NIDA Neither

The recent saga with the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) had inevitably put the drama school back on to the radar for all the wrong reasons.

The public debacle was triggered by a soon to be published article from a former boarder member, Chris Puplick . In his paper he criticised the current director and board chairman Lynne Williams and Malcom Long without a single dose of hesitation. These include Lynne William’s qualification to lead the prestigious drama school and the new direction for the school. NIDA, lead by Malcom Long then hit back criticising Chris as disaffected. Both sides have no signs of backing down and both sides are ready to pounce. 

As a person who worked there and had partly studied there (as part of my Theatrical Studies course at UNSW), it is sad to see that it had come down to this.  I personally do not know Lynne Williams or Malcom Long. However, judging from what I noticed in recent NIDA productions, I do have some issues with the current direction of the curriculum. First most, the importance of voice work had been diminished in the curriculum. With the departure of some of the best voice teachers in the country at the school, there is a reduction in the importance of voice work in the curriculum. The result? Some pretty bad voices on the stage – there was a performance I went to late last year and I was third road from the stage but I couldn’t hear a clear word from the actors up stage. This how bad some of the voices have become. I don’t know whether it is Lynne William’s CV’s issue or she really does not like people having a voice, that the voice component of the training was so marginalised.

The other thing that I personally dislike is the slicing and dicing of the library space at the Institution. As an educational institution, and being a tertiary education librarian for so many years, the dismissive attitude of the current NIDA management to the library is appalling. More real estate were allocated to building study rooms and because of that the collection was sacrificed. The attitude of modernising the library by providing more computers for online resources and ignore the fact that a lot of materials, especially Australian materials, are not online or even published, NIDA as the leading drama school of the country does have the responsibility to keep a good archive of materials for their students. The attitude of “if any materials has low circulation, it is not worth getting or keeping” is totally against the principle of higher education librarianship that has the duty of “maintain records and archives of materials that helped shaped the society and culture”. And this role is particularly important when it comes to the NIDA library; that can be specialised for this function. Further really, not everything is on Google. Google is a search engine that serves its purpose as an entry to knowledge but Google has no obligation to provide inspiring documents, videos and scripts that help the Australian theatre landscape to further develop.

The current public saga with NIDA certainly did not paint a good image for the drama school. But the core here is whether NIDA still aims to be a drama school that provides great training for actors and prepare them for the rough road ahead; or is NIDA just going to be a soap opera actor factory that produces actors with bad voices and pretty face? If so, apart from a legacy that was created by previous teachers such as Tony Knight, Kevin Jackson, Bill Pepper, Julia Cotton, Jane Harders, Ken Healey etc. etc. and the likes of talented graduates such as Cate Blanchett, Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Colin Friels, Hugo Weaving, and Richard Roxburgh, what is going to distinguish the modern NIDA from just any other “acting school” in the streets? That is something whoever is serious about acting should think about.

I am sure Lynne Williams and Malcom Long will have things “in control” and will be in all out damage control for the school for this is what is needed for both them and the school.  No doubt no outsider can have a say on how the school uses its resources and budget, including that at one stage Lynne Williams used the school’s money to hire private detectives to investigate staff about a “potential life threat” against her in the school, which turned out to be just a prank played on her by someone. However, if dramas continue to unfold, it will no doubt cast shadows on the reputation and credibility of the once respectable drama school. Whether it would become a “War of the Roses” style ending with undesirable collateral damage is yet to be seen, but certainly no body wants to see that the students who went there to study ended up being the collateral damage from the politics above. 

No Just a Carbon Copy

The recent outrage about Cate Blanchett speaking up for carbon tax was another indication of sensation reporting in Australia.

The carbon tax issue has been a long standing argument in the recent months with all the pros and cons tossing their woks and pans in the Hell Kitchen known as the Australian Parliament. Both sides have their “points” but who is here to judge? So since we cannot judge on who’s right or who’s wrong we toss the bomb on whoever is the easiest target. In this round, it is Cate Blanchett.

It has been said that actors should restrict themselves to the stage because they are better speaking other people’s words than their own. That is so out dated. Though not everyone transit well from acting to social or political commenting but speaking up for what one believes should not be a crime. Cate Blanchett has been pushing forward the green cause for many years – she has reinvented the Wharf, where Sydney Theatre Company resides as a green complex and never hides the fact that going green for the next generation is high on her priority list. That’s why I was not surprised to hear about her speaking up on this carbon tax. Whether I agree with it is another issue, but if you believe in it what not?

