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COSI
Presented by: Purely Pensive Productions
Venue:
Eltham
College Performing Arts Centre
Reviewer: Anne Dewar
Date Reviewed: Saturday 26th September 2008 – 8pm
COSI by Louis
Nowra is a classic Australian comedy play, hilariously written it
revolves around Lewis, a young Director fresh out of University who
is employed to put on a play with a group of patients at a
psychiatric facility. Roy, one of the eccentric mental patients has
decided that instead they will put on an Opera ‘Cosi Fan Tuitte’
with only a piano and in Italian! Hence a recipe for madcap
laughter……….
Cosi is set in
1971, during the upheaval of the Vietnam War and touches on many
social issues.
Lewis, played
by Chris Salvage had a pretty good grasp of his character and
downplaying him added to his characters depth. His overwhelming
confusion with the antics of the patients was nicely acted …well
done Chris.
Brigitte
Ferguson played Lewis’s uptight girlfriend Lucy and Nick Gibbons
played Nick, the Uni friend of Lewis. Having worked with Nick before
I know he is a fine young actor. Both did nice portrayals of their
characters.
Janine Shipard
played Justine the social worker in charge of all the crazy patients
and she was very natural and looked comfortable in the role; I liked
Janine’s interpretation.
Each of the
mental patients had a different persona to get across to the
audience and Roy the over the top fop played by Ashley Mc Pherson
was one of the more memorable actors of the night with his
performance. Ashley’s handling of such a complicated character as
Roy was commendable and his unique walk and hand movements were very
funny to watch. His one liner’s were delivered with great comic
timing. Roy is meant to be one of the older characters but Ashley
handled the challenge well for someone his age.
Another
memorable actor was Mark Kearney playing the inhibited Henry. Mark’s
performance was very credible and probably the most believable
performance of the night as he had really found his character
physically and mentally and invited the audience into his portrayal
of Henry; he was definitely an audience pleaser.
Doug the
psychotic pyromaniac was played by Paul Salvatico. Paul played him
like a tough guy you would meet at the footy but his wicked story
about his mum’s cats had the audience laughing but repulsed at the
same time. Paul added a mischievous streak to Doug which was quite
endearing.
Ruth the
obsessive compulsive patient played by Kathryn Lynch was
delightfully annoying, unbuttoning and buttoning up her cardigan
time after time, making sure she took a certain number of steps to
get to a certain spot all added to her interpretation of the
character.
Salina
Henderson as Julie the drug addict played her role in an easygoing
laid back manner and Portia Chiminello as Cherry the gum chewing
nymphomaniac added some colourful dialogue to the night. Jhess
Knight playing Zac the drugged out musicion/pianist was an
interesting concept but not sure whether she was playing a male or
female as some of the cast in their dialogue referred to Zac as him
and some as her??
Was this was a
slip of the tongue or an oversight by the director? Either way it
was a little confusing and the way Jhess played the role, Zac as
they could have been either male or female really….perhaps that is
what the director intended?
There were
only two in the ensemble; Samuel Wilson freakily wandering around in
his pajamas and dressing gown and Luke Bride strutting around in
women’s clothes and even though they didn’t say a great deal both
played terrific characters… good on you guys!
The set was
simple and colourful with a central rostrum and lots of props which
were put to good use throughout the evening. The lighting was fairly
basic but the pyro scenes were well done and effective.
COSI is a
difficult piece to present and young Leah Milner, the Director gave
it a good try We did see the characters develop confidence from one
act to the next and to the scene where they triumph with their
version of Cosi Fan Tuitti, but I felt if there had have been more
characterization work done with each actor individually to really
bring out the soul of each character, it would have added so much
more to the nights entertainment. Each character should be
displaying their inner most feelings to the audience in COSI and
only a couple of the actors did this successfully and had honestly
found their raw characters.
It is good to
see a company like Purely Pensive Productions giving young people a
chance to perform and as the company grows and gains more experience
it will be good to see what their future productions bring.
Anne is well
known in Musical Theatre circles and has over 30 yrs experience in
both professional and non – professional Theatre, pantomime and
Television appearing in commercials and mini series and on Rove Live
in comedy sketches. Anne has played many roles in Musical Theatre
including her favorites Dolly Levi in “Hello Dolly” and Miss
Adelaide in “Guys and Dolls” receiving a Music Theatre Guild
nomination for best actress. She has worked with many theatre groups
including Whitehorse, CLOC, Dandenong, Festival Theatre, Nova,
Phoenix and Eastern Musical Theatre. Anne has also designed sets for
many shows and directed and choreographed productions at the
Karrilyka Theatre and Directed/Choreographed the successful
Australasian Premiere of the comedy play M*A*S*H this year. Anne
recently played the role of Vicki Nichols in Phoenix Theatre Co’s
“The Full Monty.” and is looking forward to compering the Lyrebird
Awards in February next year. |