Reviews

During the lockdown period for Covid-19 we all baked, crafted, gardened and, of course, spent time watching Stan, Netflix and bingeing on Binge. For a long while our theatre exposure was restricted to old YouTube versions of plays, musicals, operas and ballet. Lately, some companies have presented virtual theatre to keep the Arts alive in Adelaide. The Adelaide Repertory Theatre has presented a number of virtual productions. Now Tea Tree Players (famous for their productions of farce) present their latest contribution, My Wife’s Family, a radio play on film!

After taking out a swathe of awards at the Golden Palm Theatre Awards in 2019, the Toowoomba Choral Society Youth Choir wasn’t going to let a little thing like a global pandemic stop them from staging their annual holiday production in 2020.

A school holiday treat from Stray Cats Theatre and ADAPT, Alice in Wonderland was originally slated for Mandurah Performing Arts Centre’s smaller Fishtrap Theatre. Social distancing requirements meant that it was performed in MANPAC’s much larger Boardwalk Theatre, to very well distanced capacity audiences.

I have always loved the sound of piano and voice and there was no shortage of it in this show by 70 of the Musical Theatre students from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Performed in the QPAC Concert Hall, reconfigured in concert mode, i.e. the audience sitting behind the stage and looking out at the auditorium, and everyone social distanced, it was a surprisingly intimate concert of show songs both old and new.

So many great performances and so many highlights.