Reviews

Frankenstein

Adapted by A.N. Sandberg based on the novel by Mary Shelley. Brisbane Arts Theatre. Directed by Nick Scotney. March 16 – April 20, 2024.

Well now I know about this character Frankenstrein, who has been representative of evil for many years since the novel was first published. That sense of evil and dread came alive so effectively and disturbingly that some parts just drifted back into my thoughts. If you do know the character Frankenstein already from the novel, this production will enhance those feelings.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The Australian Ballet with Orchestra Victoria. State Theatre. Arts Centre Melbourne. Friday 15th – Tuesday 26th March, 2024

It’s not new to the Australian Ballet. It’s not even part of the 2024 Season. However, Christopher Wheeldon’s fantastical version of the famous story is truly a ballet spectacular.  Opening night crowds vary these days but on Friday night, the big difference was how many children were in attendance.

Cinderella

By Rodgers & Hammerstein, New Book by Douglas Carter Beane. Presented by production company, Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. 15 to 23 March 2024

Acclaimed creatives and performers combine with a vast team of local talent to ensure this Tony Award® winning musical production of Cinderella, hits all the marks. The Broadway favourite immediately transports the audience into a fairy-tale world, then surprises and delights with its twists, turns and hilarity in a new take on an age-old story.

Prospect Terrace

By Angela Murphy. Malanda Theatre Company. 15-24 March 2024

This clever play revolves around a dying patriarch and his two daughters as they act out an end of family era drama in an old Queenslander. The plot sounds familiar, but what makes this drama exceptional is that the characters are all so ordinary. There are no arrogant billionaires here, with siblings cowering in the background hoping to claim the prize. Instead, all the characters are normal, recognisable, but flawed and decent at the same time.

Simone Young Conducts Gurrelieder

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. March 15 & 16, 2024

Arnold Schoenberg was still a teenager and much inspired by Mahler and Strauss when he started composing this supernatural oratorio, initially for just a piano and two singers.

Now in its first SSO staging, Simone Young conducts a massive orchestra of 140 musicians with six soloists and a further 285 choristers standing by for Part III.  This late Romantic mega-work was much as Schoenberg finally conceived it for the premiere in Vienna in 2013. 

Christmas can be Murder

By Devon Williamson. Huon Valley Theatre Inc. Paige Hensley (Director). Paul Hensley Maia Hensley (set). Laura Durdin (costumes). Huonville Town Hall. March 15-23rd 2024

Playwright Devon Williamson is based at Detour Theatre in Tauranga, NZ, a coastal town just north of Rotorua.  It is just a hop, skip and a jump to Huonville from there. A season at Detour very much like a season at Huon Valley.

Williamson churns out one play a year. Many have the word “murder” in the title. Typically, they are set in one room, in a limited time frame. The cast is small and the characters wild and wacky but recognisable.

SunLive (The Bay News First) quotes Williamson on Tauranga audiences:

Wayfinder

Adelaide Festival 2024. Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide. March 15 – 17, 2024

Wayfinder hails from Dancenorth Australia. This production successfully blurs the lines between movement, light, sound, sculpture and song and includes the audience as passive performers.

Swansong

By Conor McDermottroe. Theatre Works, Explosive Factory. 13 – 23 March 2024

Violence is always present here, simmering, a constant threat.  Under the narrator’s ingratiating grin, under the humour.  It runs as a thread beneath this monologue: the tale of the ‘illegitimate’ son of a single mother in 1960s western Ireland. 

The Ark

Presented by Raucous Behaviour. Adelaide Fringe: The House at Carclew. 15-16 March 2024

It’s been snowing for days, weeks – months? Two women push their way through the heavy front door of a South Australian public library, seeking shelter where a solitary man was sleeping. His name is Noah, this is his choice of a safe house – his Ark – and he is not happy to see them.

And so begins another climate change-induced apocalypse set in a not-too-distant future. Writer Thomas Liddell has created a small drama with a massive context – and he focuses on the people impacted by our societal inaction that has brought them together.

Holding The Man

By Tommy Murphy, adapted from Tim Conigrave’s memoir. Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre. March 9 – Apr 14, 2024

Tommy Murphy’s stage adaptation of Tim Conigrave’s compelling memoir dedicated to his great love, John Caleo, was premiered by Griffin Theatre in 2006.  The audience was a mess, laughing and weeping profusely, especially in the row with Tim’s family up from Melbourne; the book, the play and then the film were landmark successes.  Teenage sweethearts at a Catholic school, and together 15 years later, Tim and John both died from AIDS.