Reviews

Priscilla Queen of The Desert – The Musical

Book: Stephan Elliott & Alan Scott. Music & Lyrics: Various. Willoughby Theatre Company. Concourse Theatre, Chatswood. May 15th-30th 2021.

Willoughby Theatre Co’s return to the stage post Covid opened with all the glitter and sparkle you would expect, then more, from this stage musical version of iconic film. As the theatre lights went down and the welcome announcement was delivered, we knew we were going to be having a fun evening. Then the glitter cannon went off over the audience.

Broadway To West End

Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Guy Noble. Soloists: Simon Gleeson, Lorena Gore, Nina Lippmann, Hanlon Innocent. Concert Hall, QPAC. 15 May 2021

Conductor Guy Noble quipped that it’s not often we get to experience the wonder of musical theatre with a symphony orchestra, and how wonderful the feeling was when we do. That’s what happened at yesterday’s QSO concert at QPAC. It was an afternoon to sit back and luxuriate in the sound with superb voices singing a collection of musical theatre’s greatest power-ballads.

Mara Korper

By Jayde Kirchert. Citizen Theatre at Theatre Works, St Kilda. May 12 – 22, 2021

Futuristic – set in the year of 3033 - Mara Korper is a lively dystopic feminist play about an austere religious order ruled by “The Mother” administration, written and directed by Jayde Kirchert and presented by Citizen Theatre at Theatre Works.

The Kidnap Game

By Tudor Gates. Tugun Theatre Co., Gold Coast. Director: Lachlan Mitcherson. May 13 – 29, 2021.

Tugun’s latest offering is The Kidnap Game, a drama about a rather brazen, would-be ransom seeking young man’s attempt to be with his underage girlfriend. 

Set in the office of a highly successful international CEO Paul Kendron (Graham Scott), the play opens as he receives the devastating phone call to inform him of the disappearance of his teenage daughter while on her way to school. The extremely confident caller (Luke Jones) demands a ransom for the girl’s return.

Get Her Outta Here

By Isabella Broccolini. The Sideshow, West End. Anywhere Festival, Brisbane. 14 to 23 May, 2021

Get Her Outta Here is a 40-minute one-woman show by Brisbane-born independent artist, Isabella Tannock, who fearlessly performs as her alter-ego, Isabella Broccolini – a 'Red Lady' clown-like character with exaggerated black eyebrows and red eyeshadow – a kind of cross between Isabella Rossellini and Mary Hardy. The piece starts with the Red Lady lying prone in a large red suitcase, her arms and legs visible – she lies there for a very long time, which gives people at the bar time to take their seats and sip their drinks.

A Passage to India

By E.M. Forster, adapted by Martin Sherman. Director: Mark G. Nagle. Genesian Theatre, Sydney. 15 May – 19 June, 2021.

British writer E.M.Forster travelled extensively in India between 1912 and 1913, and returned there for a short time as a public servant in 1921. His novel A Passage to India, based on the political, social and spiritual divisions he observed during his visits, was first published in 1924. Set in a fictitious Indian city called Chandrapore, it was originally adapted as a play in 1960 by Santha Rama Rau.

Death at Bracken Manor

Written and directed by John Da Cruz. Mousetrap Theatre Redcliffe, Qld. April 30 – May 16, 2021

Lord Septimus Bracken has invited everyone he thinks could have been involved in a series of break and enters over the last three months at his recently restored manor. This has happened at the same time that his new young wife had come to live there. He also invited his old friend, Ben Rutherby of the Oxfordshire CID, to be in on the caper. Actually he has a crucial role to play when a murder occurs. This sets up a difficult problem to solve and the audience becomes completely involved. The theatre has used this style of production before and it still worked really well.

Steel Magnolias

By Robert Harling. Lane Cove Theatre Company. The Performance Space at St. Aidan’s in Longueville. May 14 – 30, 2021

Steel Magnolias opens and your eyes are immediately drawn to all of the details on the set.  Garish colours, posters of female celebrities from the 80s and five distinct areas where the action can take place.  There are two seats, in the middle where most of the play is centred, but also a manicure area, a reception counter, a couch where clientele can wait and even a sink for hair washing.  Other nice touches include an old-fashioned hair dryer, cans of Cedel hairspray lined up waiting to be used, magazine holders, artificial plants and enough pink to signify that this is in

Soul of Possum

By Brodie Murray. YIRRAMBOI Festival in association with the Castlemaine State Festival. Meat Market Stables, North Melbourne. 12 – 15 May 2021

A colonial military expedition moves inexorably upriver.  Marnuu (Jyden Brailey) has learned of this deadly incursion from his dreams of Possum (her voice is that of Tahlee Fereday).  He tries to warn Gundi (Balaneba) and Barru (playwright Brodie Murray), but they mock him and don’t believe him.  They don’t hear Possum and they are young and cocky.  Marnuu is from a different tribe, a trespasser, not initiated in the same ways as they were. 

Ulster American

By David Ireland. Outhouse Theatre Co and Seymour Centre. May 13 – 29, 2021

An insufferably banal American movie star arrives at the London warehouse apartment of a fawning director to meet the author of a seemingly controversial play about Northern Ireland, in which he’s to star.  Rehearsals start tomorrow, but each has an entirely different take on the play – and soon on each other.

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