Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins is rarely performed in this country. Australian audiences’ only chance previously to see a production of this clever, unsettling and brilliant musical theatre work was almost 20 years ago, when the Melbourne Theatre Company included the show as part of its 1995 season.
Assassins uses a revue-like structure to explore the lives and times of nine disturbed individuals through a kaleidoscopic melding of song, historical event and meta-theatrical hypothesis. Each character in the show attempted to kill a US president and about half succeeded. Assassins neither condemns nor condones the actions of these people. The authors explore the notion of a perceived right these criminals feel they have or an abstract ‘American dream’ that they feel they have been deprived of fulfilling. But, is this a uniquely American experience? All societies have had political change and oftentimes this change occurs swiftly and violently. Assassins doesn’t ask how these catastrophic events occurred, but why.
Director Tyran Parke’s production almost succeeds in living up to the magnificence of the material. He has assembled a truly stellar cast and nearly all of the performances in Assassins are superb. They are sad, hilarious, brooding, brave and horrifying. Mark Dickinson leads the cast with his commanding physicality and phenomenal vocals; an absolutely stunning turn as John Wilkes Booth, the killer of Abraham Lincoln. An early sequence detailing Booth’s final hours in a burning barn, including the hauntingly beautiful soliloquy ‘The Ballad of Booth’ is particularly moving.
Nadine Garner’s gutsy and breathtakingly idiosyncratic interpretation of Sarah Jane Moore is also brilliant. Her performance is wonderfully detailed; from her hyperactive and angular physical choices to her abrasive vocal style, Garner is simply spectacular (and the KFC park bench scene had the audiences in hysterics).
Matt Holly’s portrayal of John Hinkley is full of palpable angst and pathos. He also has a stunning voice, which soars during the powerful song, ‘Unworthy of Your Love.’ Another actor with a fantastic voice is Nick Simpson-Deeks, who plays the somewhat difficult dual roles of The Balladeer (a fictional 1960’s folk-style singer who pops up throughout the evening to comment on the action and question the motivations of the assassins) and Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of JFK. Simpson-Deeks’ slightly twangy tenor is perfect for the role and his transformation into the self-loathing Oswald is a highlight.
As the crazed and delusional Charles Guiteau, Aaron Tsindos is equal parts hilarious and creepy. His frenzied cakewalk number, ‘The Ballad of Guiteau’, is a tour-de-force.
Crisanne Fox’s set and costumes suit the style of the piece perfectly. The fortyfivedownstairs performance space is littered with dusty carts, crates and small lights of varying shapes and sizes, from country fair-style fairy lights to dim and menacing bulbs framing the platform stage. These touches anchor the show in an eerie carnival setting. At centre stage sits a rather ugly shrouded mound, which in a breathtaking piece of theatricality before the final section of the show, magically reveals itself to be a haphazard bookcase in front of a large window in the Texas School Book Depository circa November 1963. It is a chilling moment that is achieved effortlessly and brilliantly.
Another simple but effective moment of production design can be seen when the audience spies Booth reading a copy of Variety magazine. This detailed touch perfectly reflects the strange limbo setting and intertwining time spaces in which the musical occurs. The design of the show is only let down whenever the cast use several LED lights. They look terribly out of place and don’t really achieve their intention (to act as the lights of an airplane or serve as candles at a vigil etc).
Where the production falters is with the score. The cast sing thrillingly, but Luke Byrne’s five-piece band strangely never really gets there. The piano is not prominent enough, there are some awkward brass notes, and the whole sound design is just too soft, thanks in part to a lack of amplification. Sound effects employed throughout were also too quiet. This was most glaringly obvious whenever a gunshot occurred; the power of these explosive moments was greatly diminished.
It’s exciting that this new theatre company seems determined to present mature and innovative music theatre and Watch This should be commended for tackling the complicated Assassins and sharing it with Melbourne audiences. It’s a shame that not all elements of the production quite come together’ but at the end of the day it’s still a thrill to watch this incredible cast perform one of the greatest and most challenging of Sondheim’s works here in Melbourne – at last!
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Watch This presents
Assassins
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Director: Tyran Parke
Musical Director: Luke Byrne
Set & Costume: Crisanne Fox
Lighting: Rob Sowinski
Cast includes Nick Simpson-Deeks, Mark Dickinson, Nadine Garner and Sonya Suares
fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne
10 – 21 April
