The Mozart Faction **** 1/2

Be sure to ring and book - 9227 7005!! Most shows this week Sold Out. Season runs till Sat March 24th http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=182&ContentID=23390 Mozart Faction hits right note 13th March 2007, 8:00 WST The impulse that drives many people to join community choirs might seem to others to be a bit too much like the call of the mild — hardly an exciting way to spend a precious evening in our increasingly busy modern world. But watching The Mozart Faction might shake up a few preconceptions. Yes, the eight choristers who meet for rehearsals in a dreary suburban hall every Monday night do seem a bit daggy at first as they squabble over the songbooks, argue about where to stand and anticipate their 9pm break for tea and bickies. But the violent intrusion of Wolf the neighbour (Phil Miolin) — who is as mad as hell and cannot take their mediocre singing any more — sparks in them and the audience an examination of mortality, the enduring appeal of music and the joy of self-expression. Playwright Kate Rice and director Emily McLean have deftly played out these existential themes in an entertaining, funny and rapid-fire mix of parlour farce, siege drama and behind-the-scenes music documentary. We first meet the suburban choir Cantus Formosus by way of a prologue when they sing in the theatre foyer. This sets the stage beautifully for the character development that follows as they arrive in the nondescript hall for rehearsal night. There is an ambitious young bank executive as first soprano (Larissa Gallagher); a lonely elderly woman (Maggie Anketell); a small businessman (Craig Williams) and his local councillor wife (Caitlin Beresford-Ord); a high school principal (Jeremy Levi), a nurse (Brodie Caporn); a young muso (Brendan Ewing); and their pernickety conductor (Alinta Carroll). They are a suitably suburban cross-section with nothing in common except their love of music. On the other hand, Wolf hates their singing and demands at the point of a gun that they shut up. As she did with Red Ryder’s productions of Dealer’s Choice and A Moment of the Lips, McLean lives up to her reputation as a strong ensemble director, eliciting strong performances all round. Stage veteran Anketell as the stoic Shirl and Miolin as the gunman are particularly good. The minimal set design — a chequered lino floor and a repaint of the venue’s interior walls and door frames — evokes the banal uniformity of community halls around the land. The beauty of this play is the way it looks beyond the apparent blandness of suburban life to uncover the passions, aspirations and thwarted ambitions that lead people to creativity as equally as to violent rage. This is highlighted as the lights go down on the choir singing Mozart’s Requiem, their earlier leaden efforts overtaken by the realisation that staring death in the face concentrates the mind. That this group of actors can achieve such musical heights is a testament to their singing talent and to the skill of actor-soprano Carroll, who whipped them into shape as music director during the rehearsals. The Mozart Faction runs until March 24 THEATRE The Mozart Faction By Kate Rice Red Ryder Productions Blue Room Review: Stephen Bevis