Reviews

Amleth – No-lander mark.

Adapted for Naghali by Elnaz Sheshgelani. Directed & performed by Elnaz Sheshgelani. La Mama HQ, 205 Faraday St, Carlton. 24 August - 4 September 2022.

This show is a part of a project aimed at preserving an ancient form of Persian storytelling called Naghali. It explores stories through specific codified gestures and movement which culminate in a very stylised corporeal expression. The performance has an elegance and beauty that is seen in both the action and the overall design. There is a magnificence in the cohesion of the set and the intriguing atmosphere this creates.

Whitefella Yella Tree

By Dylan Van Den Berg. Griffin Theatre Company. SBW Stables Theatre. Aug 19 – Sep 23, 2022.

Two Aboriginal boys regularly meet in the bush to relay information about the new white settlers to their different mobs.  It’s early 1800’s Australia, but they dress and talk like any kids today as they compete, strut and banter with each other.  

Soon, as teenagers they fall madly in love.

Celebrity Theatresports 2022

Enmore Theatre. 21st August, 2022

The best yet? If not, it’s certainly in the running! With host Andrew Denton in sparkling red sequinned tails, co-host Josie O’Reilly in glittering gold and black and Music Man Benny Davis in shining silver, this annual theatrical treat was everything a charity impro event should be. The hosts were hyped, the teams were primed – and as usual the audience, warmed up by the inimitable Ewan Campbell, was ready for anything.

But the hype wasn’t just about improvisation.

Hamlet

By Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn, adapted from the play by William Shakespeare. Metropolitan Opera, Manhattan USA. In Australian cinemas from September 6, 2022.

Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn tread on dangerous ground when adapting Shakespeare’s iconic masterpiece Hamlet for the opera stage. It could be a raging success or a dismal failure. Fortunately, it is the former. This production, staged by the Metropolitan Opera, delves deep into the psyche of the Prince of Demark, revealing his darkest fears.

Humpty Dumpty: The Egg’s Files

By Tony Nicholls. Bunbury Musical Comedy Group. Directed by Jan Phillips. The New Lyric Theatre, Bunbury, WA. Aug 12-21, 2022

Bunbury Musical Comedy Group gave us a winter warmer pantomime with a science fiction twist, with Humpty Dumpty: The Egg’s Files. With the audience given a tutorial on appropriate pantomime responses, everyone had a chance to join in and get involved.

Caught

By Christopher Chen. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. 16 August – 11 September 2022

Cast member Jing-Xuan Chan (as herself?) thanks us for coming to this performance of Caught but she warns us that there is content some may find distressing.  However, Red Stitch staff are on hand in the foyer to help.  Curious.  No other Red Stitch show that I’ve seen has begun like this.  Of course, we accept that this is ‘real’.  By the end, we’ll realise that this welcome was another fiction, one of many serial fictions (or tricks), that we have kept accepting as ‘real’ only to have our trust disabused and the carpet

Trust Me, It’s the End of Our World After All

By Terence Smith. Beyond the Yard. Directed by Terence Smith. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Aug 16-Sep 3, 2022

Beyond the Yard’s new post-apocalyptic drama at the Blue Room, Trust Me, It’s the End of Our World After All, is an intriguing play that blends family drama and squabbles, with life and death situations. A show with strong premise, well drawn performances, and excellent production values, it holds its audience throughout.

Constellations

By Nick Payne. Lane Cove Theatre Company. Director Isaac Downey. The Performance Space @ St Aidan’s. 19-28 August, 2022

Nick Payne’s award-winning play Constellations is based on the possibility that there are multiple universes that can “pull people’s lives in different directions”. Or, that, as his character Marianne, a physicist, suggests: “several outcomes can coexist simultaneously” where “the decisions we do and don’t make will determine which of these futures we actually end up experiencing.”

The Pitmen Painters

By Lee Hall. Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. August 18 – 27, 2022.

The 2007 play The Pitmen Painters won the 2008 Evening Standard Award for Best Play. Written by English playwright and screen writer Lee Hall, who hails from Newcastle, it is an ode to the talented, often disadvantaged English working class. Hall is best known for writing the screenplay for the 2000 film Billy Elliot, and its book and lyrics as a stage musical. In addition, once again celebrating the talents of humble working people, he penned the screenplay for the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman.

Anna K

By Suzie Miller. Directed by Carissa Licciardello. Merlyn Theatre, The Malthouse, 113 Sturt St, Southbank. 12 August – 4 September 2022.

The concept behind Anna K is a very clever way to suggest that sexism continues to reign in society despite historical progression. Anna K makes direct reference to Tolstoy’s famous novel Anna Karenina, its iconography and its themes. Contextualising it in a contemporary digital media landscape, where the damaging expression of societal disapproval can go completely unchecked, beautifully mirrors the ruthlessness of the aristocratic ambience of the novel. The parallels are extremely feasible and the alternative narrative outcome also is also very plausible.

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