Reviews

Naomi is a masterclass in acting by Patrick Livesey! By taking us into the lives of eight people associated with his mother up to her death by suicide, Livesey shares her story in the knowledge that understanding her plight may help more people to find a way out of their darkness.

The Golden Cockerel began its life as a poem by Alexander Pushkin in 1834, before becoming an opera written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the last opera he completed before his death in 1908.

The opera tells the story of a lazy and gluttonous King who seeks advice from his sons, a general and finally an astrologer. The astrologer offers the King a golden cockerel with the power to foretell events and give warning in case of danger. However, even with the help of the bird, the kingdom goes to shambles and the bird eventually kills the king.

The Botanical Gardens is a fabulous outdoor space that the Australian Shakespeare Company have beautifully carved out for their often-vibrant productions. This show takes a detour from their usual work and focuses on the Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The bad acting, the ridiculous rivalries and the slapstick humour that characterise the four tradesmen are brought to life on a large scale, and their very questionable theatrical talents are all playfully explored in one big production.

Image: Rose Adams and Brooke Lee.

When Niv (Dushan Philips) is instructed by his brother Sai (Kaivu Suvarna) to use the term “ministers for barking” as the new term for the word ‘dogs’ (as an exercise in adopting new more politically correct terminology) the play exhibits one of its typically amusing and simultaneously thought-provoking pieces of dialogue. In this very insightful play woke politics comes under as much fire as the commonplace assumption of white privilege.