Hamlet

Been looking forward to see Benedict Cumberbatch’s version of Hamlet. Living in Australia means you have to rely on the National Theatre Live program to see it, unless you could afford flying over to see it on stage live. Hamlet is arguably the most produced Shakespeare play in history. Like Hedda Gabler and A Street Car Named Desire for female actors (I avoid using the word actress) Hamlet is a role that most accomplished actors would have to attempt at some point. Not long ago we had David Tennant and now we have Benedict Cumberbatch.

This production of Hamlet opened quite differently from your traditional stage versions. It opened with Hamlet moaning for his father’s passing listening to some old recordings. The first ghost scene was nowhere to be scene. It is quite obvious that Benedict Cumberbatch is really commanding stage central. Nobody would doubt Benedict Cumberbatch’s abilities nowadays. He had proved his versatility across several media. However his version of Hamlet left me feeling like missing something. I tried to figure out why as without a doubt Benedict had given his all to the character and there were some really powerful scenes, but then at times I just felt it was missing something. Having thinking over about it again and again, I realised that it was because Benedict raised the emotional bar too high too early for the character. When bar was raised so high right from the beginning, it left the character nowhere to go for the next few hours. Benedict opened the scene with so much sorrow that it border lined hysterical in many occasions. When that happened, when the character really needed to go to that place, there were limited space to manoeuvre around. For me Hamlet is also a scheming intellectual. Yes he was driven by revenge and sorrow but he also exhibited his scheming and thoughtful side throughout the play. He was also funny (which Benedict managed to hit the marks) but also calculated. Benedict Cumberbatch’s version had put sorrow and rage at the forefront, which in my opinion had some crucial dimensions of the character. He kept the wicked sarcasms and nailed certain plot points perfectly but when it required deep thoughts and that cold intellectual thinking, the pull-back was just insufficient to present a contrast. So it just descended into a softer yelling of thoughts instead of real wheels turning in his head. That said, I still think Benedict tackle a lot of part extremely well, and I particularly like how he transited into the “To be or not to be” speech. The soliloquy had become so famous that I have seen so many productions the actors were just so intentionally setting the stage up to deliver the speech so they can “command the audience”. However what I really liked about Benedict’s version is that he just really transit into the speech without pretentiously warning the audience about its coming. That what I think is natural and in character. Some critics thought it came too early but the thing is it is a character’s chain of thought that happened within the context and story of the play, so it is only suitable for it to be delivered that. That kind of naturalness is what I really like about Benedict Cumberbatch’s version of Hamlet, despite the short comings I pointed out earlier.

As for the rest of the cast, the performance was quite uneven. Ciaran Hinds’ Claudius felt very unconcerning to me and it felt like there was a huge drift or gap between his character and the rest of the cast. He could be talking to another character but you didn’t really feel like he was there talking. Anastasia Hille’s Gertrude started off quite wooden but as the play progressed she really warmed up and I personally really like the warmth she radiated when she was interacting with the younger characters. That warm motherly feel made the character so much more realistic and likeable. Jim Norton’s Polonius for me was quite irritating and the best moments were when Hamlet showered him with unreserved sarcasms and eventually killed him. His relationship with his kids, and basically the whole Polonius clan just had no chemistry with each other at all. Sian Brooke as Ophelia was quite unconvincing for me. I couldn’t feel the innocence and fragility in her version of Ophelia and for me that was a big disappointment. I understand actors are not here to fulfil audience’s dreams but for me the absence of essential elements from a character was still a huge let down. I appreciate the National Theatre employed a British African actor as Laetres, which I thought is a huge advance in colour blind casting. However, the actor seemed to have a broken voice that really affected his performance. I don’t know whether it was his natural voice or his voice was damaged for the performance but that voice had severely taxed the performance as it commanded no stage presence. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were extremely memorable despite their short appearances here and there. But whenever they showed up they lit up the stage with appropriate level of energy, which I think was desperately needed at times.

