By Brett Dean (musical score) and Matthew Jocelyn (libretto). A Glyndebourne Festival Opera Production. Adelaide Festival 2018. Festival Theatre, Adelaide. March 2 - 6, 2018
Hamlet (the opera) is one of the jewels of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. It is a juggernaut, featuring an orchestra of 70, a cast of approximately 60 and a set that is monumental.
The Festival Theatre was packed to the rafters on the first night of this long-awaited opera and anticipation was at a peak. The audience was not disappointed.
The real heroes of this opera are Shakespeare, Brett Dean (musical score) and Matthew Jocelyn (libretto).
By Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel with Kirsty Housley. Complicité Associates. Directed by Kirsty Housley. Canberra Theatre Centre 28 February - 3 March, 2018; Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne 7 - 18 March; Seymour Centre, Sydney 22 - 29 March.
“Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick,” wrote Susan Sontag in Illness as Metaphor. In A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer, Bryony Kimmings leads the audience by the hand from the kingdom of the well into the kingdom of the sick in a way that’s both gentle and deceptive. Initially there’s a kind of amateur drama informality with self-effacing humour and rock songs. At this point the cancer is theoretical—viewed through books and activists’ quotes.
Adelaide Fringe. Presented by SAYarts. Devised by On The Fringe. Written by Alan Grace. Directed by Claire Glenn. Tandanya Theatre, 253 Grenfell St, Adelaide. 28 Feb - 4 Mar, 2018.
Knowing that this is a show enacted by youth performers, the title might lead you to expect a well-mannered examination/dramatization of teenage loneliness and/or online bullying. What we get instead is a pretty fierce and frightening depiction of human relations that, when faced with the sudden breakdown of society as we know it, descend into the kind of tribalism that signals a very bleak future indeed.
Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Old Nick Theatre Summer School. Darren Sangwell (Director). Glenn Schultz (Musical Director). Maddie Smith (Set Designer). Hobart College. February 23- March 3 2018
Annie Get Your Gun is a show this author needed to see twice. Every February, Old Nick, as part of their annual Summer School, produce a high-quality energetic production which never fails to disappoint.
By David Finnigan. Griffin Theatre Company. Director: Lee Lewis. SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney. 23 September - 7 April 2018
When writer David Finnigan speaks about his play Kill Climate Deniers he calls it “stupid, over-the-top, flashy, ridiculous, fun — and angry, because I am angry.” That’s a long list, but one that looks good after its dynamic premiere at the Stables Theatre. Winner of the $10,000 Griffin Playwrights Award for 2017, the play shows off its class effortlessly.
Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018.Presented by Michael Shafar. The GC at The German Club-Cellar. Feb 27th to March 4th, 2018
1. The word kosher, literally meaning “clean” or “pure,” refers to food that has been ritually prepared or blessed so it can be eaten by religious Jews.
2. kosher (informal) genuine and legitimate.
The humour begins even before the show. It takes great wit with a generous helping of ironic humour for a good Jewish boy to do a show called Kosher Bacon at The German Club and he comments on this.
By Roysten Abel. Can & Abel Theatres Production - Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), March 1 and 2, 2018; then Arts Centre Melbourne, and Botanic Park, Adelaide.
When you imagine a show called ‘spectacular’ it usually conjures a giddying, colourful array of acrobats, jugglers, plate-spinners and exotic dancers. Well, the Manganiyar Seduction is all of these things – only the visions occur in your mind’s eye – a mirage, an oasis created by the power that comes from 40 musicians performing traditional folk music together.
By Robyn Archer. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse Theatre. Arts Centre Melbourne in association with Smartartists Productions. Feb 28 - Mar 3, 2018
It’s easy to see why writer and director Robyn Archer AO is often referred to as a national treasure. She has the most impressive bio you’ll ever read, and The Sound of Falling Stars is a worthy addition. In Cameron Goodall as the lead, Enio Pozzebon on keyboard and George Butrumlis on piano accordion, she has assembled an equally masterful ensemble to execute her expertly concocted show. This foursome knows how to entertain!
Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Gallery Room of the National Wine Centre. March 1 - 9, 2018
The urban dictionary defines Bromance as ‘the complicated love and affection shared by twostraight males’.
Hollywood has made this term popular with its bromances – Paul Newman & Robert Redford, Will Smith & Tom Cruise and Owen Wilson & Ben Stiller, to name a few.
Adelaide Fringe 2018. Empyrean at Gluttony. 27 February - 18th March 2018
No Frills Cabaret is circus stripped bare; no set, no lighting, no MC, just a rotating banquet of some of the best circus and physical theatre performers Australia has to offer.
The show is perfectly suited to the open roofed Empyrean, one of the many venues in the greatly expanded Gluttony. And, with a 6.50pm start time, it’s the perfect way to get in the mood for a whole night of Fringe.
