Thursday, December 30, 2010

Losing the Ashes


To provide some context: while I watch tennis when it's on, will occasionally check the internet to see how Tottenham Hotspur are doing in the English Premier League, and keep an eye on how Saint Kilda are doing in the AFL, cricket – test cricket in particular – is the only sport I really follow, in the sense that I spend a lot of time not only watching it, but also reading about it and talking about it with other people.

I've played cricket1, so I've got a good understanding of how it all works – and, given just how esoteric the minutiae of the game is2, this is quite significant. I remember most of the terms for field positions, batting strokes and bowling techniques and, having spent a decent part of most of the last thirty or so summers watching the coverage on television, I've observed the ups and downs of the Australian team.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Movie review: Love and Other Drugs

I'm not usually a fan of romantic comedies, but this was one I'd decided I wanted to see – mostly because of my aforementioned fondness for Anne Hathaway.

Oh, and I'm going to talk about the plot – so consider this a spoiler alert.

Not really a romantic comedy

Now, I alluded to it being a romantic comedy and, based on the preview I'd seen, that's what I thought it was going to be. But, as TV Tropes tells us, trailers often lie; while it's being marketed as a romantic comedy, there's a more serious aspect to it.

A formula that doesn't quite work

What I'd interpreted from the preview was that the two lead characters were rival drug reps who started a casual relationship which then turned serious for the guy but not the girl – something along the lines of (500) Days of Summer.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Happy belated birthday, blog

Yesterday (December 25) was my blog's second birthday – which is just a little scary; it certainly doesn't feel like I've been putting my thoughts out there on teh interwebs for that long.

But I'm still enjoying it, and have no plans to stop anytime soon – quite the opposite, actually; I'm really hoping I can increase the frequency of my posts.

Of course, what I'd love is to see an increase in the number of pageviews, and more comments from people – so, if you do have something to say in response to something I've written, please feel free to say so; and if you think other people might enjoy reading it, use the buttons down below to share on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyway, I've got a couple of new posts in the pipeline and will – all things going to plan - have them up in the next few days.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Les Misérables (the book)

On my last trip to the library1 I found myself in the 'classics' section where I spotted a paperback copy of Les Misérables. I'd gone through the previous haul of books fairly quickly, at least in part to make up for the book-drought imposed during my rehearsal period for Suddenly At Home (as described here) and it occurred to me that I should borrow it, if for no other reason than I had the time.

Despite its literary significance — it's one of those books that always shows up on 'best of', 'most significant' and 'must read before you die under the wheels of a runaway stagecoach' lists — I'd never read it before. In fact, I don't think I'd even seen a copy of it before; while I'm sure a few people I know must own it, I've never noticed it in anyone's bookshelves.

I knew some of the story — between the number of references in pop culture, and having seen a brilliant production of the musical by Adelaide's Gilbert & Sullivan Society a few years back — but, considering the book is nearly 1200 pages long, with 130 or so more pages of notes2, there's obviously a lot more to it.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Thinking about Inking

So, recently I've been contemplating getting a tattoo.

Wait, what?

I'm serious — a tattoo. No, not the midget from Fantasy Island, or the thing in Edinburgh where people come from around the world to share their inexplicable fondness for marching in formation while inflicting playing (chiefly) bagpipe music1.

Yeah, I admit it's not exactly something I ever expected to be contemplating, given that I'm kind of past what I assume is the average age of a person who gets their first tattoo.

1Incidentally, some friends of mine from Adelaide went with a local pipe band a few years back and one of them ended up featuring quite prominently in the footage they shot.

Not an about—face, per se

It's not like I went to bed being against tattoos and woke up to find myself wanting one; I had thought about before, albeit quite a few years ago. But, despite it being something I was completely okay with – in principle – I never reached the point where I'd made up my mind about exactly what it was I wanted permanently etched into my skin.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Movie review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

My trend of doing movie reviews appears to continue; this week's review is of the first part of the final chapter of the Harry Potter series.

If you don't already know...

Then you've been living in a cave, or are an alien spy who hasn't done the research.

The last in the series of seven books in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows covers the last battle between the young wizard Harry Potter, and his mortal enemy, the dark wizard Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents when he was a baby and who's been trying to kill him ever since.

At this point in the story, Harry and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, have abandoned their final year studies at Hogwart's — the school for witchcraft and wizardry — in order to seek out and destroy the Horcruxes, the vessels Voldemort has used to house the pieces of his fragmented soul1, while attempting to avoid capture by their enemies, who've all-but taken over the wizarding world.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Movie review: Winter's Bone

I saw Winter's Bone last week, and it's definitely a film worth writing about.

The plot

Set in a tiny town in the mountainous region of Missouri known as the Ozarks, it's the story of Ree Dolly, who's 17 and, since her father – who has the dubious honour of being the community's most talented meth cooker - disappeared a few months back and her mother is almost completely incapacitated by depression, is the one looking after herself and her two younger siblings.

When the local sheriff arrives to warn Ree that her father's court date is due and that, because he used the value of their house to cover his bail bond, if he doesn't show they'll lose the house. So she sets out to find him – a decision that takes her into the complex, dangerous world of the area's criminal element.

However, it's not a plot-heavy film – but, like any good film that's not explicitly story-driven, it more than makes up for it in other ways.

Visually stunning


A lot of the screen time is devoted to shots of the countryside, and it's a captivating mix of stark natural beauty and the detritus left by people the wrong side of the poverty line. Ramshackle houses and junked cars are framed by high mountains and thick dense forests. As you might guess from how it sounds, it's by no means pretty – but there's a poignant beauty to it nonetheless.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The new tv

I bought a new television this week. It's something I've been meaning to do for months, but for assorted not-particularly-good reasons, hadn't managed to get around to doing.

Part of this was because I was still quite happy with my old tv, a 59cm Sony CRT I'd bought just after moving to Adelaide around 13 years ago. It was still working fine, had great picture quality – it was one of the best tvs around when I bought it; it cost nearly $1000 back in 1998 – so I wasn't in that much of a hurry to replace it.

However, on Sunday afternoon, I must have switched to the menu screen of my dvr and sat down at the pc to do some browsing1; when I got up and went back to the the lounge, I was surprised to find that the tv was off and the orange surge light2 on the powerboard it was connected to was a different colour than usual.

After unplugging and replugging things, and resetting the board, I switched the tv back on. It came on, but it was...weird. The colour was so washed-out as to be almost black and white, and the picture was warped; the vertical lines were all just slightly concave.

Something had, for want of a better word, 'blown'3, and the decision had been made for me.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

A very unengaging engagement

One of the biggest news stories this week was the announcement of Prince William's engagement to his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton. Imagine my annoyance, though, on switching over to Channel 10 at 6pm the following day to find that, instead of an episode of The Simpsons, there was a half-hour special about this supposed 'news'.

This prompted me to comment on Twitter thusly:


Then, only two hours later, I was further incensed when I saw that Channel 9 had pulled an episode of The Big Bang Theory for, not just a half-hour special, but a whole hour-long feature.

I went straight to Twitter to vent some more:



Monday, November 15, 2010

A new look

It's been nearly two years, and I've decided to change the layout of the blog - albeit to another fairly simple Blogger template. While I like the idea of making something that's uniquely me, I don't have either the HTML knowledge or access to the web design software to do anything more exciting. I'm pretty happy with this one, though I wouldn't mind the column being a bit wider - so if anyone knows how I might do that and wants to let me know that'd be great.

Somewhat annoyingly, I've got to go back and reformat some of my old posts 'cause I'd put some code in my old layout to allow the 'read more' function - and that hasn't carried over. On the plus side, I've upgraded to the latest version of the publisher, which has a button for that so I don't need to keep manually adding extra code to each post.

Anyway, hope you like the new look. Feedback and suggestions - genuine suggestions that is1 - are always welcome.

1Because I'm very aware that some of you possess the same juvenile sense of humour as, well, me.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Social Network

Changing my mind

This isn't a review I thought I'd be writing. When I first heard there was a movie about how Facebook was created I thought it perhaps one of the dopiest idea for a film that I'd ever heard. But, not that long before it opened, I saw the credits list: directed by David Fincher, screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross1.

Aaron Sorkin is the creator of The West Wing and writer of many of its best episodes, as well as the play/film A Few Good Men – meaning he's been responsible for some of the best dialogue I've ever heard.

