By Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn, adapted from the play by William Shakespeare. Metropolitan Opera, Manhattan USA. In Australian cinemas from September 6, 2022.
Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn tread on dangerous ground when adapting Shakespeare’s iconic masterpiece Hamlet for the opera stage. It could be a raging success or a dismal failure. Fortunately, it is the former. This production, staged by the Metropolitan Opera, delves deep into the psyche of the Prince of Demark, revealing his darkest fears.
By Tony Nicholls. Bunbury Musical Comedy Group. Directed by Jan Phillips. The New Lyric Theatre, Bunbury, WA. Aug 12-21, 2022
Bunbury Musical Comedy Group gave us a winter warmer pantomime with a science fiction twist, with Humpty Dumpty: The Egg’s Files. With the audience given a tutorial on appropriate pantomime responses, everyone had a chance to join in and get involved.
By Christopher Chen. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. 16 August – 11 September 2022
Cast member Jing-Xuan Chan (as herself?) thanks us for coming to this performance of Caught but she warns us that there is content some may find distressing. However, Red Stitch staff are on hand in the foyer to help. Curious. No other Red Stitch show that I’ve seen has begun like this. Of course, we accept that this is ‘real’. By the end, we’ll realise that this welcome was another fiction, one of many serial fictions (or tricks), that we have kept accepting as ‘real’ only to have our trust disabused and the carpet
By Terence Smith. Beyond the Yard. Directed by Terence Smith. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Aug 16-Sep 3, 2022
Beyond the Yard’s new post-apocalyptic drama at the Blue Room, Trust Me, It’s the End of Our World After All, is an intriguing play that blends family drama and squabbles, with life and death situations. A show with strong premise, well drawn performances, and excellent production values, it holds its audience throughout.
By Nick Payne. Lane Cove Theatre Company. Director Isaac Downey. The Performance Space @ St Aidan’s. 19-28 August, 2022
Nick Payne’s award-winning play Constellations is based on the possibility that there are multiple universes that can “pull people’s lives in different directions”. Or, that, as his character Marianne, a physicist, suggests: “several outcomes can coexist simultaneously” where “the decisions we do and don’t make will determine which of these futures we actually end up experiencing.”
By Lee Hall. Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. August 18 – 27, 2022.
The 2007 play The Pitmen Painters won the 2008 Evening Standard Award for Best Play. Written by English playwright and screen writer Lee Hall, who hails from Newcastle, it is an ode to the talented, often disadvantaged English working class. Hall is best known for writing the screenplay for the 2000 film Billy Elliot, and its book and lyrics as a stage musical. In addition, once again celebrating the talents of humble working people, he penned the screenplay for the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman.
By Suzie Miller. Directed by Carissa Licciardello. Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse, 113 Sturt St, Southbank. 12 August – 4 September 2022.
The concept behind Anna K is a very clever way to suggest that sexism continues to reign in society despite historical progression. Anna K makes direct reference to Tolstoy’s famous novel Anna Karenina, its iconography and its themes. Contextualising it in a contemporary digital media landscape, where the damaging expression of societal disapproval can go completely unchecked, beautifully mirrors the ruthlessness of the aristocratic ambience of the novel. The parallels are extremely feasible and the alternative narrative outcome also is also very plausible.
By Lucy Kirkwood. New Theatre, Sydney. Directed by Louise Fischer.16 August – 10 September 2022
Chimerica, by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood, is a potent mixture of thriller (‘gripping’), romance (‘modern’) and comedy (‘fast-moving’). It was first staged in Australia by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2017, and its 3-hour length and large, mixed Chinese-Australian cast calls for much resolve and courage. Fortunately, it gets plenty of both at the New Theatre.
Book by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan. Music by Marc Shaiman. Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman. Based upon the New Line Cinema film written & directed by John Waters. Crossroads Live. Regent Theatre, Melbourne. 6 August to 9 October, 2022, followed by Adelaide and Sydney.
It’s not often that you find yourself part of an audience that is so totally into a show as the audience for Hairspray. It’s immersive. It’s their show and they seem to know it backwards. Almost every song and every artist are greeted with applause and roars of anticipatory approval.
By Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Eamon Flack. Melville Theatre Company. Directed by Thomas Dimmick. Melville Theatre, WA. August 12-20, 2022
It can be a long time between shows in WA, for lovers of Henrik Ibsen, but Melville Theatre Company’s Ghosts was well worth the wait (even allowing for the production opening a week late). A sensitive and finely tuned production, with some outstanding acting performances, this classic play is brought to life with both skill and passion.
