Reviews

Emilia

By Morgan Lloyd Malcolm. Directed by Petra Kalive. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. 10-27 November 2022.

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s play places a welcome spotlight on the important figure of Emilia Bassano. Despite being a major influence on Shakespeare and possibly largely responsible for his talent, her position in history has been completely overlooked and ignored. The play sets out to right this terrible wrong. Emilia is yet another example of how women are written out of history to privilege male perspectives and positions of power in society.

Thespis

Libretto by W.S. Gilbert. Music by Arthur Sullivan, Jacques Offenbach. New performing version by Anthony Baker and Tim Henty. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria. Director: Diana Burleigh. Malvern Theatre. 17-20 November, 2022

This performance, by a long-established community theatre group, is a tribute to the genius of Gilbert and Sullivan. Their works, created in the late 1800s, still embolden groups to gather and create performances and support the solid place theatre has in the life of the community.

The Gilbert and Sullivan tradition invites the addition of current cultural references, and the audience appreciated the mention of the contemporary roles of smart phones and social media. Some slapstick was introduced and also enjoyed by the audience.

[Title of Show]

By Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell. Art in Motion Theatre Company. Directed by Lys Tickner. Koorliny Arts Centre, Kwinana, WA. Nov 17-18, 2022

[Title of Show] presented by Art in Motion Theatre Company is a touring production, with short seasons at Koorliny Arts Centre, City of Gosnells Don Russell Performing Arts Centre and the Subiaco Arts Centre - a pocket sized production, performed cabaret style in Theatre 2 at Koorliny (with cheese platters!) is well performed and staged - and has particular appeal to musical theatre nerds.

The Tempest

By William Shakespeare. Sydney Theatre Company at Roslyn Packer Theatre. Directed by Kip Williams. 15 November – 17 December 2022

Here is the world’s most famous playwright, William Shakespeare, at the height of his powers and at the end of a remarkable career, in a tempest of slavery and freedom, barbarism and civilisation, chastity and lust, revenge and forgiveness.

And to ensure it all goes to modern plan, director Kip Williams has inserted some textual changes, especially as far as Caliban is concerned. Guy Simon plays the rickety character as dispossessed, rather than overtly ugly and evil. This Caliban loves his tiny country and ends up owning it, thanks to Richard Roxburgh’s Prospero.

The Jungle and the Sea

By S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack. Belvoir Street Theatre. Nov 12 – Dec 18, 2022.

Following his applauded Sri Lankan epic, Counting and Cracking, S. Shakthidharan returns again to his birth country and rejoins Belvoir’s Eamon Flack to co-direct this co-written, brilliant work. 

The Jungle and the Sea unfolds against the last decade of the 26 year old civil war between the Sinhalese government and Tamil Tigers in the north, and the torturous recovery and reconciliation which still continues (along now with Sri Lanka’s economic and political  bankruptcy).

Wharf Revue – Looking for Albanese

By Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, and Phillip Scott. Seymour Centre, Sydney. 17 November – 23 December, 2022

It’s still called the Wharf Revue, but after two decades it’s moved inland – and sits happily in the York Theatre, Seymour Centre.  The familiar foursome has the same winning formula, spoiling us with over 90 minutes of political satire, which this year seems energised by a new PM on the block.

Laughter On the 23rd Floor

By Neil Simon. The Adelaide Rep. Angas Street, Adelaide. 17th - 26th November, 2022

Writer of more than 30 plays and screenplays, Neil Simon received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer, and his 27th play, Laughter on the 23rd Floor was written in 1993. Simon is renowned for his comedy writing, but we should remember that he also won a Pulitzer Prize for drama with Lost in Yonkers, a follow up to his autobiographical trilogy about being born and raised in a poor Jewish home in the Bronx.

Soiree Cabaret Starring Kara Zmatiq

Club York, Sydney. November 11, 2022

If you get a chance to see Kara Zmatiq then do so. The Queen is simply fantastic.

An Indigenous Trilogy - Act Two: Masterpiece

By Glen Shea. La Mama Courthouse. Nov 15 – 27, 2022.

Peter was an Aboriginal juvenile justice worker from the Stolen Generation, burnt out and defeated by a flawed system - that was in Act One. In Masterpiece, Peter has now retreated to the desert, living a hermit life as an artist, where his life is governed by nature and sandstorms. The second act of An Indigenous Trilogy is an astounding singular play by Glen Shea, an acclaimed award-winning writer, performer, and director.

A Christmas Carol

A version by Jack Thorne. Conceived and directed by Matthew Warchus. Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition St, Melbourne. 18 November – 29 December 2022.

This is a unique version of the classic Dickens tale. David Wenham makes a delightful transformation from the grumbling cantankerous Scrooge into a warm-hearted caring person. The show keeps its focus on the need for those who are able to amass wealth to share their good fortune and the message could not be more apt in the current global political and economic climate. The performance closes with an acknowledgement of the important work of charities such as foodbanks, which are often especially sought out during the Christmas period.

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