Reviews

Pagliacci is a one-act opera about a troupe of travelling performers doing a typical Commedia dell’Arte where the situation on stage is reflected in the lives of the performers. A typically dramatic verismo opera, it is usually teamed with Cavalleria Rusticana, which is of a similar ilk. This makes for a heavy night of opera.

Swathed in a different jewel-encrusted evening gown at every entrance, the statuesque and long-legged Rhonda Burchmore brought glamour and whole lot of show-business savvy to this Queensland Pops concert.

Specifically grim but never merely glum, Director Michael Futcher fully taps the self-conscious theatricality of Endgame, Samuel Beckett’s play, without letting us forget that its strange figures are appallingly real, enacting a grotesque pantomime of humanity’s hungry need to distract itself by wresting order, meaning and a sliver of satisfaction.

This is the funniest play I’ve seen for ages! Three old friends, a daughter and the guy that stood her up bring Exit Laughing to life and pull out all the stops on the way.

Jim Dickson’s cast of Sarah Cooke, Rachel Ann, the daughter; her mum Connie, Marie Dickson; her card-playing friends Leona, Jillian Rawlings (who is partial to a tipple or three) and ditsy Millie, Brenda Warren, and the guy that cancelled the date, David Fraser, all worked well as a unit. Great script, great timing, great fun!