The Last Time : A Story of Love, Lust and Desperation
Written, co-directed and composed
by Lucy Matthews. Co-director and choreographer Miriam Slater. Stage Manager
Jaymie Collins. Production Manager Ben Harris. Lighting and Sound EDGE Lighting
and Sound. Acoustic Theatre in association with Shadow House Pits. Belconnen Arts Centre. January 28 – 31 2016.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
If you did not see The Last Time this time then make sure
that you don’t miss it next time, and there should be a next time for the newly
formed and extremely talented Acoustic Theatre’s gritty, sexy, feisty musical of today’s youth
and their struggle for love, security, identity and acceptance. If Canberra
were New York, then this would be a sure-fire Off-off Broadway hit with a
certain trajectory to the bigger stage. There are several reasons for this. One
is the intimacy of the performance space in the Belconnen Arts centre Dance
Studio. With audience seated in the round, a five piece band in one corner and
four performers on stage within a metre of the audience. Occasionally the white
faced lead guitarist (Samuel Gordon Bruce) makes an entrance as a Cabaret Club
Emcee aka The Music Man. The other is the amazing talent of the four key performers.
The irony of miking members of a company called Acoustic Theatre is
inescapable, but it lends sheer force to Frances McNair’s gutsy, raunchy voice,
Kat Bramston’s soaring soprano with its silver-lined high notes, Katherine
Berry’s soulful sounds from the heart and Hayden Crosweller’s resonant and
contrasting male vocals.
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| Hayden Crosweiler as Christopher and Kat Bramston as Caroline in Acoustic Theatre's The Last Time. Photo: Reid Workman |
The Last Time is pure Ensemble in action. There is no narrative
plot to speak of, but rather vignettes of intertwined relationships. Caroline
(Kat Branston) tumbles from one bed to another in search of love. Christopher
(Hayden Crosweller with touches of elasticized Jerry Lewis) desires Caroline
but can’t resist his lustful testosterone charged appetite. Ellie (Frances
McNair) craves a steady lesbian relationship which she longs for with the
vulnerable and secretive Valerie (Katherine Berry) This labyrinth of desire and
frustration, suffocating control and freewheeling abandonment, fuelled by
tequila and highs claws at the erupting conflicts between characters as they
desperately search for an antidote to the torment of their unanchored desire.
The Last Time holds the mirror up to a time when spinning out of control is a
station on the rite of passage. Audience sit as voyeurs to the action,
confronted by a life they recognize, a past they remember or perhaps a future
they can already see. The production is a tightly woven mesh of absorbing
theatricality. At time it is absurdly comical, at other times, heavy laden with
pathos and sometimes simply a reflection of an experience that will pass, and
yet, for the present appears the summation of life’s true agony. This is their
song of experience, and for that reason alone it is an important new and
original work from a team of talented and entertaining creatives.
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| Ketherine Berry as Valerie and Frances McNair as Ellie Photograph by Reid Workman |
Co-director and writer/composer
Lucy Matthews with her co director and choreographer Miriam Slater have crafted
a work of Real expressionism. Every scene echoes with the ring of truth. Nights
before and mornings after, clubs and bus stops, interrupted by the ever present
mobile calls and texts are the cultural signposts of the actors’ generation.
Lucy Matthews’ writing is raw and honest. The actors’ performances recall the
intensity of Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio.
This is evocatively underpinned
by the four members of the band, Brodie Heidtmann on guitar, Brent Brosnan on
Drums, Reid Workman on Guitar and Luke Tompsett. Their arrangements are
recognizable from Sondheim to Ebb and Kantor, but refreshingly original, and
lending atmosphere to the turmoil and confusion of the whirling passions and
lives of the characters. Edge Lighting heightens atmosphere with moody colours
and angular lighting to cast shadows across the challenging Theatre in the
Round. With two acts, interrupted by an interval, the musical is perhaps too
long, but that does not take away the professional care taken by this company
in all aspects of production.
At one stage, The Music Man jibes
the self-possessed antics of the characters, and most specifically Caroline in
a stroke of Brechtian alienation. “Does anyone really care?” he asks the
audience. There is no reply. Perhaps in Bertolt Brecht’s Ensemble Theatre, an
audience member may have called out in authoritative German.., “Yes I do!” But
that is not the issue. Brecht asked audiences to judge, to seek solutions, to
empower people against oppressions, personal and public. We are not meant to
care, although it is inevitable that we may wish resolution to these characters’
desperate turmoil in love and lust and desire. The Music Man’s incantation is
provocative, and it is the duty of a generation that has passed through this
confusing rite of passage to judge, but not pass judgement, to change, but not
condemn, to accept, but not deny. It may not be the last time for these characters
to pass this way, but it could be a step towards the first time to carry
experience through to the next time.
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| Katherine Berry as Valerie. FrancesMcNair as Ellie and Kat Bramston as Caroline Photograph by Reid Workman |
Acoustic Theatre have made an
impressive and entertaining entrance upon the Canberra stage with a production
that deserves a journey towards future success. This is a company that lends a
voice to its generation and a theatrical tour de force for all generations.
Whether theatre in the round is
the most ideal performance space for a show that needs to connect directly with
every member of the audience is a matter for debate. The Last Time deals with important issues in an attempt to resolve
many of the conflicts and dilemmas of its generation and too often audience
members are excluded from a performer’s total character. Intimacy is great.
Exclusion can be too alienating.
Finally, this dynamic new work
already has the potential to tour to other venues and Fringe festivals or
cabaret festivals. It is a great ambassador for young Canberra talent with a
show that has a lot to say in a thoughtful, consciousness raising way.
Hopefully it will not be the last time for audiences to see Acoustic Theatre’s
ground-breaking alternative musical.
