Reviews

Peter Goers is Hard Rubbish

Adelaide Fringe. The Arch at Holden Street Theatres. March 10 - 18, 2018

Peter Goers has had a career in entertainment spanning more than 40 years. From actor and director, to theatre critic, television presenter (briefly and not lucratively), followed by a long and happily ongoing career on radio.

He is a familiar face (and voice) throughout South Australia and clearly has a throng of adoring fans, with many regular listeners of his ABC Radio Show which is broadcast nightly across SA and Broken Hill.

Merrily We Roll Along

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by George Furth. Little Triangle. The Depot Theatre, Marrickville. March 7 - 24, 2018.

In 2017, Stage Whispers editor Neil Litchfield wrote of Little Triangle’s production of Sunday in the Park with George: “Little Triangle’s potential for presenting quality small-scale musical theatre on a shoe-string is one of the most exciting things to happen in Sydney’s indie Music Theatre scene.”

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Book by Rachel Sheinkin. Music and Lyrics by William Finn. Originally Conceived by Rebecca Feldman. Javeenbah Theatre Company, Nerang, Gold Coast. Director: Bradley Chapman. 9th March - 24th March 2018

Javeenbah Theatre Company’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is one of the hottest ticket in town.

The talented cast includes Flynn Anderson as Chip Tolentino, Sebastian Angliss-Li as William Barfee, Nicola Barrett as Logainne Schwartzandgrubbeniere, Chelsea Burton as Olive Ostrovsky, Nadine Chia as Marcy Park, Nic Van Litsenborgh as Leaf Coneybear with Sally Wood, Cameron Sarasola, Bradley Chapman, Micheal Ware and Olivia Chilvers French.

Can You Hear Colour?

Patch Theatre Company. Adelaide Festival. AC Arts Main Theatre. March 9-15th, 2018

“Can you hear colour?” Michaela Burger asks the rapt audience of Adelaide mums and dads accompanied by tots through to ten year olds, who are all eager for the show to begin. And, with a little help from Girl, engagingly portrayed by Burger, along with some very clever technical effects and a magic tree (that cleverly hides lots of clever and talented magic ‘helpers’), we can hear colour, see colour and even taste colour. It is Burger’s role that cleverly links and drives the whole story.

Rock of Ages

Book by Chris D'Arienzo. Arrangements & orchestrations by Ethan Popp. Directed by Stephen Carr, Musical direction by Kate McIntosh. Koorliny Arts Centre, Kwinana, WA. Mar 2-17, 2018

Rock of Ages is playing to packed, very enthusiastic houses at Koorliny Arts Centre with a energetic, enthusiastic cast, who rock out with abandon.

Thank Q for the Memories

Led by John Shortis and Moya Simpson. The Q, Queanbeyan, 8–10 March 2018

Compered by stalwart Canberra–Queanbeyan singer–songwriting team John Shortis and Moya Simpson, Thank Q for the Memories celebrates the decennary of the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre (The Q) with highlights from memorable productions of the past ten years.

 

Us/Them

By Carly Wijs (Belgium). Adelaide Festival 2018. Bronks / Richard Jordan Productions / Theatre Royal, Plymouth, Big In Belgium. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 8 - 12 March, 2018

Carly Wijs’ Us/Them from the Belgium youth theatre company BRONKS is based on the Belsan school siege in Russia in 2004.

Two young actors enter onto an open stage with a large green chalkboard up-stage, a large bunch of helium-filled black balloons, with six steel pillars marking the performance area. The young actors are playing two ten-year-old children who were involved in the Belsan school siege.

That Daring Australian Girl

By Joanne Hartstone. Adelaide Fringe, The Arch, Holden Street Theatres. March 6-18, 2018

From beginning to end, Joanne Hartstone’s performance in That Daring Australian Girl is a triumph. With subtle nuance, expression and gestures, all in keeping with a woman at the turn of last century, Hartstone captures little celebrated Muriel Matters and her extraordinary life with colour and passion.

Written and performed by Hartstone, the performance is staged in Holden Street’s Arch venue; the old church building immediately evoking bygone eras.

Young Marx

By Richard Bean & Clive Coleman. National Theatre Live from Theatre Bridge, London. Nova Cinemas, Carlton VIC (& other participating venues). 17-28 March 2018.

Rory Kinnear plays the eponymous Marx brilliantly – albeit as a comic character.  His Marx is self-absorbed, self-serving, selfish and shifty – a man who loves mankind in the abstract, but is quite prepared unthinkingly to ignore and exploit the people who love and support him.  At the same time, he is preoccupied, constantly applying his forensic and analytical skills to the 19th century industrialised world’s political economy – and making some very prescient predictions about the future of Capitalism, predictions which have turned out to be al

Marble

By Marina Carr. Darlington Theatre Players. Directed by Rodney van Groningen. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount, WA. Feb 23 - March 10, 2018

First time director Rodney van Groningen has assembled a stellar cast for the West Australian premiere of Marina Carr’s relationship drama, Marble, produced by Darlington Theatre Players.

Art has a vivid dream about making love to his best friend’s wife, on the same night that she has the exact same dream about Art. Marble is an intense drama about two couples, that at times can be quite bleak.

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