Reviews

Sun & Sea

A contemporary opera by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė & Lina Lapelytė. Sydney Festival. Sydney Town Hall. Jan 6 – 8, 2023

You walk out of the rain and wind of summer and inside the Sydney Town Hall has been transformed into the playful world of the beach.

Dozens of actors are frolicking on a giant sandpit under the harsh glare of the sun. They are reading books, playing badminton, having a picnic, rubbing in suncream, drying themselves off, walking around and of course sunbaking. The bodies on display include children, middle age jelly tummies, taut teenagers and even one pet dog.

The ushers pushed the audience around the gallery of the Town Hall for sessions that last one hour.

The Tempest

By William Shakespeare. Adapted by Come You Spirits. On board the Southern Swan tall ship on Sydney Harbour. January 2023.

Setting The Tempest on an old sailing ship is both a sensory delight for the audience and a brave new world for actors.  

The 100-year-old Southern Swan is a beautiful vessel carved from Danish oak that is exciting to board with the central action taking place around the main mast.

SIX The Musical

Book, Music and Lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage. QPAC Playhouse. Jan 3 to Feb 19, 2023.

Are you ready for a musical that is deliciously decadent and raucously raunchy? Well, boy! Have I got a show for you.

Truly a 21st Century theatre hybrid, part rock concert, part cabaret and with the occasional nod to traditional narrative, SIX is the Love Child of Tudor History and The Spice Girls. It’s Girl Power on steroids and the energy on stage makes the Energiser Bunny look positively lethargic.

The Mousetrap

By Agatha Christie. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide. 31 December 2022 – 15 January 2022 (and then to Melbourne)

‘The Mousetrap… ‘tis a knavish piece of work, but what o’ that?’ said Shakespeare’s Hamlet, yet long after Agatha Christie co-opted that title to the play of one of her short stories, it’s become one of the most recognisable shows in London’s West End, and is about to notch up its 29,000th performance.

The Wind in the Willows

By Kenneth Grahame. The Australian Shakespeare Company. Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Melbourne Gardens. 17 December 2022 to 29 January 2023

The Wind in the Willows has returned for the summer, currently in its 37th year, staged in the splendidly scenic Royal Botanical Gardens, Melbourne. A delightful and entertaining family show, affordable and interactive, this uniquely Australian twist on the classic children’s book by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908, has its audiences, young and old, amused, delighted and in rollicking fits of laughter.

Amadeus

By Peter Shaffer. Red Line Productions. Directed by Craig Ilott. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. December 27. 2022 - January 21, 2023

In the Opera House’s 50th year, this production provides a tantalising glimpse into what might have been for Australia’s most famous building. The original plan was for the Opera Theatre to be in the larger space of what is now the Concert Hall.

So advanced were those plans, that the backstage structure was already built and had to be scrapped when then the ABC convinced the NSW Government to instead give classical musicians the dibs on the biggest section under sails.

Slava’s Snowshow

Created and staged by Slava Polunin. Directed by Viktor Kramer & Slava Polunin. Scenography by Viktor Plotnikov & Slava Polunin. Presented by Live Nation and ATA Entertainment. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. 29 December 2022 - 8 January 2023, then QPAC, Brisbane from January 11 - 15, and State Theatre, Sydney from January 18 - 29..

This is an extraordinary spectacle that is best described as a unique and awe-inspiring theatrical experience created by the renowned Russian-born, Paris-based performer, Slava Polunin. The approach to the artistry of clowning is deeply steeped in European traditions and is defined by a distinctive tragi-comic quality. The show draws on a variety of theatrical practices such as pantomime and theatre of the absurd. Most notably, the slow and sometimes heavy movements of the characters or their deadpan facial expressions allude to theatrical masters such as Samuel Beckett.

A Christmas Carol

By Charles Dickens, adapted by Shake & Stir. Shake & Stir, directed by Michael Futcher. Canberra Theatre, 21–24 December, 2022

Remaining surprisingly faithful to A Christmas Carol, Dickens’s tale of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, whose visit by a ghost and the spirits of Christmases past, present, and future showed him what had made him a lonely pariah, Shake & Stir has nonetheless made imaginative use of technology in the novella’s adaptation to the stage — most notably in effortlessly and rapidly recombining various sections of the grandly designed sets.  A combination of Dickens’s literary genius, careful adaptation, and controlled acting has given us dialogue that, whilst

Velvet Rewired

Creator/Director: Craig Ilott. Musical Director/Soundtrack: Joe Accaria. The Studio, Sydney Opera House. 22 December, 2022 to 12 February, 2023.

Disco magic is back! The glitter balls! The sequins! The misty smoke! The shine, the sparkle, the sexy shimmer – and the SOUND! Joe Accaria calls it Disco Delirium – the pulse and groove that swept the world in the 1980s – and Velvet Rewired brings it back with a beat that’s brassy, throbbing and definitely, delightfully delirious.

Peter Pan

By Tom Whalley. Zealous Productions. Directed by Peter Cumins. The Regal Theatre, Subiaco, WA. Dec 22-30, 2022

Zealous Productions’ pantomime is a big, beautiful production in the British tradition, that is delighting audiences of all ages. Featuring excellent production values, a stellar cast and a production team that understand pantomime, you couldn’t find a better way to close your theatrical year.

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