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New Theatre’s Fighting: A Captivating Insight

19 March 2025 Linda Lokhee

Fighting Rating

★★★★★

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What’s involved in one single day in the life of you?

Do you wake up, have an ordinary and satisfying day at work, return home and feel contented with life? If you do, then you are lucky. In “Fighting”, now performing at the New Theatre in Newtown, Character A struggles through just one day of his life, and we are in the front seat, travelling along his emotional rollercoaster with him.

“Fighting”, written by Xavier Coy, is about the highs and lows of someone with bipolar disorder. Having been diagnosed with bipolar during the 2020 lockdown, the playwright felt that the disease had previously been portrayed on-screen as someone who was “crazy”. Xavier wanted to write a play dedicated to authentically depicting the complexities of living with bipolar. Written as a dark comedy, “Fighting” won the Silver Gull Award in 2022.

Sound designer Mehran Mortezaei’s choice of the opening song was perfect. Nirvana’s “Lithium” with lyrics such as “I’m so ugly”, “I’m so lonely” and “I love you, I’m not gonna crack” hints at the character’s struggles of self-loathing and internal angst, yet also has the strength and will to keep going, to survive.

Character A wakes up and is immediately inundated with noise and voices. Character B, played by Sophie Highmore, is one of hope. She is encouragement; the calm voice of reason who reminds Character A to do the exercises recommended by his psychologist when he feels anxious or heightened. Character C is the voice of melancholy. Played by David Woodland, Character C is easily recognised as one of chaos, self-loathing, destruction, and darkness.

Jay James-Moody as Character A pulled me into his world immediately with his fast-paced self-talk, a dialogue of descriptive analogies of how his body is feeling as he navigates through his workday. He is a Vodaphone salesman at a company owned by a couple, a woman in her sixties named Helga and her older partner Cliff, who have an active sex life and don’t mind sharing details with Character A. This causes him to be very uncomfortable yet, at the same time, provides a lightness to some heavy scenes. Helga, played by Sophie, is a caring boss. Cliff is a pensioner, an elderly gentleman and David’s interpretation of this character is hilarious, right down to his mannerisms – a comedic tongue popping out as he speaks needs to be mentioned!

In the course of his day, he comes across different customers, also played by Sophie and David. These customers add a scatter of comedy amongst some darker scenes. These customers are all different. Some are odd, such as the ‘conspiracy theorist’ (“you lost the sale of someone who came in wanting to buy a phone”- taunts Character Chaos). Another is a nonchalant customer (“Why even bother?”), a young teen reminiscent of a fourteen-year-old bubble tea drinker with clearly no serious plans to purchase a phone or a plan, and a customer Character A in Salesman-on-Fire mode pitches to and convinces him to buy a phone and “Be here! Be now! Be Somebody!”

Character A still holds the pain of grieving the breakup of his former girlfriend, and Jay’s portrayal of this is sharp as he tries to use strategies throughout the day to remain centred in the moment after he sees her when she enters his Vodaphone store and back into his life unexpectedly. An upcoming date and all the customers give the audience a chance to witness Character A’s fluctuating moods, from one scale of calm to the other end, hypermania, along with Hope and Chaos’ responses to these situations.

Throughout “Fighting” there is no silence, no peace for the protagonist, and it is exhausting for him. There is only Hope’s guidance and Character C’s sharp barbs, his pointed and specific insults that result in intense self-loathing. At one point, David’s portrayal of Character C‘s unrelenting mocking and scornful words combined with him physically circling him and the loud fast heartbeats of the sound design combine to create a breathstopping scene. Even Hope’s words, his own voice of survival, is silenced during this scene. The lighting by Robin Legal highlights Character A. This scene is a culmination and very intense, and there is a trigger warning of suicidal ideation in this play.

Director Xavier Coy’s production is emotional, the scriptwriting and acting of the company has successfully portrayed the disintegration of the mind, the feeling of being a stranger in a world always on the outside looking in and a loneliness that comes along with someone suffering from a mental illness such as bipolar. We felt it here, and it is a place that no one would choose to be.

