Reviews

Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Part 1, Millennium Approaches, has never before been professionally performed in Western Australia. At one point the most performed play in the United States, it is a show that has been long awaited, and is now presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Kate Cherry has assembled a very strong cast performing on Christina Smith's clinically clean, thoughtfully designed and smoothly transcending set.

Despite the disclosure on all advertising that this is NOT based on Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir, the audience (and, seemingly, some of the critics) are clearly being influenced by the film. Don’t be. This is not a send-up or an homage, it’s a play, adapted from a book, and it deserves to be seen as such.

The plot is still basic – a jaded insurance salesman falls for a femme fatale and together they plot to kill her husband by an “accident” which pays double reward, but who is playing whom?

Lyric Opera continues to astound. Performed in the round, this rarely heard Rossini one-acter was quite a romp, with strong performances from the talented cast. But it was the innovative direction which sold me.

Before the opera started Raphael Wong, as the Inn keeper, wandered around with a tray of coffee cups, offering drinks to the patrons. Then, during the overture, various characters came out to establish their credentials and set the scene. This was timed to the music and performed with confidence and precision.

He’s addicted to alcohol; she’s addicted to him.  That’s the tag line of Amy Tofte’s demanding ‘experimental’ text, which deliberately blurs what’s ‘real’ and what’s ‘a play’ – i.e. a play within a play – and a play within a play within another play…  If that sounds even potentially confusing, that’s okay: the confusion – or disorientation – is deliberate and in a sense the point of the exercise.