Reviews

It’s a relatively rare event that brings Australian characters and all their quirks to the musical-theatre stage. This reality ensures that Matt Byrne Media’s new offering is, at minimum, a refreshingly unusual experience, even for those who may be familiar with the much-loved movie that marked Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic debut and which forms the basis of this show.

ZIRK! brings all the technological excitement of contemporary circus acts mixed with the age-old skills of juggling, balancing, high flying, and, of course, clowning. All of this occurs under the (very) Big Top, which seats 1650, has a circumference of 40 metres, is held up by king poles 18.5 metres high and is powered by 5 kilometres of cable. Valued at 1.2 million Australian dollars this enormous structure takes three full days to erect.

Garrick Theatre’s Popcorn explores the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, with a murder or two, or more, in a slick production with some superb performances.

This first play by Meyne Wyatt is a response to many of the events and losses in his own life and the effects they had on his family. All of this, in many ways, further stressed the feeling that his people – indigenous people from the Kalgoorlie region – are not treated equally. So the storyline goes. Breythe, who is employed doing racist, humiliating commercials in Sydney, returns to the city of gold on the death of his father who, by the way, continues to appear in his dreams.