Week #18 : 'Falling Petals' by Ben Ellis

I have very much delayed in putting up this post because I am not sure how to start with this play.

Written by Ben Ellis, an (Melbourne – Gippsland) Australian born playwright who has written a few plays, most notably for ‘Falling Petals’ (2002) and ‘Post Felicity’ (2001).  His plays seem to centre on home-life in regional areas in Melbourne and dealing with the locality and small township relationships.
His play ‘Blindingly Obvious Facts’ about American peace activist Rachel Corrie was highly noted in the Melbourne ‘Short and Sweet’ play competition in 2007, featuring in the top 30.

‘Falling Petals’ was first performed at Playbox Theatre (now the Malthouse Theatre) opening on 2nd July, 2003 in Melbourne Victoria.  It won the Wal Cherry Play of the Year in 2002.

The premise of the play is in a town called Hollow in regional Victoria which is in rapid decline socially and economically.  Three teenagers are looking forward to their end of year VCE exams and planning their escape to University in Melbourne.  

The play starts with the death of a young boy from a mysterious disease.  Dubbed the ‘Hollow Syndrome’, the town soon becomes over run with the disease eradicating all the children and teenagers. 

Most of the action takes place near a cherry blossom tree on the outskirts of town.  As Phil, Tania and Sally study under the tree, they watch the petals fall and designate each petal to the other children who slowly die in the town.

Phil Moss is the most dedicated to gaining an entrance score to study in Melbourne; Sally Woods is not as intelligent, but loves hanging around Phil; and Tania, Phil’s love interest is of near intelligence to Phil, but not as dedicated to study as he is.

Another female and male actor play multiple roles as other adults in the town. 

MALE	FEMALE
Dr Franz	Ms Golden – a reporter
Mr Syme – Careers teacher at the local high school	Mrs Woods – Sally’s mum
Mr Mulvaney – the president of the Chamber of Commerce	Gayle Moss – Phil’s dad
John Moss – Phil’s dad	Ms Lawrence – Vice Principal
Mr Worboys – Teacher at high school	Marg Bennett – a psychologist
Jonsey – Border Patrol

 

As ‘Hollow Syndrome’ takes hold over the children in the town, the adults take severe measures to not let the disease spread, they shut down the school taking away the opportunity for Phil, Sally and Tania to complete their VCE.  Sally’s mum takes her own steps and kicks her out of the home.

As you can tell, tragedy ensues and Sally (living outside near the cherry blossom tree) contracts ‘Hollow Syndrome’, Phil becomes blindly incensed in breaking the containment lines around the town and to complete his VCE.  Tania follows Phil along like a blind little puppy and tried to make his wish come true by sexually controlling him to help her study.

Unfortunately this play is hardly produced since its creation. 

The Production Company, a cross-cultural relationship company between the US and Australia (produced in America) performed this as part of their season on The Australia Project.

5 Pound Repertoire Company in Richmond performed this play as part of their repertory season in November/Decemberof 2012.

Apart from these two productions, there is little else about this play to be located on the internet.

I will leave this here, as this post  is 3 weeks late and I have a lot to catch up on!

Week #15 : 'Love, Loss and What I Wore' by Nora and Delia Ephron

Five women dressed all in classic and well fitting black dresses sitting on a stage in front of music stands.  Doesn't really sound like an interesting play does it... but as the stories in 'Love, Loss and What I Wore' unfold, we hear from 20 different characters (and some others to help tell their story) about the importance of memory in clothing.  These characters deliver moving and hilarious monologues based on pieces of clothing from their past that have remained imprinted in their memory for one reason or another.

Each actor plays 5-7 characters telling their stories or love, loss, heartache and embarrassment (and one very torturous story about rape).  
The main character, kind of like a narrator (but kind of not, at the same time) 'Gingy' is the only character for that actress and is the centre of the plot who sets the tone for each section of the play (based on Ilene Beckerman and her book of the same name).  Her stories are numerous and she has a more detailed plot line than the rest of the characters.
Each of the other characters delivers a shortish 3-5 minute monologue about the importance of a specific piece of clothing, like a tuxedo or Eggplant coloured dress (my personal favourite story in the whole play!) or a pair of boots, a bathrobe that holds infinite memories or a pale blue and white chiffon prom dress.  

The stories are set out in semi tonal waves, each slightly pertaining and responding to 'Gingy's' last clothing story.

