Reviews

Canberra 2060: Futures With a Capital F.

Boho Interactive.  Canberra Theatre.  1–5 September 2020.

After consulting locals and scientists, Boho Interactive created a range of models of Canberra’s future and used them to create mental mayhem by setting up deliberately unrealistic, rather fun scenarios for its participating audience (i.e., everybody) to work with in saving Canberra from a range of foreseeable threats and to

Suddenly Last Summer

By Tennessee Williams. Directed by Charles Langford and Brendan James. Growl Theatre, Windsor School of Arts. Brisbane. August 15 – August 29, 2020.

This one act play maintains so many of the traits of Tennessee Williams’ other plays, where a key female character experiences emotional and mental stress. The story tells of the effects the death of wealthy poet Sebastian Venable while on holidays with his cousin, Catherine Holly, have on his family and Catherine in particular. His mother hires a doctor to find answers and he does so via Catherine Holly’s revealing her truth.

Southern Baptist Sissies

By Del Shores. Director/Screenwriter: Del Shores. Streaming BroadwayHD/Amazon prime

Del Shores’ play Southern Baptist Sissies premiered in 2000 and has since gone on to become widely produced in regional theatres in the U.S. and even in London. Shores, an LGBT+ writer with credits such as Sordid Lives and Daddy’s Dyin’: Who’s Got the Will, filmed a recent Los Angeles production of Southern Baptist Sissies, incorporating footage shot in front of live audiences and without. The result is a technically proficient, enjoyable, and at times explosively funny movie of the live performance.

Sixty Dancers, Sixty Stories

Queensland Ballet. HOTA, Gold Coast. August 29th, 2020.

Oh, the bliss of going to see a live show once again. My heart sang with joy when I saw the audience all dressed up for something special. And special it was. The Lakeside Room of Home of the Arts was bathed in dappled light, with tables socially distanced and set with candles. There was a great air of anticipation as people waved to each other but avoided hugging and other intimacy. These are different times indeed. Nevertheless, we were HERE and we were part of a defining moment that reassured us that live performance could not be beaten down, Covid or not.

Nana’s Naughty Knickers

By Katherine DiSavino. Murray Music and Drama Club. Directed by Lori Anders. Pinjarra Civic Centre, WA. August 28 – September 5, 2020

Nana’s Naughty Knickers is a fun little romp of a comedy delighting audiences in Pinjarra. I had the pleasure of seeing a matinee with a predominantly senior audience who loved this tale of Grandmother Sylvia, who runs a sexy lingerie store, catering to a senior citizen clientele.

The Mystic Dr. Drake Radio Plays! A three-part series.

By Carli Stasinopoulos and Warren McKenzie The Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Playing for a month from 29th August, 2020 on You Tube

Before television started in Australia in 1956 there was radio! Families would sit in their lounge rooms, forget the humdrum of everyday life and tune in to Blue Hills or Dad and Dave from Snake Gully.

Radio plays are a genre all of their own. In fact, over the last two years they have made a comeback in Adelaide. First there was the Tea Tree Players’ 2019 production of Vintage Hitchcock – A live Radio Play and now the Adelaide Repertory Theatre’s third virtual play, The Mystic Dr. Drake Radio Plays!

The Viewing Room

By Mark Smith. Joondalup Encore Theatre Society (JETS). Directed by Tim Reissen. Padbury Community Hall, WA. August 21-28, 2020

Joondalup Encore Theatre Society (JETS) performed the Australian premiere of new American play The Viewing Room, after a Covid delay, at Padbury Community Hall. Set in the viewing room at a funeral parlour in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the deceased, Chester, wakes up to greet his family.

Darkfield Radio - Double

Darkfield Radio / Realscape Productions. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday from Fri 17 July - 29 September 2020 at 8pm, 9:30pm and 10:30pm AEST

Radio plays are a genre all of their own. When you see the words ‘radio dramas’, you probably connect them with War of the Worlds back in 1938, but they are still around. In fact, we’re entering something of a golden age of an update to radio plays, thanks to the podcast boom.

Realscape Productions are a Melbourne based theatre company that specialise in producing multi-sensory theatre and events and have combined with Darkfield to present Darkfield Radio - Double.

Ruthless! The Musical

Music: Marvin Laird. Book & Lyrics: Joel Paley. Direction: Richard Fitch. Music Direction: Gareth Valentine. Choreography: Rebecca Howell. Streaming on BroadwayHD

This video of Ruthless! The Musical springs from a West End production that played the Arts Theatre in 2018. Since it first opened Off-Broadway in 1992, where it won the ‘Best Off-Broadway Musical’ award from the NY Outer Critics Circle, it has become better known as the show where Natalie Portman and Britany Spears understudied the lead ingénue Tina. Laura Bell Bundy played the role and went on to Broadway glory in Legally Blonde.

The Merchant of Venice

By William Shakespeare. Streamed Shakespeare www.streamedshakespeare.com August 21 – 23, 2020

As Coronavirus struck Australia, closing theatres all around the country and in the process darkening the lives of all those involved in arts, actors, directors, creatives, technicians and administrators were suddenly out of work and facing an uncertain future. But hope and the possibilities of technology soon stirred creative minds, and a small wealth of theatrical ideas emerged.

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