Death by Cheerleader
Produced by The CheerBlacks
Created by Benjamin Henson, Julia Hyde and Claire Van Beek
Directed by Benjamin Henson
With Amy Waller, Claire Van Beek and Julia Hyde
At The Basement
Wednesday, 14 September 2011 to Saturday, 17 September 2011.
Published at http://www.theatreview.org.nz
In real estate terms it’s fair to say that The Basement is a ‘doer upper’. It’s pretty basic but, strangely enough, that’s one of its charms. For those of us old enough to remember the genesis of venue-based, professional theatre in New Zealand places like The Basement were ‘where it was at.’
The late Jivan Mary Amoore’s 1960-70’s Central Theatre in Remuera comes to mind, the name of which lives on in Tim Bray’s Central Theatre, renamed in 2004 to honour Mary as Tim’s childhood drama teacher and her significant contribution to Auckland theatre. Yes, we’re a bit sentimental and decidedly dynastic and we like to honour our own.
Who could forget Mary’s readily (and frequently) flooded suburban venue, its fare of exciting contemporary works and the lifelong careers nurtured there.
The Basement’s bit like that, an artistic treasure with a history of gems but decidedly grunge-like when it comes to theatrical sophistication.
Who cares, though, when you can go there to experience The CheerBlacks, an energetic, funny, talented and downright nasty, tarty trio of trouble.
Who cares when the talent on offer far outstrips any issues with the venue as is certainly the case with Death by Cheerleader.
The set is pretty conventional – there’s not much else you can do with The Basement – in that it’s wide and shallow with a central slice of Astroturf creating a stage within a stage. The Astroturf climbs the back wall like out of control kikuyu grass and enables the audience to focus on the area where the action is centred. Not that we needed focussing, the girls did a more than adequate job of that. Apart from a few props and a pin board photograph of Tane Smith, the once and future All Black captain all decked out with Honey Bill abs, that was it for any extraneous bits and bobs.
Truth is, the cast don’t need anything else.
Except pompoms, of course … and little snips of costume … and a script to die for (in which Tane Smith dutifully does).
But back to Mary Amoore – yes, there was a reason for mentioning her.
Amoore was one of the first producer/directors to introduce New Zealand audiences to the extraordinary contemporary talents of Edward Bond (Saved – 1969), Robert Patrick (Kennedy’s Children – 1974), Peter Nichols (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg – 1968) and last, but by no ways least, Joe Orton (Loot). Works by each of these great playwrights were first performed by Central Theatre within a year or so of their initial production such was Amoore’s eye (and ear) for magnificent writing and we must acknowledge her for that. We should also recognize her fearless approach to programming as a number of these plays – A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and Saved to name but two – were steeped in controversy and none more so that Orton’s Loot.
The Basement, similarly, neither courts, nor shuns, controversy in its programming which leads us back to Death by Cheerleader.
And the segue that, of course, you knew was coming: there is much about Death by Cheerleader that is reminiscent of Orton at his most outrageous and this is both invigorating and immensely exciting, especially as we to get to experience it first in such an appropriate venue.
As with Orton the humour is black and the characters function in a world almost devoid of conventional morality. Unlike Orton, whose work was so riddled with memorable epithets that he was considered the new Oscar Wilde, Death by Cheerleader is largely free of such artifice but still manages to be darkly disturbing while peppering the audience with memorable lines and generating riotous laughter.
The fact that Death by Cheerleader is unlikely to rustle anyone’s tail-feathers for it’s often risqué, frequently potty-mouth and sometimes downright sexy content is a sign that perhaps we have come some distance in enabling the theatre to truly ‘hold the mirror up to nature’ in a way not possible even as recently as late in the last millennium.
Death by Cheerleader follows the story of a woman possessed.
Jessica (Amy Waller) is twenty eight going on forty one and the leader of a cheerleading team of two, the other member being her high achiever daughter Dakota (Julia Hyde). To say Jessica is preoccupied with the captain of the 2015 All Blacks Tane Smith is a gigantic understatement. She is fixated – and nothing short of a full sexual encounter with the AB with the abs will satisfy her.
Lucy (Claire Van Beek) arrives with a somewhat mysterious history which may, or may not, include serious mental illness. There is, as frequently with Orton, more than a suggestion of institutional incarceration in the past of this intentionally ambiguous character but the nature of the world the women create is such that she often seems the most normal of the bunch.
Dakota is, it would seem, both loathed and feared by her mother. She is the black sheep, the odd one out, the misfit in this cheerleading trio and Jessica is positively venomous in letting us know that she doesn’t think terribly much of her attractive and attentive daughter.
The play beings with Jessica ‘auditioning’ Lucy to be the third member of the team and it’s all downhill from there. To outline the plot would spoil the surprises – and there are many – to be experienced on this topsy-turvy, somewhat depraved journey to the Rugby World Cup finals in Dubai so suffice to say that the title of the work says it all. There are cheerleaders and there is death and the death is by cheerleader. Enough said.
The essence of the success of this work – and it is undoubtedly successful – is the script and the sublime understanding the director and actors have of how it works. While it’s blasting away in front of you at a million hoots an hour it may seem somewhat unsubtle but the opposite is actually true. These are carefully crafted performances and the production, which has all the hallmarks of simplicity in its staging, is in fact rich and complex.
It’s about cheerleaders who are not exactly at the top of their game so you would expect them to be less than brilliant in the cheerleading sequences but they’re actually a lot better than might be anticipated. Pleasingly so, as these are attractive young women comfortable with who they are and they really and truly get into their work. None of that ghastly ‘this is me showing you how not very good I am’ nonsense, just quality work from actors who are at the top of their game.
As Jessica, Amy Waller has real chutzpah. She’s the centerpiece and she knows it. All the action starts and ends with her. She drives the play in a way that keeps us in the belly of the laughter throughout and buries the fact that she’s as nutty as a fruitcake in ways that allow us to believe, as she clearly does, that this world of hers is perfectly normal.
Julia Hyde, one of my favourite actors, plays daughter Dakota pretty straight. She’s the put-upon one who cleans up all the messes, the essential Cinderella, the quiet achiever. Hyde makes clever actor choices that enhance her character’s ability to create an essential conflict within the text, an argument that illuminates the journey and allows us those brief glimpses of sanity that are critical if we are to understand fully where we are and what’s actually happening during this madcap seventy minute romp because the pace is such and the laughter so regular that the audience otherwise never has time to see how silly it all might be. This is very smart work from a very sharp actor.
Lucy is a gem, the type of character every actor wants to play. She is ambiguous, malleable, sometimes mystifying and in Van Beek’s performance there is an understated psychosis and guarded revulsion that, in a different genre, might culminate in endless sleepless nights but in this she’s just plain scary. Van Beek never takes obvious options and, as a result, her performance is a doozy.
All three women are individually simply tremendous and their teamwork is exceptional. They’re in absolute control of the physicality, make the text sing, time their comedy beautifully, share the R18 bits with delight, pace the whole thing perfectly and, as a result, the opening night audience had an absolute ball.
It’s been a good year so far with some excellent Auckland productions and lots more to come. Performances across the board have shown a maturity and skill that makes going to the theatre an unqualified joy and Death by Cheerleader is up there with the best of them. While the first part of the year featured some great work by the men it seems now it’s the women’s turn to shine and Waller, Hyde and Van Beek – along with Olivia Tennet’s flawless Dorothy in Peach Theatre Company’s The Wizard of Oz – can take a thoroughly well-earned bow.
Death by Cheerleader is what it sets out to be: a madcap, semi-clad, pompommed, psychotic romp – with benefits!
dykiegirl 