By Broken Crayon Productions. Fringe World, WA. Directed by Charlie Darlington. Jan 15-19, 2022
The second of two Sh*t We Like to Sing offerings this Fringe World season, Under the Rainbow, explores gender, sexuality and what makes us, using the songs that the performers just love to sing.
Playing, very appropriately, at Connections Nightclub, the show features six very talented performers (and depending on the night, a guest performer or two).
Written and directed by Suzanne Ingelbrecht. Midland Junction Arts Centre, WA. Jan 14-16, 2022
Beautifully acted by two very strong performers, this World Premiere production tells a story inspired by the relationship between Mary Shelley and her friend Mary Diana Dods, an illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Morton who wrote as David Lyndsay and assumed the identity of aristocrat Sir Walter Sholto Douglas in order to marry another friend, Isabella Robinson, who was pregnant and had been abandoned.
By Colin Ebsworth. FringeWorld, The Goodwill Cub at the Recabite, William St, Northbridge, WA. Jan 14-Feb 13, 2021
Originally advertised as playing just three performances until January 16, the clear popularity of Me, My Cult and I has led to a ‘return season’ late in the FringeWorld festival.
Colin Ebsworth’s parents were matched by Reverend Sun Myung Moon and married in a mass wedding ceremony with thousands of other couples in in Madison Square Gardens. Born in Alabama, Colin grew up in Perth, as part of the Unification Church, colloquially known as the ‘Moonies”.
By Trevor Todd. Much Productions. FringeWorld. Directed by Jane Sherwood. After Dark, Pier St, Perth WA. Jan 16-25, 2022
Have you ever wondered what the subjects in your favourite portraits are thinking? Arty Facts, presented by Much Productions for FringeWorld, is a little show that attempt to answer that question, as we meet the people in the pictures, in a series of comedic vignettes.
Playing well in the intimate space of After Dark, three performers don a variety of quick costumes - and are usually instantly recognisable as the artwork.
Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 15 January 2022
Russell Morris won't like this review because I am going to describe him using a word he hates: 'icon'. But to me, he is an Aussie music icon because, like most of his compadres from our music industry from the 1960s to present day, he's highly underrated and has had to adapt to survive in an industry that would really rather he had success overseas. Instead he chooses to stay in Australia and reinvent himself to continue to work.
Broken Crayon Productions. Directed by Dylan Dorotich. Connections Night Club, Northbridge, WA. Jan 14-20, 2022
FringeWorld is back, and with it two new ‘episodes’ in what has become known as the “Sh*t Show”. The first of these is Sh*t We Like To Sing - Unfiltered, featuring an all female line-up and set at a sleepover.
Great work from the pyjama clad performers, Dylan Dorotich, Grace Johnson, Shannon Rogers, Danielle McDonald and Charlotte Louise.
By Eddie Zipperer, Barbara Weichmann and Peter Manos. Directed by Matthew Roberts, Adam Giltrow, Kailem Mollard and Roxanne Moore. Garrick Theatre, Guildford, WA. Jan 13-22, 2022
One Act Seasons in Perth used to be a very common pathway for emerging directors. Garrick has revived this tradition for their first season of 2022, with three very different plays, directed by four first time directors.
By Edward Albee. State Theatre Company SA. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Sydney Festival. January 13 – 23, 2022.
Edward Albee was highly prescriptive about how his plays were cast and staged, as was his estate after he died in 2016. And nowhere was this more so than with this famous American all white classic of the 1960’s.
So it’s a happy surprise director Margaret Harvey was able to cast three actors of colour with one Anglo Australian in this State Theatre Company SA update – adding race to lurk in the gladiatorial epic between the four this one drunken night.
Written and directed by Bello Benischauer. Existence Theatre. Old Customs House, Phillimore St, Fremantle, WA. FringeWorld. Jan 14-22, 2021
Existence Theatre’s Departing Minds is a highly physical, ethereal piece of theatre that asks the audience to examine their beliefs and perhaps their existence.
A group of people scattered around the world are afraid of losing their freedom, so with the help of a mysterious phone ap, they leave their old lives behind, and escape to a forest. Once together they realise that despite their shared feelings, they actually have little in common, and they are forced to face themselves.
By Glace Chase. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf Theatre. January 8 – February 26,
My sister reckons that contemporary plays, especially Australian ones, rarely tell happy love stories. I’ll suggest she go to Triple X for an update on the genre.
