Concrete Playground Review: Night Letters (Wednesday March 9 2011) [links to external site]

Concrete Playground Review: Night Letters
Trish Roberts

It would be deceptive to characterise So What? as a typical student theatre company. Rather than ‘shy’, ‘brave’ would perhaps be the best word. Despite limited years, they are unmistakably ambitious. Having tackled Shakespeare (a production of Macbeth is already under their belts), this company has moved on to another incredibly complex work.

Adapted from Robert Dessaix’s novel of the same name, Night Letters follows the escape to Europe of a dying man desperate to understand his own history. Rather than comprehending his story, however, he becomes entangled in the histories of others: both those who surround him and those who have inhabited the same place before him. Presenting this play as part of Mardi Gras foregrounds the fact that it pays attention to marginalised individuals, those who are otherwise excluded from the pages of the past. It is a surprisingly joyous act of celebrating their existence, while it inevitably mourns their tragedies.

The strength of this production lies in what may initially appear to be its weaknesses. More eager to extend themselves than display skills mastered, more willing to tackle difficult scripts than stick to safe options, the members of this company expose themselves to dangerous risks. Taking this path, however, opens up the space to create a performance that is dynamic, playful and unpredictable. Potentially dull moments are infected with the actors’ irresistible charms, while extensive scenes are stretched into absurdity, only to be poignantly pulled back into the immediate. Entrances and exits — a typical pitfall of student theatre — are managed seamlessly. Above all, the emotion of the script is carefully managed by director Christopher Hay to sidestep the issue of age and still deliver on the demands of the plot.

In short, Night Letters is one to watch, and so is the company behind it.

Musefront Review: Night Letters (Wednesday 23 February 2011) [links to external site]

Musefront Review: Night Letters
David Kary

Currently playing at the Seymour Centre is Susan Rogers’s play ‘Night Letters’, a work that has been inspired by Robert Dessaix’s highly acclaimed novel ‘Night Letters’. This work, produced by So What? Productions, is one of this year’s featured Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival events.

The narrative starts with two literary, sophisticated men, Robert and Peter, living a comfortable gay lifestyle in suburban Melbourne. Peter has been feeling unwell and goes for a medical check-up. His Doctor diagnoses that he is suffering from a chronic illness. Robert is devastated.

Not knowing how much longer that he has, Robert determines a course of action. He’s going to travel overseas and spend time living in Italy. He assures Peter that he’ll write letters home, the night letters of the title. Robert’s journey begins…

I have come to Rogers’s adaptation without any preconceptions, not having Dessaix’s novel. This evening at the theatre, as directed by Christopher Hay, featured a celebration of the muse in full flight with Robert being the master storyteller, holding his partner Peter and the audience captive.

There’s Robert the travel writer, with his evocative descriptions of cities like Venice and the unusual characters that he befriends, including an untrustworthy valet and an eccentric Professor. There’s the contemplative, philosophical Robert, trying to work out his place in the world post diagnosis. And then there’s the postmodern Robert, crafting out of traditional tales his own intriguing fables.

A large cast performs well in bringing Robert’s odyssey to the stage. Sean Ohlendorf is great in the lead role, the director himself plays Peter, and they are supported by a fine cast.

Recommended, ‘Night Letters’ opened at the downstairs theatre, Seymour Centre on Thursday 17th February and runs until Saturday 12th March, 2011.

The Brag Interview: Christopher Hay / Night Letters (Monday 21 February 2011) [links to external site]

Young guns tackle Robert Dessaix’s best-selling novel
Simon Binns

Sydney’s annual Mardis Gras festival is a cultural phenomenon. The parade down Oxford St, which serves as the centrepiece of the celebration, has become almost as iconic an image of Sydney as the Harbour Bridge, and the festival as a whole has given a public voice to a community whose interests and rights are too often marginalised.

However, as impressive as the giant floats and feathers of the parade are, it’s the other, less tangible elements of gay experience that Christopher Hay, artistic director of So What? Productions, is interested in bringing to the fore.

“A lot of Mardis Gras stuff doesn’t engage with anything other than ‘Oh look, pretty boys taking their clothes off’ – which absolutely has its place, but to me there is a seriousness to Mardi Gras that the theatre program has sometimes lost out on,” explains Hay. “We wanted to say, ‘There is work which is relevant and important for homosexual audiences which is not flamboyant or light. There’s a big difference between homosexual content and camp.”

Hay will address the imbalance with Night Letters, adapted by Susan Rogers and Chris Drummond from Robert Dessaix’s best-selling nineties novel of the same name. The play focuses on Robert (the main characters just happen to have the same names as Dessaix and his partner), who gets sick and convinces himself, whether it be true or not, that he is going to die. In an attempt to get away from his known world and make sense of his life he goes to Europe. However, instead of being able to focus on his own experience, Robert gets caught up in the lives of the people he meets, and is left more confused than before. This process is told through letters that he is writing home, to his partner in Melbourne.

Night Letters struck Hay as a work that was concerned with the more serious issues that the Mardi Gras Festival encompasses. “It’s interested in modes of masculinity, about how you can live in the world as man and what sexuality has to do with that. It’s also interested in how you can live in the world as someone whose story is not told – and those are very important confrontations that Mardi Gras is also about.”

One of the last plays developed through the National Playwright’s Conference, a bastion of Australian playmaking that has since folded, Rogers and Drummond’s old-fashioned, well-made script stood out to Hay as a great story that was beautifully told. “It resists the trends of contemporary play writing,” the director observes. “They [Rogers and Drummond] took a stand and said, ‘This is a particular type of play that is out of fashion but it’s the kind of play that we want to make.’”

With an ensemble of actors who have all worked together before, the production also presents a great opportunity for this young company, who pride themselves on their bold choices.

“The biggest thing we’re about is not being scared of ambition,” says Hay, citing So What’s recent production of King Lear, which toured to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, as an example. The attitude is, “So what if we’re 19? It’s a work that we’d like to do, it’s a work that we’d like to challenge ourselves with. This is a space for us to do things that we might never get the chance to do again.”

GuidetoGay Review: Night Letters (Saturday 19 February 2011) [links to external site]

GuidetoGay Review: Night Letters
Robert Manser

A tale of self-discovery and the meaning of life, Night Letters narrates the trials and tribulations of one man as he journeys across Europe and is confronted by questions of his own mortality, masculinity and identity.

A somewhat confronting story greets punters in the Downstairs theatre at the Seymour Centre for this production presented by So What? Productions and 2011 Mardi Gras Festival. Staging enveloping the audience, with the actors in place, scattered throughout the venue before you take your seat. You feel like you are really walking into their existing world.

Sean Ohlendorf, who portrays Robert, the central character, sucks you into his world expertly, with not only a flawless delivery of the material, but with a heart fluttering presence that makes you instantly fall for his character and feel for every story he and his scene partners deliver.

The play itself is a multi arc journey, with actors playing several roles, in seemingly different times in history. At times a little confusing – but it all comes together in the end.

A relatively large cast encompasses some fresh and incredibly talented performances. Their individual commitment to the roles is second to none and they have a fresh, yet seasoned style that works well with the content.

Funny, engaging and disturbing – Night Letters confronts the audience with illness, abuse, love and sacrifice.

This production has definitely left its mark – you know something has effected you when the next day you have flashbacks, goosebumps and you jump on the net to find out more about the cast and crew and the story itself.

So What? Productions is delighted to announce it will be presenting Night Letters by writer Susan Rogers and director Chris Drummond inspired by Robert Dessaix’s novel as part of Sydney’s Mardi Gras Festival 2011!

Please keep checking back for details as the production gets underway!