Reviews

Eight actors, male and female, of varying shapes and sizes, bounce onto a tiny white dais and announce, one after another, ‘I am Ben.’  Ben is the protagonist; the play is his story.  It’s a risky start if only because it probably reminds half the audience of ‘I am Spartacus’, but the risky joke is characteristic of the show.  It veers from sharp to purple-pretentious to witty to touching to kitsch – but kitsch redeemed by knowing it is and showing up in scenes that are very nicely observed and embarrassingly truthful. 

Born out of The Annual Michael Jackson Celebration which started in 1991, when 1000 fans from across the UK descended on London's Hammersmith Palais for a party and concert for the King of Pop, Thriller is Executive Director Adrian Grant’s culmination of the gradual development of this celebration, which, after teaming up with Paul Walden’s Flying Music, BB group and Lunchbox Theatrical Productions after 2007, eventually grew to become a successful tour production.

Welcome to some truly reality theatre, an astonishing portrait of Irish family grief presented at the Sydney Festival by young Dublin company Brokentalkers. 

Feidlim Cannon and his mother Ann are on stage with their real-life psychotherapist Erich Keller.  After a little audience relaxation, the session begins.  As Feidlim bitches against his Mum’s melancholic display of object memories, the reality unfolds – both are desperately grieving the death 12 years ago of Feidlim’s father and, earlier, his baby brother.

The Illusionists 1903 have delivered the golden age of magic to their Adelaide audiences. A packed theatre full of anticipation and the hope that they would see the unbelievable and unexplainable, which was delivered with class.