I don't own too many films on dvd – I just don't watch movies at home – but two of them are Fincher films: Seven and Fight Club. And they're two of my favourite movies of all time. He's responsible for some other great films over the last few years, most recently the award-winning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Deadwood Season One

I've just finished watching the first season of Deadwood, a show that I'd heard about when it first came out in the US and received rave reviews. It was probably on one of the pay tv channels here not long after, but since I don't have that – I watch enough tv as it is, and can't justify spending the money – I only got to watch it when ABC2 picked it up and started showing it earlier this year1.

1I had contemplated buying it on dvd, but hadn't gotten around to it.


If you didn't already know...

The show is set in the town of the same name in what is now the US state of South Dakota, in the 187os. The Civil War is over but there is still fighting between the American settlers and the Native American traditional owners. Gold mining is a boom industry, and in South Dakota at the time a rash of discoveries led to what was called the Black Hills Gold Rush. Life in the gold mining settlements isn't easy, and the desire to strike it rich has led tough, desperate people to the region to seek their fortunes.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Movie review: The Town

I hadn't been to the movies as much over the last month or so; between the play, the busy schedules of both myself and my movie-going associates1, and the fact there hadn't been that many movies come out in that time meant that the usual weekly trip to the cinema for some big-screen action didn't happen.

While I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, it's going to be pretty much impossible to not give away a little. Thee be warned.

1There are two, Chris and Miriam.

An easy decision

One film I'd been waiting to see, ever since I saw the preview for it a few months back, was The Town. It was about – well, at least what I gathered what it was about; as TV Tropes will tell you, never trust a trailer – a gang of bank robbers in Boston and the people trying to catch them. That alone had me somewhat interested; I like movies set in Boston – Good Will Hunting, The Departed and Mystic River are three in particular – and the idea of smart criminals always intrigues me (Heat, for example).

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Sweeter Than The Radio


My recent change of transportation from bus to car has meant – as I noted in the post on the topic – that I'm now listening to whole albums again. And this he led to me digging through my boxes of cds to find suitable listening material, since I'd pretty much transferred the majority of my music to my pc (both for listening and for transferring to my mp3 player) a few years back, leaving only a few of the 'favourites' on hand to listen to on the system in my lounge room.

One album that I happened across and have played in the car a couple of times since I started at Kidman Park is Sweeter Than the Radio, the 1999 album by Australian band Icecream Hands.

Despite having been around for a while, I'd never heard of them – or heard any of their songs – until Triple J started playing tracks from Sweeter than the Radio. But it didn't take me hearing too many songs before I realised how much I liked their stuff. But I didn't buy the album for a few years because my flatmate Andrew had it so I had access to it pretty much whenever I wanted it. When we stopped sharing a house, though, I bought a copy for myself.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Ella Enchanted, Anne Hathaway & Queen

One Saturday evening a couple of weekends back I found one the channels was showing Ella Enchanted, and – just like the first time I saw it – I ended up sitting down and watching it the whole way through. And I realised, watching it the second time, that I like it so much that I can't not write about it.

If you've seen it then you'll know it's by no standards high art; it's a variation on the Cinderella story (hence 'Ella') only in this version, Ella has the additional burden of having been cursed by an incompetent Fairy Godmother (hence 'Enchanted') to always do whatever anyone tells her to do – no matter what it is.

It gets a bit more complicated when the prince has an uncle, currently the regent, who is – of course – evil (he's a tyrant who's oppressing the non-human races) and planning to do away with the prince in order to usurp1 the throne. Everything comes together when Ella attempts to find her incompetent fairy godmother, is saved from ogres by the prince (and, of course they fall for each other), befriends an elf (who wants to be a lawyer), and ends up, when he discovers her curse, getting used by the evil uncle as a Manchurian Candidate-style assassin.

Without going into detail – seriously, see it for yourself; it's worth it – everything turns out all right in the end. It's a family movie after all.

So yeah, it's not the story that's the real draw of this film – it's everything else. There's a real charm to it, in a similar way to The Princess Bride – though without being quite as awesome2. A great cast – including Cary Elwes, Joanna Lumley, Steve Coogan (as the voice of a snake) and Minnie Driver – some excellent writing, songs (more on that later) and some well-integrated social commentary.

And, of course, it has Anne Hathaway.

1I don't get to use that word anywhere near often enough. I guess I need to talk about monarchs more often.
2Few are. It's one of my all-time favourites – definitely in my top five.


Anne Hathaway

I first saw her in a US television series, Get Real, that was on late at night a few years back3. It was a while after that that I ended up seeing her breakthrough role in The Princess Diaries (it wasn't something I was drawn to see at the cinema) and realised just how much ability she had to carry a film – considering that it was a movie I don't expect I'd otherwise have enjoyed had she not been in it4.

While I'm not a die-fan who's religiously seen every thing she's appeared in5 – the sequel to The Princess Diaries I avoided since it just didn't appear to have the charm of the original – I have seen most of the films she's starred in: The Devil Wears Prada and Rachel Getting Married, and those in which she had smaller parts like Nicholas Nickleby, Brokeback Mountain and Hoodwinked! (not a small part per se but it was a voice-over).

There are a few I haven't seen but want to – Becoming Jane, Get Smart, Passengers – and one I won't go near even though she's in it, i.e. Bride Wars6.

And yes, I think she's gorgeous. She really is. Just jaw-droppingly stunning. At the cast party for my last show she came up in conversation7 it was remarked that 'she has big teeth'; my response was 'yes, yes she does' – because a) she does, and b) I like big teeth.

But that's not enough; we're talking Hollywood here and simple attractiveness isn't unusual – there's just something else. She certainly can act – her performance in, and subsequent awards and nominations for Best Supporting Actress for, Rachel Getting Married confirmed that – and just has that ability (star quality, I suppose) to make every scene she's in worth watching.

This I'd already established from what I'd seen her in before. But what I hadn't realised when I watched Ella Enchanted was that she can also sing. A quick visit to her Wikipedia page told me why; she'd been good enough to be in the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus, presumably something you don't just walk into.

Obviously this had slipped my mind when I was racking my brain to work out the voice in Once Upon a Time in Springfield the episode of The Simpsons where Krusty is forced to add a female character, Princess Penelope, in order to appeal to the younger female demographic. In one scene Princess Penelope sings part of a stunning version of Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's; I then expected to see a singer's name in the credits and was shocked when I saw Anne Hathaway – at least for a split second until I remembered what I'd heard and read.

Oh, and I wasn't the only one impressed by that. She won the Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for it.

She puts it all together - grace, comic timing and singing - when she helps Hugh Jackman out by singing with him in the opening number of the 2009 Oscars ceremony; it may be the cutest thing I've ever seen.

And this all leads me to the third topic in today's blog trilogy. If you haven't seen Ella Enchanted you won't know that she sings two songs in it: Don't Go Breaking My Heart (originally by Elton John and Kiki Dee) with the rest of the cast over the end credits and, during the film (at a giants' wedding), Queen's Somebody to Love.

A song I had not heard in many years – but which, a long time ago, I was probably listening to at least a couple of times a week.

Which – rather obviously – brings me to part three: Queen

3Which also featured a young Jesse Eisenberg, currently getting rave reviews for his portrayal of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.
4Though there is one scene where she walks down the stairs of her house past a huge promo poster for Elliott Smith's
Figure 8 album – I was in awe.
5I don't really have actors who I follow in that way. Directors, yes; actors, no.
6I've never been inspired to see Kate Hudson in anything; the only reason I even know who she is is because of
Almost Famous.
7I believe that
Transformers 2 was being defended for having had Megan Fox in it; I disagreed, saying that it was still a piece of shit, and added that Megan Fox pales in comparison to Anne Hathaway. Because, well, she does. Duh.

Queen

A while back I wrote about how my musical tastes changed after I was exposed to Triple J and the heady world of indie/alternative music; prior to that I listened to very different music from what I listen to now, and number one amongst my pre-revelation bands was Queen8.

I actually distinctly remember the first time I heard Bohemian Rhapsody; I was a friend's place – out in the back shed where we were could play our nerdy role-playing games in peace – and it came on. I believe my comment was something along the lines of 'What is this? It's like Gilbert and Sullivan, but with guitars9.' I know I'd heard other Queen songs before – I'd actually won a record several years earlier for knowing the words to Radio Ga Ga – but I'd never been struck by one before.

Eventually I heard more Queen and – since this was slightly pre-cd – I got my hands on some copied cassettes, as did the rest of my group of friends. Queen then became pretty much the standard music of our gaming sessions10 and, for me, a major contributor to the soundtrack of my last few years of high school.

When I bought my first cd player I bought four cds; amongst them was Queen's Greatest Hits 1. Eventually I realised there were album tracks I liked as well, and I eventually started to buy albums; by the time I stopped I'd added Greatest Hits 2, Innuendo, The Miracle, The Game, The Works, A Kind of Magic, Live at Wembley '86 and the Flash Gordon soundtrack.

