Reviews

Akmal is here for the Melbourne Comedy Festival and loaded with hilarious jokes; he is a stalwart favourite in this annual event. The performance I attended was on Good Friday, and he gathered a crowded house who were there to be entertained by this contrary and controversial comedian on this Christian holy day.

The Marriage of Figaro was the largest scale of the first round of WAAPA productions. Performed by WAAPA Classical Voice students, it was accompanied by the WAAPA Symphony Orchestra and predominantly designed and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design Students. It was performed in English.

This is a clever circus show with many of the elements you would expect to find in a big top circus focused into the Fairfax Studio. There is splendid, warm audience engagement at the beginning to elevate everyone’s mood, tightrope walking, slack rope walking, trapezes, tricks and pratfalls, clowning and really excellent balance, floor, rope and strap work. All this is stitched together by charming smaller episodes including a recreation of a variety of statues, Charlie Chaplinesque hat handling, and some characters who pop up at intervals to continue their story.

Tom Gleeson has become a household name due to the enormous success of shows such as Hard Quiz, Taskmaster, and receiving the 2019 Gold Logie award via a deliberate campaign that (as described by the ABC) was marked by mockery. Gleeson is the recipient of many other accolades (best comedy performer 2022 AACTA Awards, best comedy 2020 Adelaide Fringe, best Comedy 2019 Perth Fringe World) yet his demeanour is disarmingly humble, even while he delivers some of his most acerbic humour and shares a wickedly unique perspective on the world.