INTERVIEW: Holding the Man

Enduring love

Richard Watts talks with actors Matt Zeremes and Guy Edmonds, the stars of Holding the Man.

Since its original publication in 1995, Tim Conigrave’s powerful and passionate memoir of love and loss in the first years of the AIDS crisis, Holding the Man, has engaged tens of thousands of readers worldwide.

It’s also moved almost all of them to tears.

The book, which Conigrave completed shortly before he died, tells the story of Tim’s enduring love for his partner, John Caleo; from their first, nervous meeting at Melbourne’s Xavier College, through to John’s untimely death from an AIDS-related illness at Fairfield Hospital. As a story it is by turns comical, remarkable and deeply – at times painfully - affecting.

In November 2006, a stage production of Holding the Man, adapted by Tommy Murphy and directed by David Berhold, was premiered by Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company; the very same company with which Conigrave devised his own, critically acclaimed play about the impact of AIDS, Soft Targets, in 1986.

Holding the Man went on to become Griffin’s most successful ever production in the company’s history to date.

Now, thanks to the Melbourne Theatre Company, local audiences will finally have a chance to see this critically acclaimed production, with Holding the Man having its opening night at Southbank’s CUB Malthouse Theatre tonight.

Guy Edmonds, who plays the character of Tim Conigrave, says he realised what an incredible play this was the moment he first read it.

“I wouldn’t have said we would be doing six seasons down the track … but I knew it was something special; something that resonated with people,” Edmonds says.

“It was like nothing I’d read out of Australia for a long while. When we got into rehearsals great things were happening, and I thought ‘fuck, this is going to be alright’; but the clincher was opening night. Tim’s family came, and all the invited guests and everyone got it.”

Matt Zeremes, who plays Tim’s lover, John Caleo, believes that one of the reasons for the play’s success is the way it so clearly demonstrates Caleo’s love for his partner.

“I love the character of John. He’s a real joy to play. That completely committed love he has for Tim; I think that that’s a really great quality,” he says.

Anyone who has read Holding the Man will also recognise the love Conigrave had for Caleo; it infuses the memoir’s every page, but Conigrave himself was not so easy to love, Edmonds explains.

“Tim lived on impulse,” he says. “If he felt something, he acted on it; and he was always honest about how he felt, whether it was going to affect someone negatively or positively. I portray him honestly, like that. When he’s being nasty, he’s being nasty; when he’s loving John, he’s loving John. It was a bit tricky for me, because as Guy, I’m not that sort of person; so it took a while for me to understand that. But you understand him, and you empathise with him as well.”

Both actors say they were conscious, when first approaching the play, that they were playing real people, not fictional characters.

“I felt that there was more weight on my shoulders than in playing a fictional character, especially when I heard that members of Tim’s family would be coming to see the show,” Zeremes says, adding that the weight of expectation has also spurred him on to give the best performance he possibly can.

“I did and still do want to do a really good job with it; and that’s also because I believe that the story is so beautiful. I want to give it 100% every night, which an actor should always do, but with this story in particular there’s that determination to want to do a really good job.”

For Edmonds, the opportunity to research his character was one of the things that has helped him bring Tim Conigrave to life.

“Tommy had done a lot of research himself, and dug up a lot of things from Tim’s days at NIDA (the National Institute of Dramatic Arts), videos from productions for example, and some old video footage of him and John at a birthday party. So I listened and watched as much of his life as I can, but I didn’t want to get bogged down in mimicking Tim Conigrave.”

“At the end of the day, as a play he’s still a character; and though he was a real person and there’s a wealth of research there, both Matt and I didn’t want to get bogged down in getting the mannerisms. We wanted to take it beyond the real and turn it into something bigger.”

In the United States, actors who play gay characters are often praised for their ‘bravery’ in taking on such roles. Zeremes has no patience for such attitudes.

“Some people ask, ‘You have to kiss a guy on stage; is that hard?’ which I think is a silly question,” he scoffs. “I don’t think it’s brave. That’s casting pretty negative aspersions on the gay world. That’s creating divisions, and there shouldn’t be divisions between any of us.”

The Melbourne Theatre Company presents the Victorian premiere of the Griffin Theatre Company’s Holding the Man at the Merlyn Theatre, The CUB Malthouse, March 14 – April 19. www.mtc.com.au

Review: Holding the Man

Holding the Man, which actor-turned-playwright Timothy Conigrave completed only a few short weeks before he died of an AIDS-related illness, is a frank and heartfelt memoir about his 15-year-long relationship with John Caleo.

In 1976, as high school students at Xavier College, the pair fell in love, and started their lives together. In 1985 they were both diagnosed HIV positive. John died on Australia Day, 1992, with Tim by his side. He followed his lover to the grave two years later.

Written in decptively simple yet detailed prose, Holding the Man details the highs and lows of the turbulent, passionate relationship between these two men. Conigrave pulls no punches, describing his numerous infidelities with the same unflinching eye for detail as he devotes to growing up in 1970s suburban Melbourne, and the terrible impact of AIDS as it ravages both his body and John's. It's an incredibly tender book; a testament to John and Tim's love; and an incredibly painful book, which has reduced so many of its readers to helpless, wracking sobs.

The stage adaptation of Holding the Man by playwright Tommy Murphy, which opened at the Malthouse on Wednesday night, perfectly encapsulates the story Tim and John's love. It is a remarkable dramatic work, and the single most captivating and emotionally devestating theatrical production I have ever witnessed.

As with the book, the play is told from Tim's point of view - often directly, in droll asides to the audience by Guy Edmonds, who is utterly convincing in his role as Tim Conigrave. The first act opens with a young Tim witnessing the landing of Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, then launches into a series of quickly-sketched vignettes which collapse years into a succession of key scenes from Tim's life.

The focus, naturally, is on Tim's relationship with the laconic John Caleo (a wonderfully subdued and understated Matt Zeremes). Thus we see a teenage Tim mooning over this boy he hardly knows, followed by a comical flirtation which is aided and abetted by a pencil case; and at last, their first kiss, played out in a way which perfectly captures the scene as Conigrave describes it in the book:

"I turned to face him. He shut his eyes and pursed his lips. Everything was in slow motion as I pressed my mouth against his. His gentle warm lips filled my head. I body disolved, and I was only lips, pressed against the flesh of his. I could have stayed there for the rest of my life..."

