Friday 10 January 2025

Hayes Theatre

Antipodes Theatre Company

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

Ghost Quartet is a musical that tells the tale of four friends conjuring spirits (both supernatural and alcoholic) as they narrate four diverse stories spanning seven centuries. Expect a high level of musicianship from an incredibly talented cast. Sometimes melancholic, often dark and gothic, with occasional bright splashes of joy, but always thoroughly engaging and musically packed with melody and rhythm.

The various narratives interweave throughout the production, cleverly organised into four parts, or as the cast called them, Sides, each side having multiple tracks. This is the ingenious device of writer/composer David Malloy. After several successful seasons in New York, Antipodes Theatre Company and director Brandon Pape have taken on its Australian Premiere. With two sellout seasons in Melbourne, the Sydney premiere comes to Hayes Theatre, a cosy inner city theatre-in-the-round that is famed for its productions of musicals.

The four cast members, David Butler (also Music Director), Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward, Hany Lee and Willow Sizer were each in their own right talented multi-instrumentalists and singers – their four part harmonies were impeccable, incredible conviction, we knew we were in very safe hands. Of particular note was David Butler for his ability to cut through the rowdiest of musical backings with absolute clarity of diction and pitch; and Willow Sizer for their slightly discordant almost Arabic style of singing that lent a dark edge to the overall sound. Hany Lee played Rose (amongst other characters) with a childlike innocence that paradoxically kept you expecting the worst, and Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward’s plaintive cello playing provided the sombre undertone and lush timber to the proceedings.

The story was complex and at times difficult to follow as it jumped from one tale to the next and back again. Unfortunately in Side 1, the text got lost on occasions beneath the enthusiasm of the delivery and the exuberance of the instrumental rhythms driving the score. Perhaps Sound Designer, Evan Drill could have worked harder on separating the two in the balance. By the time we got to Side 2 the sound was perfectly adjusted, but unfortunately much of the plot and characters were set up in Side 1 so we had a little bit of work to do to catch up.

We were warned at the beginning to turn off any devices that emit light and in Side 3 we discovered why: the lights were extinguished throwing us into complete blacker than black, jet black darkness for an extended period of time, we could see absolutely nothing – it was challenging but captivating until one audience member realised she had to leave the theatre and fished out her phone and activated the torch to negotiate the stairs. Suddenly the theatrical device became an OHS issue and the stair lights were illuminated, compromising the eerie atmosphere. A brave, but ultimately risky choice from Brandon Pape and Lighting Designer Sidney Younger that could have made the underwriters a bit nervous. But bravo to the cast who sang and played their instruments flawlessly in complete pitch black darkness. It was overwhelmingly compelling but a somewhat unsettling device, a clever one that eliminated all things visual but in turn drew an acute attention to the vocal performances in addition to what might happen, or what might jump out from nowhere unseen from the dark abyss and reek havoc from the blackened chaos.

By the time we got to Side 4 and the atmospheric lighting returned, we had worked out who was who and the intricacies of the plot became clearer, bringing it all together for a rewarding conclusion. The highlight was an unaccompanied a cappella vocal quartet delivered with exquisite harmonies just before the finale. Audience members were handed percussive instruments to participate and become part of the show. Ultimately they were the show as the cast left the stage leaving it all to us. Brilliant! We became the band for several minutes more until we realised the show was over and the music morphed into thunderous applause as the cast returned for their final bows. 

And you have to hand it to Director Pape for adapting the text for the gender diverse and devoted Hayes Theatre audience, often to rapturous laughter.

Overall a wonderfully satisfying production from Antipodes Theatre Company, and at the end of the day did it really matter if we missed some of the detail in the beginning when taken as a whole it was such a fun at times ….  and such a gripping tale? 

Season runs to 1 February at Hayes Theatre.

You can hear a recent interview with Music Director David Butler below: