Reviews

Let’s Kill Agatha Christie

By Anthony Hinds. Hobart Repertory Theatre Company. Directed by Jenifa Dwyer . Costumes by Robin Rheinberger and Liz Lewinsky. Set by Carolyn Whamond. Lighting Desing by Hayden Green. The Playhouse. 28th July to 12th August 2023

Let’s Kill Agatha Christie was written by prolific Hammer Horror screen writer Anthony Hinds. Hinds wrote for most of the second half of the 20th century, publishing this script in 1990 specifically for amateur actors. It is a melodramatic romp which parodies Agatha Christie and exploits every trope of the genre.

There is a cast of nine. Tombs, the butler, may or may not be all he seems. Played by Kyle Enniss with a cockney accent, Tombs is intrinsic to the action, ubiquitous, somewhat sinister but essential to the comedy.

Be More Chill

By Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz. Art in Motion Theatre Company. Directed by Jarvys McQueen-Mason. City of Gosnells, Don Russell Performing Arts Centre, Thornlie WA. July 28 – Aug 5, 2023

Art in Motion Theatre Company is presenting Be More Chill, a musical with somewhat of a cult following. Well presented and enthusiastically performed, opening night played to a very receptive audience at Don Russell Performing Arts Centre (DRPAC).

Proud

By James Watson. Presented by Famous Last Words. Goodwood Theatre & Studios. 29 July – 6 August 2023

When Jack’s brother marries an immigrant, everyone’s talking. The backyard wedding is a clash of cultures, where footy mates joke, alcohol flows, and his grandfather disapproves.

Steel Magnolias

By Robert Harling. Huon Valley Theatre Company. Directed by Lauren Asschers. Huonville Town Hall. 28th July to 5th August, 2023

Steel Magnolias, the play, predates the movie by some two years. Unlike the movie, the stage version is unified by being set exclusively within Truvy’s beauty salon. With only six female characters, the town and its inhabitants are as vibrant in the imagination as they are on the screen.

June

By Patrick McCarthy. Fabricated Rooms. Theatre Works, St Kilda. 26 July – 5 August 2023

June (Caroline Lee) has been silent for over a year.  Now she has decided to speak – to us, the audience.  She asks us to understand.  By the end of the play, we will.  June is an ‘ordinary woman’, middle-aged, in frumpy clothes, hair pulled back in a ponytail.  Married, two children.  Now an isolate who chose silence. 

Tim

Adapted by Tim McGarry from the novel by Colleen McCullough. A Christine Dunstan Production. Directed by Darren Yap. Glen Street Theatre, Belrose, Sydney from 27-30 July 2023, then touring

Tim, Colleen McCullough’s first novel, created a stir when released, but nothing to compare with her second, The Thorn Birds. For a time the most famous Australian writer, her works were scoured for movie material and Tim, the story of a love affair between a labourer with intellectual disability and a mid-50s business executive, was turned into a successful film starring Mel Gibson and Piper Laurie.

Amadeus

By Peter Shaffer. Canberra Repertory. Directed by Cate Clelland. Theatre 3, Acton, A.C.T. 27 July — 12 August, 2023.


Salieri is extremely displeased with God.  In fact, he’s furious.  God has not honoured their pact.  Salieri had vowed to serve God all the days of his life in exchange for becoming a famous musician.  Although for some years God had seemed to be fulfilling his side of the bargain, Salieri having been elevated to the esteemed role of Austrian Court Composer with his reputation growing and glowing, God suddenly turned on him by delivering into the world true musical genius in the form of the unutterably unbearable upstart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Turn of the Screw

Adapted from Henry James’ novel by Richard Hilliar. Tooth & Sinew. Seymour Centre, Chippendale, NSW. July 21 – August 12, 2023.

The threshold of what shocks and horrifies us has risen a lot since Henry James wrote his famous novella. Readers saw it then as a mere ghost story.

Set in a gothic old manor house, a governess arrives to care for two orphaned children who are oddly petulant, maybe possessed.  Since 1898, different generations have seen their own horrors in the many subsequent adaptations of this ambiguous tale.

Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. July 22 – August 27, 2023.

This deliciously macabre story from the Victorian gutters of London has been savoured for two centuries.  As a kid I once thought it was true.

From penny dreadful to melodramas, to Christopher Bond’s 1970s play adding a back story of the cruel injustice suffered by the demon barber, to Stephen Sondheim’s musical thriller, the truth of this story lies in the grim and inhumane poverty of those times.

Black Panther – in Concert Live to Film

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The Concert Hall Sydney Opera House. 27, 28 29 July, 2023

The giant screen looming high above and behind the orchestra is bright with the brilliant costumes of the female warriors and the blue and gold title of … Black PANTHER. The Concert Hall hums with a different buzz. It’s not your usual SSO audience. There are more families, young couples, hipsters, groupies – all MARVEL fans, all chatting in expectation … and many eating popcorn!

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