Reviews

Cerise Gelder places her five strongly drawn characters into the pressured situation of being held hostage during a bank robbery with the threat of imminent death to explore relationships, personal intersections and the secrets which can be lived with but are of such importance they need to be revealed before death.

Each character faces their fears, shares their secrets, finds the importance of the others and, until there are just two left, is taken off to face death. The final two engage the robbers and capture one. This leads to the final denouement with a semi-happy ending.

This is the story of a man who is given a dog.  That is to say, a somewhat curmudgeonly man who has a dog foisted upon him.  For his own good, of course.  He has never liked dogs, due in part to certain stinking childhood experiences.  He can’t accept ‘owning’ a living creature, and so he can’t bring himself to name it.  He calls it ‘Dog’.  

This production is a delightful re-imagining of Shakespeare’s early comedy, now placed in a sunny 1970s disco era, with natural voices, bright colours, and simple but imaginative staging.

Antipholus of Syracuse (Skyler Ellis) and Antipholus of Ephesus (Felix Jozeps) contrast with their  servants, Dromio of Syracuse (Julia Billington) and Dromio of Ephesus (Ella Prince), each playing up similarities and differences.

Sondheim, recently deceased, was a great storyteller who wrote music of beauty and complexity. The score of Into the Woods is thematically rich and textured and can only be adequately realised by performers of a certain calibre.