theatre

Shadows Of The Past

Shadows of the Past

Shadows Of The Past Rating

★★★★★

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5

Since 1991, Endeavour Theatre Company has been delighting audiences with its community productions. Their latest offering, Shadows Of The Past, a murder mystery written and directed by talented member Clyde Goodenough, exemplifies the best of a small but committed theatre group.

On arrival at the venue, a full house was present, and audience members found a “Guess Who Did It” sheet of paper on their seats to be submitted at intermission. This interactive element added an engaging twist, making the audience feel like active participants in solving the mystery.

The play centres on Mrs Willoughby, an imperious matriarch, who invites her nephew Jonathon, his American fiancée, her solicitor Mason James, a nun with a past with Jonathon, and an eccentric psychic for a weekend of ‘revelations’ and the reading of her will. Adding humour is Musgrove, the old bumbling butler. Amidst a storm, secrets unravel, leading to murder. But who did it? Adding to the Clyde Goodenough Cluedo-like characters are the police sergeant and Inspector, which add to the intrigue in the second act.

The play is set in the Willoughy Hall manor, and the room is replete with ornate couches, fancy paintings on the walls, a roaring fireplace, making it clear we are in a wealthy manorhouse. In addition, there were clever scene changes as we found ourselves in other rooms within the manor. Clever use of lighting to isolate private conversations not overheard by other Willoughby Hall guests enhanced the mysterious ambience. After each scene, the curtains briefly closed with suitably mysterious music playing, giving the audience time to think about what they had seen and ponder what was coming.

Shadows of the Past
Shadows of the Past
Shadows of the Past

Like the best murder mysteries, it is also important to bring the element of fun, and the script delivers enjoyable moments for all cast members. Opening nights are always challenging and exciting, and an opening night for a brand new play, never performed before in front of an audience, is an even higher level of difficulty. Suffice it to say the performances from the ensemble cast got stronger and stronger as the play progressed, which bodes well for a successful production run.

The ensemble cast also navigated the delicate balance of playing exaggerated stereotypes that a murder mystery show requires without falling into caricature. Their understanding of their characters grew stronger as the play progressed, promising even better performances in future shows.

Congratulations to Endeavour Theatre Company and all the cast and crew for putting on an excellent show. This is a fun production with a well-thought-out story and script. While the first act effectively introduced the characters and set the stage, it would have been great to witness a bit more foreshadowing—like subtle hints or a character’s brief slip—that could enhance the suspense and make later revelations even more impactful for the final act.

My personal endeavour to correctly guess the murderer was a dismal disaster! Can you guess the murderer correctly on your visit?

Don’t miss this opportunity to support local community theatre and enjoy a well-crafted, entertaining murder mystery. ‘Shadows Of The Past‘ runs for only two weekends, so be sure to catch it while you can with session times as follows:-
– 19th May 2:30pm
– 25th May 7:30pm
– 26th May 2:30pm

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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Merrily We Roll Along

Merrily We Roll Along

Merrily We Roll Along Rating

★★★★★

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2

According to theatre director Tim Hill, he asked himself how he could get the massive Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s “often forgotten masterpiece” Merrily We Roll Along done in Brisbane’s smallest theatre, Ad Astra. He answered the question admirably by getting a great cast and crew. Friday’s show was to a packed house that thoroughly enjoyed it.

The musical, told in reverse, starts with Frank, a rich and famous songwriter and film producer (Stephen Hirst) at a party in his swank Los Angeles pad in 1976, after the premiere of his latest film. The years roll back, and we watch how he went from a penniless composer, along with his oldest friends, theatre critic Mary Flynn (Natasha Veselinovi), and Pulitzer-winning playwright Charles Kringas, Frank’s former best friend and lyricist (Alex Watson).

All three were primed to change the world through words and music. However, success opened doors that led them away from what, and who, they loved the most. Misplaced marital trust, infidelity, unrequited love, an absentee father, drugs and alcoholism, almost all the gritty themes of our industry get illuminated, as we bop along to Sondheim’s brilliance buoyed by the talent of the exceptional players.

