summer of the seventeenth doll opens thursday!

How excitement! This revival, the national touring production of Ray Lawler’s classic 1950′s play, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, directed by Neil Armfield and starring Robyn Nevin, with whom I once shared the stage in Noosa, opens at QPAC in Brisbane on Thursday.

QTC’s season opener is one of Australia’s most iconic, pivotal plays; a pillar of Australian theatre and a story which has been lauded for 50 years. “Times have changed but the characters still come through,” says 90 year old playwright, Ray Lawler.

The Doll premiered in 1955, at the Union Theatre in Melbourne (where Lawler was Manager at the time) and following a successful Sydney season, toured the West End and Broadway, where it ran for 5 weeks after Lawler refused to change any of the “Australianisms”, which would have made the play more accessible in the American market. Little wonder that Lawler has never watched the British-Australian 1959 film version, re-titled Season of Passion for its American release.

Queensland Theatre Company last staged the Doll at the SGIO Theatre in August 1974. Directed by Joe MacColum, the cast included Diane Berryman  as Bubba, Kate Wilson as Pearl, Suzanne Roylance as Olive, Hazel Howson as Emma, Douglas Hedge as Barney, Frank Gallacher as Roo and Terry Brady as Johnnie Dowd.

Set in Australia in the 1950s, the Doll tells the story of cane-cutters Barney and Roo, who return from Queensland to the Carlton house they share with Nancy and Olive every year, for their annual five-months of fun. It’s been this way for 17 years. This summer though, it’s different.  Barney’s 17-year seasonal girlfriend Nancy has gone and gotten married; so Olive ropes in the uptight Pearl as company for him; while she and Roo, who is flat broke, realise life has caught up with them, and their relationship. Is this really the end?

Starring a superb cast led by Australia’s leading lady of the stage Robyn Nevin, the Doll has been revived; its messages just as poignant as they were when the play was first performed in Melbourne in 1955, forever changing the landscape of Australian Theatre like no other play before, or since. ”It’s still about human need, human failings, human flaws, human aspirations,” says Nevin, a member of MTC’s Season 2012 Programming Team.

‘This production of the Doll fell beautifully into our laps. It was already programmed as Neil Armfield’s final production for Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney and I had been cast. But it was only when both Ray Lawler and Neil Armfield made it clear that they would love MTC to take it on that we realised it would be such a perfect fit,” said Nevin.

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll stars Steve Le Marquand (Buried Child, Underbelly Razor, Beneath Hill 60) as Roo; the enigmatic Robyn Nevin as Emma Leach; Alison Whyte (Frontline, Satisfaction, City Homicide, Logie, Helpmann and GreenRoom award winner) as Olive Leach; Eloise Winestock (As You Like It, Romeo & Juliet) as Bubba Ryan; Helen Thompson (Getting’ Square, Green Room award winner) as Pearl Cunningham; Travis McMahon (Cloudstreet, Don’s Party, Last Man Standing) as Barney Ibbot, and James Hoare (Noises Off, Twelfth Night) as Johnnie Dowd.

 ”Ray Lawler wrote a play against marriage, says Neil Armfield. “Ray held up this amazing mirror and, as great theatre does, it shows us who we are.”

Kewpie Doll from The Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne

 

        Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, by Ray Lawler

When:                     22 February to March 11

Where:                    Playhouse QPAC

Director:                 Neil Armfield

 Cast:                       Steve Le Marquand, Robyn Nevin, Alison Whyte, Helen Thomson, Travis McMahon, Eloise Winestock, and James Hoare

Set Designer:         Ralph Myers

Costumes:              Dale Ferguson

Lighting:                Damien Cooper

Composer:              Alan John

Sound:                     Paul Charlier

Asst Director:        Susanna Dowling

Under 30 $33; Previews $42-$56; Mid-Week $56-$75; Weekend $60-$79

Tel 1800 355 528 or theatre2012.com.au

About Performing Arts Collection

The Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Collection is Australia’s premier collection relating to the history of circus, dance, music, theatre and opera, and is home to over 450,000 items including costumes, archives, designs and photographs.

