Reviews

Every Brilliant Thing

By Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe. Starring Kate Mulvany. Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney. Directed by Kate Champion. March 8-31, 2019

A one-woman play dealing with depression and suicide doesn’t sound like fun. But Every Brilliant Thing is one of the most entertaining - and touching - solo performances in years. Thanks, in no small part, to the performance from Kate Mulvany.

Because There Was A Fire

By Jamie Hornsby. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019. Jopuka Productions (NSW). The Breakout @ The Mill. 12-16 March, 2019

Jopuka Productions’ Because There Was a Fire is by local Adelaide playwright Jamie Hornsby and is a very welcome part of this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival.

It is being performed at the small new intimate theatre venue called ‘The Breakout’ at The Mill Creative Centre on Angas Street. It is absolutely well worth seeing and good to support this company from New South Wales as well as Jamie Hornsby, one of the most dynamic and interesting new playwrights from South Australia.

SEPTEM

By Hazel Hayes & Sammy Paul. Adelaide Fringe. Eclipse Productions. Directed by Benjamin Johnson. Studio at Bakehouse Theatre. 11-16 March, 2019.

What lengths will people go to for the sake of money? Can the promise of television fame have a fatal influence on someone’s behaviour? How does the world determine which human beings are worthy of survival over others…? These are just some of the provocative questions posed by this return season of an exciting, outstanding show.

Grounded

By George Brandt. Adelaide Fringe Festival. Holden Street Theatres. February 15th – March 17th, 2019

Grounded is the story of an American Air Force fighter pilot. Brought to life by experienced actor Martha Lott, it tells the tale of a woman’s love affair with her job and her obsession with ‘the blue’ (sky). “Astronauts have colour, but I am the blue,” she proclaims.

Strassman: The Chocolate Diet

Adelaide Fringe 2019. Le Cascadeur, Garden of Unearthly Delights. March 11-17, 2019

One member of the audience leaned over and said to me on opening night, “Well, with Strassman you always know you’ll get consistency and a good laugh.” Having only ever seen David Strassman on television, I could not talk to the consistency of his show, but it certainly brought a lot of laughs to the full house crowd.

Monty Python’s Spamalot

Book and lyrics by Eric Idle. Music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle. One Eyed Man Productions. Directed by Richard Carroll. Hayes Theatre Co. March 6 – April 13, 2019

When news first broke that a musical was being made based on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail I was so excited that I bought a ticket to see it on Broadway. The sketches in the movie are still so familiar that sitting in the Hayes Theatre I could anticipate great wads of dialogue and I was regularly interrupted (inside my head) with flashbacks to the original actors. Such is the experience of a child of the 1970’s who watched the movie over and over.

Foehn

Adelaide Festival of Arts. AC Arts Main Theatre. Light Square Adelaide. March 13 - 17 2019

How do I review a performance that can’t be expressed adequately in words?

Foehn (or a warm Mediterranean breeze), is a 40-minute escape from reality into the world of Silvano Nogueira and his ‘puppets’, made of single use plastic bags. It is art meets recycling and then some.

Underground

By Christine Croyden. Moving Parts Season 2019. Gasworks Arts Park, 7-9 March; The Bowery Theatre, St Albans - 15 March 7.30pm Burrinja Cultural Centre, Upwey, 16 March 8pm; Shirley Burke, Parkdale, 4 April 8pm; Knox Community Arts Centre, 6 April 2pm.

Playing to full houses, this is an inspiringly ambitious work by writer Christine Croyden.  Underground is a pastiche of scenes about the life of Nancy Wake a New Zealander - claimed as an Australian.  She worked in the French underground resistance - a highly romanticized occupation.  Wake left Sydney for Paris at eighteen.  Known as ‘The White Mouse’ (die Weisse Maus), she lived a long life - from 1912 to 2011.  Her extraordinary youthful years offer rich and intriguing material to explore for theatrical presentation.

Love’s Labour’s Lost

By William Shakespeare. Melbourne Shakespeare Company. Central Park, Malvern. March 2 – 17, 2019.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is another truly delightful production by the fabulously talented Melbourne Shakespeare Company, performing rain or shine in the lush garden surrounds of Central Park, Malvern.

The Merchant of Venice

By William Shakespeare. Grads. Directed by Lucy Eyre. New Fortune Theatre, University of Western Australia. March 7-16, 2019

The Merchant of Venice is perhaps one of the less frequently performed Shakespeare plays, mostly because of the obvious anti-semitic feeling. This production is set in Venice, but in 1938, and is set alongside anti-Jewish policies in Mussolini’s Italy, the visit of Hitler to Italy and the looming shadow of the Second World War. Played in the beautiful outdoor New Fortune Theatre, which mimics the dimensions of the 1600 Fortune Theatre, on a warm Meditteranean-like evening, it is the perfect setting for some good Shakespearean Theatre.

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