Coriolanus

by William Shakespeare

filmed live performance from the Donmar Warehouse seen on 24 September 2015

This production from the Donmar's 2014 season was directed by Josie Rourke and designed by Lucy Osborne. It starred Tom Hiddleston as Coriolanus, Deborah Findlay as Volumnia, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Virgilia, Mark Gatiss as Menenius, Hadley Fraser as Aufidius. Elliot Levey as the tribune Brutus and Helen Schlesinger as the (feminised) tribune Sicinia.

The Donamr stage was stripped back to its bare back wall, painted red to chest height with various graffiti painted or projected onto it to emphasise the political background to much of the action. A single ladder stretched upwards, used in the siege of Corioli; chairs were brought from the back when needed, or otherwise left unobtrusively for actors to sit on when they were not needed for certain scenes. The outline of a rectangle was painted in red by Coriolanus's son at the beginning, and was used to indicate the confines of a house when required; later a small black square was painted within it, used to constrain Coriolanus himself when he is put on trial for treason. All in all, the atmosphere was oppressive and threatening, an apt background for both the political demagoguery and the military struggles depicted in the play.

Tom Hiddleston gave us a strong self-assured Coriolanus whose fatal aristocratic arrogance emanates precisely from his upbringing and his own personal success as a military leader. What seems straightforward to a military man - plain speech, impatience with uncongenial tradition and undisciplined civilians - is soon shown to be disastrous political ineptitude. Anger and rage cause him to turn on Rome and it is only at the last moment, when he capitulates to his mother's entreaties, that he seems truly aware of the trap into which he has fallen. The charismatic leadership, the mood swings, the fraught mother/son relationship, were all brilliantly portrayed, with powerful verse speaking and a great stage presence.

Surrounding him were an excellent cast - the tribunes baiting him with self-satisfied smirks, the soldiers enthusiastic and the plebeians wanting to be so, but frustrated when Coriolanus fails to play to their expectations, his wife and friends distraught by the turn of events, and his mother implacable at first in her almost cloying support, and at last in her crucial appeal to dissuade him from revenge. Deborah Findlay showed us in Volumnia where Coriolanus learnt his sense of superiority and entitlement, and also where he met his match in stubbornness; their confrontations were always fascinating to watch.

Betrayal

by Harold Pinter

seen at the Sumner Theatre (Melbourne) on 19 September 2015

The play, directed by Geordie Brookman and designed by Geoff Cobham, is a production from the State Theatre Company of South Australia. It stars Alison Bell as Emma, Mark Saturno as Robert (her husband) and Nathan O'Keefe as Jerry (her lover, and Robert's closest friend), with John Maurice as the waiter.

'Betrayal' works backwards from a scene in 1977 when the affair between Emma and Jerry has been over for some time, but her marriage is finally breaking up, through glimpses of scenes in earlier years which throw light on events we the audience have already been told about, to the party in 1968 during which the affair began. This is not really a series of flashbacks, since there is never a return to a 'present moment' in which flashbacks might be presumed to have taken place. Each scene is rather its own 'present moment', and only our prior knowledge of later events colours it in an unusual way. The result of this arrangement is that we soon learn to pay the closest attention to everything that is revealed, since so many details influence our understanding of the events as they are recollected by the characters later in their lives but earlier in our witnessing of them.

The Tempest

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Playhouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House on 9 September 2015

John Bell directs his last production for The Bell Shakespeare Company, which he founded in 1990. The cast is

Brian Lipson - Prospero

Eloise Winestock - Miranda

Damien Strouthos - Caliban and the Bosun

Felix Gentle - Ferdinand

Maeliosa Stafford - King Alonso

Robert Alexander - Gonzalo

Hazem Shammas - Antonio and Stephano

Arky Michael - Sebastian and Trinculo

Matthew Backer - Ariel

Set and costumes designed by Julie Lynch, lighting designed by Damien Cooper, and music composed by Alan John.

Some unusual decisions have been made for this production, most of which turned out to work extremely well. Perhaps the least satisfactory was the doubling of roles, which detracted from the impact of the final tableau. However, cast doubling is apparently part of the company style, and the performances were in all cases excellent.

Mothers and Sons

by Terrence McNally

seen at the Ensemble Theatre (Sydney) on 3 September 2015

The play, directed by Sandra Bates (artistic director at the Ensemble since 1986), features Anne Tenney as Katharine, Jason Langley as Cal, Tim Draxl as Will, and Connor Burke or Thomas Fisher as Bud (the latter in this performance).

The Ensemble Theatre has been performing in its converted boatshed in Kirribilli since 1960 (it was founded in 1958); in the early 1980s the venue underwent a major refit, converting it from a theatre-in-the-round to one of banked - and far more comfortable - seats around three sides of a small thrust stage.

Les Misérables

by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg; Herbert Kretzmer lyricist

seen at the Capitol Theatre (Sydney) on 2 September 2015

This production of the long-running musical features new set designs by Matt Kinley, but the whole affair is still supervised by Cameron Mackintosh. The cast includes Simon Gleeson as Jean Valjean, Hayden Tee as Inspector Javert, Patrice Tipoki as Fantine, Trevor Ashley as Thénardier, Lara Mulcahy as Madame Thénardier, Kerry Anne Greenland as Éponine, Emily Langridge as Cosette, Euan Doidge as Marius and Chris Durling as Enjolras.

The unlikely success of turning a sprawling 19th-century novel by Victor Hugo into a fantastically successful three hour musical is no longer news - but it remains a surprising and striking achievement. The decades-long struggle between the ex-convict Valjean and his steadfast pursuer Javert underpins the narrative, but our attention is also drawn to a ridiculously romantic pair of young lovers, to an unscrupulous couple of parvenus, and to the doomed 1830 Paris revolution in which 'schoolboys' (perhaps more accurately idealistic but painfully young university students) pit themselves against the military might of a conservative state.