Reviews

Murray Music and Drama Club have transformed the Pinjarra Civic Centre into a 1930s gangster world for director Zoe Jay's Bonnie and Clyde. Front of House staff dressed to impress, a transformed auditorium, wonderfully decorated table settings abound on the cabaret tables and a photo booth with gangster accoutrements allow the audience to continue their involvement through interval.

I adore Jerry Herman. He understands Leading Ladies better than any other Broadway composer and his songs for them are iconic. And last night his “Girls” were fantastic. If you take eleven of our finest leading ladies and let them loose singing these songs you would have every right to expect a triumph. And, indeed, you almost get it. The “Girls” are (mostly) sensational, which is even more remarkable given the handicap they have to overcome. The handicap comes in the form of writer/director Dean Bryant.

This latest offering of the popular The Elixir of Love had an Australian setting and was a real hoot. Set in the First World War, the stage was awash with corrugated iron hills, sheep, cattle, and even a string of galahs on a wire. At one stage Nemorino sheared a sheep or two, and carried the corrugated iron fleece off stage.

Once upon a time J.B. Preistley plays were the backbone of community theatre seasons, but of late, with the exception of An Inspector Calls, they’ve been thin on the ground. Dangerous Corner dates from 1932 and was Priestley’s first play, one of his impressionistic ‘time plays’ which explored the nature of time and presented alternative versions of the same series of events. The plot involves a missing 500 pounds, a musical cigarette box and a suicide which is eventually revealed as a murder.