Reviews

Double Indemnity

Written by Tom Holloway. Adapted from the Novella by James McCain. Directed by Sam Strong. MTC. Playhouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne. May 30 - July 2, 2016.

Despite the disclosure on all advertising that this is NOT based on Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir, the audience (and, seemingly, some of the critics) are clearly being influenced by the film. Don’t be. This is not a send-up or an homage, it’s a play, adapted from a book, and it deserves to be seen as such.

The plot is still basic – a jaded insurance salesman falls for a femme fatale and together they plot to kill her husband by an “accident” which pays double reward, but who is playing whom?

In The Heights

Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes. Exclaim Theatre (Australian Institute of Music). June 4 – 12, 2016.

Music Theatre aficionados keen to sample the work of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Broadway block-buster Hamilton, can get a fabulous introduction to his talents by seeing the Tony Award winning musical he wrote a few years previous - In The Heights.

Il Signor Bruschino

By Rossini. Lyric Opera of Melbourne. Chapel off Chapel. Director: Lara Kerestes. Conductor: Pat Miller. June 6 – 12, 2016

Lyric Opera continues to astound. Performed in the round, this rarely heard Rossini one-acter was quite a romp, with strong performances from the talented cast. But it was the innovative direction which sold me.

Before the opera started Raphael Wong, as the Inn keeper, wandered around with a tray of coffee cups, offering drinks to the patrons. Then, during the overture, various characters came out to establish their credentials and set the scene. This was timed to the music and performed with confidence and precision.

Mira Fuchs

Choreography, video, text and performance by Melanie Jame Wolf. Arts House (North Melbourne Town Hall). 2 – 12 June 2016.

Mira Fuchs is a stripper.  The show is about stripping and being a stripper.  ‘Being’?  Working as.  Performing as.  Mira Fuchs’ creator, Melanie Jame Wolf, has been a club stripper and lap dancer for eight years, so she knows whereof she speaks – and dances.

Flesh-Eating Tiger

By Amy Tofte. Owl and Cat Theatre, Richmond VIC. 21 May to 4 June 2016.

He’s addicted to alcohol; she’s addicted to him.  That’s the tag line of Amy Tofte’s demanding ‘experimental’ text, which deliberately blurs what’s ‘real’ and what’s ‘a play’ – i.e. a play within a play – and a play within a play within another play…  If that sounds even potentially confusing, that’s okay: the confusion – or disorientation – is deliberate and in a sense the point of the exercise.

Songs for a New World

Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Directed by Luke Joslin. Musical direction by Geoffrey Castles. Blue Saint Productions. Chapel off Chapel. June 2nd- 12th, 2016

It’s hard to believe that it is 21 years since Jason Robert Brown first made his mark as a composer of Musical Theatre. Indeed, this song cycle – with it’s abstract structure – really didn’t give us a clue that Parade, The Last Five Years, 13 and The Bridges of Madison County were still ahead of him.

The Winter’s Tale

By William Shakespeare. Presented by Class Act Theatre and directed by Stephen Lee, Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, 1 -11 June, 2016.

This is a play with two worlds that seem at odds; the Kingdoms of Sicilia and Bohemia are vastly different places with strangely intertwined destinies. Sicilia is portrayed as a place of grace and elegance but beneath the smooth and polished veneer lies the seeds of tyranny. King Leontes (Adam May) makes an almost inexplicable descent into madness through his insane jealousy of his friend Polixenes (Paul Robertson), King of Bohemia. This psychological journey is conveyed with intensity and vigour, and May is gripping as a man besieged by his own overactive imagination.

Little Shop of Horrors

Music: Alan Menken. Book & Lyrics: Howard Ashman. Based on the film by Roger Corman and the Screenplay by Charles Griffith. Director: Dean Bryant. Musical Director: Andrew Worboys. Choreographer: Andrew Hallsworth. Luckiest Productions & Tinderbox Productions. Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane. 1 - 12 June 2016

Little Shop of Horrors is on everyone’s favourite list of cult musicals. The 60s spoof of the horror movie genre in which an innocuous plant grows to an enormous size when it’s fed human blood, was Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s first hit musical and one of their best.

Blonde Poison

By Gail Louw. Directed by Jennifer Hagen. The Lawler, Southbank Theatre. June 1st-11th, 2016

A fascinating, if little known, true story; a strong performance from a revered Australian actress, and a subject that must never be allowed to be forgotten, help to counter the weaknesses of Gail Louw’s play, which vacillates between pedestrian and melodramatic without any progressive emotional arc in its repetitious 90 minutes of exposition.

Tribes

By Nina Raine. Ensemble Theatre (NSW). June 1 – July 2, 2016

This is another theatrical ‘scoop’ for the Ensemble. It’s a formidable piece of writing that demands robust direction and dynamic performances. Director Susanna Dowling and her cast have achieved both.

From the first surprising sentence, to the last touching moment, this production is gutsy and passionate, the characters unaffectedly authentic and brutally honest, the direction tight and the pace immaculately controlled.

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.