Reviews

Carmen

By Georges Bizet. Opera Australia. Director: John Bell. Conductor: Brian Castles-Onion. Choreographer: Kelley Abbey. Arts Centre, Melbourne. May 4 – 26, 2017

This was a polished production of the world’s most popular opera. I’ve seen innumerable productions over the years, and this was one of the best.

The set was impressive; a dirty town square with roller doors for entrances to the cigarette factory and other areas. The set remained for the whole opera and worked very well. A Combi Van was driven on to become a pop-up café for act 2, the smuggler’s lair became a warehouse in act 3 and the town square was outside the arena for the bull fight in act 4. Very clever.

Smurf in Wanderland

Written and performed by David Williams. Griffin Theatre Company / National Theatre of Parramatta. Directed by Lee Lewis. SBW Stables Theatre. 2 - 13 May, 2017

A play about football needs a bit of an explanation for a theatre audience. David Williams makes it clear this is about “the game with the round ball that you play with your feet, sometimes referred to as ‘soccer’”. He tells us that Sydney FC supporters are called “smurfs” because they don sky blue and white; “Wanderland”, if you didn’t know, is the nickname for the home ground of their cross-city rivals: the Western Sydney Wanderers.

Avenue Q

Book by Jeff Whitty. Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Supa Productions. Directed by Jarrad West. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. April 28 – May 13, 2017

This bright, fast-moving production is another accomplishment from Supa. With direction that makes the most of the set (designed by Chris Zuber and Nick Valois) and tight musical direction from a band of six (musical direction by Elizabeth Alford), the audience is drawn into the streetscape of Avenue Q and its human and monster residents. This is not Sesame Street by any means, discussing sex, racism, political correctness, apathy and the difficulties of adult life.

The Savages of Wirramai

By Sandy Fairthorne. Geelong Repertory Theatre. Director: Iris Walshe-Howling. Set Designer: Melinda Chapman. Woodbin Theatre. April 28 - May 13, 2017

Geelong Repertory Theatre’s The Savages of Wirramai confronts its audience about sexual abuse.

While Rob Savage (Philip Besancon), the father of the Savage family, is proud of his courage and dutifulness in fighting in the Vietnam War, he fails in his duty to protect his daughter Cassie (Stacey Carmichael) from sexual abuse.

 

Pride and Prejudice

By Simon Reade, from the novel by Jane Austen. Heidelberg Theatre Company. April 28 – May 13 2017.

Heidelberg Theatre Company has done an apt job of bringing Jane Austen’s beloved classic to life on stage. On opening night, the house appeared full and the production seemed well prepared.

The show opens with a jovial scene of Regency-period dancing. The cast showed good mastery of Dianne Mileo’s choreography. The men looked particularly dashing in their officers’ uniforms. The Fortepiano added atmosphere and authenticity to the production.

Pagliacci

By Ruggiero Leoncavallo. Opera Gold Coast. Director: Doug Gehrke. Helensvale Cultural Centre. Apr 28th – May 6th, 2017

Under the guidance of Melanie Smart, the Gold Coast’s newest theatre company has staged Leoncavallo’s short opera Pagliacci for their inaugural production and what a great choice it proved to be.

With a strong principal line-up of Patrick Oxley as Canio, Melanie Smart as Nedda and (Musical Director) David McNeven stepping in at short notice as Tonio, and with the support of the minor principals and small chorus the music was well sung.

The Realistic Joneses

By Will Eno. Red Stitch The Actors’ Theatre. Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East, VIC. 25 April – 28 May 2017

Jennifer Jones (Sarah Sutherland) and Bob Jones (Neil Piggot) sit under a night sky, somewhere in small town USA.  It’s so quiet ‘you can hear the clouds passing’.  Their stilted conversation suggests at first a marriage that has, maybe, run its course, but you sense that there is something else, something sadder than lack of communication.  Jennifer, we’ll come to understand, is, in her own quietly desperate way, heroic, and there’s more to Bob than a blunt curmudgeon.  They are interrupted by their new neighbours, Pony Jones (Elsa Caldwell

The Lighthouse Girl

By Hellie Turner. A Rio Tinto Black Swan co-commission, in association with Albany Entertainment Centre. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Stuart Halusz. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 28 Apr - 14 May, 2017

Black Swan State Theatre Company's world premiere of The Lighthouse Girl by Hellie Turner is adapted from the Dianne Wolfer books Lighthouse Girl and Light Horse Boy, and is a beautiful telling of a lovely, if sad, Australian First World War story.

Set on a single set, an inspired design by Lawrie Cullen Tait - a rocky outcrop that is predominantly the barren Breaksea Island - but with the assistance of lighting designed by Joe Lui and sound by Brett Smith, it becomes the lighthouse cottage, rural Victoria, Egypt and Anzac Cove.

Design for Living

By Noël Coward. Directed by Barry Park. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth, WA. April 21 - May 6, 2017

This once controversial, and even banned, play by Noël Coward, is a delightful time capsule of upper class life in the 1930s. Still funny and cleverly penned, it is playing to capacity audiences at the Old Mill Theatre.

Werther

By Massenet. Blanke Knochen Opera. Director: Kate Millett. Musical Director: James Penn. Abbotsford Masonic Hall. April 26 – May 7, 2017.

There are a number of opera companies around Melbourne. The larger ones do more lavish productions, while the smaller ones need to be innovative to compete. This Klanke Knochen Opera certainly do.

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