Canberra Repertory's version of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is powerfully staged

Tuesday 23rd February, 2021

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Anne Somes

Theatre 3

Canberra Repertory Society

Until March 6

Bookings: canberrarep.org.au or 02 62571950

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Victoria Dixon and Teig Sadhana. Picture: Cathy Breen

"This is a play that exposes the startling co-existence of good and evil," Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tennessee Williams said to Elia Kazan, the original director of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Williams is referring to " the shocking duality in the single heart" of members of the wealthy Pollitt family who have gathered at the stately Mississippi homestead to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy (Michael Sparks).

Canberra Repertory Society has taken on a mighty challenge in staging this classic drama of a dysfunctional Southern family.

Disturbing truths are concealed in a litany of lies that reveal to an audience the pain and torment of troubled flaws and tensions. Deceit and mendacity are played out inside Cate Clelland's towering and imposing set design. Williams was himself a tortured soul, deeply tormented by his homosexual relationships and seeking solace in alcohol to dull the pain.

Here, he seeks catharsis through the character of Brick (Teig Sadhana), who is Big Daddy and Big Mama's favoured son and married to Maggie (Victoria Tyrrell Dixon), the cat of the play's title. Struggling to gain favour and a large share of Big Daddy's 28,000 acres of the richest soil in the state are younger son Gooper (Ryan Erlandsen) and his wife May (Lainie Hart), mother of their tribe of "no-neck monsters".

Director Anne Somes has assembled an uniformly strong cast to do justice to Williams's complex characters caught in a vortex of personal deception.

In her opening scene's long diatribe to the unresponsive Brick, Dixon convincingly captures the feline guile of Maggie's flirtatious and wilful tenacity, born of a desperate longing for a child. There was some difficulty with Dixon's enunciation of the languid Mississippi drawl that made some of her dialogue difficult to understand.

Sparks's Big Daddy offers a less physically overpowering presence than is often seen. This in no way diminishes the effective portrayal of a wealthy and domineering plantation owner's vulnerable fear of imminent mortality that gives rise to defiant denial and the eventual realisation of his fate.

Liz St. Clair Long's Big Mama, the long-suffering butt of Big Daddy's cruel invective, is every bit the erstwhile Southern belle now desperately struggling to hold her family together. St Clair Long offers a tour de force performance of maternal concern and damaged devotion.

Michael Sparkes as Big Daddy and Liz St Clair Long as Big Mumma.

As the devious team of opportunists Hart's May and Erlandsen's Gooper capture the sickly sense of sycophancy. There are also fine cameos from the supporting performances of Saban Lloyd Berrell as the perplexed Reverend Tooker and Rob Drennan as Doctor Baugh.

But for me it is Teig Sadhana's performance as Brick that is most compelling. Sadhana's characterisation recalls the gripping realism of a James Dean or a Marlon Brando.

Brick's sullen, defiant anguish and cry of the heart at his harboured fear of the love for his dead friend Skipper echoes Williams's private torment as he slid towards self-destruction. Sadhana's Brick is up there with any that I have seen on stage or film.

Somes and her cast have captured the essential truth of Williams's play - that the characters in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are neither wholly bad nor good.

Like their author they too are human and it is their flawed humanity that evokes our empathy in Canberra Repertory's admirable staging of Williams's revelatory and powerfully written masterpiece.

First published in The Canberra Times, February 23, 2021

Kelly trio delivers "the best" jazz in spades

Sunday 21st February, 2021

Ugly Beauty
Wayne Kelly Trio
The Street Theatre
February 20, 2021

Reviewed by Clinton White

Canberra jazz pianist Wayne Kelly

WHY go overseas to experience jazz when there’s the quality and class of groups like the Wayne Kelly Trio right here in our own backyard?

And Australian jazz is different to European or US jazz; it’s somehow more spacious and open, with a generous dollop of typical Aussie freedom and wit, not to mention spontaneity. No one performance is ever the same as another.

Delivering all this in spades were pianist Wayne Kelly, bassist Brendan Clarke, and drummer Andrew Dickeson.

The first half of this one-act show was a selection of classics of Thelonious Monk (1917-82). “Britannica” says Monk’s playing was “percussive and sparse, often being described as angular, and he used complex and dissonant harmonies and unusual intervals and rhythms.”

But Kelly did not try to emulate Monk in his playing. While Monk’s style informed Kelly’s interpretations, these tunes were very much in Kelly’s own stylings, especially in the two solo tunes he played, the second of which he dedicated to another legendary jazz pianist, Chick Corea, who died only a week or so ago at the age of 79.

That Kelly put his own stamp on the Monk tunes was no clearer than in the second half, when the trio performed Kelly originals.

The first, “Wild Gazelle”, he wrote for his wife. But perhaps in defiance to the title, it largely is a thoughtful piece of beauty and grace, with moments of exhilaration interspersed with reflection.

The second was a suite comprising four parts. Kelly penned this deeply personal work during the globally topsy-turvy year of 2020 as his religious faith grew stronger. There are many moods and rhythms throughout the work and all three players put their heart and soul into its performance. There were brilliant solos from all three, and when they all played there was a cohesion and a unity that few could achieve and many would envy.

