Reviews

In the Theatre Works foyer, a couple of loud, giggling party girl real estate agents (Eidan Glover and Polly Sara) invite the audience, four at a time, to inspect a beautiful house - that is, enter the theatre.  We notice that they wear curious tight-fitting plastic masks like the second skins of burns victims.  If we do notice, the grotesquery undercuts the hilarity. 

Alexandra Theatre’s The SpongeBob Musical is the most colourful musical you will see this year, possibly – this decade. This big budget, large cast extravaganza fills The Regal Theatre with energy and verve and captures the audience’s hearts.

The big draw of this production of Chekhov’s The Seagull at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre (now coming to us via National Theatre Live) was the casting of Emilia Clarke as Nina. Best known as ‘Daenerys Targaryen’ In Game of Thrones, she of the dragons does not disappoint. She employs that radiant, disarming smile to give us a sweet, naively ambitious, starstruck centre to the play.

Belinda Bradley and Franz Docherty are Tasmanian based creatives who work across radio, film, stage and television. Their original mystery drama, Savage River, recently premiered on the ABC and has been very well received. It is difficult to reconcile Bradley and Docherty as the same creatives who, with Clayton Jacobson, wrote The Last Resort. Originally receiving funding from Screen Australia and Screen Tasmania, The Last Resort has been adapted for the stage with assistance from Blue Cow Theatre’s Cow Shed Programme and dramaturg Peter Matheson.