For consistency in presenting a range of interesting
repertoire I would have to nominate Red Stitch [again] as the
company of the year. Red Stitch have mostly presented drama and
strong drama at that. They wrapped their year with a scalding
British play Motortown that took no prisoners. When they
present comedy it is not usually light. Wild East by
a writer that keeps defying the mainstream, April de Angelis,
was a case of Red Stitch's 'funny peculiar' as opposed to 'funny
ha-ha' comedy. Jack Goes Boating was a near exception.
It felt like it was an offshoot of the Seinfeld school but in
presenting it with a dash of absurdity in Alex Menglet's direction
it was endearing in a kooky way. The Little Dog Laughed
was the nearest to a genuine romantic comedy. The central romance
was between two gay men and was a rare excursion for Red Stitch
into romantic
tear-jerker territory (The Night Season from 2005, and
which was revived again at that year's Melbourne Festival, was
the last sentimental piece they did). The Little Dog Laughed
had an ironic sting. The romance was broken up, not by the big
bad heterosexuals but by a ditsy but scheming lesbian. She was
played by a glowingly two-faced Kat Stewart like the scheming
females in Restoration and 18th comedy.
Independent theatre has almost supplanted the mainstream. Newcomers
Hoy Polloy and White Whale continue to impress with sophisticated
productions.
Hoy Polloy did a great job with the mysterious ghost
story Shining City where Irish guilt and Roman Catholicism
combine so a psychologist can be haunted by the ghost of his denied
sexuality and, thrillingly, his client can be haunted by the ghost
of his dead wife. White Whale continued to impress by managing
to secure the services of established writers like Ross Muller
and Lally Katz along with some promising emerging writers for
Melbournalia.
After independent theatre’s dream run, the
Melbourne Theatre Company has had a run of bad luck, especially
in the comedy department. Starting the year with one of the queerest
comedies ever written Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane,
the humour floundered. It floundered again in the much anticipated
comedy shocker The Pillowman and again at the end of
the year in The Madwoman of Chaillot. There was a respite
with the Goon Show routines that came with the Spike Milligan
biography Ying Tong: A Walk with the Goons otherwise
it was MTC drama that proved most memorable. Shelagh Stephenson’s
Enlightenment was like a good television drama and proof
that thrillers can still work on stage. The classic Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf featured Wendy Hughes in the ‘King
Lear’ of contemporary female roles as the monstrous Martha
and Alison Bell as the neurotic Honey.
Speaking
of King Lear it was the centrepiece of a visit by the
most famous theatre company in the world, the Royal Shakespeare
Company, headed by one of England’s 'stately homos' Ian
McKellen. As King Lear, McKellen consolidated his distinguished
career as the mad king but trying to re-invent such a role for
such an actor presented some problems. McKellen's highly publicised
self-dacking seemed unnecessary, Lear has so many mad things to
do in the play already. The thing that should have been more widely
reported was the re-ordering of the text to allow for the Fool's
on-stage murder by Goneril's henchmen. The Fool's enigmatic final
words and disappearance have been subject to a lot of interpretation
over the centuries but director Trevor Nunn's decision to make
his suggested hanging a definite one was controversial. Equally
controversial was Nunn's alteration of the end of act one of Chekhov's
The Seagull showing Constantin's attempted suicide. It
was highly un-Chekovian (something happening onstage is unheard
of with this author!) but, like the Fool's execution, it was riveting
and the reaction of Monica Dolin as the besotted Masha was heart-poundingly
dramatic. Dolin was matched by the RSC's leading lady Francis
Barber who played Lear’s evil daughter and, in The Seagull,
the selfish Madame Arkadina with a ferocity that hasn't been seen
since Glenda Jackson retired from acting. Dolin and Barber gave
the most dramatic accounts of these classic characters I have
ever seen and the memory of their performance will be hard to
supplant, let alone erase.
Malthouse is turning into the venue for a bit of
everything. Next year's programme includes more music theatre,
after the tempting Sleeping Beauty, in co-productions
with Bell Shakespeare and Victorian Opera. Malthouse still produces
or houses work of great imagination. Imagination is the most constant
resource in creating or consuming, if it isn't working on your
imagination then it probably isn't going to work at all. Sleeping
Beauty seemed to just come out of the blue in Malthouse's
continuum and, despite minor quibbles, was the highlight of their
2007 programme. Criminology came a close second. Again,
it was highly imaginative, basing itself on a real-life crime
it made you feel voyeuristic by participating in the guessing
game of what was going on inside a murderer's head.
romantic
tear-jerker territory (The Night Season from 2005, and
which was revived again at that year's Melbourne Festival, was
the last sentimental piece they did). The Little Dog Laughed
had an ironic sting. The romance was broken up, not by the big
bad heterosexuals but by a ditsy but scheming lesbian. She was
played by a glowingly two-faced Kat Stewart like the scheming
females in Restoration and 18th comedy.
Speaking
of King Lear it was the centrepiece of a visit by the
most famous theatre company in the world, the Royal Shakespeare
Company, headed by one of England’s 'stately homos' Ian
McKellen. As King Lear, McKellen consolidated his distinguished
career as the mad king but trying to re-invent such a role for
such an actor presented some problems. McKellen's highly publicised
self-dacking seemed unnecessary, Lear has so many mad things to
do in the play already. The thing that should have been more widely
reported was the re-ordering of the text to allow for the Fool's
on-stage murder by Goneril's henchmen. The Fool's enigmatic final
words and disappearance have been subject to a lot of interpretation
over the centuries but director Trevor Nunn's decision to make
his suggested hanging a definite one was controversial. Equally
controversial was Nunn's alteration of the end of act one of Chekhov's
The Seagull showing Constantin's attempted suicide. It
was highly un-Chekovian (something happening onstage is unheard
of with this author!) but, like the Fool's execution, it was riveting
and the reaction of Monica Dolin as the besotted Masha was heart-poundingly
dramatic. Dolin was matched by the RSC's leading lady Francis
Barber who played Lear’s evil daughter and, in The Seagull,
the selfish Madame Arkadina with a ferocity that hasn't been seen
since Glenda Jackson retired from acting. Dolin and Barber gave
the most dramatic accounts of these classic characters I have
ever seen and the memory of their performance will be hard to
supplant, let alone erase.