Theatre: Mission Drift

The TEAM

for the Perth Festival

written by The TEAM

Music by Heather Christian

Directed by Rachel Chavkin

With Stephanie Wright Thompson, Bryce Gill, Heather Christian, Ian Lassiter and Amber Gray, accompanied by Matthew Bogdanow and Josh Myers

Heath Ledger Theatre

Until March 2

Bryce Gill, Ian Lassiter, Stephanie Wright Thompson and Heather Christian
(pic Lee Griffith)

There’s no objective measure of theatre or how it gives each individual the particular things they like, want and need from it.

So, when I say that I have never seen anything better than Mission Drift in the theatre, you will only know if you can at least understand me if you have the great good fortune to see it for yourself. It has everything I think theatre should have, and does everything I believe theatre should do.

 Mission Drift is a daring encompassing of America, its historic promise and its breaking.

It’s the incredible fecundity and westward impulse of America that inspire Mission Drift’s thrilling first half, which is, quite literally, a history of a nation.

If the second half of Mission Drift lacks some of the ebullience of the first, it simply mirrors the grinding stasis that has beset America, and its dream, since those last days of ’07.

I was often in tears during this brilliant production (and here I should disclose that I was living in America, and personally affected by the events of 2007 and ’08); two days later its effect on me has scarcely subsided. If there’s still a ticket to be had, go see it.

Link here to the complete review in The West Australian

  

Music: Kinky Friedman and Van Dyke Parks

Artbar

30 June, 2011

Kinky Friedman has built a long, singular career out of quirky country and western tunes sung in his surprisingly gentle Texan brogue, a distinctive take on life and his absolutely hilarious skills as a raconteur and quip merchant.

He had the Artbar crowd rocking with laughter and roaring their approval at his good ol’ dirty jokes, scurrilous opinions and twisted world view.

The edgy, mercurial Van Dyke Parks pounded his piano through a set of miraculous songs, pausing occasionally mid-stream to exclaim “God damn it!” or similar before sailing on again.
At its highest points — a mighty, elegiac dance by bluegrass master John Hartford called Delta Queen Waltz and his own magnificent On the Wings of a Dove (listen below) — his performance showed why many believe Parks occupies a place in American music shared only by the other contemporary inheritors of the legacy of Stephen Foster and George Gershwin, his friends and collaborators Brian Wilson and Randy Newman.

Link here to the complete review in The West Australian

Music: All American Heroes

Jimmy Webb 

The Fly by Night Club

June 28

Kinky Friedman and Van Dyke Parks 

Artbar

June 30

What an incredible privilege to have three of the very greatest contemporary American songwriters performing in Perth within the space of two days, and in such great, intimate venues. It's my first chance to see any of them perform (although I did get to be Kinky's chaperone one memorable night when he was here for the Writer's Festival some years back). 

The connections they bring with them, whether it's through immortal songs like Heroes and Villains, Good Vibrations, Galveston, The Moon's a Harsh Mistress, Sold American and The Ballad of Charles Whitman, or their work with some of the very best American artists of this or any era, run very deep for me and many others.

I'll say no more, other than to sincerely urge you to get to the Fly or Artbar to enjoy them. 

There are links to booking sites in the June listings to the right. In the meantime, have a look at Michael O'Dwyer's chat with Kinky and Van Dyke in the West link here , and let me get you started on some preparatory You Tube browsing: