Reviews

Sweeney Todd

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Book: Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond. Toowoomba Chorale Society. Director: Mary Quade. Musical Director: Shane Tooley. Choreographer: Daniel Erbacher. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. 1-3 September 2017

This was the first production I have ever seen of Sweeney Todd where there has been an absence of blood. Yes, there was the high-pitched orchestral whistle-scream at every grisly murder and an image splashed on a window but no actual fake red blood anywhere. Even at the finale when Tobias cuts Sweeney’s throat there was nothing oozing from the slash. It was one of the features of Mary Quade’s highly-stylised production of Stephen Sondheim’s take on the 1840s melodrama of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Momentum

WAAPA’s Second Year Acting production. Directed by Andy Paris. Enright Studio, WAAPA, ECU, Mt Lawley, WA. Aug 25-31, 2017

WAAPA’s Second Year Acting Students have been exploring Moment Work. This self-devised production is a result of this study.

Thanks to a grant from the Minderoo Foundation, students were given the opportunity to work with American Andy Paris to explore Moment Work, which is a technique used for theatrical development and analysis. Created by Moises Kaufman, the process has been developed by the Tectonic Theatre Project (of which Andy Paris is a member), and used, perhaps most famously, to develop The Laramie Project.

It Takes Two: Songs In The Key Of Giraffe

Red Giraffe Theatre. Dirty Martini’s Mackay. August 27th, 2017.

Red Giraffe Theatre have only been established in Mackay since 2015, but they are already renowned for delivering first class productions and that was exactly what the audience of their latest cabaret act, It Takes Two: Songs In The Key Of Giraffe got for their ticket money this weekend - class all the way.
Anybody can put on a show, serve up a beer along with it and call it Cabaret, but to a more discerning audience, a lot more elements need to be present for a production to be defined as being a true cabaret experience and producers of Red Giraffe Theatre, Joel Bow and T

Our Boys

By Jonathan Lewis. Adelaide Repertory Theatre Company. Arts Theatre Adelaide. 31st Aug-9th Sept 2017

They say ‘War is hell’, ‘It’s not a game’.

In this wonderfully clever production, Our Boys, Dave Simms has masterfully opened a window into the effect of the horror of war on five veterans.

This is probably one of the best productions I have seen from Adelaide Repertory Theatre Company for multiple reasons - the talent and presence of the actors, skilful directing and a moving insightful story.

Fish

By the rollercoaster theatre ensemble, dramaturge Sarah Sutherland; directed by Maude Davey. Rollercoaster Theatre Company. Melba Spiegeltent, 35 Johnston Street, Collingwood VIC. 31 August – 2 September 2017

Fish – as in ‘something’s fishy about this’ – is a kind of cabaret-comedy show about fear.  A series of sketches, songs and dances have been devised by the cast: Andrew Tresidder, Cameron Stanley, David Baker, Erin Pocervina, Michael Buxton, Shea McDonough and Ryan New.  Carolyn Bock and Grace Lowry are support performers and dance captains.  And Jane Bayly helps with the songs.

Love and Information 

By Caryl Churchill. WAAPA. Directed by Andrew Lewis. The Roundhouse Theatre, ECU, Bradford St, Mt Lawley, WA. August 25-31, 2017

WAAPA’s Third Year Acting performed Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information - a fast paced ensemble piece - as their final full scale production.

Love and Information is presented in seven sections, with each section divided into seven scenes. Scenes are given no particular context, characters rarely have names, and there is only one continuing story. Each scene lasts between a few seconds and around five minutes.

Puttin’ On The Ritz

Mellen Events. Concert Hall, QPAC. 30 August 2017

The Brits have an obsession with the BBC TVs Strictly Come Dancing bordering on the fanatical. Apart from becoming an institution that’s revered as much as the Royal Family, it’s also in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most successful TV show of its kind. Puttin’ On the Ritz, a song-and-dance stage spin-off of the series, has been touring the UK for years and began its first Australian tour yesterday at QPAC’s Concert Hall. If you like sequins, spangles and loads of bling then this show’s for you.

Switzerland

By Joanna Murray-Smith. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Lawrie Cullen-Tait. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth WA. Aug 19 - Sep 3, 2017

The curtain rises on a bunker-like room, set on an unnerving sideways rake. We meet our two characters, real-life persona, writer Patricia Highsmith and a representative from her New York publisher, an eager young man called Edward Ridgeway. At first it appears that this is a room from which there is no escape, but in this show, things are rarely as they appear.

Where the Streets Had a Name

By Eva Di Cesare, based on the book by Randa Abdel-Fattah. Monkey Baa Theatre Company. Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres Parramatta. Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2017

“When your home is occupied and you have no right of return, you hold on to what you can: the key to the front door; the title deeds to your land; a jar of soil”.

In this sentence from her program notes, Eva Di Cesare defines the essence of Randa Abdel-Fattah’s novel – just as her perceptive adaptation and deft direction capture the novel’s messages of the personal/political effects of occupation, violence and injustice.

 

La Vida Breve and Gianni Schicchi

By Manuel de Falla and Giocomo Puccini respectively. Directed by Nicholas Cannon and Douglas McNicol respectively. State Opera SA and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Conductor and Chorus Master - Brian Castles-Onion AM. August 30 & 31, 2017

La Vida Breveand Gianni Schicchi were presented as a double bill in a concert performance. The first, by Manuel de Falla, has the passion and tragedy of love when it is mixed with class conflict. The second has the wit and comedy of classic Commedia dell’Arte heightened by a Puccini soundtrack. La Vida Breve was a mixed experience whereas Gianni Schicchi was a thoroughly engaging and wonderful romp.

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