Sondheim's Assassins has some killer lines

The Delmaine Season of Assassins
Written by Stephen Sondheim from the book by John Weidman
Silo Theatre
Concert Chamber, The Edge
Until August 14th

“Assassins” goes some way in trying to explain why Lee Harvey Oswald killed John F Kennedy. It was not his Marxist leanings, his resentment over a dishonourable discharge from the Marines or troubles with his girlfriend.

No, he was encouraged by the ghosts of assassins past to become one of the elite group of people who are remembered for their acts of violence which have brought down Presidents.

Certainly Lee Harvey Oswald and the guy who stared the club, John Wilkes Booth, are remembered for killing Presidents but Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgosz who respectively killed Presidents Garfield and McKinley are more likely to be found in the more difficult editions of Trivial Pursuits.

Sondheim has written a black hearted musical telling the sorry tales of people who tried and just as often failed to kill US Presidents.

Silo Theatre's production of the Sondheim musical is set within a huge tent made of an American flag with the characters mainly done up as a cross between clowns and ghouls with John Wilkes Booth presiding as ringmaster in his snappy suit.

The tunes are not Sondheim's most memorable but the lyrics are witty, intelligent and sardonic. He manages to combine history, psychology and politics along with tales of the American dream and nightmare.

The cast are splendid in this enthusiastic vaudeville style production, with Mitchel Butel particularly impressive as John Wilkes Booth. Cameron Rhodes playing one of the presenters, a defrocked Santa Claus as well as Samuel Byck (who tried to kill Richard Nixon) helps connect the various segments together along with a snappy showman played by Gareth Williams, who also takes the part of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Roy Snow and Cameron Douglas provide well-gauged roles which provide an understanding of personality while Andrew Grainger and Kyle Chuen create a couple of larger than life characters.

Natalie Medlock and Bronwyn Bradley do a fine job as the rather incompetent assassins going after President Gerry Ford but their parts are not given the strong dialogue most of the others have to work with.

The small musical ensemble of Grant Winterburn, Mark Dennison, Aaron Coddel and Chris O’Connor provide a lively accompaniment which does justice to the music without drowning out the singing.

Some of the action takes place amongst the audience who are seated at café tables. This and other inventive bits of staging are clear signs that there is a smart team at work. Director Oliver Driver, set designer John Verryt and costume designer Elizabeth Whiting have managed to make this an outstanding and entertaining production