Reviews

To this veteran ‘Wicked-watcher’, who has seen the production six times over the years, the prospect of an amateur version with mainly youth, was a challenge. How would a traditionally ‘adult’ show work in this format?

As the title suggests, this relatively little-known show celebrates/commiserates that most painful rite of passage – turning 13. At the time of it's Off Off Broadway (Californian) Debut in 2007, 13 was the only musical ever to have a full cast and band made up of teenagers. Making it's Broadway debut over a year later – it closed after a less than a year – but remained a cult hit among die-hard fans and has been revised and 'revived' at various times in scattered capital cities ever since.

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula there is a brief mentione of Dracula travelling by ship to England. Writer Sean Carney has chosen to imagine what occurred on that fateful trip and has created an eerie tale that is confidently presented.

We are below deck in a cargo area where the Captain of the good ship Demeter is guarding Dracula, who has been captured, chained and caged. The ship is becalmed and an unrelenting fog descends, causing crew and passengers to become unsettled.

The Travelling Sisters (Lucy Fox, Ell Sachs and Laura Trenerry) is a truly delightful comedy show. The incredibly talented trio employ a vast range of performance skills including music, clowning, pantomime, mime, physical theatre, theatre of the absurd and performance art to produce a highly satirical look at life, especially Australian life. Although they are well travelled their show focuses on some of the more absurd or bizarre caricatures that typify Australian culture. Their perspective is often uncannily accurate and astute, and the result is hilarious.