Reviews

Shakespeare in Love

Adapted from the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard by Lee Hall. Melbourne Theatre Company. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. 15 July – 14 August 2019

The story of a young Shakespeare with writer’s block; he falls in love and comes up with Romeo and Juliet.  If you saw – and probably loved – the much awarded 1999 movie, the plot is about the same – and this sumptuous, no-expense-spared production moves about as fast.  It’s anything for a gag as the aim here is fun – with many jokes, especially theatrical in-jokes, plain old jokes and slapstick – satire and a touch of romance.

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Directed by James Evans. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. July 17 – 27, 2019 and touring.

Perfectly timed and tuned to lift us out of our relentless grey Melbourne winter doldrums – Bell Shakespeare’s - Much Ado About Nothing is a must see production.  Sadly the Arts Centre season is a very short stop off in the early stages of a National Tour.  So if you want to see it in Melbourne you will need to be quick.

The Great Symphony

Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Simone Young. Viola: Nils Monkemeyer. QSO. Concert Hall, QPAC. 20 July 2019.

Cheers and prolonged applause greeted Simone Young’s return to the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in an eclectic but complementary program of classical music that featured Schubert’s Great Symphony, Bartok’s Viola Concerto and the Australian premiere of Brett Dean’s Notturno inquieto. Young, dynamic on the podium, always manages to bring out the best of the QSO who respond to her with performances of warmth and weight and skilled musicianship.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

By Dale Wasserman. Adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey. Directed by Alex Lanham. Brisbane Arts Theatre. June 22 – July 20, 2019.

Do you remember the movie of many years ago? Well, this brings it alive before our eyes with a good cast in an absorbing production. It is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, part Indian, who has been in this mental institution for ten years while pretending to be both deaf and unable to speak. The title comes from the last line of a nursery rhyme he was told as a child. The patients are submitted to depraved, humiliating control by Nurse Ratchet who does not hesitate to use shock treatment or a lobotomy, not to cure but to completely dominate and terrorise the patients of the ward.

The Real Inspector Hound

By Tom Stoppard. Theatre on Chester, Epping NSW. July 19 – August 10, 2019

Written in the early 1960s, The Real Inspector Hound satirises the theatre critics of the time – of which he was one – and the melodramatics of Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries. Mercifully, the verbose critics of the post war newspapers that Stoppard lampooned are long gone, and though some critical jargon and cliché still survives, I’ll try hard to avoid it.

Maps and Journeys: Navigating by the Sky

Southern Cross Soloists & QPAC in association with Queensland Music Festival. QPAC Concert Hall. 21 July, 2019

It’s easy to hear why the Southern Cross Soloists are considered one of Australia’s leading chamber orchestras. Maps and Journeys represents yet another show in which the group both enlightens and entertains with great technique and passion.

This performance took the crowd on a journey through a program of music and oratory themed around the rich wayfinding traditions of our first nations people, compared with the European navigational techniques. Both cultures find common ground in the use of stars and constellations in finding our ways to our destinations.

Are You Being Served?

By Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft. Directed by Andrew Watson. Stirling Theatre (WA). Jul 19 - Aug 3, 2019

Are You Being Served? is a fun little romp of a show, based on the TV series of the same name. In Stirling Players’ production, the character recreation is so strong that there are gasps of recognition as each new character arrives.

Kate’s Story

By Life on Hold Productions. Directed by Siobhan O’Gara. Victoria Park Centre for the Arts, WA. July 13-27, 2019.

Kate’s Story is part of an arts event called ‘The Other Side” centred on the problem of homelessness. Victoria Park Centre for the Arts plays host, not only to the play, but to a Perth-centric photography exhibition and a curated musical playlist looking at issues of homelessness, poor mental health, broken family relationships and disturbed childhoods.

Veronica’s Room

By Ira Levin. Directed by Georgina Kling. Melville Theatre, WA. July 5-20, 2019

Veronica’s Room is described as spine chilling thriller, and it is a well-crafted story designed to have the audience on the end of their seats.

A Room of One’s Own

Adapted for the stage from the text by Virginia Woolf and directed by Peta Hanrahan. Sentient Theatre presented by La Mama Theatre & fortyfivedownstairs. Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne. 17 – 28 July 2019

Peta Hanrahan has made a theatrical adaptation for four actors of two lectures Virginia Woolf gave at the women’s colleges – Newnham and Girton – at Cambridge University in 1928 on ‘Women and Fiction’.  In 1929, those lectures became the famous book.  The premise is the famous line, ‘A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.’

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