So, yeah – I was definitely a Queen fan. Even now there are only one or two artists whose catalogue I have more of. I remember watching Rage11 one morning back in early 1991 and seeing a video I hadn't seen before; there was just something about it that just screamed Queen, so I said to myself 'this is the new Queen song', and it was, Innuendo. Oh, and I hadn't heard it either – I don't know if it got any airplay, but even if it had it wouldn't have been on any radio station until well after Rage started playing it.

Since the exposure to the wider range of music which would eventually shift my tastes was still a few years away, I was still a Queen fan in 1991 – though slightly less so than before; by then they had been supplanted by another hugely successful UK act, Def Leppard12.

But Queen were still important to me and, as such, I will always remember November 24th as one of the saddest days of my life. It's one of those very few of what psychologists call 'flashbulb memories' that I have; I was in the car with my sister-in-law and the news reader said [something like] 'Freddy Mercury, flamboyant lead singer of Queen, has died of complications from AIDS'.

I did not take the news well. Yes, I cried – even back then I took my music seriously – though there were mitigating circumstances: the car I was in at the time was about two hours' drive away from Bowen, (my home town) because I was leaving town, leaving the only place I've ever lived, along with my life and my friends – so I was, as you can probably imagine, in a fairly emotional state. I probably would have had a bad reaction had it not already been one of the worst days of my life; the terrible timing made it all that much worse.

Still, I had other things to think about – a whole new place to live (Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast) and explore; going off to University in a few months' time – so I didn't exactly spend too much time mired in melancholy. And while the walls of my college room featured at least two Queen posters – the iconic one of Freddie in the yellow jacket and white singlet, and the 'four heads' shot from the video of Bohemian Rhapsody – I eventually found other bands to listen to.

8Not as lame then as you might think. Since there wasn't any truly good music available, liking Queen wasn't really frowned upon. Seriously.
9It probably wasn't quite that witty, but it's my anecdote. Oh, and I knew Gilbert and Sullivan because my parent had a box set on LP.
10There was also Meat Loaf. But that's another story. Oh, and Genesis – but that's as much as I'll admit to.
11For the non-Australian readers: Rage is an iconic music video program. See here.
12Oy. I know I'm going to regret admitting that. I don't know what I was thinking, I really don't.


The memory remains

But a fondness for the music remains. I react whenever Queen is referenced in popular culture – e.g. not all that many weeks ago, on an online forum, I was praising the cleverness of the Queen jokes in Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's collaboration Good Omens – or if a Queen song is played or covered in a film or on television, like it was (so appropriately) in Moulin Rouge when Ziegler sang The Show Must Go On.

So when you make a film that combines an excellent, quirky concept13 like Ella Enchanted, cast Anne Hathaway in the lead, and then in it have her sing a great cover version of one of my favourite Queen songs, it's going to have some impact.

But why wonder whether or not I'm making a good call? See (and hear) Anne Hathaway singing Somebody To Love and judge for yourself:



13The film, though, is considered a less-than-impressive adaptation of the original book – which I find a bit strange; perhaps I should read it and find out why.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Suddenly At Home

I've just finished my most recent show, Suddenly At Home, with the Tea Tree Players (hereafter known as TTP). It's been an interesting experience, so I thought it was worth writing about.

There's really no way I can discuss the show at any length without giving away major plot points, so this whole thing really is one big spoiler. However, it's not exactly a well-known or commonly produced show, so I don't think that's a good enough excuse for not reading my blog1.

1I could really use the boost to my stats. Google Analytics has made me much more interested in such things.

Auditions

I auditioned for the play back in July just after my last show, Tempest, finished. I'd heard of it because my friend and fellow ATG reviewer Fran Edwards was directing and, when I'd mentioned some time back that I was interested in doing a show up at TTP, since I'd never done one with them before.

Fran had given me the script before the auditions and I'd had a flip through beforehand, and found there were two characters I was interested in: Glenn, the lead; and Sam, the – for want of a better description – interfering ex-boyfriend of Glenn's wife, Maggie. Glenn was by far the larger part; he's in all six scenes and off-stage for only 13 (or so) pages of the 62-page script. And most of the time he's on stage he's talking.

Given that I'd never played a lead role before, and have – despite my experience with and enthusiasm for theatre – an aversion for learning vast numbers of lines, I was angling for the smaller role of Sam and actually tried harder in reading for him than I did for Glenn. So I was a little surprised when I got the call from Fran asking me if I wanted to play not Sam but Glenn.

Decisions, decisions. To be offered a lead role in theatre is a big deal; the combination of the ego boost and the vague, lingering fear that another such opportunity may never arise again can exert some serious pressure.

But there was a conflict – work. I'd just found out I was being seconded to another team, shifting from the city office to Kidman Park (meaning more travel time) and adjusting to doing an almost completely different set of tasks from what I was used to. To throw the pressure and workload of a lead role on top of that struck me as something I should be wary of, since I wouldn't want to undermine either (or both) my work or my performance.

But the lure of the lead won out, and I took the role of Glenn.

A somewhat different kind of play

Spoilers ahoy.

One of the other factors affecting my decision was that I'd never done a play like Suddenly At Home. It's a very English kind of a whodunit thriller from the 70s (we reset it in the 90s; a shame 'cause I would have like to have sported an era-appropriate moustache) and, while that's not necessarily the kind of play that companies put on very often, I've always been keen to try to do as many kinds of shows as I can.

However, the script wasn't the best I'd ever read. The dialogue – a product of its time – was some of the least natural-sounding I'd ever encountered. And while certain aspects of the plot were very well-thought-out, other parts weren't as convincing; the ending in particular was very clunky and seemed like a case of having been thrown together in order to make a deadline.

But such is the life of the actor. Unless you've got the playwright handy and can convince him/her to change the script, or you've got an uncharacteristically flexible director who'll allow you to do it yourself, you've not really got a lot of choice.

It's the story of Glenn Howard, who murders his wealthy wife Maggie – this, however, happens fairly early on in the play, so it's less accurate to describe it as a whodunit as it as to say it's a does-he-get-away-with-it. There's a twist (of course) – it turns out he's having an affair with Sheila, a heroin-addicted actress friend of his wife's, and she's his accomplice in the murder. But the twists don't stop there; it turns out that Glenn's also worked his charm on Ruth, the au pair; together she and Glenn are also plotting to do away with Sheila once the heat from Maggie's death is off.

Glenn, therefore, is an interesting character to play, since he's equal parts charming, devious, manipulative and lethal.

Complicating the matters are Maggie's ex-boyfriend Sam, thriller-writer and crime buff, whom Glenn has attempted to frame for the murder; Maggie's sister Helen, whose helpfulness complicates matters for Sam; the more perceptive-than-he-seems Inspector Appleton; and the mysterious Superintendent Remick.

I was going to have my work cut out for me.

Partners in Crime

I'd be working with a mix of people I'd worked with before, some who I'd seen in shows, and others who were new to me.
  • Jayne Kearney as Maggie, Glenn's wife – I'd met Jayne through a mutual friend but never seen her in a show before.
  • Stacey Hendy as Helen, Maggie's sister – Stacey has done plenty of theatre, but I'd never (to my knowledge) seen any of the shows she's been in, nor had a I met her before.
  • Selena Carr as Sheila, Glenn's secret junkie actress lover and partner in crime – Sel's an old friend and we appeared together in the Burnside production of Much Ado About Nothing.
  • Alastair Collins as Sam Blaine, Maggie's writer ex-boyfriend – I'd seen him in a number of shows, including Mixed Salad's award-winning production of The History Boys, as well as a couple of TTP shows I'd reviewed.
  • Catlin Mackintosh as Ruth, au pair to Maggie and yet another of Glenn's secret lovers – I'd never seen Catlin before, but neither has anyone else; this was her first show.
  • John Matsen as Inspector Appleton – I'd appeared with John in the Marie Clark production of Oliver! in which he played Mr Brownlow.
  • Adrian Heness as Superintendent Remick – I'd not met Adrian before, but I'd seen him on stage when I reviewed the TTP production of Thumbs.
Oh, and stage manager was Drew Webb, who I've known for a few years and worked with backstage a couple of times up at Northern Light.

Lines. Lots of lines

While by glancing through the script I'd seen how many lines Glenn has in the play, I don't think I'd grasped just how much work I had in front of me until I'd done what I always do once I've got lines to learn, which is type them all out into a Word document2.

