The newly renovated Her Majesty’s Theatre and its debut production, State Theatre’s Gaslight, are a theatrical triumph
Our critics have been stunned by both the newly reopened Her Majesty’s Theatre and its first major production – the State Theatre Company play Gaslight.
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- Sellout city: Theatre shows are the hottest ticket in town
- Dim the lights as theatre returns to the Maj with Gaslight
With her graceful flowing curves, refined features and contemporary elegance, Her Majesty’s Theatre has truly regained its royal status – but now resembles a youthful people’s princess more than an old queen.
The transformation of the Adelaide venue is truly remarkable, and arguably situates the Maj as the premier theatre in the country.
From its gleaming new Grote Street foyers, through the breathtaking expanded auditorium, to hidden backstage technical facilities, everything is state of the art.
Yet the grandeur of its new internal design, intricate attention to texture and detail, use of warm natural materials and plush red seating still evoke all the history of a building that has stood for as long as any audience member can remember.
Her Majesty’s is now more than the equal of anything to be found among the classic theatres of London’s West End or on Broadway in New York, but combines this with the modern creature comforts and technical wizardry associated with contemporary complexes in countries closer to home.
Bar facilities on each level are not yet open, to help maintain social distancing, but provide temptingly glamorous spaces to the side of the original venue.
Among those at the opening of State Theatre Company’s play Gaslight was veteran actor Edwin Hodgeman who admired brass plaques embedded in the foyer floors, detailing fellow performers of note whose presence has graced Her Majesty’s boards over the past century.
Most impressive of all is the audience experience. Gone is the precipitous incline of the former dress circle, along with the previous proscenium arch which actually blocked sightlines from many seats.
In place of the previous angular atrocity are now two gently curving and just as gently stepped balconies, which succeed in drawing viewers closer to the action on stage.
While there was little music in Gaslight, the quality of the acoustics was incredible in bringing the actors’ dialogue to clearly audible, dynamic life throughout the auditorium.
There is so much to admire, from the ribbon-like swirl of the twin entrance staircases, to the piano key-like timber relief adorning the walls, to the tiny lights embedded within this, which dim as the performance begins – just like the gas lights in the play.
For the time being, patrons are being asked to remain in or near their seats during interval, except to answer the call of nature.
One handy tip, so to speak: the sign pointing to male toilets is not visible on some levels until you enter the shared doorway for the ladies’ room, where you then can see whether to turn left or right … or ponder a non-binary course of action.
Welcome back, your Majesty: it’s been worth every bit of the wait.
– Patrick McDonald
Gaslight – State Theatre Company
Until September 19
State Theatre’s much-anticipated return to live performance was made extra-special by being held in the magnificently rebuilt Her Majesty’s Theatre, allowing for an audience experience that was not only glorious to behold but very comfortable as well.
Patrick Hamilton’s domestic thriller Gaslight looks just as good, with a winning design by Ailsa Paterson.
The town house of Jack and Bella Manningham is pleasantly chic, if a bit shabby – much like all the characters, whose rough edges are expertly identified and explored by director Catherine Fitzgerald.
The key to Gaslight’s continuing worthiness on the main stage is not so much in its outward form – it’s a potboiler with scarcely a trace of suspense and must have seemed cliched even in its day – than in its underlying theme of what we now call “toxic masculinity”.
For that is precisely what drives the awful Jack Manningham (Nathan O’Keefe, reprising his Algernon Moncrieff character from The Importance of Being Earnest with sinister intent), whose mind games with his wife Bella (Ksenja Logos) are acts of wilful cruelty.
The determination of a jaded sleuth, Inspector Rough, brings him undone. A neat bit of casting gives this role to Eileen Darley, who succeeds in dulling the idle sexism – remember, this dates from 1938 – of another potentially dominating male character.
There are times of acute drama in the several pairings, Jack and Bella, Bella and Rough, Rough and Jack, but enough humour to relieve the tension. Occasionally too much, perhaps, with a Keystone Cops number towards the end a particular misfire.
As “gaslighting” has become a buzzword, we run the risk of allowing leading speakers or the media to do the heavy lifting when it comes to investing in the reality of abuse, and the sensitivity of the topic. State’s Gaslight keeps it front and centre.
– Peter Burdon
