Reviews

On their 10th anniversary, the Chooky Dancers from NE Arnhem Land, now renamed Djuki Mala, are back after a run of national and overseas touring. They started off with that infectiously funny spoof of Zorba, created apparently as a sincere indigenous thank you to a Greek woman up in their country of Elcho Island – it then went viral to millions on YouTube.  

This production of Greenwicks is the second incarnation of a script written by James Marzec and John McPherson, first performed at the University of Western Australia in 2009. Filled with vibrant music, this is a show that is a lot of fun.

Set in a supermarket, the plot is a little unlikely, some jokes remain a little too “student humour” and others don’t quite land, but overall this is funny, the characters are very nicely created and the songs are outstanding.

A superb cast and a director with an assured and inspired sense of imagery and style lift this rather smarty-pants play into something that delights and entertains.  The moors of the title – described frequently in the text as ‘bleak’, ‘windswept’ and ‘boring’, but also a stimulus to wild imaginations – are Brontë territory.  (Few clichés are left unturned – or over-turned.)  But don’t expect Charlotte, Emily or Anne to appear, or any of their literary creations.  It is, however, a play that

Three Mikados is an absolute delight. Three actors attempt to do a 70-minute version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, playing and sharing all the roles – plus a wayward spear-carrier. They are led by the popular comedian Colin Lane, whose ego starts to run hysterically out of control from the very beginning.