Reviews

This is a powerful Othello with three exceptional performances at the heart. Yalin Ozucelik’s Iago and Elizabeth Nabben’s Desdemona were excellent, but Ray Chong Nee was remarkable. His anger and anguish are utterly real, and he was visibly shaken at the curtain call.

“I can’t help it, whenever they hit those long high notes I tear up,” said a young woman behind me, pretty much summing up the audience reaction. Free-Rain’s Wicked has all the polish and spectacle of the Sydney production at a fraction of the cost. If anything, it benefits from more talent and less annoying cameo. There’s plenty of stage magic here courtesy of background projections, theatrical smoke and a glorious lighting design by Phil Goodwin, culminating in the spectacular climax of Defying Gravity.

Feminists would have been in seventh heaven with Orpheus Chorale’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar where major traditional male roles were sung by women - Judas and Annas. It was, as I overheard an audience member saying at interval, a “new age” production and that concept was followed through to the costumes which were street wear; jeans and sneakers, t-shirts, hoodies and mobile phones. A big screen TV even made an appearance in the second half.

Andrew Hawkins, director of Northern Light Theatre Company’s musical Mack and Mabel, states in the program that he found the story to be “compelling and fascinating”. The audience on opening night were also immediately drawn into the era by the set and silent movies screened at the overture, promising a fun-filled ride.