GROUPS C, D, E: DIVERSITY WITH FLAIR AND CONFIDENCE |
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Go Solo 2008 Created and performed by the graduands of Toi Whakaari | NZ Drama Schoo Directed by Jade Eriksen, Annie Ruth and Sophie Roberts at Te Whaea - SEEyD Space, Wellington From 21 Jul 2008 to 3 Jul 2008 [1hr 20 mins approx per group, no interval] Reviewed by Thomas LaHood, 28 Jul 2008 |
Reviewing the Toi Whakaari graduate-class Go Solo 08 season is a marathon effort, consisting as it does of twenty separate twenty-minute solos. Although these are grouped into sets of four, to see the full programme means watching around seven hours of performance. Last weekend I sat through four and a half of those seven hours (groups C, D, and E), and am now faced with the challenge of distilling the experience, without diluting the flavours that this smorgasbord contains.
Group C begins with Dawn Cheong's OLIN, an impressively choreographed, Buto influenced visitation from an insectoid god. Cheong's emergence from the chrysalis is a powerful opener and her mesmerising movements are well supported by dramatic lighting states and elemental sound effects. Sam Bunkall's Hideorama follows, merging the story of the Elephant Man with themes of modern day plastic surgery in a bold and surprising way. This piece also starts with an arresting image and Bunkall demonstrates a controlled use of mime techniques to serve the unconventional narrative.
Martine Gray is the odd one out in this group, her Playing House a minutely observed, multi-character naturalist piece set in a Berhampore flat. Gray's stark set is fleshed out with smooth scene transitions and an excellent use of space, building the drama to a simple but powerful ending. Closing the bill is Maria Walker, with Iro's Stall, an extraordinary character study performed without text. Walker creates a wonderful monster, a deeply deranged obsessive/ compulsive clown, using her beguiling face to its full expressive potential.
Group D introduces Esther Green, whose themes of eccentricity carry through into a truly individual performance. Green's text is great, and her delivery confident, and while the staging sometimes feels clumsy, Shoes for Flying and Finding is the work of a very strong creative voice. James Kupa follows with Invisible Piper, a time-travel mind-bender that references any number of films and, awkwardly, Stephen Townshend's solo performance of last year. Some nice ideas are investigated, but the physical sequences and characterisations are both under-developed.
Tansy Hayden's Hay Daze is a tautly written and fresh take on parochial themes. Hayden seemed nervous at the session I saw, but warmed into it, and her initial physical stiffness turns out to have a very good practical reason. Essentially a monologue, Hay Daze has some great one-liners and is a genuinely moving tale. Barnaby Fredric steals the show, though, in The Irrefutable Truth About Pet Food, an irreverent spoof soap opera with shades of Andy Kaufman and Mike Myers (in his heyday). Full of great characters and inventive sight gags, and with a moral ending that had the audience in fits, Fredric's piece harnesses the true power of comedy.
Group E is already underway as the audience enters, with Chelsie Preston Crayford's creation Valerie in full swing, greeting and chatting with them as they seat themselves. Something Blue is a tragicomic character study, and what comes through is Crayford's delight in the role. Although at times Crayford's youthful energy breaks the illusion of Valerie's age, and despite a slightly annoying affectation in her physicality, Crayford invests this fragile soul with a lot of love and with a phenomenal audience rapport. Melanie Firbank's Liberty is a heritage piece, based on a Scots ancestor deported to Australia for theft, and exhibiting the requisite calico peasant dress and a thick, unplaceable accent that seems halfway between Scots and Irish, with a pinch of Dutch. Firbank performs a very impressive solo stage fight, dragging herself along by her own hair, and finishes the story with a nice flourish.
Asher Smith's The Return of the Queen, by contrast, is a very contemporary story of a farmer disenfranchised by LOTR Tours that are gradually taking over his land. The great characterisations here recall Wheeler's Luck, but unlike that play there is no explicit championing of the rural poor over the rich developer. Sam Eagle is flogging a dead horse (or something like it) by resisting the tourist trade, and the conflict resolves in an uneasy compromise by way of some delightfully inventive black humour. Finally, Julia Croft makes good use of a face that is at once iconic and comical in Requiem, a poetic and highly theatrical performance that deals with some deep philosophical questions about responsibility and justice. Croft uses archetype and modulates her voice with skill to bring a real quality of storytelling to the work.
For many of these young actors, this season is the first time they will present theatre that truly originates from them as an individual; for some it will also be the last. It is a tribute to the calibre of Toi Whakaari as an institution that in this season, as in last year's, we are able to see such diversity of thought and expression presented with such flair and confidence.
For Thomas's review of Groups A & B, click here.
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Comments
| Kate | posted 28 Jul 2008, 04:45 PM |
| Hi Thomas, will you also be reviewing groups A and B? | |
| Thomas LaHood | posted 28 Jul 2008, 07:02 PM |
| Yes. I absolutely will. But not until next weekend. |