Reviews

Don Quixote

Based on Rudolf Nureyev and Robert Helpmann’s 1973 film. The Australian Ballet. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. April 8 – 25, 2023

Don Quixote is a long-time happy crowd-pleaser, nothing too unconventional but, given its profound association with the Australian Ballet, David Hallberg appropriately revives it for the company’s 60th anniversary.  

The genius Russian choreographer and showman Petipa created the ballet 150 years ago. Petipa largely ignored the old knight errant lancing at windmills, and focused instead on a minor subplot of the Cervantes novel, about two young lovers battling to be together. 

Circus Oz

Directed by Nicci Wilks. Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Forum Theatre. 154 Flinders Street, Melbourne. 7 – 23 April 2023.

Alleluia, they’re back! Launched in 1977, Circus Oz became a national treasure and international brand that delivered a very unique style of circus. Its emphasis on stunning and breath-taking acrobatics combined with a quintessential Australian larrikin style humour made them highly sought after and popular. A combination of COVID and funding body issues sadly saw the company close in 2021.

The Mousetrap

By Agatha Christie. Directed by Robyn Nevin. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. April 8-16, 2023

The 70th Anniversary Australian tour of The Mousetrap has touched down in Perth this week, with this “West End” production faithful to the production that has been playing in London’s West End since 25th November 1952.

Lou Wall vs The Internet

Written & performed by Lou Wall. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. ACMI Gandel Lab, Melbourne Town Hall Powder Room. 30 March – 9 April 2023

Lou Wall is 6’4’’ (they still use those old measurements), Gen Z, charismatic, engaging, bursting with frenetic energy and going so fast it can be hard to keep up.  Their show is definitely ‘mixed media’: Lou, with hand mike, is a very alive presence, pacing up and down and across and back in front of a huge screen on which is projected a dizzying display of what the Internet can do to scramble your mind and your very sense of yourself – and, crucially, others.  

Kitty Flanagan Live

Written & performed by Kitty Flanagan. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Athenaeum Theatre. 29 March – 23 April 2023

Seeing Kitty Flanagan live is a very different experience from seeing her on television. The personas of the much put-upon, slightly bewildered solicitor in Fisk, or the essentially stupid but arrogant bureaucrat of Utopia are absent. 

Stinking Hot Trash

Written, Performed: Isabelle Carney. Directors: Samuel Buckley and Will Hall. AV Director: Gabe Micallef. Lighting/Sound Operator: Lara Gabor. Dramaturg: Ella Godwin. MC Showroom Prahran. March 25 - April 8, 2023

Isabelle Carney has considerable presence and a warm, disciplined physicality which she uses to explore the notion of the trash which we insist on keeping in our lives. There isn’t a narrative, although the words are carefully chosen and for most of the show there are fast paced, funny moments which just hang in the air.

Fences

By August Wilson. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf 1 Theatre. March 25 – May 6, 2023.

America has always been obsessed with Dads and their sons – dramatic clashes, often heart-tugging reconciliations, it’s such a trope throughout US theatre, screen and media.  

August Wilson’s compelling play takes up the theme in the front yard of a fraught Afro-American family in Pittsburgh in 1957.  It’s not too far from the world of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.

Brown Women Comedy

Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Queen Victoria Women's Centre - Wayi Djerring, 210 Lonsdale St, Melbourne and Trades Hall - Common Rooms Bar, 54 Victoria St, Carlton. 6 March – 12 April, 2023

Brown Women Comedy rocking it at this year’s comedy festival

Callum Straford Nails Everything

Written & performed by Callum Straford. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Butterfly Club, Melbourne CBD. 4 – 9 April 2023

Billed as being about a ‘perfectionist ready to transcend his flaws’, Callum Straford’s show is about his attempts at improving himself and achieving success and, sadly, not transcending much at all.  That’s the thread that ties his show together.  The stage persona is doofus guy who wonders, ‘Should I change my sheets?’  He’s trying to make it as a comic and make sense of his life.  He’s a likeable, good looking fellow with a good singing voice, who plays the piano and the ukulele well. 

Alex Ward: Saving for a Jetpack

Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Comedy Republic, 231 Bourke St, Melbourne. 30 March - 23 April 2023.

Alex Ward has great stage presence which is built on a very down to earth approach to her stand-up comedy. Ward shares a great deal of her personal experiences, her perspectives, and her life events and this creates a great sense of intimacy with the audience. This is also a factor that makes her humour and her performance style very relatable and endearing.

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