The Sydney Morning Herald du lieu suivant : Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 104

ART THEATRE war of the sexes Dinkum advantage rather than a detri ment. v. rT wMMmximmM9MsMtMSSL II IBP1 ii DINKUM ASSORTED By Linda Aronson. Directed by John Bell. Sydney Theatre Company at the Drama Theatre The women have taken the place of their men who are away fighting a war and, surprise, surprise, some of their conflicts are very much like those you might expect on the floor of an all-male factory.

Additionally, there are problems specifically related to women such as a mother's mental tug-of-war over the conflicting demands of her child and her boyfriend, and a wife's between fidelity to a missing husband and the need for affection. The plots, cleverly blended, are slight or at least slightly developed. But in this production this is an A LADY of my acquaintance who Is something of an expert on these matters tells me the word feminism is close to passe. We now talk about the New Age with all its under and over-tones of togetherness and non-competitiveness between the sexes. If this sexual cosiness is so, somebody seems to have forgotten to tell the theatre world where writers, male and female, are still trying to redress the balance with the fervour of non-revisionist Germaine Greers.

Ever since Steaming made its entry into Sydney theatre there has been a swag of plays drama, comedy and musicals written for female casts and intended to explore the female role and mythology. Nine, which surrounded a lone male with a bevy of women, is a recent candidate and Steel Magnolias, currently at the York Theatre, is the Deep South's weepy contribution. In Dinkum Assorted, Linda Aronson has avoided the tears of Steel Magnolias, the sexual conflict of Nine and sidesteps the hothouse of intensely personal relationship issues of Steaming. Aronson's stated aim is to "examine the dynamics, particularly the power structure, operating within a large group of women at their place of work" and in doing this she juggles a handful of plots, both comic and serious, in the Dinkum biscuits factory in a small country town in 1942. LADY LISTER, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540, from the Queen's collection.

Jewels of the Crown show this German artist's BISCUIT MAKERS: Janet Andrewartha and Doreen Warburton. Dinkum Assorted is a din kum assortment of mellow humour and nostalgia wfth-a touch of pathos which, if it has a message, delivers it as sweetly as an Iced Vo-Vo. The comedy is more convincing than the drama. It's at its best when the ladies of the ARP play Mum Army and when the ensemble of golden biscuits taps its way to a grandstand finish. Stephen Curtis's aircraft- hangar design evokes both a wartime and factory atmo sphere.

John Bell, busy lately as a director, elicits good ensemble acting with notable performances from Penny Biggins (daffily appealing as Doreen Warburton (as the misun derSlood factory nark) and Anne Phelan (as the marti- nette of Mum Army). clothe personal disaster in a comic coat This production experiences some early uncertainty as Peter wnittord, the central role. wavers between serious comedy and comic seriousness. Eventually, he settles for what he does best the portrayal of a wry, put-upon pawn of a man, someone we can all identify with in some measure. Bailey could be played with greater depth and a good deal more sympathy.

But why quibble? Once into his stride, Whitford's interpretation works, particularly complemented as it is by Jennifer Hagan, who gives wife Helen a certain wise serenity, Joan Bruce, playing the absent-minded but sagacious mother-in-law with comic understatement, and Julieanne Newbould, a delight as the slightly twitty next-door neigh bour. Why Me? will improve with the run. I expect a successful season. including Tish, the painfully fragile stripper. Unsuitable For Adults sits abrasive comedy alongside episodes of almost unbearable soul-revealing trauma, it blends tough humour with drama and ultimately emotionally moving resolution, a -mix that is provoking and disturbing.

The men are the catalysts for the interaction between the two women. This is a play you will remember, made more memorable by a performance of rare delicacy by Rosey Jones as Tish. MICK BARNES with tiny figures operating levers and pulleys to lift a huge canon. The Rearing Horse of 1503-5, a study for a battle painting, is an example of his "brainstorming" technique where the energy of the artist, trying out possible pdsition-ings of legs, neck and head, is felt by the viewer as much as the energy of the horse itself. A sheet of Studies for Leda and the Swan (1506) relates to Leonardo's life-long fascination with water.

The elaborate brading and coiling of Leda's hair simulates the patterns of falling water. Next to this sheet hangs Raphael's sketch of Leda and the Swan. Raphael's wonderfully sure draftsmanship manages to give a strong sense of the volume of Leda's body in iust a few FIFTY drawings and watercolours, outstanding in the his tory of art, are now on view at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The atmosphere is intimate and revealing, not only of the workings of these great artists but also of the holdings of a great art collection. A Study in iiemus, in Sydney until July 17, will then tour to Melbourne and Brisbane.

From Charles who most probably acquired the Leonardo drawings, to Queen Victoria, who commissioned paintings of the royal houses for her Souvenir Albums, this collection represents the main strengths of more than 30,000 drawings and watercolours collected by British monarchs over the past 400 years. I he Italian Renaissance and French 17th century feature strongly, but surprisingly there is not one Rembrandt or Tiepolo in the huge collection. Originally housed in the Royal Library in large albums, they are now kept in the Print Room at Windsor Castle. Australians have undoubtedly seen more of the Leonardo drawings in this collection than the British: three major exhibitions have travelled here in recent years and now 10 Leonardo drawings are the major attraction in this show. They are some of nis tinest too, and represent his extraordinarily fertile mind and varied artistic activities: from portraiture to mill-, tary engineering, sculpture to painting, scientitic inquiry, to theatre design.

