Reviews

A Night with the Villains is a hilarious, sexy, spooky cabaret show packed full of great singing, lively dancing, and comedic acting. The mood is set from the start with a sign above the entrance in bloody lettering warning you to ‘Enter if you Dare’. The staircases inside the theatre are lined with black candles and cobwebs, and tombstones flank the stage. The show features some of the best of the worst characters from history and fiction, singing beloved musical numbers with a twist. In many cases the lyrics are cleverly re-written or tweaked to suit the character.

NUDO Dance Company is relatively new on the Brisbane performing arts scene, and they certainly made their presence felt with their new show Criollo. ‘Nudo’ means ‘knot’ in Spanish, and that perfectly reflects the tone of the group – tethered lovingly to their Hispanic roots but not so tightly as to exclude modern and hybrid dance influences from the creative mix. There is a small but strong community of people in Brisbane of Spanish descent, and it was a very tightknit community who turned out to a completely sold-out show at the Talbot Theatre.

Busy Artistic Director for the Brisbane Music Festival (BMF), Alex Raineri, was back in his creative place at the Kawai grand piano for a delightful mix of the magical and mystical in a weekend performance to get us in a Halloween mood. A world premiere of new work by Brisbane-born composer, Ian Whitney, was succinctly wedged between two longer pieces, all based on fairytales.