Ben Apfelbaum

THE DISMISSAL : THE UNMISSABLE DISMISSAL

The Dismissal-Quinton Rofail Rich, Georgie Bolton, Brittanie Shipway, Joe Kosky, Andrew Cutcliffe, Stacey Thomsett, Monique Salle & Kaori Maeda-Judge Pic David Hooley
The Dismissal-Octavia Barron-Martin & Peter Carroll Pic David Hooley
The Dismissal-Matthew Whittet_ Pic David Hooley
The Dismissal- Georgie Bolton Pic David Hooley

The full title of this production is THE DISMISSAL : AN EXTREMELY SERIOUS MUSICAL COMEDY. So if you are going to this musical expecting laugh a minute satire in the vein of KEATING : THE MUSICAL you will be disappointed. In fact the authors thank creatives, historians and academics in helping to bring  together this production.

The theatre group Squabbalogic helped mount this production whose Artistic Director Jay James-Moody, together with Blake Erickson, co-wrote the book as well as Moody’s conceiving and directing THE DISMISSAL.

It is a musical  and the score was provided by Laura Murphy who was responsible for the music, lyrics, co-orchestrations and arrangements.

What is a wonderful aspect of this musical is  that is totally homegrown.

A line in the musical states that people can interpret the history in a number of ways. I chatted with a younger member of the audience who found THE DISMISSAL enjoyably educational.

I was 25 at the time and found the events shocking, nostalgic and exhilarating. These characteristics were cleverly integrated in to this production. Both Justin Smith as Gough Whitlam and Andrew Cutcliffe as  Malcolm Fraser had strong baritone voices in their duets. Although they did not particularly look like Whitlam and Fraser, their command of the stage as the combative protagonists made it seem that you were in fact  seeing  the Gough Whitlam and the Malcolm Fraser.

Peter Carroll gave a marvellously saturnine and slitherly presence as Sr Garfield Barwick. Octavia Barron Martin managed to infuse Sir John Kerr with a great deal of sympathy given the historical view that he was the villain in this event. Georgie Bolton gave an excellent portrayal as the stupidly naive Rex Connor. Joe Kosky played Jim Cairns who humorously insisted on being  called Doctor, was also conveyed by Kosky,  as a foolish Treasurer ambushed by Rex Connor’s idiotic dreams  in relation to the millions promised by the dodgy Khemlani as well as being distracted by his gorgeous Filipino secretary Junie Morosi played by Shannen Alyce Quan  who gave a performance that was both seductive and outraged at newspaper depictions of her character.

Brittney Shipway as Margaret Whitlam and Stacey Thomsett as Anne Kerr played supportive spouses, the latter being venal, snobbish, overarchingly ambitious and to this day is also regarded unfavourably.

Special mention must be made of Monique Salle who played Billy Sneddon, Tirath Khemlani, and used her soaring soprano to hilarious effect as Queen Elizabeth ll together with dancing corgis.

The ensemble cast ,both strong in  song and dance, bring both depth and professionalism to this highly polished production.

The narrow stage frequently populated with a multitude of characters, was ably choreographed, often to humorous effect, by Amy Campbell, and driven musically, especially in glorious choral arrangements, by Music Director Mark Chamberlain who led an excellent, supercharged  band, cleverly co-orchestrated and arranged by Steven Kramer.

Now we come to one  of the main attractions of the show – Norman Gunston – whose character, played by Garry McDonald. was  indeed present on the steps of old Parliament House in 1975.

Matthew Whittet had extensive discussions with McDonald in relation to Gold Logie winner Gunston. As a result, Whittet was almost a reincarnation of the original Norman Gunston some fifty years after he burst on to our television screens as a razor nicked, insecure dork  from Wollongong.

In this show the Gunston character acts as a  sort of Master of Ceremonies. Towards the end of the interval and the start of Act 2  Whittet showed a marvellous skill at humorously interacting with audience members including a hilarious interaction with John Bell.

THE DISMISSAL also had some special voice appearances by Nancye Hayes as Miss Hayes, Bruce Spence as the Media Baron, Tony Llewellyn-Jones as David Smith who was the Parliamentary Secretary who made the announcement of Gough Whitlam’s dismissal. and Blake Erickson as a Newsreader.

Despite a lack of scenery and other theatrical augmentations, this was a thoroughly immersive experience.

This show is both a rollicking yet serious musical which cleverly traverses the complexities of Remembrance Day 1975.

It is not easily dismissed.

THE DISMISSAL : AN EXTREMELY SERIOUS MUSICAL COMEDY is currently  playing the York Theatre  at the Seymour Centre.

Featured photo ; The Dismissal-Andrew Cutcliffe as Malcolm Fraser,  Matthew Whittet as Norman Gunston and Justin Smith as Gough Whitlam.  Pic David Hooley. Production photography by David Hooley

http://www.thedismissal.com

http://www.seymourcentre.com

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 Treborlang. 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. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.