Reviews

The Seven Stages of Grieving

By Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman. Yirra Yaakin. Directed by Bobbi Henry. Auditorium, Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Jun 30-Jul 12, 2025

The first performance of The Seven Stages of Grieving, thirty years ago, was seen as a landmark production for Aboriginal Theatre. This acclaimed play has been added to Drama and English curriculums, as its complex writing and multiple themes allow for excellent discussion and unpacking, This brand new production from Yirra Yaakin marks the first time this play has been performed by an Aboriginal Theatre company, and is a beautiful, heartfelt production.

Disney Moana Jr

By Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i, Mark Mancina, Susan Soon He Stanton and Ian Weinberger. Primadonna Productions Youth. Directed by Carole Dhu. Pinjarra Civic Centre, WA. Jul 4-5, 2025

Primadonna Productions Youth produced this bright and colourful musical based on the 2016 Disney film. Perhaps the most Nordic looking group of Polynesians outside Scandinavia, this cast nevertheless embraced the island lifestyle with a gorgeous laid-back production, well directed by Carole Dhu.

Dog Man: The Musical

Book and Lyrics by Kevin Del Aguila. Music by Brad Alexander. Adapted from the DOG MAN series of books by Dav Pilkey. Presented by QPAC. A CDP with TheaterWorksUSA’s production. QPAC Playhouse Theatre, 9 – 12 July, 2025

Some shows are so funny, so frenetically fun, so joyfully absurd that you leave the theatre with cheeks that ache from all the laughing and grinning. Dog Man: The Musical is one of those shows. Featuring a vibrant cast, zingy songs, and a stage bursting with colour, chaos, and comic book flair, this musical is a riotous delight for kids and a hilarious wink-fest for the grown-ups.

Folk Reimagined: East in Symphony

Presented by Ryan Maxwell. Conducted by Long Guohong and guest conductor Luke Spicer Guest Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt St Southbank. 9 July 2025.

This performance is a striking fusion of western and Chinese musical traditions. Colorful Guizhou Troupe is a cultural and performing Arts industry group that promotes and cultivates Chinese cultural practices globally. On this occasion the Guizhou Chinese Orchestra has been combined with The Australia Orchestra (an emerging ensemble based in Sydney). This results in a highly dramatic and epic concert performance of traditional and contemporary Chinese music.

Smokescreen

By Christopher Samuel Carroll. Bare Witness Theatre Co. fortyfivedownstairs. 8 – 13 July 2025

Christopher Samuel Carrol’s play is set in 1977, but it is just as much – if not more so – about now.  As we pay close attention as Carroll’s tight, articulate, verbally dextrous dialogue, we may feel an increasingly chilling dismay.  Smokescreen is about survival in business, about clever manipulation, blatant lying and a compliant, blinkered public.

Love Stories

By Nathan Calvert, Eliza Smith, William Gammel and Clea Purkis. Directed by Nathan Calvert. Kaos Room, The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Jul 1-5, 2025

Love Stories was a warm, intimate devised production presented by The Blue Room Theatre and stop drop and roll in the cosy confines of The Blue Room’s Kaos Room.

Love Stories is a series of interconnected vignettes that explore the thousands of parallel sensory worlds that exist beyond our capability of hearing, and examines what we can learn by listening to and entering the various sensory worlds around us.

Calvin Berger The Musical

By Barry Wyner. Hyde Entertainment and Civic Theatre Newcastle. Civic Theatre Playhouse, July 4 – 12, 2025.

One of the greatest love stories of all time is Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac – a complex look at amour versus enchantment, identity, and vanity. It tells the story of Cyrano, a tragically disfigured yet brilliant wordsmith, and his love for Roxanne. Cyrano, feeling unworthy of love, helps another seduce her. Upon being caught, Roxanne and Cyrano share one tender moment together… before everyone dies – because it’s French and we can’t have nice things.

The Lightning Thief – The Percy Jackson Musical

Book by Joe Tracz, music and lyrics by Rob Rokicki, based on the novel by Rick Riordan. Director: Sam Luxford. Musical Director: Marianne Powles. Choreographers: Erin Hobden and Hannah Kelly. Gosford Musical Society (GMS). July 8 – 12, 2025

The Lightning Thief - The Percy Jackson Musical is a rock-infused stage adaptation of Rick Riordan’s bestselling novel The Lightning Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. The musical brings Greek mythology crashing into the modern world with humour, heart, and heroic adventure, tailored for both fans of the books and newcomers (like me).

Scenes From a Yellow Peril

By Nathan Joe. Produced by The Reaction Theory. Co-directed and produced by Chelsea August and Egan Sun-Bin. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. 3rd to 12th of July 2025

Image: Daphne Chen stands centre stage. Photo by Nathaniel Knight.

Prima Facie

By Suzie Miller. Black Swan Theatre Company production presented by Carriageworks, Sydney. Directed by Kate Champion. 2 – 12 July, 2025

At first sight, or as a lawyer might say ‘prima facie’, Sydney’s Carriageworks theatre is too big for a one-person play. Constructed in 2007 from the giant Eveleigh Railway Workshops, the theatre is vast, seating over 600, and you’re asking for trouble if you want to put on a play that features just the one woman. But that’s exactly what Carriageworks have done, inviting Western Australia’s Black Swan Theatre to bring their one-woman production of Prima Facie here. And it works.

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