Reviews

Li’s Choice: Celebrating a Decade of Directorship

Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 10 to 25 June 2022

Image: Kohei Iwamoto - Elite Syncopations

Calendar Girls

By Tim Firth. Shoebox Theatre Company. Directed by Terry Brady. Armitage Centre, Toowoomba. 9-12 June 2022

The story of Calendar Girls is a winning formula: a group of middle-aged women overcoming the odds and going starkers for a charity calendar. 

The true story that inspired the 2003 film by British screenwriter Tim Firth has been smoothly adapted by the author for the stage, and is once again making audiences chuckle, weep and connect with its colourful characters, poignant storyline and caustic repartee.

Caress/Ache

By Suzie Miller. WAAPA 3rd Year Acting Students. Directed by Sandie Eldridge. The Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA. June 9-15, 2021

Caress/Ache is a touching, beautifully acted piece from WAAPA’s 3rd Year Acting Students, superbly designed built and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design students. A moving production that was sadly under-attended on opening night.

Playwright Suzie Miller wrote Caress/Ache in response to the execution of Van Tuong Nguyen in Singapore in 2005, inspired by the cruelty not only of the execution, but the cruel order not to allow his mother to hug him before his death sentence was carried out. This play explores the sense of touch.

Emerald City.

By David Williamson. Free-Rain Theatre. Directed by Anne Somes. The Hub, Kingston, ACT. 8–25 June 2022.

Already a successful screenwriter, Colin (Isaac Reilly) craves greater creative control of producing screenplays, and to facilitate this has dragged his wife, Kate (Victoria Tyrrell Dixon), and their three children from Melbourne to Sydney, where the action is.

Becoming Eliza

Starring Anna O’Byrne. Playhouse Sydney Opera House. June 9 – 12, 2022, then Ukaria, Adelaide June 19.

Eliza Doolittle is famously transformed in the play Pygmalion from a cockney Covent Garden flower seller into the toast of English high society.

In the case of Anna O’Byrne, her transformation was from playing second violin in a high school production of My Fair Lady, listening to the tapping feet of her sister in the lead role on the stage above her head, to scoring the part of Eliza, under the direction of Dame Julie Andrews.

Ken’s Quest

Adapted by Adam Cass from the novel by Cher Chidzey. Directed by Adam Cass. La Mama HQ, Faraday Street, Carlton. 8 – 19 June, 2022.

Ken (James Lau) is in Melbourne from Shanghai.  He’s an engineer, a widower with a disabled children back in China, and he’s possibly his own worst enemy.  His quest is to get a residence visa – and that means, of course, getting his qualifications recognised and bringing his family to Australia.  It’s that or go back to Shanghai.  And now time is running out: his deadline is 190 days, and the clock is ticking… 

Reedy River

By Dick Diamond. Redland Museum and Theatre Redlands. Director: Jan Nary. Redland Museum, 60 Smith Street, Cleveland Qld. 3 – 12 June, 2022

Celebrating Redland Museum’s 50th Anniversary, Reedy River - the Queensland Day Play for 2022 presented by Theatre Redlands - is an Australian bush musical that is ‘as warm as a handshake’.

Songs of Hope & Healing

Featuring Mahalia Barnes. Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 7June 2022

Now, that’s how to fill a Concert Hall! Wow! Songs of Hope & Healing was a benefit concert for the charity, HEAL, which supports young people from refugee backgrounds, and the talent showcased was astounding. After a warm welcome to country by Gaja Kerry Charlton, the opening number set the tone for the 90-minute show to follow with the beautiful Bill Withers song, ‘Lovely Day’ sung by the QPAC Chamber Choir, with Tina Liu accompanying, led by Choir Master Timothy Sherlock. What a treat to hear that piece sung by more than 20 voices.

Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes

By Hannah Moscovitch. Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre. June 2 – July 10, 2022.

It’s an age-old story, now with more teeth thanks to MeToo alerts – an illicit sexual relationship between an esteemed academic and novelist and his awed teenage student.

Canadian writer Hannah Moscovitch however steps us back from predictable outrages by telling us her story through male eyes.  Jon even speaks to us in the third person, from his desk of power and celebrity, or pacing the stage in guilt and moral fence-sitting.

Les Misérables

Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. CentreStage Geelong. Director: Martin Croft. Producers: David Greenwood & Dara Karlusic. Music Director: Phil Kearney. Sound Design: Nick O’Connor. Lighting Design: Jason Bovaird. Costa Hall, Geelong. June 3 - 11, 2022.

Shows of such high calibre don’t happen by chance. The creative team and volunteers at CentreStage Geelong have gone above and beyond (the barricades) to bring Les Misérables to regional theatre starved audiences. During Covid, CentreStage’s previous production, West Side Story, had to be shutdown with enormous repercussions financially and otherwise.

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