In other areas, I was particularly impressed by the stage design of this production. From how the initial claustrophobic opening scene to the opening up to a much bigger and yet cold playground and then transforming into the derelicts of Act II was just ingenious. The agility of the stage and how some pieces of props changed characters throughout the play was just spectacular. Lighting and sound were weaved into the production smoothly. It is amazing how a simple change of tones in lighting transformed the same set into something completely different. Sound effects also echoed through the walls of the set making it extremely convincing when Hamlet said “Denmark is his prison”. The production design, lighting and audio teams really put together a world that seemed to have leaped out vividly form the pages. 

All in all this version of Hamlet was not a bad production, but it came short as a production that failed to present all the intricate dimensions written on the pages. There were too many characters and too many scenes with eyes wide opened and tears bawling from eyes, some of which did not need to be presented in such ways. It felt like a shallow drama wrapped under Shakespeare’s cloak but Shakespeare himself became quite invisible apart from the Elizabethan uttered from the performers’ mouths. I personally would like to see the production uncovering more layers of the play instead of just presenting a standard royal soap opera in Hamlet’s name because it just left me wondering even though I knew exactly what the story was about.

Alex and Eve

I have known Alex Lykos for many years now. We both studied under the same voice teacher in a pursuit of an acting career. Our voice teacher organises writer morning teas every now and then for students who are actively writing. That is how I first met Alex. As a result, I have been up to date about the development of the first Alex and Eve as a stage play up to this point that it became a movie. The road, unlike a lot of other people in the industry, was far from rosary and smooth. But Alex persisted through these draw backs and pains and is now reaping the fruit of something that is almost 10 years in the making. So how did it stack up?

Right out of the box Alex and Eve is about cultural differences and ethnicities. It is a RomCom so it played on stereotypes. Alex, with Greek heritage knows the Greek family traditions and views inside out. Also one of my best friends was Greek and I have known her family for many years. The Greek side of the couple, Alex, was pretty much spot on. The un-adulterated view of life from the Greek father and the will to hold on to his world even though Australia is not a series of small islands with white houses built on it. Eve, is of Lebanese background. She is well educated and a very successful lawyer. Her family is equally successful with a big house in the community but similar to Alex’s family, success in a new country can never mess with their purist tradition. Alex met Eve, they fell in love, but their worlds collided.

Much of Alex and Eve’s comedic elements played on stereotypes. The story was based loosely on Alex Lykos’ own experience so there are elements of authenticity. At our numerous writer morning teas, Alex and I had discussed about perpetuating cultural stereotypes on screen and on stage and I have a been a strong advocate of stereotypes should not be played for the sake of stereotyping but for the sake of helping the audience understanding that particular culture by asking further questions to understand why certain cultures have certain traditions. Alex and Eve was a work towards that direction. What I appreciated is that Alex threw questions open and attempted to understand and answer them. A number of critics mentioned how the funny and sometimes self-fulling the classroom scenes were but I personally felt they missed the point of the classroom actually was the vehicle for exemplifying questions modern second or third generation migrants have for their cultures – attempting to find where they stand between a culture they were born into and the country they were born into. They asked questions that Alex and Eve did not dare to ask openly. The strength of Alex and Eve as characters were their determination to change (like Alex moving out and Eve attempting to take charge and confront the cultural differences) but the weakness of these two characters were their inability to question and challenge fundamentals openly. The classroom scenes seemed cliché to some but these scenes actually worked as a smack on Alex’s head (which I think his father had done far too many times in the movie to be funny anymore) to move out of his cultural and personal inertia to achieve what he needs to achieve. Eve’s Muslim family on the other hand are much more progressive when we looked at it. Eve’s father initiated the families to meet with an open arm and Eve’s brother saw through the eyes of his sister and invited Alex to Eve’s arranged marriage wedding. I personally think this dynamic helped changed the balance of stereotypes especially against a lot of Muslims in this country – a lot of them are educated with open hearts – which are exactly the Muslim friends I have since university days. 

