday June 15 at the Dunstan Playhouse at 6:30pm.

Book your tickets NOW! This is a legend of the Broadway 21^st century revival and her future as a leading lady looks well assured.

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Bethany Simons as her grandmother in The Weather and Your Health

Fresh from a trip to my hometown of Dubbo, NSW for a series of performances and workshops in the largest venue we have presented my play The Weather and Your Health in (my Tour Manager, Ryan, likened it to an arena spectacular -  “next stop, Rod Laver”) – Team Weather now move to one of the smallest, and busiest, theatre spaces in Melbourne: La Mama.

As I write this, I’m sitting, exhausted and aching following a nine-hour seating bank reconfiguration and painting fest at Melbourne’s iconic La Mama Theatre in Carlton. Good old independent theatre. This is a world where everyone steps in and is willing to get their hands dirty, be it cast, crew, theatre staff or siblings. We’re a team, no matter the size of the show or the level of expertise in using a power drill. (Eek!) And we do it because we love it. We just love it. Heaven knows we don’t do it for the money or the glory!

La Mama Theatre present a back-to-back season of innovative, experimental and diverse theatre. And they’ve done so for more than 40 years. If you haven’t yet been to, or been in, a show here, I encourage you to take a risk and see what it’s like to experience new work in such an intimate space. I first performed The Weather and Your Health at La Mama in 2009. Since then a lot has happened for this small play inspired by my Nan’s stories of life in regional Australia. Award nominations, publishing deals and funded regional tours all followed that first dream run. In fact, this current return season in the tiny black box space on Faraday Street marks the last stop for our 2012 national tour of performing arts centres, schools, nursing homes and remote community halls across the country. It’s great to be back where it all started.

The Weather and Your Health will be followed by a myriad of new and exciting productions including Of Words and War — an exploration of wartime women by writer Nicola Germaine. Also inspired by her grandmother’s stories, this new work of story theatre will be presented by Highway One Theatre Co. at La Mama’s Carlton Courthouse in June.

Before I go on, I would like to say that, though we’ve never met, I was informed that Nicola and I share a lot in common. We both love storytelling, we both devote our time and energy to the creation of independent theatre, and we are both drawn to the worlds that our grandmothers experienced in their youth. I have since discovered that there is even more to it than that.

Of Words and War

I’ll let Nicola explain: ‘In mid 2009 I decided to take my British friend to see a play. I chose La Mama – a Melbourne institution – and the play showing at the time was ‘The Weather and Your Health’ by Bethany Simons. I had it in my mind that I wanted to record my grandmother’s stories and while watching Bethany bring her vivacious grandmother to life on stage, I thought to myself, ‘If she can do it, so can I.’ Upon leaving the theatre that night, I was determined to make a start as soon as possible.’

Learning that my own work had played a part in someone else being inspired, not only to record, but, to share and bring to life family stories through theatre was a beautiful discovery. Sitting with her friend in La Mama Theatre that night something in The Weather and Your Health lit a spark in Nicola’s imagination. Some years later, Of Words and War is the outcome. Theatre inspiring action. How brilliant!

I love real life and true stories. I was telling students during a post-performance forum recently that history should be exciting. There is so much material out there that needs and deserves to be captured, explored and brought to life. I’m especially passionate about preserving a time that, though not terribly long ago, was so vastly different to the world we live in now. Nicola feels the same way.

‘Hearing stories about the wartime youth of my grandmother – a youth entirely different to my own — I felt compelled to record them while I was able. I had seen it done simply and poignantly in ‘The Weather and Your Health’, so I began talking to my grandmother..’

Over the years that I’ve performed The Weather and Your Health, I’ve had people say to me, “It was just like that. You captured my youth!” It’s incredible every time this happens, because we meet people from all over the world when we perform. The only explanation is the universal themes of family, generosity, joy and the human experience. People can relate. Perhaps this is why I was so drawn to my Nan’s stories as a young girl. Even though I wasn’t there, I could put myself in her shoes…or bare feet as it may be. I can’t wait to sit and watch Of Words and War to see what Nicola has learnt from her own grandmother. I’m ready to discover her world, and I’m ready to sit within the thickly painted walls of an intimate theatre to do so.

My team and I can only hope to continue bringing flickers of light and inspiration during this return season at La Mama. I like to picture small candles being lit amongst our audience as we tell my Nan’s precious and uplifting stories. Candles that glow with warmth and imagination. Pass it on!

The Weather and Your Health is at La Mama Theatre from Tue 15 – Sun 27 May.

Of Words and War previews on 20 June and runs from 21 Jun  – 1 Jul at La Mama’s Carlton Courthouse.

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Leon Cain stars in I Love You, Bro

Cyber-love soapie-tragedy begins 2012 tour with a sharp dagger to the gut.

I Love You, Bro began its 2012 tour last week at the Street Theatre Canberra with enormous energy and vigour. A simple and striking set (Renee Mulder) allowed the audience to sit around the stage and close to the sole actor, Leon Cain, who treated us to a modern day cyber soap opera.

