Has Cookie done it again?

Theatre reviewer for the West, Robert Cook, appears to have a knack for swimming against the tide. Some previous reviews have raised the ire of contributors on this site.

His recent description of Effie Crump Theatre's PIAF contribution as a "graveyard of stagy theatre" maybe yet another example:



Here's a response from MEAA's Steve Shaw:

Dear All,

rarely do I actively take on the roll of promoter. However, having just read Robert Cook's review of Effie Crump's production of "Redemption" I am forced to take action.

I attended the same performance as Cook and simply cannot reconcile his review with the production I saw and I am sure that the vast majority of audience members I spoke to post performance would have a similar reaction.

I do not intend to provide you with a review of my own, other than to say that Murray-Smith's writing and this play will always be difficult to perform and only the best of our performers will carry it.

The performances given, in my humble opinion, were stunning and are exactly what this play needs to give it life.

Cook has simply missed the point entirely.

If you have any intention of visiting Effies to see this production, do not let Cook's review influence your decision. This is genuinely quality work all round.

This is a production that deserves to be seen by the widest audience possible and shouldn't be perceived as a flop based on such a misguided interpretation.

Oh and for those of you who may be thinking "...well Marcelle is Steve's wife etc etc...", oh please, trust me, I am somewhat more mature than that.

Congratulations to Ingle for "The Getaway Bus" , the mob at Yirra Yaakin for "Alice" both of which I look forward to seeing shortly. Also congrats. to the Hole for "Ghosts".

Hi Grant

I have to say that I agree with Steve Shaw on this one. I didnt see the play on the same night, I saw it the following night, but I do know that the audience response on both nights (after seeing it myself and talking to people who were there on the previous night) was nothing like the reaction that Robert Cook has.

Surely any reviewer needs to remember that one persons view is exactly that, one person's thoughts. When that person is reviewing a play for the only paper that the majority of people read (No offence meant to the community papers here!), then you must also include some comment or deference to the rest of the audience.

If I was going to a Wiggles concert and had no children of my own and had never heard of their material, I would be a poor reviewer indeed if I came away saying that it was childish and silly without acknowledging the fact that the show was designed for children. Surely Mr. Cook also needs to acknowledge that the majority of the audience loved it. No mention of the standing ovations and no mention of the fact that the audience were still raving about the show and its merits for long after the final bow.

Effie Crump theatre, along with many other theatres at this time of the year, is competing with so many others for an audience. If the mainstream audience is going to simply read one persons review and take it for gospel that that is how everyone felt, then that is indeed a shame and an indication that Mr. Cook has no idea what the role of a reviewer really should be.

I would urge people to make sure that they make their own mind up on this one. Perhaps Mr. Cook doesnt have the necessary mindset or indeed the experience to understand this play and therefore simply calls it ' a dawsons creek for grown ups;'
If this is where his experience lies and indeed stops, then most theatre in this state will be stodgy and boring to him.

For my money , I thought Marcelle was very very good. There were moments, when the show was slightly stilted, but I tend to think this has more to do with the writing than anything else, but full marks must go to her for a very moving performance, in a very challenging role.

Just for the record, if my students wrote a review like Robert Cooks, they would have failed the assignment.

Kerri Hilton

Hi Kerri

Thanks for the feedback.

I can't help but feel that this would call into question Cook's glowing review for Crying Baby at the Quarry Amphitheatre. Does the performance measure up to his glowing review?

I saw Mimi, the last collaboration by this company at the Festival of Perth a few years back and whilst it was visually stimulating (is anyone else getting sick to death of seeing garishly lit images of people on stilts reproduced in ABC arts programmes?) i couldn't help feeling that it was a spiritually void piece of cultural misappropriation.

That said, i was stunned at the glowing responses of some other audience members who spoke in hushed, reverential tones about how moved they'd been. Were their lives so empty that a spectacle so vacuous could fill them with awe?

Cheers
Grant

I did not see the Cookie review, but did see Redemption at its first showing and was very moved by the production. I think the script is very weak, but the performances of George and Marcelle, directed by Chris Edmund, were outstanding. I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to see world-class performances.

Effie Crump is billing this production as a premiere in Perth - in fact it was first done by Celtic Circle in July/August 1998; Andrea De Vaack directing Gwen Browning & Darryl Denic at The Palms in Subiaco - and yes, we did get/pay performing rights from the author through Jill Smith of Playbox, so they are aware it is not a "first" production for Perth ... just another example of the "professionals" ignoring community Theatre!
BarbZ

Barb Z wrote:
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"Effie Crump is billing this production as a premiere in Perth - in fact it was first done by Celtic Circle in July/August 1998; Andrea De Vaack directing Gwen Browning & Darryl Denic at The Palms in Subiaco ... just another example of the "professionals" ignoring community Theatre!"

And right she is too. Knew it sounded familiar.

And why, pray, shouldn't a "professional" theatre group ignore those Dread Beasts AmDram? For one thing there's too many of 'em. We should chop 'em out, and amalgamate a select few so we can ridicule them in the privacy of a glass of ropey claret. Send 'em back where they came from, I say. Ignore 'em and they'll GO AWAY. Less competition for the ever dwindling theatre-going dollar, which is becoming harder to prise from the vice-like grip of the increasingly reticent general pubics.

How DARE these jumped-up little upstarts have the graceless temerity to premiere works before we "proper" acting groups?? Where will this insolence end?? They'll be wanting to premiere works they've had WRITTEN for them! This isn't just stealing our thunder, it's taking the bread from our mouths! This is LARCENY, I tell you; GODDAMN LARCENY!! Sod it, we must stop the rot from whence it bagins- the publishing houses. Let's burn down the offices of Samuel French! THAT'LL stop 'em from acquiring rights to shows that should be left to those best qualified- us, the starving minority of thespians that receive money- yes, MONEY!!!- for their craft.

Nothin' for it comrades. Let's line the diseased little toerags against a wall and have 'em all shot! You Hamatuers are all DOOMED!! Comrades, load up yer uzis, and let us never remember that we too once sprang from such sullied foul stock. We too have amongst our ranks ex-Hamateurs. Those that got as far as they have by honing their craft in the sweatshops of Community Theatre- Heaven forfend we remember this sad truth, let us clamp the rich vein of culture that CT represents to Perth, and may we pros continue to bow to less people for less money because of less interesting works.

Walter J Hypocrite.

Eliot McCann wrote:
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> Nothin' for it comrades. Let's line the diseased little toerags
> against a wall and have 'em all shot!

The triumphant return of the manic man himself!

:-)

Great to see you treading these virtual boards again.

Cheers
Grant

Grant Malcolm wrote:
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"The triumphant return of the manic man himself!"

Yes gang, back on the net and ready 'n willing to spead my internetting idiocy for your entertainment- when Davis isn't demanding my attention.

Indeed. Give me a topic, any topic, and I will deviate from it with all speed.

hehehehehehehee!