Peter Paltos, Paul Capsis and Ash Flanders in Calpurnia Descending; image via Facebook
Sisters Grimm (Declan Greene and Ash Flanders) have a budget, and they are not afraid to use it. This co-production between the Malthouse and the Sydney Theatre Company throws around slick production and tech no small theatre could dream of. But don’t worry: there has been no sacrifice in the areas of high camp, or that which young people refer to as ‘teh lulz’.
Calpurnia Descending is a mash-up of familiar stories: All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard and of course Julius Caesar, all cut into ribbons and stitched, stapled and glitter-glued back together in a very pleasing form.
Act 1 takes a comfortably familiar form, with starry-eyed small-town girl Violet St Clair (Ash Flanders) discovering the aging Broadway diva Beverly Dumont (Paul Capsis) mouldering away in a New York apartment, and pressing producer Max Silvestri (Sandy Gore) and director Charles (Peter Paltos) into giving her a Broadway revival. Dumont, however, insists that the show be switched to a melodrama following Caesar’s last wife, Calpurnia, and then the show really begins in earnest.
The Malthouse curtain comes down, and is replaced with a cinema screen, on which Act 2 appears as live television, courtesy of numerous cameras, a fistful of mics, seemingly hundreds of carefully placed pieces of neon tape, at least one green-screen, some serious ingenuity and enough production technique to reassure the lost live drama producers of the Golden Age of Television that their vocation is not dead. And, for our amusement, in the lead-up to Calpurnia‘s opening night, things go predictably and hilariously pear-shaped.
The kinks have been worked out of the show’s technical production (no trace visible now of opening night problems), although there’s plenty of kink left in the performance. Interestingly, all the roles have been gender-swapped except Paltos’ – our Caesar remains unbent. Whether this is because he’s some Platonic ideal of manhood, or just because he is quite literally the straight man, I cannot say.
Capsis and Flanders bounce off each other to new heights of camp, each hamming it up in a world made expressly for delicious honey-baked ham. As the straight man, Paltos doesn’t get much chance to shine (except for one scene where he is literally quite shiny in parts) but Gore takes the ball, runs with it, then slams it down in the touchdown zone.
Calpurnia Descending rides an interesting line between easy laughs and drama; for the most part, the easy laughs are more of a success – who could resist a backstage box carefully marked, deadpan, ‘TAFFETA’ – but the work has Shakespearean moments, and a surprisingly touching finish.
This is serious theatre that has woken up in the bathtub wearing a frilly négligée and with a dick drawn on its face. It is thoroughly entertaining and well worth a trip down to the Maltie.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company present a Sisters Grimm production
Calpurnia Descending
Created by Ash Flanders & Declan Greene
Direction: Declan Greene
Set & Costume Design: David Fleischer
Lighting Design: Katie Sfetkidis
AV Design: Matthew Gingold
Animation: Matt Greenwood
Composition & Sound Design: Jed Palmer
Performed by: Paul Capsis, Ash Flanders, Sandy Gore & Peter Paltos
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne
13-30 November
