Dead Man Walking must be Freeze Frame Opera’s best production to date, providing an almost perfect account of the opera, with respect to staging, performance and narrative grip. It is a personal triumph for soprano Hattie Marshall, founder of FFO, who turns in a magnificent performance, ably supported by an entirely local cast.
The opera, by contemporary American composer Jake Heggie, is a fictionalised treatment of a book by nun Sister Helen Prejean who counselled men on death row. It is one of the few modern operas which seems to have real staying power, premiering in San Francisco 25 years ago, and opening in Australia in Adelaide in 2003, with a run in Sydney four years later. This first Perth production is being performed in Fremantle Prison, which certainly provides its own ambience. Originally built to contain transported convicts in the mid-19th century, it then became a regular prison featuring regular hangings. The last execution took place there in 1964, the last such in Australia occurring in 1967 in Melbourne.
FFO was founded in 2016, but rose to prominence through the Covid lockdown years by staging performances on the back of a truck and in backyards and balconies, providing entertainment for Perth-bound punters, and valuable work for musicians. They have built up a devoted following, performing a wide range of operatic events in all sorts of overlooked venues with limited resources, but here they have struck dramatic gold, under the direction of Adam Mitchell.
The mise-en-scène is located within a workshop area of the gaol, a large concrete box with bleacher seating, the stage comprising just a stretch of floor with the musicians tucked away behind a wire screen. No actual scenery is deployed apart from a video projection illustrating Sister Helen’s journey to Angola. Most of the settings are suggested with simple props – benches, chairs, a table, a bed, but were no less effective for that (set and costumes by Rhiannon Walker), aided by an effective use of lighting courtesy of Jerry Reinhardt. The actual blocking of the large cast is effective and efficient.
The music was provided by a small band comprising musical director and pianist Tommaso Pollio, with a piano accordion (Cathy Travers), cello (Sophie Curtis) and clarinet (Geoffrey Bourgault du Coudray). While lacking the heft of a full orchestra, they nevertheless provided a solid accompaniment to the singing and action, bringing out the various nuances of the score with its nods towards various genres of popular music (jazz, 12-bar blues, country, pop).
Hattie Marshall dominated the cast as Sister Helen, being onstage almost all the time, and running the gamut of emotions called for, from hesitant prison visitor, to absolving supporter, grappling with the distraught parents of Joseph de Rocher’s victims and her own doubts, while pouring forth a steady stream of accurate singing. When relating to Joseph how she once saw Elvis in Vegas, she positively glowed with enthusiasm. She was ably supported by baritone Lachlan Higgins as the convicted murderer de Rocher, who is youthful enough to suggest someone acting in the heat of the moment rather than a seasoned killer, and who sang with consistently warm tone.
The large supporting cast included Sara Macliver as Sister Rose, contributing her familiar accurate and gleaming soprano tone, and also providing a consoling supportive presence, particularly in the duet with Sister Helen, “Sometimes forgiveness is in the smallest gesture”. Lisa Harper-Brown was believably confused and distraught as Joseph’s mother, and young singers Euan Macmillan (Older Brother) and David Bell (Younger Brother) played their parts well. Robert Hofmann was an authoritative but compassionate Warden, and Kohsei Gilkes convinced as the less compassionate Father Grenville. The quartet of victims’ parents, led by Brett Peart as Owen Hart, with Prudence Sanders as Kitty Hart, Perry Joyce as Howard Boucher and Brigitte Heuser, summoned sympathy in their distress. The main cast was rounded out by Charis Postmus and Caitlin Cassidy. There were also numerous “inmates” and particularly “schoolchildren”, who joined in gleefully for the iterations of “He will gather us around”.