You could say it's a tale of
two cities: Christchurch,
home of the highly successful but seldom risk-taking Court
Theatre, and Christchurch, home of
the experimental and innovative
Free Theatre.
The Court's revival of the romantic musical comedy, She Loves
Me,is typically stylish, smooth and
professional. You just sit back and
enjoy the unfolding of true love in
a perfume shop in Budapest, circa
1934.
She Loves Me may not have
melodies that linger after the curtain falls but its music enhances
our understanding of the characters, who are appealing and sufficiently fleshed out to sustain the
audience's interest in what happens
to them. A uniformly strong cast of singer-actors, featuring Rima Te Wiata
and Court newcomer Adam Murphy, move effortlessly to the happy-ever-after ending. Simple,
schmaltzy and so successful!
Across the cloisters of the Arts
Centre, home to Free Theatre, you
can't just sit back and watch German writer Heiner Muller's contemporary version of Euripides'
Medea. The audience is not only
challenged intellectually but it
must also wander around the compartmentalised set to see all the
action.
Medea Material has five Medeas
and five Jasons, each pair simultaneously exploring the story in different ways, at times together but
mostly separate. Slides, video and
contemporary music make this a
multi-media production that bombards the senses. Any similarities
to the Court's version of Medea
earlier this Year are purely
coincidental. Director Peter Falkenberg demands much of mostly inexperienced actors from the University
of Canterbury drama programme,
but they respond well with admirable discipline.
Four years ago, the Free Theatre staged, bravely and successfully, Muller's experimental Hamlet
Machine which upset the complacency and predictability of theatre
in Christchurch. The high standard
of that production has not been
quite recaptured but once again
the Free Theatre deserves plenty
of praise for innovation and risktaking.
•Medea Material, Free Theatre,
Arts Cenre, until October 28