Reviews

I wasn’t sure what to expect, with The Gilbert and Sullivan Society performing, in a smaller auditorium in outer suburban Melbourne, a work I’d never heard of and a verismo opera well outside their usual fare with a keyboard and string quartet. It was surprisingly good.

The Contrabandista is a farce by Burnard and Sullivan, who wrote Cox and Box. It was not an undiscovered masterpiece, but under the expert direction of Adrian Glaubert, highly entertaining. This was mainly to do with the strength of the performers.

Bell Shakespeare always endeavours to bring us something we have not thought of before – an “angle”, if you will, or an exploration of the text which turns a light bulb on in our head. Fortunately we are all blessed with the vision of Damien Ryan, the director who gave us a “certain-to-become-a-modern-classic” Henry V. His Hamlet doesn’t quite climb to that high pinnacle, but his ability to take the separate story strands and meld them into a seamless linear narrative cannot be over-estimated.

Some of the older Bankstown ‘true believers’ in the audience may have been just a little critical of the raunchy depiction of Hewson and Keating in On The Floor/I Wanna Do You Slowly but the younger members of the audience loved it  … even though some of them must have been preschoolers at the time. The fact is that, as well as being true to its political satire, Birdie Productions and its creative team and cast have given the musical the ‘oomph’ it needs to take it beyond its political punch.

Cuban culture was back in Brisbane this last week as part of Ballet Revolucion's national tour, this time with a team of 19 trained dancers from the Escuela Nacional de Arte modern dance facility and Escuela Nacional de Ballet in Havana. This was a showcase of their local talent and incorporates a selection of choreographic works inspired by a mix of Afro Cuban dance traditions, street dance, classical ballet technique and set to an eight-piece live band playing Latin American/R&B/hip-hop/the hits of Sia, Bruno Mars, Beyoncé, Jessie J, Rihanna, J LO/ .....