Reviews

Cherish

By Ken Duncum. Rondo Theatre, Cairns. Directed by Lynn Cropp. Apr 29 - May 7, 2022

Cherish is a play centred around two gay couples who, in their efforts to achieve a comfortable ideal, only succeed in creating a mass of complications. Set in an unnamed location, the characters’ long-standing relationships are tested by love, loyalty and self-interest.

The two females are Jess and Maeve, who in turn have each had a child by Tom. However, Tom, who is in a long-running relationship with the older William, would like a child of his own, with Jess willing to be the surrogate mother. Surrogate motherhood, however, can have its own challenges.

Earthside

By Kaitlin Tinker. The Blue Room Theatre and Acid Tongue. Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. April 21-May 7, 2022

Earthside, written and performed by Kaitlin Tinker, is the moving story of birth trauma, but played out as a retro-space journey. Aligning the story of her birth with the experiences of Ellen Ripley in Alien, this is a highly emotive, but also clever, and at times, quite funny production.

The Disappearing Act

By Maria Angelico. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Malthouse, Playbox. Apr 2 – 24, 2022

The Disappearing Act is a fabulous one-woman comedy show by Maria Angelico, who has recently acted on Australian screens in the ABC series The Newsreader and New Golden Mountain on SBS. Angelico delves deep into her life resources and pulls more than your average white rabbit out of her hat. This is a hilarious all smoke and mirrors true story.

Mozart’s Clarinet

Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO). Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 22 and 23 April 2022

A gold and black sequined jacket was the only overtly flashy element in Section Principal Clarinet Irit Silver’s solo on clarinet for Mozart’s ‘Clarinet Concerto, K.622’.

Toy Symphony

By Michael Gow. Ad Astra, Brisbane. 21 April to 14 May 2022

In the world of music, a ‘Toy Symphony’ is a piece played on children’s toy instruments, resulting in a juvenile cacophony of dings and squeaks backing a melody with an underlying strain of sadness. You could say the same of Michael Gow’s Helpmann award-winning play Toy Symphony ­– written in 2007 after a writing break of nearly a decade while working as Artistic Director at Queensland Theatre. It is about a writer (Roland Henning) struggling with writers’ block.

Things I Know to be True

By Andrew Bovell. Theatre on Chester, Epping, NSW. Directed by Carla Moore. 22 April – 14 May, 2022.

Things I Know to be True is a play about a family. An ordinary Australian family. It’s set in a suburb of Adelaide – but it could be in any suburb in any Australian city. Playwright Andrew Bovell understands ‘family’ – as did the actors with whom he worked as the idea for this play grew and flourished. They understood  about parents. How they work hard to support their kids, how they want them to succeed. They also knew about kids. How they try to be what their parents want; how they need to be true to themselves as well. They knew about secrets.

The Glitz

Produced/directed by Sue Porret. Pink Flamingo Spiegelclub, Gold Coast. From April 2022.

When the Pink Flamingo opened in 2019, it brought back a style and mode of entertainment which hadn’t been seen in more than 50 years. Swanky, sophisticated and classy, it showed us a glimpse of the nightclubs of old, when people dressed in their finest clothes, drank the finest bubbles, and watched cabaret whose excellence was never in question. It was a bold move by Susan Porret and her business partner Tony Rigas, and some questioned whether this kind of entertainment, once the domain of the casinos and supper-clubs, had any place in the 21st Century.

SLAP. BANG. KISS.

By Don Giovannoni. Melbourne Theatre Company Next Stage Original, MTC Education Program. Southbank Theatre, The Lawler. 19-30 April 2022 (Regional Tour 3-10 May 2022)

Three very talented, focused young performers seamlessly play multiple characters and make SLAP. BANG. KISS an edge-of-the-seat rollercoaster ride.  Text and direction mesh perfectly as three distinct storylines interweave across three time frames and multiple locations.  Playwright Don Giovannoni’s choice of detail to evoke emotion, place, and action is finely precise.  He reckoned that the best way to hear the characters’ stories is for them to tell us directly – and so they do, as well as interacting with others.

The Deb

Story and lyrics by Hannah Reilly. Music, lyrics and story by Megan Washington. Australian Theatre for Young People and Camp Sugar Productions. The Rebel Theatre, Sydney. Opening Night – April 22, 2022. Playing until May 22.

The Deb burst onto the stage like a meteorite, igniting excitement at the humour, warm complex characters and exciting tunes – all in a brand-new theatre on Sydney Harbour.

There was even an after-show party (I’d forgotten what those were) with guest of honour Rebel Wilson – an alumnus of ATYP, who shelled out a million dollars to help build the company’s new 196 seat theatre and financed the musical.

I’ll Be Back Before Midnight!

By Peter Colley. Tea Tree Players Theatre. Tea Tree Players Theatre, Surrey Downs. April 20 to April 30, 2022

I’ll Be Back Before Midnight has been described by the Toronto Globe & Mail as the most widely produced stage play in Canadian history!  It has been produced in 30 countries, broken numerous box office records and has been made into a Hollywood feature film starring Heather Locklear, Ned Beatty, Robert Carradine, and Susannah York.  

Originally staged in 1985, it still sets an audience thinking, though with the advent of blockbuster movies and CGI some of the gruesome moments have lost their ability to terrify.

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