A modern take on a musical, Mission Drift forsakes cheesy storylines and happy endings for interweaving broken metaphoric narratives. In place of one dimensional goodies and baddies we find characters with no identity or plot function, and instead of catchy toe-tappers we find raucously over-amplified dirges that impress with musical ability in the moment, but which have already faded from memory by the time the house lights come up.
Two love stories take us through two threads of history, on different time scales, intersecting in recent Las Vegas. The longer story concerns two Dutch teens, Catalina and Joris, who seek to fulfil their dreams by emigrating to New Amsterdam in 1624, then becoming entrepreneurs who capitalise on mass migration movements across and around the country for the next few centuries. They remain perpetually 14 years old, periodically change their names with their locations and enterprises, oversee deforestation, mining booms and busts in various commodities, and everywhere promoting the expansion of people and places.
The shorter story line follows the imploding dreams and downward spiral of unemployed Vegas cocktail waitress Joan and her displaced cowboy admirer, Chris. She loves the way Las Vegas has grown in the past, and romanticises the life three generations of her family have lead in the entertainment industry. Chris, on the other hand, is resolutely from ‘outside Vegas’ and plans to move to Montana to escape the city that has expanded to engulf his property. A fifth character, Miss Atomic, appears enigmatically at points through each storyline and interacts with the other players.
All actors demonstrated fine singing voices, with harmonies and shared turns at lead tunes, and the closely synchronised dance routines were impressive. Stephanie Wright Thompson as Catalina Rapalje was endearing, looking for adventure and finding herself the bored victim of her own success at different times and places. Ian Lassiter was a convincing cowboy as Chris, yearning after disappearing freedoms; he also sympathetically played Atiatonharonkwen, an Indigenous negotiator and ambassador to the early Dutch settlers. Amber Gray’s Joan was defeated and directionless, a character difficult to portray on stage and in the end, one that was not very interesting despite some lovely vocal work. Bryce Gill’s Joris was continually re-inventing himself, presenting technical acting challenges which were neatly dealt with but which did not lead to a strong theatrical character.
The multi-talented Heather Christian composed the music, played the piano, sang all the songs and took all the costume changes of the show in her character of Miss Atomic. The overwhelming impression of the show as a whole was that Christian’s incredible range of talents were only surpassed by her near pathological need for attention. Miss Atomic’s baffling role included that of a smug, snide omniscient narrator, interjecting during intimate dialogues between other characters. While the piano was the natural place for her character on the stage, she was unable to stay put there, several times disrupting and breaking the flow of the main stories. There may have been a metaphor here about the loud and brash American individual but it simply played out as a pointlessly disruptive and confusing element which further fragmented a complicated set of storylines.
Production company The TEAM have researched the history of American capitalism, but the presentation screams of an artwork designed by committee, or in their own description of ‘democratic process’. Lack of coherence, from story arc to style, made the whole seem like a haphazard mash-up akin to earnest amateur community theatre productions, with a multiplicity of messages and a collision of motivations.
The scope and structure of the set seemed more suited to a community hall venue, and lost and out of context in the lush Heath Ledger Theatre. The stage was too big for the performers, and the physical staging struggled to cope with the dimensions available. The lighting was adequate and reflected the various scenes well, but considering the possibilities of the venue, the technical design wasted opportunities to impress.
The surtitled lyrics were useful, as Christian’s vocals and the rich harmonies favoured sound layers over traditionally important clear diction. However the projected words only highlighted inanities in the text, owing more to the likes of grunge greats Nirvana than to any blues, gospel or Presley tradition; nor did the songs contribute to plot progression, despite using phrases from various famous American texts. Lack of lyrical clarity was not due to the sound design, which saw Christian’s vocals amplified to the extent that any passion or vocal power was lost in the painfully overloud blasting from the speakers.
Musicals work best on a simple premise, embellished by song and dance routines. Mission Drift is impressively researched, but tries to be too clever, deconstructing, reconstructing and serving up an overly sophisticated plot that simply goes nowhere in a futile attempt to go everywhere.
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Mission Drift
Presented by The TEAM
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Written by The TEAM in collaboration with Heather Christian and Sarah Gancher
Music composed by Heather Christian
Lyrics by Heather Christian and The TEAM
Set Designer: Nick Vaughan
Sound Designer: Matt Hubbs
Costume Designer: Brenda Abbandandolo
Lighting Design: Jake Heinrichs
Associate Lighting Design: Sean Linehan
Associate Choreographer: Jake Margolin
Production Stage Manager: Dave Polato
Technical Director: Joseph Cantalupo
Musicians: Heather Christian, Matthew Bogdanow and Josh Myers
Performed by Bryce Gill, Stephanie Wright Thompson, Amber Gray, Heather Christian and Ian Lassiter
Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA
22 February – 2 March
www.perthfestival.com.au
8 February – 2 March
