Reviews

The Mirror

Gravity and Other Myths. Director Darcy Grant. Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House. 11 Feb – 9 March, 2023

Gravity and Other Myths (GOM) is the Adelaide based acrobatic contemporary circus troupe that is stunning the world with its creative performances. In the words of director, performer, photographer and Helpmann Award winner Darcy Grant, the company entertains “through the language of contemporary circus”. Surely a massive understatement, because Gravity of Myths does much more. Founded in 2007, it has taken its shows around the world, winning fourteen international awards, including three inaugural International Circus Awards in 2021.

Burgerz

By Travis Alabanza. Presented by Bullet Heart Club. Theatre Works, St Leonards Avenue, St Kilda. 8 – 11 February 2023

It all began when a man in London threw a hamburger at playwright Travis Alabanza, accompanied by a transphobic insult.  In a public place.  But transexual phenomenon Kikki Temple makes us believe the play is her story, that it all happened, in Melbourne, to Kikki…

Hairspray

Book by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan. Music by Marc Shaiman. Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman. Based upon the New Line Cinema film written & directed by John Waters. Crossroads Live. Sydney Lyric Theatre. Opening Night: February 9, 2023

You can’t stop the smiles as this bright energetic cast take centre stage with all the groovy fun and flair of the swingin’ ‘60s. Hang onto your wigs - this show rocks!  If they made a Hallmark Card for this one, Edna, it would say wowza! fab, far-out groovy show.

Jumpers For Goalposts

By Tom Wells. New Theatre, Newtown (NSW). Feb 7 – Mar 4, 2023.

Tom Wells’ charming English play about a hopeless gay soccer team trying to get off the ground in Hull is a winner for the New Theatre.  Even for this small-time league, with just five amateur players, a team called Barely Athletic looks doomed against the Lesbian Rovers, and even the Drags – and they play in stilettos.

The Six Guys an Immigrant Trans Person of Colour will date in Melbourne

By Dax Carnay. La Mama HQ. February 6 – 12, 2023

The annual Midsumma Festival never ceases to amaze audiences with a smorgasbord of colourful shows. And this new show written and performed by Dax Carnay and direction by Beng Oh is no exception; a zesty animated fractured romantic comedy about life as an immigrant trans person of colour.

Cherry

Written & performed by Sarah Carroll. Midsumma Festival. The Butterfly Club – Downstairs. 8 – 11 February 2023

It’s billed as ‘a little bit of cabaret, a little bit of comedy, and a whole lot of Katy Perry.’  That’s more or less true, especially the last, but Cherry is really a narrative – as touching as it is funny – about a fangirl’s obsession with Katy Perry – the story of a fangirl who grows up and must let go and find herself. 

Code of Conduct

By Rory Godbold. Midsumma Festival. Gasworks Arts Park. 7-11 February 2023

Everybody has a secret.  What better way to generate tension? In Rory Godbold’s skilfully structured play, set in a ‘gospel based’ Christian school, that tension is heightened when the secrets are not all that secret.  It’s just that harmony must be maintained, and the status quo unruffled via pretence and, well, hypocrisy.  It’s easier – especially with the new Religious Discrimination provisions in regard to schools…

Tick Tick…BOOM!

Music, book and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Presented by Storeyboard Entertainment. Directed by Tyran Parke. Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition St, Melbourne. 1-12 February 2023.

The context of this play carries a great deal of poignancy; the composer Jonathan Larson, struggled in the initial stages of his career, despite his talent and a strong influence from the canonical composer, Stephen Sondheim. Larson eventually achieved his dreams but sadly passed away before he could witness the huge success of his show RentTick Tick…BOOM! is an earlier work which is an autobiographical account of this process as Larson experienced it.

Darkness

By Andrew Bovell, Zoey Dawson, Dan Gioannoni, Megan Wilding and Dino Dimitriades. director Dino Dimitriades. Producer: Rodney Rigby. The Library, 5 Eliza St, Newtown. Opening Night: Saturday February 4, 2023

The biggest thrill of Darkness is walking in.  Newtown’s glorious old School of Arts has been transformed by candles and piles of bric-a-brac into a period foyer bar, while the reading room upstairs is now a gothic villa of dreams, with black and white marble rostra, the room surrounded by spooky wrought iron windows.

Bloom Girl

Written and performed by Charli Burrowes. Directed by Elise Lamb Talbot Theatre, Thomas Dixon Centre, Brisbane. 3-11 February, 2023

Amassing over 35,000 social media followers, film-maker and artist Charli Burrowes takes a real swipe at the platform which brought her into the spotlight in this gritty one-woman show Bloom Girl, now on show at the brand new state-of-the-art Talbot Theatre, part of the fully-refurbished Thomas Dixon Centre.

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