Image: Brendan O’connor in Private Ginger Mick at Gallipoli; Photograph by Sonia Warrell.
Theatre I.N.Q. hits the target with a sure-fire crowd pleaser as Private Ginger Mick at Gallipoli returns by popular demand – and judging by its near-sellout on opening night you’ll need to be quick off the mark to secure yourself a ticket.
Based on some of the anthologies of C.J. Dennis (1876-1938), the focus of the play is the First World War and the experiences of Ginger Mick, a likeable larrikin who leaves a life of selling fresh rabbits in the streets of Melbourne to fight for the allies in the trenches of Turkey.
Crafted with care, the production is tight, and shows what a synergy of superb poetry, effective scenic design and characterisations of five performers can deliver through the hands of masterful direction.
Visually, this one-act play is a treat. Luke Ede’s set design is a balanced composition that’s both eye-catching and functional, yet in no way upstages the efforts of the performers as an expression of unbridled creativity.
Memories from the characters’ lives are played out amid the environment of a photographic studio typical of the early 1900s, with a variety of pictorial backdrops used to frame each scene. The intricacy of the studio setting has the dual function of fostering escapism and make-believe while portraying the horrors of war, which it succeeds in doing very well by providing a trove of makeshift props for the performers to use as they assume their multiple roles.
Ron Pulman gives a fine performance in the title role. His portrayal of Ginger Mick as the everyman of the war experience is done with respect and believability, rendering a brave face masking fear and uncertainty, and creating a character with whom every digger could relate.
Pulman is met with a strong leading ally in Brendan O’Connor as the story’s narrator. Bringing each memory to life with the loud flash of the studio camera, he not only introduces the scenes but seems to set the play’s pace, too. O’Connor’s is not an easy role by any means: Almost always on duty acting in the play’s vignettes as they’re recalled in word, movement and song, he’s also faced with some of the more difficult, tongue-twisting verse, which he fires off with clarity and great effect.
Michael Gleeson, Lachlan Stevenson and Christian Agapiou contribute equally notable performances and share the load dutifully. Agapiou replaces James Thomasson from last year’s production. Another young actor from the company’s Bridge Project that provides industry-standard actor training and development, Thomasson, now studying at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, can rest assured that Agapiou has filled his boots comptetently. Agapiou shows promise, and a comittment to attuning his vocal abililities wil stand him in good stead for further equally substantial and energetic roles.
The command director Terri Brabon has of the theatre medium means that the play is exacting and action-packed to say the least, demanding military precision and more than a pre-performance army biscuit for the actors to maintain their energy reserves. She’s worked them hard during the rehearsals, and the results show.
The imagery and patterns Brabon creates in space with the performers and their bodies, particularly with respect to scene changes that are creative spectacles in their own right, are the insignias of her exceptional abilities. These are the trademarks of Theatre in North Queensland.
There are many madcap moments that will make you laugh in light of the seriousness of the subject of war, and the performers handle the hilarious play on words of Dennis’ prose and poetry with its rhythms and rhymes, expertly.
The production is excellent, and will be just as good as, if not better than, anything you’re likely to see by government-funded theatre companies in the southern capitals.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Private Ginger Mick at Gallipoli
Theatre I.N.Q.
Direction: Terri Brabon
Performers: Ron Pulman, Brendan O’Connor, Michael Gleeson, Lachlan Stevenson and Christian Agapiou
Set Design: Luke Ede
A.V. Design: Luke Ede & Cameron Hock
Lighting Design: Brendan O’Connor
School of Arts
Townsville, Queensland
21 – 25 April
