The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 14

The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, October 28, 1985 Page 14 H.G.KIPPAX and ROGER COVELL combine to review the latest Australian musical, based on a 1911 novel Aural porridge from the south at the Gallery On stage, the larrikin loses touch with dinkum Aussie MUSIC THEATRE Jonah Jones Book and lyrics by John Romeril. Music by Alan John The Sydney Theatre Company With Simon Burke, Geraldine Turner, Lynne Emanuel, Diane Smith, Alan David Wayne Scott Kermond, Michele Fawdon, Tony Taylor, Peter Carroll, Valerie Bader Director: Richard Wherrett. Assistant director: Wayne Harrison. Musical director: Michael Tyack. Musical staging: Ross Coleman.

Designer: Roger Kirk sackbutts and cornetts fared less well. The Quintet (191 r4) by the Melbourne trumpeter Barry McKimm was too brilliant and complicated in its scoring to register properly in such over-reverberant surroundings. Victor Ewald's first Quintet became aural porridge; and even David Stanhope's clever and effective scoring of four Grainger pieces only just survived through the rhythmic force and familiarity of the pieces themselves. Some arrangements by Paul Sarcich of what were said to be Australian Aboriginal melodies were grotesquely inappropriate in style though quite pleasant as note-spinning. As representations of Aboriginal music, even in spirit, nothing more spurious has been heard since John Lhotsky published a song from the Monaro region "with the assistance of several Musical Gentlemen" in 1834.

So far as could be heard for certain among the at times almost painful clamour of the proceedings, the five players demonstrated great control and accuracy in a long and demanding program. As four of them are members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, they testified to the talent and sense of purpose to be found among brass players in that orchestra. Melbourne Brass Ensemble Musica Viva chamber series Art Gallery of New South Wales October 231 By ROGER COVELL BRASS ensemble music is either heraldic or mutinous in its effect It is the audible symbol of power clear and triumphant or choked and dangerous. Presented by the five expert members of the Melbourne Brass Ensemble, this kind of music could not have been less in tune with the 19th century feminine mysteries that are so visually pervasive in the wing of the Art Gallery in which the recital took place. The acoustic sympathy was even worse.

If this wing of the Gallery has any affinity with music, which is doubtful, it might be with the softer members of the woodwind family. Brass music in the clear heraldic mode worked best in this recital: pieces arranged from Susato's Antwerp anthologies of late Renaissance dances and chansons, for example. But the choppy, short-breathed phrases and awkward harmonies of Matthew Locke's 1661 music for the royal 3 Lz By H. G. KIPPAX Peter Carroll (Mr Packard), Simon Burke (Jonah Jones) and Alan David Lee (Chook Fowles) in the musical Jonah Jones.

imposes order on the novel's sprawl by getting -rid of much of, its life. This can be anticipated from early on in this production in Roger Kirk's ingenious, many-levelled construction of platforms and stairs, neat, newly-painted, and as clean as a whistle not a slum but an operating theatre. Because Jonah Jones disappoints as an indigenous musical need not mean that it fails as entertainment. But even by this less demanding criterion it has shortcomings. Roger Covell writes elsewhere on this page on Alan John's score.

I found it, with its indebtedness to Sondheim and Broadway, ingenious and, in a good sense, insidious. But it follows Sond-heim's operatic aspirations, as in Sweeney Todd, and the result is tunefulness at the service of text and sub-text but (unlike Sweeney Todd) without one memorable tune or one really rousing production number. Highly organised, it provides at best a service that leaves the ploT firmly in command of the stage, with melodrama eventually squeezing the life out of the piece. Mr Romeril stirs into this mixture unexceptionable anti-capitalistic and anti-war cliches from contemporary moralising impositions on Stone's uncommitted and objective observations of life and here is yet another reason why what should be ted it to make a very effective basis for a bustling, brawling musical celebrating the vigour of emergent Australian proletarian character. I was disappointed.

