Performing Arts

10 Ways to Love

10 Ways to Love Tutti Performing ArtsPresented by Tutti Performing Arts
Reviewed Fri 6th August 2010

http://www.tutti.org.au

Venue: Opera Studio, Netley
Season: finished
Duration: 50min

Tutti presented another of their warm and generous performances, this one being devised by members of the group and directed with a nicely gentle feel to it by Juha Vanhakartano. This is their first self-devised work and a fine job they have done of it. They have taken ten songs that each look at an aspect of love, sung by five soloists, and juxtaposed them against a performance by a larger group of other members of the ensemble. Whilst the singers sat to the side of the performance area the others worked on a large area that was set out as a giant noughts and crosses game, with a heart in the centre square. Although the performance could be seen as a series of schoolyard games played by children, there was a deeper meaning to what was happening, exploring a range of feelings from love, to shyness, to rejection.

The songs covered a wide range of dates and styles, from several by Thomas Arne, setting the words of Shakespeare, through to Roy Orbison’s Only the Lonely, and from as far back as John Dowland’s Flow My Tears to Once Upon a Dream from Jekyll and Hyde.

The singers were Bob Caust, Marian Edwards, Annika Hooper, Brenton Shaw and Michelle Hall, singing sometimes solo and at other times sharing a song. There was fine work from these five, who clearly made a connection with their songs.

The stage performers were Jesse Cahill, Aimee Crathern, Bradley Eckert, Trisha Ferguson, Dougie Jacobssen, Sophie Janzon, Caroline Hardy, Michelle Hall, Joel Hartgen, Jane Hewitt, Jenna May, Jackie Saunders and Roy Stewart. The shifting connections within their story, their changing reactions to one another and the clever ideas that they brought forward in expressing their narrative provided plenty of interest.

The performers, under musical director, Phillip Griffin, were well assisted by Thomas Saunders on piano and harpsichord, who provided a sensitive accompaniment, and by those many hard working people responsible for lighting, sound, costumes, set and all of the other components that added to this work.

There were more than ten ways to love presented in this performance, however, as those concerned showed their love of singing and performing, their love of giving to an audience, and their love for one another.

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor Glam Adelaide.

More News

To Top