Reviews

Animal Farm

By George Orwell, adapted by Geordie Brookman. State Theatre Company South Australia. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. May 1 – 3, 2019

British author George Orwell’s concern for the world began in the 1930s with the poor and unemployed in the Depression. Reporting on the Spanish Civil War led to his concern about communism, fascism and his fear of another war.

He wrote Animal Farmin 1944 as “a political fable” based on the Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin's eventual betrayal of the people. He followed this in 1949 with 1984, which warned of the potential dangers of totalitarianism.

The Addams Family – A New Musical

By Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The South Coast Choral and Arts Society (SA). Victor Harbor Town Hall. 4-18 May, 2019

Based on the popular eccentric characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams as well as the internationally successful TV show, The Addams Family – A New Musical was first produced on Broadway in 2010. Whilst it was only modestly successful, nonetheless, this musical has proven to be extremely popular with audiences throughout the world and is seemingly in constant production. This is quite understandable for numerous reasons, but primarily because at its heart it is about ‘family love’.

Avenue Q

Book by Jeff Whitty. Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. North Shore Theatre Company. Independent Theatre, North Sydney. April 26 – May 4, 2019.

Formerly Chatswood Musical Society, the recently re-named North Shore Theatre Company’s production of the hilarious musical with puppets, Avenue Q, was a laugh a minute, with a great cast performance, allowing for some technical difficulties opening night.

Love’s Labour’s Lust: A Romeo and Juliet Comedy Musical

By Tessani Wells and Emma Ragless. Not Quite Committed Productions. Belconnen Community Centre. May 1 – 3, 2019

Not Quite Committed Productions is the labour of love of Tessani Wells and Ella Ragless. Having just finished high school, these two young people have devoted the last six months to creating and staging a musical from the ground up. Full disclosure, Ella is a good friend of my daughter Rouane.

Tessani and Ella have basedLove’s Labour’s Lust loosely around the story of Romeo and Juliet, transferring the setting to the modern era. Romeo becomes a lovelorn fool, Juliet is the epitome of a dumb spoilt brat, and the humour is eyerolling teen sarcasm.

The Illegitimate Love Children of Bob Downe and Magda Szubanski

Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Speigeltent Tent Collingwood.March 31 – April 7, 2019

This is a delightful, light and lively show that is just right if you are looking for some clever but not too darkly complicated laughs.  It is a  refreshingly replenishing show with great catchy vintage songs sung beautifully.  Significantly, it is a homage to our Australian comic history and particularly to two of our most interesting, unique and couragous ‘talents’ - Mark Trevorrow and Magda Szubznski.

Wakey Wakey

By Will Eno. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, East St Kilda. 28 April – 19 May 2019

An alarm wakes a man, Guy (Justin Hosking).  ‘Is it now?’ he says.  ‘I thought I had more time.’  This is a play about dying and resisting dying and clinging to what constitutes – good or bad – being alive.  The title, Wakey Wakey, might be an admonishment to us: ‘Wake up – you may think you have ‘more time’, but…

Ten Quid

By John Grimshaw. Stirling Players. Directed by Jane Sherwood. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo, WA. April 26 - May 11, 2019

Ten Quid, a locally written World Premiere, is a story of the call to home of the migrant. Mark, who immigrated to Australia as a child as a ‘ten pound pom’, returns to Manchester to scatter his brother’s ashes at Maine Road Stadium, and meets Cody, a Scottish single mother, to whom he tells his story.

Cinderella

By Matthew Whittet. Myths Made Here production. Cremorne Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 26 April to 5 May 2019

Cinderella is the Queensland premiere of a relatively new one-act play by actor and writer Matthew Whittet. It is a sharp debut by Myths Made Here, a fresh Queensland-based group that includes director, Daniel Evans, Cinderella’s two stars, Amy Ingram and Thomas Larkin, along with producer and educator, Annette Box, and producer, Tara Hobbs. I’m sure we will hear more from this creative collective in the future.

Ladies in Black

Book by Carolyn Burns, Music and Lyrics by Tim Finn. Ipswich Musical Theatre Company. Old Ipswich Courthouse. 26 April to 5 May 2019

With a completely sold-out season, the Queensland amateur premiere of Ladies in Black is in very safe hands. Confidently directed by Tammy Sarah Linde, with Music Direction by Matthew Semple, this is an energetic and enthusiastic production by the accomplished Ipswich Musical Theatre Company. With a combined background in theatre training and experience, you won’t see a better so-called ‘amateur’ cast.

The Miser

By Molière, translated & adapted by Justin Fleming. Bell Shakespeare. Arts Centre Melbourne, The Fairfax. 25 April – 12 May 2019

Justin Fleming takes Molière’s satire/farce and makes it even more farcical; he up-dates its language to a distinctly Australian idiom with contemporary references and clunky-but-irresistible gags, even while retaining the convoluted plot of the original – and the occasional rhyming couplet.  Director Peter Evans and a great cast - who all turn out to be very able comedians – invest all their skill in Mr Fleming’s take and run with it all the way.  The result is a hugely entertaining romp.

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