The chemistry between Edmonds and Zeremes is remarkable, and utterly convincing, whether early in the play, when the boy's love is fresh and innocent, or later, when Tim's infidelities and out of control libido threaten to once more drive the pair apart.

Less convincing are the many minor characters which come (or cum, as in one especially comic high school scene) and go throughout the many short scenes of which the play is comprised.

The supporting actors, Jeanette Cronin, Nicholas Eadie, Eve Morey and Brett Stiller, are subject to numerous rapid costume changes in order to play a range of characters including school friends (Stiller is especially memorable as Tim's daggy mate, Biscuit), the boys' parents (Cronin and Eadie double up, playing both Tim's and John's mum and dad), actors, doctors, AIDS patients and more. Many of them are played strictly for laughs, as broad caricatures whose purpose is to be instantly identifiable and just as quickly forgotten due to the play's manic pace. That said, they are also played well, signalling key people or moments in Conigrave's all-too-short life.

As the second act unfolds, the need for such a heavy emphasis on humour becomes apparent; it's a much-need balance for the tragic scenes to come.

As John's once strong and healthy body is wracked by illness, the mood of the play darkens, and while there are still opportunities for laughs - usually as a result of Conigrave's wit and unfortunate habit of speaking his mind without due thought for the consequences - more often I began to hear muffled sobs emanating from the audience around me. Often the sobs were mine; tears freely coursed down my cheeks for much of the second half of the play, and by the time of its heart-breaking final scenes, I was bawling my eyes out.

Director David Bertold has ensured that Edmonds and Zeremes never overplay their roles; the pair bring a quiet dignity to their every scene; a fitting balance to the broad comedy sometimes played out around them. Brian Thompson's minimal and versatile set, which we first see covered in dust sheets, a condition to which it ultimately returns, is a perfect counterpoint to the dramas played out on stage; and Micka Agosta's costume designs, like the lights and sound, never draw attention to themselves, instead modestly and effectively highlighting the passage of time over the 15 years of the story.

Of particular note is the sporadic use of puppetry, which is utilised in the opening scene of the lunar landing, and is at its most effective when presenting the ravages of AIDS on the human body. Another memorable scene involves a grotesque yet tender dance between Tim and a dying John, in which Tim is supporting his lover, yet also a puppetmaster, pulling John's strings. It's an ambiguous and powerful scene, and like the production overall, fittingly theatrical, given that Tim Conigrave was, at heart a theatre-maker and practicioner.

Despite the regular presence of humour, Holding the Man is not an easy play to watch. By the time of Guy Edmond's final, heartbreaking monologue, I, like those around me, was reduced to wracking sobs. Some will find its sexual frankness confronting. Others might wish its narrative was less cluttered, its pace less rushed. I myself have no such qualms. Holding the Man is a magnificent, moving piece of theatre; a superb realisation of a great Australian love story; and a more than fitting tribute to the late Timothy Conigrave and the great love of his life, John Caleo. If you only see one piece of theatre this year, I implore you, see this show.

Holding the Man at the CUB Malthouse Theatre until April 19. An MTC presentation of a production by the Griffin Theatre Company.

Holding the Man (State Theatre Company of SA)

The State Theatre Company of South Australia’s final play for 2011 is a deeply moving production about love and loss, based on the acclaimed memoir by actor and playwright Timothy Conigrave.

Posthumously published in 1995, just a few months after Conigrave’s death from HIV/AIDS, Holding the Man tells the charming, frank and touching story of Conigrave’s relationship with his partner John Caleo, who he met in 1976, while the pair were still in high school. Despite their differences (John was the captain of the school football team; Tim was an aspiring actor) and the challenges posed by conservative parents, infidelity and occasional separation, their love flourished for 15 years, until John’s untimely death from an AIDS-related illness in 1992.

This new production of Holding the Man (originally staged in 2006 by the Griffin Theatre Company, and adapted for the stage by Tommy Murphy) is directed by Rosalba Clemente, a former Artistic Director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia. It stars Luke Clayson as Tim, and Nic English as John. The four remaining cast members (Catherine Fitzgerald, Nick Pelomis, Geoff Revell and Ellen Steele) play multiple roles between them, including various sets of parents, horny schoolboys, Tim’s NIDA colleagues, and the strutting clientele of a gay bar.

Dramatically, Holding the Man is a play of two very distinct halves. The first act plays up the comedy – most notably in a hilarious ‘circle jerk’ scene – but after interval the tragic aspects of the story come to the fore, with a particularly poignant sequence late in the piece utilising a puppet (designed by Stephanie Fisher) to great effect. By the time the curtain fell, there was barely a dry eye in the house.

I was not entirely convinced by Luke Clayson as Tim, who never quite sold the conflicting charm and bluntness of Conigrave, but Nic English as John was superb; quiet, gentle and charming. As a couple, their chemistry was perhaps a little subdued, though both actors gave their all to their respective roles.

Of the supporting cast, Nick Pelomis was particularly memorable in his multiple roles, especially as the surprisingly compassionate mother of Tim’s friend Juliet (Ellen Steele). Catherine Fitzgerald also impressed.

When not part of the action, the actors sat in plain sight at the side of the stage, one of many insightful additions to the already deliberately theatrical script, which, as befits a play about a theatremaker, makes use of numerous stage techniques – mime, improvisational games, puppetry – to tell its story.

Morag Cook’s simple but striking design frames the action under a series of large wooden bookcases to which props are added as the story unfolds – a scrapbook, a wig – mementos of Tim and John’s shared life.

Other elements of the production, such as Mark Shelton’s subtle but focused lighting design and composer Stuart Day’s score, are equally accomplished and never intrusive. Direction in the first half felt a trifle heavy-handed, though the second half proceeded with a lighter touch, ensuring the drama flowed naturally and was never forced.

