The Angel and The Red Priest
\nby Sean Riley
\nMusic direction by Gabriela Smart
\nOddbodies Theatre Company
\nAdelaide Centre for the Arts, Light Square.
\nMarch 2.<\/p>\n
Lovers and Haters
\nby Maureen Sherlock and Rob George
\nMusic by Quentin Eyers
\nProspect Productions and the Adelaide Festival
\nNorwood Town Hall, March 6.
\nTickets $40- $50. Bookings BASS 131 246
\nUntil March 16.<\/p>\n
Two new works in the Adelaide Festival dealing with historical figures have produced wildly different results. The priest in The Angel and the Red Priest is a young Antonio Vivaldi, in a Venetian orphanage where the young women are trained as singers to perform for the well-to-do. Writer Sean Riley has developed his text from a radio play and it features five musicians performing excerpts of Vivaldi\u2019s work. The central focus is on the shy, institutionalised Agata (Johanna Allen) who, smitten with the composer (Stephen Sheehan) and yearning for the wider world, looks to the music to set her free. Although appealingly designed by Dean Hills and given a Titian glow by Susan Grey-Gardner, the production is theatrically undeveloped as if it never reconciles the mix of music and narrative. And there is only an unsurprising inevitablity when Agata is abandoned by the man for all four seasons. <\/p>\n
There is little known about Vivaldi\u2019s life but a great deal is known about Don Dunstan even though, extraordinarily, he still awaits a proper biographer. Maybe that\u2019s the problem when Lovers and Haters takes on an ambitious slice of the former South Australian premier\u2019s controversial career. There is passing reference, all from Don himself, about his accomplishments, but much more to say about his foibles and indiscretions. Unlike Keating the Musical! which simplifies to succeed and wears its enthusiasm on its Armani sleeve, Lovers and Haters makes a number of disconcerting and unresolved shifts in tone and point of view. Writers Rob George and Maureen Sherwood might well say, that using the elements of an undergraduate revue, they are not taking their task too seriously but the effects of their flippancy can be serious anyway. <\/p>\n
There is great material to be found in the public life of Dunstan- the pink hot pants in Parliament, his trip to the sea shore to send back the predicted tidal wave, his forthright decision to sack his police commissioner and his unapologetic championing of the arts \u2013 both theatrical and culinary.Then there is the compromising saga of his relationship with John Ceruto. This, and his marriage to Adele Koh are explored in a mix of clunky dialogue and precariously performed song – and the effect, deliberate or not, is lampoon. In the lead, Todd McDonald looks the part, but fails to capture what impressed about Dunstan despite his flaws. If this was all there is, much less would be at stake. So this production will have its own lovers and haters. It is a sad irony, perhaps, that the only politician to deserve having a theatre named after him, should be depicted – in the Adelaide Festival itself – in such a ramshackle, if ultimately well-meaning, production. <\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
\u201cNarrative fail to nail their man\u201d The Australian, March 10, 2008, p.16. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Angel and The Red Priest by Sean Riley Music direction by Gabriela Smart Oddbodies Theatre Company Adelaide Centre for the Arts, Light Square. March 2. Lovers and Haters by Maureen Sherlock and Rob George Music by Quentin Eyers Prospect Productions and the Adelaide Festival Norwood Town Hall, March 6. Tickets $40- $50. Bookings BASS 131 246 Until March 16. Two new works in the Adelaide Festival dealing with historical figures have produced wildly different results. The priest 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":[5,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","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\/457","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=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}