Reviews

The Gospel According to Paul

By Jonathan Biggins. Playhouse Sydney Opera House. 4 – 23 June, 2024

Jonathan Biggins is no stranger to those who are devotees of The Wharf Revue, where Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott satirised the mean and the mighty for over twenty years. Biggins has played everyone from Bob Brown to Donald Trump and King Charles. But it is his wry, sardonic, self-assured interpretation of Paul Keating that audiences love best. Perhaps because, like the once PM himself, he keeps coming back to haunt the revue’s more recent political targets.

Pastabate

Writer, Director and Designer: Dani Hayek. Dancers: Disco Daddies. Sound Designer: Rachel ‘Stoz’ Stone. Lighting Designer: Cole McKenna. La Mama Courthouse. Jun 4 – 9, 2024

Take a lot of heartbreak, regret, and searing insight, mix with copious amounts of pasta and any amount of attempted self-soothing, place in the hands of a talented and disciplined actor and you have a very relatable and funny show.

Blackout Songs

By Joe White. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. 1 – 30 June 2024

They meet on the street, outside an AA meeting.  He’s in a neck brace, groggy, inarticulate – but boyishly sweet and attractive.  She’s got a fast and loud mouth; she’s older than him, curious, needling – and a risk taker.  Both are alcoholics.  He’s a painter.  We’ll learn that he needs the drug for his creativity – or so he believes.  She’s a well-heeled rebel, fighting normality and boredom.  Both resist the pain of sobriety.  Both are dangerously vulnerable – he the more so; she has a bet

Limbo – The Return

By Scott Maidment. Original music composed by Sxip Shirey. Strut & Fret. The Grand Electric, Sydney. 22 May - 18 August 2024

Over ten years ago, Limbo premiered and toured all over the world. Now, Limbo is back. LimboThe Return is a breathtaking performance with world renowned circus performers.

Do not look away, don’t even blink, because if you do, you’ll miss something amazing. With its mix of pole, aerial, tap, and jazz, as well as its incorporation of live music as part of the entertainment, this cabaret has something for everyone.

Perfumes of the East

Presented by Southern Cross Soloists and QPAC. QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 2nd June, 2024

SXS's welcome return to the stage again demonstrated a selection of diverse compositions and arrangements from a group of talented and passionate artists. The concert began with a short, eloquent demonstration of the didgeridoo from Artist in Residence and Queenslander Chris Williams who has made a remarkable name for himself as an exponent of the instrument internationally whilst additionally collaborating with established composers to commission new works for the instrument over the next ten years.

INK

By James Graham. Director Louise Fischer. New Theatre, Newtown. 29 May – 29 June, 2024

New Theatre uses a photograph of Rupert Murdoch taken in 1968 to publicise its production of James Graham’s play INK. He was 37 years old. He looks strong, and thoughtful … and that’s how Graham depicts him in this play about how Murdoch and his editor Larry Lamb turned a failing broadsheet called The Sun into a tabloid newspaper that in just one year outstripped its rivals in sales … and sensationalism.

Carpet and Sand

By Robert Reid. fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne. May 30 – June 16, 2024

Back in the early seventies, Peter Brook rounded up a motley group of English actors and together they travelled across Africa presenting improvised and spontaneous theatre vignettes to small villages, towns and cities. They explore the naïve and thwarted call for philanthropic British colonialism, but Brook and his entourage are soul searching  for  personal meaning and depth.

Ghosts

By Jodi Gallagher after Ibsen. Theatre Works, St Kilda. 1 – 15 June 2024

Jodi Gallagher’s adaptation of Ibsen’s 1881 play retains the late 19th century setting but relocates the drama to the heat and dust of the Australian bush.  This might feel at first arbitrary, but as a metaphor and for the inclusion of different ‘ghosts’, it works well.  Ibsen’s plot meanwhile remains much the same.  Wealthy widow Mrs Alving (an authoritative performance from Laura Iris Hill) welcomes home her flaky artist only son Oswald (Gabriel Cali) from Paris - just as an orphanage she has financed is completed.  The on-the-m

Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black

By Susan Hill adapted by Stephen Mallatratt. Produced by Woodward Productions and Neil Gooding Productions. Directed by Robin Herford and Antony Eden. His Majesty’s Theatre, Hay St, Perth, WA. May 30 - Jun 9, 2024, and touring (other dates and venues at the end of this review).

Thriller, The Woman in Black is currently frightening audiences in Perth, during its fourth stop on a National Tour. This exciting play, with its gentle manner, is directed with precision and features perfectly tuned acting performances.

When Arthur Kipps approaches an actor to help him tell his “story that must be told”, the actor turns the story into a performance piece - but has he taken on more than he bargained for, and are we witnesses to the rehearsal of this presentation, being drawn into something very sinister?

Head Over Heels

Based upon ‘The Arcadia’ by Sir Philip Sydney. Conceived and Original Book by Jeff Whitty. Adapted by James Magruder with music and songs from The Go-Go’s. Directed by Timothy Wynn. Presented by Ipswich Civic Centre and THAT Production Company with Mira Ball Productions. Ipswich Civic Centre, 31 May – 1 June 2024

Making its Queensland debut at the Ipswich Civic Centre, Broadway smash hit musical Head Over Heels captivated the opening-night audience from start to finish. The romantic comedy is based on The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, a tale from the 1500s that explores themes of patriarchy, gender, and love across the spectrum. Despite its centuries-old premise, the show is strikingly modern, resonating well with contemporary audiences.

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