The Spook

The Spook
Melissa Reeves
At the Malthouse
Until March 10

For those of you who didn’t see it last time The Spook is the story of one naïve young ASIO agent, Martin, who is recruited right off the football team and sent in to infiltrate the communist party’s South Bendigo Branch.
Thrilling as that sounds, I have to say, it’s not my cup of tea. It skims along the surface of its subject matter, neither being too funny nor too dark, all in all remaining a rather safe look at espionage, paranoia and betrayal in Australia in the sixties, and by inference now. That it won three Awgie awards and the Louis Esson prize tells you more about the people giving out the award than the play itself.
But perhaps that’s a bit harsh. As a tent buddy from a different war recently told me, reviewing is consumer advice, and with that in mind I can confidently say that the consumers packing the Merlyn on Thursday night seemed to be having a ball.
Though we did all leave very quickly afterwards.
Luke Ryan is convincingly sympathetic as Martin, Margaret Mills is a delight to watch whenever she’s on stage and Kevin Harrington is doing a roaring trade in the uptight dorky rural local. Curiously Alison Bell’s comic sensibility is underused as Martin’s wife and only finds it’s outlet in her brief appearances as one of the Communist party members.
Beautiful Tom Healy, who I love like a next door neighbour, as director brings out the pathos of the piece deftly but in doing so sacrifices some of the humour and the together with the cast swallows the button to nearly every scene.
The Spook finds its audience in those consumers who are most comfortable with the familiar, so that makes them largely middle aged, moderately educated and partially politically aware. If were a little to young to vote for Whitlam, but just the right age to maintain your rage, then The Spook is no doubt right up your alley.

Green Wolf

Green Wolf
By Michael Healy
At The Carlton Courthouse
Until march 10

Well, I can’t find an entry on Wikipedia for Green Wolf so I can’t tell you if they were real or not, but in the story Michael Healy tells, they are a young, idealistic and headstrong group of eco warriors in Germany who are sliding towards using terrorism to make their point.
I can’t tell you properly what their point is because the show doesn’t throw any light on to it.
The script isn’t terrible though in Doc Episode’s opinion it needs a couple of redrafts to deepen character, polish dialog and fill out the gaps of what we don’t know about green wolf. Who they were and what they believed in are important questions. It’s clear the writer knows the answers, but we need to know them too.
Now, much as I like Xan Colman as a person and much as I respect what he’s trying to do with A is for Atlas, I struggled to see his influence on this show. Sometimes you see a show and you wonder, was this directed by conference call? That’s the feeling I had with Green Wolf. I felt like for the most part the actors were left floating in the empty well of the space with little connection to the story or their characters place in it. The only one who does a decent job is Bruce Kerr and that’s only because he’s being Bruce Kerr.
The design doesn’t help that feeling either. If you’re gonna go for stark, it’s gotta be a lot starker than that for me.)
Over all, it’s a shame cause I think there’s a good story in there and these are all talented people. Just needs more work.

Detest

Angus Cerini

At the Carlton Courthouse

Until feb 17

I don’t understand why Angus Cerini isn’t more famous.

I mean that. If all the people in this town who act like they know something about art actually did, then Angus Cerini should be headlining the snobby international arts festivals all over the planet.

All over the planet he’s been certainly, but I’d hazard a guess it’s been at his own expense.

Detest is another stage in the development of a one man work that incorporates dance and text, permutations and elements of which we’ve seen in his fringe festival and full tilt productions.

Angus is a living example of what can happen when an artist spends years crafting a piece. If you can’t look at Detest and see the value of development then you’re probably an Ozco board member.

He politely introduces the show like you would a new girlfriend to your grandma. Then the show starts and it growls, snarls and roars like a tortured animal. Voice overs of Angus talking play over Angus actually talking on stage and he’s been working at the same piece for so long that he weaves in and out of the pre-recorded text so naturally you don’t register the jarring difference between recorded voice and the real thing. There is no difference and that alone is an amazing thing.

Angus Cerini has been a name that the hip crew have known since the indy scene began, and because either the doyens of culture in this place haven’t clued in or they’re too reluctant to vacate their place in the avant guard sun, he’s remained an insider name.

So if you really want to see an artist at work in the theatre and you wanna impress your date by taking her to where the it crowd are, go see detest.

And now we find he can play the piano too.

Not sure about the singing tho. We’ll see where he takes that I suppose, but I thought the piano was enough.

Danny Episode

when i say shotgun, you say wedding

So,

For those of you not in that particular circle, a minor flurry was recently created amongst the theatre writing community in melbourne with an article pubished about Chris Taylor from the Chaser getting writing his first play for STC's Wharf2Load programme.

I say a minnor flurry in hopes that it will conjour the image of a coup of chickens getting the wind up them, feathers literally ruffling, cause that's what these things always seem like to me.

No names of course but there are those of us out there who still put pen to paper or fingertip to keyboard in order to crank out an item the world reluctantly calls art who have taken outraged offence at Dead Ceaser. Not the play itself, cause it's in sydney and we're all here in melbourne. But more the fact that cause he got drunk in a bar with Brendan Cowell and wrote for the chaser he get's to have the first play he's ever written staged at the freakin STC.

And then to say in his interview that he doesn't even like theatre, that it's nine out of ten times a bad night out just makes me wonder what the hell we're all doing here.

Now, Brendan, from the way people role their eyes when they talk about him, seems what australian's call a bit of a wanker. I imagine him as being the arthooligan Hoover from Spaced if anyone other than Viscious and the chef have seen it. So i can understand a bit, but Chris Mead is an inteligent guy by all accounts. What's he doing using STC's development programme to give some guy off the TV a leg up into the industry. If there's that few decent new play writes in sydney there's plenty down here in melbourne that can't get work. Employ one of us. God knows it's not for want of flying up to sydney for the day and "dropping in".

And let's face it, The Chaser was garbage. Painfully undergratuate immitations of The Daily Show. And Danny doesn't much fancy the Daly show either.

So, i said i was gonna review what was going on and that's what's going on.

What do you faithful handful of people think?

I'm danny episode
It's not the heat, it's the humanity.