Reviews

Perfumes of the East

Presented by Southern Cross Soloists and QPAC. QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 2nd June, 2024

SXS's welcome return to the stage again demonstrated a selection of diverse compositions and arrangements from a group of talented and passionate artists. The concert began with a short, eloquent demonstration of the didgeridoo from Artist in Residence and Queenslander Chris Williams who has made a remarkable name for himself as an exponent of the instrument internationally whilst additionally collaborating with established composers to commission new works for the instrument over the next ten years.

INK

By James Graham. Director Louise Fischer. New Theatre, Newtown. 29 May – 29 June, 2024

New Theatre uses a photograph of Rupert Murdoch taken in 1968 to publicise its production of James Graham’s play INK. He was 37 years old. He looks strong, and thoughtful … and that’s how Graham depicts him in this play about how Murdoch and his editor Larry Lamb turned a failing broadsheet called The Sun into a tabloid newspaper that in just one year outstripped its rivals in sales … and sensationalism.

Carpet and Sand

By Robert Reid. fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne. May 30 – June 16, 2024

Back in the early seventies, Peter Brook rounded up a motley group of English actors and together they travelled across Africa presenting improvised and spontaneous theatre vignettes to small villages, towns and cities. They explore the naïve and thwarted call for philanthropic British colonialism, but Brook and his entourage are soul searching  for  personal meaning and depth.

Ghosts

By Jodi Gallagher after Ibsen. Theatre Works, St Kilda. 1 – 15 June 2024

Jodi Gallagher’s adaptation of Ibsen’s 1881 play retains the late 19th century setting but relocates the drama to the heat and dust of the Australian bush.  This might feel at first arbitrary, but as a metaphor and for the inclusion of different ‘ghosts’, it works well.  Ibsen’s plot meanwhile remains much the same.  Wealthy widow Mrs Alving (an authoritative performance from Laura Iris Hill) welcomes home her flaky artist only son Oswald (Gabriel Cali) from Paris - just as an orphanage she has financed is completed.  The on-the-m

Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black

By Susan Hill adapted by Stephen Mallatratt. Produced by Woodward Productions and Neil Gooding Productions. Directed by Robin Herford and Antony Eden. His Majesty’s Theatre, Hay St, Perth, WA. May 30 - Jun 9, 2024, and touring (other dates and venues at the end of this review).

Thriller, The Woman in Black is currently frightening audiences in Perth, during its fourth stop on a National Tour. This exciting play, with its gentle manner, is directed with precision and features perfectly tuned acting performances.

When Arthur Kipps approaches an actor to help him tell his “story that must be told”, the actor turns the story into a performance piece - but has he taken on more than he bargained for, and are we witnesses to the rehearsal of this presentation, being drawn into something very sinister?

Head Over Heels

Based upon ‘The Arcadia’ by Sir Philip Sydney. Conceived and Original Book by Jeff Whitty. Adapted by James Magruder with music and songs from The Go-Go’s. Directed by Timothy Wynn. Presented by Ipswich Civic Centre and THAT Production Company with Mira Ball Productions. Ipswich Civic Centre, 31 May – 1 June 2024

Making its Queensland debut at the Ipswich Civic Centre, Broadway smash hit musical Head Over Heels captivated the opening-night audience from start to finish. The romantic comedy is based on The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, a tale from the 1500s that explores themes of patriarchy, gender, and love across the spectrum. Despite its centuries-old premise, the show is strikingly modern, resonating well with contemporary audiences.

Multiple Bad Things

Devised by Bron Batten, Breanna Deleo, Natasha Jynel, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Ben Oakes, Scott Price, Tamara Searle, Ingrid Voorendt. Back To Back Theatre. Malthouse Theatre, The Merlyn. 29 May – 9 June 2024

We see what seems to be workshop in which a half-built structure of gold and glowing scaffolding (designed brilliantly by Anna Cordingley) occupies and dominates the stage.  Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price and Bron Batten are the workers whose job it is to assemble this intricate structure, joining and slotting pieces together.  What it might be is revealed, beautifully lit by Richard Vabre, at the very end.  Only Mainwaring, who has doggedly done the bulk of the work, is there to see it – and it does not make her happy. 

A Night on the Tiles

By Suzanne Hawley. The Performing Arts Association of Notre Dame Australia (PAANDA). Directed by Sophie Kelly. University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, WA. May 29-Jun 6, 2024

This semester’s show from The Performing Arts Association of Notre Dame Australia (PAANDA) is 2009 Australian play A Night on the Tiles. Set in the bathrooms on the evening of Jess’ 40th and 41st birthdays, the bathroom becomes a safe place where relationships are discussed and feelings revealed, in a funny yet poignant play.

Love – an Act of Bravery: Katie Noonan x Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall. May 30, 2024

What is love if not an act of bravery? Loving someone despite the hardships. Loving someone even if their actions cause you pain. As a poet, deciphering love is one of my passions, so I was curious then to attend this show to see – or more so hear – interpretations of love. I have a certain obsession with music. It can capture what words cannot. Having a full orchestra on stage excites me. Katie Noonan with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, together with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Antonioli – I wasn’t missing this. 

Dido and Aeneas

Music: Henry Purcell. Libretto: Nahum Tate. Prologue: Kate Mulvany. Pinchgut Opera. City Recital Hall. 30 May – 3 June, 2024

Purcell’s opera, based on Book IV of the poet Virgil’s Aeneid, tells of the love affair between Dido, Queen of Carthage, and the Trojan hero Aeneas, who abandons Dido to pursue his own destiny – the establishment of the city of Rome. A contemporary Dido might have happily waved him farewell, content to rule the strong city that she had established after her brother rejected her and killed her husband.

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