Reviews

Lost in Yonkers

By Neil Simon. Directed by Karin Staflund. Roxy Lane Theatre, Maylands, WA. Aug 16-Sep 1, 2024

Neil Simon’s American classic Lost in Yonkers may be Roxy Lane Theatre’s most outstanding production to date. This well directed, intelligently performed trip to New York during World War II is charming healthy sized audiences.

When their widowed father is forced to work away from home, teenaged Jay and little brother Artie are sent to live with their little known overly strict Grandmother and their intellectually challenged Aunt Bella.

Bloom

Maxwell Foster and Alex Raineri. Brisbane Music Festival. FourthWall Arts, Brisbane. 25 August 2024.

Where else but the Brisbane Music Festival could you step out to the edge of the City after your morning coffee on a Sunday and enjoy world-class classical and experimental music, plus Australian and World premieres? The festival’s Artistic Director, Alex Raineri and his friend and colleague on the keys, Maxwell Foster, toured the USA in May this year, performing for classical music fans from Chicago and across to Baltimore, where Maxwell is currently based.  

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

By Simon Stephens, adapted from the novel by Mark Haddon. Director: Hannah Goodwin. Belvoir St Theatre. 17 Aug – 22 Sept, 2024

Mark Haddon has always maintained that his novel, first published in 2003, is not about “any specific disorder” but about “difference … about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way”. The young hero of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is 15-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone. He is bright, a “mathematician with behavioural difficulties”. But he doesn’t like being touched.  He takes things very literally. He reacts to noise and bright light.

2024 One Act Season

By Rachel Bublitz, Will Lacker and Dylan Glatthorn, Ed Monk and Freddie Frinton. Directed by Georgia Stidwell and Brianna Thompson, Kieran Ridgway, Harrison Ricci and Ray Egan. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount, WA. Aug 23 - Sep 7, 2024

Darlington Theatre Players’ One Act Season is very much a mixed bag, with four very different, but all very watchable shows combining to create a very entertaining evening.

The season is dedicated to Darlington Theatre stalwart and Life Member, and ITA Hall of Fame Gwyne Marshall who passed away last week, Overseer of the box office and constant feature of front of house for over thirty years, her presence will be greatly missed - with more than a few patrons shedding tears when they realised her absence on opening night.

Gaslight

By Patrick Hamilton, adapted by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson. Produced by Queensland Theatre and New Theatricals. Directed by Lee Lewis. Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney. August 23 – September 8, 2024

The beautiful and elegant Bella should have everything to live for – recently married with a dashing husband Jack, a substantial home equipped with the latest invention, gas lights, and two servants on hand.

Yet the seeds of chaos are never far away. Precious items such as her mother’s pearls have going missing, with her husband eating away at her confidence, calling into question her grip on reality.

Is she going mad or is she being manipulated?

Sweet Road

By Debra Oswald. Pymble Players, NSW. Aug 7 – 31, 2024

The Pymble Players are journeying down the road on their way to the Zenith Theatre in Chatswood in 2025 and hopefully that will be a successful trip for the group.  The characters in Sweet Road however have somewhat challenging journeys that traverse city streets, unsealed country roads and a rollercoaster of uncomfortable emotions.

Nana’s Naughty Knickers

By Katherine DiSavino. Adelaide Repertory Theatre. The Arts Theatre, Angas Street, Adelaide. August 22nd-31st 2024

Nana’s Naughty Knickers presented by The Rep is a piece of winter ‘froth and bubble’. Director Barry Hill is clear that this is a piece designed to make people laugh out loud and suspend their cares and worries.

Same Time Next Week

By Scott McArdle, composition by Jackson Griggs. Directed by Scott McArdle. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Aug 13-31, 2024

This World Premiere puppet musical, produced by Scott McArdle and Nick Pages-Oliver, is a full-length bittersweet production featuring a talented five-member cast and a three-piece live band. Clever and thoroughly entertaining, it had its audience entranced throughout.

Dreams & Stories

Music on Sunday series. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 18th August, 2024

An almost full-house greeted the QSO and guests for the next segment of the ever-popular annual Music on Sunday series. With a diverse and choice program, including guests Australia's William Barton on the didgeridoo and internationally renowned Austrian Katharina Wincor as conductor, there was enough material to please most fans of the orchestra and orchestral sound, in particular, in this instance, those works that connect with the theatre and cinematic art forms.

The Turn of the Screw

Music by Benjamin Britten. Libretto by Mfanwy Piper. After a story by Henry James Craig Baldwin in association with Hayes Theatre Co. August 16 - September 15, 2024

There’s enough high decibel singing and gothic horror to rattle anyone’s fillings in this two-hour chamber opera that packs a punch and gives the audience a fabulous surround-sound experience.

It is described on stage as a curious story, and indeed the original Henry James tale about a young Governess entering a new home with children that are possessed by spirits is just that.

There are eight scenes in each act, and director Craig Baldwin and set designer Emma Vine ingeniously move the drama through the various episodes by rotating a few platforms.

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