Reviews

The Faithful Servant

By Tom Davis. Directed by Caroline Stacey. Produced by The Street Theatre. Childers Street, Canberra. 7 – 18 September 2016. World Premiere.

Tom Davis’s The Faithful Servant is a beautifully crafted, thrilling play, with a fascinating story which questions the sometimes ambiguous morality of providing aid in third-world countries. Set over 51 years, the story follows Dr Raymond Gerard (PJ Williams), a surgeon who single-handedly set up a hospital in Mozambique and an aid organisation with the wonderfully vague name Australians for Hope. Gerard has complex and shifting relationships with his adopted Mozambiquean daughter Caroline and his second-in-charge, Mozambique native Coetano Perreira (Dorian Nkono).

My Fair Lady

By Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. John Frost / Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Opening Night – September 6, 2017.

Slip into your seats in Sydney Opera House’s Dame Joan Sutherland Theatre, as producers John Frost and Opera Australia throw the switch on their theatrical time capsule, transporting us to 1956, the height of Broadway’s Golden Age of Musical Theatre.

My Fair Lady’s overture, encapsulating Frederick Loewe’s timeless score, is delivered in all its glory by a lavish 32 piece orchestra, the likes of which you haven’t heard from a musical theatre pit in years, lifting spirits from its opening strains.

You Got Older

By Clare Barron. Directed by Brett Cousins. Red Stitch Theatre (Vic). 31st August - 2nd October, 2016.

Red Stitch’s strength as a company is finding interesting plays never seen on our shores and presenting them impeccably. Clare Barron’s You Got Older is one such play and her strength as a playwright is a deliciously left of centre view of the world, and family in particular. It may be offbeat, but it’s always truthful. Barron just sees the world through different eyes – eyes that don’t look back, or even forward, but are strongly rooted in NOW…the moment.

Miss Brontë

By Mel Dodge and Charlotte Bronte. Brave Theatre, directed by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford. The Q, Queanbeyan. September 8 - 10, 2016

The literary output of the three Brontë sisters paints a varied picture of the inescapable confines of genteel rural poverty.  The authors well knew such poverty and its limitations on opportunity, and well knew too that marriage was the key to escaping it permanently, and that imagination was the key to doing so daily.  Mel Dodge’s script, featuring Charlotte Brontë’s words from letters and conversation, has Charlotte speak of their lives in detail, and particularly of their writing habits and of Charlotte’s abiding but doomed love.

Oriel

By Merrilee Moss. Directed by Kim Durban. Ghost Ensemble at La Mama Courthouse. 7 – 18 September 2016.

Many people will have forgotten or have never heard of Oriel Gray (1920 – 2003), the prolific playwright for the left-wing New Theatre and for radio station 2KY, all the way through to the ABCTV’s Bellbird.  Playwright Merrilee Moss wants us to leave the theatre asking, ‘Who is Oriel Gray – and why haven’t I heard of her before?’  I’d say she succeeds.

Blackbird

By David Harrower. Throwing Shade Theatre Company / Sydney Fringe. Off-Broadway Hub, Gehrig Lane, Annandale. September 6 – 10, 2016

A jewel of a two-hander, Blackbird by Scotland’s David Harrower made its mark around the world after its debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005.  It’s a revelatory showdown between Una and Ray.  She has tracked him down fifteen years after their brief relationship, back when he was 40 and she just 12 years old. 

Clinton the Musical

Book by Paul Hodge and Michael Hodge. Music and Lyrics by Paul Hodge. Black Swan State Theatre Company in association with the Perth Theatre Trust. Directed by Adam Mitchell. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 27 Aug - 11 Sep 2016

Clinton the Musical is the Australian Premiere of an Australian Musical about American politics. A polished and flashy production, it is being well received.

I have some reservations about this show. While no doubt entertaining, it seems an odd choice for our State Theatre Company. While it is wonderful to see fresh, new work - especially a musical, Clinton the Musical feels like a Fringe Show on steroids, and somehow feels wrong for this company in this venue.

First Date

Music and Lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. Book by Austin Windberg. Pursued by Bear. Directed by Mark Taylor. Chapel off Chapel. Sept 1st-11th, 2016

Pursued by Bear continue their quest to outdo themselves with every new production, so it’s always a delight to see their shows, especially when one is an Australian Premiere.

First Date is a delightful (off) Broadway show with a witty and smart book by Austin Windberg, and songs by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, which won’t stretch you, but which add to the charm of the evening. An extra benefit is the transposing of the show from America to Fitzroy, so we know the urbanised Aussie accents are totally natural.

Our Land People Stories

Bangarra Dance Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne. 1-10 September, 2016 – then touring.

Twenty seven years ago, when Bangarra was first formed, for some it was a novelty, an indulgent gesture to indigenous culture. Now, this world class and astonishing dance group have proved that their spirit and culture exist in tandem with extraordinary talent and commitment which is accessible across the world.

Battlers & Dreamers

By Romy Bartz & Erin Brookhouse. Director: Romy Bartz. Doll pARTS. Sydney Fringe Festival. The Shift and Redfern, Sydney. September 1 – 11, 2016

The Sydney Fringe Festival gets off to a strong start with this clever parody of 80s Aussie Soaps. You have to love the 80s: it’s the decade that just keeps giving when it comes to source material for comedy. And so we have Battlers & Dreamers, which joyfully lampoons Neighbours, Home and Away, Sons and Daughters, and anything else that was cringe-tastic on TV back then.

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