Reviews

For Love Nor Money

By Angus Cameron. Melbourne Fringe. Victorian Theatre Company. Directed by Justin Nott. Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Meeting Room, Cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts, Carlton. 11 - 22 October, 2023

Three people share their needs for love, money and recognition. Sometimes they meet each others’ needs and sometimes they most definitely don’t. Mel (Clarissa Bonello), Ryan (Matthew Connell and Liam (alexander Lloyd ) meet one night and the joys and difficulties begin.

Their motives are mixed and their affections fickle. There is a good deal of manipulation and ambition. The playwright throws in a non-linear timeline to add to the confusion. However, the three actors and the script carry the audience along to a not too surprising ending.

Brand Bollywood Downunder

Temple Production Company/ Bollywood Downunder Films Pty Ltd. In cinemas from November 2, 2023

I am certainly not a Bollywood novice, but I must confess to knowing little or nothing about the history of Bollywood in Australia, so Brand Bollywood Downunder was a revelation!

Anupam Sharma’s Brand Bollywood Downunder is a feature documentary about the ‘Bollywoodisation’ and globalisation of Indian cinema through its 89-year-old love affair with Australia.

Twelfth Night

By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. October 26 – November 19, 2023.

In Sydney for its last stop, this Twelfth Night has travelled many more nights and days  across the country.  With an economical staging, using just an old piano and dead tree branches, Shakespeare’s arguably funniest comedy is here fashioned to appeal to schools – simple storytelling with lots of topical gender-bending and boisterous funny business.

The Memory of Water

By Shelagh Stephenson. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Directed by Rachel Chant. 20 October – 25 November, 2023

Opening in London in 1996, this first play by Shelagh Stephenson was awarded the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Linking memory, bereavement and richly funny family relationships and events, it is given a full-on comedy production here by director Rachel Chant.

Set in a seaside Yorkshire house, expected to soon end up under water, an all-female family gather to deal with the death of their once sprightly mother from Alzheimer’s disease at 75. It’s Winter and blowing a gale, and the metaphor of water runs right through the play. 

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella

Music: Richard Rodgers. Lyrics & Original Book: Oscar Hammerstein II. New Book: Douglas Carter Beane. NOVA Music Theatre Inc. Director: Noel Browne. Music Director: John Clancy. Co-Choreographers: Wayne Robinson & Julie Wright. The Round, 379-399 Whitehorse Road, Nunawading. October 20-29, 2023.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella is a timeless musical that has captured the hearts of audiences for decades. Originally starring Julie Andrews, Cinderella (the only R&H musical written directly for television in 1957) was watched by more than 107 million viewers in the US alone. Another adaptation in 1965 featured Ginger Rogers as the stepmother.

Girls in Boys’ Cars

By Felicity Castagna. Adapted and directed by Priscilla Jackman. National Theatre of Parramatta. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 25 Oct – 3 Nov, 2023

Felicity Castagna writes about aspects of life that resound with ordinary people, especially ordinary young people growing up in the suburbs, away from the rarefied atmosphere of the CBD. Her characters come from different backgrounds, different cultures, from the Australia that is busy and varied, bubbling with hopes and expectations – and the strength that comes from overcoming disillusion and disappointment.

Alzheimer’s The Musical

By Maureen Sherlock. Directed by Dale James. Roxy Lane Theatre, Maylands WA. Oct 13 – 22, 2023

As a person in my fifties, it is rare that I feel young in an audience, but I felt decidedly youthful in the crowd at Roxy Lane’s Alzheimer’s the Musical, subtitled “A Night to Remember”. Less about Alzheimer’s than the complexities of aging in general, this three-woman show is part jukebox musical, part revue and part skit comedy, and kept a capacity audience chuckling throughout.

The Glass Menagerie

By Tennessee Williams. Hobart Repertory Theatre Company. Director – Jeff Kevin. Set – Jill Munro. Lighting – Jason James. The Playhouse Hobart. 13-28 October, 2023

Rarely has set, sound, light, language and performance so perfectly coalesced as in this production of Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie.

Flake

Written by Dan Lee and co-created by Chi Nguyen. Red Stitch. October 11 – November 5, 2023.

In a small basement kitchen, somewhere in Hanoi, a seething drama unfolds between two old friends and a go-between. New Australian play Flake by Dan Lee, co-created by Chi Nguyen, developed and produced through the Red Stitch INK program, is directed by Red Stitch’s Artistic Director Ella Caldwell.

Heathers – the Musical

By Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, based on the film by Daniel Waters. Blackout Theatre Company. Director Jordan Anderson. Pioneer Theatre Castle Hill. 20 – 29 October, 2023

Coming to this production ‘cold’ but having been advised of the ‘cult following’ of the movie on which it is based, I was still surprised by the exhilaration of the audience and their exuberant reaction to the characters and the music. The theatre vibrated with an air of expectation as the house lights faded. It was clear that most of the audience was there to greet the production with enthusiastic joy – and Jordan Anderson and his cast and choreographers didn’t let them down.

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