Most of the cast plays ensemble roles. But Jordan Twigg gives a gorgeous femme fatale feel to Gussie’s role. Chris Kellet gives Joe Josephson a creditable New York Jewish accent and feel. Heidi Enchelmaier gives Beth Spencer, Frank’s first wife, a poignancy, difficult to deliver in a musical.

Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along

At one point, Alex Watson almost rouses the audience to a standing ovation with Charley Kringas’ spitfire speech/singing. Chelsea Burton plays several characters, but as Meg Kincaid, she’s almost irresistible. Liam O’Byrne creditably camps up his characters. Two young fellows, Edward Hill, and Milo White, apparently play the role of Frank Jr. It seems Milo can look forward to a career in show biz.

Kudos to musical director Ben Murray, choreographer Tess Hill, and the crew for fitting the many facets together in this frolic. It’s fabulous. Most astonishing was the de-aging that all the characters embodied. Originally, when Sondheim first put the show on Broadway in the 1930’s, it was created for a cast of teenagers, and young adults, and wasn’t much of a success. This production of the show demonstrates that it really should have been.

This is the first time the production has been brought to a Queensland stage, and if Friday’s show is anything to go by, it will not be the last. It plays until Thursday, June 6 at Ad Astra, 57 Misterton Street in Fortitude Valley. You can learn more by going to https://www.adastracreativity.com.

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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Rootless Cosmopolitan

Rootless Cosmopolitan

Rootless Cosmopolitan Rating

★★★★★

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3

With the title of “Rootless Cosmopolitans”, I half expected to turn up and see Carrie and the gals from “Sex and the City” sipping cocktails and comparing notes on the past week’s romantic adventures. Silly me. It refers to Stalin’s euphemistic pejorative for ‘Jew’. This was a play with far more to say on issues, such as terrorism, genocide, identity, war, and conflict.

Like the aforementioned television show however, despite its darker subject matter, Monstrous Productions, presenting Ron Elisha’s challenging play, manages to keep the laughs a plenty, with many a cultural joke that even Gentiles, like myself, easily relate to. Lured into a false sense of ‘lightness’ this makes the audio of the October 7, 2023 attacks when the characters are confronted with the news of the terrorism, hit extra hard. Taking both the atmosphere on stage and in the audience to a palpable knot in the throat.

Set in the offices of an internationally respected theatre company, Artistic Director Ira Brot, who like all of us in the arts, lives in fear of something he may say publicly via socials getting misunderstood and the catchword of the day “cancel culture” being firmly placed in his direction, navigates through an ever-changing world.

Where diversity and ticking boxes are placed ahead of vision, where Jewish people have been a persecuted minority, to on face value at least, overcoming adversity, to then be thrown back into depths of terror and racism. The weight of Ira’s people’s history, hanging forever over his past present, and future, is made even more apparent with the ghost of his mother, consistently in his ear.

Rootless Cosmopolitan
Rootless Cosmopolitan

Despite taking a small, struggling theatre company to the international stage in 6 short years, the moment the board feels the “optics” of having a Jewish Artistic director at the helm is no longer good for business, Ira Brot is thrown into a world where he strains to find his place. All the while his marriage breaks down, his assistant director uses his proxy vote to shoo him out, and he questions his privilege.

Packed into 90 minutes, “Rootless Cosmopolitans” bounds out of the gate strong, quick with the laughs, and instantly grabs our attention with fantastic acting, most notably from Babs McMillan, who steals the show as the ghost of Ira’s ever-quipping-dead mother, and a razor-sharp script. Despite the strong start, around the middle the script and direction felt a little lost, perhaps this was a choice to shadow the emotions, Ira, anchoring the story with an even and sympathetic performance by Anton Berezin, is facing.

With great turns from Seon Williams as Ira’s assistant and then the Artistic Director of her own company, and Emily Joy playing both board member and Ira’s wife, the play finds its feet again and gallops towards the finish line.

What made this a good night at the theatre, was how given the subject matter and the world we live in, it never felt preachy. It posed many questions and didn’t always tell us the answers. Like all the characters, the audience is left questioning our own privilege, struggles, and curious as to what boxes we tick and should the optics’ change, as it did for Ira, where would we find our place in this constantly changing, ever-scrutinizing world.

