Reviews

Metropolis

Book, Lyrics and Direction by Julia Robertson. Music and Orchestrations by Zara Stanton. Little Eggs Collective and Hayes Theatre. April 21 - May 20, 2023.

The Little Egg Collective has pulled off a little gem of a production.

This is no mean feat, because turning an iconic science fiction silent movie from 1927 into a musical on the little Hayes Theatre stage, is degree of difficulty nine point nine. Especially when you consider that the action takes place in a large cave factory underneath a huge metropolis.

MORTEL

By MERAK. KXT On Broadway, in Association with bAKEHOUSE THEATRE, Sydney. Directed by Steven Ljubovic. 25 – 29 April 2023

MERAK, states the downloadable program, is ‘a Serbian word that refers to the feeling of bliss and sense of oneness with the universe that comes from life’s simplest of pleasures’. So the author/compiler of this marvellous 60-minute show is officially unknown? My money’s on the stated Founder/Director, Steven Ljubovic, but who knows?

Arterial

Na Djinang Circus. Darebin Arts Speakeasy. Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre. 189 Hight St, Northcote. April 20 – 30, 2021

Branches of gum leaves fill the space, four performers in a ‘meeting place’ move within, swooping and swishing the leaves across the floor to the edges of the stage. While the audience is being seated, performer Dylan Singh steps out of the space gives random people a leaf requesting them to crush it and smell the lemon scent of the eucalyptus (a symbol of nature and of healing in an ancient culture).

The Boys On The Bus

Written by Jamie Hornsby. Commissioned and produced by Jopuka Productions. Directed by Joshua Maxwell. The Launch Pad, Tuggerah. April 20 – 30, 2023

Recently, I had the privilege of watching the opening performance of Jopuka’s production of The Boys on the Bus by award-winning playwright Jamie Hornsby, performed at the Launch Pad. Having never seen any of Hornsby’s previous works, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, I was completely captivated by the coming-of-age drama that unfolded before me.

Blithe Spirit

By Noël Coward. Theatre on Chester, Epping, NSW. Director Cate Cunningham. 14 April – 6 May, 2023

Noël Coward finished writing Blithe Spirit on 9th May 1941. It opened only a month later in Manchester, and his own production of the play opened in July 1942 and ran for 1,997 performances in theatres in the West End. It is fitting therefore that the Theatre on Chester presents this production almost 82 years after the maestro penned the last lines of this, one of his famous ‘social comedies’.

Shane Todd Live

Written & performed by Shane Todd. TEG Dainty Comedy. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Trades Hall, Solidarity Hall. 20 – 23 April 2023 – then touring Fremantle, Sydney, Brisbane to 1 May.

Shane Todd is from Northern Ireland, and he makes much of this - by playing it down.  That is, he’s distinctly ‘Irish’ and vague about it at the same time.  When an Australian hears his accent and asks if he’s still suffering from Brexit, he affects ignorance of the whole thing and avoids the issue in the time-honoured way: he puffs out his cheeks, sighs, shakes his head and says, ‘Fucked, mate.’ 

The Pirates of Penzance

By Gilbert and Sullivan. Mosman Musical Society. Zenith Theatre, Chatswood. April 21 – 29, 2023

Staging The Pirates of Penzance is always a good choice, especially after a couple of bloody tough years in the community. Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera is just fun. The music is timeless, the comedy is ever present and it never fails to make the audience have a good belly laugh, no matter how many times they’ve seen it. The Zenith Theatre is great to perch up high with snacks from the candy bar (or something stronger) and look down on the action. 

Cosi

By Louis Nowra. Ghostlight Theatre with Redcliffe Musical Theatre. Directed by Susan O’Toole Cridland. Theatre 102, Redcliffe, Qld. 21 – 30 April, 2023.

What an interesting topic for a play – residents of a mental asylum decide to put on a version of Mozart’s opera Cosi fan tutte. It is not hard to imagine what comes to pass and how it benefits so many of the patients and, particularly, Lewis the character who comes to try to achieve the impossible.

True West

By Sam Shepard. HST. fortyfive downstairs. 21 April – 7 May 2023

Sam Shepard called his 1980 play True West a ‘character study’ and it is that.  It’s a situation rather than a story, a raw and visceral case of sibling rivalry.  In this excellent production, the outward layers of two very different brothers’ personas are peeled away, leaving them confronting – but maybe still evading - who they are. 

Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. 19 – 22 April, 2023

This concert is an incredible combination of musical masterpieces. Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, his last major work, was written at the end of World War I – and Shostakovich’s tense, suggestive Symphony No. 10 was written in 1953 after the death of the Soviet oppressor Joseph Stalin.

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