The count was over six and a half thousand words. And yes, if you're wondering, that is a lot to learn by theatre standards. Of course there are bigger roles, but it's by a substantial margin the largest role I've ever had, probably as much to learn as the last half-dozen shows I've done put together.

But the volume of lines was a problem in more ways than one. Knowing your words is only one part of acting; you also need to create a character3, and that also takes time and – for want of a better word – experimentation.

I work full time, so there's a reasonably large chunk of my day made unavailable already. When I'm not at work tends to be spent seeing theatre and films, watching television, conversing (and arguing) with people over the internet, reading, listening to music and – of course – writing. Oh, and from time to time I put myself in the company of other people; that is, however, a somewhat declining hobby for a number of reasons I won't elaborate on at the moment.

However, faced with this Herculean task, I realised that I would have to give up – or, at least, curtail to some extent – some of my activities in order to find the much-needed time required to cram the lines into my head well enough that I'd be able to remember them come performance time.

As much as it pains me to write this, I have to admit it that it was reading which was the first to suffer. In recent times I've been reading less than I had in previous years, mostly because I'd had some sleeping issues, and one of the things I'd read (ironically enough) was that reading in bed can contribute to that. So, I'd stopped that, meaning that the majority of reading I did was on the bus to and from work.

But I realised that that time would be very useful for line-learning since it was completely distraction free, unlike home where I'd be tempted by either the television, the bookcase or the computer(s). Of course, going over lines isn't something you can do with music on – well, okay, you might; I can't because it's too distracting – so I had to forgo that particular pleasure as well. But it wasn't such a big deal because there were other opportunities to listen to music – in the car, at the gym – while reading was pretty much out for the duration.

I can't think of a two-month period of my life where I've read fewer books than during this time, even during exams at uni4. And considering I've on occasions averaged finishing two novels a week5 that's a significant drop.

But that's okay; as they say, you have to suffer for your art.

2I'm of the opinion that this helps with line-learning by putting the information into a different part of my brain from the part that lines go to when learnt by other methods. Plus I can print out the longer and/or troublesome parts and put them places – cubicle walls at work and, in this case, a display folder that I could take with me in the car to study when I got the opportunity.
3This is because, at least in the majority of cases, the person you're playing isn't very much like you; they will almost certainly talk differently – both in terms of accent and intonation – and move differently from how you do, plus you have to at least try and understand why the character is doing what he/she is doing; you're always far more convincing when you do.
4Hey, I still did okay. Well, most of the time. Not that it I think it made much difference either way.
5For a while I actually kept count, mostly to keep track of books I'd read by authors who seemed to choose unhelpful titles; there's nothing more annoying that getting home from the library and sitting down with a book only to find out it's one I've already read.


A question of intimacy

I won't mince words: in the play, Glenn kisses people. A lot. It's perfunctory with Helen, his sister-in-law; with his wife and his mistresses, however, it's a bit more enthusiastic.

And this isn't necessarily something everyone finds easy to do. I don't have a problem with it in principle, but what does put me off is that the person I'm kissing doesn't really want to be doing it – either (or both) because of the act itself or the idea of doing it with me6.

Interestingly enough, the last time I'd had to kiss someone (Much Ado About Nothing) it was the same person I'd kissed the first time I'd had to kiss someone (The Matchmaker), so we didn't really worry too much about it; the first time, though, we'd had a bit of a discussion about it and then just did it in rehearsals without any real dramas.

But we – those members of the SAH cast with whom I'd be locking lips – hadn't gotten around to talking about it by the time Fran told us we had to stop kissing air and start kissing each other. It wasn't, however, that big a deal; we all worked out what we needed to do and did it.

6I don't consider that to be particularly unreasonable.

Getting into character

As I noted earlier, learning lines is only part of the job of acting; there's also the problem of character. And since Glenn, devious serial adulterer and cold-blooded killer, isn't really all that much like me, I had quite a lot of work to do.

First up was the accent. Glenn would need an English accent, but what kind? It couldn't be a regional one, if for no other reason that, despite being reasonably good at picking them, up I'm not confident I could maintain any of the more distinct ones (e.g. Liverpool or northern) for an entire show. Well, not at least with the limited time I had thanks to the line-learning demands.

Glenn says uses expressions like 'old boy' and 'old man', and that's a bit of a giveaway to how he would speak. So I tried a few minor variations around the sort of generic, non-specific English accent that I've used before. It was less formal than the one I used as Alonso in Tempest – since he was, after all, a king – but it was still quite clipped.

It's hard to explain exactly what that means in terms of different words without me tracking down all the html codes for the proper pronunciation symbols. One key one, though, is how I pronounced day-names – e.g. Tuesday comes out more like 'Tuesdy'; then there's where the stress on words went – when Glenn says 'would you like a drink?'7, the 'ink' in drink is much more elongated than it would be were I saying it in my normal accent.

After a few goes during rehearsals I was fairly happy with how it sounded.

Next was trying to get my head around how to make Glenn seem believable – or, more accurately, make me seem believable as Glenn. He's a man who's charming enough to have a wife and two mistresses, with both of the latter sufficiently swayed by his personality to be an accomplice to murder.

Not something I can really relate to. As I said to the cast, if I knew how to do what Glenn does then I'd be dead by now, either from sexual exhaustion, at the hands of a jealous husband/boyfriend, or an heroic number of venereal diseases.8 So, trying to make myself appear to be even vaguely able to convey that kind of charm was going to take some effort.

Movement was the first part, since confidence always shows through in things like posture. Then there was the composure – Glenn is almost always sure of what he's doing, and that's got to come through as well. He's rarely ever hesitant, unless it's a deliberate ploy. Getting that sort of mindset going takes a lot of effort, especially for me.

While I think I managed to get there eventually, I don't think it was quite there on opening night – which I'll talk more about later.

7Which he says rather a lot, actually.
8Or possibly all three.


Lacking sleep

It was all going well, but as we got more into it – it really does change as you get more comfortable with the words and the moves and the emotions and characters – the harder I was finding it to get to sleep after rehearsals. And I don't cope well with diminished sleep: it makes me short-tempered and irritable9, it interferes with my gym-going, and it contributes to the weakening of my often unhelpful immune system.

9Okay, more so. My current coworkers haven't seen it yet, but several of my former cube neighbours have.

Performance

Because we'd been rehearsing in the theatre the whole time we didn't have the standard bump-in (i.e. move everything – set, props, costume etc. – to the theatre) day; instead, we just had a normal rehearsal. Oh, except for the fact my parents – who were down from Queensland – were there. That was a bit weird; they've not seen me do any theatre since high school, and this is just a little different from that.

We had another rehearsal Monday night, and then final dress/preview on Tuesday night. And then it was all business. I was worried because I felt under-rehearsed - reasonably inevitable considering the role and the number of lines I had to keep in my head.

Opening night wasn't the best, mostly because we weren't prepared for audience reaction. It's really not a comedy, but they seemed to be laughing the whole way through. This wasn't so bad at some points but at others – the one at which I was murdering my stage wife with a cushion in particular – it was more than a little off-putting.

I don't think we were quite ready by then; Friday night, two nights later, we were far better. And I think that's reflected in the review (you can read it here), especially the part about me. I wasn't as confident as I needed to be, and that showed.

As the performances went on, though, we got better and better. One of the things I've always found about theatre is that there are always things, little things, you don't think of until you're out there with an audience in front of you. How and when to deliver a line, what expression to have on your face, how to hold a prop – that sort of thing.

One thing I hit on was how much 'acting' Glenn does to convey his sorrow regarding Maggie's death – for those he's trying to fool at least. In front of Sheila, of course, he's normal; there are a couple of scenes where he 'switches' his mourning on and off as easily as he changes pants10. One way I thought of to do this was pure serendipity: I spotted the eyedrops Maggie used in an earlier scene, and realised that if Glenn really wanted to appear upset, maybe he'd use them to fake having red eyes. You know, from weeping11.

10Which he does a lot, much to my annoyance - since I hate costume changes.
11Yeah, he's really that awful. Or maybe I am. It's hard to tell sometimes.


Suddenly it's over – and time to reflect

The end of most shows involves a mixture of emotions. Sadness because it's fun doing a show in which I'm enjoying myself; relief because I want to get back to doing all the other things I like doing that performing gets in the way of – reading, going to the movies, that sort of thing. During the run of a show I'm almost always tired and that annoys me. Plus, to be perfectly honest, I get bored with a show after a while – and this show has had a longer run (11 performances) than any other I've done before (9 at most prior to this).