“Fighting” is playing at New Theatre, 542 King St Newtown from 18 March – 12 April 2025.

Tickets: www.newtheatre.org.au/fighting

Full $37
Concessions, Groups (6+) $32
New Theatre Members $25
Thrifty Thursdays $25
Preview $20

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

Linda Lokhee

Wife – An Exploration

13 October 202412 October 2024 Linda Lokhee

Wife Rating

★★★★★

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What is the meaning of the word Wife? Australian playwright, Samuel Adamson’s script, explores gender roles and expectations of marriage through four-time chapters and three generations, taking us back to our past and into the future.

New Theatre’s production of Wife begins in 1959, with a fraught dialogue between a husband and wife behind the closed door of a house. We are eavesdroppers at the disintegration of a traditional marriage. We learn that this is a play within a play – the closing act of A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen and first published and set in 1879. Nora makes the decision to leave her husband and three children in search of freedom – and it is this ‘unthinkable act’ of a woman where the audience first gets to explore the role of a wife.

Daisy, portrayed by Imogen Trevillion, and her husband go backstage and meet with Suzannah, played by Julia Vosnakis. It is here that Robert, portrayed with scathing disdain by Will Manton, lets loose his opinion on what a dreadful woman Nora was for leaving her family. His demands on his wife and the way he speaks to her echoes the male chauvinistic attitudes that were the norm in marriages. Have expectations changed in 80 years from 1879? It seems not, in 1959.

When Robert leaves, we see that Daisy and Suzannah are secret lovers. Daisy, similarly to Ibsen’s character Nora, have followed society’s expectations at the expense of personal truths, and in Daisy’s case, her sexual identity. Daisy, who is pregnant, is at crossroads and her decision flows on to the next generations.

In the second chapter, set in 1988, two characters sit at a bar following the performance of A Doll’s House. Daisy’s son Ivar (Will Manton) is proudly, and loudly openly gay, and Eric, played by Henry Lopez Lopez, is more in the closet than Ivar. This is a scene where the intensity of the actors’ performances impressed me. One line particularly, which Ivar throws at Eric that he was so “deep in the closet you’re in Narnia!” was well appreciated by the audience. It was interesting to see that Ivar appeared to be quite the bully to his partner Eric, and I drew parallels between Ivar and his father Robert. Relationship inequities still exist, in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.
Society had changed by 1988, and people were free to be themselves in public. But even so, they were still being treated with open hostility and discriminated against by the pub landowner, played by Pete Walters.

In 2019, a couple – Clare (Imogen Trevillion) who is Eric’s daughter, and her fiancé Finn (Will Manton) meet after seeing a production of A Doll’s House, where Cas (Henry Lopez Lopez) plays the lead in a gender flip version of Nora. Cas’ partner, who he calls his wife, is Ivor (now played by Pete Walters). Henry’s Cas is flamboyantly camp, and makes the audience laugh with his toast, “Come in your eye!”. The dialogue and interaction between him and Clare is wickedly sharp when talking about evolving – “the world is still made out of prison cells”.

Clare, desperate to know more about her father, has been searching and desperately wants to know more about him, via the man her father truely loved and called a “Firebrand”. Here we delve into middle-aged Ivar, who we last saw at the bar in 1988; a man who was once passionate about gay rights who fought against homosexual discrimination, and is now complacent. Cas now appears to be the leading partner. We hear from Clare how Eric changed throughout the years since we had last seen him, no longer in the closet but fighting against discrimination.

The last act takes place in 2042, where Clare’s daughter Daisy (Imogen Trevillion) goes backstage to see Susannah (Julia Vosnakis), after a performance of Ibsen’s play. Keep a look out for the significance of the tambourine!

Aibhlinn and Burley Stoke’s costume design placed the characters well into multiple time periods. Dr David Marshall-Martin’s set design of The Dollhouse morphed well into the dressing room and pub scenes. The use of a flower trellis in the final scene was effective in it’s simplicity and I felt was a nod to Daisy.

