Reviews

This is our Youth

By Kenneth Lonergan - an Underground Broadway & Between the Flags Production, Metro Arts Theatre. 28 February to 4 March 2018.

Step out on Brisbane’s lower Edward Street these days and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d been beamed up on Broadway, dropped on a steamy sidewalk somewhere near the Iridium Club. There’s a new basement Jazz bar, 24/7 kebab kiosk, and late-night coffee. And it’s all staggering distance from the Metro Arts Theatre, a hub of the city’s thriving community arts scene, including Underground Broadway’s current micro-run of This is our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan.

Steel Magnolias

By Robert Harling. Villanova Players Theatre Company. Directed by Elizabeth Morris. Venue: Yeronga State High School Auditorium, Brisbane. February 24-March 11, 2018

The lights dim, the air conditioning cools, and the previews begin. But you’re not at the movies, this is Villanova Players’ first production of the year and before it even begins, the audience is captivated. Brisbane by Matthew Ryan, The Madwoman of Chaillot, High Society, the entire 2018 season has been compiled into individual trailers. All that’s missing is the popcorn.

When the lights go up on Steel Magnolias, there is already a buzz in the audience. What a way to start the year and encourage a following!

Cage

By Jordan Shea. life after productions. Old 505 Theatre, Newtown (NSW). February 27 - March 3, 2018.

Three Australian men wake up in big trouble in a jail cell somewhere in Asia after a night they can’t remember. The simple but striking set gave the production immediate credibility. The concrete floor and wall were set off against a bright yellow sun peering through the steel bars in the window. The sound scape too was effective – perhaps the only thing missing was the smell of a stinking jail hell-hole, but mercifully the audience was left only to imagine this.

Your Bard

By Nicholas Collett. Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Treasury 1860: 17 February - 4 March, 2018 and Stirling Fringe @ Coventry Library: 11-12 March, 2018

The sub-title for Your Bard is ‘An Informal audience with Will Shakespeare in the Pub’ – and that’s exactly what you get. In the intimate front bar in Treasury 1860, and in just one hour, Nicholas Collett gives you the entire life of William Shakespeare.

Smoking with Grandma

Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Threewoods Playwright (Hong Kong). Bakehouse Theatre: 26 February - 10 March, 2018

Smoking with Grandma is a ‘mixed media’ work from Hong Kong, involving a warm and loving relationship between a Chinese grandmother and grand-daughter.

You enter the darkened main studio at the Bakehouse Theatre, and the mood is sombre and intriguing. On a screen up-stage is film footage of single wafts of smoke, whilst the stage floor is lit from a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, under which is single wood chair.

19 Weeks

By Emily Steel. Adelaide Fringe Festival. Adina Basement Pool/Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury. 27th February - 17th March, 2018

In 2016 writer Emily Steel was faced with a heart-breaking decision. In her second trimester of pregnancy she found out she carried the marker for Down Syndrome. After more probing tests, she was given conclusive positive results, meaning she would have to make the unenviable decision as to whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. Her play, 19 Weeks, reflects the painfulness of that time.

Livvy and Pete

Adelaide Fringe Festival. Fortuna Spiegeltent. 26th February, 2018

Acclaimed cabaret performers Amelia Ryan and Michael Griffiths have teamed up for this year’s Adelaide Fringe to pay homage to Australian treasures Olivia Newton-John and Peter Allen.

Sashaying down the winding staircase with maracas in hand and wearing a floral shirt was Griffiths, who looked comfortable camping it up as he sang the opening bars of “I Go to Rio”. He was accompanied by drums and bass and it took only moments for the audience to start singing along.

Ivy + Bean The Musical

Based on books by Annie Barrows, with book, music and lyrics by Scott Elmegreen. The Gemini Collective / Adelaide Fringe. Bakehouse Theatre. February 16 to March 3, 2018.

Ivy + Bean was the perfect afternoon show to attend with my five-year-old granddaughter. The play is adapted from the books by Annie Barrows, which follow the imaginative lives of two seven-year-old girls who live in Pancake Cort.

The set, like the props the girls use to create their worlds is made from bits and pieces that can be found lying around our homes and serves its purpose beautifully.

The Irresistible

Written by Zoe Pepper, Adriane Daff and Tim Watts. Directed by Zoe Pepper. Presented by Side Pony Productions & The Last Great Hunt in partnership with Brisbane Powerhouse. Visy Theatre, 23 - 24 February, 2018

It’s so wonderful to see the little-explored genre of science fiction on stage in a theatre. Of course it’s harder in theatre to create the special effects you see in a science fiction film, so it’s easy to see why writers and directors might avoid it like the plague. The Irresistible shows us all you can do sci-fi very well on stage very well indeed, special effects and all!

Courtney Act - Under the Covers

The Edith Spiegeltent, The Ice Cream Factory, Perth, WA for Fringe World. Feb 20-24, 2018

Courtney Act - Under the Covers begins with Courtney Act literally under the covers of a brightly covered bed that takes up most of the stage. She bursts from the bed, stunningly attired, to sing Bjork’s cover of Betty Hutton’s cover of Horst Winter’s “It’s Oh So Quiet”. A show about covers - musical and otherwise - with more depth than you would expect.

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