Reviews

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. 

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.

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.

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.