Reviews

Steel Magnolias

By Robert Harling. North Queensland Opera and Musical Theatre Company. Directed by Alan Cooke. Assistant Director Donna Clayton-Smith. NQOMT Hall. 27 June – 7 July 2024.

ONE IS INCLINED to forget that this favourite film of the 1980s was actually a play before it was extended so terrifically to become considered a minor classic of the era. This is not only because it is an engaging piece of work, but it also had one of the best ensemble casts in any movie.

Moana Jr

Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina. Book adapted by Susan Soon he Stanton. Music Ian Weinberger. Based on Disney film. Directed by Paula-Mary Camilleri. KSP Theatre, Burpengary, QLD. Jun 26 – 29, 2024

Set in ancient Polynesia, as was the film, and this musical tells the story of Moana, the strong-willed daughter of a chief of a coastal village. She is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with the goddess Te Fiti.  When blight strikes the island, Moana sets sail in search of Maui, a legendary demigod, with hopes of saving her people and her island. With waves breaking on stage, the audience follows Moana’s efforts with hopes for her success. Making it even more attractive is the wide ranging use of song and dance.

The Lion King Jr

By Elton John and Tim Rice, Roger Allers, and Irene Mecchi. Albany Children’s Theatre. Directed by Emma Davis. Albany Entertainment Centre, WA. Jun 22, 2024

Albany Children’s Theatre’s production of The Lion King Jr was an extravaganza of a production, with a cast of 82 children aged from just 5 to 18. Warm, well performed and fun, the capacity audience was delighted during their short, one day, two performance season.

Starweaver

Madness of Two and State Theatre Company SA. The Void. Flinders University Drama Centre. 25th June – 6 July, 2024

Madness of Two is an innovative new theatre company, founded by theatre-makers Ellen Graham and Jamie Hornsby. In Starweaver, they are partnering with the State Theatre company and premiering a new piece of very high-quality science fiction performance with innovative staging and effects.

The Hardcase Hotel

By Devon Williamson. Cairns Little Theatre. Directed By Lynn Cropp. June 28-July 13, 2024

Cairns Little Theatre’s production of The Hardcase Hotel has all the ingredients of an Agatha Christie thriller. The play is set in a remote cliff side Italian hotel that is inhabited by an eccentric group of guests, all of whom have absurdly strong accents.

Tosca

Composed by Giacomo Puccini. Librettists: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Opera Australia in collaboration with Opera North. Directed by Edward Dick. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. June 25 - August 16, 2024

When this production was first conceived by Opera North in 2018, Donald Trump was in the White House and the #MeToo movement was a dominant cultural force,  which partly inspired the Director Edward Dick to give it a modern sensibility.

The story was transplanted from Rome during the Napoleonic wars to an unnamed present-day country where Church and State collude.

In one of the most striking parallels about powerful men behaving badly, the villain Scarpia sings about his desire to both bed Tosca and discard her after his prospective conquest.

Blood In The Water

Written by Jorja Bentley. Direction and dramaturgy by Tansy Gorma. La Mama Courthouse. June 20 – 30, 2024

A teenage boy commits a heinous act of violence against his girlfriend, she testifies and sends him to jail for five years. This is the underlying premise behind Blood In The Water; a dynamic family drama where everything that will go wrong does go wrong.

Oliver!

By Lionel Bart. Holroyd Musical and Dramatic Society. Redgum Function Centre, Wentworthville. June 21 – July 7, 2024

Oliver! is a timeless musical that captures the essence of Charles Dickens's classic novel, Oliver Twist. Chances are you’ve seen it, been in it, directed it or produced it in no specific order. It’s a musical that has stood the test of time for its light and shadow, hope and hopelessness, for its look at the opulence and the underbelly of society.

Sidonie in Japan

Sharmill Films. A Film by Élise Girard. French Film Festival. In cinemas from July 4, 2024

East meets West in Élise Girard’s latest film, Sidonie in Japan.

Sidonie (Isabelle Huppert), a lapsed French author, travels to Japan to publicise her first book, which was written years previously. She is not there by choice but at the insistence of her editor and translator, Kenzo (Tsuyoshi Ihara). She is also haunted by the ghost of her husband (August Diehl), who died in a car crash years earlier.

Dead Man’s Cell Phone

By Sarah Ruhl. Canberra Repertory, directed by Kate Blackhurst. Theatre 3 Acton. A.C.T. 13 to 29 June 2024.

Jean (Jess Waterhouse) has just finished her soup in a café when she loses patience with a man sitting nearby (Bruce Hardie) for failing to do anything about his continually ringing mobile phone. Then she realises he is dead. In her fluster, and evidently because she makes poor decisions on the spur of the moment, she answers the phone for him — and continues to do so, even pretending that she knew the dead man before he died. In the process of speaking for him, she learns that his name was Gordon.

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