Reviews

Bliss

By Peter Carey. Adapted for the Stage by Tom Wright. Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir Production. Direction – Matthew Lutton. Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse. 4 May – 2 June 2018

Bliss is a fascinating ‘look back’ at the heady days of abundance and hedonism in Sydney of the 1980’s through the sharp incisive writing of Peter Carey - filtered by way of the perceptions and dramaturgical skills of Tom Wright.   It is presented by an eclectic ensemble of versatile actors on a surprising set by Marg Horwell, with exceptional lighting (Paul Jackson) and sound (Stefan Gregory) and highly polished by direction by Matthew Lutton.  It is a lengthy, ambitious, keenly conceptualized and executed, hypnotic work that spans three hours

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Script: Rachel Sheinkin. Music and Lyrics: William Finn. Theatre and Company. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. May 10 – 13, 2018

The inaugural musical produced by new theatre group Theatre and Company of the hilarious show The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was a well-received hit on opening night.

Performed in the intimate Lennox Theatre at Riverside, it made you feel like you were in the audience of a live Spelling Bee.

Good Cook. Friendly. Clean.

By Brooke Robinson. Griffin Theatre Company. SBW Stables Theatre. May 4 – June 16, 2018

Brooke Robinson shows an horrific slide to homelessness for a Sydney working woman in her 50s.

Sandra’s voyage begins applying to shared households, visiting and seeking acceptance, desperate in interviews to match the whims of mostly crazed millennials.

Fayssal Bazzi and Kelly Paterniti play a range of revengeful brats, party-crazed dits, spoilt sloths or distracted young mums who interrogate and tease Sandra as a possible new housemate, before always showing her the door.

Poison

By Lot Vekemans (translated by Rina Verago). Sue Benner Theatre, Metro Arts, Brisbane. 9 to 19 May 2018

‘Grief’ is a very literary subject – something we will gladly allow to envelop us in a one-on-one with a book or in a dark cinema. It is not a topic we eagerly seek out in live entertainment. And so, it must be a challenge, when presenting a one-act two-hander about deep-seated grief – caused in this case by the loss of a child – to get the balance right and avoid dishing up a slice of soap.

The Sugar House

By Alana Valentine. Belvoir, Upstairs Theatre. May 5 – June 3, 2018.

Alana Valentine is best known as a verbatim playwright giving voice to diverse communities and the challenges and sometimes horrors they’ve endured. 

The Sugar House similarly has a sharp sense of place; set in Sydney’s once working class suburb of Pyrmont, around the then iconic CSR factory, if now dominated by a casino and washed clean by new gentrification.

Shirley Valentine

By Willy Russell. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Director: Mark Kilmurry. 3 May – 9 June 2018

‘Marriage is like the Middle East – there’s no solution!’ So says 42-year-old Shirley Bradshaw in her typical, straightforward Liverpool manner. Once she used to be Shirley Valentine, before marriage to Joe and before her two children, Brian and Millandra. Now she talks to the walls in her Liverpool semi-detached home, one among whole rows in the streets outside.

Twelfth Night

By William Shakespeare. Queensland Theatre. Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). 28 April - 19 May 2018

Twelfth Night is the classic romantic comedy involving mistaken identity, written by Shakespeare as post-Christmas entertainment around the turn of the 17th century. Based on a couple of existing sources, and written after the intensity of Hamlet, this light entertainment with its evergreen themes of love and topsy-turvy mayhem must have been a positive relief for the writer and a delight for audiences.

The Bleeding Tree

By Angus Cerini. A Griffin Theatre Production. Director: Lee Lewis. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre. 9-12 May 2018

The play opens with a loud, long, resonant gunshot in complete darkness, so without warning that the chattering audience was jolted into silence. The lights rise so slowly that at first they are overpowered by the exit signs. Your eyes gradually adjust before being able to make out anything at all. Over a few minutes during the opening dialogue, three faces resolve out of the gloom: a mother and two daughters. A vicious man arrives home drunk, ready to abuse his family. There’s a confrontation, and just like that, he’s dead.

Sense and Sensibility

By Kate Hamill, based on the novel by Jane Austen. State Theatre Company of SA. Dunstan Playhouse. May 4 – 26, 2018.

I love Austen’s novels and must admit to anxiety about seeing an adaptation. However, my fears were ill-founded as this production is fabulous.  Kate Hamill’s adaptation is true to the spirit of Austen, and the production is fast-paced, extremely funny and clever.

Almost Face to Face

Written & performed by Stephen House. Directed by Peter Green. The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne CBD. 8 – 12 May 2018

There’s no doubt – and it’s not saying anything new – that Stephen House is a superb raconteur.  With a subtle change of voice or tone, a flick of the eyes, an inclination of the head, an unsteady step or a rapid move across the bare stage he conjures up characters and places vividly.  They are the characters and places of the Dublin demi-monde – addicts, prostitutes, rent boys, dealers and drifters. 

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