The book of Holding the Man is already an Australian classic, and I have no doubt that Tommy Murphy’s play will also come to hold such status in 20 years time. This fine production by the State Theatre Company of South Australia, while not quite up to the remarkably high standard set by the original Griffin production, will also, no doubt, be talked about for many years to come.

Rating: Four stars

Holding the Man
By Tommy Murphy
From the book by Timothy Conigrave
Director: Rosalba Clemente
Designer: Morag Cook
Lighting Designer: Mark Shelton
Composer: Stuart Day
Cast: Luke Clayson, Nic English, Catherine Fitzgerald, Nick Pelomis, Geoff Revell and Ellen Steele
Duation: Approximate 135 minutes including interval

Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
October 21 – November 13

This review first appeared at Arts Hub on October 29th 2011.

Review: THIEVING BOY/LIKE STARS IN MY HANDS

These two short plays by Tim Conigrave were first produced in July 1997, at the CUB Malthouse Theatre by the then-Playbox Theatre Company, under the direction of David Bell. I was lucky enough to have seen their return season, in January 1998, as part of the Midsumma Festival; and retain fond memories of their emotional impact and resonance.

Now, ten years later, Thieving Boy and Like Stars in My Hand have been restaged; this time by Fly-On-The-Wall Theatre at La Mama's Carlton Courthouse, again for Midsumma, under the direction of Robert Chuter.

Conigrave, who died in 1994 of an AIDS-related illness, was an actor, playwright and activist best known today for his remarkable memoir, Holding the Man, which details the 15-year love affair between he and his partner, John Caleo.

(In case you've been living under a rock, Griffin Theatre Company's acclaimed production of Holding the Man will be staged in Melbourne in a few months time, which makes this revival of Conigrave's plays even more timely.)

Of the two works, the first, Thieving Boy, was my favourite when I first saw it in 1998. In retrospect, my attraction for it was due in part, I think, to a crush I had at the time for a knockabout young sex-worker who I was seeing a bit of, and who reminded me of one of the play's main characters. Ten years later, it's now the second work, the more ambitious, impressionistic Like Stars in My Hands, which resonates for me more strongly...

Both plays are simply produced, with minimal set dressing: projection and a few props helping to flesh out the scenes. Performances are passionate, though not always entirely appropriate to the material the actors are working with (see below for details); and while the lighting predominantly counterbalances the lack of set dressing, it can't always do so. Additionally, the short production time afforded Chuter and his cast, which he refers to in the programme, shows in a few clumbsily blocked scenes. Opening night jitters also distracted on occasion, but overall, I thought most of the cast across the two plays rose well to the occasion.

Thieving Boy, as detailed in chapter nine of Holding the Man, had already been extensively workshopped prior to Conigrave's death.

The play tells the story of Moxy (Daniel McBurnie) a 22-year old inmate of Malabar Training Centre at Long Bay Jail, who is let out on day release in order to enable him to visit his dying father, Brian (Chris Gaffney). Waiting for Moxy on the outside are his mum, Jude (Francesca Walters) his little sister, Tracy (Stephanie Lillis) and unwitting ex-boyfriend, law student Tom (Heath Miller) who we first meet while he is working as a department store Santa, drying his costume after an incident with an excitable three year old's bladder.

It's a simple, naturalistic story; the drama propelled by Moxy's complex relationship with his father, his feelings for Tom, and his own carefully guarded emotions. The play's emotional punch on opening night was slightly reduced due to an at-times uninspired performance by McBurnie, whose accent and bearing as the cocky, working class Moxy failed to thoroughly convince; while the spartan production meant that, in some scenes where they were peripheral to the action, actors stood about awkwardly. Some 20 minutes into the play, however, the cast clicked, and by its final scenes I was wiping away tears. (And to be fair to McBurnie, who I spoke to after the show, his performance on opening night was affected by his fretting for the first 20 minutes or so that he'd forgotten his director's instructions about his character's signature gesture upon first walking on stage.)

Overall, Thieving Boy remains a simple yet powerful play about grief, love and family; themes which are explored in greater detail, and to better effect, in Conigrave's second play, to which we returned after the interval.

Like Stars in My Hands was incomplete at the time of Conigrave's death, resulting in some substancial changes to the script by editor Tony Ayres.

A meditation on love and loss, it's a considerably more complex work than the kitchen-sink drama of Thieving Boy; and focuses on the complex relationship between Simon (a superb performance by David Forster) his lover Marcello (a understated Luke Arnold) and their friend Jimmy, an up-and-coming commercial photographer (Gary Abrahams).

Simon is dying, but doesn't want Marcello to be lonely when he's gone. He's identified Jimmy as a potential new boyfriend for Marcello, and goes about setting them up together despite the jealousy and anguish this causes him. Prickly, demanding and difficult, Simon is a complex character whose fear of his impending death is tempered by his conversations with Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god of writing and beginnings and the play's fourth character, voiced by Francesca Waters.

Conigrave's grasp of theatre's visual language is considerably more developed in this play than in Thieving Boy, as typified by its opening scene; which shows Simon standing naked in a bath, after which he is tenderly dried by his lover. Already Simon is isolated, the scene tells us; and while it shows us the strength of Marcello's love, it also tells us that, already, at least physically, Simon is relegating their relationship to the past, as his immediate concerns - death, and its impact on his lover - come to the fore.

In this play, the production's stark set comes into its own, thanks to a beautiful set of projections by Ian de Gruchy which enrich the drama and flesh out the proceedings, suggesting at various times the industrial confines of Jimmy's warehouse apartment, the night sky, a gay and lesbian dance party, and the half-world in which Simon's conversations with Ganesh take place.

Direction and performances are excellent, with the emotional intensity of the play's relationships displayed through a handful of passionate sexual encounters as well as by the emotional fireworks of Conigrave's dialogue. The play doesn't flinch away from the ugly side of dying, nor from the urgency of need; typified by two wonderfully staged, concurrent scenes where we see Marcello cleaning Simon's bedsores, wincing in pain at the hurt the process causes his lover; followed by a passionate and sensual sexual encounter.

