Mahagonny - Behind Innocent Eyes

Post

Subscribe

Wed 01 Feb 2017 - Sun 05 Feb 2017

Mahagonny debuted their long-awaited show Behind Innocent Eyes at the 2017 Fringe World Festival on Wednesday, 1 February 2017 at the Hellenic Club.

I was invited to attend on Opening Night being Wednesday, 1 February 2017 courtesy of Limelight Consulting.

Part musical, part realism and part modernism with a hefty helping of suspenseful scandal, Behind Innocent Eyes is the dramatic story of four markedly diverse characters on an intertwined pursuit for something more. Maggie "Magnolia" Knowles desperately trying to escape the life of a working girl, Pudzy the scoundrel wanting anything and everything, Giles, the upper class nephew of a racketeer but with his own heart of gold, and Hiram Munch the typical charismatic villain everybody loves to hate.



Hiram Munch, while an utterly deplorable character for his racketeering and underhanded dealings, the actor himself was an absolute hoot with infectious energy of a man half his age, especially during his in-your-face solos that had the crowd roaring with laughter and wishing they knew the words to sing along.

Giles Munch, quite simply, had the voice of an angel. You could almost hear a collective gasp from each member of the audience as this tall, broad-shouldered man of imposing stature clasped the microphone between with equally broad hands before hitting notes as high as the angels themselves.



Personally, I found Maggie "Magnolia" Knowles to be a frustrating character for being portrayed as a flailing, exaggerated mess of a woman which seemed a disappointingly stark contrast to the "Joan of Arc" figure the media release promised she would be. Perhaps consequently due to that, or perhaps it was simply stage nerves, which may have gotten the better of her noting there were a few awkward scenes with stumbled lines.

The unexpected star of the show turned out to be Pudzy in all his dramatic, deliciously scandalous glory. We were graced with a wide emotional range from the thespian behind Pudzy's character who embraced every instance to shine. Pudzy oozed attitude as he pranced across the stage, hobbled along on his shattered foot, crumbled entirely at the realisation of his wrongdoings, and pulled a stark likening to Jack Nicholson in the Shining peeking through the theatre curtain. His face absolutely said it all.



Each character had a likeable qualities and the live band accompaniment with voice-over storytelling added an extra layer of magic. A beautiful picture was painted more or less from the vocalisations alone in the otherwise theatrically minimal re-enactment of this story. I personally found it to be an enjoyable show, albeit a little tongue-in-cheek, with some promising potential amongst the cast.

This show has 5 nights running until Sunday, 5 February 2017, tickets are available through the Fringe website page available here .

#community_theatre
#festivals
#musicals
#perth_city
#theatre
#theatre -reviews
#february
!date 01/02/2017 -- 05/02/2017
%wnperth