Reviews

The Complete Show of Water Skiing is a wildly unlikely tale, but a beautifully told story, well presented and acted.

When Jenwin finds a book entitled The Complete Book of Water Skiing amongst her recently departed grandfather’s possessions she decides to honour his memory by learning to water ski. Enthusiastically supported by her two best friends, the trio find themselves entered in a competition, despite their lack of experience and equipment.

The cultural importance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle cannot be underestimated, and staging this work is always an admirable exercise. Melbourne Opera has approached this production with grandeur and on most accounts succeeds in conveying the magnificence of this work. The stage combines a modernist brutalist set design which also houses a naturalistic looking Ash tree. This seems at odds with the scenery and is an example of some of the less cohesive aspects of the directorial vision.

Susannah Thompson calls this her mid-life crisis cabaret. Spurred into action by the arrival of a bowel cancer screener for her 50th birthday, and her pre-teen daughter accusing her of being a Hufflepuff, this journey from 1970 to the present, through music and a chat, looks at feminism and women being silenced in various ways - especially when it comes to health care.

Jonathan Hoey’s one person show, Mechanical Man, is an absurdist short play, that at least initially, is almost wordless. Swinging between awkward comedy and unexpected tragedy, it makes more interesting viewing.