Reviews

The White Mermaid or The Little Lotus: A Musical Fable

By Trevor Ashley and Phil Scott. Trevor Ashley Presents. Seymour Centre. Dec 8 – 23, 2023

Fresh from his brush with international fame, by coming close to winning the second season of RuPaul’s Drag race, Trevor Ashley is back to earth with his annual adult pantomime.

All the favourite ingredients are back – three eye candy male dancer actors, Trevor in outrageous frocks with a deep cleavage, and gentle cameos from the ageless Carlotta.

The naughty revue opens with three sailor boys prancing onto the stage, dressed to display their achievements in the gym, singing about having “salt on your skin, cum in your hair and faggots below.”

Santa Claus the Pantomime

By Diana Kimpton. Irish Theatre Players. Directed by Andrew Watson. The Irish Club of WA, Subiaco WA. Dec 9-16, 2023

Irish Theatre Players have decided to combine two of our favourite parts of Christmas, Santa Claus, and Pantomime, for this fun little panto. Creating a complete experience, audiences can meet Santa Claus and have a photograph before the show, and popcorn is available, creating a lovely aroma in the space.

Othello

By William Shakespeare. Graduate Dramatic Society (GRADS), Directed by Thomas Dimmick. New Fortune Theatre, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA. Dec 6-16, 2023

As we near the end of the theatrical year, most of our offerings are pantomimes, musicals, and light comedies, but not so from Graduate Dramatic Society (GRADS), who are presenting the tragedy of Othello.

Poulenc Tribute #2

Brisbane Music Festival Part 2. FourthWall Arts, Brisbane. 9 December 2023

This year’s Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) featured two dedicated programmes in tribute to French composer and pianist, Francis Poulenc, and also included a handful of pieces peppered across the festival. Is 2023 a significant Poulenc milestone? No, BMF’s Artistic Director, Alex Raineri, is simply a fan and considers Poulenc’s work to be under-performed – perhaps due to its often less-than-serious nature (and maybe because the composer was not academically trained).

Surat-Suratnya

A collaboration between Stage of Wawan Sofwan, Sandra Fiona Long & Ria Soemardjo. Written by Wawa Sofwan & Ratna Ayu Budiarti. La Mama HQ, Faraday Street. 6 – 17 December 2023

A woman Ibu Helen (Ellen Marning) prepares a traditional Indonesian dish – sayur lodeh – her husband’s favourite and now hers too.  She is from regional Victoria, married to an Indonesian trade-unionist.  They have children.  This meal will be the last the family eats in Jakarta.  They are no longer safe.  They are leaving for Australia the next morning.  It is sometime between 1965-67, during the Indonesian military’s purge of ‘communists’ – i.e.

Declassified

Adam Herd. Brisbane Music Festival Part 2. FourthWall Arts, Brisbane. 8 December 2023

There’s a Paul Simon lyric that goes … ‘most folks never catch their star’. Well, some of the ‘declassified’ information gleaned from Friday night’s Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) performance is that this judgement will simply never apply to award-winning pianist Adam Herd. Born in Coffs Harbour, Adam has followed his musical star from the Queensland Conservatorium, across the world, landing in Helsinki, where he achieved his Master’s Degree, and where he now lives.

Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall

By Mark Kilmurry and Jamie Oxenbould. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Directed by Mark Kilmurry. 1 December, 2023 – 14 January, 2024

Here’s a tight, bright theatrical farce that should brighten anyone’s Christmas viewing. What the actual story is about, or who the main characters are, or what or where is Hamlington Hall... I’d guess there’s not a single member of the packed audience at the opening night who could tell you. To them it didn’t matter: they’d had a jolly good laugh.

Is That You, Ruthie?

Written and directed by Leah Purcell. Cremorne Theatre Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 2 - 16 December 2023

Based on Dr Ruth Hegarty’s true family tale (the David Unaipon award-winning novel), writer/director Leah Purcell hopes that her version of Is That You, Ruthie? will be unifying – and I think she has fulfilled her aim. Her script, stage setting and shining cast – Melodie Reynolds-Diarra as Ruthie and Chenoa Deemal as her mother, Ruby – bring this family (and Queensland) story to life with warmth and humour. And that is a mean feat, considering the stained backdrop of government history whose ripples are still being felt by our First Nations families today.

Maria Callas: A Concert in Hologram.

With Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall. December 7, 2023. Also Also playing at Dunstan Playhouse in Adelaide on 9 December and Perth Concert Hall on 13 December.

As a poet, I have never attended an event with my art critic hat on and had the uncontrollable need to express myself poetically by what was unfolding before me, but last night, hearing Maria Callas at the Arts Centre, as I wrote in my notebook in the dark, the poetic lines were just falling out of me, and as I write this review the next morning, I can still see her image and hear her voice. It’s as if my mind believes that I really did witness Maria, like she arrived to me in a dream, her ghost came to me, to us, at the Arts Centre.

Angelus

Brisbane Music Festival Part 2. FourthWall Arts, Brisbane. 6 December 2023

This presentation of four short chamber music pieces encapsulates what the Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) is all about: collaboration, cross-pollination, and contemporary beginnings. And so the one-hour musical presentation included one World premiere and one Australian premiere, with sounds ranging from the experimental and abstract to the harmonically sublime. This sonic adventure was all achieved by four outstanding musicians – some at the start and others well into their international stage careers, but thankfully all currently based locally.

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