Reviews

If you love a good murder mystery, Agatha Christie-style, a special treat is the hilarious whodunit Something’s Afoot. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society brings the spoof to the Playhouse Theatre for a good laugh to a good tune or two. Forget laugh-out-loud, this is guffaw-out-loud. How the cast didn’t crack up was a miracle – they certainly threw themselves into the silliness with energy and enjoyment.

With abseiling dwarfs, a dominatrix stepmother, and a score that mixed Mahler with electronic riffs, Angelin Preljocaj’s Snow White would seem to have covered all exploitative bases.

A contemporary dance take on the Brothers Grimm 1812 fable, it ran the whole gamut of emotions from jealousy and rage to love and despair, but despite some affecting passages, never truly conveyed the all elusive heart.

Third Door Theatre produce a well-polished and orchestrated performance of this delightful comedy. The modern setting allows for some very clever adaptations of the script. The masquerade ball resonates particularly well with the themes of duplicity and dishonour that dominate the play. Beatrice (Claire Abagia) is undoubtedly the star of the show. Abagia executes a good measure of both the lightness and the drama of her character and this enables her to show a great range and depth of emotion.

Why mess with perfection? Neil Simon wrote his smash hit, The Odd Couple in 1965. A story of flawed friendships, it became a huge hit on Broadway and later as a movie and television series. In 2002 Simon reworked his masterpiece to produce an updated version, Oscar and Felix.