Reviews

Two pen friends write to each other, beginning as teenagers and ending as mature women.  They exchange news of the trials of growing up, of falling in love, of their good and bad choices, pop music, careers, boyfriends, marriage, children, hopes, dreams, and their yearning to meet face-to-face.  Kieran Carroll’s play is based on the real letters New Zealander Tania McNaughton wrote to her friend Ute Dahlke in the DDR, and the letters Ute wrote to her.  The real Tania and Ute, the program tells us, have now been friends for forty-three years.

Yummy is a fabulous cabaret show that features a variety of seasoned drag and burlesque performers led by charismatic emcee, Valerie Hex. This is a sizzling show that is outrageously flamboyant in its costuming, dancing, and circus acts. Apart from figure hugging and revealing costuming the show also features some incredibly vertiginous high heels. Together with the loud thumping music and the unleashed sardonic humour Yummy Iconic produces a cocktail of unrelenting fun and laughter.

Southern Cross Soloists (SXS) is an Australian chamber group ensemble, established in 1995, whose concerts include an eclectic program often re-arranged to highlight solo playing while simultaneously providing suitable minimal accompaniment. This opens up more possibilities for choice, so, as in this performance, we have here opera arias, a duo, two contrasting concertos and even an arranged version of a large orchestral work.

Emotions were in full flood at QSO's latest concert program with a choice combination of two famous and well-regarded works, Elgar's Cello Concerto and Mahler's First Symphony, music creations inviting you to dig deep into the soul amidst contemplation and discovery. Both composers were at a point in their lives either historically or personally when music was the perfect avenue of expression, and what better vehicle at hand is the yearning passion of a solo cello or the infinite possibilites in composing for a large orchestra.