cultural_philistine
HAL_9000Review of Constellations (PACT Youth Theatre)
September 10th 2007 00:55
The youths deliver a series of monologues about their unpredictable hang-ups (usually discrimination-based) and preoccupations (TV, soccer, drugs, clubbing...). Pretty much all of the characters (it's unclear, incidentally, on a first viewing, how many there are, though one presumes there are six main ones) -- pretty much all the characters are queer, or indigenous, or part of a minority racial group, or some mixture of the above.
Between the accounts are sequences where the actors bounce off the walls, march, run, roll, climb around the projector screens, kick a ball, play with their sparklers, arrange themselves in poses.
The main message seems to be "Don't be racist and don't be mean to gay people."
So is there enough to keep an audience interested?
The answer, probably, is yes, and since this is Constellations' third season, and since the production was selected for the Seymour Centre's "Best of Independent Theatre" series, there are plenty of people who concur -- though, personally, I think you might find it hard to care about the characters (underdeveloped, blurred together, and too much like types or mouthpieces), and though there isn't much in the way of narrative suspense (neither within the monologues, nor between them -- difficult to discern any running storylines, even when it's presumably the same character speaking twice).
But there really is a lot of creativity invested in this production. Particularly memorable were: the reversal in the soccer story; the bellydancing (curious to see a male body moving in that way); a scene where the actors stand with their backs to the audience, silhouetted; and a very well orchestrated absurdist crescendo of an opening, whose racket is followed by a mesmerising, intimate quiet.
You don't get these sort of experiences from film -- being there, being immersed in this way.
Song, dance, projector screens, sharp lighting contrasts, different languages, non-naturalism -- thank God someone is experimenting with expression and creating this kind of theatre. And if you do go and see it, which I recommend, it'll probably be one of the most innovative hours you'll experience this year.
But thank God it was only an hour. The message of "Shine, beautiful individual, shine" is rather sickly, and there was only so much my philistine sensibilities could take from being hit over the head with the PC preaching stick.
~~~
Constellations is playing at the Seymour Theatre Centre from Tuesday 21 August to Saturday 15 September. Tickets are $25/$34, and tightarse Tuesdays are a steal at $21. More information is available from the website.
Constellations is the second in the Centre's BITE ("Best of Independent Theatre") series (don't know what the "e" in "BITE" stands for, if anything, nor how the BITE pieces were selected in the first place).
~~~
Random further thoughts...
The script -- "Constellations" might allude as much to the fragmentary nature of the experience -- a hodgepodge of moments -- disconnected monologues and effects -- as to themes of individuality, conformity, identity, alienation, difference.
Director -- Karen Therese.
Five things I'll tentatively lay to Therese's credit: (1) the lack of flat and boring, and the amount of fascination packed into this hour; (2) the smooth blend of media; (3) expressive use of most of the set; (4) generally actors who weren't speaking supported the monologue, instead of being pushed offstage or turned into inconspicuous stage furniture; (5) there was a sort of "double tracking", which I thought was a rather interesting effect -- there were almost always two things happening at once and commenting on, complementing each other. A character would be talking, and another character would be creating shadow puppets with their foot or wandering around the stage, etc.
Of course, sitting in the audience, it's always speculative what the director did do or didn't. And this is especially true for a production like this one, which is evidently largely group-devised. (Thus Bruce Beresford in Josh Hartnett definitely wants to do this comments that the director is the one film role where you can fake it -- the film can happen around you -- whereas you can't get away with being an incompetent camera man, for instance. And Robert Altman declares in an interview that you just need to hire a good photographer and assistant director, and they'll make the film for you.)
Dramaturg -- Chris Murphy.
Video designers -- Sean Bacon and Lara Thoms.
Such images were displayed as a girl in a kimono, a gun, industrial wheels, a swimming pool, a beer glass, and, of course, stars.
These often related to the monologues in an unobvious way, and added to a poetic feel.
Lighting designer -- Brent Forsstrom-Jones.
