Reviews

Cruel Britannia: After Frankenstein

Director: Cohan. Writer and Performer: Kristen Smyth. Sound Design: Di Drew. Costume Design: Jessamine Moffett. Set Design: Rachel ‘Stoz’ Stone. Lighting Design: Ashleigh Shearman. Producer: Ben Anderson. The Show Room, Arts Centre, Melbourne. 21 - 30 November, 2024

Kristen Smyth has ventured into the difficult territory of presenting painful and challenging experiences to an audience. She has wrapped the torturous Thatcherite skinhead, drug and club culture and the experience of identity discovery and transitioning in the cloak of our common understanding of the making of a monster as depicted in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”. The fundamental question of who the monsters are is deeply explored in this searching and poetic text. The Director, Cohan has offered a purity of vision which supports the text’s life.

Carrie

Music by Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, book by Lawrence D. Cohen, based on the book by Stephen King. WAAPA’s Second Year Musical Theatre. Directed by Tyler Jacob Jones. The Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA. Nov 8-14, 2024

The musical Carrie is perhaps best known as being one of Broadway’s biggest flops, but in the hands of WAAPA’s Second Year Musical Theatre students, it was an unmitigated success. This cohort’s first public performance as an individual cohort, it was designed, built and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design Students, and accompanied by WAAPA Music Students.

The Murmuration of Lost Birds

By Marie-Eve Cigna, Laura Goodlet.Henry Kent, Natasha Pearson, Rueben Mongoo, Roisin Wallace – Nash. WAAPA Bachelor of Performing Arts, Performance Making and Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Directed by Michael Barlow. Victoria Hall, Fremantle, WA. Nov 8-9, 2024

For some years WAAPA’s Bachelor of Performing Arts, Performance Making students have been collaborating with Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, for their ultimate performance project. Always an excellent partnership, this year’s The Murmuration of Lost Birds, with its themes of young birds leaving the nest and flying off into an uncertain future, was particularly poignant, and I felt privileged to witness this charming cohort’s last ever performance together.

A Festival of W.S. Gilbert Plays: Creatures of Impulse, Comedy and Tragedy, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, The Hooligan

By W.S. Gilbert. Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria. The Malvern Theatre, East Malvern. 21 – 24 November 2024

This collection of four plays (or playlets) by W.S. Gilbert has perhaps more historical or biographical interest than artistic merit, but they are quite likely a revelation for lovers of the comic operas written with Arthur Sullivan. 

Blanc de Blanc Encore

Devised and Directed by Scott Maidment. Presented by Strut & Fret. The West End Electric. 14 November, 2024 – 16 February, 2025

Blanc de Blanc Encore is an effervescent delight—a bubbly, bright, and delicious concoction that leaves its audience utterly intoxicated with joy. The brainchild of visionary creative director Scott Maidment, this cabaret variety show is packed to the brim with hilarity, jaw-dropping spectacle, and an irresistibly cheeky sense of fun. Naughty jokes and burlesque numbers brimming with tongue-in-cheek humour create a playful atmosphere that strikes the perfect balance between sensuality and satire. 

Julius Caesar

Music by George Frideric Handel. Libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym. Pinchgut Opera. Directed by Neil Armfield. Conducted by Erin Helyard. City Recital Hall, Sydney. November 21 – 27, 2024

A golden translucent pyramid adorned the stage, crowning the orchestra like a cake cover, which was appropriate for the ravishing music feast they provided, that perfectly balanced singing and players.

When Handel penned the opera, Castrati were all the rage, but even with his tools intact, the counter-tenor lead  Tim Mead had a falsetto that was crystal clear. The melodies and vibrato floated out of him like an energetic bubble machine.

An Ideal Husband

By Oscar Wilde. Presented by Heidelberg Theatre Company. Directed by Tim Scott. Heidelberg Theatre Company, 6 Turnham Ave, Rosanna, Melbourne. 15-30 November 2024.

Late 19th century London is beautifully and elegantly conjured in this highly refined production of An Ideal Husband. HTC has paid meticulous attention to both sets and costuming and has created a visually sumptuous environment. The quality of the staging is very impressive and fully exploits the spacious nature of the HTC venue to create pomp and grandeur.

People Will Think You Don’t Love Me

By Joanna Erskine. LITTLE TROJAN in association with bAKEHOUSE THEATRE CO. Directed by Jules Billington. At KXT On Broadway, Sydney. 15 – 30 November, 2024

LITTLE TROJAN do a great job dressing up their new play for its opening performance. The theatre looks good, the play is solidly set and lit on the two-sided stage, and there’s a fine program to be read, the first time in years that a small theatre has offered such an important ingredient.

Treasure Island

By Ben Crocker. Malanda Theatre Company. 29th November -8th December, 2024.

In the program it states that this pantomime is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel. That in itself is an understatement. But out of this jumbled script has emerged an absorbing theatrical production, full of colour, dance, song and mad comedy.

Umberto & Natsuko

Queensland Symphony Orchestra. QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 15-16 November 2024

Resident Conductor Umberto Clerici and Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto were in the spotlight for the last of the Maestro series for 2024 with a performance of Brahms' Double Concerto in A minor for Violin and Cello. It was quite a treat to see a conductor playing his own chosen instrument, a switch of roles, and in this instance, the transfer of emotion from baton to cello, perhaps the perfect instrument of choice for such a passionate personality as Maestro Clerici; and in true Italian style.

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