As a result, the matinee on the second Saturday was possibly the most trying experience I've had in theatre; to keep focus enough to perform at anywhere near the required level was more difficult than it's ever been before. I don't think I stuffed anything up per se, but I was most certainly not as 'on' as I was in the other performances. I think that it was only the combination of the final night excitement (for want of a better term) and the fact my friend Chris was coming to see it that kept it from being as wretched as the previous Saturday night.

One thing I did realise from the experience, though, is that playing the lead in a show – at least an amateur show – isn't really all that different from any other role. I didn't really think it would be, but you never know. But, despite what you might suspect about being a lead, there's no glamour and no special treatment, just a lot more work and pressure.

But it's been a great experience. I've had sizeable roles before, but never a lead with as much stage time or as many lines as this; it's taught me just how much time and effort is required for that kind of part. I got to play yet another different kind of character in a genre of theatre I'd not done before and work in a new space with people I hadn't (mostly) worked with before.

Oh and one other thing I learned? The Red Bull shot (the concentrated, non-carbonated one) may be the vilest substance I've ever had the misfortune to have in my mouth. If normal Red Bull can be considered to taste like cat's piss – and I believe it can – then the shot version tastes like it's had another animal's urine added to it; my guess is camel. An unhealthy camel that's been in the desert for a few too many days.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

State Theatre Company SA Season 2011

I missed the launch of the STCSA 2011 season because I was getting ready to go on stage in my production of Suddenly At Home (which I'll blog about very soon); however, as soon as could I got online to see what they'd put together.

To say I was blown away was an understatement, which means it's definitely something I want to write about. I've never liked the sound of enough shows in a season to consider subscribing before - especially considering I'm likely to end up reviewing on or two - but this year I will, simply because I don't want to miss out.

Check out the STCSA webpage here for fuller descriptions; I'm just going to make a quick comment about my initial reaction to each of the shows.

The Misanthrope

Brink Productions had tremendous success with their production of The Hypochondriac last year (I saw it and it was stunning); it looks like that has inspired STCSA to put on a Molière of their own. With a cast including Caroline Mignone - who was brilliant in God of Carnage - and Renato Musolino, who I've liked in everything I've seen him in (Blue/Orange, True West, King Lear) it should be very good indeed.

A great start to the year.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Another play I've wanted to see for years but haven't. I love Shakespeare (having done four and am hoping for a fifth next year - fingers crossed) but am also someone who likes seeing it taken off the pedestal and played with.

Since it's going to star Adelaide theatre's current poster boy Nathan O'Keefe - who I saw in Man Covets Bird this year; review here - it's also a must see. O'Keefe is a stunning actor and extremely versatile, so it should suit him down to the ground.

November

David Mamet. A multiple award-winning playwright and creator of such works as American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross and Oleanna. Noted for his love of coarse language and harsh characters and situations.

November isn't a play I'm familiar with, but it's Mamet - so I reckon it's worth checking out. Oh, and Australian film, television and stage legend Garry McDonald is appearing, which just makes it all that much more enticing.

Speaking in Tongues

An Australian play by Andrew Bovell, Speaking in Tongues was the basis for the award-winning 2001 film Lantana, which I consider one of the best - if not the best - Australian film I've seen, so this is one I'm definitely going to see.

The cast includes Lizzy Falkland from God of Carnage.

Three Sisters

Another legendary play, this time a Chekhov. I've not seen much of his work, other than the Adelaide Rep's production of the collection of short plays, The Sneeze, which was on last year - and which I (unsuccessfully) auditioned for. But I'm not going to hold that against him.

Since the cast includes Geoff Revell - who I believe I've seen on stage more times than any other actor I can name - and Peter O'Brien, it should be another great production.

Buried Child

Another play I'm unfamiliar with, but by a playwright I'm always keen to see more of - this time Sam Shepard, whose play True West I saw - and thoroughly enjoyed - during this year's Fringe.

Buried Child won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979

Holding the Man

The final show for the year is another I'm unfamiliar with - but this time it's not by anyone I am familiar with so I can't really comment on it much at all, other than to say it's got Geoff Revell in it, so chances are I'll go to see it on that alone.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Roller Derby Grand Final

Last weekend I went to the Adelaide Roller Derby grand final double header in the Jubilee Pavilion at the Wayville showgrounds.

Some background

As I noted in my blog post on rollerskating a couple of weeks back, I was aware of the existence of the local roller derby competition, but not much more than that. So, I was going in there not knowing what to expect. It'd sold out a couple of days beforehand, but my friend Jen (also mentioned in the rollerskating post) had tracked down a ticket for me; she was going to be there since it was her team, the Road Train Rollers, who were playing in the grand final.

Gates opened at 2pm. I'd had rehearsal for my play that morning so I had to go straight from the theatre up in Tea Tree Gully down to Wayville – about a forty minute drive – and we didn't finish until 1 o'clock so it was getting fairly close to opening by the time I got there. I hadn't thought this'd be a problem, but when I got there I realised it was: the line was huge, snaking around outside the pavilion for hundreds of meters.

Turns out they'd sold something like 3000 tickets - which is brilliant for the sport, but less wonderful for the fans waiting to go inside. And, since I hadn't foreseen this, I'd neglected to bring my otherwise omnipresent mp3 player with me, so I had to stand around in the unenviable state of musical deprivation – something I really don't experience very often1.

Anyway, after about half an hour or so of trudging at a glacial pace toward the doors, I got inside. Jen was on the gate so I had a quick word to her and wandered off to find a spot. While I was doing that, though, I ran into my friends Paul and Kelly, who were there because Paul is an exec for RipItUp2, who are one of the sponsors. They had a spare pass to the sponsor's section, which meant I got a spot up in the bleachers, rather than sit in the crowd.

So I sat chatting with them for a while before Jen found me and told me I could sit with her and the team – right in front of the track section. And then it all started.

1And will do my darndest not to experience again.
2Adelaide's best street magazine; check out the website.


The game itself

So, I got a crash course in roller derby; I'd better pass this information on if the rest of what I write is going to make sense.

On an oval-shaped space (it probably has a technical name, but I don't recall anyone mentioning it) you have two teams competing for points in two thirty-minute halves, played in segments called 'jams', each lasting a maximum of ninety seconds. The teams – five on each (at least to begin with; there can be fewer if players have been sent off for incurring penalties) – have two positions, the jammer (one only) and the blockers (as many as four).

The blockers of both teams combined constitute 'the pack', and it's the job of the jammers to get from behind the pack – they start twenty yards behind - through the pack and out in front. Points are scored when the jammer laps the pack; one point is given for each member of the opposing team the jammer passes. And, as noted, they've got the length of the jam (ninety seconds) to get around the opposing team as many times as possible to score points.

But it's not quite as simple as that. Strategy is important; the jammers needs to get points, but it's also important to do what they can do to keep the other team's jammer from scoring. The jammer who's the furthest ahead of the pack is called the 'lead jammer', and they have the power to call off the jam whenever they choose to.

This sometimes happens quite early on; if the speed of the pack is such that the jammer decides they won't have the opportunity to score very many points – or that the opposition jammer would score too many – they can call it off.

Then there are the penalties – and I can't really explain those, 'cause I never quite worked it out. But there are fairly strict rules on what you can and can't do, and where you can do it (one I did pick up on is that you aren't allowed to do too much pushing and shoving if you aren't in the pack; then there's going out of bounds, which if it's done by the jammer means - I think - they're ineligible to score any points in that jam) and the squad of umpires are keeping constant watch for infractions.

The penalty aspect can make a huge difference – especially if it's your jammer who's been sent off; if that happens then the opposition jammer can go on scoring points all the way through to the end of the jam.

For more – and probably better – information, check out the Adelaide Roller Derby webpage that explains it all.

One more thing: one of the great aspects of Roller Derby is that all the players (and, apparently, the umpires - at least I hope so, otherwise there really is someone in Adelaide who's actually named 'Rowan de Boate') use humorous pseudonyms as their 'player names' - at least, it's great if you're a pun-loving word-nerd like me...

The matches

First up was the playoff for third, which was between the Salty Dolls and the Mile Die Club3. Of course, what I would have done had I realised I'd want to write about the match in detail is take notes. But I didn't, so I can't really give too much insight into what happened. But it was a good game, with the lead changing throughout, and it came down to the last couple of jams. However, the Mile Die Club held on and managed to get their first win of the season - when it mattered most.

Stars for the Salty Dolls included Radical Edward, Kissy Suzuki and captain Melvin Star; for the Mile Die Club it was Pistola Balboa, Push My Toosh and their captain, Raw Dog.

