Reviews

Murdoch Theatre Company’s production of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There was a sweet journey across a chess board with some fabulous characters with appeal to both adults and children.

In the first square we met Alice, played with conviction by Natalia Myslinkska, who anchors this adventure rather nicely. We get our first glimpse at Matthew Moynihan’s chessboard inspired set and Sabrina Wyatt’s effective lighting design.

Brian Thomson’s set and Veronique Bennett’s lighting at the Old Fitz embrace Krapp, providing him with the dim space and light he craves: “The new light above my head is a great improvement. With all this darkness around me I feel less alone.”  

Sixty shabby filing drawers tower like a wall over him. A ladder propped beside allows him access to the uppermost drawers. His battered desk is centred under “the new light”. Its globe dims each time he moves away. 

These two plays, companion pieces, concern history that risks being lost - or is indeed unknown to many people.  Both feature real people – neurologist Professor Frank Vajda, the late Kitia Altman, survivor of Auschwitz, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and ‘Final Solution’ administrator Adolf Eichmann.

Bang! Bang! is a theatrical dance double header playing at the Blue Room. Called Bang! Bang! for the themes of murder, melodrama and well, murder, the title might also apply to the fact that both these shows are little bangers.