By Steve Blount, Peter Daly, Gavin Kostick and Janet Moran. A Production by Fishamble. Australian tour produced by Merrigong Theatre Company. Directed by Peter Daly. The Street Theatre, Canberra – May 11 – 14, 2016, and touring
This is a show about dance – swing, of course! – and the marvellous range of people who learn swing in one studio in Ireland. With only two actors, Arthur Riordan who plays Joe and Gene Rooney who plays May, they also produce a veritable dance school of characters. The audience is taken on a learning journey with the characters who evolve, improve, or disappear as the play progresses.
By David Greig. Upstairs, Belvoir Street Theatre. May 12 – June 12, 2016.
The Events draws on that horrific killing of 69 young Norwegians on an island by a lone gunman, but Scottish writer David Greig speaks to other similar events. It’s a seemingly random, reflective play of short vignettes around the furious quest to understand by a priest who, locked in the music room, survived a school yard massacre.
Music and lyrics by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Script by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Directed by Jonathan Church. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne – Opening Night May 14, 2016, then touring to Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Boy, didn’t it rain…and didn’t we love it! There’s so much water on stage in the classic title number, that it might have been a Melbourne weather report, instead of the opening night of a much-loved musical. What it absolutely isn’t is the iconic 1952 Movie Musical, and that is both a good and a bad thing.
By John Misto. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport. Director: Jim Dixon. May 14 – June 4, 2016
The horrors of war are the basis of this poignant tale: two women – one English and one Australian retell their experiences as Japanese Prisoners of War.
Aussie Eve Wheeler and Pom Marie Dixon are being interviewed, 50 years after the cessation of hostilities, for a TV documentary. The interviewer, Barry Gibson, is unseen throughout the proceedings and the scene switches between the TV studio and the ladies’ hotel room.
Written and performed by Vanessa O’Neill. La Mama, 205 Faraday Street, Carlton. 11-28 May, 2016
The infinite talent of Vanessa O’Neill is the cohesive force behind this production. This is an extremely personal piece of theatre that allows the performer to share the stories and colourful ancestral figures that both inhabit and haunt O’Neill. Her performance often invokes the spectral presence of her predecessors and her natural affinity with these fascinating personas is uncovered via diligent archival research and anecdotal information. The staging is evocative and atmospheric, conveying all the cultural richness of the project.
By Tom Holloway. Griffin Theatre Company. SBW Stables Theatre. May 11 – 21, 2016
Premiered by Tasmanian Performs three years ago, these three beautiful, revelatory monologues by Tom Holloway are welcome visitors to Sydney’s space for new Australian playwriting. It’s madness that such hits in one state rarely cross the border to another.
In these vicious times of shrinking budgets, perhaps this one is on the road because it’s only one actor, a cello and a few chairs.
By Young Jean Lee. Melbourne Theatre Company, Arts Centre, Fairfax. 6 May to 18 June 2016.
Young Jean Lee is an acclaimed and respected dramatist in New York City. Each of her varied productions, which she directs herself, are, apparently, edgy, iconoclastic, experimental, provocative, confrontational and excitedly anticipated across the US. She receives such accolades as ‘ever audacious’ and ‘the most adventurous downtown [but certainly not mainstream] playwright of her generation’.
By Jeremy Lloyd & David Croft. Director: Alex Lanham. Arts Theatre Production. Brisbane Arts Theatre. 20 April – 4 June 2016
Are You Being Served? belongs to another era. One of the most beloved British TV sitcoms, which ran from 1972 until 1985, it pushed the envelope of the time by trading on risqué visual gags, innuendo laced dialogue, and under-grad humour. Mrs Slocombe’s constant references to her “pussy,” and Mr Humphries “I’m free” became popular catch-phrases of the period.
By Alan Bennett. Directed by Scott Hunt. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. 13 - 28 May 2016
Habeas Corpus, written by Alan Bennett, performed by Hobart Repertory Theatre Society, is an example of Nominative Determinism - the hypothesis that a person's name may have a significant role in determining key aspects of job, profession or even character.
