Reviews

The Shitshow Cabaret

The Grand PooBah. Sophie Ambler (Stage Manager/Producer). Pussày Poppins (host). Hugh Foley (DJ). September 30 ,2021

The Shitshow is deceptively ‘shit’, for it is tightly curated and providing employment for performers at a time when performance opportunities are rare. During this particularly shitty time for the arts, all acts are remunerated and any profit from the show is also distributed to the performers.

Sophie Ambler is the visionary behind the initiative. Ambler is young but has gained significant experience in festival organisation on the mainland and at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Truth to Power Café

Written & performed by Jeremy Goldstein with Henry Wolf. Digital Theatre Adaptation & direction Jen Heyes. Melbourne Fringe Festival 2021 & British Council UK/AU Season, Digital Fringe. On demand October 2 – 17, 2021.

Truth to Power Café began as a live show, but now, thanks to COVID-19, comes to us online.  It is essentially agit-prop, but in employing archival film, memoir, poetry, and images it is a moving and sincere piece.  In its earnestness and radical switches of style it can seem somewhat naff at times, but as a live show, it has received glowing reviews in numerous venues.

A View from the Bridge

By Arthur Miller. Acting True and Huon Valley Theatre INC. Huonville Hall. Lisa Gormley (Director). Gareth Dawson (Composer/Sound design). George Snow (Lighting Design). Louise Stubs (Stage Manager). 1-3 October 2021 at Huonville and 8-9 October 2021 at Cygnet, Tasmania.

A classic work is one which still speaks. A View from the Bridge screams. This 66-year-old play is still powerful and relevant, especially in the hands of Lisa Gormley and such strong performers. 

This production arose to fruition from an online course in American theatre; what was achieved in that space was deemed too good to abandon, felicitously with the ideal cast.

Disney The Lion King Kids

By Elton John, Tim Rice, Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Hans Zimmer, Roger Allers and Irene Mancini. Roleystone Theatre. Directed by Madison Laine Thomas. Roleystone Hall, WA. October 1-10, 2021

Roleystone Theatre’s production of Disney The Lion King Kids features a delightful young cast and is charming the socks off the audiences at Roleystone Theatre’s temporary venue, Roleystone Hall. It plays in conjunction with Disney’s Moana Jr, with most audience members choosing to partake in a very satisfying double bill.

Mythology of Naked Flesh

Brisbane Music Festival, online premiere. 3 October, 2021

'Mythology' is a collection of foundational tales, usually designed to help us navigate our humanity. To explore a mythology of naked flesh, you might first turn to the visual arts. In music, a lexicon might exist in rock music and, even though much classical music is sensual, the genre is probably not going to be your first port of call. Likewise, in dance, opera, dramatic and musical theatre, nudity on stage is nothing new, but it is quite unexpected in the classical music scene.

The Wizard of Oz

By L. Frank Baum, Harold Arlen, E. Y. Harburg and Herbert Stothart. Laughing Horse Productions. Directed by Rach Gilmour. City of Gosnells, Don Russell Performing Arts Centre. WA. Oct 1-9, 2021

Laughing Horse Productions’ The Wizard of Oz is a youth production with a lot of heart, that is playing to some enthusiastic and very excited young audiences at Don Russell Performing Arts Centre.

With a cast of forty, ranging in age from 7 to 18, there is also a great range of experience - from youthful ‘veteran’ performers to those in their first stage appearance. The Wizard of Oz also marks a directorial debut for Rach Gilmour, who has risen to a formidable task.

Murder at Cafe Noir

By David Landau. Life On Hold. Director/co-ordinator Sarah J. Christiner. Melville Bowling and Recreation Club, Alfred Cove, WA. Oct 1-9, 2021

It is rare in the WA Pandemic Theatre Boom that a good show does not get the audiences it deserves, but Life on Hold’s Murder at Cafe Noir was sadly under-attended - a shame, as this is a quality show, that audiences will adore.

Played in the round, and sometimes across your table, in the function room at Melville Bowling Club, the audience become patrons of the infamous Cafe Noir, a night-spot on the island of Mustique, where everyone is a little shady and has something to hide.

MAZE

Brisbane Powerhouse and DPS Academy & The Naughty Corner. Powerhouse, Brisbane. 30 September, 2021

MAZE is a bit of a puzzle. Its retelling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur has so much potential to offer in its individual elements of striking movement, interesting lighting and engaging sound work. However, in its ambition to be a work with "strong visuals, a killer story and hefty amount of collaboration", on the whole, it gets itself a little lost. Rather than a fresh take on an ancient myth, this script is hampered by the thing it sets out to create – by using everyday Aussie vernacular to tell this tale, it boxes itself in a world of implausible soap opera.

Watch and Act

By Katie McAllister. Directed by Michelle Endersbee. The Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Sep 28-Oct 16, 2021

Katie McAllister’s one woman show is a delicious blend of theatre, stand-up comedy, slam poetry and storytelling. A call-out to love and protect the environment under the threat of climate change, it is also a love letter of sorts to the movie Notting Hill, Nigella Lawson and the Australian country town of Denmark.

Same Time, Next Year

By Bernard Slade. IpSkip Productions. Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide. Sep 29 – Oct 2, 2021

Bernard Slade wrote Same Time, Next Year in 1975 – though the themes are no less relevant nearly forty years on. Two people meet in a hotel, wake up next to each other the next morning, and though both happily married to other people, continue to meet up just once each year, on the anniversary, and in the same hotel room of their first encounter. They become intimate much more than just physically, and over the next twenty-five years, the couple share their many neuroses, struggles and successes, within the context of the ever-changing world they inhabit.

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