Wife is a deliciously layered play with many characters through the timelines, and the actors portraying multiple characters did so with visual authenticity. They were quick with the dialogue, with Will, Imogen and Peter slipping into their multiple three characters with ease.
The connections between family, if a tad confusing during the first act, become clear in the second act, with the links and characters continuing to tie the story together. The complexity and depth of the story made me want to keep going back to ponder this play after it had finished.

Wife was directed by Darrin Redgate (Boyslikeme Productions) who skilfully pulled together this play to create a thought provoking production with a deep exploration into equality in marriage, gender roles, and societal expectations. Darrin’s vision of Wife and the cast and creative team will have the audience questioning the role of a wife, queer rights and how change can happen over a lifetime.

Wife is playing at the New Theatre, 542 King St, Newtown.

Show Run: Wed 8 Oct – 2 Nov 2024

Tickets: from $32- $37

Running Time: 2 hours 25 minutes (including interval)

www.newtheatre.org.au/wife

Photographer: Bob Seary

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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Sunset Strip: The Bonds of Family and Forgiveness

11 July 2024 Linda Lokhee

Sunset Strip Rating

★★★★★

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Award winning playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie, Sold, Cross Sections, Reasonable Doubt) doesn’t shy away from writing about the painful parts of life. Her previous plays have been about homelessness, racism in Australia and the traps of selling your soul for materialism. Her latest play, Sunset Strip, continues to tackle some tough themes – grief, addiction, cancer, dementia, and complicated family dynamics.

New Theatre’s opening night of Sunset Strip was an emotional rollercoaster which took the audience into the world of two very different sisters, Phoebe (played by Molly Hadden) and Caroline (played by Erica Nelson). Director Annette van Roden’s interpretation has created a multifaceted story with some harsh, tender and lighthearted moments, sometimes all at the same time.

The set design by Annette van Roden is split into two scenes. There is a living room inside a house, somewhere in a mining town near Broken Hill, and a backyard which used to face a sparkling lake complete with sand and sun, now a dried-up dusty dirt bowl. I thought this could be a subtle interpretation of perhaps the bright and simple joy of childhood yielding into a more complex adulthood, with all the complicated issues that accompany it. Nothing remains the same throughout time.

Caroline, the city lawyer (“the smart one”, as Phoebe relates) arrives home for a visit with her sister and dad. We witness the first signs that all is not what she expects, when Ray (convincingly played by Vincent Melton) does not recognise her. Ray’s dementia leaves him having intervals of clarity between periods of confusion, and when he soon recognises and welcomes her back home after a few minutes, it is clear that Caroline is confused, and realizes that Phoebe has been shouldering their father’s deterioration on her own.

Molly Haddon’s portrayal of Phoebe is outstanding. Phoebe, who is the carer of their dad, as well as mum of two kids who are currently in foster care, is clearly nervous about seeing her sister. Her high energy on stage of being the younger – (less successful, less pretty, the one with the worse hair, according to herself) – sister with some news to break is palpable. She is buzzing, full of words and action whilst Caroline is more stoic, level, and sensible. We soon discover through Erica’s intense portrayal of Caroline, that her recent health experiences have taught her a lot about herself, and that being vulnerable is not something to avoid or run away from.

Through their sister relationship lens, the complexity and pain of life through trauma is highlighted. Though Phoebe seeks an outward desperation for her sister’s approval, it is Caroline who ends up being the one that is counselled by her father and Teddy (played by Shane Davidson). These moments were touching.

Teddy, Phoebe’s fiancé, brings another dimension to Sunset Strip. He has a history with Caroline and the two must work through their past, for the sake of Phoebe, her kids and their future.

This is a play where the audience will be left to ponder what will happen to these characters long after the curtain falls. Multiple themes are conversation starters, and this is one of the highlights of Suzie Miller’s script, and New Theatre’s production.

