By Marcel Dorney. Elbow Room. Meat Market Studios, North Melbourne. July 20 – 27, 2018
Prehistoric is a landmark show; a fierce punk-driven piece of theatre, set in Brisbane and looking back in time during Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen’s reign of brutal law enforcement, across the state of Queensland.
An Elbow Room production, written and directed by Marcel Dorney, Prehistoric is back for another season before heading off to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. It was a Green Room Award winner for writing and new production in 2015, after its debut in Brisbane the previous year.
By Bizet. West Australian Opera. Directed by Lindy Hume. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. 21-28 July, 2018
This production of Carmen was created 26 years ago in Perth by director Lindy Hume and designer and Dan Potra. Having played many times throughout Australia and New Zealand during the intervening years, this show, sometimes described as “the feminist Carmen”, remains young, vibrant and exciting.
By James Goldman. Ipswich Little Theatre. Director: David Austin. Incinerator Theatre, Ipswich. 12-28 July 2018
We all love characters to hate and there’s no shortage of them in James Goldman’s 1966 dysfunctional-family historical drama The Lion in Winter. Set in France at Christmas 1183, it sets up a battle for the English throne between the ruling monarch Henry ll, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his three sons, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. When the play was written in 1966 it was criticized for its anachronistic dialogue, but in the era of Games of the Thrones it almost seems contemporary.
An OpticNerve production presented with the support of Theatre Works. Director: Tanya Gerstle. Actors: Grant Cartwright, Emily Thomas & Lachlan Woods. Writers: Robert Lepage & Marie Brassard. Producer: Loraine Little. Theatre Works, Acland Street, St Kilda VIC. 18-29 July 2018
Three characters connected by chance to a murder – in a play in which the murder itself is a McGuffin, a device to question the subjective nature of truth and all the forces that distort our sense of it.
By Lars von Trier, adapted for the stage by Declan Green. Direction – Matthew Lutton. Malthouse Theatre, The Merlyn. 13 July to 12 August 2018
Here is a production that starts with terrific aesthetic beauty and with a lovely energy from its performers. Superbly realized and splendidly cast - Melancholia is a feast for the senses.
By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. 18 – 28 July 2018 – and touring.
The virtue of this pared back, ‘poor theatre’ production of Julius Caesar is its simplicity – and therefore its clarity. The cast is young – or seems young – and they wear what look like op-shop clothes – that is, an everyday hotchpotch of contemporary no style.
By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. 18 – 28 July 2018 – and touring.
The virtue of this pared back, ‘poor theatre’ production of Julius Caesar is its simplicity – and therefore its clarity. The cast is young – or seems young – and they wear what look like op-shop clothes – that is, an everyday hotchpotch of contemporary no style.
By Dean Bryant. Directed by Joshua Maxwell for Jopuka Productions. Youth Arts Warehouse, Gosford. July 20-27, 2018.
This piece was first conceived (pardon the pun) for Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival in 2013 and performed as a moved reading to rave reviews. Not unlike The Vagina Monologues in tone, the text was similarly derived from a multitude of interviews with children (aged 4-40) of same-sexed couples. To emphasise the authenticity of the dialogue, the cast maintain a book-in-hand prop throughout. This updated version also includes reactions to the landmark political events of the past year.
By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Librettist: Christoph Friedrich Bretzner. Additional Dialogue: Jim Jones & David Koresh. BK Opera. Director: Kate Millett. Musical Director: James Penn. Northcote Town Hall. July 18 – 22, 2018
BK Opera continues to produce operas in a different light. In this case it was Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail transposed from the Middle East to the Bible Belt of America. So the Pasha becomes the leader of a cult.
Writer, Director & Choreographer Melanie Jame Wolf. Savage Amusement. Arts House, North Melbourne. 18 – 21 July 2018
The show begins, appropriately, with an immobile, monumental female figure seated on a podium. This is, after all, a show about queens – or Queens - every kind of queen: ‘royal’ queens, film star queens, queens of pop, drag queens, warrior queens, even queen bees….
