Each year I am struck by how well served Canberra is with high-quality theatre productions for all tastes. This year has been no exception and each year the task of selecting five top picks for the year becomes more daunting.
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Canberra is fortunate to have three major theatres that offer a diverse and excellent selection of professional, pro-am and amateur theatre productions for theatregoers of Canberra and the surrounding region. Audiences are treated to a staggering collection of performances at the three major performance venues of the region, the Canberra Theatre centre, the Street Theatre and the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre in nearby Queanbeyan.
My top five theatre picks for 2015 reflect works presented in each of these venues and which reflect the excellence and diversity of both local and touring productions. They are highly selective and in addition to these there are a number of outstanding theatre productions that exemplify the excellent theatre practice available to audiences in the ACT and surrounding region.
The five top picks reflect the criteria of excellence and diversity and are in no particular order.
Storm Boy by Tom Holloway. Adapted from the novel by Colin Thiele. Directed by John Sheedy. A Sydney Theatre Company and Barking Gecko Theatre Company Co-production. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre.
The enduring popularity of the classic story about a young boy on South Australia's Coorong and his love for the pelican Mr Percival was reflected in this exquisitely staged production. Tom Holloway's adaptation preserved the simple art of enchanting and moving storytelling.
John Sheedy's fluid direction was superbly complemented by Peter Wilson's puppetry and Michael Scott Mitchell's evocative and atmospheric design. This visiting production beautifully captured the effective, simple and heart-warming spirit of the story, magically transporting young and old alike with this timeless and life-affirming tale.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Directed by Damien Ryan. Bell Shakespeare Company. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre.
Damien Ryan's production of Henry V for Bell Shakespeare established him as an inventive, adventurous and thrilling director of the Bard's work, and 2015's production of Shakespeare's monumental tragedy, Hamlet, was no exception.
Ryan stripped away all conventional artifice to create a dynamic relevance to Shakespeare's revenge tragedy. In a kingdom besieged from without by a foreign force and beset by intrigue and machination within, Ryan's vision was startlingly modern in its study of ruthless ambition and lust for power.
Understudy Scott Sheridan, replacing Josh McConville (suffering from a back injury) gave a performance powered by youthful energy and obsessive determination to avenge his father's murder. Ryan and his excellent cast and creatives stripped back the superfluous to reveal a thrilling story and driven motive.
It was an edited version of Shakespeare's longer work but Ryan's flashes of brilliant invention, clear-sighted storytelling and engagement with the psychological and political implications of the characters' action made for a riveting and unforgettable production.
Dylan Thomas: Return Journey. Written and performed by Ben Kingdom. Original direction by Anthony Hopkins. Street One. The Street Theatre.
In the tradition of John Gielgud's Ages of Man and Emlyn Williams' Dickens, Bob Kingdom under the original direction of fellow Welshman Anthony Hopkins restored the age of solo recital of classic works.
This was a nostalgic, sentimental recital of the writings of the Welsh poet, storyteller and playwright, Dylan Thomas, best known for his radio play, Under Milk Wood. Kingdom's mellifluous, lilting and affectionate rendition of Thomas's stories and poems, inhabiting a host of eccentric and fascinating characters, was a living reincarnation of his famous countryman.
Seeming to be an apparition of the late poet, Kingdom mesmerised his audience as he recounted the lives of the eccentric and the humorous through his recitation. It is an art, seldom seen, and yet this performance revealed so vividly the magical art of the solo storyteller entwining the audience within his spell.
Evangeline. Directed by Chenoeh Miller. Little Dove Theatre. The Courtyard Studio. Canberra Theatre Centre.
Evangeline was only 35 minutes long, and could be regarded more as a dance theatre work than a more conventional piece of theatre.
Performed in the intimate Courtyard Studio of the Canberra Theatre Centre, Little Dove Theatre's butoh-inspired work may not have had the pizazz and spectacle of a main-stage musical, or the literary brilliance of a Shakespearian production. What it obviously did have, and for which I included it as one of my top five picks for 2015 was an intense, powerful, moving and interactive engagement with an audience transfixed by four intensely focused dancers, possessed by the power of the Japanese dance of darkness, butoh.
The dance arose after World War II as a desire to discover lost identity. It probed the very depths of our emotional vulnerabilities to search for answers to life's quest. That was its power, its beauty and its theatricality.
In an atmospherically lit nightclub setting Evangeline wove a magic as theatrical as the style of dance movement it employed to explore grieving and Time's healing power. Was it dance, theatre or therapy? Perhaps all three, but it was also an agent for change that lies at the heart of all theatrical endeavours.
Jesus Christ Superstar. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics by Tim Rice. Directed by Stephen Pike. Musical direction by Ian McLean. Choreography by Jordan Kelly. AIS Arena.
Each year I am more and more impressed by the outstanding quality of musical theatre produced by local companies. The talent is formidable and the standard of production consistently high from such companies as Free Rain, Supa, Canberra Philharmonic Society and the Queanbeyan City Council.
Snedden, Hall & Gallop invested in PeeWee Productions to produce an enormously ambitious arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar in the vast AIS Arena.
This dazzling display of talent under the direction of the enterprising and professionally experienced Stephen Pike took an enormous risk and emerged triumphant. Professional imports Luke Kennedy as Jesus and Michael Falzon as Judas were superbly supported by local actors and singers, Jenna Roberts as Mary Magdalene, Will Huang as Simon and Max Gambale as Pontius Pilate.
Phil Goodwin's lighting showed that nothing was impossible in creating a spectacle that was the highlight of musical theatre ambition in 2015.
