Reviews

At the magnetic centre of this Coriolanus is Hazem Shammas’ riveting performance of the title character.  He is surrounded by other subtle, intriguing and beautifully judged performances, but it’s Shammas who holds it all together.  When we see him harshly lit, bare-chested, and drenched in blood, we believe this is a fearsome, stop-at-nothing, force of nature warrior.  But he is, as well by turns, impossibly proud, contemptuous, vain, humble, embarrassed, sly, funny, even endearing, and dangerously vulnerable.  Coriolanus is at bottom a soldier, and

Patricia Di Risio and Susanne Dahn review Moonlite.

Moonlite is described as a true-crime queer love story of the 19th-century Australian bushranger Andrew George Scott. It takes the form of an epic oratorio which involves voices, percussion and viola. The lyrics of the award-winning composition are not an ordinary narration. The story is told via poetic imagery of the period, the emotions and the events. It recounts the story of the star-crossed lovers with the Victorian Gold-rush-era as the backdrop.

Brisbane theatre-goers are currently being treated to a production of a little-known Broadway musical that has recently attracted a lot of interest with revivals both on Broadway and in London.

With his powerfully emotional performance piece ECHO, writer Nassim Soleimanpour presents something of a quandary to the reviewer. There is no program, no explanatory notes, plot precis or tagline. One new actor is chosen every night to perform only once. He or she has been kept deliberately away from discovering anything about the show. This secrecy is important because it means that there is as little as possible artifice in the reactions of both the actor and the viewers. But it does leave the question of how much to say here in this review without ruining the effect.