Reviews

Wanneroo Repertory’s first show for 2024 is the modern classic An Inspector Calls, a beautifully structured play that reminds us that our actions have consequences and serves as an allegory for society and the events of the early twentieth century. Director Gordon Park clearly understands this work and has handled the production with care.

Brihanna, brash and outspoken, wants the truth to be told about her deceased baby but she needs a ‘ghost writer’ to tell it. Robert wants to publish the story but it’s got to be finished in six weeks. Claudia, his daughter and first choice as the writer, is not well but willing to give it a go, while Claudia’s completely anonymous lover watches from the sidelines before being drawn into this ghostly hodgepodge.

Two haute bourgeoise sisters meet for lunch every Tuesday at a ‘fine dining’ restaurant.  Usually, they would discuss the minutiae of their lives, complain about their husbands or their hairdressers or their health, or the state of the world hors de combat.  There is even a reference to Sondheim’s ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ but here it’s minus the corrosive, angry irony of that song.

This triumphant theatrical saga about three Bavarian brothers immigrating to America in the 1840s and from a fabric shop in Alabama building a global investment bank has had a long gestation.  

Originally a three act Italian play, adapted by British playwright Ben Power and directed for London’s National Theatre by Sam Mendes in 2018, applauded and translated around the world, this finely tuned epic is performed by just three remarkable actors.