Reviews

Milked

By Simon Longman. The 9th Floor Productions. Fortyfivedownstairs. 28 February – 10 March 2024

In rural Herefordshire, the landscape is beautiful, but it won’t provide you with a job, let alone a future.  That’s the prospect that faces twenty-somethings Paul (William McKenna) and his mate Snowy (Laurence Boxhall) in this blackly comic, poignant, sometimes absurd, almost surreal play that is about many things but centrally a friendship. 

Brooklyn Rider - The 4 Elements

Perth Festival. Perth Concert Hall. 1 March 2024

The Brooklyn Rider string quartet was set to perform in Australia a few years ago, but travel restrictions meant their first Australian performance of their collection called The 4 Elements had to wait until this year.

This week, modern classical music fans must have felt they were in New York (where the quartet formed nearly 20 years ago), Berlin, Paris, or London, being able to see curated musical pieces evoking Air, Water, Fire and Earth, performed live on stage.

Leather Lungs: Shut Up and Sing

Ben Anderson Presents. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2024. The Lark at Gluttony, Rymill Park, Adelaide. Feb 27 to Mar 17, 2024

The average male singing voice spans just over two octaves, but Jason Chasland has no average voice. At four octaves Jason, or ‘Leather Lungs’,  joins the renowned company of Mariah Carey and Dimash Qudaibergen (who has 7 octaves), and proceeds to tear up the stage of The Lark!

Yentl

By Gary Abrahams, Elise Esther Hearst, and Galit Klas, based on the short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Presented by Kadimah Yiddish Theatre. Directed by Gary Abrahams. Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, 113 Sturt St, Southbank, Vic. 29 February - 17 March 2024.

This is a visually stunning, inspiring, and witty stage adaptation of this iconic story. The separation of sex, body and mind underpins the dialogue, action, and the staging. The set design has a haunting chiaroscuro, quasi-German expressionist effect. The smoke-filled backgrounds combined with the stony natural environment in the foreground create a somewhat eerie atmosphere.

Trail’s End

Presented by Jannali Jones. Adelaide Fringe: Marion Cultural Centre & Goodwood Theatre and Studios. 16 February - 3 March 2024

Brothers Sam and Jamie are out in the bush, on a walking trip to a waterfall, where they’ll honour their late mother. Jamie has brought his GPS, his guitar – he can’t go a week without practising – and a bag of M&Ms. Sam is much more prepared but carries a secret in his backpack.

Dry Land

By Ruby Rae Spiegel. Presented by flatpack. Theatre Works, Explosives Factory, Inkerman Street, St Kilda. 28 February – 9 March 2024

Ruby Rae Spiegel’s Dry Land (2014) is the story of a friendship – a turbulent, difficult, advance-then-retreat, accept-then-reject, insult-then-beg, needy, cruel-then-kind, touching but shocking, and very hard-earned friendship. 

Amy (Luce Wirthensohn) and Ester (Cassidy Dunn) are in their final year at a Florida high school, and in the swim team.  In the pool, it’s simple and safe, there are rules, you train hard, you swim in a straight line, and the aim is to win. On dry land, things are not so clear.  

Angélique Kidjo

Perth Festival. Perth Concert Hall. 29 February 2024.

Angélique Kidjo is a force of nature and well-deserving of her official title, Queen of World Music.

She was born with a gift and was always told to share it.

Taking command of the stage with her confident dance and powerful vocals on “Crosseyed and Painless” (by Talking Heads), her energy and enthusiasm never wanes for the entire concert.

She is like a prize-fighter body-popping to the music, delivering the lyrics of each song as a personal message to each audience member.

The Nightingale and Other Fables

A co-production of Opéra national de Lyon, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Canadian Opera Company and Dutch National Opera in collaboration with Ex Machina (Canada). Presented by Adelaide Festival and State Opera South Australia. Adelaide Festival 2024. Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide. March 1, 3, 5 & 6, 2024

 

Oshun

Written and performed by Amarantha Robinson. Directed by Jaime Wilson. La Mama HQ, 205 Faraday St, Carlton Vic. 28 February - 3 March 2024.

Amarantha Robinson has created an extremely evocative and alluring show. The performance is inspired by a myth from the Yoruba (West African) oral tradition and the coming-of-age experience of the young god Oshun. When Oggun, the god of metal and technology, flees he leaves Ile Ife and Earth in darkness and chaos. Oshun believes this is her chance to prove herself and decides to pit her abilities against this powerful god. She overcomes the ridicule by other deities, the Orishas, which trigger sentiments of fear and self-doubt and uses all her feminine wiles to seduce the evil Oggun.

Where’s the Dog?

Presented by McKellar & McKellar, Adelaide Fringe: Goodwood Theatre and Studios, 28 February – 2 March 2024

Just a picture-perfect family. Mum, Dad, two kids, and the dog. It might look ideal, but it’s far from it in this new musical from Dr Erin McKellar and Jeremy Anderson, where the dysfunctional family are only held together by the shared affection for the dog, Billy.

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