Bison / Natural Born Hooker

FOCUS THEATRE present BISON by Lachlan Philpott and NATURAL BORN HOOKER by Konrad Product at the Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre. (It is part of The Sydney Gay Lesbian MARDI GRAS 2009.)

The Sydney Gay and Lesbian MARDI GRAS 2009 logo stands beside the FOCUS THEATRE logo at the top of the program. BE WARNED then, that, these two plays, as performance pieces, have a very specific audience target in mind. Both plays are examples of extreme verbal voyeurism. Both plays have what seems to be a recent Hallmark of Focus Theatre performances, a de rigueur requirement of including “male striptease” and full frontal nakedness, a titillating element of soft porn. (Witness BLOWING WHISTLES and it’s soft porn memories.) I guess if Channel 9 can score audience targets with similar tactics in both series of UNDERBELLY, let’s go one step further and give the nudity to them: Live! LIVE!!! LIVE!!!!!! Live simulated sex acts on stage!!! (There are various ticket prices available and at $48 dollars for the double bill, $30 a single, you may or may not feel you have got value for money - entirely dependent on what you go to the theatre for.) Definitely the ordinary audience might find the material both confronting and maybe informative. Even certain factions of a Gay audience may find a lot of the material confronting and maybe uncomfortable to watch. (There is very little in this material to excite a Lesbian audience, it is entirely concerned with the male experience.) These plays in my estimation are of interest to a very small cognoscenti of the public.

BISON by Lachlan Philpott is an Australian play. Originally written for a Melbourne Theatre space, the Builder’s Arms Hotel, in 1999, Mr Philpott and the production company Focus, have reworked the material to bring “it up to date”. In this work one can see the origins of what I think is a very exciting writer, based on my memory of his later play COLDER. But this play reveals a writer at a much earlier time in his career, still finding his voice, no matter how much recent adaptation has gone on. The play begins with what is fashionable in some areas of theatre writing at the moment, Chorus Speak: shared lines that give us direct information without the pretence of character. Four actors take on the responsibility of character and ensemble in different parts of the script. They are ensemble to the featured characters story. Primarily we meet Jase (Stephen Multari), Simon (Christopher Tomkinson), Tom (Quinn Gibbes) and Dick (John Turnbull).

The text has been adapted to the Sydney Gay scene and there are many laughs of recognition from the knowledgeable in the audience (Maybe FOCUS could get funding for location placement). Each story covers different areas of the gay experience: a coming out for a young (17 year old) guy and subsequent gay lifestyle journey; a man with a penchant for "sex-pig" experiences i.e extreme sex, (we are in there with a video camera with him); a man on an odyssey of searching the world for a real connection, (and like Peer Gynt finding it was at home all along); and finally, a modern fable of an older man finding the threshold of a loving but bored relationship and moving into a space where some solace on the internet and beat sex provides distraction. There are great familiarities with most of this play but there are also some, occasionally, interesting insights into the peculiar predicaments of being gay at all different points of “being Gay”: Age, appetites, fantasies and practices. What this play lacks, which is not the case with the later play COLDER, is a “bigger picture”. It is to narrow in it’s pre-occupations and sometimes errs into salaciousness for its own sake.

The acting is, above all else, courageous. The experience of the performers is very obviously varied and the work is mostly only adequate. The real problem is in the direction in this space. (Pete Nettell) It seemed the actors had not had enough time to work out the dynamics of the space, especially vocally. Each member of this quartet had their “musical notes” down but not their tones or harmonies. The sounds they were making were not connected to each other and as the writing format requires a Chorus like energy and “sound “ it was too loud, combative and disassociated from each other, so that it was mostly a cacophonous jangle of noise. The instruments were mostly out of tune with each other and so the communication was relatively disjointed. More familiarity in the space may ease this problem.

NATURAL BORN HOOKER by Konrad Product, was, the writer facetiously tells us, found in "China" after much digging. And although it has been "polished" into what Mr Product regards "as a diamond-in-the-rough" to a state of "perfection" by Alice Livingstone & Pete Nettell it probably should have stayed buried. This is a bio-graphical telling of an American sex worker of his often rough and savage experiences from his early abuse as a child to a kind of resurrection at the end of the narrative. It is, still, a textually time jumping jumble, and is oh so familiar that boredom is a very possible experience for some of the audience (Of course there is the gratuitous strip tease and full frontal nudity to keep you hooked, if you last the distance).

A very good reason to last the distance is a very mature and creditable performance by Daniel Scott as Konrad, who reveals a powerhouse mental stamina and theatrical commitment to the task of breathing life into this text and keeping it afloat. Physically he is very adept and, unlike the other company in BISON, has a masterly sense of the best way to use his vocal instrument in this space to keep us attending to the play. But in the end the play feels foreign, too familiar and out of date. This actor should find better material to reveal his talent as an actor. It is obviously burgeoning and has benefited from the long stint as "Felicia/Adam" in PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT. One looks forward to seeing Mr Scott playing other, worthier material, to match his potential.

The Set and Costume Design (Newman Cobar); Lighting (Verity Hampson, the design as beautiful as ever, clever within the confines of the space) and Sound, also Composition,(Sarah de Jong) have great style. But it is no matter how stylish it may be, within the budget constraints, it is no substitute for substance.

A note in the program tells us that “All proceeds from the sale of programs will be donated to SWOP (Sex Workers’ Outreach Project) , an initiative of ACON.” I felt this slightly cynical considering the cost of the tickets, either separately or as a double bill and that some percentage of the Box Office might have been a more realistic gesture to make to that organization. The proceeds from the Program Sales!!!! Oh, Come On. Certainly the URBAN THEATRE production of THE LAST HIGHWAY for the Sydney Festival last year, a devised work about sex workers in the outer suburbs of Sydney had more relevance and impact then this oddly chosen piece. If the plight and life experience of the Sex Worker is a concern for this Company than perhaps a commissioning of a play from Mr Philpott would be more relevant for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian audience. It probably would be of interest to the wider community too, based on the reception that The Urban Theatre project had.

This production of these two plays seem oddly ill chosen to celebrate the Gay and Lesbian MARDI GRAS 2009. The tone of the material is oddly out of tune with a season of celebration. It felt tawdry and left a bored and bad taste to the time that I had given up to be there and supportive.

Playing now until 15 March. Book online or call 02 9699 3444.