Reviews

Once Upon a Mattress

Music: Mary Rodgers. Lyrics: Marshall Barer. Book: Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, Marshall Barer. Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe, Queensland. Director: Kurt A. Lurps. Musical Director: Theresa Kendall. 29 Jul – 13 Aug 2016.

Mousetrap Theatre’s audience had a right royal time at Once Upon a Mattress. They laughed at Carmen Heath’s waspish Queen Aggravain, giggled at David Scheiwe’s mute and lascivious King Sextimus, and cheered for Fay Richards as the moat-swimming Princess Winifred, better known at Fred. They didn’t seem to mind that most of the cast couldn’t sing, that the piano accompaniment stumbled along, or that the Princess lost her place in “Happily Ever After” and forgot the lyrics.

A Nest of Skunks

By James Balian and Roger Vickery. Collaborations Theatre. The Depot Theatre, Marrickville, NSW Aug 3 – 13, 2016.

This current show at the Depot Theatre in Sydney’s inner west echoes the sort of multicultural stories the respected company Sidetrack used to explore in the same theatre decades ago.  But this tale about hiding asylum seekers paints a far darker, dystopian picture of Australia today.

A short thriller set in a suburban safe house, this is a secretive world of surveillance and high penalties for anyone found housing escaped refugees. And so they work and whisper in volunteer cells deliberately having no knowledge of their comrades in other cells. 

The Crucible

Written by Arthur Miller. University Of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Directed by Geoff Britain. The Little Theatre, University Of Adelaide. August 6-20, 2016

The University Of Adelaide Theatre Guild’s latest production brings a visceral intensity to a very familiar and oft-revived play, that has become such a frequent staple of high school English classes it’s likely to have lost some of its edge to many seasoned theatregoers.

La Musicale d’Elegance

Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport, Qld. Musical Director: Mary Walters. Director: Roger McKenzie. Hostess/Compere: Laney McLean. August 5 – 7, 2016

Composers of many contemporary musicals could do well to note the structure of Gold Coast Little Theatre’s home-grown La Musicale d’Elegance. It is a quick-fit, short-season of song, music, string solos and ballroom dance.

Avenue Q

Music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Mars. Prince Moo Productions. Directed by Peter Snee. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. August 3 – 14, 2016

When Avenue Q won Broadway’s Tony Awards triple crown in 2003, some people were surprised. This deceptively simple musical (more a series of vignettes) which features “full frontal puppet nudity and other vulgarities” wasn’t the usual stuff that hit musicals were made of, but Robert Lopez and Jeff Mars channelled their inner kids to give us an Adults Only Sesame Street, and turned expectations upside down. Thirteen years later this new production proves that a good show is a good show, regardless of style or fashion.

Edward II

By Anthony Weigh. Directed by Matthew Lutton. Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street, Southbank. 29 July – 21 August, 2016.

Edward II is a contemporary adaptation of the original Christopher Marlowe play but the text easily stands on its own as a new and innovative piece. The main characters are retained and all the sexual and political intrigue is effectively transferred into this production. The text dedicates a great deal of attention to the tender relationship between Piers (Paul Ashcroft) and Ned (Johnny Carr) and depicts their attraction with the complexity and naturalness of any ordinary couple.

The Matchmaker

By Thornton Wilder. Independent Theatre. The Goodwood Institute. August 5-13, 2016.

Following a complicated and at times painful genesis, Thornton Wilder’s comedy The Matchmaker has endured since the mid 1950’s and has also resulted in its well-known stage and screen offspring, the musical Hello Dolly!

The Matchmaker is an unlikely blend of comedy of manners and farce, which Adelaide’s Independent Theatre makes the most of with a very good current production directed by the company’s Artistic Director Rob Croser.

Blood Brothers

Book, Lyrics and Music by Willy Russell. Co-Directors: Nate Butler and Leisi Edmonds. Musical Director: Andrew Swan. Don Craig Room, Laycock Street Theatre, North Gosford. August 3-6, 2016

Central Coast based Nate Butler’s studio has grown over the past five years - from a vocal coaching (specialising in musical theatre) to this year launching as a legit training facility for fully accredited Certificate IV and Diploma courses in Musical Theatre. Despite the youth of the students, the studio has compiled a formidable and challenging program of shows for the 2016 season, kicking off in April with Parade. The next production will be the Coast premiere of Avenue Q.

Broken

By Mary Anne Butler. Directed by Shannon Murphy. Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Sydney. 29 July – 28 August, 2016

Broken is not the play you imagine it might be. The story concerns a woman who rolls her car on a highway in the Northern Territory, and the bond she forms with a mine worker who saves her life. But this sharply written and unusually staged production goes much deeper, capturing a profound sense of what it’s like to live in the remote outback and how three isolated characters struggle for a sense of connection and meaning.

Caucasian Chalk Circle

By Bertolt Brecht. Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA / National Theatre of China. Directed by Dr. Wang Xiaoying. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge, WA. 30 July - 14 Aug, 2016

Lion Dancers and drummers greeted the opening night audience for Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company, in collaboration with the National Theatre of China. A play based on an ancient Chinese legend, retold by a German playwright and performed by Australian actors in a fusion of Brechtian and Chinese style, this international fusion made for a fascinating production.

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