Reviews

Rafael Bonachela’s new work was cancelled a year ago when COVID closed our theatres just days before its opening.  No wonder it’s called Impermanence.

Bonachela then reforged it into a full one-hour work, with his frequent musical collaborator, Bryce Dessner, the American founder of the rock band The National, now Paris-based.  Impermanence was of course enveloping us all, our climate, the Australian bushfires, the incineration of the ancient Notre Dame and Trump’s America. 

The World Premiere of Barking Gecko’s House was delayed slightly by Covid, but was well worth waiting for. This warm hug of a family show is from the same writer / director team who created the brilliant Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories, and has a similar combination of wonder, charm and surprise.

Fenceline Theatre’s lead-up to its presentation of Antigone this week has been especially fraught. While not quite equal to the trials suffered by our Sophoclean heroine, this show’s original season was wiped out by Perth’s recent Covid lockdown, but would have been closed due to being in the yellow zone during the bushfires - an event that required several of the cast to be evacuated from their homes.

From the moment the hero warrior Macbeth (Hugh Sexton) returns to his castle, already Thane of Cawdor, the words of the Witches running in his head, and his childless wife, Lady Macbeth (Alison Whyte) sweetens her bullying and blackmail with passionate kisses, we know where this will lead.