Reviews

Come From Away

Book, music & lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Director: Christopher Ashley. Musical Director: Luke Hunter. Musical Staging: Kelly Devine. Junkyard Productions & Rodney Rigby Production. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. Opening Night – June 10, 2021

How hard it is to write about this wonderful production after so much has been said and written already – and everything you’ve heard or read is right! It is warm and poignant. It is fast and funny. It is both celebratory and commemorative. It is, indeed, what good verbatim theatre should be – real stories sensitively translated into a theatrical form that reminds us of the truths that need to be documented about humanity … at its worst, and its very best.

The Sleeping Beauty

Ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Queensland Ballet. Choreographer: Greg Horsman. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor & Music Arranger: Nigel Gaynor. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. 4-19 June 2021

So much has happened and changed in the world since the Queensland Ballet had their most successful season ever six years ago when they mounted Greg Horsman’s reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky’s old-fashioned and grand fairytale The Sleeping Beauty.

Hell's Canyon

By Emily Sheehan. Presented by Regional Arts Victoria. Directed by Katie Cawthorne.Online rent on-demand. June 4-20, 2021

This is a finely crafted text that addresses coming of age issues from an insider perspective. Sheehan’s sharp and raw dialogue captures the snide belligerence that often characterises millennial teen speak. This is nicely contrasted with moments in the play that are more surreal. Here the text becomes rich and poetic, effectively taking the characters into mystical realms.

Once

Book by Enda Walsh. Music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. Based on the film by John Carney Darlinghurst Theatre Company at Eternity Playhouse, Sydney. Director: Richard Carroll. 4th June – 18th July, 2021

Back to the fabulous Eternity Theatre in Darlinghurst, Sydney, comes this inventive production from 2019, with the little matter of a global pandemic intervening since we saw it last. Now, as the mist clears, we can see clearly what Once has to offer: a touching love story, great songs, compelling characters and inventive stagecraft. I feel better already.

Ugly Virgins

Written and directed by Sally Davies and Anna Lindstedt. Maiden Voyage Theatre Company and The Blue Room. Jun 1-19, 2021

Maiden Voyage’s production of Ugly Virgins, a fabulous dose of “roller derby realness”, has been well over a year in the making - but has absolutely been worth the wait. A motley crew of roller derby skaters find themselves out of luck and out of a team, so join together to lift their skills, finding out a great deal about themselves and each other along the way.

The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race

By Melanie Tait. State Theatre Company SA. Royalty Theatre. June 4-19, 2021

Whilst you could be forgiven for assuming that this is the name of a polite English comedy, it is, in fact, a 90 minute play that has at its heart, a real race held annually in the Australian country town of Robertson in New South Wales. Starting in 1913, the race was exclusively for men until the scandalous appearance, in 1988 (in our story), of cleverly disguised Alexander Strumpet who opened the floodgates to women.

American Pyscho

Book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik, with classic ‘80s hits from Phil Collins, Tears for Fears, New Order and Huey Lewis and the News. BB-Arts Entertainment & Two Doors Productions. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. June 8 – 27, 2021

Stephen Sondheim surprised us when he wrote a musical called Assassins and another  about a murderous barber, Sweeney Todd.  American Pyscho is far darker. 

It’s based on Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 horrific tale of a privileged narcissistic Wall Street success who turns to serial killing in an attempt to feel something. The 2000 film and this thriller musical version hold back a touch on Ellis’ blood and gore, throwing the switch to high camp satire and laughter.

Tsitsanis, Hatzidakis, Xarchakos, Theodorakis: Songs of Liberation by Greece’s Four Great Composers

Musical Director and Conductor: Dimitris Calligaros. International Vocalist: Dimitris Basis. Concert Hall, QPAC. 4 June 2021

There was a lot of love in the air last night in the Concert Hall: waves of love from the musicians, waves of love from the singer, and waves of love from the audience for the performance. Celebrating two centuries of liberation from the Ottoman Empire, the songs of four of Greece’s contemporary composer Gods - Vassilis Tsitsanis, Manos Hatzidakis, Stavros Xachakos and Mikis Theodorakis - have been responsible for founding the modern Rebetiko and Laiko genres of popular Greek music.

Death Becomes Her

Eva Kong and Alex Raineri. Opera Queensland. Opera Queensland Studio, South Bank, Brisbane. 4 and 5 June 2021

This year's Opera Queensland recital programme started in February and runs until September 2021. In the small Opera Queensland South Bank Studio, the series is a brilliant opportunity to see main-stage opera stars and hear the power of their (relatively unamplified) human voices in a wonderfully intimate space. It is also a chance to feel you are sitting in on a dress rehearsal, hearing the singers talk informally about their journey in song. 

A German Life

Written by Christopher Hampton. Directed by Neil Armfield. Presented by John Frost for the Gordon Frost Organisation. Playhouse Theatre, QPAC. 1 – 20 June, 2021

One of the enduring questions for those of us looking back through time at what happened during the Third Reich is, “How did ordinary citizens sit by and let it happen?” In A German Life - the true story of Brunhilde Pomsel (Robyn Nevin) - you may find some answers. The play is drawn from 235 pages of transcribed interviews with Ms Pomsel, who was disinterested in politics and claimed to be unaware of the atrocities being committed by the Nazis, even while working as a secretary for Goebbels himself!

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.