The Magic Hour

‘The Magic Hour’ is an adult, musical black comedy, written by one of Australia’s most original contemporary, NIDA trained playwrights Vanessa Bates. She has had several monologue / solo performance plays produced. She received a 6-month residency at the Cite des Arts in Paris, was short-listed for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, the Griffin Award, the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and the ANPC/New Dramatists Award. In 2006, she won a Theatrelab Playwrights Award which was work shopped with Edward Albee.

This outstanding World Premiere is presented by Deckchair Theatre and Fothergill’s Lodge. The two and a half hour production is showing at the Victoria Hall, 179 High Street, Fremantle until 3^rd June. Performances are at 7.30 pm.

The tiered seating is arranged at right-angles, with a wondrous, homemade traveller’s caravan positioned along the hypotenuse – like a small version of Subiaco’s main theatre. The walls are covered in black drapes and the floor strewn with leaves. As the audience or ‘guests for the evening’ enter, they are warmly welcomed and asked to take a seat by a young lady wearing a colourful, Romany-style cape.

         The lights dim and we are told that we are in a dark forest, just off the main road. The roar of the traffic subsides, and the noises of the forest animals and wild birds take over. The caravan owner explains that she would like to tell us a few stories about women that she has known, and that we too will recognise. Women from famous children’s tales, who wish to tell the truth behind the fables.

        As our storyteller starts to make her special potato and onion soup, she begins to relate her intriguing and enlightening stories.

        Little Red Riding Hood’s old Grandma tells us how her little ‘angel of a granddaughter’, far from bringing sweetmeats and happiness, was the grandchild from hell. But there was one good thing about her visits!

       Cinderella, we are told by her pubescent young, ugly stepsister, was locked in their house by her cruel stepmother, but this adolescent saw the Prince’s Ball through different eyes.

       Rumpelstiltskin. A very nervous Eastern European girl, rapidly approaching middle-aged and still very much single, is on a blind date arranged by her father. What does she think of the suitor? Who is that diminutive stranger that enters the bar?

       The Frog Prince. In a very wealthy area, in one of the poshest houses, live a rich businessman, his longsuffering wife and his spoilt daughter. All seated around the dining room table, they are being served by their private domestic staff. Will they live happily ever after in such luxury?

      Rapunzel lived with her foster mother at the top of a residential tower block. As the aging mother explains, Rapunzel has been a big problem since moving in and she isn’t too sure what to do about her behaviour.

     Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack lives with his dysfunctional parent in a slum of a home. When Jack is aged ten, his druggie father dies. Penniless, what can he do?

Each fairy tale is told with the most lively and somewhat cheeky dialogue. With every story, you found yourself immediately connecting to the individuals represented. Ursula often had several characters per story, and yet she could change between them in a split second. Her accent, demeanour, body language and expressions all transformed in an instant, she truly lived the characters. At the end of each 15 – 20 minute story, she would sing a short song, and yet no matter how active the part she had just portrayed, her melodic voice was beautifully clear, powerful and yet deliciously mellow.

Director Chris Bendall and his emerging director, Michelle Trainer, filled the stage with action. Often one would feel that there were several players on stage, when in fact there was only the single storyteller. The genres of the stories were very different, sometimes hilarious, other times quite tragic. Within the tales Ursula could be a teenager one second, and then flawlessly switch to a senile grandmother the next. She could be climbing a ladder or being an amazing puppeteer (guided by Spare Parts Theatre).

Set and costume designer, Alicia Clements, was aided by emerging designer Laura Heffernan, the result was magnificent. The gypsy caravan actually looked as though it contained magic behind its many doors and within every drawer. The costumes were beautifully crafted by Emma Loughridge. With the pace of the stories, there was no time for the audience to ‘work out’ who the new character was, they had to be instantly recognisable, and Alicia and Emma succeeded wonderfully.

Deckchair is a tricky venue to light, but lighting designer Joe Lui at all times created the exact lighting temperature, with chilly blues for the creepy stories through to the warm glow of the happy tales. There were visual effects, such as the camera flash – with motorised wind-on sound effects – perfectly synchronised and operated by stage manager Jenny Poh, who was in charge of the entire tech operating. Joe Lui’s soundscape was crisp and alive. His original soft incidental music, a blend of percussion, strings but mainly piano, played gently and unobtrusively in the background. The result for all of the senses was breathtaking. Congratulations also to production manager, Jason Thelwell.

Finally to the star of the show, the Helpmann Award-winning, Arnhem land born singer and actress, Ursula Yovich. Fed up with being given the same stereotypical Aboriginal parts in such famous films as ‘Australia’, ‘Waltzing the Wilarra’, ‘Jindabyne’ and ‘Capricornia’, Ursula was about to give up acting when this play came along. Thank goodness she didn’t retire.

There have been a large number of very good productions recently, but this whole creation oozes quality. A show to see over and over again, it could travel and run for years. Could this be the ‘Production of the Year’? The enthusiastic, standing ovation certainly suggested that this could be the case.