Reviews

Four decades and 25 albums later, the fire is still burning in legendary artist Renee Geyer and the Spiegeltent was bursting at the seams with a noisy crowd, anticipating her return.

The audience roared as Geyer made her way centre stage with tambourine in hand. Accompanied by a four-piece band, she remarked that she was happy to be back in Adelaide.

Russian Transport, by award-winning playwright Erika Sheffer, was produced in the US by the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre Company.  Sheffer’s play has its first Australian season at Eternity Playhouse. (Eternity Playhouse is a wonderful venue.  Not only is there raked and staggered seating, with lots of legroom, stained glass windows and beautiful timber, but all three levels are wheelchair accessible.)  

American playwright George Brand found his concern about drones being used in warfare shifted to the ‘pilots’ who manoeuvred them from bases in the US and the scary fact that, though the drones they control hover over a countries thousands of miles away, their strike ability is a horrifying 1.2 seconds. And, that the fierce concentration demanded of the ‘pilots’ in their lonely twelve-hour shifts, leads to just as many cases of PTSD as other fighter pilots.

The incisive social realism of Arthur Miller’s writing is well fired up in this text. Here Miller focuses his attention on the inner workings of Italian-American post-war immigration. Eddie (Steve Bastoni), Beatrice (Daniela Farinacci) and Catherine (Zoe Terakes) appear as a typical successful immigrant family. Despite their struggles, they create a humble but loving home and are able to offer Catherine opportunities for a better life. However, as the story unfolds, we discover that their family dynamics harbour some dark secrets.