By Natalie Ristovski
Frenzy Theatre Co. is no stranger to overdoing themselves. Their dedication to creating and presenting opportunities for early career artists through a maximalist, ensemble heavy and highly physical lens has led to such previous works as The Roof is Caving In and Motherlod_^e, and they deliver once again on their mission statement with this latest offering – Piper.
Billed as an Australian Gothic reimagining of the Pied Piper of Hamlin, Piper is a cacophony of sound, colour, a bit of glitter and a lot of ideas and opinions – though one would be hard pressed to figure out exactly what the latter actually are, thrown about like confetti as they seem to be throughout the evening’s shenanigans.
The cast is made up of 24 female and non-binary artists, portraying everything from Rats and Politicians to Children (“of God”), who manage to eke out charming, entertaining and solid performances despite the material they have to work with. The talent pool is undeniable, strong singing voices abound, impressive (albeit somewhat par for the course) acrobatics from clearly skilled artistes, and strong character work serve to keep the audience engaged for most of the show’s duration.
Given the recent trend and commercialisation of the decades long art form that is ‘immersive theatre,’ it’s nice to see a show that actually delivers on their claim to this artistic element – we were greeted by a swarm of Rats out the front of Theatreworks who did their very best to entertain their audience as it arrived. Theatregoers were further drawn into the world of the Town of Hamlin within, with an impressive collection of interactive set pieces that punters could wander through and engage with as they saw fit. As a world-building exercise, Piper certainly laid its groundwork well.
Where the production seemed to suffer was in the delivery of its main event. Playing out like a sugar high five-year old’s day at childcare (if the centre was the government in the middle of a pandemic), the script leapt from premise to concept to stream of consciousness with too few stiller moments to allow for the absorption of almost anything. There was a lot of good material there, and a lot of social commentary about quite a few important topics…yet they were thrown together in such a way that no one issue ever truly got the attention that it deserved, resulting in a lot of surface level contemplation and not a lot of nuance or depth to follow it. What could have been a searing look at the arts and the treatment of artists, the pandemic, corporate feminism, politics and red tape, immigration and minorities, capitalism and the rat race ended up as an info dump about the existence of all these things…and not much else.
Sound design and composition by Jack Burmeister was a welcome elevation of quality – the music and overall soundscape of the work was sublime and was well supported by the vocal talents of the ‘Children.’ Lyrics and songs were equally as standout – though somewhat let down by poor sound mixing on the night, I often found myself having to utilise the closed captions to be able to determine what the cast were singing over the music. Lighting was equally well executed (no pun intended there, Rats), masterfully utilised with subtlety and finesse as the action required, Designer Sidney Younger once again proving why their title of ‘award winning’ is well earned.
Costuming, handled by Set Designers Harry Gill and Jessamine Moffett, was hit and miss – the spectacularly abstract Rat masks from the show’s promo photos and video were decidedly absent, replaced by what looked more like 1st year Dance Comp getup. Politicians and Children were equally as short-changed, their vintage op-shop/Temu/Light in the Box ensembles falling somewhere between Chapel St Bazaar chic and Baby Burlesquers costume suitcase. There was a lot of colourful maximalist mishmash…but often it fell on the wrong side of ‘theatre on a budget’ which, given the cleverness of the set pieces (proving you don’t have to spend a lot to achieve razzle dazzle), seemed more like a poor stylistic choice.
Cast standouts for the evening were difficult to determine – no one individual was ever really given the opportunity to shine enough to make an impact beyond the whole (which makes sense, given Frenzy’s focus on ensemble art). There were a lot of familiar faces from the independent and local arts scene, and it was wonderful to see them alongside one another doing what they do best and doing it well.
Piper is a fever-dream of the depressing realities of the modern world – clocking at 90 minutes with no interval – teetering between clever and self-indulgent and not always landing on the right side of it. While it does take the time to warn patrons in the beginning that they “will miss things,” it later accuses them of not “paying attention” to inevitable endings, which smacks of that 20-something Fedora Guy everyone knew in art school who insisted that people ‘just didn’t get’ his work – audiences should not have to spend an hour and a half trying to figure out what a show is about. If Piper had presented just half of the themes it was trying to address and shaved a good 20 minutes off its runtime, it might have allowed itself the space to exist in a more mature and considered way amidst the Wonderland-esque chaos, giving the audience something tangible to take with them when they left.
That said, at the end of the day, the fact that this kind of art exists at all is still better than the alternative. Its inclusivity (particularly that spectacular pre-show address of content and sound warnings, and the closed captions throughout) and its determination to take up space amongst more sanctioned and conservative fare is reason enough to get out and support it. Frenzy Theatre Co. is a platform for new art and artists to grow and thrive, and I look forward to seeing how those who emerge from the mire of its madness will develop as time goes on.
