Reviews

Hats off to the Lane Cove Theatre company for giving one of their loyal members, Rodney Stewart, a chance to revive a musical he penned 40 years ago. At the time (1973) investors splashed out on a fully professional staging of the work under the title Nuclear and lost their dough. The musical lay in the bottom drawer until Rodney dusted it off a decade ago.

The revival production was staged in Lane Cove’s home turf – a hall at the back of a church on Sydney’s north-shore - with a basic set of a double bed, table and computer.

Upstairs in the Balcony Rooms in the Buckingham Arms Hotel there is a little theatrical gem – Dickinson’s Room.

In three small rooms, which have an untold history in themselves, one enters the life, mind and imagination of Emily Dickinson, one of America’s greatest poets.

This unique and engaging piece of theatre is unconventional; as critiqued in Broadway Baby, ‘there is a wonderful sense of freedom to the work. It doesn’t feel pinned to a stage.’

It’s fifty-five years since Joan Littlewood’s company workshopped new lyrics to wartime songs to highlight the brutality and pointlessness of World War I. The juxtaposition of jolly cabaret with the death statistics still packs the proverbial punch.

Swamp Juice is the story of a man who goes for a walk in a swamp and meets two snails, a bird and a snake. It is told using shadow puppets made from bits and pieces you might find in your recycling bin and toy box.

The magic lies in the fact that the audience sees the ordinary transformed into the extraordinary and can see how it is done. The light that produces the shadows, along with the stand that holds some of the props is as visible as the performance on the screen.