Reviews

Watershed: The Death of Doctor Duncan

Composed by Joseph Twist. Libretto by Alana Valentine and Chistos Tsiolkas. Opera Australia. Directed by Neil Armfield. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. June 14 - 16, 2024

There were lots of words recited in this oratorio that were unfamiliar to the stage of the Joan Sutherland Theatre. For starters “poofter” and “cum” don’t normally appear in the translation of operas.

Also, strikingly different to regular operas was a tight, engaging, contemporary story where not a word was wasted. Sadly, this stunning and beautiful work is only on stage for four performances, after its initial season at the Adelaide Festival.

Swing on This

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. June 14-15th 2024

Swing on This opened their 10th Adelaide Cabaret season 70-minute show to a packed, adoring audience at the Dunstan Playhouse. The self-described ‘kings of swing’ features Luke Kennedy (The Voice Australia, The Ten Tenors), Matt Lee (Frozen, Mary Poppins), and Ben Mingay (Shrek, Sweeney Todd) and new member Bert LaBonté (Moulin Rouge, The Book of Mormon).

Chat 10 Looks 3 Live

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Festival Theatre. 14 June 2024

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival continues to surprise: who would have thought we’d witness the ABC’s Leigh Sales AM singing Chicago’s ‘Class’ with the Festival’s director, Virginia Gay? And mighty fine singing it was too, and an excellent opening to a live (and lively!) edition of the popular podcast from Sales and Annabel Crabb.

Lambs

Free Agents Youth Theatre. Goodwood Theatre and Studios, Goodwood, SA. June 13-15, 2024

The future of theatre is ensured if it is left to performers of the young artists of the Free Agents Youth Theatre! Lambs is an extremely powerful piece of theatre that is sure to move any theatregoer.

Written by Director Sean Riley in collaboration with his students, it explores the residents of a fictionalised country town named St Jude during World War I, when many boys and young men sought an adventure across the world by signing up to the Australian Imperial Forces despite being below the minimum age of enlistment.

Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare. Atherton Performing Arts. Directed by Sarah Riber and Geo Toner. June 14-23, 2024

Set in the violent streets of Verona, Italy, this timeless play is brought to life predominantly by young-adult females immersed in the language of Shakespeare. And what a wonderful interpretation this version is.

Acted on a dystopian, post-apocalyptic set, with the rival families dressed in modern red and blue clothing, the action moves rapidly from scene to scene against a backdrop of clever lighting and haunting music.

The Swallows

By Sandra Fiona Long, co-created with Helen Morse, Ria Soemardjo & Helen Mountfort. Kath Papas Productions (Kath Papas & Taka Takiguchi). La Mama HQ, Carlton. 6 – 16 June 2024

Here is a tale of a woman’s (Helen Morse) relation to Nature: her childlike immersion in it – mud between her toes, skin red from icy water - her delicate, wondering observation of nature’s variety, the sunlight through the trees, the sensual feel of a breeze on her skin, her awareness of its silence filled with sounds – birds hidden and seen, the rustle of leaves, the trickle-flow of water – all as she walks and jumps from rock to rock and explores along beside Innocence Creek…  Her own little vulnerable world.  And then the story tells of her

Flo & Joan

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre. 12-15 June, 2024

Rosie and Nicola Dempsey are self-deprecating, self-proclaimed, singing, spinster sisters. And that’s not even the most alliterated line in the show. They sing and talk – frequently straying off-topic – and keep the packed theatre entertained with a wonderful combination of biting lyric, supreme musicality (jazz on a recorder, anyone?) and sublime harmonies.

Under the Table

By Sean Guy. Directed by Anita Bound. KADS Town Hall Theatre, Kalamunda, WA. Jun 7 - 22, 2024

KADS present their second Sean Guy play of the year - Under the Table, winner of the 2022 Northern Territory Literacy Award for Theatre. An interesting blend of Agatha Christie style mystery, absurdism, and Australian humour, it was very well received by its opening night audience.

Playing on a split stage, one side interrogation room and the other ostensibly murder victim Edward Hush’s dining room, we meet two rather unusual detectives and a collection of suspects whose stories do not seem to agree.

Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience

Interactive Theatre International. Castlereagh Boutique Hotel, Sydney. June 8, 2024, and touring.

The hotel restaurant of the old British TV hit, Faulty Towers, is perfect creation for this madcap Dining Experience, with lookalikes Basil, Sybil and Manuel serving our meals with their signature appalling service. 

After 25 years, there are now half a dozen versions of this show in hotels and theatre spaces around the world, yet with its vaudevillian carry-on,  Faulty remains a distinctly British Experience.

Nocturnal

By Brooke Leeder and Dancers. The.Studio, Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Jun 7 -15, 2023

Nocturnal is a brand-new contemporary dance workchoreographed and presented by Brooke Leeder and Dancers. This very dark piece, obviously set at night, is dark in costuming, set and lighting - an intriguing piece with elements of secrecy, nightmares, and self-reflection.

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