Reviews

WAAPA’s annual musical at the Maj Is an eagerly anticipated event. Performed by WAAPA Second and Third Year Musical Theatre students it is supported and crewed by WAAPA production and design students and features musical accompaniment predominantly by WAAPA students.

Reconcile is one of the most vulnerable pieces of theatre you will see this year. An autobiographical performance piece, performed by creator Boyname, it is a physical theatre work without words.

Sensitively choreographed by Bobby Russell, this performance art tells the story of a performer coming to terms with their own identity and body and finding queer self-acceptance. Boyname Is a trans-performance artist and their journey has obviously been a difficult one. While not easy watching, it is moving, with great impact.

The opening sforzando of Les Misérables’ ‘Confrontation’ sets the tone of the show, the commanding singing voices of our hosts Michelle Braiser and Ben Russell offset by their valiant attempts not to take it too seriously. Braiser is a bold Valjean; Russell the serious Javert attempting an arrest without breaking into laughter.

In Uncle Vanya – first produced in 1899 - Chekhov gives us a familiar cast of characters.  They are stuck in a country house, stewing in thwarted hopes, burning resentments, complacent privilege, misdirected desires, and loquacious evasions.  That’s not to say, ‘we’ve seen all this before’ – and in this production, it’s too individual, dynamic, incisive, and too funny for that.  Apart from the old nurse, Maria (Clare Larman), the only honest character is Dr Astrov (Catherine Morvell), a medical doctor (like Chekhov himself) a