The accusation mainly came from the fact that she is worth 53 million and what would she knows about paying more taxes as a general urban family? That might be true, but that does not stop her from having her own voice and going around rallying for a cause that she believes in. People have to remember that as an actor, she worked hard to build up that 53 million. Most actors started off with a humble career and she definitely did not just become “Cate Blanchett” if she hadn’t worked hard since she graduated from NIDA. So why is she being punished for her cause because of all the hard work she put in in the past decade or so?

What makes Cate Blanchett different is that she is not just an actor who can only speak other people’s work like a carbon copy of the script. She is a person who can speak and articulate her thoughts well and professionally in real life. Anyone who’s watched her interviews and press conferences would have understood where she came from. Since she became the artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company she hasn’t stopped rallying to change the complex into a sustainability powerhouse to show case how to save energy and conserve the environment. So why does she have to stop now? And why is she being the evil queen simply because she believes in what is good for the environment?

Certainly not everybody has several millions at his / her disposal to make his / her residence green and sustainable, but then no matter you believe, support or dislike the carbon tax proposal that should not be used as a weapon against other people who believe in the cause – especially it is about our environment and our future generations. It is very different from people like Tony Abott who earns a lot more than other people, prefer to buy a house he can’t afford and send his kids to expensive private schools and then come back to the Parliament and said he wants higher pay because the current pay level cannot sustain his life style. If Tony Abott can be saved from this kind of stuff it is just hypocrisy to burn Cate at stake because she is supporting something that is close to her heart and good for the environment.

The whole crusade against Cate for me is like a witch hunt. But what disgusts me more is that this is a witch hunt to sell more papers and get higher ratings. Isn’t it great that we can finally find fault for a seemingly “do no wrong” Cate and burn her alive with ink as our fuel and pens as our logs? I personally think media who are fuelling this kind of sensational reporting should be ashamed of themselves but then these are the media with no conscience built in most of the time. I wish the Australian people do have the wit and intelligence to identify the flaws with this latest witch hunt and ditch those media as karma punishment.

Uncle Vanya

Without a doubt Sydney Theatre Company’s “Uncle Vanya” is one of the most anticipated productions of the year. With a stellar cast such as Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh, John Bell and Jacki Weaver, it has a lot to live up to.

Sydney Theatre Company’s production of “Uncle Vanya” is a standard Chekov play with a non-standard touch. All the things you can expect from a Chekov play such as the condemnation of the landlords, the mocking of the intelligentsia, the disapproval of industrialisation, and the life of living in the middle of nothing were all echoing around the walls of the theatre in the 2.5 hour production. However, you no longer see the actors dressed in white standard “Chekov costumes” and walking around in certain posts. Gyoryi Szakacs, the costume designer had injected a heavy dose of naturalism into the costumes – they were worn out and sometimes unsophisticated yet they cry the parts out loudly. This twist of costume design fits in nicely with the superb class that delivered one of the most natural performances you saw on stage this year.

John Bell plays the returned “Celebrity Professor” Serebryakov who, as with some modern celebrities just created hell after hell for the rest of the people in the house. He completely upset the balance of time and habits of everyone and took his young second wife Yelena (Cate Blanchett) for granted. Richard Roxburgh plays the title role of Vanya who wasted most of his adult life for a mere return of profit for his hard work and had to endure a mother (Sandy Gore) who completely ignored his contributions but looked up to Serebryakov. The play opened with Jacki Weaver as the Nanny and Hugo Weaving as the battered doctor Astrov. The opening scene immediately delivered to the audience what a cast of top notch actors can do. The restlessness Hugo Weaving displayed was a sharp contrast to the reminiscing calmness that Jacki Weaver was delivering and yet they just melted together into one strong daily conversation. Cate Blanchett as the unsatisfied trophy wife was an obvious misfit to the rural setting. The immaculate locks on her hair and her tailored fit wardrobe distinguished her from the plain looking daughter Sonya (Hayley McElhinney) and paved way for future disruptions to this quiet and extremely boring country household. She became the drop of water that triggered a series of ripple effects for the pool. There were several scenes between Cate and individual cast members that were just a pleasure to watch. Richard Roxbourgh told the sad story of the title role with great precision and his break down scene in the second half was just a showcase of what a great actor can do when he is in a company of other great actors with a great script. Hayley McElhinney was a good choice for Sonya as she did exhibit the helpless plainness Chekov described in the play. However, sometimes her words lack the unbearable lightness of life that one would expect and this was particularly obvious in her closing monologue. Also at times I found the over deployment of head movements during conversation quite distracting.

Andrew Upton’s adaptation had modernised the language to make the material more approachable, although at times it is less poetic as it should be. However, given the setting is in a rural household (and most characters are supposed to be uneducated), this was not a serious problem. The set by Zsolt Khell was smart and made great use of the stage space. It first opens up to display an extensive space but then as the story progresses, it closes in further and further and created a suffocating space for all the characters – which directly reflects the stifling of these people because of the arrival of Serebryakov. However, also because of this sophistication in the set design, the audience needs to be prepared for some longish idle time when the set is changed on stage.

