Reviews

Happy Days at War depicts a young German couple ‘F’ (playwright Leah Milburn-Clark) and ‘M’ (co-director Jay Peardon) in 1939 Germany - that is, Germany with the National Socialists in power and on the brink of war.  M is a devout Nazi, who gets a job on Hitler’s staff, and a virulent anti-Semite.  He makes such statements as, ‘the air is cleaner now the Jews are gone.’  F protests ineffectually against such statements, but the couple are, nevertheless, happy and in love. 

Sweeney Todd has some of the most fiendishly clever and wicked music and lyrics from any musical. Who else but Sondheim could make you laugh at eating human flesh?

"It's fop. Finest in the shop. And we have some shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top!"

For this reason and several others the musical is extremely demanding for a community theatre to stage. The challenge is to be as brilliant as the musical itself.

I have not encountered Footloose before, but thoroughly enjoyed this MLOC production. Though the premise is a bit corny, the strength of the acting drew me in.

This was a colourful, high energy show with a large cast. There was a steel structure at the back for elevation, and different parts of the set were wheeled on and off swiftly to keep the action moving.

In a world where schools in some countries are removing the Arts from the curriculum, Two Brothers by Hannie Rayson epitomises the reason why this is so wrong.

Theatre like this, that educates, builds vital emotional intelligence and helps generate political understanding is paramount, so that we question why things are as they are, how we feel about issues and where our moral compass points are, rather than follow blindly.