Reviews

Konstantin: Grandmother’s Tongue

Text: Alison Richards. Music: Nela Trifkovic. Performance dramaturgy: Irine Vela. Design and visual Dramaturgy: Dagmara Gieysztor. The Loft Theatre, Chapel Off Chapel, Prahran. 23-25 June 2023

The mythic rooster Konstantin and his protective and enlivening role in a small, safe village is introduced by Grandmother Babcia (Alison Richards) and provides a backdrop for the compelling story of the hardships of Grandmother Babcia and her hen, Kazia’s journey from safety to displacement. Their story throws light on the role of animals as companions, myths and in some of the play’s most difficult moments, as food.

SHHH

By Clare Barron. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. 20 June – 16 July 2023

In a series of thematically linked vignettes, SHH gives us women’s experience of their bodies – of their bodies’ violation, manipulation, fluids and excretions.  One irony is that the women here refer to their bodies almost as if they do not inhabit them – as if they are unconnected to them.  The title – Shhh – might mean, ‘don’t talk about these things’ – or it might mean, ‘No, we must talk about these things in order to change them.’

Disney Frozen Kids

Music and Lyrics by Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez, book by Jennifer Lee. Scripted Drama. Directed by Sian Wake. Pinjarra Civic Centre, WA. June 24, 2023

I was fortunate to catch the very short season of Scripted Drama’s production of Disney’s Frozen Kids. Featuring a huge enthusiastic cast of young people aged 7 to 14, this was a show with high production values, lots of enthusiasm and joy of performing.

This cut down version of Frozen condenses the famous story, largely with the help of a team of storytellers. Scripted’s version featured the talent and teamwork of Eveii Coles, Ava Westley, Emma Rob, Lamika Koroheke, and Holly Thorburn.

In His Words: Voices of Fatherhood

Created by Creswick. The Street Theatre, Canberra City, 23–25 June 2023.

A multimedia work emerging from The Street’s Early Phase program, In His Words sets words to half a dozen riffs interspersed between on-screen fragments of interviews with nine fathers. It was certainly a refreshing change to see explicit appreciation for the value of fatherhood.

Is God Is

By Aleshea Harris. Melbourne Theatre Company, co-production with Sydney Theatre Company. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. 19 June – 15 July 2023

A furious tale of vengeance.  A knowing mix of genres past and present.  An all-Blak American tale of a journey to bloody expiation.  An award-winning play, produced in the US and at the Royal Court in London, Is God Is is the first all-Black play for the MTC – and co-directed by Blak directors Zindi Okenyo and Shari Sebbens.

Follies Girl – Mama Alto

Smoke & Mirrors Productions and Mama Alto. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide. June 23, 2023

Follies Girl is an audience with the trans icon Mama Alto in an hour of homage to the Ziegfeld Follies, the golden age of MGM movie musicals, beautiful chorus girls and legendary performers such as Judy Garland and Lucille Ball.

In a glittering black sequinned gown, Mama Alto enters the stage and for the one-hour show, sings her heart out, scattered with a plethora of one liners, and a feathered fan, negligee and a moon.

Dry My Tears

Paul Capsis. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 23 June 2023

Step into the Dunstan Playhouse and prepare to be enchanted by the return of cabaret performer extraordinaire Paul Capsis, an Adelaide Cabaret Festival Icon. Accompanied by the virtuoso pianist Francis Greep from The Song Company, Capsis delivers an intimate and deeply personal performance that transcends boundaries. The stage, stripped down to its essence, becomes a canvas for Capsis' raw and magnetic presence. Bathed in mesmerizing blue lighting, his expressive face becomes a reflection of the emotional contours woven into each note.

Ziegfeld Boy

Smoke & Mirrors Productions. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide. June 23, 2023

Ziegfeld Boy is Smoke & Mirrors Productions’ salute to the beautiful Ziegfeld showgirls from 1907 to 1936 and echoes the colour and glamour of the MGM musicals.

Florenz Ziegfeld, in his ceaseless quest for perfection, interviewed 15,000 women a year to perform in his Follies — and only selected 3,000. He looked for girls with precise measurements (36-26-38), a perfected gait (the Ziegfeld walk), and a willingness to pose nude.

Spinifex Gum and the Sydney Symphony

Composed and arranged by Felix Riebl and Ollie McGill. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. 21 June, 2023

Spinifex Gum is music with a message. Composed and arranged by Felix Riebl, it has been sung around the country since 2018 by Marliya, an all-female choir of seventeen young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island singers led by conductor Lyn Williams.

Frankenstein

By Christine Davey, based on the novel by Mary Shelley. Skin of our Teeth Productions. La Mama Courthouse. June 20 – 25, 2023

Based on the original gothic horror novel written by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein has been vividly reimagined by writer and director Christine Davey, working together with Skin of Our Teeth to coincide with this year’s VCE Drama component.

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