Reviews

Roleystone Theatre One Act Season

By Aydee Bull, Anton Chekhov and Steven Herrick and Andre Victor. Directed by Aydee Bull, Paul Treasure and Andre Victor. Roleystone Theatre, WA. Aug 30-31, 2024

Roleystone Theatre delivered three very different one act plays as part of a very short one act season. With two locally written shows, one of which was a musical and a Russian classic, it was certainly a diverse selection.

LIMBO – The Return

Presented by Brisbane Festival and Strut & Fret. Conceived and directed by Scott Maidment. Original music by Sxip Shirey. The West End Electric, 29 August – 21 September 2024.

It’s dangerous and death defying, it's flirtatious and sexy, it's spiritual and it's visceral. It has been ten years in the making, and it's toured and received a dictionary’s worth of positive hyperbole from audiences and critics across 17 countries. LIMBO is so cool even Madonna has seen it – twice! When you’re a critic heading into a show like this, you wonder if it will live up to all of the hype. Spoiler alert: oh yes, you’d better believe it will.

West Side Story

Music: Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Book: Arthur Laurents. MLOC Productions Inc. & Casey Philharmonic Orchestra. Bunjil Place, Narre Warren. August 29 – September 31, 2021.

Photographer: Perren Bonsall

From the first notes to the final breath, West Side Story is one of the most memorable musicals and greatest love stories of all time. Arthur Laurents' book remains as powerful, poignant, and timely as ever. The score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim is widely regarded as one of the best written. The world's greatest love story takes to the streets in this landmark Broadway musical that is one of the theatre's finest accomplishments.

A Streetcar Named Desire

By Tennessee Williams. Spotlight Theatrical Company. Directed by Hunter Kerr. The Basement Theatre, Gold Coast. August 23 – September 7, 2024

Tennessee Williams is an icon amongst American playwrights, but not an easy one to relate to. His writing vacillates between lyrical and mellifluous and OTT high campery which is a stretch for even the finest actors. One could argue that his voice is no longer relevant, except that his writing thematically is about exploring sexuality…and isn’t that always relevant?

The Children’s Bach

Composer Andrew Schultz. Libretto Glen Perry after the novel by Helen Garner. Lyric Opera of Melbourne & Theatre Works. Theatre Works, St Kilda. 29 August – 7 September 2024

The Fox family live happily enough, it seems, by inner Melbourne’s Meri Creek – Athena (Kate Amos), Dexter (Michael Honeyman) and their autistic son Billy (alternating Ben Touzel and Chris Touzel) who does not speak.  But sophisticated Elizabeth (Juel Riggall), an old girlfriend of Dexter’s, shows up with her younger sister, immature hostile-dependant teenager Vicki (Lucy Schneider) and Elizabeth’s seductive musician boyfriend Philip (Adrian Li Donnni) and his young daughter Poppy (Chloe Taylor).  The Fox household seems warm and welcoming, but Ath

And Then There Were None

By Agatha Christie. Presented by Phoenix Variety and Music Group. McLaren Vale Institute Hall, SA. 31 August – 8 September 2024

Community theatre means many things to different people, but what Phoenix Variety and Music Group bring to McLaren Vale is theatre for the community. Keen supporters – family, friends and locals alike – are laden with hampers of food; the round tables see people who don’t know each sitting shoulder to shoulder, sipping the local wine, and enjoying the theatre on the Institute Hall stage.

The Children

By Lucy Kirkwood. Black Swan State Theatre. Directed by Mel Cantwell. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, WA. Aug 24 - Sep 15, 2024

Lucy Kirkwood is a much-lauded playwright, described as one of the best of her generation, and this production, from Black Swan Theatre, does justice to one of her most well-known plays. Well-acted and thoughtfully directed, this production is well crafted and fascinating to watch.

This is the second production of this play in Perth, the first being Theatre 180’s excellent pre-Covid production, performed in a tiny venue, and unfortunately not widely seen. Black Swan allows this story to reach a bigger audience.

The Volition Project and The Volition Experiment

Created by Theatre Works Early Career Artists Program Cohort 2024 with Stephen Mitchell Wright (Experiment) and Belle Hansen (Project). Explosives Factory, Inkerman Street, St Kilda. 29 August – 7 September 2024

Here are two separate, stand-alone but thematically linked pieces presented principally to showcase the graduates of Theatre Works Early Career Artists Program Cohort.  So we see on stage a variety of sixteen intriguing, attractive, energetic and mostly talented young performers. 

Sunset Boulevard

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Book and Lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. Opera Australia and GWB Entertainment. Directed bv Paul Griffin. Musical Direction by Paul Christ. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. August 29 – November 1, 2024

Sunset Boulevard is about a movie star past her prime, trying to reinvent her career by taking a new ill-advised direction.

As per the original movie Norma Desmond is writing a screenplay with herself as a 16- year-old in an adaptation of Salome.

Fun Home

Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. By arrangement with Concord Theatricals. PIP Theatre Milton, Qld. 29th Aug -14th September, 2024

There are musicals that are simply fun, an escape from the world. Then there are those that immerse you so deeply in the world, and what it means to be human, that connect on such a deep level, that your life is somehow changed by an evening’s entertainment. Fun Home sits clearly at the top of the latter group – along with such shows as Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen.

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