One of the most surprising things to note is how he used chalk, a seemingly clumsy. medium, in exquisitely detailed drawings such as the spray oj Blackberry (1506-8). He also used metalpoint and pen and ink with a tremendously fluid hand. The Artil lery Park (1487) is bristling fascination with the work of the Italian Renaissance. And three evocative Holbein por traits conjure up the atmo sphere at the court of Henry VIII.

This is the first time Holbein drawings have ever been shown in Australia. The next part of the exhibition concerns the Italian baroque, starting with the beautiful flowing drawing of Perseus Warriors by Anni-bale Carracci. Poussin's Death of Virginia is a marvellous example of economy ot style. It exudes a strong classicism in the balance and proportion of the Roman architectural setting. Whereas the first parts of the exhibition are dominated by the hujnan figure, the last part is dominated by architec ture.

Canaletto's View of the Piazza S. Marco, Venice (1756) is particularly interest ing as it shows what this end of the piazza was like before Napoleon tore down the beautiful little church of S. Gemini-ano. Another marvellous Canaletto, 5 Paul's and the City of London Seen Through an Arch of Westminster Bridge (1746), introduces Britain as the next focus of the show. The presence of the British monarch as collector is now visible in the six watercolours of royal residences.

A particularly fine Paul Sandby shows a detailed rendering of the building of Windsor Castle foregrounded by an almost tangible velvety knoll at the foot of the Round Tower. One of the most fascinating of these portraits of royal houses is Joseph Nash's Buckingham Palace, before the current facade by Edward Blore was added. It gives a much better idea of the size of the palace. Views of British royal residences appropriately end the show, which is as much about royal possessions as about the genius of the artists represented. JO SAURIN ALTHOUGH the gender i balance in the cast us evenly distributed, Why Me? is as much a male problem play as Dinkum Assorted is a female.

It examines with insight and a great deal of humour the awful abyss of a man thrown on the scrapheap of unemployment in the prime of his life. John Bailey, a civil engineer in a recently merged company, is such a man. He is middle-aged, complacently contented, has a clever wife who is making a success of her own catering business and an irksome, but mostly absent, son who plays in a rock band. The play opens the day Bailey's life caves in when he is given the bullet without warning and has to break the news to his wife and devolves through his self-deluding hopes of re-employ- THE sleeper in town might well be this confronting eomedv set in a sleazy Soho pub where the per formers meet patrons on equal terms of disenchantment. Terry -Johnson will be remembered' for-insignificance the international hit which ingeniously mated Marilyn Monroe, Albert Ein stein and Joseph McCarthy.

The novelty of its action apart, any comparison with that play can be discounted. Unsuitable For Adults takes up the feminist banner where Dinkum Assorted leaves oil. WHY ME? By Stanley Price. Directed by Gary Down. Northside Theatre Co at Marian Street, Killara Vi ment to anger, loss of self-esteem and finally acceptance of a new life-role.

Along the way comes an affair with his dissatisfied neighbour Gwen, a set-to with Gwen's husband Arthur, a split with his own wife Helen, the constant irritation of a live-in mother-in-law and the discovery that his son Tom might be bi-sexual. Poor old Bailey, whose life until now has suffered nothing more painful than the boredom of untrammelled suburban domesticity, might well ask himself "Why me?" And in a less skilful script he might have been made to ask it with a good deal of morbid self-pity. In author Stanley Price's hands it is more self-mockery than self-pity, a series of very funny one-liners that UNSUITABLE FOR ADULTS By Terry Johnson. Directed by Ken Boucher. Belvoir Street.

Downstairs It is both aggro and accurate in its exposure of the more unpalatable aspects of the male psyche, written with the venom of a striking taipan which is all the more surprising from the pen ofa man. Kate, a haw-edged stand-up comic, more feminist in theory than in practice, transfers her anger at male duplicity from her philandering boyfriend to almost everything else strokes of the pen. A Male Nude by Michelangelo (1512-15) is placed next to Leonardo's Anatomical Figure and Action Studies (1503-8). Michelangelo's is a sculptural study of proportion, balance and modeling of the figure, whereas Leonardo's is more to do with action and the mechanics of the body. From Northern Europe there are two pen and ink drawings by Durer which GALLERIES IVAN DOUGHERTY GALLERY, Cor Albion Ave and Setwya St, Paddington.

Surrey of Contemporary Art, lo June 18. Mon lo Fri, 10-5, Sal 1- 5. RAY- HUGHES GALLERY, 270 Devonshire SI, Sony Hills. Artists for the other Biennale, to June 8, ues to Sat 10-. MACLAURIN HALL, University or Sydney.

Pictures from the Collections. 158 works including Dobel, Drysdale. Nolan, Lloyd Rees. Until June 12, Mon to Fri 11-5, Sat Sun 2- 5. -BMG FINE ART, 95 Holdsrarth Street, Woollahra.

Arthur Boyd Man Drawings produced for the book of poetry, Man by Peter Porter, until June 21. Tuesday to Saturday M-5, Sunday 2-5. THE-SUN-RERAHDf 3itte-ya988JT 10UOI.