Reviews

This is top-drawer art house entertainment.

Its target audience is fans of Vampire-Fantasy, and there were many in the intimate 90-seat theatre – perfect venue for a show like this, no artificial sound system needed.

Sandro Colarelli gives a virtuoso performance, playing the narrator; ‘the Lady’ of the title (a pre-World War I Countess); and her governess who cares for her as well as inveigling men to ‘the Lady’s’ decaying castle for her pleasure.

Massinger was a Jacobean playwright whose works slipped into archive recesses after successful productions. This social satire with an underdog-overcomes-oppressor theme resonates even today. Well done BAT and Ron Kelly for introducing Brisbane to it!

Massinger lightens his theme with comedy; director, Ron Kelly, and his cast spice it liberally with panache while retaining the archaic language. They play it in modern dress, even adding mobile phones and i-pads. I had trouble reconciling the five hundred year gap; might have been easier in a modernised version.

As the lights rise on Other Desert Cities, the audience are greeted with one of the most sumptuous and expensive looking sets ever to grace the stage of a Perth based play. A stunning Palm Springs mansion, complete with floor to ceiling windows, beautiful and elegant flooring and a pool deck with pool (and water), Christina Smith's set design literally sets the scene for a high quality production. This is clearly a luxurious and beautiful home, an oasis in the surrounding desert - a dangerous and inhospitable surround.

It was lovely to squeeze into the hippest venue in Canberra for some intellectual stimulation, presented by brand new company Something Borrowed. At Home at the Zoo opens with Peter absorbed by “the most boring book [his company] has ever published,” when his wife, Ann, starts to hint at unhappiness within their marriage. Simmering tensions rise and climax with alarming revelations by both characters. Peter escapes to the park for some peace, but fatefully meets Jerry with tragic consequences.