HELLO AGAIN @ THE FACTORY THEATRE

HELLO AGAIN is a love and lust musical drama that follows the loose liaisons of ten characters in various decades of the twentieth century. This is a high quality production with an excellent orchestra, choreography that is especially delightful and a cast with many fine voices. My only quibble is that the fine orchestra sometimes drowns out the singers’ voices.

Hat Trick’s production captures wonderfully the various eras and locations depicted with beautifully rendered costumes, sets and lighting. The ten vignettes portray interesting scenarios of seduction, betrayal, longing and desire. Each scene focuses on a couple and one of them features in the subsequent scene, providing a thread of continuity and a meandering storyline. We meet people caught up in the First World War, the maiden voyage of The Titanic and the party scene of The Seventies. The little dramas offer observations about romance and relationships. Many of the characters are cruel and obnoxious, some are charming and enticing, and the writer has made some very funny observations about these players.

LaChiusa’s HELLO AGAIN is based on the play ‘La Ronde’ by Arthur Schnitzler, written in 1897 but not published until 1903 and then banned a year later. Its observations about sexual relationships transcending class divides were understandably controversial. It was not publicly performed until 1920 and then unsuccessfully charged in Berlin with obscenity.

The excellent cast features Denzel Bruhn, Lyndon Carney, Grace Driscoll, Stacey Gay, Charlie Hollands, Brendan McRae, Kate O’Sullivan, Anna-May Parnell, Harrison Vaughan and Emelie Woods. The Crew is made up of Jerome Studdy (Director & Choreographer), Jeremy Kindl (Music Director), Emily Fairbairn (Costume Design), Elliot Ulm (Graphic Design), and producers Anna Natlacen and Jack Andrew Kabilafkas.

HELLO AGAIN is on at The Factory Theatre, Marrickville as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras from February 20th to 28th, 2020. This is the inaugural production of Sydney-based theatre and music company, Hat Trick, and after this promising start I am very interested in their future endeavours.