GOOD BYE VAUDEVILLE CHARLIE MUDD

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending the world premiere of a major new work by my favourite Melbourne playwright Lally Katz, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd.

Directed by Chris Kohn (whose previous collaborations with Katz have resulted in two of my favourite theatrical experiences of this decade, The Eisteddfod and The Black Swan of Trespass) and staged in the Beckett Theatre at The Malthouse, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd - henceforth Vaudeville for short - is a darkly comic gothic melodrama set in the damp, decaying theatre of one Charlie Mudd Esquire, impresario and MC, on the eve of the Great War in 1914.

To Charlie Mudd's Vaudeville Castle on the banks of the flood-prone Swanston River comes Violet (Julia Zemiro), a singer of some renown. Strangely, her new employer Mr Mudd and her fellow performers - the pianist Mr Bones (Mark Jones), illusionist and magic-worker The Great Allarkini (Alex Menglet), ventriloquist Maude (Christen O'Leary) and her foul-mouthed puppet, and Mudd's mute acrobat brother Knuckles (Matt Wilson) - insist on calling Violet by the name of her predecessor, Ethelyn Rairity. Apparently it's because Mudd isn't good with names, but as we soon learn, there are darker reasons for Violet's new nomenclature...

Little of substance happens in the first act of Vaudeville: characters are introduced and the scene set, although watch for the way Violet/Ethelyn suddenly and unexpectedly inhabits her role as a hint of what's to come...

Not until after interval, during which one year passes by, does the plot really gets underway. And what a plot! A story of possession, incest, multiple murders, ghosts and more plays out on a remarkable set, designed by Jonathon Oxlade, which brings Mudd's theatre to life in all its intricately detailed and faded glory.

From its opening moments, when Mr Bones steps out from behind the curtain in blackface and addresses the audience in the cliched cadences of a black and white minstrel, these production is steeped in period flourishes, thanks to Katz and Kohn's detailed researches into the popular theatre of the day. With its original songs inspired by music hall melodies, its stunts, illusions and circus tricks, the play both evokes and eulogises the faded days of vaudeville; and by employing the casual racism of the day, brings an edge to what could otherwise have been an gleefully eccentric exercise in comedic nostalgia.

Performances are excellent overall, especially the melancholic clowning of Circus Oz alumnus Matt Wilson, and Jones as the by turns bumbling and heartfelt Mr Bones; the hilariously vulgar jokes made by Maude's dummy had me hooting with mirth; and as mentioned above, the production design is magnificent. As well as performing, Mark Jones also composed all the music for the show, and he performs it magnificently.

That said, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd is a flawed work. While the first half of the show is too light, lacking much in the way of narrative development, the second half is too thickly crowded with plot hooks and narrative twists; so much so that the ending - or rather multiple endings - felt over long and slightly laboured, despite the emotion implicit in many of the play's final scenes. The character of Charlie Mudd himself felt underdeveloped in comparison to the rest of the cast of larger-than-life characters, as did the all-important relationship between Mudd and Violet/Ethelyn, resulting in a hollowness at the heart of the play where there should have been a tangible and passionate tension.

That said, Kohn's direction brings so many of the play's grotesque moments to vividly realised life; and for the most part the story rattles along with gusto. I was almost always enthralled by the vivid evocation of the lost art of vaudeville which fuels this generally fine production, and as its season continues I have no doubt that its narrative will tighten up and find the cohesion it deserves.

Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd at The Malthouse until March 28. Bookings on (03) 9685 5111 or www.malthousetheatre.com.au