Reviews

Shake It

Adelaide Fringe Festival. Presented by Highwire Entertainment & Gluttony. The Peacock at Gluttony. Tuesday 1 March to Saturday 19 March, 2022.

Burlesque, a well-established art form in itself, relies on scandalous humor, high glamour, and elaborate staging, and this year’s 55 minute Shake It Fringe offering provides just that. A variety show, including striptease, this show embraces old fashioned glamour, temptation, raucous and carefully planted entendres, and truly gorgeous bodies. Traditional burlesque integrates striptease with vaudeville, comedy sketches, circus, acrobatics, juggling, and singing, and all of that is included across the nine performance numbers.

In Their Footsteps

By Ashley Adelman. Produced by Theatre Travels. Directed by Carly Fisher. The Courtyard Theatre Canberra, 25-26 February, 2022 and The Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide Fringe Festival, 8 – 12 March.

Did you know that the Army set up libraries in Vietnam? Or that there were civilian women employed to try to cheer young soldiers by just talking to them? Or that a rising young African-American female military strategist had predicted that the Tet Offensive was imminent? Or that when she tried desperately to convince her superiors, they ignored her? These are stories full of confusion, horror, political awakening and also a surprising amount of warmth and humour—you can feel the heart poured into Theatre Travels’ In Their Footsteps.

Partridge String Quartet & James Morley

Presented by Musica Viva. Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt St, Southbank, Melbourne. Tuesday 1st March and Saturday 5th March, 2022

Musica Viva’s FutureMakers program develops and nurtures emerging musical talent in Australia. The Melbourne-based ensemble Partridge String Quartet are the 2020-2022 FutureMakers and their incredible talent is currently on show at the Recital Centre. The quartet features Jos Jonker (Guest Violin), Mana Ohashi (Violin), Eunise Cheng (Viola)

Daniel Smith (Cello), and they team up with cellist, James Morley, for a performance of Franz Schubert's final chamber work, the String Quintet in C major. 

Disenchanted

Adelaide Fringe. The Garage International. 1-17 March 2022

A 17th century Parisian salon is the place to be to get the real truths behind what we think we know about fairy tales. Madame d’Aulnoy hosts a bevy of familiar villains and victims who offer their perspectives through song.

Eliane Morel takes on every character, changing costume and accent along with the persona of the likes of an Ugly Sister, Sleeping Beauty, and the Wolf, with great musical and comedic support on the harpsicord and piano from Daryl Wallis.

Girls and Boys

By Dennis Kelly. State Theatre Company South Australia. The Odeon, Norwood. 2-12 March 2022

Written by playwright Dennis Kelly in 2016 Girls and Boys features Justine Clarke in the demanding one-person work with evocative direction from State Theatre Company’s Mitchell Butel.  Ms Clarke’s performance is a revelation and her immersion in the character is intense and riveting throughout this soliloquy where the audience is privy to reminiscences, opinions and confessions in our assumed role of listener; a kind of second character implicit (perhaps even complicit) in the narrative.

Lenore: A Tale of Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance.

By by Amy Hollow & Steven T. Boltz, inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Cracked Actors Theatre, Victoria. February 23 to March 6, 2022.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American gothic writer. best known for his poems and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He has inspired generations of creatives to produce material that reflects on his works.

Anna Karenina

The Australian Ballet with Orchestra Victoria. Melbourne 24th Feb – 9th, 2022. Mar. Sydney 5th - 23rd April. Live Stream 8th March

The Australian Ballet’s co-production (with the Joffrey Ballet) of Anna Karenina has been a long time coming to the Melbourne stage. Originally scheduled as part of the 2020 season, the closures of the pandemic have left this ballet in the wings for two years.  At first glance, the epic Russian story of love, lust and loss seems the perfect vehicle with which to launch the season. 

Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner

Written by Jasmine Lee-Jones. Co-Directed by Zindzi Okenyo and Shari Sebbens. Presented by La Boite Theatre. A Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Green Door Theatre production. Roundhouse Theatre. 24 February – 12 March 2022

Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre has kicked off their 2022 season with the critically acclaimed Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner. It’s no wonder people have been loving this play, and its fabulously funny rapid-fire banter. It’s packed with gallows humour that slayed the opening-night audience. The play delivered so many laugh-out-loud moments at times the crowd’s delight drowned-out the dialogue.

Home Thoughts

By James Watson. Adelaide Fringe. Bakehouse Theatre. 28 February – 5 March, 2022

‘Even West End’s moved away,’ says Clara, venting her frustration when returning to her home city of Adelaide. Her older sister Sarah has never left (‘weekends in Victor don’t count’), her simmering acceptance of what she is, and has, finally boiling over. For both sisters, this story is about their choices, how they see themselves after they’ve made them, and what to do next.

Blackadder Goes Forth

By Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. Directed by Callon Leam. Rockingham Theatre, The Castle, Attwood Way, Rockingham, WA. Feb 25-Mar 6, 2022

First time director Callon Leam did not choose an easy path for his first production, with the tricky to stage Blackadder Goes Forth. Originally written for TV, it provides some challenges for theatre. To compound this, Covid regulations lead to some cast challenges. Well received by its opening night audience, this is an entertaining and smooth production and a credit to its emerging director.

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