Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
The Overcoat
\nBased on stories by Nikolai Gogol
\nCreated by Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling
\nCanStage
\nAdelaide Festival Theatre
\nuntil 6 March.<\/p>\n
Riverland
\nby Scott Rankin
\nBased on paintings by Ian W. Abdulla
\nWindmill Performing Arts
\nThe Space
\nAdelaide Festival Centre
\nuntil 7 March<\/p>\n
The eyes have it for theatre at the Adelaide Festival. Toronto\u2019s CanStage even opens its accomplished performance of Gogol\u2019s sardonic story with projected titles – just like the movies. Without a word of dialogue, and splendidly designed and lit by Ken McDonald and Alan Brodie, the twenty two performers present a physical theatre piece reminiscent of Meyerhold\u2019s The Government Inspector and, with its giant props of machines and nib pens, Chaplin\u2019s Modern Times. <\/p>\n
Animated, and sometimes over-propelled, by dance and piano works by Shostakovich, we see a meek clerk (played with dignity and comic angularity by Peter Anderson) experience momentary happiness in his handsomely tailored overcoat before finding his life in worse tatters than ever. <\/p>\n
The pace and loneliness of early modern life is captured with scenes of frenetic streetcars and the hostile drudgery of offices and sewing rooms, but the imperatives of the production\u2019s spectacle keep us, for the most part, at an emotional remove from the Man\u2019s predicament, especially with the grafting of another Gogol story, Diary of a Madman, on the conclusion. Despite the wit of exchanging a coat for a straitjacket, I would have preferred Gogol\u2019s original ghostly ending – with its touch of triumphal revenge – to the complacent pessimism of CanStage\u2019s virtuosic, exacting but, ultimately, dramatically unsatisfactory parable. <\/p>\n
Anyone familiar with the vibrant colours and evocative details of Ngarrindjeri man, Ian W. Abdulla\u2019s paintings will be especially drawn to Windmill\u2019s new work, Riverland. Directed by the talented Wesley Enoch, with bold designs from Richard Roberts, this play for young audiences brings three generations of one family to a stretch along the Murray River – between Winkie and Berri – that has been the home and singular inspiration for Abdulla. <\/p>\n
Teenagers Luke and Milly ( two more well-judged performances from Luke Carroll and Ursula Yovich) are reluctant visitors to their family lands, they\u2019d rather be home with their friends and PlayStations. Even their Nana would rather watch Bert Newton, while their mother, an Aboriginal cultural consultant, has brought her laptop and chardonnay.<\/p>\n
Scott Rankin\u2019s script is ambitiously satiric at times but the central story of a young man lost in the flood of 1956 and Richard Roberts\u2019 use of the deep blues and broad vistas of Abdulla\u2019s paintings, enhanced by Matt Scott\u2019s buttery lighting and songs by Stuart Day, gives this work a simple strength. Wesley Enoch\u2019s warmly managed production, with its gossiping pelicans and heartfelt themes, reminds us that it is our loss if we think there is anything na\u00efve about na\u00efve art. Riverland will be seen at the Brisbane Festival in September and the Perth Festival next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimple strength betters virtuosity\u201d The Australian, March 9, 2004. p.14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Murray Bramwell The Overcoat Based on stories by Nikolai Gogol Created by Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling CanStage Adelaide Festival Theatre until 6 March. Riverland by Scott Rankin Based on paintings by Ian W. Abdulla Windmill Performing Arts The Space Adelaide Festival Centre until 7 March The eyes have it for theatre at the Adelaide Festival. Toronto\u2019s CanStage even opens its accomplished performance of Gogol\u2019s sardonic story with projected titles – just like the movies. Without a word of dialogue, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","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=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}