cultural_philistine
HAL_9000Review of Glorious! (Ensemble Theatre)
November 12th 2007 11:49
HAL: Glorious! is the most theatrical fun I've had all year.
CP: What does that mean? So it's better than One More Than One, Berlin, Jesus Hopped the "A" Train, Exit the King...? More fun than those?
HAL: In terms of pure fun, this is probably the most fun I've had this year at a theatre.
CP: Is it more fun than watching the Borat movie?
HAL: It is, actually. It is.
CP: What's so good about it?
HAL: Just a delightful play, about this lady who loves to sing, and even though her voice is just appalling she sings anyway, and she doesn't care what anyone else else thinks, she'll sing because she enjoys it.
CP: Sounds a bit like Little Miss Sunshine.
HAL: There's an element of that in it. And that's why it's so beautiful, and it's just... the character is just so delightful. I mean, in one way she's... I suppose she's delusioned, delusional, but in another sense... There's a line where she says, "Why do I want to live in the real world? This world is so much nicer." So, what she's saying is life is what you make it. If you want to live your dreams, you can.
CP: I find that a little bit... cynical, actually, or a little bit off -- the idea that you should lie to yourself. I have a faint memory of someone contrasting Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with another play called The Iceman Cometh, which I think has a moral something like that we need lies to survive, lies are better than truth.
HAL: I wouldn't see it that way. It's more, I want to do this, and I won't let anyone else's opinion of me stop me from doing it because I get so much joy from doing it.
CP: I haven't seen that recent movie where John Travolta does the transvestite thing.
HAL: Hairspray.
CP: But I suspect there's something similar going on there. Do you know anything about that movie?
HAL: I haven't seen it either. Possibly a similar idea. I mean this play is set in the 1940s or 50s. Sorry, correct that -- it's in the style of the 1940s, 50s. And there is something naive and genteel about it. And it's actually based on a true story.
CP: Hang on, when you said, "in the style of", do you mean it's actually contemporary?
HAL: No, it's about someone who lived... well, basically, in the early 1900s.
CP: And it's a musical, is it?
HAL: Well, it's a play where there's singing. And this Florence Foster Jenkins is played by Noeline Brown. And, I mean, yes she does sing, and it's deliberately appalling, but it's so appalling that it's hysterically funny, and I laughed until I cried.
CP: So it's a comedy, ya?
HAL: Yes, yes.
CP: A laugh a minute?
HAL: Not a laugh a minute, but it has some very... When Noeline Brown is singing, it is absolutely hysterical, I mean I had tears running down my face.
CP: I should mention that I think it's actually quite difficult to sing appallingly, if you're able to sing well.
HAL: Well, it has to be.
CP: Every muscle in your body is against you.
HAL: It's competely over the top, and the costumes are just wonderful, and I won't spoil it, but it's just priceless. This is a play that's really worth seeing. I think what I liked about it is that it's uplifting. I mean, we live in cynical times, and there's all these dark plays out there that are struggling to be intellectual, and aren't.
CP: I like those.
HAL: And this play... it connects with people at a heart level, and it has an uplifting, positive message. And I think we need more plays like this.
CP: Are you sure you're not saying that just because you're a softie? I mean, do you think everyone will see the play the same way?
HAL: This is a light, happy play that... There's something quite beautiful about it. I'd be happy to see it again.
CP: That's quite a compliment. Very few plays I'd watch again, I have to admit.
HAL: Yeah, I could see this play many more times.
CP: Any comments to the actors?
HAL: Oh, the cast is fantastic. I mean, you've got Noeline Brown, Jonathan Gavin... Very professional cast. I mean you couldn't improve it.
CP: "Couldn't improve it" -- wow. I guess we'll leave it there.
~~~
Glorious! is playing at the Ensemble Theatre from Thursday 4 October to Saturday 17 November.
~~~
Written by Peter Quilter.
Director -- Sandra Bates.
Designer -- Mark Thompson.
Lighting designer -- Trudy Dalgleish.
Noeline Brown as "Florence Foster Jenkins".
Jonathan Gavin as "Cosme McMoon".
Barry Creyton as "St Clair Bayfield".
Judi Farr as "Dorothy".
Cris Parker as "Maria" / "Mrs Verrinder-Gedge".
~~~
Some further reading:
-- Ensemble website.
-- Jason Blake in the Sun-Herald (21 October 2007, p 20) comments: "Quilter’s play harks back to the jaunty farces of the 1930s, but Glorious! plays more like a sketchy cabaret than a well-made comedy... It left me feeling a little short-changed in its portrayal of this fascinating coterie of oddballs, but as a comic tribute to bullet-proof joie de vivre and boilerplate self-confidence, it’s hard to fault."
-- Diana Simmonds at Stage Noise comments: "Intentionally written in the naive style of West End staples of the 40s and 50s... There were lots of laughs but the pace and style of farce were missing together with the conviction of truth telling... Although it appears so effortless and silly, farce is possibly the most difficult of stage arts and neither the play nor this production has quite nailed it... Meanwhile, Glorious is fairy floss that will have great appeal to many".
-- Mark Hopkins writes in the SMH: "Without their panache and a very polished contribution by Jonathan Gavin as the young accompanist Cosme McMoon, Glorious! would wear as thin as Madam Jenkins's singing. Quilter has chosen an anachronistic theatrical style, reminiscent of pre-World War II witty detachment from reality... Quilter writes explicitly for laughs".
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