Cast from 2009: Tyne Daly, Rosie O’Donnell,
Samantha Bee, Katie Finneran and Natasha Lyonne.

The most hilarious tale is about the uselessness of the handbag - One item that every woman has and an item that every woman dreads, which is directly from Nora Ephron's collection of acerbic essays "I feel bad about my neck." - "I hate my purse.  I absolutely hate it.  If you're one of those women who think there's something great about purses, don't even bother listening because I have nothing to say to you."
The saddest is the tale of the olive green boots - "I thought my boots gave me a kind of mysterious, Bohemian charisma, tough but tender, rugged but sensuous, poetic but unself-conscious, like Joni Mitchell."
Some of the other tales encompass the decision to wear heels or be able to function properly in society - 'I started wearing heels again.  Oh the pain, I can't think.  but I look gorgeous.  I had to choose - heels or think.  I chose heels."
The blunders of fashion 'There was, for a very brief moment in time, the paper dress.  And I had one." 
The trials of finding the right clothes for your body shape - "My mother as the most competent human being alive but she gave up on me clothes-wise.  She would send me off alone in a taxi to a store called Jane Engel on the southeast corner of 79th and Madison, and they'd bring me clothes and I'd try them on.  There was a dressing room with three mirrors, and no matter which way I looked, there I was, as big as a house.  There has never been a good time to be fat, but this was a particularly bad time on account of Audrey Hepburn.".

The monologues are intermingled with 'clothesline' mini tales.  Each one about a poignant clothing moments in every females life: 'What my mother said', 'The Bra', 'Madonna', 'The dressing room', 'The closet' and the importance of 'Black'.

The 'Madonna Clothesline'

  However you see the monologues, there is going to be at least one tale that each woman can respond to in some way.  Be it just the memory of the way a particular dress made you feel, the memory of a non-descript outfit you were wearing when you heard elating (or devastating) news, or that all important choice of a wedding dress.
These all encompass happy, shocked or terrified moments in every woman's life.

Playwright Nora Ephron (and co-wrote by her sister Delia Ephron) bought us perfect romantic/comedy films as: 'When Harry Met Sally', 'You've Got Mail', 'Sleepless in Seattle' and 'Julie and Julia' (she also directed the last three on this list).  Also an accomplished Essayist, Nora Ephron wrote heartfelt female stories of love and loss and the ways in-between.  This play is no different. 

'Love, Loss and What I Wore'  was first officially staged at the Westside Theatre in  New York for Off-Broadway (there were numerous readings of the play on Off-Off Broadway at the D2 Theatre) in 2009, it has increased in popularity ever since.  

The cast consisted of Tyne Daly, Rosie O'Donnell, Samantha Bee, Katie Finneran and Natasha Lyonne.  It soon became a revolving cast including stars of stage and screen (and the comedy circuit): Joy Behar ('The View'), America Ferrera ('Ugly Betty'), Blyth Danner, Rita Wilson, Barbra Feldon (Agent 99 in 'Get Smart'), Kirsten Wiig (SNL and 'Bridsesmaids'), Kristin Chenoweth (Broadway star - Glinda in 'Wicked'),  Jane Lynch, Kathy Najimi (Sister Act 1 & 2), Janeane Gafofalo, Melissa Joan Hart ('Sabrina the Teenage Witch') and Rhea Perlman.

An interview with Nora and Delia Ephron about the play gives you an understanding into the creation of some of these stories.  There are real life stories from the playwrights themselves, stories from Ilene Beckerman's book as well as stories from friends and relatives of the author and playwrights.  We see glimpses of how Nora and Delia, in conjunction with Ilene Beckerman's book, designed the elements and the importance of the moments in the play - each punctuated by the 'closeline' moments.

Nora Ephron passed away in June of 2012 from pneumonia aggravated by myelodysplastic syndrome which is a pre-leukemic condition.  Only close friends and family knew of this and it was not made public until her death.

This play has something for every female in the world and also allows males to catch a fleeting glimpse of what it is like to be a female.  Hopefully this play will help men to understand why females can take so long to choose a dress/shoes/handbag for certain situations!!

Next Week : 'The Frogs' by Aristophanes

Week #10 : 'The Comedy of Errors' by William Shakespeare

"Am I in earth, in Heaven, or in Hell?

Sleeping or waking, mad or well-advised?

Known unto these, and to myself disguised?

