Reviews

Hostage

By Cerise Gelder. Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Directed by Elizabeth Walley. Gasworks Art Park. 4- 8 October, 2022

Cerise Gelder places her five strongly drawn characters into the pressured situation of being held hostage during a bank robbery with the threat of imminent death to explore relationships, personal intersections and the secrets which can be lived with but are of such importance they need to be revealed before death.

Each character faces their fears, shares their secrets, finds the importance of the others and, until there are just two left, is taken off to face death. The final two engage the robbers and capture one. This leads to the final denouement with a semi-happy ending.

Kinky Boots

North Queensland Opera and Music Theatre. Book by Harvey Fierstein. Music by Cyndi Lauper. Based on the Miramax Motion Picture Kinky Boots. Directed by Michelle Higgins. Vocal Direction Tony Woodhouse. Choreography by Lynda Tama. Music Direction Mark Smith. Townsville Civic Theatre. 5-15 October 2022.

IT WAS third time lucky for this production to finally open at the Townsville Civic Theatre. The floods of 2019 forced the cancellation of the original production and just one week before it was due to open in 2020, COVID forced the second production to be postponed indefinitely.

Everyman & His Dog

By Ron Elisha. Theatre Works, Explosives Factory, St Kilda. 5 – 8 October 2022

This is the story of a man who is given a dog.  That is to say, a somewhat curmudgeonly man who has a dog foisted upon him.  For his own good, of course.  He has never liked dogs, due in part to certain stinking childhood experiences.  He can’t accept ‘owning’ a living creature, and so he can’t bring himself to name it.  He calls it ‘Dog’.  

Afterplay

By Brian Friel. Directed by Kirsten von Bibra. La Mama HQ 205 Faraday Street, Carlton. 5-16 October 2022.

Lovers of Chekhov characters will delight in Friel’s 2002 exploration of two key personas from his canonical works. Sonya Serebriakova (Uncle Vanya,1897) and Andrey Prozorov (Three Sisters,1900). The play imagines them in a much later stage of life and focuses on their interaction after a chance encounter in a Moscow café.

The Comedy of Errors

By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Director: Janine Watson. Canberra Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. 1–8 October, 2022.

This production is a delightful re-imagining of Shakespeare’s early comedy, now placed in a sunny 1970s disco era, with natural voices, bright colours, and simple but imaginative staging.

Antipholus of Syracuse (Skyler Ellis) and Antipholus of Ephesus (Felix Jozeps) contrast with their  servants, Dromio of Syracuse (Julia Billington) and Dromio of Ephesus (Ella Prince), each playing up similarities and differences.

The Normal Heart

By Larry Kramer. State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre. 30 September to 15 October 2022

The State Theatre Company South Australia’s production of Larry Kramer’s 1985 autobiographical drama, The Normal Heart, is a complete triumph. Directed by Dean Bryant, designed by Jeremy Allen, with lighting by Nigel Livings, sound by Andrew Howard, original music by Hilary Kleinig, and an exceptional cast of actors, this production, whilst honouring and respecting the original, breathes new life into this powerful play.

Into the Woods

By James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim. The Show Company. Leiz Moore and Alan Jeffrey (Directors). Jill Munro (Set design). Helen Cronin (Costume coordinator, properties and puppets). Andrew Castles and Petr Divis (Musical Directors). Gareth Kays (Lighting). Jesse Eynon (Scenic Art). The Theatre Royal, Hobart. 1-15 October 2022

Sondheim, recently deceased, was a great storyteller who wrote music of beauty and complexity. The score of Into the Woods is thematically rich and textured and can only be adequately realised by performers of a certain calibre.

The Meeting

By Jeff Stetson. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. 27 September – 23 October 2022

In a bare room, high above Harlem, a stack of chairs in the corner, Malcolm X (Christopher Kirby) sleeps on a wooden table.  He’s woken by a nightmare.  Why not?  He’s under continuous FBI surveillance and his former religious organisation, then Nation of Islam, is now his implacable enemy.  His bodyguard, Rashad (Akhilesh Jain), jumpy and suspicious to the point of paranoia, questions the imminent visit of Dr Martin Luther King (Dushan Philips)…  

Art

By Yasmina Reza and Christopher Hampton. Directed by Andrew O’Connell. Holmes à Court Gallery, North Perth. Sep 29 - Oct 2, 2022

An unconventional performance space can make or break a theatrical production, but the Holmes à Court Gallery was an inspired and excellent choice for the performance of Art, as well as allowing audiences the pleasure of viewing the Mangkaja Exhibition, currently on show at the gallery.

Legally Blonde – the Musical

By Laurence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin and Heather Hach. Blackout Theatre Company. Director: Cierwen Newell. Pioneer Theatre Castle Hill. 30 September – 9 October, 2022.

There are some great things happening in the arts in Western Sydney – as I keep saying – and this is yet another of them. Blackout Theatre came out of the COVID cloud with the NSW amateur premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical in 2021, a fine production of Chicago in May this year  and now an equally fine production of Legally Blonde. If their aim is to get bigger and better, they are certainly achieving it! This production is very slick, very funny …  and poignantly pink … just as it should be!

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