BY LEAH BLANKENDAAL
Banquet of Secrets
Victorian Opera
Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, 1 March
Catching up with old friends can often be bittersweet. The people you meet in your late teens, at university or the like, are the people who saw you grow up. For better or worse, they remember all sorts of things you’d rather they forgot – your questionable taste in clothes and men/women, the stupid things you said, and your first encounters with boxed wine.
The Victorian Opera’s Banquet of Secrets explores the relationships between four old friends. Once a year every year Mia (Antoinette Halloran), Drew (David Rogers-Smith), John-Pierre (Kanen Breen) and Rose (Dimity Shepherd) gather at the site of their favourite restaurant, where in their university days they had espoused great soliloquies full of partially clichéd ideas about the way they were going to live their lives. Now, 20 years on, these lives have drifted and changed in ways their younger selves could not have imagined. Marriage, divorce, children and family deaths have caught up with them all. When reacquainted with each other, there is the awkwardness, but also the loving familiarity, that comes with seeing someone who knows all of you.
As the friends catch-up it is revealed that Jean-Pierre has planned not just dinner, but an elaborate degustation for his friends, which is to be consumed at a price: with each course, each friend will share a secret with the group. Using free-flowing wine as a social lubricant, the four take turns to unburden themselves, revealing secrets they have supposedly never told anyone. In sharing these secrets, each character relinquishes some of the stress and pain they’ve been holding on to – often with a very drawn-out, verbal and Australian ‘fuck’.
Banquet of Secrets is Paul Grabowsky’s third work for the operatic stage and his second collaboration with writer Steve Visard. The culmination of their considerable knowledge was an enjoyable and at times very moving story, spoken in a very real, very Melbournian voice. As a whole, the story managed to treat the sometimes-delicate subject matter with respect. Interestingly, the clumsiest moments came not from the grittier content, but from the schmaltzy numbers – Rose’s song about drinking chocolate milk with her Dad, for example, could have been removed with little consequence.
Despite a few awkward moments, the absolute relatable nature of each character was undeniably Banquet of Secrets greatest strength. These strong characters were supported throughout the entire opera by a well-blended and unified combination of score, performance, libretto and direction. Grabowsky’s pop and jazz influenced score supported the libretto particularly well, whilst strong individual performances from the four singers gave credibility to what otherwise might have been a clunky setting.
The breaking of bread whilst sharing news is a recognizable and warming tradition that is easily relatable. This familiar setting, coupled with themes of nostalgia for old friends, familiar tastes, and former lives, make Banquet of Secrets a particularly moving, evocative, and personal work, as well as a rounding success.
Image supplied. Credit Jeff Busby.
