MTC – Page 2 – Theatre Press

A theatre experience that is innovative, intriguing and highly engaging

By Christine Moffat

“Side by side in a leafy suburb, Thom lives in one flat, Alethea in another. It’s pretty clear that their respective unsatisfying lives would improve enormously if they just met each other. But with literally a wall between them, this seems highly improbable.”

This is the scant information ‘about the play’ that the programme divulges; a tantalising three sentences that give you no idea of the dynamic and entertaining 90 minutes you are about to embark on.

Boy Girl Wall is a story about life and love, not just those of the two protagonists, but also of the people, and especially the seemingly inanimate objects, around them.

It is not a story I can set out in this review without removing the magic of discovery as you watch the story unfold. Suffice then to say, this show is an unorthodox, amusing, entertaining ‘trampoline-like’ experience.

Upon entering the theatre and being seated, you are presented with a set by Jonathon Oxlade that resembles a giant fold-up ping-pong table. A woman sits to one side of the stage waiting. This turns out to be Neridah Waters, musical designer and musician and understated partner-in-crime to Lucas Stibbard, the hilarious one-man-band-of-a-performer who delivers Boy Girl Wall.

The implied ping-pong effect is not diminished once the show is underway. Stibbard appears to be made of energy, delivering an hour and a half of entertaining, intelligent, rapid-fire dialogue (and at least 25 personalities!) and story-telling in a way that makes you feel that the time flew by.

This show is a perfect example of minimalism at its best, where less truly is more. The production has not much more than a cast of one, a musician, that table-tennis like set (much of which is ‘dressed’ in real time with a stick of chalk), a xylophone and a ruler.

The lighting design by Keith Clark apparently consisted simply of two large retro light globes and an old school overhead projector: all of which are used to great effect for comedy but also, surprisingly for lovely moments of pathos as well.

The ingredients for Boy Girl Wall may not sound like much of a theatrical shopping list, but with these few items this production delivers an evening of surprise, laughter, love and an unexpected dash of optimism for good measure.

Venue: The MTC Theatre, Lawler Studio

Season Dates: 17 April to 4 May 2012

Tickets: From $40; Under 30s just $25

Booking Details: The MTC Theatre Box Office 03 8688 0800 or www.mtc.com.au

A funny, confronting and fascinating look at life over the fence…

By Diana Tarr

MTC’s latest production Clybourne Park, the Pulitzer prize-winning play by Bruce Norris, is a frank and honest depiction of the racial tension in northern American cities in the 1950’s and raises the question of what, if anything, has changed in our attitudes in the subsequent years.

In 1959, in the affluent Chicago suburb of Clybourne Park, a white couple is forced to consider the impact that selling their home to a black family will have on the neighbours they are leaving behind. Fast-forward fifty years, and a young white couple tries to go forward with their plans to demolish the same, though now sadly decrepit, house and rebuild – with considerable resistance from their soon-to-be (black) neighbours.

The set, designed by Christina Smith, included just the right details to send me straight back to the homes and neighbourhoods of my childhood in suburban Detroit: the built-in bookcases, the string dangling from the basement light, even the sound of footsteps on the carpeted stairs.

Each of the superb cast (including Patrick Brammall, Bert LaBonte, Zahra Newman, Luke Ryan and Alison Whyte). portrayed at least two unique characters, though Greg Stone and Laura Gordon produced the most convincing and dramatic transformations in mannerisms, voice and characterisations for the second act. As grieving father Russ and then forthright tradie Dan, Stone gave the stand-out performance of the night, inspiring incredulous belly laughs and shocked silences from an audience that was eating out of his hands from his first bite of Neapolitan ice cream.

There is so much of the familiar in Clybourne Park, which is at times comforting but also self-convicting: not only in acknowledging the awkward relationships and social niceties, but particularly in recognising the people with good intentions who either don’t realise or don’t want to acknowledge how much they misunderstand about the experiences of others.

By the end of the first act, I was mentally kicking myself for even considering that perhaps a few of the arguments for keeping the neighbourhood unchanged might just have a certain logic to them. By the end of the second, I was cringing by how much I recognised myself in the comments and ideals of the yuppie wife, Lindsey (Gordon). But although Clybourne Park acknowledges these feelings of confusion and guilt, it does not seem to try to invoke them – just poke fun at them.

And oh my, what fun it was!

Clybourne Park: The Black and White Picket Fence

17 September – 26 October

The MTC Theatre, Sumner

140 Southbank Blvd, Southbank

Tickets: $30 (29 & under); $86-$97 (full)