Reviews

The Attic Theatrical, still a relatively new endeavour on the NSW Central Coast, has brought Jason Robert Brown’s ‘The Last Five Years’ to life at The Playground Theatre at the Central Coast Music Factory, Wyong.  Co-Directors Rob and Natalie Logan have chosen this show for their directorial debuts and they are certainly very passionate about the project.  They have also surrounded themselves with a strong production team including Kimberley Gilbert, Danny-Elle Henderson and Luca Carter.

Jacky is what used to be called a ‘problem play’.  In its incisive way, it dramatises an abiding and just now very contemporary issue: the place of indigenous people (and their culture) in a whitefella dominated, post-colonial society.  If that sounds all too ‘worthy’, Declan Furber Gillick’s play does that with sometimes shocking comedy, clear-eyed courage, and via vivid, sharply delineated characters. 

An adult of my acquaintance once admitted, somewhat shallowly, that they admired the musical Into the Woods but wished it finished at interval. If it did, Sondheim’s meaning and intention would not have been realised. The Gift has a similar problem in reverse. Act One of The Gift establishes everything necessary to comprehend the complexity of the extended climax of Act Two… but I wish it started at intermission.

Crocodiles lie low in the water, unnoticed yet visible; in this new show, the co-founder of Elbow Room Theatre, director Marcel Downey, has crafted a visual and colourful palette of characters reflecting on the hidden world of Aged Care - examined with dramatic humour. It explores the core themes of modern society bound by class and race.