The beauty of Sunset Strip may not lay in the land and surroundings of this family, but in the rawness of human frailty, the need for connection and the ability for forgiveness.

Sunset Strip is playing at New Theatre, 542 King St Newtown.
Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes (including interval)
10 July – 3 August 2024
Tickets: Thrify Thursdays / New Theatre members $25
Concessions / Groups of 6+ $32
Full $37

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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Behind The Headline Of The Front Page

27 April 2024 Linda Lokhee

The Front Page Rating

★★★★★

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Picture this. The sound of a typewriter, the keys furiously tapping, while multiple phones sound their distinctive “brrrrring!” under a cloud of cigarette smoke. This is the 1920’s, inside a crowded room full of newspaper journalists at the Criminal Courts in Chicago.

Production and Costume Designer Paris Burrows places the audience right there; the journalists wear stylish vests and ties, the women have beautiful hair and hats and the room is complete with several coloured candlestick telephones noisily vying for attention on the wooden table – those upright standing telephones with a separate mouthpiece and receiver and the round dial on the base of one hundred years ago. The set feels authentic, and the standing glass water cooler, small paper cups and the wooden roll top desk are a quiet but strong presence and used at key points during the play.

Journalists play cards and banter, waiting to report on the hanging execution of a prisoner convicted of shooting a black police officer to death, Earl Williams (played by Diego Retamales) which is set to take place at 7am the next morning.

This is The Front Page, a play by Ben Hecht and Charles Macarthur which premiered on Broadway in 1928 and has been remade into three movies in the years since then.

Director Nicholas Papademetriou’s adaption of The Front Page has cleverly kept multiple original themes clearly at the forefront, whilst changing the gender of the one of the main characters, journalist Hildy Johnson. This worked to the play’s advantage, and I truly enjoyed Rose Treloar’s performance as Hildy, the “newspaper man” as her character’s quick wit and gutsy comebacks proved she was as intelligent and competent as her male colleagues.

The Front Page has many moments that allow us to ponder how far we have come in the last century, with the play highlighting how sexism and gender bias were acceptable practice in the workplace. It is a case of art imitating life, running somewhat true to the era, as Hecht and Macarthur were themselves newspaper crime reporters in Chicago. Other issues such as corruption in politics and manipulation of facts to suit one’s agenda for their own benefit are sharp reminders that some things remain the same.

The play, despite these serious themes, is a comedy and the antics of some characters made the audience laugh, notably the overbearing character Mrs Chambers who was superbly played by Alison Grant. Mrs Chambers, or “Mother” (in law to be), stood out and seemed to be a firm favourite villain, and we winced at her snooty treatment and attitude toward her son’s fiancé Hildy. Bruce Grant is played by Michael Smith. He convincingly conveyed a bland insurance salesman who holds hope for the move to a quiet life in New York with Hildy and his mother, all three living together. Hildy is fiery, career driven and has an unstoppable need to write exciting stories, so we are left wondering if this is a good match.

This was a large cast of eighteen and all were cohesive on stage, not an easy task with the rapid-fire script and the constraints of a stage. The supporting characters easily carried the play forward, with the second act moving faster than the first. As the news breaks of William’s escape, the throng of journalists jostling and hungry for a story were reminiscent of a flock of seagulls feasting on some chips at the beach!

For the performance I attended on Friday, Jerry Mullaly stepped into the role of The Herald Examiner newspaper’s managing editor Walter Burns. Mullaly and Treloar had an understated onstage chemistry that grew the more they bantered, and hinted at perhaps a hopeful romance, even though Hildy was about to start her new life in New York.

The Front Page is a fast paced and entertaining play which is well worth seeing as a glance into the world of tabloid press.

Running time: 100 minutes, no intervals
The New Theatre, Newtown 23 April – 18 May 2024
Tickets:
Full $37
Concessions, Groups (6+) $32
New Theatre Members $25
Thrifty Thursdays $25

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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