Reviews

The set design by Michael Sparks is otherworldly, a forest from an imagined time and place with rope branches hanging with ominous portent, and simple benches doing double or triple duty as a bed or table or wall. The set is lit expertly to a design by Kelly McGannon. The emotional temperature of the work is heightened and enhanced by this combination. Sound design by Jordan and Peter Best is subtle.

“Excruciating!”

“I am 84, thank goodness I will never have to see a play like that again before I die!”

“The dog was good!”

These were three comments heard from paying customers walking out of the theatre after the one act self-described ‘radical feminist take’ on the beloved Wizard of Oz.

The company warned patrons to leave children at home, but the thought crossed my mind that if there have been two acts – many in the audience would have gone home early.

With alternative late night cocktail cabaret influences of burlesque and a touch of camp a lá Spiegeltent, La Soirée wowed the audience again with its return season at the Playhouse last night. QPAC opened up the stage/backstage only for this intimate collage of a variety of international contemporary circus acts where most of the show is performed on a small circular stage with the audience in-round or seated in elevated rows. With the stage and atmosphere already set on arrival, the show had already begun .......

Director David Burrowes has brought Sheridan’s play slap bang into the 21st century in everything apart from the beautiful language and the satirical characters. The set is sparse, minimalist; the costumes vivid, suggestive; the lighting bright; the sound loud, pumping and the direction stylised, contemporary. All very different from what one expects of a play written by a 26 year old in 1777!