Reviews

Erotic Intelligence for Dummies

Written and performed by Helen Cassidy. Pretend Productions and Wilde Applause. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Fringe Hub: Arts House – Underground, North Melbourne. 15-22 September 2017

A polished, funny show about sex.  But wittily risqué rather than ‘shocking’ – naughty but nice, surprising and funny all the way through.  Helen Cassidy comes on as the cliché librarian with the glasses and the under-control hair –except that the hair is red, the heels are a little too high and the skirt is a little too tight and too short.  Within minutes she’s perched on a mound of soft toys, reading us a story from a nice, illustrated picture book about her first sexual experiences with a fluffy koala… who then gets to te

Diving for Pearls

By Katherine Thomson. Griffin Theatre Co. SBW Stables Theatre. September 8 – October 28, 2017.

With our technology revolution and global anxieties its easy to think no other generation faced worries as big as ours. 

Kath Thomson’s play takes us back to 1991, to those stranded in a coastal industrial city as manufacturing is closed down, and recession and economic rationalism rolls in.  This classic play is in fact crisply contemporary, very back to the future.

Hello, Dolly!

Book by Michael Stewart. Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman. Based on the play The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder. Miranda Musical Society. Sutherland Entertainment Centre. September 13 – 17, 2017.

“Hello, Dolly! Well, Hello Dolly! It's so nice to have you back where you belong” – on stage, at Sutherland Entertainment Centre.

Classic 1960s musical Hello, Dolly! has an infectious score and a witty, engaging script which stands up well. Even the odd moment of political incorrectness feels like it was written tongue-in-cheek, and it’s certainly delivered that way. It’s a show brimming with humanity and heart.

Cockfight

The Farm. Arts Centre Gold Coast. Sept 13th – 16th, 2017, then London. National Tour early 2018

Innovation and originality are all too rare in theatre these days. That’s why The Farm’s Cockfight is such a delight. But innovation without excellence would be an incomplete theatrical equation. Fortunately, the execution of this brilliant piece is equal to the concept.

The Bluebird Mechanicals

Presented by Metro Arts and Too Close To The Sun (a Canada/Australia co-production). Sue Benner Theatre, Metro Arts, Brisbane. September 7 – 16, 2017.

Days later I can still hear the birds, squawking at each other as they debate humanity’s ineptitude: “Stupid…human….stupid….human….AARRRG.”

You’re more than an observer in the audience of The Bluebird Mechanicals, you’re committed to taking a ride that is at times awkward, uncomfortable, vulgar, intense, humorous and mesmerising.

You do not leave the theatre unmoved, just as you can’t leave a relationship unchanged, but what you do feel can take a while to process.

The Wharf Revue: The Patriotic Rag

Written and created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, and Phillip Scott. Sydney Theatre Company. Musical direction by Phillip Scott. The Playhouse, Canberra. 12–23 September 2017

Come rain or shine, in sickness and in health, from year to year The Wharf Revue only gets richer and funnier.  Its dedicated writers and staple cast, Biggins, Forsythe, and Scott, have spent some 18 years in bringing their craft to such a finely honed point that you can only marvel at the ingenuity that makes you laugh even at a joke by Donald J.

Glorious!

By Peter Quilter. Hit Productions. Director: Denny Lawrence. Gardens Theatre, Brisbane. 12-13 September 2017 and touring.

Meryl Streep is a hard act to follow but Diana McLean makes you forget her in an instant the moment she walks on stage in this touring production of Glorious!, Peter Quilter’s play about the legendary off-key singing soprano Florence Foster Jenkins. Bringing zeal, passion and considerable warmth to the character, she establishes instant rapport with the audience (as Foster Jenkins obviously did back in the forties) massacring some of the most difficult arias in the opera canon. Who knew McLean could sing and sing so well badly?

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare. TheatreiNQ. Directed by Terri Brabon. Queen’s Gardens, Townsville, Queensland. 12 to 24 September 2017

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably one of the most loved and most performed of all Shakespeare’s comedies and as a result receives many interpretations. But this is probably one of the freshest and funniest versions you will ever see.

Directed by Terri Brabon for her Townsville-based  ompany, TheatreiNQ, it is the annual Shakespeare Under the Stars presentation, and each successive year the productions seems eclipse its predecessors to such a point that it may be hard to pinpoint the pinnacle of success.

4.48 Psychosis

By Sarah Kane. Directed by Michele McNamara. Illumi-Nation Theatre. Gasworks Arts Park, Albert Park VIC. 12-16 September 2017

Director Michele McNamara’s intention for Sarah Kane’s 1999 play (first performed in 2000) is to depict ‘a world where we can see what we feel’.  In this, she largely succeeds.  It’s a play ‘about’ the experience of clinical depression and the aim, for this director, is to take us into the world of mental illness.

Enter the Vortex

The Dream Dance Co. Directed by Marko Panzic. The Playhouse, Canberra. 10 September 2017 and touring

Currently in just its third season, the Dream Dance Co. is the brainchild of Marko Panzic, who has choreographed for such spectacular shows as “So You Think You Can Dance”.  Panzic uses the company both to provide commercial dance with a profile and as a commercial outlet for the dancers’ talents.  In Enter the Vortex, the Dream Dance Co.

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