Reviews

Naked & Screaming

By Mark Rogers. La Boite, Brisbane. 6 to 27 February 2021

La Boite’s first production for 2021 is a world premiere of a new Australian work by Mark Rogers. Inspired by his own psychologically and physically draining journey with his partner as their lives changed after the birth of their first child, Naked & Screaming chronicles a year in the life of Emily and Simon – a vaguely hipster-ish couple who have added a new baby to their lifestyle mix. He’s in advertising and she’s in publishing and baby Dylan seems to enter their lives without much forethought.

The Butler Did It

By Walter and Peter Marks. Tugun Theatre Co., Gold Coast. Directed by Rihanna Hartley Smith. 17th to 27th February 2021.

Tugun Theatre Co is off to a great start with their production of The Butler Did It.

This six hander has the audience on the edge of their seats with a show that is overflowing with laughs and full of well-executed slapstick.

Drummer Queens

Neil Gooding Productions and Repercussions Productions. The Lyric Theatre, The Star, Sydney. February 9-14, 2021

There’s a smidgen of other stuff in Drummer Queens, which started a year-long Australian tour at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre, but it’s basically eight women bashing away on a variety of surfaces, from two full drum kits to one big bass jungle drum to the merest tinkling triangle. But judging by their reception, the cast will be Queens of all they survey.

Single Ladies

By Michelle Lee. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, East St Kilda. 6 February – 14 March 2021

A day in the life of three very different ‘single’ women, each with their own problems, who together search for a pug called Puckle. 

The play was developed through Red Stitch’s INK program and was meant to premiere early last year.  Finally, it’s here, and the opening night audience applauded the mere fact that there we were, about to see a live performance again.

Adore Me

By Dylan Lee and Courtney Lee. Fringe World. Directed by Dylan Lee. Home Economics, Girls School, East Perth WA. Feb 6-14, 2021

Adore Me is a drama set in Perth, in those hazy days between Christmas and New Year. Presented by the Performing Arts Alumni Society for Fringe World, this is a well written, well performed production about people in their mid-twenties who are not the people they thought they’d be at 18, and how the past isn’t always what you thought it was.

Jofus and the Whale

Devised by Lily Fish, Ell Sachs & Kimberly Twiner. Performed by Lily Fish. La Mama Courthouse. 9 – 21 February 2021

Lily Fish is a mime, a clown, a bit of a contortionist, a bit of a dancer and a creator of objects, spaces, and beings both animal and human using only her hands, mobile face and India rubber body.  There are also squawks, barks and a weird strangled but ingratiating voice that provides a break-the-fourth-wall running commentary. 

Play in a Day

By Jake Dennis, Fiona Blakely and Naomi Latky. Fringe World. Directed by Cassidy Bodenham, Jake Dennis and Kristen Twynam-Perkins. The Actors’ Hub, Kensington St, East Perth. Feb 6, 2021

Play in a Day is a twenty-four hour short play festival where short plays are written, rehearsed and then presented over a single day. Presented by the Actors’ Hub as part of their Naughty Nights @ Nine, it was part of a a variety season playing after each 4x4x4 performance. The series includes another Play in a Day, Twenty-Four Hour Film Festival, the satire Lloyd of the Rings, interactive WhoDunnit Events and Improv-To-The-Death.

Compound

Written and directed by Amanda Crewes. The Actors’ Hub Studio, Kensington St, East Perth, WA. Jan 21 - Feb 14, 2021

Compound is a Post-Covid, Post-Apocalyptic drama set in a compound in central Australia. Presented by The Actors’ Hub as part of their 4x4x4 Season for Fringe World (four plays over four nights over four weeks - presented in repertory). 

Couples Gary and Maisey, and Jacob and Marisha are thrown into turmoil when Gary illegally rescues Juanita, a woman from outside the wall and hides her from authorities. Gradually it emerges that while Covid was a catalyst for the breakdown of social structures outside the wall, life inside the compound is not a utopia.

The Laramie Project

By Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. Ad Astra, Brisbane. 5 to 20 February, 2021.

If I was a casting director, I would head over to Ad Astra’s production of The Laramie Project right now to check out a wonderful showcase of talented performers. Nine actors play more than 60 characters in a great example of ‘verbatim’ theatre, based on court transcripts and interviews with residents of Laramie, Wyoming in the wake of Matthew Shepard’s murder in the cold October of 1998.

Rising

By Hannah Belanszky, Madeleine Border, Emily Burton, Lauren Sherritt and Sarah Wilson. A Playlab Theatre production with Metro Arts. New Benner Theatre, Brisbane. 3 to 13 February, 2021.

Most writers agree with the mantra: the best way to learn how to write is to just write! But what if you want to be a playwright? There’s only so much you can accomplish without hearing actors read your lines, and only so much you can discover about the production process without the reality of a looming opening night deadline followed by an audience’s reaction. Rising has been developed as an emerging female playwrights commission by Playlab Theatre, a group that develops new Australian theatre with playwrights at the heart of the creative process.

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