Many have written about Alex and Eve the movie itself as a standalone product, which I think is an extremely enjoyable experience. If you have been following the play from the start, it reminds you every bit of experience you had in the theatre and puts a smile on your face. To an extent it is a good fan service. But what I would like to point out is the ability of this movie to address cultural differences without overplaying stereotypes and clichés as a lot of other movies did. It is a comedy so you do need a to amplify stereotypes, but instead of flying free like free range chickens, Alex Lykos reined it in through two characters – the Greek father (whom in my opinion was a bit over the top at times) and the Lebanese mother (whom I also think was a bit hard to digest at times but exhibited great softer sides that balanced the character out). But it was because they were so loud in the movie that you started to feel for other characters and listening to them questioning these stereotypes and clichés as you go. I personally quite like the scene of Eve’s mother stereotyping Anglo Australians in the café right in front of Eve’s best friend, who is an Anglo Australian. I found it funny because in this scene the table was turned and the expression on Eve’s friend’s face was gold. It helps people who enjoyed stereotyping other cultures thinking about how one would feel if you in return were being rounded up into minimal cultural existence that was exaggerated and superficial.  

I am not going to rate Alex and Eve by points like most other people do as that’s not what I do. But as a standalone movie, I think Alex and Eve is an Australian movie that I enjoyed immensely since The Sapphires. Maybe as a person who has been championing cultural diversity of Australian screen and stage I am more akin to these productions, but Alex and Eve’s significance in my opinion does not just lie in the cultural aspect but it being written and produced with an audience in mind. I think that is where most Australian movies fell short. Alex and Eve does not attempt to be a ground breaking cultural RomCom but it knows its audience and it knows where it stands in the Australian cultural landscape. I think that is the most important thing to learn for a lot of film makers in this country. A film could be made with great quality but without an audience it is nothing but a piece of pet toothache literature that nobody cares about. You achieve an Australian voice only when a drop of a pin in your movie resonated throughout the halls of all the cinemas it was playing. That was how it felt when I was at the screening.

Matilda

Matilda is based on a much loved Roald Dalh’s book of the same name. The musical version of the book is the product of Tim Minchin and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since its debut it was much loved around the world and it finally arrived at the shores down under.

Story wise it was quite straight forward – a girl born into a family wanting a boy and trying to make the most out of this desperate life. It is Roald Dalh so there is a bit of magic and super power involved. It is not a complicated story and anyone who has or has not read the book would be able to know what is coming next. However it was the endearing theme of the story and the spectacular display of musical talents that actually made this musical a memorable and enjoyable experience.

In the music department there aren’t a lot of really memorable tunes for my taste. I did like the reminiscence song sung by Miss Honey but I think because nearly the whole story was told through songs, it became a necessity that the songs can’t be too poetic or members of the audience might be lost, especially when there are lots of kids among them. Having said that, I still remember a number of singing scenes that I enjoyed immensely during the show. For example the school gate scene (the alphabet song was ingenious), the classroom scenes and the scene on the swings. They are all very memorable scenes visually and musically and they progressed with the story perfectly. Do I remember the tunes, no I don’t but if you talked about those scenes I can tell you how much I liked them. I think that is a degree of success in terms of a musical. 

Having said that, I personally enjoy the dances a lot. The show opened quite simplistically but then it just got better and better. I wasn’t expecting a lot from kids dancing in a musical show about kids at school. However my lack of expectations just gave me surprises after surprises. I mean those kids in the cast, how could they dance like that? It is not just about remember the moves and choreography. It is about them being able to do it on par with the adults and at times outshone them. For me that is the spectacular part of the show. Those kids moved with such fluidity that you forgot they were actually kids. The swing scenes and the classroom scenes were so well done that they are completely took control of the stage. 

Singing wise most songs are not that hard, probably trying to cater to the children cast. As a result there are not a lot of show casing songs. One of the only few cast members that got to show case their singing talent was Miss Honey. Even that not all her songs were likeable for me. I really dislike the song about her being weak and useless. It actually made me feel the character was annoying during those songs (of course it makes sense in the context of the story but the songs were just irritating for me). 

All these aside Matilda has really good production value especially in terms of staging. The use of the stage was very innovative and set changes were swift and smooth. There are no fancy stuff but they all came together very nicely and they certainly have a very strong Roald Dalh feel to them. The stage space was smartly utilised so audience from all areas could have a decent view of what is happening on the stage. 

One last thing I really appreciated was the cast members who played the father and the brother showing up during intermission and interacting with the audience. Considering the great number of kids in the auditorium it makes the intermission a lot more enjoyable for them if they are not going for another ice-cream or frozen drink. Kudos to that.

Matilda is currently showing at The Lyrics Theatre.