On the whole, “Uncle Vanya” represents a fine night of theatre for those who love classic text and great performances. If you are not a fan of Chekov you will still find the material angry and at times too tooth-aching. However, just having a chance to see a group of great actors working together is pure enjoyment that you will relish for the rest of the night.

A Streetcar Named Desired

Never really clicked with Tennessee Williams but Cate Blanchett is strong enough a reason for me to go to the theatre to see Sydney Theatre Company’s “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

It’s Cate Blanchett, so of course the house is full…except the two seats next to me. I sat right in front of the sound control box, which I thought was quite cool. The sound guy found me funny too as I looked so fascinated by the sound panel in front of him. The best thing of having two empty seats next to you is that you can then have all three seats to yourself when people around you are too uptight to free themselves up. So that’s what I did. I had the three wholes seats to me and could sit in whatever position I liked J

Back to the play. The set itself was quite different from my imagination. It is nothing like white washed or grey washed kind of structure but a two-level (which was indicated in the script) motel kind of structure. The lower level is where all the major actions took place. The major tone of the set is old wrapping paper kind of yellow with of course broken tiles and unmatched haphazard furniture to indicate the living condition of our main characters. On the far stage left is an iron staircase leading up to the Hubbells. However, the steps are so steep and narrow that every time they moved up and down, especially when Blanche was in her nightgown, I felt that one of them might trip over. It looked more like a potential health hazard than that damn radio that Joel accidentally threw at Cate.

Tess Schofield had done a brilliant job on Blanche du Bois’ wardrobe. It told the fall from grace story of her owner exactly the way it should. From the classic stylish suit in the first scene to the last scene where Blanche got nothing but a plain under-dress on, the status change of the character was more than obvious. As for Stan, it was just a set of beefcake outfit to show off the muscles to demonstrate the animalistic instinct of the character - really not much to do or say with that.

Performance wise, Cate demonstrated why she is one of the most sought after actresses in her generation. She basically lived the character in front of the audience. There was not much of Cate left on the stage. Every word she uttered just jumped out of the page in the exact way you would imagine the character to say it. The good part was that she was not over theatrical during the psychotic scenes, which made it a lot more believable. The way she tried to hold herself together while breaking down bit by bit through every single scene was brilliantly precise that you just wanted to see more of what’s going to happen next. Joel Edgerton as Stan had big shoes to fill. He was obviously buffed up for the role and he did have a few moments that he grabbed the essence of the character. However, it was really hard to match the now immortalised version by Brando. I am not saying that he is not good, but I just couldn’t see that kind of charm that came through from Brando’s version. That kind of baby innocent and “straight forward believe” charm that got Stella going back for more. Joel’s Stan is just rough edges all over the place, which worked really well most of the time, but then when he needed to woo Stella, he just didn’t really have it all. And in my opinion, this is extremely important to have that kind of baby charm with Robin McLeavy’s Stella. Basically Stella worked on maternity instincts. It was not an accident that Stella was pregnant in the play. When she described about Stan, it was his baby or childish side that attracted her – not just the animalistic features of her husband. Also when Blanche described about Stella to Mitch, she mentioned that Stella was older than she was, which I could be reading too much into it, but to me was also a hint of magnifying the maternity instinct of Stella. She thrived on maintaining the balance of the two kids in the house who were competing for her attention. And that was why when she went into labour, the balance broke and disaster struck. McLeavy’s performance was not bad, but maybe lacked the hint of maturity and maternity that I was looking for in this character. I always think that Stella was a really overlooked and difficult character as Blanche and Stan were such out there – and they have to be because they were competing with each other throughout the play. Tim Richards did a great job as Mitch. His yearning for Blanche and eventually heartbreaks were well portrait without over doing it. They were two lonely souls trying to seek refuge in each other, only to find out that the stake was much higher than Mitch could take. His dilemma between affection and ration was displayed skilfully by Tim Richard’s interpretation.

Liv Ullmann’s direction was on the whole precise and exactly what you would expect from a Tennessee Williams’ play. With such a bunch of good actors to work with I am sure work will have been easier. The good part was you don’t feel the performers competing with each other. That’s what’s essential for an ensemble cast.

In all, Sydney Theatre Company’s “Streetcar” was a great value for money production. You did think that the money is well spent and despite its length you didn’t really realised that time is a factor because you would be completely absorbed into their world.

My last line for the play will be: “Man I want to be that “Young Collector” guy. At least I got to kiss Cate while nobody did!”