Canberra Rep - "The Logues" 2010

Just back from the finals of the Canberra Rep's annual short play competition, the 'Logues.  The finalists: a dozen one-or-two handers, all well-acted and all well-directed by Rob de Fries.  Authors are anonymous; the audience gets a ballot paper and rates each play out of ten, and at the end the numbers are tallied and third, second and first prizes announced over a civilised drink in the foyer. Additional amusement can be obtained by trying to see the ratings given by people around you.  It is astonishing how massively they can vary.

I confess to being a little disappointed by the outcome. My best mark went to something called "The Upsell", in which a loser seeking a gun to wreak revenge on his ex and her new partner is offered some interesting choices in weaponry.  I liked this immensely, not least because it seemed to me a genuinely original concept, and the dialogue was just gorgeous - diverse and Fry-like turns of phrase.  But an old lady in front of me quite clearly marked it 2 out of 10, so obviously the appeal was not universal.

My next highest mark went to a very funny phone monologue called "I'm Not A Bloody Bee, Dad!" performed beautifully by Euan Bowen; a naive country boy calling home on his honeymoon ("There's not much to do in Sydney, Dad.").  A point below that I had two others - a scenario with two diseases swapping career advice, and "Undivided Attention", in which Andy Burton is uncharacteristically unattractive as the office bore who won't let Tim Sekuless get on with his work.

 None of them rated with my fellow voters, it appears.  First and third places both went to Jodi McAlister - third for a piece called "The Rules", about a bloke trying to get back in the dating game after the end of a relationship. It was likeable enough but cliched.  Second place went to something called "Apples & Oranges" by Jon Garland, which had a similar theme but was wittier. And first went to "Ill Met By Moonlight", a spoof of the teen vampire genre that, again, was likeable enough but more of a Uni Revue sketch, and strictly of the moment.

So a bad weekend for my votes all around, really...

Canberra Philo - Boy From Oz

Well, this was fun!  Jarrad West did a lovely job as Peter Allen.  Apparently one critic said he wasn't camp enough, but I'd say that's sort of like saying Max Gambale (in the pit this time, on guitar) wasn't beardy enough.  Janie Lawson did a remarkable job mimicking Judy Garland.  Anne-Maree McLeod has had mixed reviews as Liza Minelli, but I really liked her.  It's true her voice goes missing a bit here and there, but when it's there, it's just lovely, and she's a wonderful actress.  Christine Pawlicki's costumes are fab-O, especially in the finale.  I gather Craig Johnson as MD was on a strict budget, and the band sounded fine, but it was a shame not to have any actual brass or woodwind in the pit.  Andrea Clifford gave us some lovely solo piano, and I liked Ian Croker's simple but effective set design.  Also Michelle Heine's choreography was probably the best I've seen from a community production this year. Allen's music wasn't always what I'd choose to listen to, and I suspect most of the best lines were ad libs (or at least not in the original script), so I wouldn't put this show in one of my best-ever lists, but it's definitely a fun night out.

Tempo Theatre: Cards On The Table

I don't normally go to Tempo's productions - not a deliberate decision, but I'm a southsider and have to set my limits somewhere - but I was on a ticket-buying spree at the Canberra Theatre recently and Cards On The Table was on offer, and I am of course a freak for Agatha Christie, so I bought a couple of seats on the spur on the moment.  For $25 a head I think it would not have been reasonable to expect to much more.  I had forgotten whodunnit, so the plot was genuinely engaging, if pretty dated.  The sets were fairly basic and not enhanced by visible (and audible) set changes in between scenes (with, for some reason, coloured lights), which sort of broke that whole suspension of disbelief one attempts at the theatre.  Performances were OK, but there were a few line slips and a few actors could certainly have been a little more animated. (And one a little less).  A problem with a dated script is that to really pull it off it needs to be set in context, and a low budget production will have difficulty creating enough atmosphere.  But we enjoyed it.  Plan B was to nip home at interval for Gruen Nation and the Chaser, if it turned out not be any good, and we certainly didn't resort to that.  I might give Tempo another spin in November, for their Tiny Tales.

Free Rain: A Streetcar Named Desire

Another sound local production, woefully undersubscribed.  On a Saturday night, no less, and the theatre perhaps a third full, or less.  Perhaps the Canberra locals filled up last year on the STC production? Jordan Best isn't Cate Blanchette, but she does a decent job as Blanche, hanging on to the right accent throughout. She's not helped, though, by some poor costuming choices, which make her look like a old-fashioned maths teacher instead of a dainty, showy, fading belle.  And having failed to create that impression in the initial scenes, it's an uphill battle thereafter - especially as Mitch (otherwise played well, by Sam Hannan-Morrow) also isn't physically as described in his own dialogue.  Steph Roberts is an engaging Stella, though her accent tends to slip, and Chris Zuber is a serviceable Stanley, with an admirable set of abs and guns, if not quite that primal Brando charisma the role really calls for.  There is a great little cameo from Brendan Kelly as a paperboy who narrowly escapes Blanche's clutches, and Miriam Rosalky did a flawless job of the small role of Eunice Hubbel.

I do really want to compliment Free Rain on the set by Erin Pugh & Patrick Howe, too.  Not many small companies here in Canberra do really good sets (Canberra Rep being a notable exception), but this was one of them, and it really lifted the production.  This is the third FR production I've seen this year - the first was Singing In The Rain, a great show badly let down by a truly dreadful set, and then The Importance of Being Earnest at the Courtyard, where the set was an elegant sufficiency - so good to see an upward trajectory.