May 14, 2012<\/p>\n
Adelaide
\nTheatre<\/p>\n
Land & Sea
\nby Nicki Bloom
\nBrink Productions
\nQueen\u2019s Theatre, Adelaide
\nMay 12. Tickets $ 25 – $ 45
\nBookings : BASS 131 246
\nUntil May 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cLand&Sea<\/em>\u201d, Nicki Bloom explains in her program notes, \u201cexists in the in-between space. In between consciousness and unconsciousness, knowing and not knowing\u201d. Which is where, it might be added, all music and most poetry comes from. Brink Productions newest work, directed by Chris Drummond and performed in the cavernous shell of Queen\u2019s Theatre, aspires both to the musical and poetic.<\/p>\n Divided into six sections, Bloom\u2019s text spans time, space and history. The opening scene, shrouded in a gauze tent, features a father and daughter in a Tempest<\/em>-like trope \u2013 Prospero and Miranda (except their names are Mr Greene and Vera) on an isle of noises where a woman called Essie gathers baskets of eggs. The father tells her he has made the world and Vera wonders why there are no young men in it – until Poor Tom appears on the beach complete with a tree branch.<\/p>\n The second section is a mix of English ballad and Game of Thrones<\/em> \u2013 Mr Greene is now King Billy, and Vera meets Prince Tomason and Queen Esther\u00a0 \u2013 similar names, different packdrill. By section three Vera is begging in the street and writing messages on squares of cardboard. We are in wartime Europe in the late1930s in section four; radio broadcasts break through in four different languages and people are being shot down the telephone.<\/p>\n As ever, Chris Drummond\u2019s production is beautifully fashioned. Wendy Todd\u2019s white canopy set (on a disc of yellow sand) lifts away, later, to reveal a carefully detailed European hotel room. It is all delectably lit by Geoff Cobham and Hilary Kleinig\u2019s evocative music, played live on cello and piano, uses themes from folksong to Gluck and Satie.<\/p>\n The excellent actors work valiantly to bring precision to the mercurial leaps of the text\u2019s narrative and rhetorical styles. Rory Walker capably manages \u00a0Mr Greene the magus and the assorted \u00a0characters called Bill, Danielle Catanzariti is enchanting as the various Veras, Thomas Conroy is a steady consort as the multiple Toms and as Esther\/Estella, \u00a0Jacqy Phillips not only\u00a0 covers the nasty queen archetypes but sings the ballads, humming choruses and boulevard chansons with flair.<\/p>\n But Land & Sea<\/em> is less than the sum of its very diverse parts. We follow the repeated symbols of eggs and branches, the motifs of exile, abandonment and lost love, but they do not gather momentum or dramatic intensity. Instead of being intriguing and vivid, the result is often arbitrary, mannered and unrewarding.<\/p>\n Mr Greene says at the close \u2013 \u201cYou can\u2019t see where the earth ends or the sky begins. No ocean in between.\u201c \u00a0Alas, we don\u2019t share that sense of discovery. We just feel all at sea.<\/p>\n Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n \u201cLost in sea of troubles\u201d The Australian, May 15, 2012, p.14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May 14, 2012 Adelaide Theatre Land & Sea by Nicki Bloom Brink Productions Queen\u2019s Theatre, Adelaide May 12. Tickets $ 25 – $ 45 Bookings : BASS 131 246 Until May 26. \u201cLand&Sea\u201d, Nicki Bloom explains in her program notes, \u201cexists in the in-between space. In between consciousness and unconsciousness, knowing and not knowing\u201d. Which is where, it might be added, all music and most poetry comes from. Brink Productions newest work, directed by Chris Drummond and performed in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17,5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23","category-adelaide-companies","category-archive","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}