Oh, the things that I've seen (part two)

Two more brief impressions of some of the events I've attended in recent weeks (certainly more recent than the last post of this nature, which covered events that were staged up to two months ago). I think this should cover the majority of them, save for the latest, Vamp, which I'll cover in my next post.

Oh look, there have been a few events or occasions here and there that I won't be blogging about; the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, for example (I was seated next to one of the Premier's police bodyguards; a big burly chap who didn't read much but who was an interesting conversationalist indeed - though I felt sorry for him that he had to sit through so many speeches at so many events just because he was babysitting Mr Brumby), and the wonderful launch of the 2008 Melbourne Fringe Festival programme (more of which shortly); as well as a disappointing film or two such as Hellboy II - The Golden Army, and a good film or two - such as the wonderful, animated memoir Persepolis, but you don't really need to know about them.

Do you?

BalletLab's AXEMAN LULLABY






















Last year's BalletLab production was the inspired Brindabella, which you can read about here. This latest work was more inimate, but while it may have lacked the grand scale of Brindabella it was no less ambitious, as I have come to expect from choreographer/creator Phillip Adams (who I interview about the production here).

Inspired by Fred Schepsi's film, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, this dance piece was a meditation on Australian colonial identity and the gothic tradition; and a physical exploration of the clash between Indigenous culture and European sensibilities.

Blood-red lights lit the hazy dance floor, which dancers then proceeded to tear up piece by piece (a literal depiction of the impact of European settlement on the environment?) as the ominous, metronomic sound of champion axeman Lawrence O'Toole (pictured) wielding his blades echoed across the set. A work replete with tension - generated by the presence of so many axes swung hynotically close to the dancers' bodies - and creating a palpable sense of drama, which the sound of woodchips spraying across the floor and the scent of freshly-hewn timber succinctly emphasised.

Women in ornate Victorian gowns drop casual racial slurs into their gossip. An Aboriginal dancer establishes a new tempo. Tension builds to a near hysterical pitch, and suddenly the film's explosive violence is screeened on the studio wall. For me this was the only off-pitch moment of the show, as if Adams was so attached to the film which inspired the work that he couldn't let it go, even though its presence felt almost irrelevent in this context. Finally, the dance reaches its end; the closing sequence promising a calmer future; evoking closure, completion, the end of the cycle.

An inspired work.



Tiny Dynamite Theatre's THE LONESOME WEST














The cavernous space of Theatreworks, in which this play is staged, works against the success of The Lonesome West right from the start, reducing what could be an enjoyably intimate, oppressive and claustrophic experience into something much less memorable. Director Gorkem Acaroglu's choice to emphasise the comedy at the sake of the darker emotions which run through this play also detracts from what could be a masterpiece of black humour spiced with the ever-present threat of violence.

The last in a trilogy of plays by Martin McDonagh set in the small town of Leenane, on the isolated west coast of Ireland, The Lonesome West centres on two brothers who hate each other yet who are forced by circumstances to live under the one roof. Valene Connor (Luke Elliot, pictured above, left) is a miser who has returned home only recently; Coleman Connor (Ben Grant, pictured above, right) has lived in the village his whole life, until recently with his father, from whose funeral he has just returned at the start of the play, accompanied by the local priest, Father Welsh (Mark Tregonning).

Welsh is something of a broken man; an alchoholic who is struggling with his ministrations in the violent village ("The murder capital of Europe") and who sees the feuding brothers as his last chance to succeed in his posting.

The fourth and final character in the production is Girleen (Gemma Falk), the teenager who keeps the brothers supplied with poteen (a highly potent triple-distilled liquor, often akin to moonshine), and whose motivations and desires only become clear as the play unfolds.

The tension and chemistry between Elliot and Grant is superb, though as previously mentioned, the production focusses more on the comedic aspects of their relationships rather than the violence; and Tregonning successfully presents the conflicted and tragic aspects of his character. But while these three do well, and also credibly maintain their thick west Irish accents, I was much less impressed with Falk, who brought little in the way of credible emotion to her role.

This lack of emotion was, for me, the production's greatest flaw. Not once did I get a frisson of fear or impending violence as the play unfolded; and while there is humour-aplenty in the work, it seemed emphasised at the expense of the play's blacker moments. Certainly The Lonesome West is far from being a bad production, but it struck me as a play that could and should be much, much better.

The Lonesome West is presented by Tiny Dynamite Theatre and is now showing at Theatreworks until September 21.