2016 has been a year of highlights for the theatre and music theatre community.
In Spring Awakening: Callum Bodman, left, as Melchior and Pip Carroll as Moritz in the foreground. In the background, from left, Daniel Steer as Georg, Liam Downing as Otto, David Cannell as Adult Man and Jake Willis as Ernst). Photo: Janelle McMenamin
Phoenix Players' daring production of Spring Awakening – The Musical, adapted from Frank Wedekind's original 19th-century play, explores the agonising awakening of teenage sexuality, the social repression surrounding it and its fearful consequences. The production at the ANU Arts Centre was beautifully staged and powerfully performed by a youthful and extremely talented young cast. Wedekind ventured to shock and provoke thought and action, and this production excelled in every aspect of production and performance.
Jarrad West, left, and Will Huang in The Normal Heart. Photo: Dave McCarthy
The Normal Heart. Professional in every respect, The Normal Heart revisited the deadly outbreak of the 1980s AIDS epidemic and its terrifying impact on a largely gay community. Everyman's production in the Courtyard Studio resonated with the struggle to assert humanity and dignity and a tolerance for a community in peril. Jarrad West's performance as a gay activist struggling to raise tolerance, awareness and action remains one of the most powerful and affecting performances of the year and he is supported by an outstanding cast under the excellent direction of Karen Vickery.
Playhouse Creatures: Amy Dunham, left, and Liz Bradley. Photo: Jeffrey Chan
The newly-formed Pigeonhole Theatre, created by local directors Jordan Best, Liz Bradley and Karen Vickery, made an impressive debut with Playhouse Creatures, set at the time of the Restoration and the first appearances of female actors upon the English stage. A cast of female actors brought the play to life at the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre with panache, comedy, pathos and forceful commentary on equality and the role of women in society. Full of theatrical gems and feminist insights, April De Angeliss's 1993 play is laced with humour, poignancy and the struggle to assert oneself in a male-dominated environment. This was a stunning triumph and it has been deservedly rewarded with an invitation to perform at a contemporary theatre festival in Monaco in 2017.
From left, Joel Hutchings, Janelle McMenamin and Grant Pegg in Next to Normal. Photo: Michael Moore
Phoenix Players are to be commended for daring to present musicals that confront social issues and through the power of theatre invoke awareness and change in social attitudes. Next to Normal dares to explore the complex condition of mental illness and depression. Director Kelda McManus chose an outstanding cast of Canberra music theatre performers to present a Tony Award-winning musical that was powerful, intensely moving and performed by an entirely local cast with energy and conviction, worthy of any professional stage. After seeing so many revivals of popular musicals, however well performed, it was refreshing to see a production that deals so sensitively and courageously with important issues of our time.
Dorian Nkono as Coetano and Tariro Mavondo as Maria in The Faithful Servant. Photo: Shelly Higgs
Too often new Australian plays are not given enough time to develop before being thrust before an audience at the whim of producers anxious to preserve their budget. In spite of this, emerging playwright Tom Davis' play about a doctor working in Africa deserves special commendation. Under Caroline Stacey's direction and with an outstanding production team at The Street Theatre, The Faithful Servant is an impressive new Australian work. Epic in nature, and covering 51 years and two continents, The Faithful Servant is performed by one white actor (PJ Williams as Dr. Gerrard) and two excellent black actors, Dorian Nkono and Tariri Mavondo, who play a number of roles between them. The play explores the question, "What does it mean to be good?" and examines the nature of cultural difference and conflicting wills. Davis presents a vast intellectual canvas, and the play is a riveting, though still embryonic, example of new and important Australian playwrighting, local in creation, international in content and universal in theme. New Australian writing is sparse in Canberra company mainhouse repertoires. Davis' play earns a rightful place among my five picks.