Apocalypse Perth
Thu, 23 Oct 2008, 08:40 amGordon the Optom78 posts in thread
Apocalypse Perth
Thu, 23 Oct 2008, 08:40 amOn this web site in January and February this year, an amateur production, ‘Rock Apocalypse’, received an unfavourable review. There then followed an assassination of every aspect of the show and its venue. The actors and crew tried in vain to raise sympathy and put forward their case, but the insults continued unabated.
On recently re-reading these forty, or so, postings I wondered how playwright Kate Rice (last play at the Blue Room was ‘The Mozart Factor’, which won much acclaim, and achieved several nominations in the Actors’ Equity Guild awards) could make any sense of such drivel, let alone construct an interesting script. I suppose that there are some books, e.g. Shakespeare and Pinter, which on reading for the first time have given the same belief, yet in the right hands turn out to be stunning.
Kate does not merely list the string of contributions to the web thread, but has blended them with interviews, great characterisation, and even a song. There is plenty of humour and several gasps as some of the claptrap written on the web, is performed face to face by the writers with the people that they have denigrated.
With a superb choice of four very different cast member who, under the direction of Jeremy Rice, give us about six characters each. Greg McNeill’s portrayals include Tim, the show’s director who abandoned the play two weeks from opening and then returned as a performer. One of the leading performers, Kelly (Whitney Richards) emotionally explains her heartbreak as she sees her dream of an acting career drain rapidly away. The committee member in charge of catering (Vanessa Trengove) is even attacked for charging $1 for orange cordial.
One of the final comments was from one of the show’s musicians (Craig Williams) ‘one Powerball and we will put the show on again - properly!’ I for one would love to see this show and decide for myself whether all this heartbreak and mental torture was justified.
All trolls, and generally nasty people, should see this unusual play and so discover how what they think is ‘a little bit of fun’ can actually do to those concerned. I can recommend this show to the cast of ‘Rock Apocalypse’ to see that all of their hard work was not in vein.
Composer Ashley Gibson Greig decided upon quite a heavy, but very effective style of music, similar to the radio detective serial themes of the fifties such as ‘Dick Barton’. With only a black drape set, the lighting by Lucy Birkenshaw was required to take us from the homes of the show’s performers, to the rehearsal room, the stage and committee rooms. Most effective with the use of an unusual style and mix of lamps.
I must be honest, I expected something dull and trite, but this show covered many emotions and the cast did a brilliant job. A very well constructed script, delivered with power, emotion, and at times finely choreographed movement. Most enjoyable.
A Review
Wed, 29 Oct 2008, 09:36 amChrist you know it ain't easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They're gonna crucify me
So sang John Lennon in The Ballad of John and Oko.
You may be forgiven for thinking I'm using this as an illustration of how the casts of both Rock Apocalypse and Apocalypse Perth may feel....but you're wrong.
I had the pleasure of meeting the writer of Apocalypse Perth, Kate Rice (y'know, wife of that tosser Jeremy Rice ;)) prior to last night's performance. Judging by the anxiety she expressed, I'm wondering if she had the above song rattling round in her head. And that's when the penny finally dropped - Kate cares about her play, her players, but she also cares about the cast and crew of the play this piece is based on and doing them some justice. If she had intended to lampoon community theatre or the such then she was acting very well to display the opposite.
We open in darkness - perhaps a manifestation of someone powering on their PC or laptop from start-up. A girl is illuminated and stands before us innocently asking whether anyone had seen local production Rock Apocalypse and could they post a review.
What follows is a whirlwind of characters weighing in with their heavy criticisms of the show, each identified by their posting moniker and time and date of posting. This is cleverly handled with the characters interracting with those that had already posted so as to produce the effect of a group a people having a live discussion. In some instances they surround one poster and aim their comments at them, accusing, cajoling, teasing, reminiscent of school yard bullying. This was quite eye-opening because it brings home the added impact of what's typed online when it's personified and body language added. There it was in all it's ugliness - accusation, counter-accusation, anger, hurt, silliness, pontification, pickiness - pack mentality laid out for what it was. If you've ever wondered what your words may stir in people, see this play. Every person who has ever thought it was a harmless bit of fun to be a troll should see this play.
Interspersed with the acting out of the original online postings is a selection of interview segments the writer gleaned from her discussions with a number of the people who posted and some of the cast and crew of Rock Apocalypse itself. This is another clever device because it further humanises the people and events outlined in the forum and it's threads - we start to see them as real people and not the disembodied voices they were originally. This is confronting for us as an audience because until this time we have been able to laugh at the stupidity, the rudeness, and the callousness of the posters and their respondents but now we're forced to confront the consequences of those actions which was best personified in the experience of one of the cast when she saw the forum - a segment that illustrates that person's soul laid bare for all to see - quite unsettling. Through this we find ourselves asking the question "Where would I have been in all this?" Would you have added fuel to the fire? Would you have joined the trolls or the side of those defending the cast and crew? Would you use words as weapons? Would you have stayed on the sidelines and simply amused yourself by reading what unfolded? What does that, in itself, say about you?
The production is well serviced by an excellent soundtrack which imposes itself at the right moments and wisely keeps out when it isn't needed.
The performers were uniformly excellent. Greg McNeill shone in the role of Tim the director and at one stage carried off the difficult task of having a conversation with himself with aplomb. Whitney Richards played roles that required her to be in one moment an effusive teenager and the next a girl with a shattered self esteem. The latter was particularly confronting. Craig Williams bounced round the stage easily slipping into any one of half a dozen characters. Vanessa Trengrove belied the fact that she was appearing in her first professional show and more than held her own in the company of her more experienced cast mates and provided a link to the original production as she is a member of JETS who produced Rock Apocalypse on which the whole saga is based.
They were well coralled by Jeremy Rice who ensured that the whole piece, which, if the pace had not been kept snappy and the energy allowed to ebb, may have seen the whole thng come unglued like a poorly prepared risotto. We got a tight and entertaining hour of verbatim theatre.
Final thoughts on Kate's script. I thought that originally you were playing with fire by tackling this topic. Had I known you would approach it so cleverly and explore the real themes and questions it evokes, I would have shut up. The fact is that this piece isn't a dissertation on Rock Apocalypse itself - it's an autopsy of the whole internet blogging/posting universe and a meditation on how anonymity, for some people, makes them feel powerful, and how words can provoke emotions and consequences we never intended them to. It's a powerful statement about the choices we all face when we log on and type something in a public forum and begs the question "Who is this person/people I'm having dialogue with and how are they interpretting what I'm saying about them?".
Kudos to all and all the best with the rest of the season. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favour and get down to the Blue Room.
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