Considered as a whole, Like Stars in My Hands is a more complex, confronting and rewarding work than Thieving Boy; although like Conigrave's earlier work, by its conclusion tears were once again freely coursing down my face.

It seems to me, in retrospect, that perhaps a little more care and time has gone into Like Stars in My Hands than on Thieving Boy, but some clever touches ensure connections between both plays (such as a cameo by Forster as Simon, clutching a Minnie Mouse doll, in a hospital scene in Thieving Boy).

Despite some minor flaws, these were well-realised and deeply affecting productions, reminding us once again of the major theatrical talent Conigrave would have undoubtedly become had his life not been cut so tragically short.

Fly-On-The Wall Theatre's production of Thieving Boy and Like Stars in My Hands
Now showing at La Mama's Carlton Courthouse Theatre, 349 Drummon Street, Carlton, until Saturday February 2.
Bookings: 9347 6142 www.lamama.com.au

A powerful review of 'Holding the Man'

I've just read a glowing, touching, and powerful review that I wanted to share with you, of the stage adaptation of Holding the Man, Timothy Conigrave's acclaimed and devestating memoir about love and loss during the first, terrible years of the AIDS crisis.

Written by the gay journalist, critic and novelist Stephen Dunne, it's a deft and beautiful piece of writing in its own right:-


"It is easy to forget, to allow the memories of the relatively recent past to slide away to a possibly helpful distance.

Australia's experience of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and '90s is thus ancient history, and so much of that time is gone: a time of the dead and the dying; vigil shifts at ward 17; watching brilliant and beautiful men sliding into garbled dementia; polite efforts to avoid funeral scheduling conflicts; two full pages of obits in the Sydney Star Observer; anger and love and screaming horror at the waste of so many lives. Surprisingly easy to let all that go.

Tommy Murphy's adaptation of Tim Conigrave's memoir is an act of urgent remembrance, an unflinching, devastating, moving and funny reanimation of that awful time. It is also the story of two people in love."

You can read the full review here, in the Sydney Morning Herald (from which the above photo, of Matt Zemeres (left) as John, and Guy Edmonds (right) as Tim, is taken - picture: Janie Barrett).

I never knew Tim, but I was lucky enough to see two of his plays performed at the Malthouse Theatre a few years ago, the delightful and romantic Thieving Boy, and Like Stars in Your Hands. Both made me weep, while Holding the Man reduces me to tears of joy, then of wracking grief, each time I read it.

Reading Stephen Dunne's review of the play makes me want to fly to Sydney to see this production more than ever...

Review: Strangers in Between

The latest production at North Fitzroy's Store Room Theatre is a play which director Ben Packer has been trying to stage locally ever since he saw the original production at Sydney's Griffin Theatre in 2005.

Written by Tommy Murphy, (best known for his beautiful adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man) Strangers in Between is the story of 16 year-old Shane (Aljin Abella), who has run away from Goulbourn in country NSW after being sprung in flagrante delicto with another boy by his violent older brother, Ben (Cameron Moore). But the play is much less about the fallout of that moment than it is about growing up, about how we construct new families for ourselves from the people around us, and about fear, friendship and love.

Shortly after ending up in Sydney's notorious Kings Cross, Shane starts work at a bottle shop where he meets, in rapid succession, a handsome boy named Will (also played by Cameron Moore) and the considerably older Peter (a superb performance by local theatre stalwart Bruce Kerr). Each becomes a key figure in Shane's life as the play unfolds over its approximately 90 minute running time.

Fast-paced, frank and very, very funny - although at times also deeply moving - Strangers in Between beautifully showcases Murphy's excellent ear for dialogue and his grasp of the vernacular, as well as his ability to deftly juxtapose tragedy and comedy without emphasising or detracting from either.

One of the play's best rendered scenes is a delightful piece of dialogue between Shane and Peter at their second meeting that manages to be both charmingly flirtatious and delightfully naïve; while later in the piece Murphy allows humour to shine through in a hilarious sex scene that nonetheless perfectly encapsulates Shane's voluble energy, as well as his adolescent fears.

Fear is at the heart of the play - Shane's fear of his brother's violence, and of his own sexuality; as well as fear from another incident in his and his brother's past that plays out late in the play's narrative. But while this nervous thread runs through the work, so too do love and tenderness, and an awareness of the importance of friends and the family we make of our friends in those important years after we have moved out of home. The play's final scene encapsulates this beautifully, both in the way it is written and the way it is staged in this memorable and excellent production.

The stark and simple set design by Micka Agosta (who also designed Holding the Man) captures perfectly the neon-lit world of Kings Cross which the characters inhabit; while Packer's direction is confident and assured. In light of recent discussions in the Melbourne theatre scene about colour-blind casting, it is also heartening to see this practise played out in Strangers in Between.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Store Room Theatre's interim Advisory Board.

Farewell to 2010 part one: Cinema

I didn't see anywhere near as many films in 2010 as in previous years, as a consequence of investing more heavily in the performing arts over the past 12 months, but I still managed to get to the cinema 56 times to see a range of new releases and festival-only flicks. More than most people, obviously; considerably less than my many professional film-reviewing friends.

Since I missed out on quite a few of the so-called 'best' films of the year (e.g. The White Ribbon, Un prophète) I'm going to list my personal favourites - the films that most moved or excited me - rather than claiming that these are the absolute cinematic highlights of the year.

In the order in which I saw them, then, here's my Top Ten for 2010:

Precious (Dir. Lee Daniels, USA, 2009)
A harrowing film about redemption, Precious is the story of an obese, illiterate African-American teenager (Gabourey Sidibe) who is pregnant to her own father for the second time; whose mother belittles and beats her; but who refuses to let life grind her down. The film’s grim nature may put some people off, and certainly the cavalcade of misery Precious lives through is difficult to stomach, but while director Lee Daniel doesn’t skimp on the grim details of the story, he also imbues the film with a palpable sense of grace. Harrowing and difficult viewing, but ultimately uplifting and inspiring.


