Reviews

“I’d be careful if I were you. When you obtain your ideal, she may be more cruel than you care for.” Playwright Thomas Novachek (Craig Alexander) has spent the day auditioning actresses for his stage adaptation of Venus in Fur, based on the classic novel on sadomasochism by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Having rejected them all as shallow and unworldly, he’s preparing to meet his fiancée for dinner, when in bursts Vanda (Joanna Richards), crude, abrasive and assertive, two hours later than she was booked to arrive.

Scaramouche Jonesis a wonderful opportunity to see veteran actor Colin Friels convey a complex character with splendid insightful skill.

In a very short eighty minutes, Friels captures and reels in his audience, entrancing with stories of the fictional clown Scaramouche, who has lived an exceptional life that highlights extraordinary events and happenings of the 20th Century.

The whisper in the foyer amongst regular patrons was that this production was the best one staged by the Rockdale Opera Company in many years. Walking into the Rockdale Town Hall I was immediately impressed with the pride in the company’s heritage. Posters adorned the walls promoted the company’s 70 years of service to the community, including two previous productions of this sparkling operetta.

If you’ve wondered what Ibsen’s Nora Helmer did after she slammed that door and left her husband and three children, this sequel gives an answer.  An answer.  It’s fifteen years later and Nora (Marta Dusseldorp) returns – through that very same door.  She’s discovered that her husband Torvald (Greg Stone) never filed for divorce which means that they are still married and (under Norwegian law of the time, say 1895) she is in legal difficulties and could lose everything she has achieved over those fifteen years of independence.