Reviews

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare. Presented by Bell Shakespeare. Directed by Peter Evans. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Rd, Southbank. 25 April - 11 May 2024.

As one of Shakespeare’s light-hearted comedies with many fantastical aspects, this text is not normally associated with being edgy and somewhat dark in its nature. This production takes some licence with the casting and sequencing of events and creates a very moody piece without losing any of the impish humour. In fact, this highlights the contrast between the eerie ethereal creatures that inhabit the wooded space and the other spheres represented in the play. The magic of the forest creatures is created more through subversion and daring than stardust.

Songbird

By Shakara Walley. Yirra Yaakin. Directed by Cezera Critti-Schnaars. The Studio, Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Apr 19 - May 4, 2024

Yirra Yaakin’s Songbird is a touching little play, having a season at Subiaco Arts Centre, before embarking on a WA regional tour. Written by young writer Shakara Walley and directed by Cezera Critti-Schnaars, both around the same age as the characters in this play, it augurs well for the future of indigenous theatre in WA.

Two Ladies and an Emu

Written by Carla Moore. The Theatre on Chester, Epping, NSW. Directed by Tracey Okeby Lucan. April 12 - May 4, 2023

It’s not often that you walk into a small community theatre staging the world premiere of a locally written play with such an ambitious narrative.

Two Ladies and an Emu has a Priscillia Queen of the Desert come Thelma and Louise vehicle centred plot. In this instance two women are on a road trip in outback Australia traversing long dusty highways and visiting campsites and towns along the way.

The Front Page

By Ben Hecht and Charles Macarthur, adaptated by Nicholas Papademetriou. New Theatre, Newtown. April 23 – May 18, 2024

The multitude of productions following the Chicago premiere of this black comedy in 1928 have reportedly all set a cracking pace with the dialogue.  The screenplay of one version, His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosaland Russell, goes further showing the actors always speaking over each other.

Garage Girls

By Candace Miles, Madelaine Nunn & Anna Rodway. Created by Carolyn Bock, Helen Hopkins (Shift Theatre) and Candace Miles, Madelaine Nunn & Anna Rodway (Three Birds Theatre). La Mama Courthouse. 24 April – 5 May 2024

Here’s a spirited show about Alice Anderson (played with endearing energy by Madelaine Nunn).  A motor car afficionado, Alice was a pioneering but now largely forgotten figure from 1920s Melbourne.  Single-handed, she founded of Australia’s first (and only?) ‘all-girl’ motor garage.  She did try to get a job in a regular garage but it’s the 1920s and she is, of course, laughed out the door. 

Toy Symphony

By Michael Gow. Ad Astra. The Loading Dock Theatre. Directed by Michelle Carey. April 20 - 27, 2024

The biggest star of the night was the ‘foyer’ to the venue – the Loading Dock Theatre – which is one of three new performance spaces part of Qtopia Sydney.

Fools!

Pip Theatre, 20 Park Road, Milton, Brisbane. Produced by Allentertainment. 21st & 28th April, 2024

FOOLS! bursts onto the stage at Pip Theatre, offering audiences an uproarious evening of interactive entertainment. FOOLS! is mostly family-friendly, but brace yourself for a sprinkle of cheeky innuendos that'll have you chuckling into your popcorn.

Audience participation is the heart of FOOLS!, and it doesn't disappoint. From wacky games like "Beer Pom" (think beer pong meets gymnastics) or audience wide games of guess who, everyone got a chance to shine.

The King’s Player

Written & performed by Tref Gare. Victorian Theatre Company. Alex Theatre Studio, St Kilda. 19 – 26 April 2024

As his eponymous character, Tref Gare is dressed in motley, a barefoot, grubby traveling player of the Middle Ages.  Before the show – in costume but not yet in character - he roams the audience (some of whom, I notice, are very good Melbourne actors) as they arrive, welcoming them and explaining his intriguing backdrop screen which is behind an otherwise bare stage.  The screen is dense with hectic imagery drawn by a skilled hand and it’s by Jen Ellis Stevens. 

35MM: A Musical Exhibition

Music and Lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver. Based on Photographs by Matthew Murphy. PIP Theatre, 20 Park Road, Milton, Brisbane. Produced by Passion Productions & Allentertainment. April 18 – May 4, 2024

35MM: A Musical Exhibition offers a fascinating blend of visual artistry and musical storytelling. Making its debut at PIP Theatre, Passion Productions and Allentertainment have joined forces to create a poignant musical display. Here, the stage becomes a canvas, each scene painting a vivid tapestry of emotion and intrigue inspired by the evocative lens of Matthew Murphy's photography. This innovative production promises a journey unlike any other, where every song tells a story, and every scene whispers a secret.

Helen Bauer - Grand Supreme Darling Princess

Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2024.

Helen Bauer is unabashedly one-of-a-kind; originally from Fleet, Northeast Hampshire, UK, as place she happily boasts about with its one petrol station and drab emptiness. I her early thirties, she is hitting the Australian comedy festival circuit for the first time with her in-your-face stand up shows including a double act with fellow comedian Catherine Bohart in Trusty Hogs.

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