Reviews

The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race

By Melanie Tait. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Director: Priscilla Jackman. 22 March – 27 April 2019

This is the time of the year when the Ensemble Theatre, anticipating an audience downturn during seasonal changes, stages two small-cast plays on the one setting. The first of these – brightly named The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race by Melanie Tait — has now opened and I bet that management is already cursing the shortness of the run. For this 90-minute, 5-female play is a real winner, witness its loud and prolonged welcome.

The Girl Green as Elderflower

Adapted for the stage by Richard Davies from the novel by Randolph Stow. Lyrics and Music by Richard Davies. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton. 20 – 31 March 2019

The Girl Green as Elderflower by Randolph Snow may well be a delightful premise to create a piece of theatre from.  However in this play’s current form, as adapted from the novel by Richard Davies and directed by Sara Grenfell, it does not translate into a fully affective, thematic piece of theatre.   

Managing Carmen

By David Williamson. Harbour Theatre. Directed by Ann Speicher. Camelot Theatre, Mosman Park, WA March 22-31, 2019

Harbour Theatre, in the heart of Dockers Country, presents David Williamson’s comical but confrontational play about the Australian Football League, its heroes and management, centred around a dual Brownlow Medal winner, who happens to enjoy wearing dresses.

A Slice of Saturday Night

By The Heather Bros. Spotlight Basement Theatre, Gold Coast. Director / Musical Director: Steven Days. March 22nd to April 7th.

A Slice of Saturday Night could be called ‘The Babyboomers Right of Passage’. The story unravels just what one has to endure to survive Saturday Night at the Club A-Go-Go.

The cast includes Stephen Morris – Eric “Rubber Legs” Devene, Mitchell Walsh – Gary, Mike Capri – Rick, Nathan French – Eddie, Brooke Edwards – Bridget, Bonnie Woods – Sharon, Holly Leeson – Sue and Talitha Glazbrook – Penny.

The Kill Deer

Music and Lyrics by The Cinnamon Line (Taylor Broadley, Lincoln Tapping, Wei Chong, Liam Rock and Zac Bennett). Orchestrations by Paul Olsen. Murdoch Theatre Company. Directed by Taylor Broadley. The Nexus Theatre, Murdoch University, WA. March 21-30, 2019

In a month that has seen several new Australian musicals performed in Perth, The Kill Deer is the real home-grown contribution, the World Premiere of a locally written show that is attracting great audiences for Murdoch Theatre Company.

Teenaged Elliot has been missing for five years. When he unexpectedly re-appears after ringing for help from a phone box, there is cause for celebration. But things begin to not add up. Is Elliot really Elliot?

No Flirting

Written, devised and presented by Alex Ward. The Valiant Lounge, Brisbane City Hall, 19 – 24 March Month, 2019

Stand-up comedian Alex Ward returns to her hometown of Brisbane, touring an hour-long festival show No Flirting. The performance opens very naturally. Alex appears comfortable and in control. She puts the crowd at ease and deals with latecomers without belittling them as many comics feel the need to do. She’s a very warm and welcoming performer. Her style is not aggressive or confrontational.

Atomic

Book and lyrics by Danny Ginges, Music and lyrics by Philip Foxman. Blak Yak. Directed by Lorna Mackie. Memorial Hall, Spearwood, WA. March 14-24, 2019.

Blak Yak’s Atomic was an Australian written musical about the development of the Atomic Bomb. This WA premiere was a well presented, passionate production of this interesting new work.

It Could Be Any One Of Us

By Alan Ayckbourn. Players Theatre, Ballina. Directors: Fran Legge and Michael Sheehan. March 22nd – 30th, 2019

Alan Ayckbourn is one of Britain’s accomplished comedy playwrights and this script is full of surprises: he has even written three alternate endings as to “who done it”!

Ballina’s production is a lot of fun with a cast of five dysfunctional, eccentric family members and one sane outsider. As with most plays, the plot takes a little time to inform the audience as to who is who.

Muriel’s Wedding The Musical.

Book by PJ Hogan. Music and lyrics by Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall. Presented by Global Creatures in association with Sydney Theatre Company. Directed by Simon Phillips. Her Majesty’s Theatre, 219 Exhibition Street, Melbourne. 12 March – 9 June, 2019.

PJ Hogan has created a faithful adaptation of his endearing and iconic film. His story captures the idiosyncratic Australian no-nonsense essence that sometimes struggles to reconcile ultra-conservative and non-inclusive community attitudes. The account of Muriel’s oppressive and dull small-town existence, which is blighted by sexism and political corruption, is transformed into a tale of the triumph of mateship, individuality and freedom.

Enright On the Night

By David Mitchell and Melvin Morrow. Genesian Theatre Company, Kent Street, Sydney. March 23 – April 13, 2019.

It’s fifteen years since Australian theatre lost one of its most popular and prolific theatrical creatives. Nick Enright was a real all-rounder – playwright, actor, director, screen writer, lyricist, translator, adaptor, dramaturg, teacher, mentor. Few could aspire to such a comprehensive CV; few could achieve so much and still stay a regular nice guy; few could reject the call of Broadway and Hollywood and come home to the country and people he loved and wrote about so prolifically.

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