Reviews

BATS Theatre’s season of Disney’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame at the Tony Sheumack Performing Arts Centre has closed to thunderous applause. I was lucky enough to see their final performance on Sunday the 8th. To the entire company, made up of cast, crew and orchestra, this show was truly a treat. I personally have never seen a BATS show before, but I was aware of the company and what they had produced over the years, so I was very excited to see what they had cooked up.

Set against the backdrop of a dystopian future, Famished Future Feeders presents a haunting yet humorous vision of humanity's potential trajectory. The clever script by Jules Broun unfolds in a bafflingly backward yet ultra-advanced near-future where global famine, energy, and environmental crises have been resolved. The only problem is that it comes at the exorbitant cost of limited freedom, draconian punishments and cannibalism.

Jukebox musicals are a strange creature - they either work or they are a disaster. TINA – The Tina Turner Musical, takes the former and elevates it to a Supernova which makes the sun pale by comparison. I’m going to resist the trap of saying it’s S#m**y T*e B+^t …because every reviewer and his computer literate dog has used that song title – but the fact is it is all that and more.

Climate change raises so many immense and challenging global complexities, that a physical theatre company is naturally overstretched in offering a meaningful perspective in barely an hour.

Marrugeku is well placed to give it a go, as an innovative yet decades-old company of Indigenous and non-Indigenous players, with one foot in Broome WA and another in Sydney.