Wednesday, 1 March 2017

The Homosexuals or Faggots, Griffin Theatre Company, Merlyn Theatre Malthouse, Wednesday March 1st 2017

The Homosexuals or Faggots, Griffin Theatre Company, Merlyn Theatre Malthouse, Wednesday March 1st 2017

"The Homosexuals or Faggots" a production by Griffin Theatre Company was presented at the Merlyn Theatre Malthouse on Wednesday March 1st 2017


For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre. I buy my own tickets. So if you want a re-telling of the story please refer to the links for further information or for further insights.  Note, that I may provide different links for repeated main words or phrases.  I write for my memories of what I have seen, and is more of a stream of consciousness.

"The Homosexuals or Faggots"  is a farce which is a theatrical genre rarely written for the modern stage.  Melbourne is lucky to have two new modern day farces on our stages playing concurrently with "The Play That Goes Wrong".

"The Homosexuals or Faggots"  was directed by Lee Lewis from a script by Declan Greene.  The script is quite funny building on various perspectives of political correctness, free speech and offense.

The dialogue sounded real for the various characters with the different sentence lengths and word choices.  The build up of the situation created tension to ensure the audience was prepared for a farce.
Declan Greene is a playwright to watch develop with his keen ear and sharp wit.

Design by Marg Horwell highlights the minimalist modern apartment in Darlinghurst.  At times it reminded me of "The Book Club" set with the open stage or thrust stage format.  The hidden seat reminds me of many farces and old movies as in "Arsenic and Old Lace".  The red wallpaper on stage right, through the main door, was very amateurish as each character walked past the wallpaper shook.  This reminded me of some sets from "The House of Elliott".

The costumes were fun and inappropriately appropriate for the theme of the show.  The choice of costumes importantly added to the farcical action.

Simon Burke played Warren a photographer with a penchant for risque male models.   Warren reveals his secret desires that underpin through the mayhem.

Warren's husband, Kim is played by Simon Corfield with rapid fired academic dialogue.  Their relationship had the requisite tensions and familiarity of a long term relationship, including fantasies, suspicion and history.  Simon Corfield played the drama queen with aplomb and showed a development of his character.

Simon Burke was at his funniest when lecherous or dreaming of a Jewish circumcised man.  It was his Nirvana.  Vocally, Simon Burke has a rich voice that is easy on the ear.  Physically he was a little cautious, which is understandable as he had an ankle bandaged, possibly from a twist on stage. Genevieve Lemon plays Diana and makes an impressive entrance wearing a Bill Cosby mask.  She uses her body for maximum comic effect in her various guises.  When untying her hairy, this added to the tense build up with honesty and determination.  Her message was pointed and sharp.  Her hair let down was symbolic of her freedom to express her honesty.  This was a great scene.

Drop dead gorgeous Lincoln Younes played the male model Lucacz.  What was more memorable than his body was that he could actually act.  His ability to bring realism to his role with his natural physical attributes and more importantly develop his character was impressive.  Lincoln Younes  showed us what he wanted to achieve and added to the mayhem.

Mama Alto played the dual role of Bae Bae and Pam.  I adored the confusing mispronunciation of Bae Bae as "baby" by various characters.  The repetition of a joke is fundamental to a good farce.  Mama Alto distinguished both of these characters with very deliberate physical and vocal choices.  She accomplished these differences with skill and assurance. Mama Alto also channels  Drew Forsythe from Sydney Theatre Company's  "The Venetian Twins", which had quicker entrances for the dual characters.

The play took about five minutes to build up for me, though other audience members were laughing.

As a modern day farce "The Homosexuals or Faggots" is laboured with the slow pick of cues at times slowing down the action.  There was not enough business by each character showing us what they needed or wanted, for a farce.  There was not enough of door slamming and misadventure.

More could have been played with the sliding door to the bar covering the front door for near misses and potential accidents to keep the audience on their toes.

Staging wise, the sight lines were lost at times with the main front entrance.  We had centrally located  seats and struggled at times to see entrances due to the masking by other actors.

The final moments were thrown away, as some audience members could not see the action of Kim's reaction clearly, due to masking.

Simple physical masking issues should have been resolved much earlier.  I wonder if the director moved around the seating arrangement to obtain different views of the stage.  For once, I think the most extreme side seats would obtain a better overall view of the action.

The final section could be reworked to highlight a more dynamic ending: with the chaos of Pam waking up and how Warren and Kim deal with this.  The ending fizzled out and my partner could barely see the final exit due to masking.  The ending need to smack you in the face rather than have a 1960's sci-fiction movie question mark ending.  This farcical ending was not as strong as other farces that I have seen.

Griffin Theatre Company have presented some great works at the Merlyn Theatre Malthouse with their version of "Holding the Man".  I long to see more work by Griffin Theatre Company  and hope they return more regularly to Melbourne.

"The Homosexuals or Faggots"  is a fun night at the theatre and will be popular with the amateur and community theatre groups.

Yes I gave this a 7/10 but with some work it could be a 9/10 production.

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