Reviews

Crunch Time

Created by Counterpilot; conceived & directed by Nathan Sibthorpe. A Next Wave & Metro Arts co-commission in association with Darebin Arts’ Speakeasy. Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre, Preston VIC. 3 – 12 May 2018

Our audience - or participants – are strictly limited to twelve.  We soon see why.  This is definitely an ‘audience participation’ show – or presentation – or ‘experience’.  Without our participation, nothing would happen.  But it’s not that embarrassment-in-the-front-row kind of participation.

Don Quichotte

By Massenet. Opera Australia. Revival Director: John Sheedy. Conductor: Guillaume Tourniaire. Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre. May 3 – 12, 2018

I have been attending opera performances for over fifty years, but cannot recall feeling as elated as I was after attending Opera Australia’s latest offering, Massenet’s Don Quichotte. I have not seen it before and have no music in my extensive collection from this little known opera.

I was constantly swept away by the magnificent music. The five acts were reduced to two halves, with the inclusion of some ballet music from the same composer’s Le Cid. The haunting entr’acte to the final scene was a highlight.

Areté: Delta

Dionysus Theatre. Cube 37 – Frankston Arts Centre. Thurs 3rd – Sat 5th May, 2018

Based on a different theme each year Areté : Delta is the fourth festival offering from Dionysus Theatre, a company that always provokes debate and vivid discussion surrounding their works.

Areté is an innovative performance and visual arts festival, where all work presented responds to a specific theme.  The chosen theme for 2018 - ‘I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.’ – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Incorruptible

By Michael Hollinger. Australian Premiere. Galleon Theatre Group. Domain Theatre, Marion Cultural Centre. May 2-12, 2018

Incorruptible is Black Adder meets The Life of Brian and then some.

Wolf Lullaby

By Hilary Bell. Oily Rag Theatre. Holden Street Theatres. May 3-12, 2018.

Australian playwright Hilary Bell wrote Wolf Lullaby in 1996, three years after the highly publicised case of James Bulger, the two-year-old British boy who was murdered by two ten-year-old boys. Comparisons are drawn quickly in this play as details emerge about the killing of Toby, a young boy from a small country town in Tasmania.

Carmilla

By Adam Yee, after the novella by Sheridan Le Fanu. A Kle Zeyn Theatre Production. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton VIC. 2 – 13 May 2018

Were this play not so precisely staged, if its music were not so integrated and evocative, and the two lead women – Georgia Brooks and Teresa Duddy – not so well cast and so disciplined, then Carmilla could fail.  It could even risk seeming rather silly.  But staging, music, casting and performance are so well judged and well felt here that this adaptation of a 19th century Gothic novella works very well indeed. 

Stomp '18

Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition St, Melbourne. 1-6 May, 2018 and touring.

This is a sensational and unforgettable theatrical experience. Audiences will be astonished by the physical accomplishments of these talented performers and the striking visual effects they create. The forceful rhythms convey a tribal quality that enhances the urban jungle appearance of both the set and the costumes.

The Aspirations of Daise Morrow

By Patrick White. Brink Productions. Directed by Chris Drummond. The Playhouse, Canberra. 2–6 May 2018

Brink Productions’ The Aspirations of Daise Morrow at first looks like a play, but soon sounds like a narrative, with the characters themselves narrating every gesture and act.  This is unsurprising given that the performance transcribed verbatim Patrick White's short story, “Down at the Dump”.  Yet as a story it has something of a surreal, dream-like quality, making up for what it lacks in story arc by an active emotional impressionism, the entire narrative sounding like an extende

The Anniversary

By Bill MacIlwraith. Darlington Theatre Players. Directed by Rob Warner. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount. 27 Apr - 19 May, 2018

Bill MacIlwraith’s The Anniversary is a very black comedy about family relationships.

Despite the fact her husband has been dead for a decade, ‘Mum’ delights in an annual Anniversary celebration, an opportunity to torment her adult children. Her three sons all have secrets - one is recently engaged and his fiancé is pregnant, another is loathe to reveal that he is planning to emigrate and the oldest has some rather peculiar hobbies.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

By Tennessee Williams. Directed by Benedict Andrews. National Theatre Live. Film screening in cinemas across Australia from 5 May, 2018.

The unquestionable power of this iconic Tennessee Williams play is brought well and truly to life in this production. Andrews has made a variety of bold choices in relation to set and casting and they pay off well. Sienna Miller creates a husky Maggie and her smouldering sexuality is equally echoed in Jack O’Connell’s Brick. The performances, much like the original film and stage versions, capitalise on performances that are as much physical as they are intellectual.

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