I'd watched the first half with Jen and the Road Train Rollers – which was handy, 'cause I could get my many questions answered – but at half time they went off to get ready for their game. So I went back to the stands and sat with Paul and Kelly, and from there watched the second half of the first game and all the second.

That match – the grand final between Jen's team, the Road Train Rollers and the Wild Hearses – was even better than the first. There was a noticeable increase in skill level, and the fact that it was the grand final meant (presumably) there was a lot more motivation.

It was also a lot more physical. I was actually expecting it to be more violent in general, but it wasn't; that's probably practical, since if it'd been like I'd thought it was going to be they'd have to be stretchering players off left right and centre. And that's also the reason for the harsh penalties and constant vigilance from the umpires. In fact, there was - as far as I can recall - only one bad fall during the whole afternoon. Despite the lack of serious injury, though, there was a lot more pushing and shoving in the second match.

The crowd also got into it more - though there was no shortage of shouting in the Salty Dolls vs. Mile Die Club match, it really ramped up for the playoff for first. Since they have a scoreboard with the current jammers' names on it - in case you're too far from the action to read the names on the players' backs - so there's a plenty of opportunity to cheer for your favourites (or jeer those you dislike) when it's their turn to jam.

At no point was this more obvious than when the Wild Hearses' star jammer Barrelhouse Bessy was on the floor; the combined cheers from the Wild Hearses fans and jeers from the Road Train Rollers were deafening. But the Rollers had their own stars - Violent Krumble, Kit Kat Crunch and Tricksey Belt'em, as well as their almost unpassable blocker, Vaderella.

Despite the power of the internet I couldn't find a blog or a webpage that gave a more thorough description of how it all went - I suppose one will show up before too long; when that happens I'll come back and link to it, and/or edit my post accordingly. But for the moment I'm depending on my memory here, and that's just a little sketchy given that I didn't take notes. But I'll do my best - bearing in mind I'm really not a sports writer...

The Rollers were behind at the break, and the Hearses were looking close to unstoppable; the aforementioned Barrelhouse Bessy was tearing up the floor every time she pulled on the jammer's star4. But then the Rollers turned it around with some solid blocking, bold jamming, clever strategy and keeping the pressure on the Hearses, who ended up making too many mistakes and getting players - including a few jammers - sent to the penalty box.

With a few minutes to go it was looking like the Rollers were there, but Barrelhouse Bessy wasn't going to let them have it without a fight; she got the Hearses some more points on the board but even she couldn't beat the clock, and the truck-stop ladies in blue5 held on for a 91-73 win. And the crowd went wild!

Overall, it was a pretty damn good afternoon's entertainment. The only sad part is that this was - obviously - the end of the season, and it won't be until next year that it starts up again. But I'm almost certain I'll be going again when it does. Paul and Kelly indicated they'd be keen, and I know a few others who've expressed interest as well, so chances are pretty good I'll be seeing a few matches in 2011.

Again, check out the website; no doubt as soon as there's information about next year's season it'll be up there.

3Their outfits/uniforms tend to reflect the team names, e.g. the Salty Dolls are very nautically themed.
4Oh, I forgot to mention - the jammers wear helmet covers with a star on them in the team colours. This helps the umpires - and the audience - keep track of them.
5Wow, I'm really getting into this, aren't I?

Sunday, September 12, 2010

An eight-wheeled adventure

On Saturday afternoon I went rollerskating.

No, this is isn't something I do all the time; in fact, before a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea there was anywhere you could skate (publicly) in Adelaide1. But at the steampunk party I found out that that wasn't true – there are several places around town – and two weeks later I'd arranged to go skating with woman named Jen (from the steampunk party) who was a regular at the St Clair Recreation Centre at Woodville.

If you happen to be thinking that I'm leading into an hilarious story about how I went rollerskating and, thanks to my uncoordination, fell on my ass a whole bunch of times and made a complete idiot out of myself in front of someone I'd just met2, and a building full of kids, I'm afraid it didn't quite go that way.

Because, even thought it was a while ago, I've skated before. A lot, in fact. Pretty much every Saturday afternoon for about five years (while aged maybe 8-13) I went skating at the rink in Bowen, which was (conveniently) only about half a block from my house, and I went often enough that my parents got me my own skates. So yeah, I think it'd be fair to say I was pretty good.

Like I said, though, it'd been a while – I hadn't pulled on a pair of skates for at least twenty years. I'd been ice-skating a couple of times, but that had been it. However, the ice-skating experience let me know that it – skating ability – fell into that category of things you don't really forget how to do.

And this played a very large part in my deciding to go. Not that I would otherwise balk at doing something I've not done before, but I've got the lead role in a show opening in a couple of weeks and I'm not really prepared to risk screwing that up by doing something that'd lead to me being injured3 and unable to go on.

So, I made my way out to Woodville and found the St Clair recreation centre, paid my eight dollars and checked in my shoes – you have to; that's the only way they'll give you rental skates. I'd been warned that the house skates were pretty dodgy, so I wasn't that surprised with what I got – though they did get the size right. So, I got them on and got myself out on the floor.

I was a bit shaky at first, but after a couple of laps I was remembering4 how it all went. I got quicker and quicker each time I went around and found myself weaving between the slower-moving people – and dodging the fallen ones.

But I didn't go all out. At one point I was moving fairly quickly and tried to step it up a notch5 but felt some give in the wheels, so I decided against it. By this point I realised I was enjoying myself and would almost certainly go again; I could leave the riskier stuff for the next time I came – when injuring myself wouldn't have the same consequences.

What I also didn't do was play any of the games – like limbo or ship-to-shore (which I won't try to explain) or go in the speed skate. But it was interesting that some of these were exactly the same as the ones I'd played over twenty years ago.

Another thing it did was provide me with a sense of nostalgia. Skating was something I really loved as a kid, and – somewhat sadly – that isn't a very long list. But this reminded me that during my time in a tiny craphole in the middle of nowhere there were some enjoyable activities.

Oh, and the music was, well, interesting. Fortunately, there wasn't any Justin Beiber. I remember precisely two songs from my skating days – I See Red by Split Enz (it was the speedskate song) and Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham.

They didn't play either, oddly enough.

I didn't expect for there to be anyone I knew there, but Adelaide is Adelaide. Jen, the friend I was there with, is a dealer – of skates and skating equipment that is – and one of the people she had gear6 for reminded me a lot of Katrina, someone I'd worked with back at Origin – and, of course, that's who it was7. So we spent a bit of time catching up, and I also chatted to her partner, Vaughan – apparently, they're there fairly often (with two kids) as well.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun and fully intend to go back – though not until my play is over. While I managed to keep from injuring myself, I did acquire a few blisters and I'm fairly sure I'm going to have some trouble walking tomorrow – but, as I seem to be saying reasonably often at the end of blogs these days, it was worth it.

1I knew there was a Roller Derby league, but didn't think that necessarily meant there was skating anywhere else.
2As opposed to making a complete idiot of myself in front of people who are already my friends; that wouldn't be as big a deal – or a surprise.
3Apart from anything else, if whatever I did to myself didn't kill me, my director would almost certainly finish me off for screwing up her play.
4Or, more accurately, my muscles were remembering; it wasn't exactly conscious.
5Bam!
6No, I still don't mean drugs.
7Yeah, it's a scarily small place at times.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

A big weekend

The weekend before last – August 22-24 – was a big, busy weekend for me so I thought it'd be worth documenting it. Plus I've got some really cool photos and I want to have a shot at actually including them in the post.

Friday - The Whitlams at The Gov


The first part of the weekend was seeing The Whitlams at the Gov1. For those who aren't aware, The Whitlams are an Australian band, most famous for their song No Aphrodisiac, which came #1 in the 1997 Triple J Hottest 100 – and, courtesy of YouTube, here it is:



I've liked them since before then, but never managed to actually see them play live until a couple of years ago. Not really sure why; a combination of missed opportunities and the fact that, to my knowledge, they aren't a band especially liked by the friends with whom I'd go to gigs in the past. But regular entertainment colleague Miriam is, so when they're in town I go see them with her. It's a good thing this happened, because they're good enough live that I'm happy to see them as often as once a year2.

Tonight's gig was to be something a little different; they were trying out doing a show 'theatre style' – all seated – rather than the usual Gov configuration of the audience mostly standing with some tables and booths off to one side. This was fine by me; I'm getting less enthusiastic about standing around for a few hours if I can possibly avoid it3, particularly on a Friday after having spent all day at work.

Work had had the opposite effect on me this time; sometime in the mid-afternoon I'd worked out how to do something I'd been looking at throughout the week, and which was very significant to one of the projects I was working on, so that had the twofold effect of both a) putting me in an excellent mood, and b) making the afternoon fly by.

