Reviews

Machina

By Richard Jordan. La Boite Indie and Madcat Creative Connections with the support of QPAC, The Loft. 8 – 24 May 2014

stage, one can’t help feeling we could be on the brink of the cyber possibilities Jordan explores here.

David Sergeant, in a fit of depression decides to upload his consciousness into Machina, a social networking site, and suicides. We never get to meet the young man who has ‘gone inside’ but he is the focus of this drama.

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice

By Jim Cartwright. Lane Cove Theatre Company. New Theatre, Newtown. 15-24 May, 2014.

“Voice” is the operative word if any company is thinking of mounting this play, because it requires a very special actor. Firstly she has to be able to sing! More importantly she has to be able to imitate the voices of some of the most talented divas of popular music. And the imitation has to be better than good, or the impact of the play is completely lost. Then she has to be able to play a convincing, shy agoraphobic who spends her days shut in an attic listening to her father’s old records.

Luckily for director Christine Firkin, Debbie Neilson can do both!

The Parricide

By Diane Stubbing, La Mama, Carlton (VIC). 7 to 25 May, 2014

The initial inspiration for The Parricide (the word means the killing of a parent) comes from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. If you’re unfamiliar with that novel and, indeed, the life of Dostoyevsky himself, you may well be baffled by this ambitious production. It’s ‘ambitious’ in that it attempts to dramatise, first, a period in the writer’s life (1866?).

La Traviata

By Giuseppe Verdi. Victorian Opera. Conductor: Richard Mills. Director: Henning Brockhaus. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. May 17 – 29, 2014

Victorian Opera was set up to bring more unusual repertoire to the operatic stage, so this was a departure from their usual fare, I suspect inspired by the opportunity to collaborate with Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini in Italy.

The Habbott – An Elected Journey - The 2014 Uni Revue

Written by: Peebles, Paine, Dwyer, Paine, Morrisby, Armitage, Smith, Croall, et al. Presented by: Old Nick Company Inc. Director: Graeme Paine OAM and Nick Paine. Musical Direction: Andrew Morrisby. Theatre Royal, Hobart. 9th – 24th May 2014

The Old Nick Company Inc presented its 66th Uni (of Tasmania) Revue this May, releasing yet another satire on the, by now, very suspecting Tasmanian audience. The Old Nick Uni Revue has been predictably funny, naughty, crass, satirical, silly and saucy for more than six decades.

In ‘honour’ of the current Prime Minister, this year’s Revue, titled The Habbott, An Elected Journey takes a poke at federal politics as well as lambasting local pollies. This is the 17th year that Graeme Paine OAM has directed a Uni Revue.

Kiri Te Kanawa 70th Birthday Gala Tour

Llewellyn Hall, Canberra. 16th May 2014 and touring Australia and New Zealand in May and June.

Attending the Canberra performance of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s 70th Birthday Gala Tour, I was delighted to find this ageless performer sounding so very like her recorded self. In interview on the day preceding the performance, Dame Kiri stated that there are works (which she said are obvious) that she no longer sings; evidently the highest notes of her career might not sound as sweet and controlled now as they did, and she therefore has confined her repertoire a little. But what she sang, she sang exquisitely.

Wish

By Humphrey Bower, adapted from the novel by Peter Goldsworthy. Directed by Humphrey Bowyer. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth WA. 14-24 May 2014

About once a decade, I come across a show that I don't want to review. In the past it has been because I can't find much positive to say, but I am reluctant to review Wish for entirely different reasons…I don't want to talk about this show.

LAKE

Directed and Choreographed by Lisa Wilson. Lisa Wilson Projects & the Judith Wright Centre. 15 – 17 May 2014.

This is enthralling and experimental dance. I would call it ground breaking, but given that the entire stage is covered by water, that is inappropriate.

The Phantom of the Opera

By Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Willoughby Theatre Company. The Theatre on The Concourse, Chatswood. Director: Declan Moore. Musical Director: Greg Jones. Choreographer: Sarah Friedrich. 14 May – 1 June, 2014

Reluctant as I am to use clichés like Willoughby Theatre Company has ‘raised the bar’ for community musical theatre in Sydney, their production of The Phantom of the Opera ranks high among the finest achievements I’ve seen in some 50 years seeing shows on the circuit.

Jesus Christ Superstar

By Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Engadine Musical Society. Sutherland Entertainment Centre. May 14 – 18, 2014.

A contemporary setting of Multi-Deck scaffold and colourful graffiti alerts you instantly that this will be a modern interpretation of rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.

You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned.

Now why'd you choose such a backward time and such a strange land?

If you'd come today, you would have reached the whole nation.

Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.

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