Reviews

Based on the very popular ABCTV quiz show, Hard Quiz Live packs out the big room at the Melbourne Town Hall.  On my evening, the audience queue to get in stretches down Collins Street from the side entrance, and around the corner into Swanston Street for three hundred metres. Quizmaster Tom Gleeson, whose schtick is cruel, nasty, and politically incorrect putdowns, and scurrilous or snide remarks on his rivals, comes out onto the stage – and he revels in having no cameras, and a huge live audience. 

Chido Mwat came to Australia from Zimbabwe in 2015 to study medicine. She’s now a junior doctor with Western Health.  But what happened on the way through – from then to now?  Studying, of course, but part-time jobs and – because she knew there were stories to tell – learning improv, sketch comedy and film making.  But there were also the doubts, fears, racist discrimination, stupid questions, and assumptions suffered by many immigrants.

My jaw dropped when I entered the theatre – what, 17 musicians in this tiny space? I read that in the promotional material but assumed it was a joke – how does an independent theatre manage such an extravaganza?

Up the road the Hayes Theatre typically squeezes a handful of players in their 111-seat theatre – but the old Fitz fits just 58. So, this is like trying to break the world record for fitting the most people into a Mini Minor. 

Susan Bamford Caleo offers a heart wrenching performance as the scorned woman in her strikingly dramatic interpretation of Euripides tragic play Medea in Unravel Reckoning. She has reunited with musician Elissa Goodrich, with whom she brought us the much-heralded Fragments at LA Mama in 2017, returning post Covid with a powerful new show.