Reviews of other Film & Theatre

We enjoy going to see other arts events and would like to use this website to share our thoughts and recommendations.

Nil, Cat & Buried by Stephen Sewell presented by Le Poulet Terrible at Dog Theatre, Footscray 11-27 February 2010

Review by Erin Hutching Written for The Theatre Network www.theatrenetwork.com.au

Nil, Cat & Buried is an Australian play by the prolific and award-winning playwright Stephen Sewell. The first production took place at La Mama some fifteen years ago. This outing is Le Poulet Terrible’s first production of an Australian work, following their stagings of two reasonably well-received European works –Moliere’s The Doctor and Joe Orton’s The Ruffian on the Stair.

Three dark, violent stories are told by four actors – one couple and two single characters whose lives do not intersect but mirror each other in their horror and nihilism. The actors remain on stage with each other for the duration of the performance from their first entrance, creating visually effective tableaux and using the intimate stage space well.

This production boasts mainly strong performances (when they don’t tend towards melodrama). In particular, Natalie Carr’s downtrodden and abused Candy is invested with emotion and pathos that is rarely overplayed. Her chemistry with Daniel Kamouris’ Nick lends a palpable tension to their often angry and violent exchanges. However the subtleties in her performance are often countered by the demands laid on her by the script, which can be about as subtle as a sledgehammer at times. Richard Cawthorne also falls prey to this problem. His charismatic and very creepy Cat is a highlight for me at the beginning of the show but by the end he has repeated the same refrain about people being essentially corrupt inside so many times that it has lost all impact. Admittedly the extreme heat in the theatre on the night I saw the show probably didn’t help with my patience!

There are very well crafted moments where both the script and the production come together and really work. In these moments the audience is on edge with a palpable discomfort – the narratives include, without giving too much away, domestic violence, adultery, murder, incest and animal torture. However the power and dramatic tension of these moments is negated by the fact that the writer just doesn’t know when to stop. The script fails to realise when the audience has well and truly “got it” and the dialogue and action goes from being effective to overdone and predictable.

My main problem with this show, as you can probably tell, is the play itself. The director of this production, Alice Bishop, chose to rework the original script and interweave the different characters’ stories. It seems to me that this was a very good choice as the movement between the pieces is well choreographed and the audience doesn’t get bored with any one narrative (or at least as bored as we may have been otherwise!) This play may have been a bit shocking and disturbing when it was first written fifteen years ago but there is so much of this kind of pseudo-existentialist theatre with nihilistic tendencies and overtones of gender politics out there these days that it just isn’t that interesting anymore. Call me naïve but it isn’t my experience of life that everyone is horribly cruel to each other all the time and I find it gets a bit tiresome.

In saying that, I freely admit that this is a matter of personal taste and regardless of what I thought about the play, Le Poulet Terrible did a fine job with what they had to work with. I particularly enjoyed the use of simple visual themes such as a light shining out of the surrounding darkness created first by a match, then a lantern and then a torch as each of the characters came on stage. This visual symbol reflected the fact that each character seemed to have very little light inside them and what light was there was being engulfed by the darkness of their situation. This simple symbol of a light could have been continued and repeated even more. I enjoyed the elements of the production that invoked that great tradition of the horror and loneliness of the vast Australian outback – the mound of dirt on stage, Candy’s terror at the noises in the dark when they arrive at an abandoned house, the references to native birds.

There were parts that needed work or just didn’t make sense, in particular the way Elizabeth Thompson’s Karen mimed some objects on stage for no apparent reason when other props were physically present and none of the other actors did any miming. However these were generally small issues.

This is an interesting production in the funky, intimate venue The Dog Theatre, 42a Albert Street, Footscray showing now until February 27th at 8pm every night. Tickets are $25/$20 (Cut-price Tuesday all tickets $20). Book online athttp://www.lepouletterrible.com.au or purchase tickets on the door (cash only). Please note this show is 70 minutes with no interval.

En Route (part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2009) Review by Erin Hutching, published on Buzzcuts website

En Route invites and allows you to become an explorer, a tourist and an audience member in your own city. Equipped with an iPod playing a soundtrack of funky music by Melbourne artists, snippets of conversation and poetic musings, participants wander through the city’s laneways and shopping areas following instructions and clues communicated by guides along the way, phone calls, text messages and hand-drawn maps contained in tiny envelopes.

This event is categorised in the new “Live Art” section of the Fringe Festival program and it certainly embodies what I imagine live art to be. As you journey along, the cityscape becomes the set, the passersby the actors and the iPod provides the soundtrack for your very own three-dimensional, fully sensory living film or performance. I felt like an invisible observer in a world that had been designed just for me – I could imagine the director just out of the frame of my vision telling pedestrians and traffic exactly when to go past to create a perfectly choreographed display. I projected my own narratives onto scenes I witnessed as I journeyed through the city.

Exceptionally well planned, constructed and executed, En Route is a site specific work which displays Melbourne at its most interesting and eclectic, taking you from swanky shops to grungy graffiti-covered alleys. En Route is an event by bettybooke who brought us War Lounge in last year’s Melbourne Fringe.

I don’t want to give away too much as part of the joy of the experience is the surprises along the way. I was en route with a friend and we found it an exuberant, exciting experience. I think it would be much more introspective but just as enjoyable as a solo adventurer. Whether you are alone or in a group, I recommend taking your time to savour this wonderful event.

Copernicus (part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2009) Review by Erin Hutching, published on Buzzcuts website

Copernicus explores the story of Nicolaus Copernicus, the man who went against prevailing contemporary wisdom to declare that the Earth orbits the sun rather than being the stationary centre of creation. Copernicus is a fascinating historical figure about who little is known except that he worked as a physician and priest and devoted his spare time to astronomy.

This production by Transit Theatre is appropriately held in the Melbourne Planetarium. Sam Davidson as Copernicus tells his story against the backdrop of the stunning night sky as the audience lies back in their seats. Also projected onto the 180 degree surrounds are backdrops to set the scene as well as visual explosions of equations and pages from texts that dance across the sky. The visual element of the performance is accompanied by the voices of Aristotle and Plato which fade in and out as Copernicus ponders the mysteries of the universe.

The highlight is definitely the planetarium itself along with the beautiful projections, including the animation created by Brendan Willis. Sam Davidson is charming as the earnest Copernicus, but he perhaps lacks the charisma and energy to compete with the gorgeous displays on the ceiling. He is most animated when having conversations with the various voices of historical figures that appear throughout. Davidson has trained with the school of movement Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique, and this training is evident in his movement pieces, particularly when Copernicus is lost in thought drawing angles and equations in the air. His gigantic shadow is reflected multiple times on the ceiling, twisting and cavorting among the stars which is visually effective, if a little repetitive.

This show tackles some big questions and a fascinating subject matter. If, like myself, you’ve always thought a trip to the planetarium would be cool, here is the perfect chance.

Copernicus is on at The Melbourne Planetarium at Scienceworks Museum various dates in September and October 2009 transittheatre.com/copernicus