Peter Kowitz – Theatre Press

Spectacular veteran cast share a drink

By Christine Young

The Weir takes place at a country pub in the south of Ireland where a handful of locals have taken refuge on a cold, windy night, though there’s no doubt they enjoy a regular tipple regardless of the weather. The stage in the Arts Centre’s Fairfax Studio is aptly decked out as a cosy pub with a bar for gossiping and a hearth for conversations from the heart.

It’s clearly an important meeting place for local bachelors of a certain age who gather for a bit of ‘craic’ (conversation) which is central to the Irish psyche and way of life. The Weir is true ‘slice of life’ theatre: the audience eavesdrops on a conversation between the publican Brendan and locals Jack and Jim who are soon joined by Finbar and the mysterious newcomer Valerie.

The cast of MTC’s (Melbourne Theatre Company) production is impressive and all are veterans of Australian stage and screen: Nadine Garner (Valerie), Peter Kowitz (Jack), Finbar (Greg Stone), Jim (Robert Menzies) and Brendan (Ian Meadows). You may not recognise all their names but their faces are familiar from recent ABC programs such as Janet King, Doctor Blake Mysteries and The Moodys.

So the casting is excellent, the acting is brilliant, and the setting is just right. But the play itself is slow going and this reviewer found the first half, well, boring. It’s quite possible that I missed the whole point but it seemed to me that the initial conversations and stories were so pedestrian that they weren’t very interesting. Even naturalistic theatre needs some contrived excitement to propel a play’s narrative.

The play only began to pique my interest when Nadine Garner as Valerie delivers a heart-wrenching monologue which becomes the ‘psychological moment’. From this point onwards, the characters begin to speak authentically and drop the bravado.

That said, there are plenty more learned people than me who have given The Weir high praise. The play was Irish playwright Conor Mcpherson’s breakthrough script in 1997-98 and it won several prestigious theatre awards following its premiere season in London.

It’s not my glass of brandy … but it is wonderful to see some of our finest actors treading the boards together.

Venue: Arts Centre Melbourne
Date: Until 26 September, 2015
Tickets: $49-$119
Booking: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au

A valiant attempt to grapple comically with a complex topic

By Kim Edwards

Jonathan Biggins‘ new play sets out to explore an event that has noticeably increased in patriotic popularity in recent years while remaining fraught with issues about our sense of cultural identity.

Australia Day revolves around the comedic shenanigans and personal squabbles of a small country town committee organising festivities for January 26. Amidst the minor chaos from the months leading up to the big day itself, the committee members attempt to express contrary opinions on what being Australian might mean, and what the day should or should not be celebrating…

I wanted very much to like this play. Although described as satirical, the comedy comes across more as farce: broad, obvious humour, self-aware characters cracking jokes, and the occasional slapstick moment. The opening night audience was particularly delighted with the regular topical jokes on politics and pop culture, although the laconic and understated delivery so beloved of Australian comedy was missing here in favour of a highly theatrical and rather forced style.

This performance decision was somewhat at odds with the wonderfully detailed and delightfully quotidian sets by Richard Roberts capturing so perfectly the servicable colour schemes, generic plastic furniture and mismatched detritus of a local school hall and event marquee. In this space the characters were emphatically larger than life, and this lack of naturalism became a problem when the script wanted to address more serious concerns.

A hard-working cast wrestled valiantly with this, and with some extraordinary character revelations: Geoff Morrell and Alison Whyte gave polished performances as rival politicians, Peter Kowitz endeavoured to balance ocker comic relief with offensively cheerful racist, and Valerie Bader and Kaeng Chan soon settled into their more staid and thus more loveable characters comfortably.

David James gave a strong appealing performance as hapless Robert, but at a climatic moment in the play it would have been wonderful to see this character rise above the recurring emotional outbursts and support an earlier claim ‘being ordinary’ was admirable instead of being forced into the melodrama.

Strangely, although script and characters feel like they are working very hard, and there is an earnest effort to temper the comedy with serious issues, all potentially poignant moments or ideas in Australia Day are actually stalemated. Meaningful questions or contentious debates about race, gender, identity, politics, parenting and social interaction are constantly sidetracked with comic interruptions or clunky deus-ex-machina plot developments, and the finale deliberately pours cold water on any potential answers or options arising from the issues raised.

Australia Day is pleasurably fun and enjoys the support of a dedicated cast and crew, and perhaps the relentless irresolution is meant to highlight ongoing concerns about our national identity, but in teetering between light-hearted laughs and high melodrama, there is still disappointment this evocatively-named play never quite manages to say anything important or memorable about us as Australians.

Venue: Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse
Dates: 21 April to 26 May 2012
Booking: MTC Theatre Box Office 03 8688 0800 or mtc.com.au; Arts Centre 1300 182 183 or artscentremelbourne.com.au