Reviews

At the end of her one-woman show, standing in the debris it’s produced, arrayed in pink and while plastic, Madame Nightshade (Anna Thomson) asks the audience not to tell anyone about the show, ‘because it’s a secret’.  And, indeed, telling too much about it would be to give too much away.

When Victorian Opera was originally set up its charter was to fill a niche market, producing lesser known works, and since then they have fulfilled this. They certainly did with Black Rider.

Based on the same folk tale which Weber used for Der Freischűtz, it tells the story of a clerk who wants to marry a huntsman’s daughter, but the father will only allow her to marry a huntsman. So he purchases some magic bullets, the last one of which kills his fiancée. In Der Freischűtz the bullet only wounds the fiancée.

It’s hard to be critical when you’re invited to a theatre dinner where the food and service is great, and every plate, design and immersive theatricality is a very personal expression of the three performers.  Harder still when the three artists have an intellectual disability they invite you to ignore.

Sydney’s impressive driver of accessible arts, Studio A, and the usually epic, physical theatre company, Erth were commissioned by Carriageworks to produce one of these ten works by artists with a disability.

A boat is a vessel, carrying life across dangerous seas, and a womb is a vessel, carrying life across a dangerous world.  These concepts combine in this strikingly original dance work performed by six young dancers, a performer, a singer and two musicians.  The central theme is that of the ‘mother’ – the life-giver, the nurturer (but not always), and with whom there are bonds – like it or not - that are never broken.  The umbilical cord (powerfully represented in the closing sequence of this work) may be cut, but the link remains.