| The School of Arts | Queensland Theatre Company |
| Written by Jason Whittaker |
| Saturday, 18 July 2009 17:31 |
 Bille Brown is considered Queensland acting royalty. He has tread the boards here and in England, winning accolades for his Shakespearean performances. On screen, he is almost as prolific a presence in Australian cinema as Bryan Brown and Bill Hunter. The Queensland Theatre Company even etched his name onto its newest performance space, the Bille Brown Studio, in tribute of one of its most famous alumni.Which is the only conceivable reason why the company let Brown stage his theatrical disaster, The School of Arts. It was a monumental mistake. In pandering to Brown’s vanity it robs the audience of the two and a half hours of their lives they will never get back. It would be easy to put the awkwardly stiff and dizzyingly incomprehensible opening night performance down to a lack of rehearsal. That two actors were forced to stiltedly read from the script on stage, thanks to a cast reshuffle to replace an actor who had fallen off stage the night before, certainly added to the dummy run vibe. The fall should have been an omen heeded. Because it is not under-development that makes this such a marathon sufferance. It is a script that tackles too many issues and holds none of them down, with direction from Michael Gow that makes it all look unintendedly chaotic. It is a vaudeville farce neither witty nor engaging; a portrait of a time and place too abstract to recognise; a parable on race relations that teaches us nothing and reminds us of little. It is 1967, in small-town Queensland, the sort of quaint country backwater scriptwriters use to justify oddballs and loveable simpletons. Brown’s Bronson Savage leads a travelling theatre troupe putting on a disastrous production of Hamlet (and the irony isn’t lost). A modernist twist has the cast using pistols, not swords, but somebody replaced the blanks with real bullets. Savage is wounded and carted off to hospital, leaving his fellow players to mix with the locals and uncover family secrets. Mystery, drama and hilarity supposedly ensue. The exact chain of narrative and characterisation, I can’t be sure. We have Savage’s current and former long-suffering lovers (Christine Amor and Sally McKenzie), the young Africa-born thespian and vamp (Sophia Emberson-Bain), and the seemingly-kindly vicar-with-a-secret (and just what attracted musical star and familiar TV face Ian Stenlake to the role really is a mystery). The scandalous mixed marriage of Jack and Irene Killoran (Peter Marshall replacing Joss McWilliam and Paula Nazarski) cares for Irene’s half-cast child Patrick (played strangely retarded by overawed debutant Andrew Legg), who is struggling with identity against the background of the referendum to include indigenous people in the national census. Brown calls it a tribute to a cultural time that inspired him and many other artists. But despite the clever stage design of Anna Borghesi, the story never manages to evoke the memories of the bygone era it tries so desperately hard to create. (Poor sound volume doesn't help - when will technicians learn the Playhouse is too big for drama without amplification?) More damningly, a play meant to tell Queensland’s story in its 150th year (the production is set to tour regional areas in August) is too convoluted, its characters too transparent, to celebrate the movement or the people involved. And certainly not the acclaimed playwright. Brown’s play reeks of a script that had too many ideas forced into it by too many stakeholders. The result is an abominable mess that shames the company and its fine players. I don’t say it lightly. But Brown’s School simply doesn’t deserve your attendance. Queensland Theatre Company presents The School of Arts by Bille Brown Director Michael Gow Venue: Playhouse, QPAC Dates: 13 July – 1 August 2009 Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes (incl Interval) Tickets: $40 - $63, Under 30: $30 Bookings: www.qtix.com.au Comments (5)Subscribe to this comment's feed...
once again we are delivered the exact opposite of "truth, beauty and courage" that QTCs marketing propose to us what 2009 is about for them. god please!!! "boredom, mediocrity and fear" more like it! someone fire Gow asap - he directs like a wet piece of toilet paper. the greatest offence that this current work will do is to travel around queensland and effectively put the notion of theatre as a relevent social function back 15 years - whilst claiming at the same time to be the best the qld theatre industry can offer. The School of Arts - irrelevent, pointless and stupid! Arts Qld do your job and demand accountability!
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July 23, 2009
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either way SPEAK UP! vomit your opinion upon the edifice so at least in cleaning up they have to acknowledge the reaction.
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July 23, 2009
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I certainly appreciate the call for more people to speak up, Ben. Whether you liked the play or not please HAVE YOUR SAY. As writers we crave it. How else do we know if we're on the right track?
You're certainly not alone. Not sure about the characterisation as a "wet piece of toilet paper"... But not alone. I've had tremendously bad feedback on this. I've asked the question numerous times whether my review was too harsh, to which the response was always the same - not harsh enough. It hasn't been a good year for QTC, agreed. The stand-out for me so far was absolutely That Face - but that was an outstanding script imported from England. Its two genuinely original productions, 25 Down and The School of Arts, have both been really disappointing.
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July 25, 2009
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thanks for your reply Jason,
wish there was more ... i am reminded of a radio article i heard on radio national about the difference between french sensibility to criticism and the australian perspective. essentially it stated that the french have a acceptance of critical reflection as norm and us aussies still suffer from a terrible "politeness". at any rate i hereby pledge to contribute my critical thoughts to this forum. and i am looking forward to any MF who disagrees with my thoughts to challenge my viewpoint. so here goes .... defund QTC and QPAC and spend the states arts money on relevent and contemporary avenues of local performance. invest in the future and the export market that that would create. stop following the paradigm of "state theatre company" - it does not work and only creates the kind of arts complacency that we see today. Brisbane - BE A POINT OF DIFFERENCE TO THE REST OF AUSTRALIA IN THE ARTS. fund 3 or 4 smaller companies that challenge one another and the rest of the nation DON'T FUND LAZINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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August 09, 2009
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