Reviews

Presented by the Young Australian Broadway Chorus, the musical theatre program of Stage School Australia, this is a lively show with great ensemble numbers and some strong solos, suitable for the whole family.

This feel-good musical is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Ugly Duckling. We follow the self-discovery journey of Ugly, David Duketis, born into a family of farmyard ducks. He is clearly different, but as the story progresses, he and all the other animals learn that is something to celebrate.

WAYTCo, The WA Youth Theatre Company, presented The Lonely Playground, a devised theatre piece for FringeWorld.

Perhaps slightly a misnomer, The Lonely Playground is set on a bus – an exploration of loneliness, relationships and interactions in the playground/journey of life. I imagine that the play developed in a different direction from what was originally intended – a peril of devised theatre that needs to be titled months in advance.

Usually, nowadays, when a classic play is revived by a main-stage theatre company, one anticipates a complete and radical reworking or a rather facile museum piece.   Of this, the first production of the year from MTC - Born Yesterday, a play from 1946, neither can be said.  With the wackiest and most invigorating curtain call, this captivating production feels very modern, relevant, thought provoking, and easy to relate to.

Alone for ninety minutes on an almost bare stage, dressed in the black frock, black apron, black head scarf, heavy black shoes and a string of pearls specified in the text, Ben Gerrard is Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (born Lothar Berfelde) in this intriguing, moving, funny and mysterious play.  Behind him, a near ceiling height translucent screen made up of blow-ups of Charlotte’s Stasi file: the East German Security Police’s surveillance of her, and of her betrayals of others...