Olive. Design by Anne Fraser for MTC's 1977 production, on which Armfield's revival is based.

The Noosa Longweekend begins!

The Noosa Longweekend opened on Friday night with stilt performers, magicians and The Magnets, a grown-up boy band, hailing from the UK: six sexy suit-clad guys, all singing, all dancing, all perfectly in role…as six sexy suit-clad guys, all singing, all dancing, all joking, all flirting, all about having and inspiring loads of fun.

True showmen, every one of them, this acapella group is unlike any other, offering the audience many opportunities to get involved and executing pretty tricky choreography whilst singing and/or beat boxing! Andy “imagine what he can do with those lips, ladies” Frost is quite simply, a phenomenon (fact, not fantasy) and his solo effort, creating a six part sound machine, stole the show.

Check this out:

The sounds they make are all their own. No instruments, no tricks (no auto-tune), just talent. It’s so refreshing! We saw them do their second (and final) Noosa show before they continue their Australian tour. We took Poppy and she loved them. She loved Patrick, actually, who twirled her – she was up dancing for most of the show – and met him after, as is her custom (her groupie antics rival those of her mama’s…apparently).

Poppy met Patrick & Fraser after the show.

Poppy may well be The Magnets’ youngest fan.

Get them while they’re young, Evita, get them while they’re young. Sorry.

I would have liked to have heard much more from Patrick Smith but I think that we will have to wait for that to happen outside of The Magnets at some stage. His is a good, pure, Irish voice! He is joined on stage by Fraser Collins (aka Colin Fraser; Poppy’s other favourite Magnet, with his beautiful base tones and tidy dreadies), Nic Doodson, James Fortune and Steve Trowell. Like every good boy band, there really is someone for everyone.

Fortune and Trowell’s arrangements of popular songs by the likes of Lady Gaga, Blondie and Bon Jovi are unique. They had audience members clapping, stomping (The J has a wooden floor so stomping is almost mandatory) and singing along – yeah, we heard you – and at one stage holding their collective breath. Or was that just me? Okay, it was just me; time stood stilll and I held my breath during a favourite of mine, A-Ha’s Hunting High and Low, which I will include here just because I can. Morten Harket should know he can still have me if he plays his cards right.

Oh. Ok. Embedding disabled by request. So here’s my other A-Ha fave, Take on Me, which The Magnets didn’t sing but…should.

The Magnets are all class and UK charm. You would expect nothing less after finding out that they were “discovered” and taken from the street to somewhere like Hogwarts School for Boy Bands and Boy Banditry where they learned, among other things, Westlife’s chair move (yes, that one; if you’re a fan like my good friend – a good Irish girl – Karen Stewart, you’ll know the one). These guys though, are completely self-deprecating and, in light of the boy bands we love so much to hate, they manage to make their entire act look effortless. And that is what I call a performance! And THAT is what I call performance fit! Yes, ladies! The next logical step for this group is to remove shirts at some stage during the evening…I mean, during the evening’s program…I mean on stage…I…I’m just sayin’.

Look, they have promised to return (no surprise that they’re lovin’ Noosa) so next time The Magnets are in town, you will have no excuse; GO!

One-Act Play Festival: the three finalists of the national one-act playwriting competition

Noosa Arts Theatre

June 9th-18th

The Finalists in The National One-Act Playwriting Competition are: Star Crossed by Jenny Bullimore, Nothing by Mark Langham and The Knock on the Door by Bruce Olive

Star Crossed By Jenny Bullimore

Directed by Johanna Wallace

Features Rebecca Plint and Matthew Ingold

Synopsis (from the program notes): Falling in love! Sometimes it happens slowly, sometimes without warning. Friends one minute, lovers the next. In Star Crossed, Meg and Andrew reminisce about past relationships, love, school, music and how it affected them and others.

