Reviews

Much of the power of great writing for the theatre comes from the juxtaposition of what is and what is not said – often associated with the vastly under-rated and consistently under-utilised skills of the Dramaturg. In Mr Petsinis’s case, there is an utterly compelling case for him to forge such a relationship because while his latest play Salonika Bound has flashes of brilliance, it is also constantly undermined by verbosity, repetition and simply too much tedious exposition.

Cairns Little Theatre’s production of the romantic comedy Same Time, Next Year was brilliantly handled by director Wayne Rees and his cast. Set in a hotel room in California, the play tracks the twenty-five year illicit relationship between George and Doris, who are married to other people. As stuffy George, Wayne Hogan was brilliant. Hogan’s timing, facial expressions and body language extracted the best from a well-written script.

ELT’s annual children’s production Alice the Musical was an amazing evening, enhanced by the amazing costuming and make up, equal to many professional shows seen around Melbourne.

Truly great musicals – of which Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I must be close to the most perfect example – set every creative team who takes them on an unenviable set of obstacles. The first one is the audience’s experience of the show that has gone before. (One of mine was a disastrous performance in London’s West End when, suffering from laryngitis, Susan Hampshire – who was playing Mrs Anna – had a go at I whistle a happy tune, and then they just cut the rest of her songs. It was, as you might imagine, appalling.