Reviews

Alice is Drowning

By Madeleine Lewis, Lukas Radovich and Phoebe Sullivan. Directed by Madeleine Lewis. Your Mouth Collective. Fringeworld (WA). The Hidden Bar, Northbridge, WA. Jan 22 - Feb 8, 2015

Your Mouth Collective is a newly formed Perth based theatre company, participating in their first Fringeworld season.

Alice is Drowning is a simple, nicely told tale, which combines a coming-of-age story with road-trip and fairy-tale genres, to create a sweet, enjoyable two-hander.

Baby-faced twenty-year-olds Phoebe Sullivan and Lukas Radovich play sixteen year old best friends Alice and Brian very convincingly. Phoebe gives dreamy but deluded Alice a genuine charm, while Lukas' Brian is charming, loyal and superbly played.

Double Bill: Gentleman’s Island and The Telephone

By Joseph Horowitz and Gian Carlo Menotti respectively. Operantics. Independent Theatre, North Sydney. Jan 23 & 24, 2016.

Operantics is a company of young Australian artists whose entrepreneurial skills match their artistic talent. It is run by and for young artists, such as Artistic Directors Katie Miller-Crispe and Tristan Entwhistle, who are dedicated to pursuing careers in opera.

Thrill Me

Book, Music, Lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff. Directed by Terence O’Connell. Ghost Light Productions with Moving Light Productions. Midsumma Festival. Chapel off Chapel. Jan 21 – 31, 2016.

Thrill Me is an excellent production – with a stylish set by Daniel Harvey, innovative lighting by Jason Bovaird and terrific acting by Vincent Hooper and Stephen Madsen. Director Terence O’Connell expertly pulls the production together and Daniele Buatti handles the score beautifully on a lone piano. All of which surpass the actual material itself, but not the story it’s based upon.

Impromptunes

Bok Choy Ballroom, Noodle Palace, Fringeworld, Perth. 22-31 January 2015

Impromptunes is an absolute riot of a show, producing a new completely improvised musical, every night.

The cast is young, vibrant and very, very clever. The line-up varies from performance to performance, but on the night I reviewed the cast included Greg Lavelle on keyboard, with Andy Gould, Louisa Fitzhardinge, Emmet Nichols, Holly James, Morgan Phillips and Amberly Cull.

Eleanor: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany

By Ingrid Garner. Directed by Craig Tyrrel. Fringeworld (WA). Bok Choy Ballroom, Noodle Palace, Fringeworld, Perth. 23-30 January 2015

Eleanor: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany, an international show at WA's Fringeworld, is written and performed by Ingrid Garner, based on the memoirs of her grandmother Eleanor Ramreth-Garner.

An outstanding performance, Ingrid Garner is a passionate performer who brings her grandmother's story to life with love, warmth and intensity in a captivating story that has the audience on the edge of their seats.

Le Gateau Chocolat - Icons

Fringeworld (WA). De Parel Spiegeltent. 22-31 Jan 2015

Le Gateau Chocolat is a favourite of WA's Fringeworld, and this year's offering, Icons, is a beautifully presented cabaret that is already creating a flutter on social media.

Le Gateau Chocolat is perfectly named. As a performer this beautiful, brown, bald, bearded drag queen looks delicious and is generously proportioned as any good chocolate cake should be. Le Gateau's bass-baritone operatic voice is the epitome of rich warm chocolate in vocal form, and one feels just a little indulgent just enjoying the tones.

All the Sex I’ve Ever Had

Sydney Festival. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, January 21-24, 2015.

The foyer of the Drama Theatre is slightly different. Most of the seating has been removed. Several small tables are covered with memorabilia selected by the six courageous over 65 year olds who will participate in the production. They mingle with the audience prior to the show, and follow the latecomers into the theatre, taking their places, wine glasses in hand, at a panel-style conference table where they will share their lives … and sexual experiences.

+51 Aviación, San Borja

By Yudai Kamisato. Okazaki Art Theatre / Sydney Festival. Carriageworks. January 21 – 24, 2016

Playwright and director of the Okazaki Art Theatre, Yudai Kamisato has crafted this highly impressionistic, quirky tale of the immigrant experience and the politics of theatre-making. 

Elegy

By Douglas Rintoul. Directed by John Kachoyan. Lab Kelpie Productions. Gasworks / Midsumma Festival. Jan 19 - Feb 6, 2016.

It doesn’t take a lot of money to create great theatre. What it does take is wonderful writing, brave producers, an innovative and empathetic director, creatives who understand the aesthetics at work, and a fine actor of immeasurable skill and truth. Elegy, as a flagship for this year’s “Midsumma Festival”, has all of those things; and the whole is greater even than the sum of its parts.

Last Dance at Dum Dum

By Ayub Khan-Din. Nautanki Theatre. Riverside Theatre, Paramatta. January 21 – 24, 2016.

Nautanki Theatre continues its double aim: sharing the history and legends of India with a larger audience, as well as sustaining a strong sense of heritage for those of Indian descent. This play, however, also raises issues that are more universal – and certainly very relevant today - issues of people who feel displaced or unsafe in their own society and people who feel the need to flee religious, political or social persecution.

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