Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - Page 95
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CABARET FESTIVAL LAUNCHES The Crucible holds audience for 3 hours
● Anita Hegh and David Wenham. Photo: Jeff Busby ■ Spending nearly three hours in a theatre can sometimes seem a long time, but in the case of Melbourne Theatre Company's latest production at the Sumner Theatre, The Crucible, the time simply flies. Take a play written more than 50 years ago, set more than three centuries in the past and performed by a dedicated and charismatic group of modern actors and you have a winner. Playwright Arthur Miller (Mr Marilyn Monroe if the name rings a bell….) wrote The Crucible as a response to 'the climate of fear created by McCarthyist ‘red- baiting’. The playwright had been called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee and was sentenced to a year's jail, overturned on appeal, for refusing to name names. It was indeed a climate of fear. As was America in Massachusetts in the 17th century, the era of the Salem Witchcraft trials. The Crucible is the story of good people accused of Satanic activities by a group of young women covering up their own wanton behaviour (or so it would have been regarded at the time, when even dancing was frowned upon.) What we witness during The Crucible is how goodness and honesty can be manipulated by outbreaks of hysteria that tend to draw otherwise sensible people into their web. Trying to withstand the tide in The Crucible are salt of the earth people John and Elizabeth Proctor (David Wenham and Anita Hegh), Rebecca Nurse (Julia Blake) and Giles Corey (John McTernan). Proctor is no angel, but a good man who has his own secrets which prove the undoing of him in the hands of an hysterical and manipulative young woman, Abigail Williams (Elizabeth Nabben) and her cohorts. Add in the grand inquisitor Deputy Governor Danforth (Brian Lipson) and his supporters, as we watch the agonising miscarriage of justice start to occur, and there is nothing that can be done. While this may sound rather gloomy, The Crucible reminded me of the best of Shakespeare's tragedies, where the tragic ending is inevitable but there is a nobility of thought in the final scene that saves it from being depressing. The drama of The Crucible is finely executed by a uniformly strong cast - I found myself on the edge of my seat and gasping occasionally at the twists and turns of the plot. In the lead male role David Wenham proves that his screen magnetism transfers to the stage seamlessly. The finely wrought tension of his performance is mesmerising, and his stage presence is magical. Turn To Page 97
By JULIE HOUGHTON
● Fem Belling ■ The Melbourne Cabaret Festival is in full swing, which means that Chapel St's Globe Café is one busy place. By day it is a typical groovy Prahran café, but at night it transforms itself into showrooms for a huge variety of cabaret performers, complete with fine food for some performances. The idea for the Globe to become a cabaret venue is something of a family affair - Mum Ella Levy has been producing events around Melbourne for years, while her performer son Josh has been writing for music theatre performers and is a dab hand at jazz piano too. So when the Globe came up for sale, Josh and Ella saw a way to introduce something new to the popular Chapel St strip. The Globe was the venue for many events in the popular Stonnington Jazz Festival. Multi- talented Josh is responsible for the running of the venue, and it also gives him a chance to showcase his own remarkable talents. Coming up this weekend, on Saturday (July 6) and Sunday (July 7), Josh will team with jazz singer and music theatre performer Fem Belling, in a show called Another Day - The Songs Of Josh Levy. Fem will be familiar to music theatre audiences from her knock out portrayal of Liza Minnelli in the Boys From Oz, while jazz afficionados know her from her fine jazz singing around the traps. And thankfully the Globe will continue as a cabaret venue after the Melbourne Cabaret Festival finishes, as its new upstairs room, Globe Live, will be a permanent home for cabaret. Details of the delights on offer in the last weeks of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival at www.melbournecabaret. com and www.globecafe.com.au
School holiday theatre in Melb. ■ When you are in the middle of a Melbourne winter and it is school holidays, parents have to become creative to keep the ankle biters amused. Which is a perfect reason to introduce them to the delights of theatre and opera, and there are two very interesting shows on offer over the next 10 days. On right now at the National Theatre in St Kilda is Room On The Broom, a musical adaptation of a much loved book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. With lines like 'How the cat purred and how the witch grinned, As they sat on their broomstick and few through the wind…' it should be a great show for adults and children alike. The story follows the witch and her cat who are flying happily together on their broomstick until a stormy wind blows away the witch's hat, bow and wand. Help is forthcoming from a dog, bird and frog who find the witch's lost things and then join Witch and Cat on the broomstick … but disaster strikes and the broomstick breaks! Of course it will all end happily but you will have to go along and see the show to see how it all pans out, and it's on until Saturday July 6. For tickets for Room On The Broom ring 136 100 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.au ★ The second week of the school holidays sees the Opera Studio Melbourne staging Massenet's opera Cinderella at Her Majesty's Theatre on July 12, 13, 15 and 17. Described as a hip, quirky, retro steampunk feel combined with the timeless charm of Massenet's music, this certainly won't be a boring opera. It's performed in English and all the action happens in just one act, making it an excellent romantic opera for newcomers to opera as well as those who love the art form. Perhaps a wonderful show for an opera-loving parent or grandparent to bring the little ones to? The cast features New Zealand Opera emerging artist Bianca Andrew as Cinderella, with impressive Opera Studio tenor Blake Bowden as Prince Charming. This is a young man worth seeing, and after Cinderella Blake joins Opera Australia as Lieutenant Cable in the Sydney and Perth seasons of South Pacific. A chamber orchestra is led by Berlin-based Australianborn conductor Rebecca Hicks and it is directed by awardwinning Melbourne opera director Cameron Menzies. Tickets for Cinderella are available from www. ticketek.com.au and more information is available at www.gertrudeopera.com.au - Julie Houghton
Special award for Kylie ■ Pop music icon Kylie Minogue and arts philanthropist David Blenkinsop have been named as corecipients of the 2013 JC Williamson Award. In awarding the JC Williamson Award, Live Performance Australia recognises individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the Australian live entertainment and performing arts industry and shaped the future of the industry for the better.
● Blake Bowden as Prince Charming and Bianca Andrew as Lucette (Cinderella)