Reviews

Living Together

By Alan Ayckbourn. St Jude’s Players, SA. May 2nd – 11th, 2024

Playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn has penned over eighty full-length plays in his long career. He wrote a trilogy of plays, called The Norman Conquests in 1973. Although designed to be watched together, the three plays stand alone, each taking place over the same weekend, in the same location, but from a different viewpoint. Living Together, the second play in the trilogy, takes place in an English living-room in the mid 1970s.

Esmé Quartet

Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall, Wednesday May 1st 2024, and touring nationally.

In the glorious acoustic surrounds of Adelaide’s Town Hall, the lauded Esmé Quartet astounded their audience on their first tour of Australia courtesy of Musica Viva.  The group’s name, meaning “beloved”, is taken from medieval French and I feel sure that in future they will be welcomed back here to showcase their prodigious talents.

The Other Side of Me

Choreographed by Gary Lang. Gary Lang Northern Territory Dance Company / Perth 2024 ISPA. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA. Apr 30-May 2, 2024

Gary Lang Northern Territory Dance Company’s The Other Side of Me, played at the State Theatre Centre, was a stunning piece of dance/theatre. Opening Night was the first event of the Perth 2024 ISPA (international Society for the Performing Arts), and this indigenous dance work - part of an international collaboration, seems a perfect choice to open the conference.

Silence

By Thomas E. S. Kelly. Karul Projects and Blak Dance. Choreographed by Thomas E.S. Kelly. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth, WA. May 1-2, 2024

Silence, presented by Karul Projects and Blak Dance, is a contemporary dance fusion of traditional dance and hip-hop. Openly political, it calls for a treaty with Australia’s Aboriginal people.

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza

By The Farm. Created by: Kate Harman, Michael Smith, Gavin Webber and Anna Whitaker. Direction: Gavin Webber. Lighting Design: Govin Ruben. Composer and Sound Designer: Anna Whitaker. Visual Design: Merinda Davies. David Li Sound Gallery, The Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts, 48 Exhibition Walk, Clayton. May 1 – 3, 2024.

 

Peacemongers

Writer and Co-creator: Morgan Rose. Director and Co-creator: Katrina Cornwell. The People. Musical Director: Zachary Pidd. Sound and AV Design: Justin Gardam. Lighting Design: Rachel Lee. Set and Costume Design: Nathan Burmeister. Darebin Arts Speakeasy. Apr 24 – May 5, 2024

Experimental musical dinner theatre isn’t common, and theatre exploring the dark underbelly of bigotry and polarisation which expressly wants the audience to feel warmly safe is even less so. The People, which is a loose group of people centred around Morgan Rose and Katrina Cornwell have managed to bring a piece to life which does just that.

The 13th Month

By Cassandra-Ellis Yiannacou. Peg on a Line and Wildefang Productions. Flight Path Theatre, Marrickville, NSW. 1 – 4 May, 2024

The “13th month” in the title of this play refers to attempts to change the 12-month calendar to a 364 day year divided into 13 months of 28 days. It was first suggested in 1849 and the idea was revived early in the 20th century. Despite the support of some businessmen, statisticians and accountants, the idea was officially jettisoned in 1937.

Working Class Clown

By Tommy Misa. House Stage, White Bay Power Station presented by The Biennale of Sydney and Performance Space. Directed by Tommy Misa. 1st – 3rd May, 2024

The performance space for the Biennale of Sydney at the White Bay Power Station is ‘out the back’. Which is not to say that it’s small. Open plan, the audience faces 40 steps to a first floor platform (with occasional strolling viewers), only a third of the way to a huge cathedral-style roof, hung with draperies and flags too distant to discern. It’s hardly the venue for an intimate one-person show.

Yet it’s here that Samoan/Australian actor Tommy Misa has to tell his tender, troubled story of life in Canberra as a gay boy and youth. 

Tina – The Tina Turner Musical

Book by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins. Paul Dainty – TEG Dainty presents the Stage Entertainment production. Adelaide Festival Theatre. April 24th – May 31st, 2024

Anna Mae Bullock was born in Nutbush, Tennessee in 1939. She would rise to the peak of her chosen field many years later as superstar Tina Turner. Turner - along with authors Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins - would start workshopping Tina the musical in 2016. In April 2018 Turner’s life story adapted as a musical would hit the Aldwych Theatre in the West End. Every year after, another overseas destination was added to the touring schedule.

The Magic Kazoo

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Penny Shaw. Freeze Frame Opera. Directed by Penny Shaw Dalkeith Road School of Music, Nedlands WA. Apr 27, 2024

The Magic Kazoo is the latest in a series of operas adapted and produced by Freeze Frame Opera for Primary School students. Whereas previous shows have adapted familiar stories or used opera music to shape known stories, The Magic Kazoo aims to capture the elements that make The Magic Flute enchanting, while creating a short opera story that appeals to young audiences.

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