Reviews

Rabbits

By Emily Steel. Presented by Steel & Brown in association with State Theatre Company & Adelaide Festival Centre as part of its inSPACE program. Plant 1, Bowden. 21st Sept to 14th October, 2017

Rabbits is a one woman show that the playwright did not mean to write. Perhaps it would be better if she hadn’t.

Based on true events that have been magnified or played down, it tells the story of Emily Steel’s move from England to Australia to support her husband’s job opportunity.

Once settled into their new unit she endeavours to write a play but has to contend with a diverse group of neighbours.

Macho Dancer

By Eisa Jocson. OzAsia Festival. Nexus Arts Theatre. 21 Sept - 8 Oct, 2017.

The lights dimmed in the intimate space that is the Nexus Arts Theatre and we were suddenly hushed to the dominating beat of boots on a bare stage. The rhythmic stark pulsing set the scene for Eisa Jocson to burst onto the stage in smoky show lighting to commence her dominating exploration of the Macho Dance. The mood is powerful, the music strong- Metallica’s “Devil Dance”- very appropriate to the message.

Urban Kali

By Rakini Devi. Dance Projects and Riverside Theatres. September 22 and 13, 2017

Over 27 years, Rakini Devi has developed four ‘theatre works’ to the Kali, the Hindu goddess who is the divine protector and destroyer of evil. As the culmination of her doctorial thesis into Kali iconography and how sacred Hindu iconography can relate to secular feminism, Urban Kali is a protest against the rise of racial and misogynist atrocities in India.

Until the Lions

Akram Khan Company. OzAsia Festival. Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide. 22 & 23 Sept, 2017

Having seen The Mahabharata many years ago set in a quarry in Adelaide I was keen to see this new take on the Sanskrit masterpiece. I was not disappointed; Until the Lions is a visual feast for the eyes and an auditory feast for the ears.

Ladies in Lavender

By Shaun McKenna, based on the story by William J. Locke and the screenplay by Charles Dance. Castle Hill Players. The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. September 22 – October 14, 2017.

Director Meredith Jacobs and her design team have lovingly converted the stage of the Pavilion Theatre to a seaside cottage in Cornwall in 1937. Family photographs hang from brown picture rails. A mantle clock sits on the shelf above the fireplace. Two easy chairs with crocheted antimacassars are turned to face the sea.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Book by Douglas McGrath. Words and music by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Michael Cassel in association with Paul Blake & Sony/Atv Music Publishing & Mike Bosner. Sydney Lyric Theatre. Opening Night: September 23, 2017.

It’s often a little glib to say an Australian production is as good as the Broadway original, but in the case of this production it rings true. Having seen the musical in both New York and Sydney, local audiences can be well satisfied that nothing has been lost in the translation.

Aida

Written by Giuseppe Verdi. Opera Australia. Directed by Hugh Halliday. Griffith Opera on the Beach. Coolangatta Beach. Sept 21st-30th, 2017

To the un-initiated the whole idea would seem bizarre. A forbidden love affair between an Ethiopian slave and an Egyptian general, sung in Italian, on a beach on the Gold Coast, with the surf on one side and high-rise apartments on the other? Surely not? But Coolangatta has come a long way since the days when a big night out was a trip to Twin Towns Services Club to hear Gen Campbell sing Rhinestone Cowboy (I remember it well) and once the music starts you embrace the setting entirely and give yourself over to the extravaganza.

Recalling Mother

Checkpoint Theatre. OzAsia Festival. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 22-23 September, 2017.

Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed are a pair of performers with their hearts in the right place, and Recalling Mother, at its best, communicates positive feelings and shares useful emotions with its audience, though it does not always completely succeed as a piece of compelling theatre.

Madame Nightshade’s Poison Garden

Created & performed by Anna Thomson, directed by Sarah Ward. La Mama Theatre, Carlton VIC. 21 September – 1 October 2017

At the end of her one-woman show, standing in the debris it’s produced, arrayed in pink and while plastic, Madame Nightshade (Anna Thomson) asks the audience not to tell anyone about the show, ‘because it’s a secret’.  And, indeed, telling too much about it would be to give too much away.

In Real Life

By Julian Larnach. Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Director: Luke Rogers. Eternity Playhouse, Sydney. 15 September – 15 October, 2017

In Real Life is a new Australian two-hander which speaks of the differences between real and digital life and how we might communicate in the coming decades.

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