Putting It Together – Sydney Fringe Festival

 When the architects of The Supper Club were Putting It Together did they consider that it might need a door? Particularly when they designed the premises to have a popular bar underneath it and another room for revelers above it?


Presented by: OVO Australia / Sydney Fringe FestivalVenue: The Supper Club, Oxford Hotel Friday, 23rd September 2011
When the architects of The Supper Club were Putting It Together did they consider that it might need a door? Particularly when they designed the premises to have a popular bar underneath it and another room for revelers above it?
As the venue for this production, it lets down the show to such a great extent that it was practically impossible to evaluate Putting It Together on its merits.
The street noise was irritating, and the bar staff made no attempt to be quiet during the performance cleaning loudly and slamming doors and talking throughout. Several patrons also consistently talked and laughed loudly with total disrespect to the performers and complete disinterest in the show and there was no staff asking them to shut up and listen. So this makes me wonder who chose this venue for a production of this kind? Did they perhaps not realise these issues would be a problem? Did they not realise there was no door for example?
The production itself must also take responsibility for the lack of interest and difficulty in focussing on the performance. None of the performers were amplified with microphones and as such the only instrument, an electric piano was barely loud enough to resemble a plausible backing for such a score. The majority of the voices could not be heard clearly so when the extra noise and distractions occurred, a lot of the quieter and potentially interesting pieces were inaudible and lost.
That being said you had to admire the cast for persevering throughout the performance with such elements to deal with. There were also a couple of noticeable highlights in the show from Alan D. Duncan and Julianne Horne, in particular their ‘Country House’ duet. But the Sydney Fringe festival is for emerging artists and this was personified in Cara Dibdin (pictured). After seeing Dibdin in other recent productions she is clearly developing into a well rounded performer and was easily the stand out of this cast from her detailed ‘Lovely’ number through to her ‘Always A Woman’ duet with Horne.
Sadly, the direction was flawed in many instances, one example being when the “wife” tells her husband to “have a drink i’ll be with you in just two ticks”  and then she gets a drink while he just stands there, and also the cast did not acknowledge the accompanist or the technical team during the bows which is customary in theatrical performances. 
It was also not encouraging when you open the program and find it is listed as A Musical Review, instead of Revue, a few times.
There is much that the production team, the creatives, and the cast can learn and improve from this production but overall it was a very disappointing experience that could have been much better had the necessary details been handled correctly in the planning stages.
Putting It Together has performances remaining at The Supper Club on Sun 25/9 @2pm & 6pm, then Thur 29/9 @8pm, Fri 30/9 @1030pm, and Sun 2/10 @11am.  My advice is to attend the matinees as the outside noise should be minimal during the day.
Until 2 October, 2011
www.thesydneyfringe.com.au