Reviews

The Lonesome West

By Martin McDonagh. Directed by Keiran Brice. Presented by Troop Productions. Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, 8 – 18 November, 2017

Last night I saw something that made me very sad. The Lonesome West was one of the best plays I’ve seen all year. So it was sad to see such a small crowd in attendance. That superb cast and crew deserve to be playing to packed houses. They definitely earned the standing ovation they got at the end of this pitch perfect, dark comedy.

Wanted – one body!

By Charles Dyer. Castle Hill Players. Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. Nov 17 – Dec 9, 2017.

Written by British actor and playwright Charles Dyer, Wanted – one body! has been staged constantly since its first production in 1961. Set on a stormy night ‘many years ago’ in an old stately home in England, with lots of crashing thunder, flashing lightning, eerie wailing, a sliding panel and the occasional piercing scream, the play has all the essentials of a typical ‘whodunnit’. But, with a couple of disappearing corpses it turns from ‘thriller’ into a crazy mix of comedy and mystery.

The Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde. St Jude’s Players Inc. Directed by Rosie Aust assisted by Don Oakley. 16 – 25 November 2017

Oscar Wilde is the master of the comic line and the memorable phrase and there are many of these delights in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Let the Right One In

By John Ajvide Lindqvist, adapted by Jack Thorne. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Clare Watson. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. Nov 11 - Dec 3, 2017

Black Swan State Theatre Company’s final production of 2017 is a very dark incarnation of Let the Right One In.

Based on the Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist and adapted for the stage by Jack Thorne, it tells of Oskar, a 12 year old boy, lonely and bullied, who meets Eli, a mysterious and scruffy teenaged girl. The two form an unlikely but genuine friendship as local police attempt to solve a series of grizzly murders.

The Factory Girls

By Frank McGuinness. Irish Theatre Players. Directed by Ryan Taafe. The Irish Club, Subiaco, WA. Nov 11-25, 2017

The Irish Theatre Players presented this ensemble play by Frank McGuinness in the lovely community atmosphere of the Irish Club and some of the warmest front of house anywhere.

Set in County Donegal, the play tells of women at a shirt factory, whose jobs are under threat. The distinctive Donegal accents were well implemented by both Irish and Australian cast members - although tuning into the dialogue was a little difficult over noisy air conditioning and noise from the bar.

Scenes from a Marriage

By Joanna Murray-Smith. Queensland Theatre. Director: Paige Rattray. Playhouse, QPAC. 11 Nov – 3 Dec 2017

Ingmar Bergman’s television mini-series Scenes from a Marriage was said to have been the cause of almost doubling the Scandanavian divorce rates after it was shown in 1973. Over 40 years later his vivid dissection of an emotionally barren and corrosive marriage still packs a powerful punch.

Burlesque by Force

Nexus Arts. Lion Arts Centre. November 15 – 18, 2017

Burlesque by Force is a piece of ‘confessional theatre’. It is a deeply personal work, created by Brodie John and Marissa Bennett, dealing with John’s battle with acceptance after being raped in his first homosexual experience.

Asylum

By Ruth Fingret. Brave New Word Theatre. Comber Street Studios Paddington. November 15 – 25, 2017

Tucked inside a narrow gallery, the audience is pinned to the stark white wall as the drama unfolds so close you can reach and touch it.

When one of the characters stomped on a can it rebounded into a spectator's leg.

The narrow confines was a brilliant setting for intersecting interrogations. You felt on edge waiting for some heads to be cracked.

Craig ( David Woodland) is an immigration officer questioning Hajir (Eli Saad) about his application for asylum in Australia.

The Merry Widow

By Franz Lehar. Opera Australia. Director/Choreographer: Graeme Murphy. Conductor: Vanessa Scammell. Arts Centre Melbourne. November 15 – 25, 2017

When asked to direct a season of The Merry Widow some years ago, I studied various unsatisfactory translations before opting for The Merry Widow of Bluegum Creek, set in the Australian embassy in Paris. It was very funny.

Opera Australia opted for a new translation prepared for Western Australian Opera by Justin Fleming, and it was also very funny. The Pontevedrians all had Australian accents and much of the humour had an Aussie feel, without any mention of kangaroos. It went down well with the opening night audience.

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare. Villanova Players. Directed by Roslyn Johnson. Yeronga State High School, Annerley. November 3-19, 2017

When you go out for Italian but the fusion of a spicy Tex-Mex grabs your senses and pulls you in for a scandalous night of frivolity and belly laughs, you know you’ve just seen Much Ado About Nothing by the Villanova Players.

Roslyn Johnson would have loved to meet Shakespeare. She’s in love with him (that much is clear from her program notes), and as a director, she could have shown him how she accommodated his indomitable characters of Dogberry, Benedick, Beautrice, and Don John without letting their egos run away with the show, well almost.

 

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