Review 3.5 Pineapples

35 Pineapples Ben Murphy

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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The Spook

The Spook

The Spook Rating

★★★★★

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7

Travel back to the heart of 1960s working class Australia with ‘The Spook,’ by Melissa Reeves, where the spectre of betrayal looms large and true friendships are put to the test.

Set within the sleepy country town of Bendigo, we are drawn into an examination of the impact of external threats on community dynamics, and the frenzy of Cold War paranoia. These themes are personal, local and global. What makes them resonate is that this biting satire is based on real life events.

Director Casey Moon-Watton presents a thought provoking and at times confronting plot packed with political discourse and fiery debates. Audiences will listen carefully, perhaps even access Google afterwards when words like ‘Trotskyist’ and ‘neo-Marxism’ are casually dropped into the conversation. Loyalty, camaraderie and treachery interweave, yet despite the seriousness of these themes, it’s also unexpectedly funny and at times wryly witty.

In the tense Menzies era, where neighbours could be seen as enemies, the characters are vividly real in their flaws. Moon-Wattons’ open, minimalist and deliberately incomplete set design places each character’s emotional journey front and centre while serving as an ironic metaphor of the story’s exploration of hidden truths and obscured realities.

We experience this story through the eyes of young and naive Martin (Cameron Drake), who is teetering on the brink of adulthood, yet lacks direction and ambition. Struggling to find his identity, he is trapped within the confines of a stifling and banally homogenous community. As with most young adults, Martin just wants to be liked, seen and belong. This makes him perfect fodder for recruitment as a spy against the local Communist Party. Drake presents an agonising mix of adolescent awkwardness and bravado. As Martin slowly comes of age, he is forced to find his moral compass through the gradual realisation that life isn’t a game of heroes and villains.

Trixie, his watchful and disapproving mother, (Courtney Farrow) is everything you’d expect to be in a middle aged woman living in a small post war country town; stoic, repressed and afraid of change. Farrow did well to widen the generational gap despite being quite young for this role. She juggles quick costume and character changes with aplomb to also play Phyllis, the bright but unwitting member and partner of world weary party leader Frank (Rawdon Waller). Frank is the strong but abrasive voice of reason and Waller displayed an accurate understanding of an angry man battling within a system that is rapidly heading towards self-destruction.

Brett Joachim is Martin’s amusingly aloof Controller – in every sense of the word. He is oily and snarky as he manipulates and corrupts his charge’s innocence. He knows Martin is missing a father figure and confidante, which makes his actions and nonchalant lack of empathy quite ghastly.

Tida Dhanommitrapap has the daunting task of playing triple roles. Jean, a perpetually late party member and a stiff-upper lipped policewoman in Act 2. Her main role is Annette, Martin’s girlfriend, who delights in having something apart from Pick-a-Box to distract herself from her utter boredom of small town, small minded constraints and complete indifference to her pending marriage. Both an accomplice and hindrance, she enjoys the perceived glamour of her second-hand status without any of the moral repercussions.

(Nathan Heinrich and Kate Kelly) deliver solid and authentic performances, while producing credible accents as the mysterious Greek couple George and Eli Tassak. Their sad plight and immigration journey is compelling and raises the stakes in forcing Martin to see the real people and motivation behind the “right little nest of dirty Reds”.

Geoff Jones cleverly weaves a subtly chilling soundscape, complemented by an array of pop music and protest songs during scene changes. This enhanced the atmosphere of the era, adding tension and mood, while Anthea Brown’s costumes captured the ultimately conservative modesty of a country town lagging behind the trends and heady days of the swinging 60’s.

We have the indulgence to observe this distinctly Australian zeitgeist through the unique lens of historical context. In light of current politics around China, Palestine and Russia, it is more relevant today than ever. Will it never not be relevant?

‘The Spook’ serves as a timely reminder, highlighting the cyclical nature of history while injecting fresh perspectives into ongoing debates, with a distinctly nostalgic flavour. See this show to reignite your political fervour, embrace your apathy, or simply laugh at the consequences of both.

‘The Spook’ by The Pymble Players plays from 15th May – 8th June 2024. See https://pymbleplayers.com.au/the-spook for details.

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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