Reviews

The Boys

By Gordon Graham. Alchemy Artistic. Directed by Amy Kowalczuk. Produced in affiliation with Shadowhouse PITS and Sophie Benassi. ACT Hub at The Causeway Hall, Kingston. 13 – 16 April 2022

With terrifying realism, punctuated with moments of stylized beauty both sublime and dreadful, Alchemy Artistic’s debut production The Boys is a meticulously crafted exploration of masculinity at its most toxic. Loosely based on Anita Cobby’s murder, the horror here is not in graphic violence but in the hyperreal presentation of male brutality, an emotional landscape increasingly bulging with anger which devastates all when it erupts.

Bleep Bloop – a pop comedy album

Written & Performed by Lou Wall. Music Co-Writer James Gales. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Trades Hall, Carlton. 11 – 24 April 2022

Photo by Emma Holland.

Empathy Training

Written and directed by Brendan Black and Martin Chellew. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton. April 12 - April 17, 2022

This play pokes gentle fun at the attempt to lead four high-profile, self-absorbed people to understand the impact of their actions and choices on others. They have been forced to do empathy training and the process used to try to develop some understanding in them forms the content of the play.

Roald Dahl’s The Twits

Adapted for the stage by shake & stir. Cremorne Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. April 1 – 23, 2022

Fans of Roald Dahl’s cheeky children’s classic The Twits will know that it is one of Dahl’s typically non-PC tales of terrible, smelly, ugly characters who run a circus, play practical jokes and fight with one another – a lot! This gives the award-winning team at shake & stir – one of our premier touring companies – a wonderful setting to bring the tale to life for theatre goers, young and old.

Wayside Bride

By Alana Valentine. Belvoir Street Theatre. April 2 – May 29, 2022

Alana Valentine gives voice to stirring stories of outsiders who, rejected by mainstream religion, chose instead to be married by Ted Noffs at his famous Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross.  Noff’s Methodist superiors took a dim view of him prioritising social need over doctrine, and his defence against charges of heresy is Valentine’s main story. 

Breathing Corpses

By Laura Wade. Eye Contact Theatre. Directed by Jess Davis. Kings Cross Theatre, Sydney. April 8 – 23, 2022

Some theatre companies have had really bad luck with COVID-19: then there’s Eye Contact Theatre. In 2020 they were 24 hours away from bump-in at the Kings Cross Theatre when – bingo! - the whole thing was called off. And now, two years and a new cast later, just when everything is looking good, two of their lead actors have come down with the wretched disease, leaving fill-ins Di Adams and Gerard Carroll to boldly read from scripts on opening night. Thanks, COVID!

Kit Kat Prov

An Improvised Cabaret. Impro Melbourne. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Melbourne Town Hall, Backstage Room. Friday and Saturday evenings, April 2022.

Seedy and dark, in an unassuming location, somewhere in the hub of the Melbourne Comedy Festival, burrowed in the secret hallways of the Melbourne Town Hall, there is Kit Kat Prov - An Improvised Cabaret  (Improvisation Melbourne Company), oozing with eagerness to taunt audiences with a bunch of sassy comedy in their new show.

The Great Un-Wondering of Wilbur Whittaker

By Dan Giovanni. Directed by Luke Kerridge. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth WA. April 9-16, 2022

The Great Un-Wondering of Wilbur Whittaker is a large-scale production that feels like the biggest production to come out of Barking Gecko to date. Fun, exciting and both literally and figuratively full of wonder, this is a school holiday treat - a family show with a difference.

Two Hits and A Ms

Created by Christopher Horsey. Musical Director: Craig Schneider. Starring: Christopher Horsey, Bobby Fox and Nicole Melloy. Hamer Hall, Melbourne. April 11, 2022. Chapel Off Chapel, Melbourne. May 1, 2022

Two Hits and A Ms is a 60 minute showcase of all things tap and the music that made it popular. The show is the brainchild of Christopher Horsey, an original cast member of Hot Shoe Shuffle and Tap Dogs, as well as a former Fred Astaire International Tap Champion.

Summerfolk

By Maxim Gorky, adapted by Kate Wild. Burke Street Studios, Brisbane. 31 March to 9 April 2022

Maxim Gorky’s famous 19th-century contemporary and critic (and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre), Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, once vented his frustration with actors’ obsessions: “Non-stop smoking, cold food, sausage, herring, gossip, vulgar flirtation, backbiting, jokes, and vodka.” He could be describing the characters in Gorky’s Summerfolk. And one of this play’s funniest lines is the disdainful “The house is full of theatre types!” as the cast of characters expands.

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