Reviews

Melbourne Shakespeare Company consistently provides lively and enjoyable outdoor productions of Shakespeare plays. This show is an excellent example of the body of work they have produced. This performance is unique as it goes much further in its consideration of the themes housed within the text. The play is open to a variety of interpretations and has often generated debates about its subversive value, but it undoubtedly sheds light on the patriarchal mechanisms (even at the most fundamental level of intimacy) that operate to oppress women.

Following Australian Government decisions that have many arts professionals concerned about the sector’s future, the young artists of The Australian Ballet School offer some hope. 100 performers delivered the annual Summer Season, a timely reminder of the local talent being brewed, and the importance of not letting it go cold.

This 2009 play has not dated at all.  If anything, it is more timely, more plugged into the zeitgeist than ever.  Perhaps that is one reason there is another production of it somewhere, every couple of years, including in Spain and France.  It is set in an English private school, specifically in the seniors’ library, which no adult – at least in the play – ever enters.  The characters are teenagers, but this is not The O.C.

The Ghost Train, said to be “one of the scariest plays of all time”, is brought to life with lots of chills by Harbour Theatre.

The story of a collection of travellers, stranded at an isolated station overnight in some very spooky circumstances, is given credibility with some of the best technical teamwork of the year, with lighting and sound design by Rob Tagliaferri and Vanessa Gudgeon helping to create some frightening effects.