The Australian Ballet. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. May 2 – 20, 2023
A great theme of cultural transfer and intergenerational artistry links these very different premieres in this double bill, perfectly entitled Identity.
Celebrating 60 years of the Australian Ballet, resident choreographer Alice Topp creates a thrilling scrapbook – a Paragon - of vignettes with current and past star dancers.
A Rehearsed Reading. Director Les Solomon. New Theatre. 3 May, 2023
It is not often that rehearsed readings are reviewed! But this is a little more than a ‘reading’ …
The Disappearance is a ‘double adaptation’! It is based on the book The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear by Kin Platt in 1968 and Baxter, the 1973 screenplay of the book written by Reginald Rose. Director Les Solomon first directed the play in 1976 at the Wayside Chapel and for a youth theatre production in 1991.
By Suzie Miller. State Theatre of South Australia. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 28 April to 13 May 2023
Oscar Wilde once said that all art is born from some form of outrage. While this may be debatable about all art, nonetheless, Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie (i.e., ‘on the face of it’) was born from outrage; outrage when it comes to sexual abuse, or any form of abuse, and the current legal system that is biased towards alpha males, and against the victim, especially women.
By Angus Cerini. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Ian Michael. The Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. Apr 29 - May 4, 2023
The Bleeding Tree made its WA debut at The Blue Room in November 2021, with the same director and design team. Due to its high impact, ability to touch an audience and its success, it has been picked up by Black Swan State Theatre Company and is now playing to larger audiences. Set in an isolated Australian town, this is an hour-long tale about women who have greeted the abusive man of the house with a deadly rifle shot, and are now dealing with the result of that action.
From the book by Studs Terkel, adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Cremorne Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane, 27–29 April 2023
The third-year Bachelor of Musical Theatre students at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University have found a new home at QPAC, and the intimate Cremorne Theatre was the perfect space to meet this year’s up-and-coming stage stars in their own version of Working. The musical is based on Studs Terkel’s best-selling book of interviews with American workers in Chicago in the mid-1970s. The format is an engaging mix of mainly monologues that segue into solo songs, with some duologues and duets, spiced up with solid choreography by John Clarke.
Ensemble Q. Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 30 April 2023
The expanse of QPAC’s Concert Hall was magically converted into an underwater aquarium for QPAC’s company in residence, Ensemble Q, and their programme of music inspired by the sea, Deep Blue. With blue and green lights filling the usual seating area, the audience took their places in the more intimate reversed space under the venue’s huge pipe organ, overlooking a smaller, studio-like stage. It was an inspired way to showcase a selection of eclectic musical pieces.
By Neil Simon. Roleystone Theatre. Directed by Simon James. City of Gosnells, Don Russell Performing Arts Centre, Thornlie, WA. Apr 28 – May 6, 2023
Still waiting for their new theatre to be completed, Roleystone Theatre are presenting their latest production, the female version of The Odd Couple, at Don Russell Performing Arts Centre. Originally created in the 1980s, this incarnation has been updated to the present day, and reset in Perth.
By Cheryl Ward. Darlington Theatre Players. Directed by Michelle Ezzy. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount WA. April 28-May 13, 2023
Darlington Theatre Players’ Through These Lines is a striking, female centred story set in World War One. Fittingly opening in the week of ANZAC Day, it is centred around the experiences of Australian nurse Sister Florence Whiting, through her experiences on her journey and service in Egypt, on the hospital ship Kyarra, in Lemnos and in France.
By Suzanne Hawley. Presented by Di Smith in association with Arts on Tour. Directed by Kim Hardwick. The Q: Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. 28-29 April, 2023, and touring
What happens when a woman, a brilliant artist who has always lived life on her own terms, becomes aware that she has a disease which will rob her of one thing she prizes above anything else: her own independence? There is a logical but unpalatable conclusion, but will her friends and family allow it?
Text by Jane Austen. Presented by A Seldom Theatre Production. Directed by Emma O’Brien. La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton. 27 April - 7 May 2023.
This is a sumptuous production that is impressive in its devotion and dedication to the Jane Austen oeuvre. The play cleverly adapts letters written by Austen combined with extracts from Pride and Prejudice and songs from her personal music collection. The three performers each bring different aspects of Jane’s persona to life along with the vivid characters that inhabited her powerful imagination: Elizabeth, Darcy, Mr Collins, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr and Mrs Bennet are all conjured with meticulous attention to detail.
