Reviews

Frenzy Theatre Company presents an all-singing-all-dancing, parodic, satiric retelling – or ‘reimagining’ - of the ‘classic’ 13th century fairytale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin.  It has been devised, concocted and assembled by the breath-taking, amazingly all-shapes-and-sizes female and non-binary cast of twenty-four (too many to name here – check the program).  There are acrobats, comedians, musicians, singers, dancers (or combinations of all these), and they are by necessity quick-change artists too.

This year’s Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) is a journey in three parts – its season extending from 23 to 25 August, 25 to 27 October, and finally 13 to 15 December, packing in more than 10 world premiere pieces and a similar number of Australian premieres, featuring Brisbane-based and international artists, some making their Queensland debuts.

An ‘apologia’ is not an apology.  On the contrary, it is a defence (written, spoken, passionate, logical, whatever) of one’s actions or beliefs.  So what is Nicola Gunn defending here?  It is the ambiguity of something is translated, transformed, recreated, replicated, copied, or incorporated into something else.  What then is the nature or essential essence of the ur-thing that is translated, transformed and so on?  What is its authenticity?  (Some may recall the Abbas Kiarostami movie Certified Copy.)

‘Lucky for us the universe doesn’t much care for what you wear’ says an indignant Henrietta Leavitt on first meeting her supervisor who asserts superiority through being a man, only for him to discover she’s just as qualified, and more eloquent with it.

Playwright Lauren Gunderson has created a superb story which director Lesley Reed has brought to life so beautifully on the St. Jude’s stage.