Reviews

The ‘three little words’ of the title are not, as you might think, those of the popular 1930 song.  On the contrary.  After twenty years, Tess (Catherine McClements) and Curtis (Peter Houghton) have decided to separate.  The ‘three little words’ here are: ‘We’re splitting up.’  And when Tess says those words, it’s not just their best friends Annie (Kate Atkinson) and Bonnie (Katherine Tonkin) who are stunned and incredulous.  The audience has a sharp intake of breath and goes very still.

It’s a brave director that decides to stage a musical such as Mary Poppins. Darren Harvey is clearly one who understands the gravity of bringing P.L. Travers’ heroine to an audience that know her intimately.

Mary Poppins The Broadway Musicalwas a testament to The Australian School of the Arts’ audition based ‘professional’ arts excellence program. The show was packed with performers, stage hands, lighting, sound and costuming that you’d expect from an internationally touring musical commanding triple-figure ticket prices.

What better performance than a version of Winnie the Poohas my first theatrical “Grandma duty” adventure with a three–year old grandson? This version ofWinnie the Pooh by Hamley Productions at Pear Ridge Gardens Margate, Tasmania, was a delight on so many levels. A good way to see a children’s classic come to life is in the company of and through the eyes of a child. Pooh Bear and friends glowed as stage characters in this adapted work written by British playwright Glyn Robbins.

Opening with extraordinary multi-media projections on scrims, Joan by The Rabble, is a work of high art.  It is riveting, hypnotic, haunting and sometimes deeply shocking. But at all times uncompromisingly designed to insightfully explore a deep feminist response to the now canonized, illiterate peasant, who was ‘the virgin from Orleans.’ Joan of Arc who, in The Middle Ages, led the French into battle with the English, who ultimately burned her at the stake thrice, is the subject of this production.