John Romeril faithfully and affectionately quarries the novel to make a musical. He peoples his stage with recognisable versions of some of its more colourful characters. He gives them dialogue taken directly from its pages. Why, then, does it reach us so faintly as Australiana? The nature and compulsions of the theatrical entertainment aimed at may be partly to blame. Even with three hours of running-time (too long, though it includes a generous interval) Mr Romeril has to cut and radically simplify.

He concentrates on Jonah's story and in the process conventionalises his viciousness. (The beating up of a police informer comes across only as picturesque choreography.) Worse, he bases much of the piece on the unconvincing second half of the novel, on Jonah as tycoon. It reaches us as undisguiseable and, unfortunately, plodding melodrama. Worst of all, the simplifications force the novel's main assets loveably indigenous characters like Pinkey and Chook and vigorous ones like the Widow Yabsley into the background, often to assume little better than chorus functions. Mr Romeril THIS ambitious Australian musical is based on Jonah, a first novel by Louis Stone which was published in Sydney and London in 191 1.

In Jonah we have the first detailed portrait of the Australian larrikin. The portrait is realistic; Jonah, a hunchback who leads a slum push, has nothing of the bawdy humour of The Bastard from the Bush or the sentiment of The Sentimental Bloke. The novel tells of his ruthless rise from rags to riches. The ragged stretch makes the better half. In this first half we have a brilliant description of everyday working-class life in Federation Waterloo on the outskirts of sprawling Sydney.

These chapters have documentary force because of the veracity of closely observed characters and incidents, of vignettes glimpsed in close-up. I expec There is warmth and charm much-needed Australian cheekiness from Diane Smith and Alan David Lee as Pinkey and Chook. There is, above all, a commanding performance, as actor and singer from Simon Burke as Jonah. He overcomes the monotony in the part by sheer strength of voice and movement The production needs about half an hour out of it Although already fluent, it needs more time to run itself in. I must add that the first night audience's applause lasted long after the actors had left the stage.

They, at any rate deserved it. pungent and invigorating seems tepid and unsatisfying. The evening's consolation is the teamwork of all in the cast and the charm and vigour of individual talents. Geraldine Turner is too physically attractive to be a Mrs Yabsley but she does give us the character's earthy authority, and that big, confident singing voice sounds always as though it may at any moment launch a show-stopper. Another fine performer, Michele Fawdon, cleverly acts complexity into "the other woman" in the melodrama and thereby helps it considerably.

Welcome for Dixieland JAZZ By JOYA JENSON Jonah's music: Salute to a born theatre composer, with ample resources MUSIC Band, dishes out what has been described as "mainstream New Orleans a la Kid The Sydney Jazz Club plays host to it with music supplied by Graeme Bell's All Stars, at a welcoming party in the Bowlers' Club on November 6, and on the following day, the band members front up as special guest speakers at the Journalists' Club where they will also offer samplings of their vigorous two-beat style. A particular highlight of their visit will be a performance in concert at the Opera House on November 10. Coming up on Wednesday is another stint in The Regent's Don Burrows Supper Club for the historic Port Jackson Jazz Band. This time the extra attraction is vocalist, Kate Dunbar, who is heard from too infrequently these days. Jonah Jones Music by Alan John IF YOU ever wanted to know what a six-piece Dixieland band from California sounds like, but were afraid to ask, the coming weeks should bring enlightenment, along with some romping, stomping music to move to.

Shortly to our shores comes the High Sierra Jazz Band from Three Rivers in the Sierra Mountains, where the hills were alive with the sound of country and western music until some folks thereabouts became trad-mad through exposure to this sextet. In fact, the High Sierra Jazz Band had such a faithful following that ISO of its fans are coming Down Under with them. The band, which started life in the sweetest way, calling itself the Jazzberry Jam quickly changing tempo and rhythm for a new idea or incident. But a musical score as extensive as this must do more than be the faithful mirror of the action. There is still time for author, composer and director to develop at least one or two scenes in which the music holds its momentum and celebrates nothing more explicit than its own energy, carrying the audience with it beyond questions of who and what and why and making a statement that is definable only in terms of its own exhilaration.

