Reviews

Tim

Adapted by Tim McGarry from the novel by Colleen McCullough. A Christine Dunstan Production. Directed by Darren Yap. Glen Street Theatre, Belrose, Sydney from 27-30 July 2023, then touring

Tim, Colleen McCullough’s first novel, created a stir when released, but nothing to compare with her second, The Thorn Birds. For a time the most famous Australian writer, her works were scoured for movie material and Tim, the story of a love affair between a labourer with intellectual disability and a mid-50s business executive, was turned into a successful film starring Mel Gibson and Piper Laurie.

Amadeus

By Peter Shaffer. Canberra Repertory. Directed by Cate Clelland. Theatre 3, Acton, A.C.T. 27 July — 12 August, 2023.


Salieri is extremely displeased with God.  In fact, he’s furious.  God has not honoured their pact.  Salieri had vowed to serve God all the days of his life in exchange for becoming a famous musician.  Although for some years God had seemed to be fulfilling his side of the bargain, Salieri having been elevated to the esteemed role of Austrian Court Composer with his reputation growing and glowing, God suddenly turned on him by delivering into the world true musical genius in the form of the unutterably unbearable upstart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Turn of the Screw

Adapted from Henry James’ novel by Richard Hilliar. Tooth & Sinew. Seymour Centre, Chippendale, NSW. July 21 – August 12, 2023.

The threshold of what shocks and horrifies us has risen a lot since Henry James wrote his famous novella. Readers saw it then as a mere ghost story.

Set in a gothic old manor house, a governess arrives to care for two orphaned children who are oddly petulant, maybe possessed.  Since 1898, different generations have seen their own horrors in the many subsequent adaptations of this ambiguous tale.

Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. July 22 – August 27, 2023.

This deliciously macabre story from the Victorian gutters of London has been savoured for two centuries.  As a kid I once thought it was true.

From penny dreadful to melodramas, to Christopher Bond’s 1970s play adding a back story of the cruel injustice suffered by the demon barber, to Stephen Sondheim’s musical thriller, the truth of this story lies in the grim and inhumane poverty of those times.

Black Panther – in Concert Live to Film

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The Concert Hall Sydney Opera House. 27, 28 29 July, 2023

The giant screen looming high above and behind the orchestra is bright with the brilliant costumes of the female warriors and the blue and gold title of … Black PANTHER. The Concert Hall hums with a different buzz. It’s not your usual SSO audience. There are more families, young couples, hipsters, groupies – all MARVEL fans, all chatting in expectation … and many eating popcorn!

Frankie’s Guys

SK Entertainment and David Michael Productions. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide. July 25th, 2023, and touring

Currently touring Australia, Frankie’s Guys, a London based group and a winner of London’s Best Tribute, the world’s number-one celebration of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons group, is making its Australian premiere. This ensemble of 10 multi-talented performers switches cast members in and out, and whilst different audiences may see different casts, all have impressive theatre credentials internationally, so a ‘Four Seasons’ sound is assured.

Macbeth

By William Shakespeare. Stray Cats Theatre. Directed by Karen Francis. The Fishtrap Theatre, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. July 20-23, 2023

Perth and Peel have had the pleasure of a growing number of Shakespeare productions in the past few years, but we are rarely treated to the Scottish play. Stray Cats Theatre brought a particularly dark retelling of Macbeth to the Fishtrap Theatre for a short season.

The Wizard of Oz

Story by L. Frank Baum. Music & Lyrics by Harold Arlen & E. Y. Harburg. Background music by Herbert Stothart. Director: Heather Goddard (assisted by Vanessa Parkinson). Musical Director: Dean Mulholland. Presented by Warrnambool Theatre Company & Holiday Actors. Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool, Victoria. July 15-22, 2023.

It’s not often you see a piece of community theatre in a regional city that compares to the bigger budget, semi-professional shows that Melbourne produces.

On the Beach

Adapted from Nevil Shute’s novel by Tommy Murphy. Sydney Theatre Company. Roslyn Packer Theatre. July 18 – August 12, 2023.

New Australian plays rarely win the sort of epic production treatment given here to Tommy Murphy’s stage adaptation of Nevil Shute’s novel On the Beach. But it’s a big story, nothing less than about the end of the world – as nuclear fallout from an annihilated northern hemisphere advances on Melbourne in 1963.

Teenage Dick

By Mike Lew. Divergent Theatre Collective. Flight Path Theatre. Directed by Dan Graham. 20 July-5 August, 2023.

Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick is a funny and shocking high adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III. 16-year-old Richard feels like an outsider at Roseland High because of his cerebral palsy and his general inability to socialize. He wants to hold power over the school so he schemes and enacts a plan to become senior class president, but he falls into a cycle of megalomania as he destroys the people around him.

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