Reviews

This play, first performed in 1994, is challenging for the cast as well as the audience as it tells how Eve leaves her country town to come to Blackrock, a gothic cathedral-like rock in Sydney Harbour, to work for Blue, a children’s writer. He leads her on a journey of self discovery that is magical, sensuous and frightening. It is a study of how men have created the fantasy that their art is more than life - and even death. The implications were obvious when the name Blue fully registered.

Rain clouds that have hovered threateningly over the city all day begin to clear. Late afternoon sunshine begins to filter through. The harbour begins to sparkle. What has been a dull and dreary day turns into a balmy, Sydney, autumn evening. How lucky for the opening night of another Handa Opera on the Harbour!

As the sky darkens above the Bridge and the Opera House, a crescent moon shines through the last wisps of cloud – and the lights go up on a snow-encrusted stage. It is a wintery December night in Paris. La Bohèmeis about to begin.

You can see why Amanda Muggleton would keep returning to the part of Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s Masterclass. She’s played her a number of times before and is now wrapping up an Australian tour - and still she revels in the role. You can tell that she loves the interaction with the audience, the jokes and the melodramatic character of one of the world’s great opera divas.

With Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, one’s first thought is of magic; the magic of Disney, the magic of music, and the magic of imagination.

It’s story of the arrogant young prince and his castle's servants falling under a spell that won’t be broken until he learns to love and be loved in return. When the beautiful and headstrong Belle enters his castle, along with the help of his enchanted servants, she begins to draw the cold-hearted Beast out of his isolation.