Reviews

Cock

By Mike Bartlett. Sound composed by Missy Higgins. La Boite / Melbourne Theatre Company. Roundhouse Theatre (Qld). 27 March – 12 April, 2014.

The title is provocative but the substance of this play runs much deeper.

In Marg Horwell’s set and costume design, everyday clothes, no props, no furniture and a hundred or more pillows, this cast of four (only one named - John - played by Tom Conroy) negotiate some of the most delicate and troublesome emotional territory faced by anyone at some stage in their lives: deep meaningful love, and choices.

All’s Well That Ends Well

By William Shakespeare. Sport for Jove. Seymour Centre, Sydney. March 27 – April 12, 2014.

Despite recent debate about auteur directors overloading classics with their own contemporary readings and staging little of the original, Shakespeare should thank his stars for Damien Ryan.

All’s Well That Ends Well is a rarely staged, so-called Problem Play which I’ve never seen. So first, it’s exciting to go to a Shakespeare and not know the (fantastical) ending! Set in France and in wars in Italy, it’s a fairy tale mix of tragedy and comedy, and one of his most explicit plays about sexual politics. 

 

What Does the K Stand For?

Stephen K Amos. Part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Athenaeum Theatre, 27 Mar – 20 Apr, 2014

Back in Australia for a series of performances at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, British comedian Stephen K Amos delivered an hour of brilliant stand-up at the Athenaeum Theatre, wowing the audience with his wit, terrific comic timing and sparkling improvisational skills.

Max & Ivan The Reunion

Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Melbourne Town Hall - Powder Room. March 27 – April 20, 2014.

Max and Ivan take us to a 10 -year school reunion, where we meet the usual range of characters; the meek, the bully, the nerd, and the weird, just like our own school reunions.

Max and Ivan engaged the audience with their combination of verbal and physical comedy, as they seamlessly switch between subplots, fact, fantasy and characters with just a change in stance and voice and well-timed changes to the lighting. Staging is simple, as most festivals require, with some school lockers and two chairs, and no props.

Macbeth

By William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Attenborough CBE. D.Litt. Queensland Theatre Company with Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe. The Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane. 24 March – 13 April 2014.

This brilliant, accessible production is played passionately with crisp and carefully articulated dialogue that engages any audience. (Remember, Shakespeare wrote for an audience over half of whom were illiterate). Michael Attenborough inspired many of our finest actors to elicit performances worthy of any world stage All rose to the occasion.

Jason Klarwein (Macbeth) and Veronica Neave (Lady Macbeth) dominated the stage and spearheaded their superlative cast who worked as an ensemble, several tackling multiple roles with élan.

Identity Crisis

Paul McCarthy. Part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Forum Theatre – Pizza Room. 27 Mar – 20 Apr, 2014.

Best known for his sketch comedy work in Comedy Inc and Wednesday Night Fever, Paul McCarthy is now taking to the stage as part of Melbourne Comedy Festival to recount anecdotes from his life and how he solved his ‘identity crisis’ by losing himself in the world of theatre. In a tiny room at the Forum Theatre, and playing to an audience which included his two sisters, Mr McCarthy told probably apocryphal stories about his family, with particular emphasis on his mother and brothers.

Dirty Talk

EastEnd Cabaret. Part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Famous Spiegeltent, 27 Mar – 6 Apr, 2014.

The Famous Spiegeltent is the perfect venue for EastEnd Cabaret, with its “deviant diva” Bernadette Byrne in all her 1920s Berlin excess and exaggerated Germanic accent. Introduced by her comedy partner and musician Victor Victoria (made up in the tradition of a classic half man/half woman), she started proceedings by picking two men from the audience to form a “man beast”, hitching a ride to the stage on their backs as they crawled down the aisle on hands and knees.

The Best of British

Part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival - Upstairs at the Exford Hotel, 199 Russell Street City, Nightly from March 26th-April 20th, 2014

With an ever expanding programme of shows , one of the hardest decisions to make during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival  each year is where to spend your ticket dollars. Will you luck into the best show of the festival? Or will you spend an hour on uncomfortable seating with nary a laugh to be had? ‘The Best Of British’ could be the answer to your prayers. A tasting plate of comedic talents, with a rotating line-up of the  UK talent on offer this festival, if one act isn’t to your taste, just wait a few minutes and sample the next.

Anything Goes

Music and lyrics by Cole Porter. MUSE – The Sydney University Musical Theatre Ensemble. Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre. March 26 – 29, 2014.

While Cole Porter’s classic songs are the enduring stars of fun but flimsy musical comedy Anything Goes, the choreography of this student production at Sydney University is the standout.

Housos Live on Stage

Part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Palms at Crown Casino, 26 – 28 March, 2014

For those who haven’t seen it, Housos is an SBS TV series set in the fictional suburb of Sunnyvale, focusing on its low-income residents who live in housing commission homes. Housos Live on Stage features some of the actors from the series playing their familiar characters. Hosted by Paul Fenech as Franky Falzoni, the show is very much geared towards the series’ dedicated fans, who seemed to be out in force in last night’s audience for the first of several Melbourne Comedy Festival performances.

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