I find it exciting to salute a born theatre composer who obviously has it in him to do virtually anything he pleases and whose outstanding skill and talent are matched by the Sydney Theatre Company's first-class musical preparation of the cast and by Michael Tyack's impressive co-ordination of both solo and ensemble music. My reservation about the impact of the music relates to the supple fidelity with which it mirrors thought and word. Many of the sections of extended musical scenes are therefore very short, Alan John's music is not distinctive in style. The conversational or par-lando manner of much of its word-setting, its wry shifts of key and sophisticated handling of melody and cadence testify to the influence of Sondheim and one or two other senior figures in the world of the clever, knowing musical. But to reproach John for that (he graduated from Sydney University only in 1980) is rather like complaining that a young composer for the concert-hall shows that he has been listening to Messiaen or Stockhausen or Berio or Steve Reich.

continuous process rather than a separate kind of behaviour. Much of the subtlety and craft of the very extensive and pervasive score, in other words, is disguised by its seemingly natural and intimate response to the small details of events and encounters; and that is probably as it should be. At the same time it is important to recognise that the musical contribution to Jonah Jones is of a resourcefulness and variety matched by very few, if any, other Australian-made musicals. By ROGER COVELL THE' last thing I want to do is to put anyone off going to see Jonah Jones by dwelling on the high craftsmanship of its music. The major success of the piece, it seems to me, is in its integration of impulse, action, reflection and song so that sung dialogue seems part of a Pleasure without power in arty concoctions Tale LEOS JANACEK'S KATYA KABANOVA TOMORROW 7.30 PM One of this century's greatest works of music drama.

"A masterly Starring Axitrlis, Price, Raisbeck, Card.Hottmann, Ferris, van derStolk. Conductor: Kram. Last Performance Nov. 1 Sponsored by the late V.J.CHALWIN. EVA MARTON IN TOSCA WEDNESDAY 7.30PM THE AUSTRALIAN OPERA Book Now.

Phone 2 0588 (Opera House) or 2664800 (Mitchells Bass) Em materialism and will to power. But the viewer gets hooked on the delightful improbability of it all and can't help laughing at these arty concoctions of strange fairytale lands. So it is with The Captain (a ferocious animal-headed pirate) and Jack (a real piebald cat) in Sail the Midnight Sea. Storm clouds hover in the black, unearthly sky as The Captain paddles the two-dimensional ship into apparent oblivion. Winter is an interior interpretation of an exterior experience.

It's another studio cook-up a naked boy reaches for and takes hold of black, forked lightning among the home-made clouds. These pictures seem derivative of movie set technique and as deceptive. They recall those phony street scenes made of one-face-only buildings as backdrops for performing artists. Originality is one thing, individuality another. The former begets shallow effects, the latter expresses a deeper plumbing of the mind.

These pictures, with their light, mischievous humour, offer us pleasure and momentary escape, but they don't generate power, energy or inspiration in the viewer. They are good, clean, studio fun but not likely as a thesis on photography worth seeing for the laughs, with the works and not at them. PHOTOGRAPHY Victoria Fernandez Garry Anderson Gallery Until November 2 By MAX DUPA1N IN HER last show in 1982, Victoria Fernandez was absorbed and even overwhelmed by the reality of her subjects, as in her renderings of the performances of Richard- Boulez. Three years has given her time to effect an about-face. She does not exercise the ingenuity of sheer observation and inference any more but creates her subject, manually, by cutting out representative shapes of all sizes.

Weird nakednot nude!) bodies are on the move among these props. Sometimes they wear animal masks, a kind of rebuff to what might be Fernandez's observation of the distrusting face of humanity and an acclamation of the impervious face of the animal. It's all anecdotal in a Hans Christian Andersen sort of way, a fairytale escape, all in the mind with a subjective overkill. Regrettably, the sheer visual vitality of pure photography comes across as minimal and almost with contempt These pictures strike a strange and pitiful note in this age of pragmatism, Government Authorised Trustee Investment Minimum opening deposit $2,000 (minimum subsequent transactions $500) Money at call. TFCA02046 Head Office: 1 Oxford Street, Whitiam Square, Sydney, N.S.W 2000.

