Reviews

Bell Shakespeare betters a run of disappointing shows with this conventional, touchingly domesticated telling of Hamlet. 

Screens of imposing snowclad forests surrounds the stage, interlaced in part with family videos of happier, nostalgic times for young Hamlet and his kin.

What’s the difference between actual and virtual realities? Not much, according to Laura McDonald’s play on being both trapped and liberated by technology.

Madeleine Osborne is Darcy, a young woman who spends much of her time living in a virtual reality headset, the game setting her challenges that distract her from the real world. Rhiannon Watson is, like, her ‘cool sister’, who has a job and a string of ex-boyfriends, reluctantly drawn into the game after her breakdown about her break-up.

Dimanche, presented by Cie Chaliwate & Cie Focus from Belgium is an extraordinary piece of ‘family theatre’, and is a welcomed addition to this year’s Adelaide Festival. We journey through inter-related sketches involving a small group of people facing apocalyptic change. Whilst never directly stated, this apocalypse is the result of severe climate change. Subsequently, whilst relatively harrowing and tragic, it is also extremely topical and relevant at this time.

Four business colleagues try to save their company from the brink of collapse in this express comedy from American writer Brian Parks – and this corporate satire finds new laughs in familiar places.