Reviews

Metamorphoses

By Mary Zimmerman. Red Line Productions, in association with Apocalypse Theatre Company and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Old Fitz Theatre. Feb 8 - Mar 10, 2018

Ovid compiled his famous collection of Greek legends two millennia ago, which Mary Zimmerman adapted for the American stage two decades ago.  True to the fashion of the 1990’s, she centred her theatre ofMetamorphoses around a pool of water.

Barmaids

By Katherine Thomson. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport. Director: Michael Sutton. Feb 10 - March 10, 2018

The language was ripe! No topic off limits! And the coarseness of everyday life was front and foremost!

Michael Sutton has recreated the bar of yesteryear with everything (so I’m told) that made the hub of the suburbs such a necessary part of life.

The Barmaids: Kate McNair – Nancy and Tara Page – Val, are both Gold Coast Area Palm Award winners for their leading actress performances in past shows.

These two “beer pullers” are the entire cast; except for some “dumb” pub patrons and some unsuspecting audience members.

Charlotte's Web

By Jason Robinette and Charles Strouse. Stirling Players. Directed by Fran Gordon. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo, WA. Feb 9-24, 2018

Charlotte’s Web is based on the favourite children’s book of the same name by E.B. White, about a runt pig rescued by a little girl, then saved from the butcher’s block by a loving and literate spider.

Old Actors Never Die - They Simply Lose the Plot

By Lynn Brittney. Tugun Theatre Co., Gold Coast Director: Cecile Campbell. Feb 8 - 24, 2018

This show is a complete contrast to Tugun’s last raunchy offering: not a dancing pole in sight!

Set in a stately home for retired entertainers, the scene is the tastefully decorated sitting room.

The plot involves a variety of former performers and the Russian Mafia and has a large cast of seasoned actors, too numerous to list all the performers.

19 Weeks

By Emily Steel. Directed by Nescha Jelk (original direction by Daisy Brown). The Pool at COMO - The Treasury, for the Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights, Emily Steel and Fringe World. Jan 30 - Feb 10, 2018

19 Weeks feels different from the outset. Played in the pool at COMO - The Treasury, the audience sit with their feet in the water, and are soon submerged in this fascinating, gripping and heartbreaking story. 

Oliver!

Music, Book and Lyrics: Lionel Bart. Spotlight Theatre, Gold Coast. Director: Andrew Cockcroft-Penman. Feb 9th - Mar 4th, 2018

Lionel Bart’s popular musical returns to the stage at Spotlight with all the unsavory characters that we have grown to love or hate as the case maybe. This show has had a number of additional performances added to the originally planned season due to the demand for tickets.

Sharing the title role are Flynn Nowlan and Zander Engel-Bowe, two talented youngsters with great futures in the business. Also, there are two Artful Dodgers: Jake Binns and Luke Harrison and two Charley Bates: Kieran McGinlay (cover for Oliver) and Connor Otto (cover for the Artful Dodger).

Josephine

By Scott McArdle. Second Chance Theatre. Fringe World. Directed by Scott McArdle. The Blue Room Studio as part of Summer Nights, Perth, WA. Feb 6 - 17, 2018

After the death of her beloved Auntie, shy and timid Josephine lives in the vents of an apartment building and observes the lives of the residents.  She meets William who plays violin and offers to be her friend. When William goes missing, Josie sets off on the adventure of a lifetime. 

Second Chance Theatre’s rip-roaring adventure feels like a favourite children’s book - very appropriate seeing as Josephine is a voracious reader. The show is a gorgeous journey play, full of colourful and exciting characters.

Carmen

By Bizet. Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Feb 10 - Mar 23, 2018

Critics savaged Carmen when it premiered in Paris in 1875.  Bizet was dead from a heart attack three months later, at just 36, and so never had an inkling he’d written the world’s most popular opera.

Discarding its traditional setting in Seville, director John Bell turns to Havana, with Michael Scott-Mitchell’s evocatively detailed classic square, streaked with decay and rusting roller doors. It shifts between carousing public square to smuggler’s warehouse, under Trent Suidgeest’s dramatic lighting.  

Four Flat Whites in Italy

By Roger Hall. Castle Hill Players. The Pavilion Theatre. Feb 2 - 24, 2018

A visit to the spacious foyer of the Castle Hill Players with free tea and biscuits at interval is always a pleasure. Long may the cranes of redevelopment (seen ominously just a few hundred metres away building a new railway station) keep their distance from this oasis of well-produced comedy and drama.

Four Flat Whites in Italy is a comedy written by Roger Hall, who can be best described as New Zealand’s equivalent of David Williamson. In this play he presents a smorgasbord of first world problems endured by tourists to Italy.

Seventeen

By Matthew Whittet. Turquoise Theatre. Directed by Susannah Thompson. The Blue Room Studio as part of Summer Nights, Perth, WA. Feb 6-10, 2018

Billed as “Saggy skin, youthful dreams”, Turquoise Theatre’s Seventeen casts actors “over sixty” as teenagers celebrating their emerging adulthood.

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