The Wayne Kelly Trio delivered one of the best and most enjoyable jazz concerts I have experienced. Judging from the capacity audience’s enthusiasm all the way through the performance, I was not alone in that thought.

First published in Canberra City News Digital Edition, February 21, 2021

Hamed delivers spellbinding sounds of mystique

"Afternoon Tea at Six" Album Launch 

Eishan Ensemble 

At The Street Theatre 

February 13, 2021 

Reviewed by Tony Magee

Tar virtuoso Hamed Sadeghi

THE Tar is an Iranian musical instrument, resembling a long-necked lute. Its sound quality is unique, but certainly includes hints of banjo, mandolin and lute.

In the hands of Iranian tar virtuoso Hamed Sadeghi, he and the instrument took centre stage, delivering spellbinding and evocative sounds of mystique, colour, warmth, passion and beauty.

Sadeghi was wonderfully supported by Michael Avgenicos on alto saxophone, Maximillian Alduca on double bass and Adem Yilmaz on percussions. Each of these artists also had numerous opportunities to showcase their own unique and superb talents throughout each of the eight pieces played on the night.

This was world music, where east meets west, including Indian, Middle Eastern and Western classical influences.

One of the hallmarks of the ensemble’s playing is the frequent use of unison between tar and alto sax, sometimes joined by the double bass, where Alduca would double or triple the melody, whilst at the same time, keeping the solid bass foundation driving through.

Eishan Ensemble

Much of this music is meditative in nature, particularly Sadeghi’s solo improvised tar introductions to many of the pieces, before bass and percussion created a huge array of pulses and rhythmic diversity over which the tar and sax could soar.

Whilst the pieces mostly ranged between triple time and quarter time, specific time signatures were cleverly disguised by the myriad of unusual accent points that Sadeghi places in his melodic phrases.

In fact, this music is sometimes “a-rhythmic” in nature, which is another fascination and hallmark of the style of the ensemble.

Opening with an extended and mournful tar solo from Sadeghi, the first piece, “En Route to Balkh”, referencing a town in Afghanistan, slowly introduced gentle percussion effects from Yilmaz, joined by bowed bass of majestic depth and discreet sax splashes, almost a prelude to the beginning of the concert.

“Behind the Window” and “The Street” included excellent bass solos from Alduca, the latter piece beginning with a hard driving bass and percussion foundation, captivating and drawing the listener in.

Other pieces featured on the album included “Black and White”, which opened the second half of the show, also featuring an extended tar solo introduction and “Future #2” which included a stunning percussion solo from Yilmaz, full of musical colourations, and interesting and unusual rhythmic accents.

“The Street” was also requested by several audience members as an encore, and on both occasions everyone, myself included, were caught out with its false ending – applause erupting at what seemed like the finish – only to have the ensemble strike up again for a final musical epilogue.

As an ensemble, Eishan operate almost as one, with superb accuracy in phrasing, cadence points and endings.

Sadeghi spoke only once during the first half and once during the second half, leaving the power of the music to say everything that was necessary.

First published in City News Digital Edition, February 13, 2021

Christopher Plummer, Sound of Music star and oldest actor to win an Oscar, dies aged 91

Christopher Plummer, who has died aged 91. Photograph: Vera Anderson/WireImage

By Andrew Pulver

Veteran and respected Canadian actor had a career stretching back to the 1950s, but won his Oscar for best supporting actor for Beginners in 2011

Christopher Plummer, the dazzlingly versatile Canadian actor whose screen career straddled seven decades, including such high-profile films as The Sound of Music, The Man Who Would Be King and All the Money in the World, has died aged 91.

His family confirmed the news, saying he died peacefully at home in Connecticut with his wife of 53 years, Elaine Taylor, by his side.

Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager of 46 years said: “Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humour and the music of words. He was a national treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us.”

Plummer’s first film appearance was in 1958’s Stage Struck, a backstage drama in which he plays a writer in love with Susan Strasberg’s ingenue. His biggest hit, and arguably best-known role, was as singing anti-Nazi Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music in 1965. More recently, in 2017, he stepped in at short notice to replace Kevin Spacey in the Ridley Scott-directed All the Money in the World, after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct. Scott praised Plummer at the time, telling the Guardian that “[he’s] got this enormous charm whether he’s doing King Lear or The Sound of Music”. Scott added: “This guy’s a real colouring book, he can do anything.”

Born Arthur Plummer in Toronto in 1929, the great-grandson of John Abbott, Canada’s third prime minister, and grew up in Quebec speaking English and French fluently. After leaving school he joined the Montreal Repertory Theatre, and after a short spell on Broadway achieved his first leading role as Hal in Henry V at the 1956 Stratford Festival in Ontario. More stage roles followed, in both Stratford and on Broadway, including his first Tony nomination in 1959 for best actor in Archibald MacLeish’s JB, which was directed by Elia Kazan. He also secured roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK, playing Benedick in the 1961 production of Much Ado About Nothing (opposite Geraldine McEwan) and the title role of Richard III in the same year.