The story, based on a real incident between two teenage boys, begins with a key into the outcome – a potentially fatal stabbing of Johnny. Johnny jumps back to the memory of the first meeting of his unlikely friendship with Mark on an internet chat site. The world these two create, one knowingly and the other gullibly, is an insightful journey into the modern tragedy of human masks. Through manipulation and a need for acceptance and social status via celebrity, this drive uncovers Johnny’s real need which leads to desperate measures.

Adam J Cass’ script is tight and focused. He deftly juxtaposes the dichotomy of ethical and moral dilemmas with overwhelming human desire in the teenager. Much of the humour was obvious but the audience lapped it up. Still, there were moments of truly unexpected wit that elicited bursts of uncontrollable laughter. The only oddity was the use of heightened contemporary language in the beginning that, while worked well to make the audience engage quickly, never returned. There was a moment of Berkoff about it that was exciting, but ultimately disappointing.

David Berthold’s direction keeps the events pacing along with moments of pause that allow the audience to catch a breath and sit with the memory of our teenage selves. Carolyn Emerson and Guy Webster’s lighting and sound design heighten the drama without drawing attention, as there is no need to cover any blemishes here.

Leon Cain has performed this piece since 2010, receiving awards for his work along the way. He is a physical and driven actor that doesn’t let the audience out of his sight. Opening night lacked some subtlety that Cain can bring to this work, but it was opening night of the first tour. This was evident with a call for a line within the first ten minutes. However, his professionalism shined through as he took the audience straight back into the fantasy. Moments like these are the joy of theatre with its immediacy and liveness.

In The Foyer:

Older members of the audience where intrigued with the insight they were given into the current teenagers experience of love and communication based primarily over the internet. Parents were reminded of their fears and discussed what were going to try in order to attempt to safeguard their children from the dangers of digital life. The twenty something’s discussed their own experiences of naivety in the cyber universe. Everyone enjoyed the production immensely and where shocked and reminded of their own teenage endeavours for love and acceptance.

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Amanda Harrison and Ben Mingay in An Officer and a Gentleman. Image by Brian Geach

While it is thrilling that Australia is rapidly becoming recognised as a great place to try out Broadway shows, and that our actors and creatives are considered to be of a high standard, and it is wonderful to see world premieres of shows happening right here in our own backyard, the fact remains that some properties are just not strong enough for the stage.

An Officer and a Gentleman is fairly faithful to the 1982 film (including leaving in its cultural insensitivity: racial slurs used as endearments; homophobia, and sexism) but the problem is that the film — Academy Award winning and a critical darling of its time — was gritty, emotive, and had plenty to say. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for this new adaptation.

The musical doesn’t really have much to say at all. It tells the same story of Zack Mayo (a buff and capable Ben Mingay), his struggle through Naval officer training, and his meeting of down to earth factory girl Paula (Amanda Harrison, with soaring vocals). But it’s just a run of the mill love story. Zack’s alienation, insecurity, and loneliness feels more like a bad mood than anything of substance, and Paula’s no-nonsense attitude is buried under the actions of a deep romantic who marks her first solo vocals by singing about how she believes in love. She is pigeon-holed as a love interest, and it’s a shame to see.

Kate Kendall and Alex Rathgeber An Officer and a Gentleman. Image by Brian Geach

The subplot featuring the underused and underrated Alex Rathgeber as Sid and sultry Kate Kendall as Paula’s friend Lynette has strong potential for real drama, tension, and emotion, but instead feels like a matter only for the background until, when it is centre-stage and very important, it’s too late for us to want to care about the characters. Some of the audience on opening night laughed during Sid’s moments of deep despair, and that is telling.

Maybe that disconnect can be attributed to the music. The score (by Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner) is bland and predictable, and the sound in itself lacked clarity. The songs sounded like indistinguishable rock noise. This would be forgivable if the score had promise to it, if the songs were solid in ways other than melodic — if the lyrics were clever, or insightful, or plot-driven. But that’s the problem. Rather than aid the development of the story or encourage action, the vast majority of songs in An Officer and a Gentleman seem to serve no purpose. The action is effectively halted for four or five minutes for someone to warble prettily or grittily, and then it all resumes again once the applause dies down. The device of song — the whole point of musical theatre — is nowhere near effectively used.

Bert LaBonte and Ben Mingay in An Officer and a Gentleman. Image by Brian Geach

The one exception to this is Bert LaBonte’s gruff drill instructor character Sgt Foley, whose song ‘I’ll be Damned’, and it’s reprise, actually show some kind of glimpse inside the gruff and hard, overbearing character, explaining his motivations and intentions. It’s the one time that this show actually feels like a musical, rather than a movie with frequent ad-breaks of radio-ready pop-rock. The standing ovation started with LaBonte’s bow and he earned it, delivering a three-dimensional and compelling performance that leapt off the stage. He’s a welcome breath of fresh air and exciting to watch.

