Feedback & reviews for Pirates
Audience comments
Indoor show
Rose Myers, Artistic Director, Out of the Box Festival. Rose saw the show twice and went backstage both times to tell our young artists…. “That was the best audience reaction we have had in the history of the Out of the Box Festival.”
“Just a note to say how fantastic PIRATES was! I caught it yesterday at Out of The Box, and was most amazed. Brilliant creative direction and as always, top notch skill! Well done!” Natalie Lidgerwood, Strut & Fret Production House
“What a pumping show, congratulations” Noel Jordan, Producer Young Audiences, Sydney Opera House
“That was fantastic.” Bridgette van Leuven, Eductional Programming Opera House.
“You know I want this show in Melbourne. I want my kids to see this ” Robyn Penty, Manager, Education, Families & Young People, Victorian Arts Centre.
“That was brilliant!” Fraser Corfield, Australian Theatre for Young People, Australia Council Theatre Board.
“So accessible for the young audience, what a great show.” Dan Aubin, Artistic Director, Cirkidz.
“I loved it, I had tears in my eyes during the cloudswing act.” Deb Wilks, CEO, Flipside Circus.
“It was beautiful, I cried.” Helen Whitty, Education Programmer, Powerhouse Museum.
“What a success.” Sue Giles, Artistic Director, Polyglot Theatre.
“It really went off.” Gail Kelly, Director, ACAPTA.
Outdoor show
“I was very impressed with physical abilities and how they were combined with theatrics to provide a highly entertaining performance.” Del Price, West Darling Arts.
“Crowd pleaser for families with children… Lovely professional young artists, who have great skills and professional disposition.” Sofie Gibson, Hoopla Festival, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.
Pirates Review
by Kathleen Bragge
Outdoor production
In the first few minutes of Pirates the audience is snarled at, pounced on and abused. The ship’s cook’s ill- tempered diatribes from his galley, which doubles as an orchestra pit, book-end the story of a sorry crew of pirates.
Why the unwelcoming greeting? Well, they are shipwrecked on the Border (ie here at the Gateway), the Captain has been washed overboard, the Cook’s supply of rats is low so he is after some spare kids to put in his pot. And we are landlubbers so he hates us anyway!
The stage is a three- mast barque on the back of a 40- foot flat bed trailer, with rope ladders up to the masts, providing a trapeze with a difference. Reaching the Crow’s Nest requires Chinese pole technique and a mini tramp below stage offers some surprise ways of getting on board. Walking the plank is, predictably, never just that – there isn’t much walking in this show.
Pirates relies on those traditional circus skills that the Fruities have in abundance: juggling, tumbling, rope climbing and all the rest (though no chairs or bikes this time). However they have added a whole new physical vocabulary to their repertoire including stage fighting and fencing. The usual truckloads of energy – literally – are there as are the athleticism and capacity to perform multiple feats simultaneously.
The clowning displays greater subtlety than previously evident – a sort of Chaplinesque farce mixed with knockabout – that attests to the Fruities’ overall development as performers.
It is the usual “All Hands on Deck” with regard to teamwork and mutual respect, even when duelling to the death or tossing each other overboard
Initially I found extraneous noise somewhat distracting. Traffic on The Causeway is close by, and several planes flew quite low, but this is just one of the standard perils of outdoor performance. And the sheer energy of the performance swept us along so completely that the problem came to seem quite insignificant.
Costumes provided interest and variety; one renegade may have escaped from Braveheart complete with kilt & sleeveless fleece. An Italian nonna in widow weeds never completely disguised her cheeky masculinity as she bounded over the heads of all around. A sort of Mr Toad the Washerwoman, with added acrobatic prowess and a touch of the risqué.
Captain Jacqui was able to take on the rogues at their own games, fencing with precision and flair, then transforming into a graceful creature twirling around the rigging. She was no fair maid in need of protection from the men, but a formidable adversary.
We were treated to some novel dance routines. I’m sure I saw Riverdance, Tyrolean knee-slapping and a highland jig or two, though not necessarily in that order, or indeed in any order at all.
An aerialist soared up from the rigging. He was exactly that “daring young man on the flying trapeze”, quite unperturbed by the skeleton dangling a few feet away
A Sea monster puppet deriving from the Chinese Lion won applause as it (powered by some of the younger performers) appeared to right all wrongs and save the day. Or did it? Were the baddies defeated?
It doesn’t matter really. The narrative thread was a thin one, something to showcase all this remarkable talent, which like the up and coming Fruities’ recent show Get Smarter continues to entertain and enrich our community. Director Markus Michalowski and choreographer Jodie Farrugia, along with all the others who nurture and guide the performers should be proud.
It’s a privilege to watch them, all young, all enthused – some slightly tentative, some exuding confidence and a couple with “this is what I was born to do” stamped on their faces.