Reviews

Now and Then

By Sean Grennan. Centenary Theatre Group Inc. Chelmer Community Centre, Chelmer, Brisbane. November 5, 11, 12, 18 & 19, 2022

Mystery and intrigue is currently lurking in Chelmer, Brisbane this month with Centenary Theatre Group's last play of their 2022 season, Now and Then. Written by Sean Grennan and directed by Gary Kliger, this is a bitter-sweet énouement and the effect the time-travel element has on the lives of the two central characters, Abby and Jamie.

An Indigenous Trilogy Part One: Three Magpies Perched in A Tree

By Glen Shea. La Mama Theatre. Nov 8 – 27, 2022

In Aboriginal culture ,magpies are symbolic of motherly love, security, food, and sometimes ominous signs of danger. In part one of An Indigenous Trilogy, titled Three Magpies Perched in A Tree, writer and performer Glen Shea delivers a resplendent gothic  tale set in outback central Australia - a story that is reminiscent of his own life as part of the stolen generation and his time working in an aboriginal community centre.

Singin’ in the Rain in Concert

Songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Screenplay: Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Prospero Arts. Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 11 to 13 November 2022

Who can ever forget the first time they heard the uplifting ‘Good Morning’ or saw Gene Kelly gleefully splashing around to ‘Singin’ in the Rain’? Well, now is your chance to refresh your memory of those wonderful songs and dance numbers. Presented by new Brisbane-based musical theatre group, Prospero Arts, this stage concert presentation celebrates the 70th anniversary of the classic Hollywood film starring everyone’s favourites – the multi-talented trio of Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor.

Gundog

By Simon Longman. Three Fates Theatre. Chapel off Chapel. 8 - 13 November 2022

Two shepherds, sisters Anna (Laura McCluskey) and Becky (Thalía Dudek) spring an intruder (Alexandros Pettas) on their isolated hard-scrabble sheep farm somewhere in the English Midlands.  He says his name is ‘Guy Tree’ and claims he was looking for scrap metal; he has a ridiculously small spanner to prove it.  In this very first scene, given the quality of the writing and the distinct performances, we learn about the landscape, the sheep and these three characters - the way they think, talk, and behave.  Anna, the elder sister, is quiet, phlegmatic but kin

Low

By Daniel Keene. Theatre Works & Victorian Theatre Company. Theatre Works Explosive Factory, St Kilda. 8 -12 November 2022

Emma (Veronica Thomas) and Jay (Matthew Connell) are young, down and out lovers, locked in a kind of co-dependency.  Jay had a factory job, but it didn’t suit him.  They sit in pubs.  Not a lot to say to each other - which can drive Emma crazy.  They’re bored.  And broke.  They turn to crime, robbing small stores late at night.  Jay threatens the shopkeepers with a small knife, then a bigger knife… It’s thrilling.  In different masks, they go on a spree and become bottom-of-page-4 famous. 

Medea

By Luigi Cherubini. The Met’s Live and HD Series. In selected cinemas nationally from November 19, 2022.

The Metropolitan are to be congratulated for their initiative of filming and making opera more accessible to a wide audience, particularly those of us who do not live in the USA.

Their choice of Medea by Luigi Cherubini, composed in 1797 with a libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman and based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée has come out of left field as it is not commonly in the repertoire of most opera companies throughout the world.

RBG: Of Many, One

By Suzie Miller. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf 1 Theatre. Oct 29 – Dec 3, 2022.

Playwright Suzie Miller always wanted her good mate Heather Mitchell to play Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late legal firebrand of the US Supreme Court.   And Mitchell delivers a tour de force in Miller’s masterful new play.

Perfectly sustained for 90 minutes, it’s a riveting journey with RBG from age 13 to 87, with Mitchell also making split second shifts to voice 30 other characters, including three American Presidents.

Bedside Manners

By Derek Benfield. Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. November 3 -12, 2022

Farce in theatre is described as ‘a type of comedy that places exaggerated characters in improbable situations where they face a number of outrageous obstacles.’ And believe me, Therry Theatre’s production of Derek Benfield’s Bedside Manners could be the basis for that definition.

Blacklisted

Written and performed by Almitra Mavalvala. Directed by Bernadette Fam. Hayes Theatre in association with Rogue Projects. November 9 - 12, 2022

Canadians have received lots of good press of late for being nice. Anyone seeing the musical Come From Away, or who admired the smiles of their photogenic Prime Minister would be left with the impression of a nation that is very tolerant.

Pakistan born Almitra Mavalvala gives another perspective of the country, in her tongue in cheek cabaret that is fascinating, funny and tuneful.

‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore

By John Ford. The Company. Flow Studios, Camperdown. November 2 – 13, 2022

A blood-drenched Jacobean revenge tragedy, written nearly 400 years ago, says more about our contemporary world than we probably care to admit.  

Playwright John Ford was a contemporary of Shakespeare’s, but while Romeo and Juliet’s family feud provided a killing field, Ford’s add on to star-crossed love, the abiding taboo of incest, inspires a huge, bloody 17th century massacre, even in this tightly edited, reduced cast version.

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