The cast as a whole is talented, that’s undeniable. The singing is note-perfect and the dancing is well-executed and good-looking. Choreographer Andrew Hallsworth brought military precision into group numbers and it worked. George Cartwright opened the show as an appealingly wide-eyed and innocent young Zack, Tara Morice and Amanda Harrison as mother and daughter even share a sincere moment with second-act number ‘Wings of my Own’. Ben Mingay sang his heart out with the gusto you would expect from such a seasoned performer, and Kate Kendall offered winsome charm as scheming Lynette. But.

But the energy of the piece as a whole didn’t seem at any point to take off. It started in the middle and stayed there. I don’t think it was any coincidence that the audience erupted into applause when the finale was upon us, and the vibrant ‘Up Where We Belong’ began, in a representation of the film’s most iconic scene. Something finally connected — even if it was only nostalgia, and even if only for a minute.

Maybe that will be enough.

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An article from AussieTheatre.com

Margi Brown Ash — Eve — Metro Arts Independents 2012

Eve Langley, the subject matter of the semi-biographical Eve was a mid-twentieth century Australian writer who struggled against the shackles of the “feminine function”. She was eccentric by today’s standards but insane by the standards of her day; she took to dressing as a man and changed her name to Oscar Wilde; she was committed to an institution by her husband and finally ended up dying alone and unfound for three weeks. Sound vaguely familiar? I wish I had known Eve Langley’s story as intimately as I know Virginia Woolf’s before I went to see the third instalment of Metro Arts Independents series. The exquisite Margi Brown Ash gifts her audience an introduction with a beautiful and sensitive portrayal of Langley and the drive of the artist to create and to be free to do so.

An eerie jazz track mixes with the air, and a small hut is presented to the audience on entry, with the frozen form of Moshio seated outside, back-facing the audience. The garden is strewn with fossil like candelabras made out of old wood, an old bathtub, a discarded pram – all relics of real life – a life that is not for Eve. Eve is silhouetted behind the papered side of the hut, madly scribbling and muttering. In an interview Langley described herself as one who chatters and embroiders literature all the time, endlessly – and the fanatic, never still silhouette immediately recalls this.

Margi Brown Ash and Director / Co-deviser Leah Mercer have collaborated to stitch together parts of Langley’s life with parts of her fiction and her poetry to realise a fluid portrayal that is more like a dreaming trip through Langley’s delusions and disillusions rather than a straight forward biographical play, the latter would not have done justice to her story or her frame of mind.

Moshio – an enigmatic performer in his own right — appears as the ‘husband’ character, a kind of minstrel, a detached witness to Langley’s turmoil – he doesn’t speak, instead plays a violin that at times empathises and at others, attacks Eve’s various wandering states. This, the most agonising of instruments beautifully enhances Margi’s monologue, although it abruptly disappears toward the end of the show as if Moshio had just decided that he had played along long enough.

Stace Callaghan, perched above the stage, is a small boy reading a fairy tale. The presence of this character felt a little contrived and disruptive but perhaps this is due to the power of Margi’s solo performance and the interruption of the childish voice proves too distracting.

Eve conveys the overwhelming loneliness of place – physical place, place in society and place in one’s own mind and one’s own condition. I can’t say I left this show feeling upbeat, rather reflecting on the suffering of those pioneering women who were made to be mad because they didn’t fit the mould that was given them. If someone tells you something often enough, eventually you start to believe and even become it. Eve poses the question… do you think I’m mad or just eccentric? Is there a difference between the two?

Margi Brown Ash does not perform but rather evokes Langley to the stage and for the entire duration of the piece does not once break the momentum or give a glimpse at the actor beneath the surface. It truly is a stunning performance and perhaps more than that, proof of Margi’s fascination and empathy for a misunderstood woman who was “ahead of her time”.

Eve is poetically stylised which might limit the audiences it will connect with. To some, this production might feel slow or out of reach, even a bit old fashioned, but the audience it was devised for will be delighted by the play and thoroughly inspired by Margi’s performance. If you make it to the show, do read up on Langley before you go — it will certainly give you more perspective on the work.

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An article from AussieTheatre.com

Matt Edwards recently caught up with producer of Blindscape Skye Gellmann and physical theatre performer Kieran Law to talk about the show, interactive circus and their innovative use of technology.

“Our personal technologies have become an extension of ourselves. Blindscape looks to exploit that connection to engage its audience in a visceral environment that disintegrates the real and virtual boundaries”, says Gellmann.

Check out our exclusive video interview below.

Event information

Blindscape

Venue: Arts House, Meat Market, 5 Blackwood St, North Melbourne

Dates: 19–23, 25–27 May 2012
Times: 19–23, 26 & 27 May at 9.00PM , 25 May at 10.00PM
Ticket Prices: $25 Full , $20 Concession (+$2.50 booking fee)
Please note: Full frontal nudity and no seating 

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