This is the most cleverly structured play of the three finalists, heavy with monologues, with several timely opportunities for the two characters to interact within sweet scenes from their memory banks as they re-tell in tandem, without ever actually meeting again, the tale of their ill-fated relationship. Director, Johanna Wallace, has dealt with the challenging script by placing her actors in spotlights at either side of the stage during the delivery of their monologues and having them meet in the middle, centre stage, surrounded by colourful production costumes, for the scenes from their past. I felt that the connection between the two characters was made but more as friends than lovers, established early on and then never quite developed to the stage that I would have been more sympathetic about their ill-fated relationship.

On the second night, the pace was slightly lacking. I know that there were some adjustments to the script made during the process (cuts only, as per competition rules), leaving the cast with a complete script for just the final two weeks of rehearsal. As an actor, this is indeed a difficult situation to be in, however, as an actor in this competition, it is particularly important that the final version of the text be delivered accurately!

This play would make an excellent screenplay and I’d like to see it developed as such. It is a sweet story, simply told.

 

Nothing By Mark Langham

Directed by Jane Rivers

Features Michael Morgan, Frank Wilkie, Meegan MaGuire

Synopsis (from the program notes): Three close friends “waste” a day in a garage, dealing with the small and not so small issues of their middle class, comfortable lives. Are they happy? If not, why not? If so, why? Must everything in life be a drama and can we get away with being ordinary? Will the grass ever get cut?

This new comedy was indeed funny, in its astute observations & candid comments on the little (and big) things in life. Director and cast must have had fun during rehearsals, exploring every point, relating to most, discovering every opportunity for laughs and delivering these with easy, relaxed confidence. I did wonder at the blood alcohol levels of the three individuals represented on stage. Under any other circumstances, I’m sure this director (it’s nice to see her back at Noosa, by the way) would have addressed such an obvious flaw in the text, however, the task is to stage the play as it is written, which surely meant for this competent cast, as well as for savvy audience members, that reaching for a beer on every second or third line must have seemed somewhat excessive.

Nothing will be popular with audiences. It is undoubtedly the most entertaining of the three finalists in this year’s competition.

 

The Knock on the Door By Bruce Olive

Directed by Liza Park

Features Sharon Ward, Tom Morgan, Jenni McCaul, Michael Parlato

Synopsis (from the program notes): In 1915, Gladys and Harold wait for news of their eighteen-year-old son at Gallipoli. Nearly one hundred years later, Cate waits patiently in the same suburban house for the return of her husband from fighting in Afghanistan. Through these parallel lives, this play explores how Australians, particularly women, have attempted to cope with the anxiety of loved ones fighting overseas.

The third and final play of the evening was perhaps the most highly anticipated, its playwright, Bruce Olive, the winner of last year’s competition with his play, God Willing. Not since 1997-1998 have we seen a playwright take out the top award two years running.

I’m sure this year’s entry, The Knock on the Door, will be the other contender for the Audience Choice Award, largely due to its place in the program and to Jenni McCaul’s moving performance as the mother of Robert, the son who fights and dies in Gallipoli. I also enjoyed Sharon Ward’s performance as the young wife, which brought some light to an otherwise dark and moody text of timeless issues and current controversy over the conflict in Afghanistan.

Despite the strong performances of the girls, I was mostly unmoved by the play. What should have been a deeply moving tale of unbearable truths was unable to elicit a stronger response from me. The woman sitting next to me, however, as well as a number of other audience members were visibly moved, perhaps finding something more or deeper or stronger with which to connect than I.

I would like to see, as the competition continues to mature and grow, the engagement of professional directors and for actors, a stringent audition and workshop process. The hard work of competition Convener, Synda Turnbull and her team, to raise the profile of the competition and that of the writers, directors and actors involved, now demands a level of involvement from industry professionals. Local directors will balk at this suggestion but I only mean to propose the next level of competition in order that the festival may live up to its national profile.

The competition will conclude with special guest Adjudicator, Karen Crone, Saturday 18th June. Final presentations will be made as part of The 10th Anniversary Noosa Longweekend Festival. The Best Play winner will take home $ 2 500 in prize money and the winner of the Nancy Cato Audience Choice Award will have their script published by Maverick Musicals & Plays, making it available for production to many more groups and earning the playwright richly deserved royalties.

