Reviews

Jessica Swale’s Nell Gwynn plays at Metro Arts, delivering wit, music and bawdy restoration theatre-style mischief, brought to life by the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University’s third year Bachelor of Acting students. This reviewer saw the Cheapside Cast, and what an evening they delivered: spirited, polished and brimming with the kind of ensemble unity that only comes from rigorous training and wholehearted buy-in. Their commitment and enthusiasm were palpable from the first cheeky exchange to the final curtain.

Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin may well have broken a Fringe World record for the number of venues performed. This oft awarded show played at no less than seven venues during the month-long Fringe World festival, and I had the pleasure of seeing it at a sold out matinee performance at Victoria Park’s Balmoral Hotel.

This provocative and intelligent two-hander makes us laugh – and also squirm at its veracity.  The blurb asks, if the world is ending, ‘…what kind of person do you want to be at the end of the world?’  In essence, I Thought You Said is about the rage and frustration caused by a terrible contemporary paradox.  While it may seem utterly futile to protest about the injustice and corruption and cruelty in the world, one still feels one must (should?) protest to be ‘a good person’. 

Colin Ebsworth’s show, perhaps predictably, went a little off track on the night I reviewed, perhaps a sign of the titular ADHD. Starting late through no fault of this show, it was derailed by Colin recognising his former teacher in the audience (who is referenced in the show), by a witty retort from an audience member that had Colin rolling on the floor with laughter, and by a drunk audience member, leaving early to catch an Uber, who took us on a lengthy love-fest tangent.