Reviews

The Laramie Project

By Moisés Kaufman and Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. Directed by Adam Mitchell. Hayman Theatre Company, Curtin University, Bentley, WA. May 25-29, 2021

Curtin University Theatre Arts present this well-known verbatim theatre piece, telling of the town of Laramie and the murder of young, gay man Matthew Shepard, in a beautifully structured ensemble production directed by Adam Mitchell in the Hayman Theatre.

Gruesome Playground Injuries

By Rajiv Joseph. Deepcut Productions. The Butterfly Club, Carson Place. 25 – 27 May 2021

In Gruesome Playground Injuries, injury, or trauma - physical or mental – is a substitute for intimacy – but also the perverse bond that draws Kayleen (Marlea Correy) and Dougie (Rory Harman) together.  The ironic title – playground injuries – suggests that the characters are stuck forever in their first encounter.  That’s in their parochial Catholic school sick bay when they are eight years old.  She has a terrible (but not that terrible) stomach-ache, and he has a bloody bandage around a head wound; he’s split h

Dark Knight of the Soul

2 One-Act Plays. Toowoomba Repertory Theatre. Directed by Beth Geoghegan. 18 - 29 May, 2021.

In my opinion, a well-executed play must succeed in two things; to forge an emotional connection with the performers and truly “hook” the audience with thoughtful and well-paced story development.

Back to the 80’s

By Neil Gooding. Murray Music and Drama Club. Directed by Sheryl Gale. Pinjarra Civic Centre, WA. May 14-29, 2021

Murray Music and Drama Club’s Back to the 80’s is a jukebox musical, billed as “totally awesome”, which is playing to appreciative, capacity crowds at the Pinjarra Civic Centre.

Directed by Sheryl Gale in her first stint directing a musical, the show features a large, enthusiastic cast and vocal direction by Karen Godfrey. There’s loads of familiar and favourite songs and we get to enjoy authentic 80s dance moves recreated by choreographer Christina Treg.

The Lifespan of a Fact

By Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell. Based on the non-fiction book by Jim Fingal & John D’Agata. Melbourne Theatre Company. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. 15 May – 3 July 2021

A crackling three-hander comedy that goes much deeper than ‘funny’ – even while staying funny till its final moments.  On a Friday afternoon, Emily Penrose (Nadine Garner), editor of an up-market New York literary magazine, assigns intern Jim Fingal (Karl Richmond) to fact-check an essay by esteemed writer, John D’Agata (Steve Mouzakis).  It’s a straightforward assignment, maybe three or four facts, a make-work thing, really – and the magazine must go to the printers first thing Monday…

Rope

By Patrick Hamilton.  Canberra REP, directed by Ed Wightman.  Canberra REP Theatre, 20 May – 5 June 2021

Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play Rope, about two university students who brazenly celebrate with an evening dinner party in London their success in having murdered a younger student to no end other than that of indulging their vanity in getting away with it, is thought to have its basis in a murder actually committed

The Children

By Lucy Kirkwood. Theatre 180. Directed by Stuart Halusz. Burt Hall, Cathedral Square, St Georges Tce, Perth. May 8-29, 2021

Theatre 180 presents this excellent, engaging play, The Children, playing in repertory with Lauren Gunderson’s I and You, in the intimate setting of Burt Hall - adjacent to St George’s Cathedral. Expertly crafted by both author and director, this is a top-notch production.

Orson’s Shadow

By Austin Pendleton. Glenbrook Community Theatre (NSW). Director: Josh Stojanovic. 14-22 May, 2021

Austin Pendleton is an American actor, director and playwright who has a vast experience in both stage and film across a variety of genres – with a variety of actors, some of them very famous. That sort of experience informs this play, first performed in Chicago in 2000, where he brings together two great stars of stage and screen – Orson Welles and Sir Laurence Olivier – and their egos and vulnerabilities.

Almost, Maine

By John Cariani. Roleystone Theatre. Directed by Kristen Twynam-Perkins. Roleystone Hall, WA. May 14-22, 2021

Almost, Maine, prior to Covid, was one of the most frequently performed plays in the United States. Less often seen outside America, Roleystone Theatre’s production is the Western Australian debut. A gentle warm, little show, the action takes place at 9pm on a cold, slightly surreal winter night, in a mythical “almost” town, called Almost, in Northern Maine.

Ain’t We Got Fun

By Sue Oldknow. Blackwood Players. Blackwood Memorial Hall, SA. May 21 – June 5, 2021

The war is over, Prohibition is in full force, and no-one is quite who they seem in this comedy set in an American Speakeasy of the Roaring Twenties. Blackwood Players have gone all out to present a play loosely inspired by the 1921 song of the same name.

Co-directed by the playwright Sue Oldknow, and Michelle Maclean, it’s a light-hearted song-and-dance story of the onstage and backstage relationships between flappers new and fading, wannabe Hollywood starlets, and gangsters who are more bluff and fluff than substance.

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