Children of God (Dir. Kareen Mortimer, Bahamas, 2009) A powerful and beautiful story about love, fear and religious intolerance set in 2004, when anti-gay hysteria was at a violent peak in the Bahamas, Children of God is the island nation's first gay feature film, and screened at the 2010 Melbourne Queer Film Festival. The stories of three people - a young gay artist, a closeted black man, and the deeply religious wife of a closeted Christian pastor - slowly intertwine in this intelligent, exquisitely shot and emotionally bruising drama.


The Man Who Loved Yngve (Dir. Stian Kristiansen, Norway, 2008)
A breath of fresh air for that tired old genre, the coming out film, this charming coming of age film from Sweden also showed at the 2010 MQFF, having previously screened in 2009 at the Nordic Film Festival (which sadly appears to have vanished off the festival calendar following its one-off appearance that year). Set in 1989, and opening with a direct-to-camera monologue that quickly establishes the light and engaging tone of the film, The Man Who Loved Yngve centres on Jarle Klepp (Rolf Kristian Larsen), a bored teenager living in Norway’s oil capital, Stavanger, whose life in turned upside down when he falls in love with a new student, Yngve (Ole Christoffer Ertvåg). Incisive direction ensures that the film authentically captures the heartbreak and joy adolescent romance; and the film’s refusal to resort to cliché - and the filmmakers’ decision not to pigeonhole Jarle’s sexuality (films acknowledging bisexual identity are rare on the queer festival circuit) - were especially welcome.


Animal Kingdom (Dir. David Michôd, Australia, 2010)
The most highly acclaimed Australian film of the year, David Michôd's debut feature is a truly remarkable, albeit low key, domestic drama about a family of career criminals; and was partially inspired by the 1988 murder of two young policemen in Walsh Street, South Yarra and the unsuccessful court case which followed. Central performances from Jacki Weaver, Ben Mendelsohn and understated newcomer James Frecheville are all excellent, as is the sound design; and the film caught my attention right from the word go thanks to its understated and surprising opening scene. Rather than a flashy, high-octane gangster flick, Michôd has crafted an oppressive, subtle and powerful drama, where suspense is created by the camera lingering and holding a shot instead of leaping from scene to scene. It’s a remarkably confident debut feature, and a truly compelling film.


Fish Tank (Dir. Andrea Arnold, UK, 2009) Set on a housing estate in rural Essex, Fish Tank for me featured one of the best performances of the year: a fragile, violent, angry and compelling turn by untrained actor Katie Jarvis making her screen debut. Andrea Arnold's second feature film as director features characters who are simultaneously unlikeable and deeply sympathetic, explores themes of alienation and sexual awakening, and casts a bleak eye over the fractured families of modern Britain. Grim but powerful, it unfortunately seems to have been one of most overlooked films to be released in Australia in 2010, and more's the pity, for it certainly deserved a wider audience.


Inception (Dir. Christopher Nolan, USA, 2010) Though initially over-hyped, and then consequently suffering somewhat from a critical and popular backlash, Nolan's intelligent blockbuster Inception was certainly one of the standout films of the year. It's dreams-within-a-dream approach to the plot may have confused some audiences but I found it an engaging storytelling construct; and its reliance on characters over CGI (though when such effects were used, they were dazzling) made for a winning cinematic experience. And for me, anything that gives UK actor Tom Hardy wider exposure has got to be a good thing.


Red Hill (Dir. Patrick Hughes, Australia, 2010) Kinetic direction, strong performances, superb cinematography and an excellent sound design made for an impressive first outing for directorial newcomer Patrick Hughes. This contemporary western set in Australia's high country, around Omeo in regional Victoria, failed to connect with audiences at the box office, which was a real shame given the way it successfully presented the issue of relationships between Indigenous and White Australians under a cop movie veneer.


Winter's Bone (Dir. Debra Granik, USA, 2010) Debra Granik’s second feature film is a vivid exploration of the lives of the USA’s working class and the impact methamphetamines have had on their lives; and a chilling and compelling slice of rural noir set in the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri. As the young lead, Jennifer Lawrence was outstanding - if she doesn't get an Oscar nomination I'll be very much surprised - while the supporting cast, and the film's vivid captured sense of place, are equally compelling. Every scene in Winter's Bone breathes authenticity on rank, whiskey-scented breath; it's a grim yet restrained masterpiece.


I Love You Philip Morris (Dir. Glenn Ficarra & John Requa, USA, 2009)
Gleefully offensive, wonderfully romantic, and featuring an electrifying chemistry between its two male leads, Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, this hard-to-believe-it's-based-on-a-true-story-but-it-is prison rom-com was hands down the funniest film I saw all year. The fact that it still hasn't got distribution in Australia is nothing short of criminal.


Boy (Dir. Taika Waititi, New Zealand, 2010)
This ebullient, hilarious and charming film about an 11 year old boy called Boy (James Rolleston) successfully combined comedy, pathos and nostalgia its its evocation of a 1980s childhood spent in rural New Zealand. Part coming of age story, part family tragedy, it's hilarious, heartfelt and absolutely delightful.

Honourable mentions: Bran Nue Dae, The Road, Welcome, The Kids Are All Right, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, The Social Network, The King's Speech.

Dishonourable Mentions: The Wolfman, Robin Hood, The Wedding Party, Clash of the Titans.

JERKER and THIS IS OUR YOUTH

Two plays in two nights, both older works, both leaving me with very different impressions...

Robert Chesley's two-man play Jerker - A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Values made its controversial debut as a radio play in August 1986, and was staged at Hollywood's Celebration Theatre later that same year.

This new production for Melbourne's Midsumma Festival at Gasworks Arts Park opened on Thursday night, and is directed by Gary Abrahams, on a set consisting of two closely nestled single beds and their attendant lamps and telephones, with sound design by Kelly Ryall, lighting by Danny Pettingill, and costumes by Micka Agosta (who was also the costume designer for Holding the Man).

The play's full title, which is not used here, is also a deft summary of its plot: Jerker or The Helping Hand, A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and A Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of them Dirty.

