Reviews

Nearer The Gods

By David Williamson. Ensemble Theatre. March 4 – April 23, 2022

In his 54th play, David Williamson here turns away from his usual focus on Australia’s contemporary middle class ways and instead looks skywards at Isaac Newton’s theory of celestial mechanics, circa 1684.

He made a similar leap into more intellectual worlds, with plays like Dead White Males and Heretic, back in the 1990’s.  I admired them, some critics didn’t. 

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare at the Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. Director: Peter Evans. 5 March – 2 April, 2022

Returning to the Playhouse after two COVID-jammed, performance-free years comes this tight production of Shakespeare’s most famous play. A packed, masked audience showed its standing approval of a three-hour performance featuring ghosts, multiple murders and betrayals, not to mention some of the greatest lines, scenes and soliloquies ever written.

Yellingbo

By Tee O’Neil. La Mama HQ, Faraday Street, Carlton. 9 – 20 March 2022

The ever adaptable La Mama space becomes a comfortable family home.  An Australian couple, much in love, are hoping for a baby.  Suddenly, the man’s erstwhile and estranged love appears, a secret past and a deception are revealed, all is thrown into disarray, and all are tested.  If Yellingbo sounds like melodrama, well, yes, but the story is credible, far more intriguing, and far more morally ambiguous than that term would suggest. 

Prinnie Stevens: Lady Sings The Blues

Adelaide Fringe Festival. Melba Spiegeltent at Gluttony. 8th to 20th March, 2022

International Women’s Day was the auspicious date that Fringe headliner Prinnie Stevens opened her one woman show: Lady Sings The Blues. She is quoted as saying, ‘When I perform…I represent all that I love and all who have gone before me’, and this show eloquently and passionately embraces the journeys of beloved female blues, pop and soul singers, from Billie (Holiday) to Beyonce.

Phantasmagoria

By Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman. Carapace. Theatre Works, St Kilda. March 2 – 12, 2022.

Phantasmagoria is a new show written and created by Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman, a multi-disciplinary artist who works in performance, animation and puppetry. Presented by Carapace, it is currently on at Theatre Works.

Macro

Adelaide Festival. Village Green at Adelaide Oval. 5 March 2022

The opening event of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts is always a grand entrance to the festival itself, and whilst on a smaller scale thanks to Covid restrictions, Macro lived up to expectations with its local, national, and international performers combining acrobatics, dance and incredible confections of music and voice.

The Fall of the Roman Umpire

Written, directed and performed by Dennis Coard. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton. Sound design and piano technician: Milie Levakis. Lighting design: Shane Grant. March 4 to 13, 2022

Dennis Coard is a clever, clever man and very experienced actor and writer. He has credits across the world in film, television and stage.

Spaghetti From Graceland

By Noel O’Neill. Harbour and Maverick Theatres. Directed by Sue Hasey. Camelot Theatre, Mosman Park, WA. March 5-20, 2022

Locally written, Spaghetti From Graceland is a coproduction from Harbour and Maverick Theatres, playing at Camelot Arts Centre. The sequel to Confetti From Graceland, which was presented in August last year, it is set in the same room and features the same characters, two years later.

The Nightline

Adelaide Festival. Corner of Playhouse Lane & Gilles Arcade, Adelaide. March 4th to 20th, 2022

Australian Director Roslyn Oades is known for her pioneering work in the field of headphone verbatim and audio-driven performance. Working with Sound Artist Bob Scott, they have created what the host who greets us informs us is 35 minutes and 33 seconds of sometimes challenging, often compelling theatre that reveals the real life experiences of the sleepless who reach out to The Nightline. In late 2020, Oades and her collaborators put out a call, ‘If you’re an insomniac, night owl or dreamer we want to hear what keeps you up at night’.

Juliet & Romeo

Adelaide Festival. Lost Dog. Scott Theatre. 5-12 March 2022

It is twenty years since the familiar events of this couple – except neither Juliet nor Romeo died. Instead, they ran away to Paris, got married, had a daughter, and now… well, now they are having relationship difficulties. And after trying every kind of therapy to salvage the marriage, they are here in the full auditorium, to try a kind of group therapy session, where they share with us their history, as each of them remembers it.

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