Reviews

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.

The Cemetery Club

By Ivan Menchell. Tugun Theatre Company. Directed by Judy Neuman. 15th-31st August, 2024.

Ivan Menchell’s 1990 play about three widows who meet monthly for morning tea before visiting their husbands’ graves is probably not the best choice for any recently widowed woman, but this reviewer is certainly glad she made it to the Saturday matinee of this endearing play.

Hangmen

By Martin McDonagh. New Theatre Newtown. Director: Deborah Mulhall. 13 Aug – 14 Sept, 2024

One of the characters in Hangmen, Peter Mooney (Robert Snars), wants to be seen as “menacing” rather “creepy”. He is. Menacing that is. So are some of the other characters. In fact so is the play! But then it is Martin McDonagh so “menacing” should be expected … as well as very, very black. Hangmen is all of this – and Deborah Mulhall directs to extract every sinister, sadistic moment as well as the “dark, dark humour” that seeps through all McDonagh’s work.

The Odd Couple (Female Version)

Written by Neil Simon. New Farm Nash Theatre, Qld. Directed by Susan O’Toole. August 15 – September 7, 2024.

The original Odd Couple was written by Neil Simon in 1965 and made into a film three years later. Then in 1985, he wrote a female version where the inter – reactors are women who meet on a Friday night to play Trivia Pursuit at Olive’s house. When Florence arrives late after being thrown by her husband, Olive invites her to stay at her house to give her time to settle down and recover. Where Olive is messy, untidy and unconcerned about the state of her apartment, Florence is the very opposite, with an obsession verging on mania for good food and impossible cleanliness.

Milk & Blood

By Benjamin Nichol. Fortyfivedownstairs. 16 August – 1 September 2024

Milk and Blood are two quite separate but thematically linked monologues.  Each has their characters – ‘Mummy’ in Milk, ‘Daddy’ in Blood – alone on stage for sixty to seventy minutes.  No other characters, no props.  Just empty space which, via movement as controlled as dance, and Harrie Hogan’s lighting becomes a home, a street, a garden, a prison…  But as this stripped bare mode incites our imagination, we are also held by developing narrative threads; incidents are not incidental, and

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