Reviews

First Date

By Austin Winsberg, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner - Shoebox Theatre Company, Armitage Centre, Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. 15-17 February 2018.

Shoebox Theatre Company’s Queensland premiere of First Date, is definitely a ‘swipe right’ – for its packed-house audience, it was love at first sight.

This production showcases the best thing about seeing so-called ‘amateur’ performances – the cast and crew infuse the show with a true sense of ensemble energy and infectious joy.

Gilligan's Island: The Musical

Book by Sherwood Schwartz and Lloyd J Schwartz, and original music by Hope Juber and Laurence Juber. Left Bauer Productions. Director: James Cutler. Musical Director: Xavier McGettigan. Choreographer: Kai Mann-Robertson. Chapel Off Chapel (Vic). Feb 15 - Mar 4, 2018

Gilligan’s Island was a favourite in the early days of television. A slapstick comedy featuring one-dimensional characters, it was based on a group of survivors of a cruise boat which was blown off course and ship-wrecked on an island.

The cast included the skipper, his inept first mate Gilligan, the millionaire and his wife, the professor, the film star and the dumb bombshell.

It was a hoot!

Kaput

Adelaide Fringe 2018. The Corona, The Garden of Unearthly Delights. 17th Feb - 12th March 2018

A love story between a performer and an audience member can’t go wrong, right? Wrong! Kaput, starring Tom Flanagan, is a delightful comedy that pays homage to the classic physical comedy and slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and skits such as “The Plank”. If audience reaction is anything to go by, physical comedy still well and truly hits the funny bone.

Earnest and Wilde

Adelaide Fringe 2018. Presented by Rhymes with Purple. La Boheme. February 14th to March 1st, 2018

Earnest and Wilde are a mystery trying to help the audience unravel a conspiracy.

Simply known as “he” and “she”, this duo from Sweden and the UK, like so many Fringe performers, fundraised to perform at our festival. “He” skilfully and playfully plays the keyboard, and “she” is a chanteuse with a powerful and evocative singing style. “He”, dapper in a three-piece suit, “she” dressed in a beaded outfit straight from the early 1900’s.

Flesh and Bone

By Elliot Warren. Unpolished Theatre. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Holden Street Theatre. 13 February-19 March, 2018

From the UK, Unpolished Theatre’s award-winning production of Elliot Warren’s Flesh and Bone is simply wonderful.

On a bare stage at Holden Street Theatre, the experience of modern life in an East London Council tower block is as often hilarious as it is poignant.

Over 70 minutes, and through a series of short scenes and monologues, five English working class characters – Terrence, Kel, Jamal, Reiss and Grandad – reveal their hopes and dreams, and ability to survive life’s hardships as members of the ‘lowest of the low’.

Scientology the Musical

George Glass Comedy. Gluttony/The Speakeasy. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Feb 16-March 4, 2018

I could not think of a religion more deserving of satire than ‘Scientology’…no offense.

L. Ron Hubbard started his new faith in 1954 after having a mildly successful career as a science-fiction writer. This is our first clue to the absurdity to follow.

Comedy group ‘George Glass’ have produced a show that pokes fun at religion in general… and it is hilarious!

Wildebeest and Valley

Form Dance Projects. Dance Bites 2018. Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. February 15 - 17, 2018

Choreographer and performer Omer Backley-Astrachan sees dance as a language – a form of communication “to be witnessed and reflected”.

Such is the challenge of contemporary dance. It requires an empathetic, compliant audience, willing to yield to the to the messages expressed, and prepared to translate and interpret them based on their own experience … and perhaps a brief suggestion from the choreographer.

Strangers In Between

By Tommy Murphy. Cameron Lukey and Don't Be Down Productions. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. Feb 14 - Mar 2, 2018.

It’s long been a rite of passage that young gay men escape to the freedom and adventures of inner city Sydney. 

They leave behind conventional families, often in discord, and in the big smoke build other relationships better matched to their new identity.

Fresh from a revival in the West End, and here for Mardi Gras, Tommy Murphy’s 2005 play is a simple but touching story of a 16-year-old boy from Goulburn finding his way – and new friendships – through Kings Cross.

What Doesn't Kill You [Blah Blah] Stronger

By Tyler Jacob Jones and Robert Woods. For Holland Street Productions for Fringe World. Ace's Cabaret, Downstairs at the Maj, His Majesty's Theatre, Hay St, Perth, WA. Feb 13-17, 2018

What Doesn’t Kill You [Blah Blah] Stronger is quite possibly the funniest show at Fringe World, and while seeing it may not make you stronger, it will certainly leave you feeling better.

The Magnolia Tree

By Michael Griffith. Directed by Michael Griffith. Path2 Productions. The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. 14 - 17 February 2018

Three family members discover there are no easy solutions to the problem of their mother’s increasing dementia. Or perhaps there’s one? Dealing with an aging family member is an experience most of us will face at some point. Writer Michael Griffith takes this subject somewhere darker by pitting his characters against one another and playing with their foibles and desires. This interaction pushes the narrative into thriller territory.

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