Presented by 2022 Flinders Drama Centre Graduating Actors
Reviewed: 27/07/2022
The 2022 graduating actors at the Flinders Drama Centre, Chrissy Miller, Dion Lopresto, Ella Le Fournour, Elvy-Lee Quici, Jack Calver, James Starbuck, Mili Damjanovic, Rhys Griffin and Zoe Mills, carried on the tradition of presenting thoroughly researched and cleverly staged work directed by Wayne Harrison. It’s not every day that a graduate group of young performers can rise to the challenge of working with a world renowned director who has also been the Artistic Director of our premier theatre company, The Sydney Theatre Company. Wayne Harrison has a CV as long as your arm and a wealth of knowledge that this talented ensemble has used to its full advantage. Designer Kathryn Sproul has created a unique and versatile environment that is lit with clever and ambient lighting design from Tom Kitney, that not only enhanced the overall skilled and capable performance of these graduates, but suited both the mood of the era and the sections of the play presented in this clever body of work that looks at how Australian theatre has grown into its paws. The costuming was cleverly adaptable and of the eras it encompassed. Christopher Hurrell has worked his magic in his dramaturgy of the excerpts from these renowned plays and has seamlessly merged them together. Renato Musolino has enhanced the groups physicality with his movement skills and Tiffany Lyndall-Knight as vocal coach has embedded the vocal ability of this group of young actors with strength, flexibility and emotional truth.
It is a mark of the strength of training, both academic and practical, that this group of young actors does not display a weak link. They chose the texts from their final research projects, chose the cast from their peers, to fulfil the vision of the text, and allowed the deft and positive influence of an experienced and brilliant mind (Wayne Harrison) to bring the texts they had chosen and edited to life.
The production features excerpts from plays by leading Australian playwrights Ray Lawler, David Williamson, Michael Gow, Debra Oswald, Dorothy Hewett, Janis Balodis, and Peter Kenna. Key moments from the works of these famous Australian playwrights has been crafted into an evening of bloody good Australian theatre by a group of young actors who show the great skill and capability that four years of challenging and enlightening skill development can give to the actor. They are physically free to take on the demands of the characters they portray, vocally flexible and intellectually primed to allow the work to look and sound effortless. The capability to slide without effort from character to character was a credit to the tutors who remain to guide these actors out into the world of the creative arts.
Scenes from the The Doll, and Lawler’s prequel Kid Stakes, Michael Gow’s Away, The Chapel Perilous by Dorothy Hewett, The Peach Season by Debra Oswald, and many more create a memorable evening of theatre, infused with their own lived experience of the joys and struggles of growing up in Australia. It is an evening of theatre not to be missed. We should support our locally grown talent; it has a place on the world stage. In the face of recent university decisions resulting in the reshaping of the delivery of this course, this graduate performance is little short of a miracle.
Since 1971 The Drama Centre at Flinders University has been training theatre makers in all aspects of the Performing Arts producing some icons of the performing arts industry in Australia and overseas. Noni Hazlehurst became a household name appearing as the face of Playschool before gracing our screens with some iconic performances. Gale Edwards is a world renowned director of theatre and musicals. Nicholas Hope shot to fame playing the lead in Bad Boy Bubby. Victoria Nicholls was never off our television screens in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Yana Taylor has become a renowned academic. Our vibrant local creative arts industry is peppered with Flinders graduates; Ewart Shaw one of our renowned local arts radio presenter for many years. Sue Broadway’s physical theatre shows became iconic and travelled the world. Geoff Revell appeared across Australia in some unforgettable theatre shows and continues to grace our stages with his talent. Catherine Fitzgerald, Syd Brisbane, Eileen Darley, Gina Zoia, Rachel Burke, Joanne Hartstone Nic Hurcombe, Jacqui Phillips, Jo Stone, Peter Dunn, these are a few names picked out of the hat of local, and world-wide, personalities that came out of the wonderful creative training that Flinders has offered the arts community since its inception. Forgive me if you trained at Flinders and I missed your name off this list of locally grown talent.
Reviewed by Adrian Barnes
Season Ended
More News
