Reviews

Since launching a few months ago, the Hayes Theatre Company has dazzled Sydney with the high production standards of the musicals it has performed on a compact stage.

After Sweet Charity and The Drowsy Chaperone has come the first original Australian production, Truth, beauty and a picture of you.

The trademark fiendishly clever staging and lighting was on display. This time, one box was pushed forward and pulled back to create the elevated stage of a rock band, or a bedroom underneath or even the edge of a high rise building.

Opera Australia’s Carmen had an enthusiastic reception from a packed opening night audience which was well deserved. This was the original Carmen with spoken dialogue. Carmen lives or dies on the quality of the mezzo playing the title role. Spaniard Nancy Fabiola Herrera was one of the best I’ve seen and I was not surprised to note she had performed the role at the Met and Covent Garden.

I found Quartermaine's Terms an unusual choice for Playlovers and more so for a young director (whom I assume was making his directorial debut), and I wonder what it was about this gentle, Simon Gray play, that appealed to this young man.

Set in the staffroom of an English language college in Cambridge during the 1960s, the play chronicles the day to day lives of the staff members.

When Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado premiered in 1885, British society was enamoured of Japanese culture. Perhaps more than any time since, the present Western fascination with Anime and other Japanese social phenomena, means everything Japanese is popular again. With this in mind , director Mark Barford sets this Mikado in the world of present day Anime to explore present day local issus in a similar manner to the original production.