Reviews

Ballina Players never cease to entertain their audiences and their first production of the year, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, has set a very high standard for the 2019 season.

With a cast of around 50, the stage sprang to life and there wasn’t one dull spot in the whole performance.

As is the practice at Ballina, the January show is their youth production and with the majority of the cast and their five piece band under 25 it was an exhilarating experience. The best show I have enjoyed for the ten years that I have been reviewing there!

Using music, dance, projections and snatches of dialogue, Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image emphasises the visuality of theatre as it explores one of the most famous and vibrant Australian art stories. Brett Whiteley and Wendy Julius met and fell in love as teenagers at a time when social and artistic boundaries were being challenged and broken. Together they embraced a new era of excitement and risk-taking … in life and art.

The Blueberry Play is a warm, funny coming of age play, beautifully performed, that deals woith serious themes, but leaves the audience upfifted and fulfilled.

Originally developed by the Australian Theatre for Young People, and shortlisted for a Griffin Award, Ang Collins’ play is a first person monologue about a seventeen year old girl whose father is both bipolar and suffering from prostrate cancer, who is struggling with her growing feelings for a boy, and discovering her sexuality.

I’ll admit, reviewing Impromptunes was completely indulgent on my part. They have been reviewed before, but I just really wanted to see it. I was not disappointed.

Impromptunes is exactly as described. A completely new improvised musical at every performance. A cast of six (the line up varies) and a pianist, take a suggestion from the audience and perform that title over the next hour. Previous titles include Quarter Life Crisis, Texas Homeschool Prom, Mummies in Brunswick and Toyota Corolla.