In brief, Chesley's play is a love story between two men who never meet, played out over a series of telephone calls that start out as phone-sex but end up as frank and heartfelt exchanges about life, loss, intimacy and desire.

It's a fascinating period piece, capturing the response of gay men on the front line of a viral war in the first, terrifying years of the AIDS pandemic, when the young and the beautiful were dying in the thousands in the gay mecca of San Francisco, and the survivors were exploring ways to express their desire safely and securely.

In many ways, the legacy of that response is with us still today, in the cybersex that thousands of gay and bi men have every day and night around the world thanks to Manhunt, Gaydar, Gay.com and the many sites like them.

J.R. (played by the director, Abrahams) initiates the calls to Bert (Russ Pirie), which start out explicit and end up heartfelt. Although frank, funny and raunchy at times, the play's progression into an isolated intimacy is rapid, and I soon found myself hooked; hoping its characters would meet up to continue their revelations in person.

At its heart, the play is about a fight for survival by the newly emerged gay culture which flowered in the 1970s: a fight for survival, a fight against fear, and a fight for legitimacy. As Bert says, as he contemplates what gay men of his generation were losing due to the impact of AIDS:

[E]veryone's putting it down nowadays. "The party's over! The party's over!" Well, fuck it all, no! That wasn't just a party! It was more: a lot more, at least to some of us, and it was connected to other parts of our lives, deep parts, deep connections.... For me, for a lot of guys, it was...living; and it was loving.... And I don't regret a single moment of it: not one.... It was love. And...a virus can't change that; can't change that fact.

That fight for survival is embodied by the character of J.R., who reveals himself, at one point, to be documenting the lives of his peers; and by the simple fact that we're watching this play being re-staged, 23 years after its debut, says to me that it's a fight that we won, though not without great losses.

This production of Jerker is not perfect, with the staging feeling at time restricted, due to the necessity of the actors having to share a confined space but never - or almost never - coming together. (They do cum together, however - numerous times). Some will find elements of the script, such as a fantasy about consensual incest, confronting; and others may question the plot's acute lack of conflict, thinking it drains the work of drama, but for me the drama of Jerker comes from knowing the world its characters live in and are responding to.

The opening night performances didn't seem to quite hit the emotional mark they were aspiring to, but the actors came close, which suggests that this play will strengthen as the season progresses; and with a one-hour running time it certainly didn't outstay its welcome.

Jerker - A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Values at Gasworks Arts Park until February 7.

* * *

Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth is the debut production for a new Melbourne theatre company, Inside Job Productions. Directed by Nicholas Pollock, it stars Ashley Zukerman, Nicole da Silva and Ben Geurens (pictured left to right; photo by Pia Johnson). The impressive if ostentatious set is designed by Andrew Bailey, with lighting by Govin Ruben, sound by Robert Stewart and costumes by Mel Page.

Set in 1982, at the dawn of the Reagan era in the somewhat squalid New York apartment of the 21 year old slacker Dennis Ziegler, This Is Our Youth focuses on the interactions between Ziegler (Guerens), his 19 year old buddy Warren (Zukerman) and Jessica (da Silva) a friend of Ziegler's girlfriend with whom Warren is enamoured.

Warren turns up on Dennis' doorstep having been kicked out of home by his wealthy father, from whom he's just stolen $15,000. Bickering and bantering, the pair decide to buy a large sum of cocaine and invite a few girls over, introducing Jessica to this story about college drop-outs who are reacting against their parent's values but caught up in the 'greed is good' mentality of the excessive 80s.

It's not a play I especially enjoyed, though I suspect I would have a more positive reaction to a more competent production.

Accents were inconsistent among the cast, ranging from solid to virtually non existent - a fault which especially irked my companion on the night, though not something I was so bothered by, as I'd rather the actors focused on acting than their accents; I've seen too many productions where the necessity of maintaining an accent drained the passion from a performance.

As Dennis, Ben Geurens tries too hard. The character is supposed to be unlikeable, a schoolyard bully discovering that his tactics are not so effective in the real world, but Geurens' swaggering came over as brittle and unconvincing, and the dynamic between he and Ashley Zukerman felt contrived. Gearing down his performance a notch or two would have benefitted the production.

Zukerman flowered, however, once Nicole da Silva came on the scene. While he is evidently a far stronger actor than her, the chemistry between the pair brought the script to life, although a scene after interval between them that should have been downplayed was unfortunately not reigned in by director Nicholas Pollock, to the play's detriment.

Pre-interval, thanks to Zukerman and da Silva, I'd actually started to like this production. Afterwards, due to a combination of factors, I found it increasingly difficult to find much I liked about this production.

Subtlety and stillness would have helped this play find its feet; as it is, the manic pace Pollock has imposed works against the script and the story.

This Is Our Youth is on at 45 Downstairs until Sunday February 1.

This week's show...

Yesterday's guests on SmartArts were:

9.10AM

Thomas Jones – SEND THE UNSENT project

As Thomas describes it, he is "compiling a book comprising of letters people have written but never sent for whatever reason."

It reminds me of the Post Secret project, but in letter form instead of postcards. Letters written by people to ex-lovers, dead parents, fan's idols, the driver of the car who killed your child; a gamut of emotional experiences in written form, reprinted for you to read: insights into other people's emotional states that might let you know that you're not the only person to experience such powerful feelings.

A large percentage of proceeds from the book will be going to the Beyond Blue Foundation.

I think it sounds like a great project. If you'd like to submit your letters, you can contact Thomas via sendtheunsent@hotmail.com - drop him a line and tell him I sent you!

10.00am

3rd annual Melbourne Stencil Festival

I caught up with Festival Director, JD Mittmann and visiting guest stencil artist Logan Hicks, (USA).

Date: Thursday 18th May to Monday 22nd May 2006
Opening hours: From 10am til late
Venue: Rose St Artists Market, Rose Street, Fitzroy
More info: www.stencilfestival.com

10.15am

Joan Nestle – ART OF DIFFERENCE @ Gasworks

Artistic directors, artists, and arts managers from around the world and across Australia are converging at Gasworks Arts Park in May for the Art of Difference international conference which focuses on disability and the arts. It includes discussion of the visual arts, performing arts, music, comedy, dance, writing and multimedia.

