By Donizetti. Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. March 23 & 25, 2022
The reign of Lyndon Terracini as artistic director of Opera Australia, from which he retires next year, has been notable for his use of so many celebrated international singers.
It’s sometimes spectacular for audiences; but not too favoured by Australian singers.
Queensland Cabaret Festival. Little Match Productions. Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane. 25 & 26 March 2022
Presented by Little Match Productions, The Babushka Book Club is a fabulously funny cabaret combination of laughter and music, developed by its wickedly witty leading ladies – Alicia Cush, Judy Hainsworth and Laura Coutts – alongside director Bridget Boyle and Penny Challen, with piano and musical arrangements by Luke Volker (and Alicia Cush). This talented threesome have been performing on Brisbane’s cabaret and music scene for many years and their stage experience shows in their command of an audience.
Opening with a splendid Welcome to Country from Isaac Hannam (pictured above) and his skills on the yidaki, the curtain rises to reveal a decadent stage overflowing with talent: seated in velvet armchairs amongst the extensive band, are the evening’s performers, sipping drinks, just visible in the cabaret club lights of the Festival Theatre stage.
Music: Kurt Weill. Lyrics: Bertolt Brecht. Book: Elizabeth Hauptmann. English Adaptation Michael Feingold. Victorian Opera. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. 23 – 26 March 2022
Salvation Army gal falls for gangster. No, not Guys & Dolls (1950, movie 1955), based on Damon Runyan stories. Elizabeth Hauptmann based her ‘book’ for Happy End, apparently, though very, very loosely, on GB Shaw’s 1905 Major Barbara.
By Jonathan Harvey. Directed by Barry Park. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth, WA. March 17-26, 2022
While the show must go on, it becomes an impossibility when some of the cast catch Covid. Old Mill Theatre’s production of Beautiful Thing opened a week late, and without a rehearsal in the interim, due to illness and isolation requirements. This "urban fairytale” is worth the wait, with a solid, well-presented production.
By Will Arbery. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, East St Kilda. 15 March to 20 April 2022.
In the yard of a shack in Wyoming, in 2017, a year into the Trump presidency, four friends sit and talk. The shack itself (design by Louise McCarthy) features a pattern to its peeling paint and one curtained window: it’s the Stars and Stripes. When the light beams from within, the Cross is outlined on the door.
By Oscar Wilde. Director Jess Davis. Genesian Theatre, Sydney. 19 March – 7 May, 2022
Oscar Wilde’s witty criticisms of society still give us cause to reflect even while we smile, though the criticism he made of the society of the time in Lady Windermere’s Fan – namely the hurtful effect of gossip – is nothing compared to the scandalmongering perpetuated in social media today, and its wide audience far surpasses the elegant theatregoers of the Victorian era!
By Oscar Wilde. Adapted and directed by Kip Williams. Adelaide Festival. Sydney Theatre Company. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide. 13-20th March, 2022.
Occasionally, theatre leaves me breathless and awestruck, and this Sydney Theatre Company production, adapted and directed by Kip Williams from one of Oscar Wilde’s best known 1891 works, is one such example. Quite simply, 37 year old Eryn Jean Norvill has been given the role of a lifetime and has delivered the performance of a lifetime.
By Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. James Terry Collective. Chapel Off Chapel. 18 to 27 March 2022
Enter the home of the Goodman family. What might seem like a happy suburban family setting soon reveals some dark secrets. The show takes us on a compelling journey as we slowly get to know each characters’ deepest hopes and fears. Each character, we learn, is trying to make and maintain connections to each other, loved ones lost and their true selves. Their tragic story unravels incrementally, keeping the audience engaged and bringing them to tears at multiple junctions.
Written and directed by Richard Murphet. Victorian Theatre Company and Theatre Works, St Kilda. 16 – 26 March 2022
You walk into the theatre for this show, and the main set, half lit, waiting, redolent with possibility, immediately reminds you of Edward Hopper’s ‘Night Hawks’. Or it did me. It’s not a copy.
