1 - Eureka Street

Stella Martyn, is preparing her h om e for thearrival of her newly married daughter,Ch erry (who bears surprisin gly littleresemblance to her Scandinavian mum),and obnoxiou s, hard-drinking painterhusband, Evan (the Fletcher vehicle). Theyoung couple plan to holiday there beforemoving to America once Evan has created abankable body of work. One night, while heis busy painting (a portrait of mother-inlaw,as it happens), Cherry goes off to thepictures with a girlfriend but a big Septemberstorm erupts and Cherry can't get home.Meanwhile, Stella and Evan snuggle up infront of a palpably cellophane fire and scoffher last bottle of pre-war Burgundy-and apredictable love affair begins. In Act 2,things become strained between all parties(including Stella's old boyfriend, a yachtingtype who handily has access to plenty ofpost-war rationed Scotch), but luckilyCherry never finds outaboutwhathappenedon that night of the September tide andEvan (played here as a rather stolid beatnikprototype) has the decency to decamp withhis unloved wife before more irremediabledamage is done.A very conventional, if over-decorated,box set and acting hewn from the oldest ofEnglish wood make this tired old stuffanything but spectacular, while the utterpredictability of th e plot robs it of any realsense of romance. But it does take place ona stage, so at least a third of the promotionalslogan is in good faith. Twelfth Night'sOctober production is Kay Mellor's APassionate Woman, starring Onslow fromKeeping Up Appearances and Tracey fromBirds of a Feather. This seems to say it all,really.Across the Brisbane River at the QueenslandPerforming Arts Complex, there was astylish new Australian play called Vertigoand the Virginia, written by Melbourneemigre Sven Olsen for the QueenslandTheatre Company, which has been as visibleon n ational tours la t ely as Sydney'sCompany B. This is a classic Australianfamily drama set simultaneously in a cityin the present and in old Adaminaby in1949-50, when the Snowy MountainAuthority was ab out to fl ood it inpreparation for the new hydro-electric andirrigation schem e that becam e legendary inpost-war Australian engineering and socialhistory. In the contemporary timeframe,teenager Caylam plagues his mother Ruth(played with consummate edginess by CarolBurns, pictured) to tell him the truth aboutwhat happened in those fateful days whenshe was just a slip of a girl. The flashbackaction illustrates Ruth's and Adaminaby'spast via her mother Frances-and triggersrepressed m emories of events which Ruthis too disturbed to reveal without deepsoul-searching.Without giving away too much of anicely shocking plot, the past relationshipsbetween Frances, her husband (u nseen onstage) and a Yugoslav immigrant worker,Voya, have momentous impact on thosebetween Ruth, her father and (in the present)Carol Burns in Vertigo and the Virginia .h er inquisitive son. Olsen 's spare butaccomplish ed writing, and the simple buteloquent staging by director Tom Gutteridgeand designers Michelle Fallon (set) andDavid Walters (lighting), combine to drawcompelling drama out of this rich material.Through much of the action, Ruth andCay lam and Frances and Voya are all ons tageat once and both narratives mergeseamlessly into one discontinuous butultimately satisfying story. Memories arebeautifully refracted through theimaginative stage-set in the intimateCrem orn e Theatre, w hich takes them etaphoric form of a snowdome; themountain snows occlude the little houseinside it for a while, but when they recede(as the dam-waters did recently in a droughtto lay bare the skeleton of old Adaminaby)the truth comes flooding back.This is a terrific little play and it is verywell acted. Angela Campbell is gorgeou s asa late 1940s Frances; young Jason Gann issplendid as the (perhaps slightly formulaic)m odern interlocutor fi gure and Brisbanestalwart Eugene Gilfedder achieves thequerulous righteousness of Voya verystrongly. It's a production which wouldmake an excellent buy-in for Griffin,Play box or the Perth Theatre Company. If itdoes appear elsewh ere, don' tM missit.EANWHIL E, Melbourne in July andAugu st found itself in the grip of politicaltheatre (mostly of German-language origin)dealing with the rise of totalitarian rule.The Melbourne Theatre Company's newArtistic Director Simon Phillips' firstproduction in that role happened to be anever-less-than-competent and often quitetheatrically exciting production of TheResistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Bertol t Brecht'sparable play (written with MargareteSteffin,typically not credited in the program) aboutthe rise of Hitler in the guise of Chicagogangster. Poignantly, Phillips' productionoverlapped with the first American tour (ofthe same play) by the Berliner Ensemble; itwill also be the final tour of that legendarycompany, which is closing down after 50years. At the same time, allegories coveringsimilar terrain by the Swiss playwrightsMax Frisch (Th e Fire Raisers ) and FriedrichDiirrenmatt (The Visit) were also seen inrevivals of differing quality in fringe venueslike Wax Studios and the CarltonCourthouse.But the most confident and accomplishedAustralian purveyor of contemporarypolitical rh etoric in the Englishlanguage is longtime su rvivor of theMelbourne comedy scene, Rod Quantock.His most recent piece, A Major Event,sub-titled 'The Final Report of the ComedianGeneral on the State of the State', is abrilliant satirical version of an auditorgeneral'sreport focusing on social andaesthetic rather than finan cial issues.Coincidentally, the actual auditor-generalin Victoria, Ches Baragwanath, retired inthe week that Quantock's show, with trademarkblackboard, chalk and talk, opened atthe Melbourne Trades Hall, where it is torun until 4 September. Sadly, Quantock hasflagged this as his fi nal political comedysolo piece; he feels there is nothing left tosay about the ship of state as steered by J .G.Kennett.I think he's wrong. There will be moreto say and I hope Quantock-one of them ost gifted minds and mouths inAustralian comedy-will take the chan ceto say it.•Geoffrey Milne is head of theatre and dramaat LaTrobe University.V OLUME 9 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 47