Key speakers include Kristy Edmunds, Artistic Director of Melbourne International Arts Festival,; Julie McNamara, Director of the London Disability Arts Forum; writer/historian and social activist Joan Nestle (USA); and comedian Philip Patston (New Zealand).

ART OF DIFFERENCE 2006
Dates: May 18 to 20
Venue: Gasworks Arts Park, 21 Graham St, Albert Park (Melways 2J H7).
Further info: Ph 8606 4200 or www.gasworks.org.au


10.30am

Sarah Anderson, Sudan Emergency Appeal Photographic Auction Assosiation Inc.

The Sudan Emergency Appeal Photographic Auction Association Incorporated (SEAPAA) which is a not-for-profit organisation.

They're holding a photography exhibition/auction extravaganza in the Atrium @ Federation Square, Melbourne (Mel Ref. Map.2F, G5 ) on Wednesday 31st May @ 6:30pm with all profits going to World Vision's Sudan Crisis Appeal .

Tickets to the gala auction night are $50.00 and include food, beverages, live folk, Sudanese music and speakers. Speakers include Tim Costello (CEO World Vision), Hugh Evans (Young Australian of the Year 2004), Naomi Cass (Director, CCP) and Jerry Galea (Photographer).

A free public exhibition of the works will run in the Atrium at Federation Square from the 30th of May to the 9th of June.

10.45am

Visual artist Stuart Ringholt was my next guest - he came in to talk, not about his art, but about his new self-published non-fiction book Hashish Psychosis - What it's like to be mentally ill and recover. The book is available at places like Polyester Books, Brunswick Street Bookstore and Readings Carlton. Check it out!

11am

Stewart Morritt, the Artistic Director of Petty Traffickers Theatre Company, came into to talk about their latest production – GINGER MICK AT GALLIPOLLI, based on the poems of C.J. Dennis.

Petty Taffikers has committed itself to unique theatrical adaptations of Australia's classic literary heritage both in metropolitan Melbourne and regionally, since its inception in 1997. Since then, sell-out metropolitan seasons, State Festival premieres and major tours across Victoria have underlined this intent. Critics have universally praised their work.

Their 'raison d'etre" is to revitalise interest in Australia's cultural and literary heritage through both metropolitan and regional productions of work by Aussie luminaries such as Lawson and CJ Dennis. Through being true to the language, whilst contemporising elements such as
the music, they are making sure that new generations are introduced to such national icons as The Sentimental Bloke and Ginger Mick.

GINGER MICK records the transformation of a man from down and out no-hoper
to a leader of men through the alchemy of war. It is also a portrayal of the varied human perspectives of war, written in a heightened fashion and presenting the loss, the death, the grief, as well as the need for soldiers.

This archetypal Aussie character became something of a national figure in Australia during WW1. At the time when Ginger Mick was written, the nation was only 14 years old. It was written as reports back from the trenches were being printed in the Melbourne papers. The welcome that the men in service gave Ginger through the medium of the small "Edition for the Trenches" equalled that accorded the 'Bloke'. "'Look at this', said a Victorian soldier returning from the war. "It has been through the hands of every member of my crowd.' He passed over a copy of Ginger Mick. It was broken-backed, dog-eared, and heavily stained with the mud of the Somme, but all its pages were still in tact. Dennis autographed that battered war relic, very cordially."' [Alec Chisolm]

When: May 23 - June 11, Tues – Sat @7.30pm; Sun @5pm
Where: Fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane Melbourne
Tickets: $27 full & $23 conc. Bookings (03) 9662 9966

11.30am

Lastly Cerise Howard joined us for our fortnightly screen culture segment which at last has a name: A FISTFUL OF CELLULOID. (Cue the music of Ennio Morricone!)

Review: I AM LEGEND

I can't believe I got excited about seeing this film when I heard it was being made. That will teach me to get excited about yet another butchered Hollywood adaptation of a classic novel. *sigh*

Based on the book by Richard Matheson (who also gave us The Incredible Shrinking Man and numerous episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the classic Nightmare at 20,000 Feet; as well as writing several classic screenplays for British horror studio, Hammer), I Am Legend stars Will Smith as Robert Neville, a military scientist searching for a cure for the mutated cancer cure that has swept the earth like a plague, transforming those it infects into daylight-shunning vampires (although they're never named as such in the film).

Neville spends his days in an underground lab using captured vampires as lab-rats, driving around the deserted streets with his faithful canine companion hunting deer for food, and working his way through DVDs at his local video store. Several years after the end of the world as he's only up to G. Guess he doesn't really like movies all that much, huh?

Oh yeah, he also spends his time going mad from loneliness and solitude, expressed somewhat unconvincingly in his holding rather one-sided conversations with shop dummies.

It's all going swimmingly - interspersed with some flashbacks of the end of the world as we know it, and the death of his wife and child - until A) the vampires start fighting back, and proving that they're not the mindless monsters he thought they were; and B) another survivor just happens to show up at an extremely convenient moment. At which point the film turns to shit, abandons the original, magnificent ending of the book, and left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

To be fair, the scenes of dead New York are evocatively captured on screen (keep your eyes peeled for a Batman vs Superman poster in one scene, fanboys) and there's a couple of scenes, including one involving a diminishing band of sunlight and a couple of hellhounds, that are both tense and memorable. But when the monsters show up, they're basically just CGI cannon-fodder with little to distinguish them; and a couple of interesting subplots contrasting their growing intelligence with Neville's apparent ease in experimenting on his fellow human beings, are completely abandoned.

And God. GOD! Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to take our nice, rational story and let it be hijacked by the religious right? 'Cause that's what happens in the final scenes of the film. The pace and tension of the film completely collapses in the final act, supplanted by some tedious religious bullshit, while the ending feels like it belongs to another film altogether.

There's a great review analysing this particular aspect of the film over here, at Canada.com (and thanks to Jeremy Aarons to pointing towards it). Be warned though, it contains spoilers.