A lot of striking effects here -- self-consciously so -- the TV flickering on faces, three blue squares (of conformity?) that characters moved within, spot-lighting (sometimes an alone-in-the-dark, lost-in-space feel), strange highlights (and, incidentally, the actors were wearing a motley of different colours -- because they're individuals?), and, in contrast with the night-time lighting, the occasions when the stage was drenched with colour, from blue at one end shifting to purple at the other (very atmospheric, rich, though it's impossible for me to say exactly what sort of mood or moods were evoked; -- perhaps, at times, there was the sense of thinking intensely, or turbulence, the character's inner life or personality exteriorised).
Light and sound were integral to the sequences between monologues.
Sound designer -- Gail Priest.
Sound was full of pop culture and youth culture references -- movie dialogue, hip hop music, techno music -- and there were night-time sounds, tribal sounds, and at one point the sound of sheep.
Obviously very important to the various effects, and it created some sort of unity between the diverse bits and pieces.
Actors -- Alexis Armytage, Allan Clarke, Nicole Hector, Ghassan Kassisieh, Sarah-Jane Norman, Ahilan Ratnamohan.
A question you might find yourself pondering is whether the monologues are real. The non-verbal sequences have the look of being group-devised. And there are no character names in the programme. So are the actors who their characters say they are?
Well, in general, there seemed to me to be gaps between actor and character. In fact, my impression was that there was little specificity and physical life -- so, perhaps, either insufficient character work was done, or the polish has worn off (though the actors functioned well as an ensemble).
And I think there was little "visualisation". Much of the time, the actors were saying the words (sometimes with stumbles), but didn't seem to me to taste the tastes, smell the smells.
But what do I know. The SMH piece (see below) suggests that the actors wrote their own material and drew from personal experience. To which I can only respond that, if the anecdotes are authentic, they've now become formulaic.
Strangely, this deficiency in characterization added as well as detracted. It increased a disconnected, lost feeling, conveyed a sense of "I'm a faceless number speaking for a generation", and it played into issues of identity and conformity.
Strongest performances came from the males in the cast. An energetic TV addict, an energetic soccer player, a lively and humorous drug addict, and a joyous belly-dancer (who evidently was who he said he was).
~~~
The director, Karen Therese, writes in the programme:
-- The production premiered in 2005.
-- "The original concept... was inspired by the novel The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. I was taken with the idea of the night sky being a blanket or a protection for someone... Constellations is a show about getting through the night. I set the piece during the night time because I believe that is when we are most isolated. Night time is a space that gives rise to our anxieties and deepest thoughts."
-- The cast are aged between twenty two and thirty (they don't look it!).
Regarding bellydancing, Ghassan Kassisieh writes:
"Ghassan has bellydanced publicly for the last three years and privately for twenty-two. Male bellydancing remains largely taboo and has a long and transgressive history in Arabic culture. Like queer sexuality, male bellydancing challenges the way we think about how men should move and express their bodies. Bellydancing is most striking because of its juxtapositions; it marries muscular fluidity with extreme control, elegance of movement with strength; continuity with disjuncture. Bellydancing reclaims and queers the Arab male body. It's also great to watch."
~~~
Further reading
-- Jason Blake in The Sun-Herald (2/9/07, page 25) writes: "although there have been minor changes [since the play's first outing], it is essentially the same, an arresting meld of storytelling and movement... related in a simple yet visually stimulating way".
-- The Sydney Morning Herald mentions that the stories are based on real life: -- "Therese wanted to hear from articulate young people who were 'gay, lesbian, bisexual -- or not'. She wanted to assemble these 'stars' into a multicultural constellation... Many of these real-life details came after Therese prodded her cast to open up. During rehearsals, 'they'd all come up and start talking to me at lunch or I'd go and have a beer with them after, and that's when I'd get a lot of their material,' she says, laughing. 'They'd come in the next day and I'd say, "You know that thing you told me at the pub? Why don't you write about that?" The only way it would work is if they were really honest -- and they were.'"
-- Nicholas Pickard in the Daily Telegraph gives a synopsis, and a blogger blogs about it.
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