I'll say as they say, and persever so,

And in this mist at all adventure go."                    (Antipholus of Syracuse, Act 2: Scene 2)

24 Hours....

+   TWO sets of identical twins.....

+   Separation at birth from a shipwreck....

+   A port-side town of Ephesus.....

+   Mistaken identity....

+   A collision of family and friends.....

+   Far-fetched coincidences.....

= Chaotic hilarity unfolding!

Egeon, a merchant shipper of Syracuse has just been condemned to death in the town of Epheus for violating a serious ban against travelling between two rival cities.  As he is being lead to his execution Egeon tells the Duke Solinus that he was travelling to Syracuse to search for his long lost wife and twin son, who were lost in a shipwreak 25 years ago.  Egeon has one of the twins, Antipholus... of Syracuse (this will seem quite necessary in a minute, believe you me!) and a slave named Dromio... of Syracuse - whom is also a twin and has also lost his other half.  The Duke is so moved by this tale that he grants Egeon 24 hours to raise 1000 marks to save his life. 

In the meantime, and unknown to Egeon, Antipholus of Syracuse is also in the town Ephesus, with his slave, Dromio of Syracuse.
Unknown to both Egeon and Antipholus of Syracuse, the town has a prosperous citizen, known as...... Antipholus.... of Ephesus and his slave Dromio..... of Ephesus...... 

Confused yet???  Well, try to keep up for a sec...

Adriana, Antipholus of Ephesus' wife mistakes Antipholus of Syracuse for her husband and forces him home for dinner, whilst leaving Dromio of Syracuse at the door to stand guard.
Shortly following, Antipholus of Ephesus, along with his slave Dromio of Ephesus returns home and is refused entry.

In the meantime, Antipholus of Syracuse has fallen in love with Luciana, Adriana's sister, who in turn thinks that her brother-in-law is trying to seduce her.

Ok.... are you keeping up??

The hilarity and total confusion continues when a gold chain, that has been ordered by Antipholus of Ephesus is given to Antipholus of Syracuse.  Antipholus of Ephesus refuses to pay for the chain (and rightly so, it was never given to him) and is arrested for this debt.  Adriana decides that her husband has gone mad and orderes him to be bound in their cellar room.
At this point, Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse try to escape the city immediately, yet only to be caught by the debt officer and Adriana......

Take a deep breath!!

Bell Shakespeare alongside the State Theatre Company of South Australia is currently producing this wonderfully absurd and highly physical comedy.  If you haven't had a chance to see it, you only have a few more chances to see it in Canberra (29 Oct - 9 Nov) and Sydney (12 Nov - 7 Dec).  There are a few regional dates upcoming in Tas (on RIGHT NOW!), Vic and NSW - Check the website for these dates and venues.

Director Imara Savage departs from her darker and torturous theatrical roots to direct a comedy for one of the first times.  She comments in an article to 'The Age' newspaper that "I didn't feel that I had to drag it kicking and screaming into the modern day.  It feels like it sits there quite comfortable.  That's a testament to Shakespeare, because comedy is something that can date quickly."

Savage takes the reigns of this hilarious Shakespearean comedy, updates the setting to a contemporary location with gaudy costumes and settings.  If the sold out season in Melbourne is anything to go by, this revisioning of this play has been a tremendous success.  The 'Hearld Sun' reviewer Byron Bache had nothing bad to say about the production at all, discussing that "Modern dress Shakespeare is so often over-inflated, confused, or downright pointless.  Here, director imama Savage has performed magic.  Her 'The Comedy of Errors' takes place is a twisted, hysterical King Street-cum-Carrum Downs hyper-reality.  Every line reading, every joke and every piece of physical comedy sings.
This is Shakespeare for the populace.  The text is intact and Savage's clever staging, full of tweaks and subversions, is redoubtable proof that the 'burn everything to the ground, throw away the text' school of adaptation that's currently in vogue brings far less to a work than the guiding hand of a capable and imaginative director with a little bit of trust in their playwright."

 

If Imara Savage likes the dark and disastrous plays then I can't wait to see her tackle another Shakespeare in this vein.... Titus Andronicus, for example??  or maybe a bloody Macbeth or Julius Caesar??  My vote is for Titus! (My favourite Shakespeare play!!)
Any production of hers will be a success if this production is anything to be counted upon.


The final, final word comes from Dromio of Ephesus:

"Nay, then thus,
We came into the world like brother and brother,
And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another."



