Reviews

Guys and Dolls

Based on a story and characters of Damon Runyon. Music by Frank Loesser. Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Presented by Ipswich Musical Theatre Company. Directed by Robbie Parkin. Ipswich Civic Centre. 7 – 15 September 2024.

When it comes to musical theatre, the action is hot out in Ipswich – you can bet all your lettuce on that! The latest production of the award-winning classic, Guys and Dolls is bold and bright, and beautifully realised with an all singing, all dancing, all acting cast backed by a big live band.

Nora: A Doll’s House

By Stef Smith after Henrik Ibsen. WAAPA Third Year Acting Students. Directed by Sonya Suares. The Roundhouse, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. Sep 5-12, 2024

Nora: A Doll’s House has been described as “a radical reinterpretation” of Ibsen’s original play. Performed by WAAPA Third Year Acting Students, and designed, built and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design Students, this version features a much larger cast than the West End Production, whose 2020 run was unfortunately cut short by the Covid Pandemic.

You’re The Man

By Paul Mitchell. Presented by La Mama, Monstrous Theatre and Paul Mitchell. La Mama Carlton Courthouse, Vic. Sep 4 – 14, 2024

In this biting, aggressive tale about a broken family, two people fall in love and yet just don’t seem to be able to get it right to lead a happy life . You’re The Man is a cutting-edge dramatized experience on domestic violence written by actor/writer Paul Mitchell and directed by Theresa Borg from Monstrous Theatre productions.

Away

By Michael Gow. Canberra Repertory. Directed by Lainie Hart. Theatre 3, Acton. 5–21 September 2024.

It’s 1967, and three families, whose only connection is their relationship to the local school, meet after the performance of the school’s Christmas play.  Roy (Jim Adamik), the school’s principal, makes his end-of-year speech and wishes all a happy Christmas before greeting individual family members.  Roy’s embarrassingly aloof and strange wife, Coral (Andrea Close), floats unsociably in the background, attracting unfavourable comments.

August: Osage County

By Tracy Letts. Free-Rain, directed by Cate Clelland. Australian Capital Theatre Hub, Kingston, 5–15 September 2024.

At the opening of Tracy Letts’s classic 2008 family drama August: Osage County, the Weston family’s head, Beverley Weston, welcomes to the family home a young woman he has hired to help around the house.  We learn that his wife, Violet, accepts his drinking habit and that he accepts her pill habit, and that the help is for her in her unpredictability.  Beverley’s disappearance shortly thereafter brings his daughters and their families to the home to support Violet; everyone hopes that he has gone on a bender and will soon return.

Dead Man’s Cell Phone

By Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Phil Bedworth. KADS Town Square Theatre, Kalamunda, WA. Sep 6 - 21, 2025

KADS’ Dead Man’s Cell Phone is a cosy little drama with a difference, playing at Kalamunda. Directed with thought by Phil Bedworth, it features a talented cast and was well received by the opening night audience, who were invariably describing it as “surprising” and “different”. 

Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show

Written and Directed by Jean Paul Gaultier. Presented by Brisbane Festival, Tourism and Events Queensland, Brisbane Economic Development Agency, South Bank Corporation in Association with Ts3, RGM Productions, and Avex Entertainment. Southbank Piazza, 30 August – 15 September 2024.

Fashionistas, freaks, and freaky fashionistas are devouring a delightfully French sweet treat courtesy of Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show. It’s the jewel in the crown of this year's Brisbane Festival, staged in the massive South Bank Piazza venue.  

English

By Sanaz Toossi. Melbourne Theatre Company, directed by Tasnim Hossain. The Playhouse, Canberra, 5–7 September 2024.

Sanaz Toossi’s play takes place in Iran in a classroom for four students of English as a foreign language, the different sessions amusingly signalled by changes in the room’s wall clock.

Ruddigore or The Witch’s Curse

Music by Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO. Libretto by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria. Director/Set Designer: Ron Picock OAM. Musical Director/Conductor: Trevor Henley. Choreographer: Denique Adlam. Alexander Theatre, Ian Potter Centre for the Arts, Clayton, 6-8 September, 2024 and Corinella, 14 September 2024

A small Cornish fishing village. A bad baronet under a curse. Professional bridesmaids with no weddings. Nasty ghostly ancestors. A village beauty. A mad woman. A dauntless sailor – let’s call him Dick.

Edward Scissorhands

Matthew Bourne’s dance production based on the Tim Burton movie and featuring the music of Danny Elfman and Terry Davies. Filmed live in March 2024 at the Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff. Sharmill Films. Screening in select Australian cinemas from September 27, 2024.

I have always thought that the 1990 film Edward Scissorhands is the pinnacle of Johnny Depp’s acting career, the ‘Frankenstein’ boy with scissors instead of hands who only wants to fit into society. It’s a unique combination of comedy, tragedy and horror.

British choreographer Matthew Bourne, famous for his 1995 all male version of Swan Lake has taken this classic film and turned it into a ballet while still retaining the look and feel of the original but placing it in the 50s instead of the 80s.

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