The National One-Act Playwriting Competition has, for over thirty years, fostered and encouraged playwrights, whether amateur or professional, to write a script that is judged on its quality and suitability to be staged within an intimate theatre venue. A reading panel based on the following criteria judges the scripts anonymously: plot, characterisation, dialogue and overall achievement.

I’m sure the reading panel and the regular audience members will agree that this year we have seen further improvement across the board and the overall standard of plays presented is terrific.

One Night In Emerald City

One more sleep until I spend One Night in Emerald City, on stage, with some pretty impressive Aussie talent.

Yes. I know. I should be sleeping. But I’m a bit excited…well, excited and scared.

I will be sharing the stage with Robyn Nevin, Paula Duncan, David Field, Ita Buttrose, Bob Ansett, Mikey Robins, Lucy Bell, Ian Roberts, Felix Williamson, Jim Berardo and Daniel MacPherson. Our comperes will be Shane Bourne and local Zinc FM breakfast show host, Sammy Power.

Apparently, according to my sources, who have all been at The J in Noosa already this evening, to support the premiere of the locally produced short film Cyber Sin, everybody is in fine spirits! I was sorry not to have been able to make this special event too, but our QAVA students keep turning up to classes!

Look, I would like to tell you that I have my lines down. I would like to tell you that, just like Ken Baumann (and so many others, though his is the most recent impressive interview with an actor), I read the script a couple of times and just HAD IT. In fact, I would like to tell you that I know exactly what I’m wearing, what I’m doing, whether my hair will be straightened or styled in water waves (thank you Suite Three)…but no. I got nothin’. We have come to the eleventh hour and I’m freaking out like my four year old. That’s right. Not a typo. Not just any four year old, my four year old; who graduated from daycare yesterday (are we celebrating or are we celebrating mediocrity?!) She refused to perform the well-rehearsed little concert they’d put together for the proud parents. She’d been singing Home Among the Gum Trees for several weeks. She was so ready! But she was happy with her decision. She was a beautiful audience member, in her red sari for Diwali (Nanny and Bugsy-Pa have just returned from India and her head is full of stories and her arms bright and shiny with bangles). She was so proud of her friends and she mingled with them afterwards, congratulating them, as four year olds do, over pink “champagne” and sausages in bread.

Perhaps stage fright is partly genetic. I think I hid behind my mother’s (her Nanny’s) skirts until I was four. Or in Grade Four, I don’t remember which; I’ve blocked it out. Perhaps Poppy is simply a child who knows her own mind (and heart). It has taken me years to work out that there are times I love being on stage and there are other times when I love teaching and directing. Above all, I have loved having a choice in the matter.

Clearly, I had to respect her decision (it was worded so eloquently), “Mama, I want to watch my friends today. We are the audience today.” No amount of coercion from teachers, friends or friends’ (stage) mothers could convince her to change her mind. So we enjoyed watching her friends perform.

We also had a little conversation later, about sometimes just having to do the show…

 

Mama: You know, sometimes, you don’t have a choice and the show must go on and that means you must go on.

Poppy: I know, Mama. Like your shows.

Mama: That’s right, like my shows; the audience turns up so we do our show.

Poppy: Okay, Mama; I will do the show the next time the audience turns up.

 

I hope, when the audience turns up tomorrow night I will feel ready to do the show, rather than sitting and enjoying watching it! I really would like to see it! I love a good playreading! One of the best pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen was a staged reading directed by Michael Gow, of David Williamson’s Let the Sun Shine.

After a read with the cast in the morning and a read on stage with them in the afternoon, I’m hoping I’ll feel as confident as I did walking into the audition! We shall soon see!

 

If you’re there, enjoy and make sure you say hi at our little soiree after the show!

 

 

One Night in Emerald City

 

See? There’s just no accounting for who they put on the front page anymore!

 

In case you missed it…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an exciting opportunity for me and another great theatrical event for the Sunshine Coast.

 

Tickets go on sale today.

 

Most interesting comment thus far: “Would they have given you the role if you weren’t a mum?!” I may have more to say about this another day…