By Stephen Page and Alana Valentine. Bangarra / Sydney Theatre Company / Sydney Festival. Roslyn Packer Theatre. January 17 – February 12, 2022, then Hobart and Adelaide.
Stephen Page’s magnificent, largest ever and probably last production after decades as artistic director of Bangarra blends his choreography with more theatrical forms and collaborators than ever.
Page calls it a “contemporary ceremony”; Wudjang mixes opera and musical melodies and ditties, with live musicians, singers and actors working in both English and Stephen’s ancestral dialect of Mununjali of Yugambeh country (south east Queensland). And seventeen remarkable dancers.
Black Martini Productions. Fringe World. The Library, The Girls School, Perth, WA. Jan 14-23, 2022
After the success of Black Martini’s Troy Story in last year’s FringeWorld (available on YouTube if you need a primer), the team return to continue Odysseus’ journey, as he battles monsters who are trying to eat him, revengeful Gods, witches, storms, whirlpools and drugs on a ten-year journey home.
By Jessie Gordon and Libby Hamer. Fringe World. Ellington Jazz Club, Beaufort St, Perth WA. Jan 17-20, 2022
I Like Bananas is a celebration of British Music Hall jazz. Fronted by Libby Hamer and Jessie Gordon with six-piece jazz band, the Hounds, this is slightly naughty, a little bit bawdy, old fashioned and funny.
Dressed in suits and straw hats, the music hall style is nicely established, and Jessie Gordon and Libby Hamer sing beautifully and entertain with style.
By Broken Crayon Productions. Fringe World, WA. Directed by Charlie Darlington. Jan 15-19, 2022
The second of two Sh*t We Like to Sing offerings this Fringe World season, Under the Rainbow, explores gender, sexuality and what makes us, using the songs that the performers just love to sing.
Playing, very appropriately, at Connections Nightclub, the show features six very talented performers (and depending on the night, a guest performer or two).
Written and directed by Suzanne Ingelbrecht. Midland Junction Arts Centre, WA. Jan 14-16, 2022
Beautifully acted by two very strong performers, this World Premiere production tells a story inspired by the relationship between Mary Shelley and her friend Mary Diana Dods, an illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Morton who wrote as David Lyndsay and assumed the identity of aristocrat Sir Walter Sholto Douglas in order to marry another friend, Isabella Robinson, who was pregnant and had been abandoned.
By Colin Ebsworth. FringeWorld, The Goodwill Cub at the Recabite, William St, Northbridge, WA. Jan 14-Feb 13, 2021
Originally advertised as playing just three performances until January 16, the clear popularity of Me, My Cult and I has led to a ‘return season’ late in the FringeWorld festival.
Colin Ebsworth’s parents were matched by Reverend Sun Myung Moon and married in a mass wedding ceremony with thousands of other couples in in Madison Square Gardens. Born in Alabama, Colin grew up in Perth, as part of the Unification Church, colloquially known as the ‘Moonies”.
By Trevor Todd. Much Productions. FringeWorld. Directed by Jane Sherwood. After Dark, Pier St, Perth WA. Jan 16-25, 2022
Have you ever wondered what the subjects in your favourite portraits are thinking? Arty Facts, presented by Much Productions for FringeWorld, is a little show that attempt to answer that question, as we meet the people in the pictures, in a series of comedic vignettes.
Playing well in the intimate space of After Dark, three performers don a variety of quick costumes - and are usually instantly recognisable as the artwork.
Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 15 January 2022
Russell Morris won't like this review because I am going to describe him using a word he hates: 'icon'. But to me, he is an Aussie music icon because, like most of his compadres from our music industry from the 1960s to present day, he's highly underrated and has had to adapt to survive in an industry that would really rather he had success overseas. Instead he chooses to stay in Australia and reinvent himself to continue to work.
Broken Crayon Productions. Directed by Dylan Dorotich. Connections Night Club, Northbridge, WA. Jan 14-20, 2022
FringeWorld is back, and with it two new ‘episodes’ in what has become known as the “Sh*t Show”. The first of these is Sh*t We Like To Sing - Unfiltered, featuring an all female line-up and set at a sleepover.
Great work from the pyjama clad performers, Dylan Dorotich, Grace Johnson, Shannon Rogers, Danielle McDonald and Charlotte Louise.
By Eddie Zipperer, Barbara Weichmann and Peter Manos. Directed by Matthew Roberts, Adam Giltrow, Kailem Mollard and Roxanne Moore. Garrick Theatre, Guildford, WA. Jan 13-22, 2022
One Act Seasons in Perth used to be a very common pathway for emerging directors. Garrick has revived this tradition for their first season of 2022, with three very different plays, directed by four first time directors.
