Reviews

Pride and Prejudice

By Simon Reade, from the novel by Jane Austen. Heidelberg Theatre Company. April 28 – May 13 2017.

Heidelberg Theatre Company has done an apt job of bringing Jane Austen’s beloved classic to life on stage. On opening night, the house appeared full and the production seemed well prepared.

The show opens with a jovial scene of Regency-period dancing. The cast showed good mastery of Dianne Mileo’s choreography. The men looked particularly dashing in their officers’ uniforms. The Fortepiano added atmosphere and authenticity to the production.

Pagliacci

By Ruggiero Leoncavallo. Opera Gold Coast. Director: Doug Gehrke. Helensvale Cultural Centre. Apr 28th – May 6th, 2017

Under the guidance of Melanie Smart, the Gold Coast’s newest theatre company has staged Leoncavallo’s short opera Pagliacci for their inaugural production and what a great choice it proved to be.

With a strong principal line-up of Patrick Oxley as Canio, Melanie Smart as Nedda and (Musical Director) David McNeven stepping in at short notice as Tonio, and with the support of the minor principals and small chorus the music was well sung.

The Realistic Joneses

By Will Eno. Red Stitch The Actors’ Theatre. Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East, VIC. 25 April – 28 May 2017

Jennifer Jones (Sarah Sutherland) and Bob Jones (Neil Piggot) sit under a night sky, somewhere in small town USA.  It’s so quiet ‘you can hear the clouds passing’.  Their stilted conversation suggests at first a marriage that has, maybe, run its course, but you sense that there is something else, something sadder than lack of communication.  Jennifer, we’ll come to understand, is, in her own quietly desperate way, heroic, and there’s more to Bob than a blunt curmudgeon.  They are interrupted by their new neighbours, Pony Jones (Elsa Caldwell

The Lighthouse Girl

By Hellie Turner. A Rio Tinto Black Swan co-commission, in association with Albany Entertainment Centre. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Stuart Halusz. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 28 Apr - 14 May, 2017

Black Swan State Theatre Company's world premiere of The Lighthouse Girl by Hellie Turner is adapted from the Dianne Wolfer books Lighthouse Girl and Light Horse Boy, and is a beautiful telling of a lovely, if sad, Australian First World War story.

Set on a single set, an inspired design by Lawrie Cullen Tait - a rocky outcrop that is predominantly the barren Breaksea Island - but with the assistance of lighting designed by Joe Lui and sound by Brett Smith, it becomes the lighthouse cottage, rural Victoria, Egypt and Anzac Cove.

Design for Living

By Noël Coward. Directed by Barry Park. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth, WA. April 21 - May 6, 2017

This once controversial, and even banned, play by Noël Coward, is a delightful time capsule of upper class life in the 1930s. Still funny and cleverly penned, it is playing to capacity audiences at the Old Mill Theatre.

Werther

By Massenet. Blanke Knochen Opera. Director: Kate Millett. Musical Director: James Penn. Abbotsford Masonic Hall. April 26 – May 7, 2017.

There are a number of opera companies around Melbourne. The larger ones do more lavish productions, while the smaller ones need to be innovative to compete. This Klanke Knochen Opera certainly do.

This is Eden

Written and performed by Emily Goddard. Directed by Susie Dee. fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 27 April – 7 May 2017.

In discussing her collaboration with Goddard, Dee explains that, “From the outset, neither of us wanted to create a ‘bonnet drama’.” This beautifully and thoughtfully presented play is in no danger of appearing superficial in its depiction of the dark side of Australia’s colonial past.

The story is based on a chance discovery of Goddard’s previously unknown convict ancestor and the hardships she endured during her seven-year sentence in the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart Town during the 1830s-1840s.

Two Weddings, One Bride

By Robert Andrew Greene. Music by Strauss, Offenbach, Lehar, Kalman and Stolz  Opera Australia. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. April 27 – October 22, 2017

With the Sydney Opera House starting long renovations on its opera theatre, Opera Australia now moves to the smaller playhouse with a modest experiment to match.

Two Weddings, One Bride is a hit collage of European operetta from more than a century ago, a juke-box of ancient show tunes but with new lyrics and the bedding of a new story by operetta expert, Robert Andrew Greene. 

With no orchestra, it’s all up to Greene on grand as music director with just violinist Yuhki Mayne. 

Mr Burns

By Anne Washburn. State Theatre Company of S.A. and Belvoir. Space Theatre. April 22nd – May 13th, 2017.

Yes, it is THAT Mr Burns!

For the uninitiated, Mr Burns is a character in the long running animated series The Simpsons. Written by Anne Washburn, and presented by State Theatre Company and Belvoir, Mr Burns entertains perfectly for those with no Simpsons knowledge and adds a whole new layer for the majority who do.

Dracula

Shake & Stir Theatre Co. Directed by Michael Futcher. The Playhouse, Canberra. 26–29 June 2017, and touring nationally until 20 September 2017

Shake & Stir's production of Dracula, an adaptation by cast members Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij that won it two Matilda awards in 2016, is touring for the majority of the year, including an unfortunately short season in Canberra.

 

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