Reviews

The Laramie Project

By Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. Ad Astra, Brisbane. 5 to 20 February, 2021.

If I was a casting director, I would head over to Ad Astra’s production of The Laramie Project right now to check out a wonderful showcase of talented performers. Nine actors play more than 60 characters in a great example of ‘verbatim’ theatre, based on court transcripts and interviews with residents of Laramie, Wyoming in the wake of Matthew Shepard’s murder in the cold October of 1998.

Rising

By Hannah Belanszky, Madeleine Border, Emily Burton, Lauren Sherritt and Sarah Wilson. A Playlab Theatre production with Metro Arts. New Benner Theatre, Brisbane. 3 to 13 February, 2021.

Most writers agree with the mantra: the best way to learn how to write is to just write! But what if you want to be a playwright? There’s only so much you can accomplish without hearing actors read your lines, and only so much you can discover about the production process without the reality of a looming opening night deadline followed by an audience’s reaction. Rising has been developed as an emerging female playwrights commission by Playlab Theatre, a group that develops new Australian theatre with playwrights at the heart of the creative process.

Mzaza

Written by Pauline Maudy. Produced by Greta Kelly and Pauline Maudy. Directed by Benjamin Knapton. Presented by Human Symphony. Powerhouse Theatre. 6 February, 2021

Multi-award-winning world musicians Mzaza packed the Powerhouse Theatre for a live rendition of their acclaimed album The Birth and Death of Stars. Enthusiastic music lovers enjoyed the passion, intelligence and musicality of the sextet, performed against a surreal digital set by Finnish animator Laura Matikainen.

Dinner

By Moira Buffini. Stirling Players. Directed by Virginia Moore Price. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo WA. Feb 6 -20, 2021

After a slightly delayed opening night due to Perth’s latest Covid shutdown, Stirling Players’ very black comedy, Dinner has opened to reduced audiences at Stirling Theatre. Beautifully presented, this show is very nicely cooked - unlike the meals in the story.

Beethoven To Bolero – QSO Favourites

Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Dane Lam. Concert Hall, QPAC. 6 February 2021

Concertmaster Warwick Adeney quipped in his opening introduction that ‘Mozart was like bacon, it goes with everything,’ and then the orchestra proceeded to give us a smorgasboard of favourite pieces that made up a gourmet meal – an appetizer of Mozart, followed by an entrée of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, before a main course of Gershwin, and a dessert of Dvorak and Ravel. It was indeed a rich degustation.

The program was the result of an audience survey as to what were QSO audiences’ favourite pieces, and what they would like the orchestra to play.

Das Rheingold

By Richard Wagner. Melbourne Opera. Directed by Suzanne Chaundy. The Regent Theatre, Melbourne - February 3 – 7, 2021 & Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo – February 21, 2021.

My first experience with Wagner live was one cheekily cold autumn night in Berlin, a little over ten years ago. Running precariously in heels and finery through the streets, having mistaken the venue, I made it just in time for the doors to close, but hadn’t been able to get to the toilet – and didn’t realise there was no interval in Das Rheingold!

Our Town

By Thornton Wilder. Queensland Theatre (QT) Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane. 4 to 20 February 2021.

An empty space suddenly fills with people – all coming in from a cold world outside. It could be a post-apocalyptic setting. Someone finds a book – an artefact fit for a concrete time capsule – evidence of human lives. It is Jimi Bani as the Stage Manager. He tells us the book is a copy of Our Town by Thornton Wilder, and soon he encourages his colleagues to take on the characters and present the play. The only sets are provided by your own imagination, as he describes the town, its streets and its people.

Fangirls

Book, music, and lyrics by Yve Blake. Belvoir. Directed by Paige Rattray. Seymour Centre. 30 January - 20 February, 2021

Teenage girls are so misunderstood. That’s the theme of Yve Blake’s electrifying musical that became a smash hit at Queensland Theatre and Sydney’s Belvoir in 2019. It’s back, with a bigger cast and at a bigger venue (at Sydney’s Seymour Centre).

Summer of ’69

Devised by David Gauci and Peter Johns. Davine Productions. Star Theatre One – Sir Donald Bradman Drive, Hilton SA. February 3 – 6 2021

‘If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's their problem. Love and peace are eternal.’ John Lennon. Never a truer word was said. I spent my latter years of primary school and early years of high school living in the 60s and so Davine’s latest show Summer of ’69 was a must to see!

Davine Productions, headed by the visionary David Gauci, is well known for smaller cast musical theatre done superbly and this show is no exception.

Ernani

Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Co-production by Teatro alla Scala and Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. February 2 – 13, 2021

Giuseppe Verdi is the composer of some of the most glorious operas in the canon, from the glittering La Traviata to the spectacular Aida to the humourous Falstaff, with many smash hits in between.

The opera Ernani was composed by him very early in the career and was his first major success. We see in this opera his potential for greatness.

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