Every now and then, a delightful little play in sequins and high heels comes along and sweeps us off our collective feet. Those of us who were there tonight at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre—we felt the love. It was bigger than all of us.
If you’re familiar with the storyline behind David Williamson’s play, Managing Carmen, you will know that it involves a gun AFL player, the fictitious Brent Lyall, who has a career-derailing secret. He occasionally likes to dress up as a woman. In the privacy of his apartment, it isn’t an issue but ‘Carmen’ will not be contained. The best he can hope for is to manage her, thus giving the play its name.
Therein lie the seeds for comedy—occasionally explosive, occasionally excruciating, but always clever. There is an awful lot of humour including some laugh-out-loud moments. In typical Williamson fashion, the play shines a light on something we don’t normally illumine. Sometimes, an otherwise boofy bloke who is hetero —this has to be mentioned — has an overwhelming compulsion to shave his legs and dress up in drag.
This is why we love the play. It’s a very Australian dig at what might otherwise be taboo, exposing its soft centre to laughter and yes, ridicule, but also celebrating the courage it takes to be true to oneself. And no self-respecting satire would be true to itself if it didn’t also challenge us, as a society, to find the better part of ourselves. To paraphrase a line in the play, faced with a choice between tolerance and bigotry, we are challenged to choose tolerance.
This production by Christine Harris’ theatre touring company, HIT Productions, uses minimal stage props and clever lighting and sound. The cosy intimacy of the Malthouse is a plus. There are few distractions from the performances, which are uniformly excellent and even outstanding.
The small cast is made up of five players. Jamieson Caldwell has the most challenging job of playing two characters convincingly, conflicted male and believable female, sometimes with hardly any breathing space between scenes. Considering the speed with which the production moves (no time for proper make-up or cover-up), he does an absolutely amazing job.
And Brandon Burke is a standout as the likeable rogue, Rohan Swift, the greedy and manipulative (but funny) manager. His character delivers some of the best lines even if he doesn’t look all that great in a cheong sam.
They are supported by Hannah Norris (Jessica Giordano, the psychologist), Trent Baker (Max Upfield, the journalist) and Annie Last (Clara Slope, the girlfriend), who each does a sterling job in their respective roles.
The result was a cohesive believable whole that was just delightful. It is theatre pared down to its bones, and it works. Of course, the script helps. I’m not sure I’ve come across another Williamson play that is so uniformly clever and downright hilarious. There wasn’t a dull moment. The scene changes are fast and unbelievably, so are the costume changes (of which there were many).
It was almost a shock when the lights came on for interval — the play is so engaging that the first hour or so before interval literally sped by, as did the final half. I would highly recommend Managing Carmen for a good couple of hours of high entertainment and outright fun.
Managing Carmen is showing at the Malthouse Theatre until May 31 and then in theatres throughout Australia.
