Reviews

If you’re of the opinion that all opera is over the top dramatic histrionics, The Val Machin Opera Scenes performance would have certainly changed your mind. The annual event returned to Queensland Conservatorium for an unforgettable evening of hilarious opera and classical music. Yes, you read correctly, it was hilarious. The Classical Voice department treated us to comedic excerpts from three operatic works.

This wonderful, troubling, but gentle story about a teenager growing up gay in a football mad catholic boys’ school in rural Queensland was only in Sydney for two short days before a four-month tour of the eastern states then a move to Adelaide. How lucky were those of us who braved the wild weather this weekend to see it!

Fourteen is yet another brilliant adaptation from the Shake and Stir team. Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij always find just the right way to stay steadfastly true to the original work yet make entertaining, thought-provoking theatre.

Written in about 1595, the play is set in Athens and consists of several sub-plots that revolve round the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. Thus, we have  four Athenian lovers = in conflict and six amateur actors preparing for a wedding show. Then Oberon, King of the fairies and Puck become involved in the forest one night. Ah, what a summer dream it was. It was complicated in many ways but was still easy to follow as it touched on many points relevant to today’s society.

The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild (UATG) has chosen a brave and substantial piece of theatre for their May season. Angels in America, by Tony Kushner, is a two-part play, presented in two halves over two separate performances. Part one debuted in 1991 and 18 months later, Part two premiered. Set in New York City in 1985, it takes us back to AIDS, the 20th century pandemic that introduced us to the pervasive, uncontrollable nature of pandemics and the havoc that they wreak.