Reviews | Stage Whispers

Iphigenia in Splott - Redux

By Gary Owen. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, East St Kilda. 3 September – 22 September 2024

Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre first presented Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott in June-July 2021 to great acclaim: audiences were overwhelmed, and there were three much deserved Green Room Awards: Performance, Direction and Design. In 2024, Red Stitch brings back this funny, visceral, confronting monologue with the same team: Jessica Clarke as ‘Effie’, director Gary Abrahams, and designers Jacob Battista & Sophie Woodward. Here is Stage Whispers 2021 review (redux) with a few tweaks and amendments…

Read more

Puccini Double Bill

Presented by Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University as part of the Brisbane Festival. Music by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. Conservatorium Theatre. 3-7 September 2024

Puccini's two contrasting one-act operas are an excellent choice for students of classical voice not only because of their vocal requirements but also their intriguing theatricality and diversity of character. After recently viewing a production of the university's musical theatre department and now the talents of the opera school, I am equally impressed by the standard of presentation, though in this instance these works are a worthy example of two diverse and demanding scores that require far more intense and expert vocal training.

Read more

The Vicar of Dibley

By Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter, adapted from the TV series by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer-Archer. Harbour Theatre. Directed by Jarrod Buttery. Hamilton Hill, Memorial Hall, WA. Aug 30 - Sep 8, 2024

Harbour Theatre are the most recent victims of the roof collapsing trend blighting Perth theatres. Currently unable to use their regular home, Camelot, in Mosman Park, they were looking for a popular, bums-on-seats show to attract an audience to their temporary venue, Hamilton Hill’s Memorial Hall, and they have found a great choice in this stage adaptation of The Vicar of Dibley.

Read more

Roleystone Theatre One Act Season

By Aydee Bull, Anton Chekhov and Steven Herrick and Andre Victor. Directed by Aydee Bull, Paul Treasure and Andre Victor. Roleystone Theatre, WA. Aug 30-31, 2024

Roleystone Theatre delivered three very different one act plays as part of a very short one act season. With two locally written shows, one of which was a musical and a Russian classic, it was certainly a diverse selection.

Read more

LIMBO – The Return

Presented by Brisbane Festival and Strut & Fret. Conceived and directed by Scott Maidment. Original music by Sxip Shirey. The West End Electric, 29 August – 21 September 2024.

It’s dangerous and death defying, it's flirtatious and sexy, it's spiritual and it's visceral. It has been ten years in the making, and it's toured and received a dictionary’s worth of positive hyperbole from audiences and critics across 17 countries. LIMBO is so cool even Madonna has seen it – twice! When you’re a critic heading into a show like this, you wonder if it will live up to all of the hype. Spoiler alert: oh yes, you’d better believe it will.

Read more

West Side Story

Music: Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Book: Arthur Laurents. MLOC Productions Inc. & Casey Philharmonic Orchestra. Bunjil Place, Narre Warren. August 29 – September 31, 2021.

Photographer: Perren Bonsall

From the first notes to the final breath, West Side Story is one of the most memorable musicals and greatest love stories of all time. Arthur Laurents' book remains as powerful, poignant, and timely as ever. The score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim is widely regarded as one of the best written. The world's greatest love story takes to the streets in this landmark Broadway musical that is one of the theatre's finest accomplishments.

Read more

A Streetcar Named Desire

By Tennessee Williams. Spotlight Theatrical Company. Directed by Hunter Kerr. The Basement Theatre, Gold Coast. August 23 – September 7, 2024

Tennessee Williams is an icon amongst American playwrights, but not an easy one to relate to. His writing vacillates between lyrical and mellifluous and OTT high campery which is a stretch for even the finest actors. One could argue that his voice is no longer relevant, except that his writing thematically is about exploring sexuality…and isn’t that always relevant?

Read more

The Children’s Bach

Composer Andrew Schultz. Libretto Glen Perry after the novel by Helen Garner. Lyric Opera of Melbourne & Theatre Works. Theatre Works, St Kilda. 29 August – 7 September 2024

The Fox family live happily enough, it seems, by inner Melbourne’s Meri Creek – Athena (Kate Amos), Dexter (Michael Honeyman) and their autistic son Billy (alternating Ben Touzel and Chris Touzel) who does not speak. But sophisticated Elizabeth (Juel Riggall), an old girlfriend of Dexter’s, shows up with her younger sister, immature hostile-dependant teenager Vicki (Lucy Schneider) and Elizabeth’s seductive musician boyfriend Philip (Adrian Li Donnni) and his young daughter Poppy (Chloe Taylor). The Fox household seems warm and welcoming, but Ath

Read more

And Then There Were None

By Agatha Christie. Presented by Phoenix Variety and Music Group. McLaren Vale Institute Hall, SA. 31 August – 8 September 2024

Community theatre means many things to different people, but what Phoenix Variety and Music Group bring to McLaren Vale is theatre for the community. Keen supporters – family, friends and locals alike – are laden with hampers of food; the round tables see people who don’t know each sitting shoulder to shoulder, sipping the local wine, and enjoying the theatre on the Institute Hall stage.

Read more

The Children

By Lucy Kirkwood. Black Swan State Theatre. Directed by Mel Cantwell. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, WA. Aug 24 - Sep 15, 2024

Lucy Kirkwood is a much-lauded playwright, described as one of the best of her generation, and this production, from Black Swan Theatre, does justice to one of her most well-known plays. Well-acted and thoughtfully directed, this production is well crafted and fascinating to watch.

This is the second production of this play in Perth, the first being Theatre 180’s excellent pre-Covid production, performed in a tiny venue, and unfortunately not widely seen. Black Swan allows this story to reach a bigger audience.

Read more