Reviews

Is there any middle ground between Science and Religion? Can medicine play God?

The Doctor is a clever reimagining of Arthur Schnitzler’s Professor Bernhardi. Starring Juliet Stevenson, this is an astonishingly thought-provoking piece of theatre- masterfully written, beautifully directed and superbly performed.

Schnitzler’s play, first performed in 1912, deals with Viennese antisemitism towards a Jewish doctor held to task for refusing a Catholic priest permission to administer the last rites to a dying patient.

Well known for her inappropriate comedy and habit of using malapropisms, Effie, played by Mary Coustas is back at the Adelaide Fringe. She became a household name throughout the 1990s for the Wogs out of work stage show and TV series Acropolis Now. Having only recently been in TV commercials Coustas has reprised this character in a new show Effie in Love me Tinder.

A requiem is a service or commemoration for the dead. Mozart’s unfinished Requiem was written only weeks before he died and is the inspiration for Castellucci and Pichon’s beautiful and moving interpretation of this funeral mass.

This production is a living, breathing work of art. It combines in equal proportions the best of theatre, visual art and music, through the combination of the singers, musicians, dancers, actors and the technical skill of the lighting, set makers, costume designers and crew.

Dance Nation is girl power at its finest. American playwright Clare Barron’s script will leave you gasping as she explores the hopes, dreams and torments of six teenage girls and one boy.

In a deliberate move Barron breaks stereotypes with the casting of adults in child roles. It is refreshing to see an aging cast recapturing their youth. It becomes abundantly clear that this playwright is tired of apologising for being a woman and her un-filtered prose puts the nice girl cliché to rest.