Reviews

‘Sholem Aleichem’ (‘peace be with you’) was the pen name of beloved Yiddish short story writer, novelist, poet and playwright Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich.  This show, on the centenary of his death, is a tribute to him and his work, the latter certainly ‘not dead yet’ – as Arnold Zable’s narration tells us.  Perhaps Aleichem is best known today, however, for the adaptation of his stories Tevye the Dairyman as the musical Fiddler On The Roof.  When he died in New York, his cortege attracted crowds of maybe 100,0

Theatre is wonderful in all its forms but a rollicking comedy is good for the soul and Adelaide’s Galleon Theatre Group recognises this. Comedy is all the company does, varying comedic genre through darkly black, gentle and poignant, to hilarious farce. Whatever the comedy fare, the company invariably serves it up well done.

What a pleasure to see an Australian written opera performed not only for the third time, but on a scale of excellence at every level that will ensure its revival for decades to come.

The normal trajectory for locally written operas is for them to be seen once in a brief season, squeezed in between classics. That mould has been shattered.

Publicity for this play describes it as dealing with the conflict between family and state loyalties in civil war; and, to a society not embroiled in civil war, the strife inherent in such conflict may remain abstract and seem irrelevant.  But — Antigone’s conscience being pitted against that of her uncle, Creon, who has taken kingship of Thebes in its transition from military dictatorship back to fledgeling democracy — the play deals with the conflict occurring within the hearts of its protagonists more than with conflict as political fuel.