Photo: Michele Aboud
When Sisters Grimm brought the raucous Little Mercy to Sydney Theatre Company last year, Andrew Upton spoke at opening night of the risk he’d taken in programming such an alternative piece in the Wharf. He needn’t have worried; that show was a roaring success. Now the Melbourne-based company return to Wharf 2 with Calpurnia Descending, a show described as their most ‘out there’ yet.
Centering around the aged Broadway actress, Beverley Dumont (Paul Capsis), Calpurnia Descending explores the role of the diva in modern day society. We meet the melodramatic Ms Dumont on her birthday, when her ‘man- servant’ Tootles (Sandy Gore) arranges for the innocent Violet St Clair (Ash Flanders) to sing for her in her penthouse apartment. When Violet discloses her dream of acting on Broadway, Dumont bursts into full diva mode, acting out a scene from the ill- fated play she was to appear in 10 years earlier, as Calpurnia.
In a twist of fate, Violet later meets a Broadway producer and director who have just lost their leading lady and persuades them to meet Miss Dumont, who agrees to take the part only if the play is changed to Calpurnia Descending. Beverley asks the director to give Violet the supporting role of Cleopatra in the show, but when Violet turns out to be a genuine rival, it becomes clear that the play is doomed to fail again as a series of farcical events build to a spectacular crescendo.
Calpurnia Descending opens with music that evokes Old Hollywood and progresses through various stages of intensity until the trippy climactic scenes, which take place live but projected on screen. At first, backstage scenes evoke the use of screens in previous STC production The Maids, before becoming pure Sisters Grimm material, with the actors involved in increasing levels of drama against a projected backdrop of video games and obscure internet references.
The designers (David Fleischer, Katie Sfetkidis, Jed Palmer, Matthew Gingold and Matthew Greenwood) should be commended for their role in bringing Dumont and other characters from the traditional theatre into an increasingly dizzying modern world. All performances are faultless, with Peter Paltos’ ‘serious Broadway director’ acting as the perfect antidote to the other three actors’ deliberately over the top work.
Writer and director Declan Greene certainly has original ideas and has done an excellent job of directing performance and movements in this piece.
In the words of Ash Flanders, the audience at Calpurnia Descending are expected to have ‘a lot of confused looks’. For some members of the crowd, the projected scenes and madness may just go a step too far.
Rating 3.5 stars out of 5
Calpurnia Descending
By Sisters Grimm
Created by Ash Flanders and Declan Greene
Director: Declan Greene
Designer: David Fleischer
Lighting Designer: Katie Sfetkidis
AV Designer: Matthew Gingold
Sound Designer: Jed Palmer
Animator: Matt Greenwood
Cast: Paul Capsis, Ash Flanders, Sandy Gore, Peter Paltos
Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company
9 October – 8 November
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne
12-30 November
