Ben Apfelbaum

REHEARSAL CALL : THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE

UK playwright Jim Cartwright described his play as a contemporary fairytale where Little Voice retreats into her safe space similar to the fairytale tradition of the maiden in the tower.

LITTLE  VOICE,  as it is best known, was a huge success winning the Olivier award for Best Comedy and the Evening Standard award again for Best Comedy . It is a play that has had numerous productions all over the world including Australia and was made into a .film directed by Mark Herman in 1998. starring Jane Horrocks and Brenda Blethyn.

These are big shoes to fill and the Darlinghurst Theatre Company believes that it has the cast to split the seams of those shoes. Playing Marie the .boozy alcoholic mother of Little Voice is theatrical royalty Caroline O’Connor. She is thrilled to be in this production as she can throw off her musical theatre credentials and sink her teeth into a truely gritty role.

At the time I attended the rehearsals Geraldine Hakewill as Little Voice had the mimicry of divas such as Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe down pat. When I asked her how she achieved her accurate renditions, she surprised me by saying that some of her inspiration came from drag queens . Best known for her role in the tv series Wanted, co-starring Rebecca Gibney, she has also regularly performed with the STC, Belvoir, Bell Shakespeare Company and Melbourne Theatre Company.

This production is helmed by experienced director Shaun Rennie who by coincidence at one time sang in a choir together with Geraldine Hakewill so that knew of her musical talent well before this production.

The cast is rounded out by Joseph Delre playing the cruel and exploitative character Ray Say, Charles Wu as Billy who pines for Little Voice, Kip Chapman as Mr Boo and Bishanyia Vincent as Sadie.

This musical comedy  has heft due to its touching concerns with loneliness and the yearning for love, timeless themes despite its 1990s setting.

Featured  image. Shaun Rennie  top right with the cast of ‘The Rise Of Little Voice’. All pics by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.