Plummer, left, with Julie Andrews (standing) in The Sound of Music. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/20th Century Fox

The Sound of Music, released to huge success in 1965, proved Plummer’s breakthrough to stardom. Adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical about the real-life singing Von Trapp family, Plummer was originally reluctant to take on the role, and in 2018 told the Guardian he was “furious” when he found out his singing voice was going to be dubbed. “I’d worked on my singing for so long, but in those days, they’d have someone trained who would sing through dubbing. I said: ‘The only reason I did this bloody thing was so I could do a musical on stage on film!’”

His well-known distaste for the film mellowed over time: “I’ve made my peace with it,” he added. “It annoyed the hell out of me at first. I thought: ‘Don’t these people ever see another movie? Is this the only one they’ve ever seen?’ … But I’m grateful to the film, and to Robert Wise, who’s a great director and a gentleman, and to Julie [Andrews], who’s remained a terrific friend.”

Plummer, right, as Sherlock Holmes with James Mason as Watson in Murder By Decree. Photograph: www.ronaldgrantarchive.com

After The Sound of Music, Plummer was in demand as a character actor in high-profile films, appearing in a wide variety of material, from The Royal Hunt of the Sun and The Battle of Britain in 1969, to Sergei Bondarchuk’s epic Waterloo (1970) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975). He played Rudyard Kipling in The Man Who Would Be King and Sherlock Holmes in Murder By Decree (1979). He also had success on stage, winning a Tony award in 1973 for the title role in the musical Cyrano.

Though he continued to work steadily in the 1980s and 90s, the quality of his screen roles began to tail off. High points included roles in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) as Klingon general Chang, and Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992) as a racist prison chaplain; he also played virologist Leland Goines in 12 Monkeys (1995) and TV journalist Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999). His stage work, as before, appeared to sustain him, with another Tony award in 1997 for the title role in Barrymore, about the Shakespearean actor John Barrymore, and a King Lear in 2002, directed by Jonathan Miller, which led to another Tony nomination after its transfer to Broadway in 2004.

Plummer as J Paul Getty, with Charlie Shotwell as J Paul Getty III in All the Money in the World. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

However, as he neared his 80s, Plummer’s screen career enjoyed a sharp upturn. In 2010, he received his first Oscar nomination, for the Tolstoy biopic The Last Station. Although Plummer lost out to Christoph Waltz for the best supporting actor statuette, the nomination sparked a flurry of interest in his work, and two years later Plummer won the Oscar in the same category for Beginners, for his role as a man who comes out as gay in his senior years – and, at 82, he remains the oldest actor to win an Oscar.

Plummer subsequently broke another age-related Oscar record, as the oldest actor to be nominated, when he secured his third Oscar nod in 2018, aged 88, for All the Money in the World, in which he played J Paul Getty, the plutocrat whose grandson was kidnapped by the mafia in 1973. The film’s director, Ridley Scott, said later that Plummer had been his first choice for the role, but that it had been offered to Spacey because of Plummer’s age. Spacey was dropped after the film was finished, and Scott reassembled the cast and crew to shoot new scenes.

Plummer was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada in 1968 and in 2001 received a governor general’s award for lifetime artistic achievement. He was married three times, to Tammy Grimes, Patricia Lewis and Elaine Taylor, and had a daughter, the actor Amanda Plummer, with Grimes.

Tributes have been arriving from across the industry.

“What a guy. What a talent. What a life,” said Ridley Scott in a statement. “And I was fortunate enough to work with him less than 2 years ago and had a wonderful experience. My heartfelt condolences go to Elaine. He will be really missed.”

Helen Mirren, who starred with Plummer in The Last Station, also shared the following: “He was a mighty force both as man and actor. He was an actor in the 19th century meaning of the word — his commitment to his profession. His art was total, theatre being a constant and the most important part of the totality of his drive to engage with storytelling. He was fearless, energetic, courageous, knowledgeable, professional and a monument to what an actor can be. A great actor in the truest sense.”

Film-maker Mike Mills, who directed Plummer in Beginners has also released a statement. “It was a great honor to work with Christopher, to be in conversation with such a dedicated artist,” he wrote. “In his 80s when we met, I marveled at his intense curiosity, hunger to make something vulnerable, and his need to challenge himself. Christopher was both dignified and mischievous, deeply cultured and always looking for a good laugh.”

Shirley MacLaine, who starred with him in 2014 comedy Elsa & Fred said: “He was my favourite. Such cynical wit, may he rest in laughter.” Elijah Wood, who provided his voice alongside Plummer in animated fantasy 9, tweeted: “So sad to hear that Christopher Plummer has passed. What a legend.”

Chris Evans, who starred with him in Knives Out, wrote “This is truly heartbreaking. What an unbelievable loss. Few careers have such longevity and impact.”

Broadcaster Dan Rather also posted: “You lit up screen and stage over a lifetime of art. My thoughts are with your family and friends.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt,tweeted

that Plummer was “one of the greats” while George Takei wrote: “Rest in eternal music”.

First published at The Guardian, February 6, 2021