Reviews

Pluck!

Written by Steve McCall. Directed by Alan Chambers. Butterfly Club Melbourne. June 30 – July 5.

Pluck! is described as a black comedy that "grapples head on with love, lust, God and what (if anything) it means to be a man." True enough, snippets of all those thematic concerns were presented throughout this truly odd play, albeit in an extremely piecemeal way. It is the story of one Dr Pluck (Brendan Ewing), an unlikeable, self-deluded egotist who is, inexplicably, married to a woman with whom he seems to have no chemistry or connection whatsoever.

More Female Parts

By Sara Hardy. Directed by Lois Ellis. The Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. June 30 - July 4, 2015

Evelyn Krape is an astoundingly fit, energetic and generous performer with impeccable comic timing.  More Female Parts offers a wonderful opportunity to watch a real tour de force performer, who is well over sixty, wow an audience.

Female Parts by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, as performed by Evelyn Krape from 1982, was one of those amazing works of theatre that was highly regarded in its era. is comprised of three stories of, and perhaps for, women in their sixties.   

Shit

By Patricia Cornelius, in collaboration with director Susie Dee. MTC Neon Festival of Independent Theatre. Southbank Theatre, the Lawler (VIC). 25 June to 5 July 2015.

Shitis confrontational theatre: it’s aggressive, foul-mouthed, angry and challenging.  It’s also heart-breaking and poignant.  There are three women on stage – Billie, Bobbie and Sam.  The kind of women genteel people avoid in the street or on public transport: high volume, obscene, kind of messy and spoiling for a fight.  The kind of women who are ‘pretty awful’, says the program note from Ms Cornelius and Ms Dee, but they add, ‘They’ve got good reason to be.’

 

Australia Day

By Jonathan Biggins. Director: Jonathan Biggins. Christine Harris & Hit Productions. Gardens Theatre, Brisbane. 25-26 June 2015 (Touring Nationally).

Christine Harris’s touring production of Australia Day is explosively funny. A terrific ensemble cast bring Jonathan Biggins’ satirical-swipe at our national day institution gloriously to life. It’s a better production than the one QTC mounted last year, and with the added advantage of having the writer at the helm, tighter and sharper. And thankfully it’s minus those annoyingly choreographed scene changes which were a distraction of the work by QTC.

 

Triassic Parq

By Marshall Pailet, Bryce Norbitz and Stephen Wargo. Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, Sydney. June 17 – July 4, 2015.

Triple threat dinosaurs roam the Reginald jungle, downstairs at the Seymour Centre. It’s an attractive, effective, moveable potted-palm-populated set design by Neil Shotter, very much in on the joke, aided and abetted by clever lighting and atmospherics from Mikey Rice.

Just when you thought musicals had become deep and meaningful, along comes a silly pop culture musical comedy, sending up Hollywood blockbuster excesses, reminding you that once all that was asked of the genre were song, dance and gags.

Like Me

Mongrel Mouth. Merchants House - 43-45 George St, The Rocks, Sydney. June 18 - July 11, 2015

Greeted by a red morph suited woman with newspaper for hair and balloons for breasts, the audience were coerced into a 166 year old house in The Rocks for a theatrical experience like no other. Described by multiple audience members as resembling ‘Teletubbies on ice,’ this sensory overload hits closer to home regarding society’s issues than initially expected. 

Little Diana and The Big Fuzz

By Bree Langridge. Directed by Darren Yap. Chapel off Chapel. 25th-27th June, 2015

Bree Langridge is the full package… great looks, fabulous voice, terrific dancer and oodles of charisma. Accompanied by one of the most kick-ass bands you can imagine, she holds us in thrall for 60 minutes in great cabaret inspired by the legendary Diana Ross and the music of Motown. Langridge has a vocal range many would kill for.

Pancake Opus 100

Written & performed by Sandra Fiona Long, dramaturgy Suzanne Ingleton. La Mama, Carlton (VIC). 25 June to 5 July 2015.

Sandra Fiona Long comes down the La Mama stairs and stands half turned away in the corner.  She’s tentative, scared and almost apologetic.  An authoritarian voice comes from the PA system, ordering Ms Long to display a list of various emotions, ending with Love.  The audience will love Love, says the voice.  Ms Long has a comic stab at it – the exaggerated effort plain to see – but of course ‘emotions’ disconnected from any context, situation, action or person are meaningless, so how can she possibly convey them? 

Dining (Uns)-table

By Cloé Fournier.
 PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, Erskineville. Produced by Travis De Vries. June 24 – 27, 2015

Well, look who's coming to dinner? It could well be you. This was an interesting and affecting piece of performance art which defied categorisation; incorporating audience-participation, multi-media, improvisation, absurdism, dance-movement and mime, which all combined into one great big, surreal euphemism.

2015 Griffin Award for New Australian Playwriting

SBW Stables Theatre. June 24, 2015

“Alive and living in this time and place."

A quote from the Griffin Awards winning play, Turquoise Blue by Stephen Carleton

2015 marks the eighteenth year that Griffin Theatre and Copyright Agency Limited have awarded $10,000 to a new Australian writer for their work. This is still a prestigious award. 

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