Reviews

Tom Ballard and director Ben Russell have assembled a fine and varied cast of comedians/actors (including Ballard himself) to play a bunch of comedians chewing the fat, reminiscing, swapping gags, competing (of course) and complaining about audiences.  They’re backstage at a pub venue on a Tuesday (the slowest) night, waiting to go on.  We see them go on for their acts, and we see them come back, and we hear their audience responses – or lack of them.  These are weary, battle-hardened veterans – except maybe Tiana Hogben (‘Mai’), who calls hersel

Each night of this show’s run, a different performer arrives on stage alone.  On my night, we got Tomas (my computer won’t supply the appropriate accents on his name) Kantor.  He was brilliant.  I say ‘was’ because he’s not doing this again.

The performer/actor, in this case Tomas, knows only that they will be called upon (‘instructed’) to perform a script they’ve never seen - the text of which is on a teleprompter. 

Imprisonment, isolation and a cruise ship are the ideas behind the new dance performance and theatre production by Do Theatre. Formed in 2021, they have since travelled around Australia winning audiences and accolades for their enthralling theatrical shows.

Their new show The Ship is based on a thriller novella titled The Royal Game written in 1941 by Stefan Zweig, set during the occupation of Austria by Nazi Germany. This spine-chilling reinterpretation is set in 1943 aboard an ocean liner sailing from Shanghai to the Southern Hemisphere.