Next Week: 'The Laramie Project' by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project

Week #8 : 'The Dumb Waiter' by Harold Pinter

Gus:  Have you noticed the time that tank takes to fill?
Ben:  What tank?
Gus:  In the Lavatory.
Ben:  No.  Does it?
Gus:  Terrible.
Ben:  Well, what about it?
Gus:  What do you think is the matter with it?
Ben:  Nothing.
Gus:  Nothing?
Ben:  It's got a deficient ballcock, that's all.
Gus:  No?  Really?
Ben:  That's what I should say.
Gus:  Go on!  That didn't occur to me.

In the vein of Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' and McDonagh's 'In Bruge' is a hilariously absurdist tale about two killers for hire waiting for the call from 'Wilson' for their next assignment.  

Written by Harold Pinter in 1959, 'The Dumb Waiter' cemented his career as one of the great  British comedy/absurdist playwrights.  Pinter acknowledges that Samuel Beckett had great influence particularly in his earlier work, later becoming friends whom shared and commented on their writings before publication. (Martin McDonagh also acknowledges Pinter as one of his influences in writing also!)

Waiting in a stifling, prison-like basement room with two uncomfortable beds, no window, a gas stove - with no gas, a faulty toilet off stage and a Dumb Waiter in the middle of one wall.  Ben and Gus, friends or possibly just accomplices wait for their next step.  Ben waits whilst mundanely reading the newspaper and reading out random stories to Gus.  Gus nervously walks the room and unties his shoelaces and removes a flattened matchbox case from one and an empty flattened cigarette box from the other. An envelope is pushed under the door containing 12 matches.  Gus questions the point of the matches whilst Ben points out that the matches will be always be helpful, especially when in need of a cup of tea.  They argue about the correct terminology of how to light a kettle... 

Ben:  Go and light it.
Gus:  Light what?
Ben:  The kettle.
Gus:  You mean the gas.
Ben:  Who does?
Gus:  You do.
Ben:  (His eyes narrowing)  What do you mean, I mean the gas?
Gus:  Well, that's what you mean, don't you?  The gas.
Ben:  (powerfully)  If I say go and light the kettle I mean go and light the gas.
Gus:  How can you light the kettle?
Ben:  It's a figure of speech!  Light the kettle.  It's a figure of speech!...


All of a sudden there is a loud bang and clattering noise and the dumb waiter in the centre back wall springs to life.  Shocked they silently move around the room in unison gathering their guns and point them at the dumb waiter.  Inside is a note asking for 'Two braised steaks and chips, two sago puddings and two teas without sugar". The men scramble though their belongings, gather all the food they have (all which belong to Gus) and send it up.  
This continues on for the remainder of the play - the dumb waiter lowers, a note with a food order, which gets more and more elaborate each time, and the men yell up the shaft stating that they have no food.  They finally figure out that there is a speaking tube beside the contraption so they can communicate with the upper levels of the house they are trapped in.
The audience only hears one side of the conversation, and are left guessing as to whom is on the other end...  Is it 'Wilson' sending cryptic messages?  Is it a waiter whom doesn't know that there is no kitchen in the basement?  Sorry to ruin part of the ending, but you never do find out where these orders are coming from!
Whilst Gus is in the toilet (again), Ben finally gets the call from upstairs with his orders for their next assignment.

There are many silences used within 'The Dumb Waiter'.  We find out more about these two male characters in their silences than we do in the dialogue.  Although the dialogue is quite limited at the best of times. There is no complexity within Pinters dialogue, it is the lower-class British vernacular that makes the characters jump off the stage with complex absurdist questioning notions of life and the point of it all.

Below is a set design from Vespertine Productions in the US and their take on 'The Dumb Waiter'.  The successfully funded their production via Kickstarter in 2010.  I really love how the design of this really brings the audience into the claustrophobic nature of the text and forces them to become part of the existential discussions that these two men have whilst they are waiting for contact from the outside world.
Sets like these are becoming more common as small fringe and underground theatres are opening up and becoming popular with artists to share their work.  

I for one know the perfect venue in Richmond Victoria (Australia) where this could be produced with brilliant results!!  (The only thing left to do would be to find the perfect cast....  Easy!)  
Who knows.... you may just see a version of this coming to an underground Australian theatre soon!!

Anyway, I am going to cut this blog post short as I am full of the flu and I am in great need of getting away from this computer screen.

Next Week: 'The Prodigal Son' by Jack Hibbert