Reviews

Play in a Day

By Jake Dennis, Fiona Blakely and Naomi Latky. Fringe World. Directed by Cassidy Bodenham, Jake Dennis and Kristen Twynam-Perkins. The Actors’ Hub, Kensington St, East Perth. Feb 6, 2021

Play in a Day is a twenty-four hour short play festival where short plays are written, rehearsed and then presented over a single day. Presented by the Actors’ Hub as part of their Naughty Nights @ Nine, it was part of a a variety season playing after each 4x4x4 performance. The series includes another Play in a Day, Twenty-Four Hour Film Festival, the satire Lloyd of the Rings, interactive WhoDunnit Events and Improv-To-The-Death.

Compound

Written and directed by Amanda Crewes. The Actors’ Hub Studio, Kensington St, East Perth, WA. Jan 21 - Feb 14, 2021

Compound is a Post-Covid, Post-Apocalyptic drama set in a compound in central Australia. Presented by The Actors’ Hub as part of their 4x4x4 Season for Fringe World (four plays over four nights over four weeks - presented in repertory). 

Couples Gary and Maisey, and Jacob and Marisha are thrown into turmoil when Gary illegally rescues Juanita, a woman from outside the wall and hides her from authorities. Gradually it emerges that while Covid was a catalyst for the breakdown of social structures outside the wall, life inside the compound is not a utopia.

The Laramie Project

By Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. Ad Astra, Brisbane. 5 to 20 February, 2021.

If I was a casting director, I would head over to Ad Astra’s production of The Laramie Project right now to check out a wonderful showcase of talented performers. Nine actors play more than 60 characters in a great example of ‘verbatim’ theatre, based on court transcripts and interviews with residents of Laramie, Wyoming in the wake of Matthew Shepard’s murder in the cold October of 1998.

Rising

By Hannah Belanszky, Madeleine Border, Emily Burton, Lauren Sherritt and Sarah Wilson. A Playlab Theatre production with Metro Arts. New Benner Theatre, Brisbane. 3 to 13 February, 2021.

Most writers agree with the mantra: the best way to learn how to write is to just write! But what if you want to be a playwright? There’s only so much you can accomplish without hearing actors read your lines, and only so much you can discover about the production process without the reality of a looming opening night deadline followed by an audience’s reaction. Rising has been developed as an emerging female playwrights commission by Playlab Theatre, a group that develops new Australian theatre with playwrights at the heart of the creative process.

Mzaza

Written by Pauline Maudy. Produced by Greta Kelly and Pauline Maudy. Directed by Benjamin Knapton. Presented by Human Symphony. Powerhouse Theatre. 6 February, 2021

Multi-award-winning world musicians Mzaza packed the Powerhouse Theatre for a live rendition of their acclaimed album The Birth and Death of Stars. Enthusiastic music lovers enjoyed the passion, intelligence and musicality of the sextet, performed against a surreal digital set by Finnish animator Laura Matikainen.

Dinner

By Moira Buffini. Stirling Players. Directed by Virginia Moore Price. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo WA. Feb 6 -20, 2021

After a slightly delayed opening night due to Perth’s latest Covid shutdown, Stirling Players’ very black comedy, Dinner has opened to reduced audiences at Stirling Theatre. Beautifully presented, this show is very nicely cooked - unlike the meals in the story.

Beethoven To Bolero – QSO Favourites

Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Dane Lam. Concert Hall, QPAC. 6 February 2021

Concertmaster Warwick Adeney quipped in his opening introduction that ‘Mozart was like bacon, it goes with everything,’ and then the orchestra proceeded to give us a smorgasboard of favourite pieces that made up a gourmet meal – an appetizer of Mozart, followed by an entrée of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, before a main course of Gershwin, and a dessert of Dvorak and Ravel. It was indeed a rich degustation.

The program was the result of an audience survey as to what were QSO audiences’ favourite pieces, and what they would like the orchestra to play.

Das Rheingold

By Richard Wagner. Melbourne Opera. Directed by Suzanne Chaundy. The Regent Theatre, Melbourne - February 3 – 7, 2021 & Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo – February 21, 2021.

My first experience with Wagner live was one cheekily cold autumn night in Berlin, a little over ten years ago. Running precariously in heels and finery through the streets, having mistaken the venue, I made it just in time for the doors to close, but hadn’t been able to get to the toilet – and didn’t realise there was no interval in Das Rheingold!

Our Town

By Thornton Wilder. Queensland Theatre (QT) Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane. 4 to 20 February 2021.

An empty space suddenly fills with people – all coming in from a cold world outside. It could be a post-apocalyptic setting. Someone finds a book – an artefact fit for a concrete time capsule – evidence of human lives. It is Jimi Bani as the Stage Manager. He tells us the book is a copy of Our Town by Thornton Wilder, and soon he encourages his colleagues to take on the characters and present the play. The only sets are provided by your own imagination, as he describes the town, its streets and its people.

Fangirls

Book, music, and lyrics by Yve Blake. Belvoir. Directed by Paige Rattray. Seymour Centre. 30 January - 20 February, 2021

Teenage girls are so misunderstood. That’s the theme of Yve Blake’s electrifying musical that became a smash hit at Queensland Theatre and Sydney’s Belvoir in 2019. It’s back, with a bigger cast and at a bigger venue (at Sydney’s Seymour Centre).

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