Telephone: (02)2664444. MN4CS8S9208 llllllllll Come in for lunch and well lake you out ite open arr. (btw am enp stiendid service. JOHN FAIRFAX SONS LIMITED The Wave, by Victoria Fernandez creating the subject. Tiidrt rvw our featured vvine isRhsewourtfi IX.

puwacmy mm insweorour, wncn 1 ftereisdlv wysapreathor "FDKSTT LA "This is a first-class piece of theatre writing, lavishly mounted, starring two of Australia's finest performers who enhance the production with some sensitive finely-tuned acting. It has star quality stamped all oyer it." Mick Barnes, Sun Herald THE REAL THING SYDNEY MORNING HERALD FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF OUR SYDNEY ADVERTISERS, THE FOLLOWING OFFICES AND AGENTS WILL ACCEPT PAYMENTS OF ACCOUNTS: SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: 4 fe Wi Mon-Fri for breakfast and lunch. 'Winner of 1984 New York Tony Award for "Best Ptayof the Year" -i'J .1 11 1 .1 -WmJ ml J. I k'd I 'sSlBIttJiSK' SpUngJsBlDUfV 239 Church Street 2nd Floor, 443 Victoria Avenue Suite 14, 5-11 Hollywood Avenue FARRAMATTA OFFICE CHATSW00D OFFICE B0NDI JUNCTION OFFICE THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SYDNEY i SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY presents 26 Hunter Street 235 Jones Street CITY OFFICE BROADWAY OFFICE MM JJ(D)KJIBS OR OUR AGENTS: CHEQUE PAYMENTS ONLY A powerful new Australian Musical! Directed by RICHARD WHERRETT 1983-1987 CITY OF SYDNEY PLAN EXHIBITION The Council's 1983-1987 City of Sydney Plan-Review will be re-exhibited in the vestibule of the Sydney Town Hall from Monday. 14th October to Friday 22nd November 1985, between the hours of 9 a.m.

and 5 p.m. The Plan defines the objectives, policies and' recommendations for action in the City of Sydney, including the Former Municipality of South Sydney. Copies of the publication will be available at a cost of 57.50 ($5 students and Submissions, are invited from members of the public and should be addressed to the Town Clerk. LP. Carter, O.B.E.

Town Clerk. Books lyrics by JOHNROMEP.IL Music by ALAN JOHN Based on the novel "Jonah" by Louis Stone Produced by arrangement with Angus and Robertson Publishers Settings Costumes by Roger Kirk Lighting by Nigel Levings Sound design by Colin Ford Assistant Director Wayne Harrison Musical direction by Michael Tyack Musical staging by Ross Coleman Starring (in alphabetical order) VALERIE BADER SIMON BURKE PETER CARROLL LYNNE EMANUEL MICHELE FAWDON WAYNE SCOTT KERMOND ALAN DAVID LEE DIANE SMITH TONY TAYLOR GERALDINE TURNER MANLY HUESPHREf NEWSA6ENCY 60 The Corso BANKST0WN CASSIBTS NEWSA6ENCY 107 North Terrace HURSTVILLE STODDARTS KEWSASEHCY 255 Forest Road RANDWiCK IAIN'S NEWSASENCY 55B Frenchman's Road CRONUUA IKNES' NEWSASENCY 21 Cronulla Street i I FIVE DOCK O'HAZEYS' NEWSASENCY 105 Great North Road BLACKTOWN WOOD'S NEWSASENCY 38 Main Street WHARF THEATRE October 26 to December 7, 1985 Performances: Evenings Monday to Saturday 8pm Matinee Saturday 2pm Bookings Sydney Theatre Company VVharf Box Office Telephone: 250 1777 and Mitchells Bass.