Reviews

True Minds

By Joanna Murray Smith. Centenary Theatre Group. Director: Gary O'Neil. Chelmer Community Centre, Chelmer, Qld. March 3 - 24, 2018

Joanna Murray Smith is one of Australia’s most prolific and popular playwrights. She knows her middle-class audience and writes accordingly. The premise of True Minds is that a man never marries a woman his mother doesn’t approve of, a concept espoused in a best-selling book by the protagonist Daisy Grayson (Beck Haining).

Gingzilla: Glamonster vs the World

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Spiegel Zelt at Gluttony. February 27 to March 18 2018

I used to think that Rhonda Burchmore had the longest legs in the business, that is, until I met Gingzilla: Glamonster vs the World.

The show starts before you even enter the Spiegel Zelt. Glamzilla, ever the hostess, dressed as a cinema usherette from bygone days, passes out cups of popcorn and Jaffas and gets to know her audience.

Hamlet

Written by William Shakespeare. Adapted by James Elliott. Directed by James Elliott and Kat Dekker Presented by Growl Theatre. Windsor School of Arts. Feb 23 - Mar 10, 2018

Some 417 years after an all-male cast first performed Hamlet it’s been reimagined with an all-female ensemble. It sounded like an exciting proposition. Not only were all the roles played by women, the roughly four-hour script was cut down to a little over two hours long. Some scenes and characters were entirely removed and new dialogue and songs were added. The resulting script was one that heightened the feelings of Hamlet’s existential madness and did create a somewhat different narrative journey to the one with which you’d be familiar.

Mental As Everything

Australian Premiere. Presented by Under The Microscope. Adelaide Fringe. Queen's Theatre At The Lab. Playhouse Lane, Adelaide. March 2-4, 2018

Imagine seeing courage sharing a stage with cabaret. Tucked away in the city, far from the bright razzamatazz of Fringe activity in Adelaide’s East End, an unassuming performance brilliantly showcases this rare mix and it’s taken my breath away.

Mental As Everything stars Damon Smith and Adam Coad. Each suffers from a mental health issue, but they face it head on in this show, a production that melds mental health with music in a unique, entertaining and impactful way.

Split

Adelaide Festival. AC Arts Main Theatre. 2 - 5 Mar, 2018

Split is a tour de force of dance. The opening night audience was one that clearly appreciated and understood dance. Split opened to a full house, and as seems to be fashionable, started eight minutes late.

La Traviata

By Giuseppe Verdi. Opera Australia. Directed by Elijah Moshinsky. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. March 1- 27, 2018

The standing ovation for this revival of La Traviata is for one, primary reason: the star, Nicole Car. This young Australian soprano is triumphant in her debut as Violetta.

The other lead actors are good too - and this is a fine Opera Australia production, even if it feels past its prime. But what stands out is Car’s wonderful voice: warm, gorgeous and able to power through any scene, even in her character Violetta’s most vulnerable moments.

Kalamunda, Here I Come

By Noel O'Neill. Directed by Caroline McDonnell. KADS Town Square Theatre, Kalamunda, WA. Feb 14 - Mar 3, 2018

Kalamunda, Here I Come, by West Australian author Noel O’Neill, had its World Premiere and a successful run at the Irish Theatre Players in late 2016. KADS now present this show in its “spiritual home, in Kalamunda.

Noel O’Neill, who is Cork born, and often has an Irish flavour in his writing, now lives in Kalamunda and tells the tale of a young Irish woman who is considering a move across the world to the strange sounding Kalamunda. A kitchen-sink drama of the best kind, it deals with family life and is warm and funny.

Fiddler on the Roof

Book by Jospeh Stein. Music by Jerry Bock. Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Rockdale Musical Society. Rockdale Town Hall. March 2 - 11, 2018.

The characters of Fiddler on the Roof remind the world of the effects of oppression in one of the most effective ways possible – through theatre and music. Though set in the mythical, 19th century town of Anatevka, the effects of change and discrimination faced by that small community are not too far away from the changing and troubled places in the world today.

Twelfth Night

By William Shakespeare. Melbourne Shakespeare Company. Victoria Gardens. Mar 2 - 4, 2018.

Twilight is a magical hour in the gardens, especially on a balmy March evening sipping my chardonnay and enjoying the magnificent Twelfth Night, the new production by Melbourne Shakespeare Company performed in the sumptuous Victoria Gardens.

Hamlet

By Brett Dean (musical score) and Matthew Jocelyn (libretto). A Glyndebourne Festival Opera Production. Adelaide Festival 2018. Festival Theatre, Adelaide. March 2 - 6, 2018

Hamlet (the opera) is one of the jewels of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. It is a juggernaut, featuring an orchestra of 70, a cast of approximately 60 and a set that is monumental.

The Festival Theatre was packed to the rafters on the first night of this long-awaited opera and anticipation was at a peak. The audience was not disappointed.

The real heroes of this opera are Shakespeare, Brett Dean (musical score) and Matthew Jocelyn (libretto).

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