Reviews

There’s enough high decibel singing and gothic horror to rattle anyone’s fillings in this two-hour chamber opera that packs a punch and gives the audience a fabulous surround-sound experience.

It is described on stage as a curious story, and indeed the original Henry James tale about a young Governess entering a new home with children that are possessed by spirits is just that.

There are eight scenes in each act, and director Craig Baldwin and set designer Emma Vine ingeniously move the drama through the various episodes by rotating a few platforms.

One of the characters in Hangmen, Peter Mooney (Robert Snars), wants to be seen as “menacing” rather “creepy”. He is. Menacing that is. So are some of the other characters. In fact so is the play! But then it is Martin McDonagh so “menacing” should be expected … as well as very, very black. Hangmen is all of this – and Deborah Mulhall directs to extract every sinister, sadistic moment as well as the “dark, dark humour” that seeps through all McDonagh’s work.

Milk and Blood are two quite separate but thematically linked monologues.  Each has their characters – ‘Mummy’ in Milk, ‘Daddy’ in Blood – alone on stage for sixty to seventy minutes.  No other characters, no props.  Just empty space which, via movement as controlled as dance, and Harrie Hogan’s lighting becomes a home, a street, a garden, a prison…  But as this stripped bare mode incites our imagination, we are also held by developing narrative threads; incidents are not incidental, and

This is not a straightforward biography of Marilyn Monroe’s life, but rather a show based around documents and artefacts related to Marilyn. We see her starry show business moments, her interviews showing her quick wit and easy charm, and how others viewed her. In all, it is a wonderful evening to remember what a star the actress was, and how very human she was as well.