“It’s a show that resonates days after having seen it.“
Kate Gaul
2 vodkas hold the caviar!
Eternity Theatre
Darlinghurst Theatre Company
The story goes that young and talented American composer musician Dave Malloy was making ends meet as a cruise ship pianist when he read Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”. He got to the bit where a comet is seen. “Natasha, Pierre, and the Giant Comet of 1812” – the
musical was born. The initial production in 2012 was at an 87 seat Off Broadway theatre decked out to resemble a Russian supper club. The actors, many of them also playing instruments, performed on bar tops with the audience, seated at cafe tables. It then moved to a production in a tent in Midtown, a more conventional theatre in Massachusetts, and eventually to Broadway at the Imperial Theatre where two staircases were built inside the auditorium so that performers could bound up and down, instruments in hand, into the mezzanine. It had arrived, and in 2016 – garnering a slew of awards – was hailed as unlike anything else on Broadway.
And now it is Sydney’s turn – if somewhat more modestly – at the Eternity Playhouse in this Darlinghurst Theatre production directed by Dean Dreiberg. Dave Malloy’s music is beautiful, the story is at first complicated, and the staging is boisterous. With the exception of one spoken line this is a sung through musical. On opening night, it was tricky at times to separate the vocals into anything legible. To aficionados who know the often-witty text this may not be an issue. But for first timers it is easy to be completely lost. Let’s hope this is
sorted as the season develops.
At the Eternity, guests can choose to sit onstage with the company and a walkway is cleverly constructed through the auditorium (set design Tyler Hawkins) so at Row E you have a front row seat too. Additional ladders and platforms provide the necessary levels. All help unify
the space. Focus shifts are sluggish but there is plenty to look at.
The history of the production is that is comprises a diverse cast and so it is here. Notable onstage: Grace Driscoll’s innocent Natasha is splendid; Karla Gare as sister Sonya is one of the standouts as both singer and actor; Marissa Saroca as the equivocating Helene has more
than once drop-the-mic moments. The character of Pierre doesn’t feature much but Zoy Frangos produces some fabulous moments.
It’s a show that resonates days after having seen it. Not a traditional romantic piece but a work that explores existential themes inside a Russian doll-like production. Malloy (through Tolstoy) challenges the audience to ask in what, once illusions have been shattered, can we
still have faith?
This production (in two acts) begins with the roar of an approaching comet. It ends with the comet’s arrival. What do we make of this? In “War and Peace” we are 500 pages into a story that merges the individual lives with the politics of great powers at war. We’ve been going
back and forth between the story of Pierre and Natasha and the story of Napoleon’s army marching across Europe. Then the comet arrives.
To Tolstoy’s audience, the comet that Pierre sees, a real comet that appeared over Europe in 1811 and 1812, was inextricably aligned in the popular imagination to Napoleon’s march across Europe. It was an omen to the people who saw it. A signal in the night sky that terror
was coming. The resonance to contemporary northern hemisphere political events is striking.
But Pierre doesn’t see it that way. Pierre, who is struggling and failing at most things he tries, sees the comet as a challenge to be better. To Pierre, the vision of the comet echoes the feeling in his heart that it’s time to become an honest man. May it be for you.
Kate Gaul, Theatre Now