So, instead of being tired and grumpy and slightly resentful that I wasn't getting to go home to my quiet, warm house (as I tend to be when I've decided to do something on a Friday evening well in advance of knowing if I'd be in the mood to), I was upbeat and enthusiastic – so much so that having to sit in the car for about an hour and wait for Miriam, who'd been delayed by traffic problems, to show up (she had the tickets) didn't bother me in the slightest; I just went over the lines for my play until it go too dark to see. Afterwards I just sat and thought about random things, which is something I don't actually get to do – at least not without feeling guilty - that often anymore.

Once she arrived we went in and looked for seats; I saw a familiar looking (red) head, that of Sam Leske, a local muso I know through both mutual friends and his occasional involvement in musical theatre. There were two seats free next to him so we sat there – a few rows back and fairly close to directly in line with the middle of the stage.

There wasn't a support act; the band just came on around 8 and started playing. Tim (lead singer/keyboardist) wasn't in the best of moods – he's openly left-wing and the most recent polling information had the then-pending Australian election results going against the current (Labor, the more left-wing of the two major Australian political parties) government.

But they didn't let that get in the way of their performance. As noted earlier, their live shows are very good and they played almost all of the songs I like - No Aphrodisiac, You Sound Like Louis Burdett, I Make Hamburgers, all three parts to Charlie, Blow up the Pokies and more4. They finished at around 10; I was quite happy, since there was plenty more going on over the weekend and an early night was something I'd probably benefit from.

1The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, one of Adelaide's best live venues; I've seen a diverse range of bands there over the years, including Muse, Gomez, Ice Cream Hands, George, and Little Birdie.
2This doesn't apply to as many bands as it used to. Really, there are probably only half a dozen acts I'll go to see if I've seen them before.
3It's a sad reminder that I am, despite my protestations, getting old.
4They didn't play Band on Every Corner; apparently, they only do that very rarely – they had played it last time I saw them, but that's probably only because they were doing the album it's from, Eternal Nightcap, in its entirety.


Saturday - Daniel's mad steampunk tea party birthday

There were few things I needed to do on Saturday – vote in the federal election, finish making my costume for the party later that evening, and then go to the party itself. However, I'd gotten into my head that it'd be fun to vote while wearing my costume – some of it at least – so it wasn't going to happen in that order.

It was a steampunk party, so the previous weekend I'd gone op-shop hopping to try and find suitable bits and pieces. I was impressed by what I'd found, all of which could be – with some modification – acceptably steampunk, albeit less the classic Victorian look and more like the US equivalent. I got a cream and brown collarless shirt and a brownish wool blend vest. I'd painted the buttons with metallic paint to help with the style, since steampunk is very heavy on the use of metal.

A top hat came from Spotlight (courtesy of Miriam, who'd found it in the city store; I didn't see any when I was at the Modbury store the previous weekend – I'd have preferred a bowler, but they didn't have any) and goggles, which my friend Nora had made for an earlier steampunk event and kindly lent me for the occasion.

This is probably a good time to insert a picture so you'll get the, er, picture:


The goggles make it unmistakably steampunk, but I needed more. So, I set about trying to come up with a device of some kind. After a look around the house, and some research on the internet, I decided on taking a toy shotgun and modifying it accordingly. With the help of some more metallic paint (I'd bought the bronze myself and borrowed some other colours from Nora), some plastic tubing from Spotlight, a mint tin, a spice jar, a few parts from an old coffee plunger and some other bits and pieces from around the place and all was ready to go.

It wasn't quite that straightforward; I'd planned to attach things using Nora's hot glue gun, but that didn't work out so well and I ended up having to drill some holes and screw things into place instead. Still, it allowed me to make use of the power drill I'd bought several years back and so far had only used to screw my IKEA coffee table together.

Here's the result:

I'm pretty damn proud of it, actually. I don't consider myself to be very talented in the craft department so when I can even put something as relatively run-of-the-mill as this together I can't help but be impressed with myself. But the thing is I really enjoyed doing it, and am kind of hoping something else will come along that'll require me to be creative.

Heck, I've even contemplated making some other steampunk weapons, just for the fun of it.

Anyway, having decided to vote in costume (minus the gun, of course) I dropped into the polling booth – a school not far from my house – and did my democratic duty in my wacky gear. It didn't keep the Liberal how-to-vote-card person from trying his luck, but he was the only one. I got a few second glances but that was it. Still, it was kind of fun; I may make costumed voting a regular thing from now on.

All that was left now was the party.

I'd been looking forward to it for weeks now; this was kind of odd in itself because, as I mentioned in the ATG post, I've been having some social anxiety issues lately, and that had been manifesting itself in undermining my enthusiasm for – and my ability to enjoy – things like house parties. But between the knowledge of the sort of people who'd be there – primarily wacky theatre people – and my determination to have a good enough time to justify the time and effort I'd put into the costume, as well as to help Daniel celebrate his birthday, I felt that I'd be able to make the most of it.

Part of this was down to planning, though. I knew I had to drink, and to maintain a certain level of inebriation throughout – without getting too drunk. This also meant not driving, since I knew that if my car was there I'd end up stopping at some point so I could drive home – a sure-fire way of ensuring a poor night out. So, I'd managed to obtain a lift up with friends Megan and Tony.

It was all coming together.

Now, you might be thinking this is the point at which something goes horribly, horribly wrong. But it didn't. It was a great night on pretty much every level.

The costume aspect for starters; nearly everyone got in on the steampunk idea, and there were only a handful of people not dressed up – and even they had the excuse of having been, or on the way, to another event. Some of the costumes were amazing, and I found out later on at least a few who were there are 'serious' steampunk enthusiasts, including some of the people who put on the steampunk ball during the Fringe. It made me very glad I'd put as much effort in as I did – and the response to my gun was overwhelmingly positive.

Most importantly, though, there was no surfacing of my anxiety issues. The fact that I was drinking pretty much constantly almost certainly helped, but it was also because I was in a situation where there was no shortage of fun, interesting people to talk to. And it wasn't just catching up with old friends; I actually met some new people.

Of course, there was the obligatory drunken foolish moment5; there was one girl who was also a Facebook friend of one of my co-workers; I decided this was an interesting enough coincidence that I should bring this to her attention – sadly, though, she didn't appear to feel the same way, so after a somewhat stilted conversation, I wandered away.

A few people got drunker than perhaps they should have – apparently there was an absinthe session at some point; probably a good thing that I wasn't paying attention and missed that, because I would have partaken and almost certainly ended up hurling as well. But I didn't, so as a result I didn't get too drunk; however, I had had enough to mean that I was not entirely well by the time I stopped.

Eventually it all wound down – though the late-night karaoke went very late indeed. Unfortunately, for me the downside to having such a good time was that I had not gone home with the ride I'd come with – I had decided beforehand that if I was having a good enough time I'd stay at the party and find my way home whenever it became necessary to do so – so I was kind of stuck there without having brought a change of clothes or any kind of sleeping equipment.

Which meant that I didn't actually sleep that night. At all. I just couldn't doze off.

Eventually, those others who'd stuck around emerged – having had, I presume, some sleep6 - and Daniel decided it'd be a good idea to cook some barbecue breakfast. As I mentioned before, I hadn't drunk so much that I was ill, but I couldn't have been far from it, since I was unable to stomach anything more than black tea and dry toast. Even that was a struggle.

Luckily, this another moment for which there's a photo:


It's at this point I realise that this costume could be used again – as seen here, sans the hat and steampunk goggles – if I ever need to dress as a folk musician.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was a great night – certainly one of the most memorable parties of the last few years. Lots of drinks, a great atmosphere, good friends, brilliant costumes, conversations with interesting new people7; it all adds up to a win.

But the weekend wasn't over yet; there was still the Darren Hanlon gig that night. But before that I had to go to an SA Writer's Theatre workshop at Holden Street; while I'd far rather have gone home and gone to bed, I didn't have a choice – I was reviewing.

5It just wouldn't be a party if I didn't have at least one.
6Bastards.
7Including a serious rollerskater with whom I'm hoping to go skating at some time in the near future; you can pretty much guarantee that's going to lead to a blog post.


Sunday - Darren Hanlon at Jive


Going to a gig without having had any sleep was a distinctly bad idea, so after the SAWT workshop I had an hour's sleep and woke up feeling a lot better. More would have been better, but I was worried that if I slept any more than that I wouldn't be able to get to sleep that night, which would mean another whole day of feeling wrung out.

