Reviews

This is another theatrical ‘scoop’ for the Ensemble. It’s a formidable piece of writing that demands robust direction and dynamic performances. Director Susanna Dowling and her cast have achieved both.

From the first surprising sentence, to the last touching moment, this production is gutsy and passionate, the characters unaffectedly authentic and brutally honest, the direction tight and the pace immaculately controlled.

Justin Fleming has a knack for this.  For the Australian stage, he’s translated and masterfully adapted Moliere’s Tartuffe and The School for Wives, and here reworks Moliere’s Les Femmes Savantes. 

Directed by Griffin’s Lee Lewis, it’s a co-production with the Bell Shakespeare Company, with five powering performances delightfully squeezed onto the modest Griffin stage.

Recess! is essentially a string of "Teacher, Teacher!" jokes, with a fragment of storyline, turned into a musical. Presumably originally aimed at Middle America, it is an inoffensive, pleasant little comedy, intended to have broad appeal.

Phoenix's young cast consists of high school students from Years 7 to 12, who bring a broad range of experience to this show.

The Herringbone Saga is a locally written play and this production is a world premiere of the show as a full-length piece — directed by the author Bob Charteris.

The script began as one-act-play "At Home With the Herringbones" which was well received at DramaFest in 2014, winning a People's Choice Award. This play now forms the first act of the full length play. The second act (which could also be performed as the one Act play "The Curse of the Herringbones") is part sequel, part prequel and part sister production to the original play.