Basically, worth seeing for its first hour, but once the other survivors appear on the scene, time to abandon the cinema. But if you do want to see it, catch it at IMAX: that way you at least get to see the special preview of the opening six minutes of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight...

Two bloodcurdling screams out of five

This is tragic

While the mainstream media here in Australia is, understandably, focused on the ghastly accident in Kerang, in central Victoria, in which 11 people have died so far following a train-truck collision at a level crossing, I've found that my thoughts have been focussed on a tragedy that for me feels closer to home despite having happened on the other side of the world.

Jonathan Reynolds, a 15-year-old in South Wales, UK, was killed by a train after he laid on the tracks to commit suicide in January 2006 because he had been bullied in school over his sexuality, an inquest heard last week. According to the Times Online, Reynolds had confided to a friend he was gay just weeks earlier.

The paper reports:

"Moments before he died, Jonathan Reynolds sent harrowing text messages to his family telling that them they were not to blame for what was about to happen. A passer-by saw him holding the mobile as he lay down on the tracks in front of a train travelling at 85mph (136km/h) through Pencoed railway station near Bridgend, South Wales.

In his last text message sent to his father, Mark, and his 14-year-old sister, Samantha, the teenager wrote: 'Tell everyone that this is for anybody who eva said anything bad about me, see I do have feelings too. Blame the people who were horrible and injust 2 me. This is because of them, I am human just like them. I hope they rot in hell 4 what they made me do. They know who they are.' He added: 'None of you blame urself mum, dad, Sam and the rest of my family. This is not because of you.'

A postmortem examination showed that Jonathan, who achieved a grade A in his GCSE Welsh oral exam on the day he died, had a blood-alcohol level three and a half times the legal limit for driving."

A man walking his dog was witness to Reynolds' final moments: “He had a mobile in his hand. I called out and said, ‘Get off the track’. He looked at me and just put his head back down and I saw him walking across the track. I was walking across the bridge and he was walking across the track and he seemed to lie down and the train came.”

I read this last night on Towleroad and started crying straight away. It brought back memories of my own time at school, when I was constantly bashed and bullied to the point where I attempted suicide twice. I'm one of the lucky ones. I survived. I feel like I should end this post on a hopeful note but I honestly can't think of anything to say that won't sound trite or simplistic, except to say that I wish Jonathan Reynolds had survived past high school to discover that things really do start to get better once you've put that particular experience behind you...

Gay and Lesbian Switchboard telephone counselling: 03 9827 8544 (metropolitan area) or 1800 184 527 (Country Victoria).

Lifeline: 13 11 44

I've been a bad, bad blogger

As a result of taking on the role of Editor at Melbourne's Weekly GLBT newspaper MCV, I've been stupidly busy the last two weeks, and consequently haven't been a good blogger: I've fallen behind on both posting and reading other people's blog entries, for which I can only apologise.

Too much to do, so little time...

In the past two weeks I've:

• I've worked a 15 hour day trying to get the paper to print;
• Discovered that even an office with four staff has office politics;
• Put two issues of the paper to bed;
• Seen fellow blogger Travis Cotton perform in the 20th anniversary production of Michael Gow's play Europe;
• Attended the launch of this year's Melbourne Queer Film Festival;
• Started to discover just what having a mobile phone means, the good (excitedly texting fellow political-tragics after watching Kevin Rudd on Lateline and actually being impressed - not because he has gravitas and conviction, but because for the first time in years I'm actually starting to think that Howard can be beaten) and the bad (being harrangued by publicists keen for coverage for their latest client in one of my three media outlets);
• Enjoyed having a housemate, although I rarely see him as a combination of my hectic life and his spending time at his boyfriend's place;
• Failed to find time to continue re-arranging my even-more cluttered house;
• Consumed more alcohol than is good for me;
  
• Walked regularly;
• Complained about the heat;
• Put off reading a book and then reviewing it for ABR until the deadline is not so much looming as threatening to crush me with its weight;
• Started swotting for next week's conversation with Rupert Everett at the Atheneum;
• Contemplated popping over to Adelaide for the Fringe, or up to Sydney to see Holding the Man;
• And generally been over-committed - so much so, for instance, that I failed to make the most recent bloggers' meet - sorry D.U.P.!

This weekend I'm heading out of town, to visit my mum and catch up on some reading on the train, so I won't be around much. I am, of course, reachable on my new mobile... ;-)

Rumour: Holding the Man

I've heard a very reliable but as yet unverified rumour that the acclaimed Sydney production of Tim Connigrave's Holding the Man is coming to Melbourne next year, with at least one original cast member, as part of the 2008 MTC season. Can any of my fellow theatre-bloggers shed light on this, please?

Theatre rumours

Just had an enlightening 3/4 hour conversation with the Malthouse's Michael Kantor about the first half of his 2008 program, which frustratingly is under embargo for a few more days, so I can't write about it here just yet, damn it.

Something I can discuss, though - and I hasten to add that it's something I heard from a completely different source, several days ago, not from Michael - is a rumour concerning subscriptions for the MTC's 2008 season.

It seems that the hardcore subscriber base at the Melbourne Theatre Company are so keen to avoid purchasing tickets to see Holding The Man, based on Tim Connigrave's heartwrending memoir about gay love and loss in the early years of the AIDS crisis; that rather than buy the full 11 play subscription package for the 2008 season, many of them are buying a 9-play subscription and purchasing an additional ticket for a tenth play, which actually costs them more than the 11-play subscription.

If this is true, it's rather astonishing, and certainly says volumes about the conservative mindset of the traditional audience that poor Simon Phillips is lumbered with.

Can any of my fellow theatre bloggers shed light on this rumour; or anyone from the MTC, please? (I know some of you read this blog from time to time!)

Holding The Man comes to Melbourne

It hasn't been officially announced yet, but while wearing my MCV hat this week, I was given advance notice that Griffin Theatre Company's acclaimed production of Holding the Man will be presented by the MTC in Melbourne next year. Cue wild cries of joy and celebration.

We now return you to our regular schedule.