Reviews

Back to Back Theatre have presented this award-winning production at major festivals nationally and internationally since its 2005 premiere.

Director Bruce Gladwin with co-devisors/performers Simon Laherty, Sonia Teuben, Genevieve Morris and Jim Russell have created a work that is both humble and thematically complex. 

It’s refreshing to be able to attend the theatre amidst a global pandemic, even more so to be able to attend a relatively new Australian musical, showcasing the talents of some of our country's most gifted rising stars.

Beside is the first Perth Festival commission for WA Youth Theatre in the company’s 40-year history. A site-specific production, it asks audiences to consider what it means to be beside a “river of change”, which runs beside one of WA’s oldest farm-houses, on land that has “an unbroken 65,000 year cultural history”. One of the first Perth Festival productions to sell out, this is a dynamic and fascinating work that intrigues and leaves you thinking.

A year after it was called off at the eleventh hour due to the pandemic, this spectacular concert edition of the musical burst onto the stage of Newcastle’s beautiful Civic Theatre.

A large chorus of singers were located at the back of the stage, the orchestra was front and centre, whilst the actors weaved in and out of the players, sometimes on a raised platform, at other times in front of them.

Giant flags of the Soviet Union and United States were unfurled when appropriate, and impressive AV, featuring images and chess graphics adorned either side of the stage.