Reviews

Dragged

Written & Produced by Andy Aisbett. For midsumma festival. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton VIC. 25 January to 4 February 2017

‘Stella’ (Samuel Thompson) is a drag artist – gorgeous, sexy but dissolute, unreliable and self-pitying.  She’s taking a break and a half bottle of Scotch between sets at a drag show venue, and thinking back over her past.  How did she get here?  She remains on stage throughout, mostly in postures of abject defeat, as we go back into that past: so she’s a framing device and occasional Narrator.

Strangers in Between

By Tommy Murphy. Directed by Daniel Lammin, produced by Cameron Lukey and Andy Johnston. fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 24 January - 11 February 2018.

The timing of this production provides the opportunity to reflect on the recent passing of same-sex marriage legislation in Australia. The play was first staged in 2005 and was an immediate hit for its raw yet tender examination of homosexuality. Only the absence of technology gives away its age. This revival highlights how the themes remain just as hard-hitting today.

Wild Bore

Sydney Festival. Carriageworks. January 24 - 28, 2018

Three female, boundary-bulldozing cabaret performers put their arses on the line with this spirited show attacking critics of their other shows.    

Zoe Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott quote back these hyperbolic negativities through their three articulate arses, propped up on a table of mics as in a panel discussion – of arseholes.

We Were There

Devised & directed by Dirk Hault. Tilted Projects. Chapel Off Chapel, Prahran VIC. 23 January - 4 February 2018

Four engaging, talented actors tell stories of the experience of women and AIDS - from before the condition even had a name, let alone any treatment.  They tell of bafflement and fear, of ignorance, misdiagnosis, prejudice, rejection (including by families), misinformation, euphemisms, evasions, physical and mental suffering, and shame.  But there is also resilience, kindness, love, acceptance, unstinting efforts to find a cure – or at least amelioration – and the formation of support groups and communities of sufferers and carers. 

Mother

By Daniel Keene. A Belvoir and If Theatre Production. Belvoir Theatre, Sydney. Director: Matt Scholten. 25 January - 11 February 2018

She’s a lonely figure on stage as the audience assemble. Surrounded by leaves, rubbish, the left-over detritus of a Melbourne suburban corner, the woman is damaged and shaky, with matted hair and outfit of a beggar. Birds squawk. The audience chatter, are indifferent to her. A full 20 minutes goes by as she potters about, grunting, talking to herself. 

Sorting Out Rachel

By David Williamson. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Director: Nadia Tass. 19 January - 17 March 2018

According to the Ensemble’s program, David Williamson has written ‘more than fifty-three produced plays’, though whether the current one is No. 54 is unclear. At any rate it’s a hell of a lot and, with an apparent lock on the Ensemble’s prime-time, two-month slot every year, who knows the number that the 75-year-old playwright will eventually reach.

When I Awoke

Writer, Composer & Director James Christensen. The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne CBD. 23 - 28 January 2018

A woman paces restlessly in her luxury London apartment.  Her life and career are in ruins, her relationships smashed and lost.  But what ‘wakes’ her is that her formerly estranged sister has sent her a one-way plane ticket ‘home’.  What is ‘home’?  As a home town, it is Mossman in far north Queensland.  The Woman confides in us – rather than thinking aloud.  She reluctantly visits her past: remembering that ‘home’ was a place of heat, abandonment, silence, boredom and mediocrity.

Lockpick Pornography

Adaptor/Performer: Christopher Bryant. Director/Dramaturg: Emma Palackic. After the book by Joey Comeau. La Mama Courthouse. Midsumma Festival. Jan 17 - 21.

Lockpick Pornography is an outrageous transgressive production at the La Mama Courthouse, Carlton, as part of the Midsumma Festival.  Performed by Christopher Bryant, who is a multi-talented writer and performer, along with the director Emma Palackic, both have successfully adapted a serialized novella by Canadian writer Joey Comeau.

Tonsils + Tweezers

By Will O'Mahoney. Jack Rabbit Theatre. KX Theatre (NSW). Jan 12 - 27, 2018

A cast full of energy, with an exciting fast paced formula – a story of a friendship, with humour, fun, and a dark side revealed in the unravelling of the story line.

This excellent cast and production is well directed by Michael Abercromby. A strong ensemble of actors deliver an interesting storyline accompanied by Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The audience do not grasp the significance of quotes from Macbeth until near the end of the play.

Meow Meow's Pandemonium

Meow Meow and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. January 22 & 23, 2018

Meow has come a long way since her Sydney Festival shows in the Spiegeltent with a small band. Now she’s in the Opera House Concert Hall with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. 

Her frequent musical collaborator Iain Grandage is the conductor; harnessing the SSO’s power and intricate playing as much as its fun capacity to match Meow’s madly hilarious cabaret style.

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