Reviews

Barber Shop Chronicles from Nigerian-British writer Inua Ellams is surely the hit of the Sydney Festival.

His Chronicles check in on what African men are talking about in barber shops across Johannesburg, Lagos, Harare, Accra, Kampala and south London.

We return to some places, some ongoing stories, and the settings are masterfully linked by a nail-biting international soccer match, a repeated joke about three men in a pub and a powerful theme of men cut off from their fathers.

It’s been four years almost to the day since we did the “Time Warp” in Brisbane and if last night’s overwhelming reception was any indication it couldn’t have come sooner. The Rocky Horror Show is back again in all its glory with its excess of sequins, glitter and raunchy dialogue.

Pelican Productions have been hosting the Music Theatre Camp for the past 14 years, an idea born out of the desire to nurture young, up and coming talent from the Adelaide region. The camp is held in the January school holidays and is an intensive two-week workshop, with training in singing, dancing and acting.

This delightful show is most appropriate for children who are eight years and over and quite a delight for adults.  However children younger than eight find hilarity throughout due to the incorporated comic repetition.

The show opens well before metaphorical curtain with the very personable and charming Jarod Rawiri chatting to the audience in the foyer, and getting up to some wacky ginks in the auditorium.  By Rawiri, as a witty white-faced clown, children are engaged and encouraged, to respond naturally and spontaneously.