Darren Hanlon, like The Whitlams, is someone I'll see live as often as I can manage, which usually amounts to a couple of times a year. I've been a fan of his for a few years, ever since Triple J started playing tracks from his EP Early Days. If you aren't familiar with his work, here's a couple of examples:





He's probably second only to Lazy Susan on my list of favourite Australian artists. He writes some of the cleverest lyrics of any songwriter I know, and that's very appealing to a word-nerd like me. But he also brings a genuineness to his music, and that's a very big part of his appeal8

This is even more so in his live performances. He is – as you'll notice from the first of the two videos – a small, cheerful-looking but otherwise unspectacular-looking man, someone you'd probably not even notice if you saw him on the street9; he is however, able to generate an amazing amount of stage presence, and this makes his live shows more than just about hearing the songs.

Anyway, enough back story. After the support acts – who were both also in Darren's band – the man himself came on and treated us to a couple of hours of some great music, interspersed with anecdotes and observations, many about his home town of Gympie in Queensland10. None of what he talked about was quite as amusing as the story he told at the last show, which featured his manager entering him in a pinball contest in Seattle and him doing quite well.

He played almost all the songs I wanted to hear, but (sadly) skipped a few from the last album, Pointing Rayguns at Pagans (a 'b-sides and rarities' collection), Pinball Millionaire, Eli Wallach and the cover of Perfect Day11. However, we were treated to another cover, the Phil Oakey/Giorgio Moroder song Electric Dreams, from the movie of the same name; he'd originally done it for Triple J's Live a Version segment.

Anyway, tired as I was, it was a great gig – and, as the third part of a truly epic weekend, a great way to finish it all off.

In a way it'd be great to have weekends like that all the time, but I think that I'd struggle to find the energy. As it is I knew I'd be wrecked by the end of it and had very sensibly chosen to take the Monday off work in order to recover; however, even that wasn't enough to keep my always unhelpful immune system from capitulating under the onslaught of the first cold bug that came my way and I'm only now, two weeks later, getting back to full health again.

But it was worth it.

8Put it this way – I have a very short list of songs I consider to be both genuine and possessing real sentiment, and he has two appearing on that: Falling Aeroplanes and A-Z.
9This is illustrated by the fact he quite often stands in the audience during the support bands' sets and tends to remain unnoticed by the very people who are there to see him.
10Where, incidentally, my brother lives and where I've spent some time. A couple of years ago I ending up speaking to Darren after a gig and told him this; he seemed genuinely amused.
11It's one of the downsides to liking artists who continue to write new songs; eventually there's not enough time for all the songs the more recent material has supplanted.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

ATG Curtain Call Awards

Last Saturday night was one of the biggest night in the Adelaide theatre community: the ATG Dinner. At it, the ATG (Adelaide Theatre Guide) presents awards (the highly-sought-after1 'Curtain Call') for the standout productions and performances in South Australian theatre over the past year. This is the third fourth one I've attended, and the second as a presenter.

To get there I caught the bus into town – yes, in my suit and bow-tie – and, funnily enough, wasn't the most eccentric person on it; that honour went to an elderly Asian man who was practicing swings with his table tennis bat.

Like last year, the event took place in the Banquet Room at the Adelaide Festival Centre, and I believe we had a record turnout with something like four hundred guests attending. The format was the same as in previous years – a combination of three course meal, the awards and musical numbers from upcoming shows.

You can see the list of nominees here and the winners here.

Last year I'd presented the award for Best Technical; this year I'd been allocated Best Ensemble. Unlike last year, though, I had to write my own speech. Not that that was to prove much of a problem, but it's not something I've had to do for a few years. So, this was what I came up with:

"The ability of a team of performers to work together on stage to create a compelling, memorable experience for the audience is one of the most important aspects of theatre.

With that in mind the ‘Curtain Call’ award for Best Ensemble recognises the achievements of the cast of as a whole, independent of other technical aspects like sound, lighting, set or costumes.

While the standard for this in Adelaide theatre is - obviously - very high,
each of the nominated casts has gone above and beyond that standard and demonstrated outstanding ability in this area."


I'd gotten reasonably lucky with the timing: the Best Ensembles were to be handed out at 9.30, so while I wouldn't be able to drink too heavily until after I'd be needing my faculties unadulterated by alcohol, it would be the exact opposite for the (somewhat daunting) audience – or, in other words, they'd have had enough time to drink themselves to the point where they'd be much more appreciative and I much more entertaining.

Thing is, while I have no problem whatsoever with acting in front a theatre full of people, I do find it somewhat more confronting to be myself in the same situation.

For those of you who aren't theatre people, you might be wondering what kind of atmosphere such an event would have. So, I'll take this opportunity to explain that when you take four hundred excited theatre people – a significant number of them having partaken of generous amounts of alcohol both prior to and during the evening – what you get is pretty much exactly how you'd imagine it to be, i.e. almost everybody being very loud and very exuberant.

We really are like that.

Anyway, after some songs, some other awards, and a few more drinks, it came to my turn to present and, like last year, my nervousness evaporated as I was announced by the MC and made my way to the podium – because the audience gave me a very rousing reception indeed.

The hard part, then, was over; all I had to do now was read out my (short) speech and the lists of nominees, open a couple of envelopes and hand out the trophies.

Not quite.

At every awards ceremony there is at least one person who ignores the request to make their acceptance speech short, and who seem to see it as an opportunity to demonstrate their skill at drunken extempore public speaking - and, of course, one of them was during my time at the podium.

The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild won Best Ensemble Amateur for their production of the David Williamson play Influence, and Emily Branford, who played the odious Carmela, came up to accept. She's a very talented performer, having appeared in several very good shows I've seen in the last few years – The Underpants, Scarborough and The Hypochondriac, amongst others – so when her speech went well beyond what one would consider an appropriate length, I wasn't really sure what I should do.

So, I just let her keep going. But I didn't have to wait too long for assistance, because her own table sent someone (fellow reviewer and the man who'd directed her in The Underpants, John Wells) who all but dragged her off stage – but not before she got in a (well-received) plea for the audience to not vote for Tony Abbott.

Not an easy act to follow, but I managed to get the focus back on to the winner of the Professional category, which turned out to be Windmill Theatre for their production of The Wizard of Oz – whose representative was, mercifully, brief and to the point.

My work was done.

Well, most of it. My unofficial, secondary job – getting drunk enough to muster up the courage to track down and speak to the people who'd been involved in the shows we'd honoured and which I'd seen and enjoyed – was still in front of me.

At ATG awards past I've demonstrated my fanboyish tendencies in front of people like actor Cameron Goodall and accompanist extraordinaire Matthew Carey; this year my targets were actor Nathan O'Keefe and director Andy Packer, who'd both been involved in probably the best theatrical production I've ever experienced2, the winner of this year's Professional awards for Best Comedy and Best Technical, Man Covets Bird.

Fortunately, they were both very happy to be praised – a couple of trophies will almost always do that. And both were very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.

I'd spent the entire night at the same table as Hannah Norris, who ended up with the Best Actress Professional award for her role as the title character (okay, the only character) in the Fringe production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, without talking to her, mostly because I was slightly chagrined that I'd only given it four stars in my review when it really deserved four and half3. But such is the power of wine that I managed to overcome my hesitance and, when she wandered near me at one point I ended up congratulating her and explaining why I hadn't spoken to her earlier.

At another point in the night, though, I had the pleasure of – while not exactly the converse – some unexpected positive feedback from winner of Best Actor Amateur, Adam Tuominen; he'd seen Tempest and told me (unprompted) that he'd liked my performance.

Overall, it was a good night. Probably not as good as it should have been; there were some moments where I was struggling with what can only be described as social anxiety issues. As a result I spent a lot more time at my table rather than wandering around and talking to people – something that I now regret. But there were plenty of good parts, and I'll definitely be going again next year.

1Well, we certainly hope it is, otherwise we're wasting a heck of a lot of our time. I know I'm pretty damn proud of having been in an award-winning show – The Crucible, which won Best Drama Amateur in 2007 - and I'd love to see another show I was in get nominated.
2I use that term deliberately, because it wasn't something you just saw. Read my review here to see what I had to say about it, but bear in mind that it doesn't do it justice, and I was forcing restraint upon myself so it didn't sound like a paid promotion.
3There were two reasons for this: a) some of the lighting they tried didn't work, and b) it wasn't as good as the show I'd seen the night before, Scaramouche Jones (review here - and I've just realised I didn't spot a typo in bildungsroman, and nor did my editor), which I'd given four and a half to and therefore couldn't rate a lesser show as highly.