Presented by the University of Melbourne Music Theatre Association
October 7-15, Guild Theatre, Union House
Review by Will Pridmore
Assassins is an important musical – as well as being very entertaining and featuring well-composed music, it also serves to educate its audience about the various men and women who attempted (and mostly succeeded) to kill past Presidents of the United States of America. It is crucial for a cast to remain faithful to this aim, while still making the show “fun” enough to attract an audience.
Fortunately, UMMTA’s production exceeded all requirements. Sporting a stellar cast and a fresh interpretation and design, Assassins, like a sniper’s shot, is certainly not to be missed.
Assassins is an inherently internal piece. Its focus is mostly on the mental states of its characters, rather than the interactions between them (although this changes, in a very big way, at the end of the show). Very few of them interact with one another until the final scene, and so most dialogues feature a maximum of two performers. While the lighting and sound effects adjusted for different time periods and moods, it was the dedicated acting that really drove this aspect home.
The production used a clever “showgrounds” set – eight silhouettes were situated around the edge of the stage, and a sign above them all read “Shoot to Win”. This tied in well with the darkness of the script – it’s not only about assassinations, but also about how many of the perpetrators saw their actions in a carefree, positive light. The versatile ensemble performers continued this warped sense of reality with their animalistic impressions, ghoulish make-up and costumes constantly emblazoned with the US flag. Various crates were moved around the stage to create each different world; this was all that was needed in such a character-driven musical.
At various times, images were projected onto a white rectangle, decorated like a picture frame, at the back of the stage. These were often photographs of Presidents, who were splattered with a representation of blood following each character’s actual assassination. This worked to give the piece an unsettling sense of tangibility – we were watching interpretations of real people, who killed other real people.
Assassins is a very hard show to direct; one needs an exceptionally strong team of actors to carry each part of the story. The narrative is largely a string of monologues – snippets from the lives of individuals, separated in space and time, but united in philosophy. This attitude was conveyed masterfully by first-time director Tyson Legg, as the different story segments (joined by a fluid musicality) were brought closer and closer together towards the end of the production. The performers, likewise, couldn’t be topped; every single one made me feel deeply for his or her character (a strange sensation, empathising with a murderer…), while their singing was oftentimes inseparable from that of professional performers. The actors had clearly worked intimately with the director to attain finely detailed character profiles that hardened the impact of their emotional turmoil. For me, the standout performers were Matt Cookson as John Wilkes Booth, and Drew Collet as Lee Harvey Oswald, but everyone onstage delivered similar top-quality performances, which were incredibly hard to separate.
The intimate theatre, and the good audial balance between the orchestra and actors, helped make Assassins a truly thought-provoking, if nightmarish, performance. Do yourself a favour, and get along to this gem.
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Posted Wednesday 12 October, 2011. Updated Wednesday 12 October, 2011.