BWW Reviews: QUARTET Finds Four Aging Opera Singers Facing One More Performance

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Thursday 9th April 2015

The Adelaide Repertory Theatre Society is presenting Sir Ronald Harwood's Quartet in their home base, the ARTS Theatre. Three lifelong friends are residents in Beecham House, a Kentish retirement home for musicians, but things are about to change with the arrival of a new resident, another person from their pasts. All four are celebrated opera singers. Bass, Reginald Paget, contralto, Cecily (Cissy) Robson, and tenor, Wilfred Bond, appeared together on an acclaimed recording of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto.

Also on that recording was Reginald's ex-wife, soprano, Jean Horton, and it is she who is about to join them, much to Reginald's dismay, and the concern of the other two. Jean went off on a solo career, causing the breakdown of her marriage to Reggie and ending her friendship with Wilf and Cissy. The three perform together each year in a concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday, on the 10th October, and the suggestion is that they all perform the quartet from Act 3 of Rigoletto, but there is a dissenter. Jean is still tending to act as a diva, and Reggie refuses to sing with her.

The play was inspired by Verdi having left a residence to become a home for aging singers who were down on their luck, something that Harwood discovered while watching a documentary, Tosca's Kiss, about the composer.

The production was directed by Sue Wylie, who has extensive experience as a performer but is taking on the job of director for the first time, stepping in when the person who was to have directed the play had to withdraw. She was assisted by Ian Rigney, another of Adelaide's favourite performers and a director of many productions. What could be better for a first time director than a cast of four actors, each of whom has played many, many lead roles during their illustrious careers. If you are thinking that this sounds like a solid gold guarantee of a sensational performance, you are completely correct.

Russell Starke plays Reggie, a quiet man who loves to spend his time reading. This allows him to escape into other worlds, and a way in which he can ignore Jean. Starke is marvellous in his characterisation, showing that the pain of what happened all those years ago is still affecting Reggie, his sadness showing that he still has feelings for Jean.

Julie Quick is Cissy, a good organiser, but whose memory is becoming unreliable. Quick presents Cissy as a bright and bubbly woman, fun loving and easy going. Her characterisation is such that, when Cissy reveals the occasional memory lapse, an inconsistency in her train of thought, it is all the more effective.

Brian Knott is Wilf, creating a likeable man in spite of his dirty mind and his often suggestive or even blatantly sexual comments. He makes his salacious remarks about and to Cissy, knowing that he cannot be heard while she is listening to music with headphones on. Knott plays the 'dirty old man' character

Jean Walker plays Jean, no longer the big star, but still acting like a diva and frustrated that this no longer works for her, especially with those who knew her on the way up. There are so many things going on in Walker's performance, reflecting Jean's reluctance to accept that it is all over, that her high status is no more, and that she now realises how much she needs her old friends, but not how to win them back.

With four such excellent performances we realise what this play is about, the depth of the characters, their interactions, and their knowledge that the end is coming, and not just that of their careers. It is a time when they need one another more than ever before. It demands four actors of this stature to make this play work because, as far as a narrative goes, there is very little. These four work so intimately together that their long real life acquaintanceships are clearly adding to the authenticity of the production

The Adelaide Repertory Theatre Society has a great production on its hands, with snappy dialogue drawing lots of laughs, many poignant moments, human frailties exposed, and that ever present question of whether or not they can work things out between them and get together again to sing for the concert. That, you will find out when you see the production, as indeed you should.

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