Reviews

Promise Adelaide’s production of All is Calm is a rather sombre, moving and at times perplexing show. It focuses on that rather unique but true event in the history of WWI in which on Christmas Eve, 1914, German and British soldiers put down their weapons and met in ‘No Man’s Land’ in order to exchange Christmas greetings and well wishes.

The production is a type of ‘verbatim’ theatre in that it is a series of recollections from those involved, punctuated and supported by songs, Christmas songs as well as other popular WW1 songs.

Some families do charity work together for Christmas; others fire up the barbie and break out the backyard cricket. The Kransky Sisters gather in their Esk homestead’s lonely lounge room and sing songs. It helps to distract them from the disappointment of realising that Santa has bypassed their house yet again. Middle sibling Eve must also deal with the added frustration of knowing that her recurring wish-list item – a husband – will inevitably be crossed off by one of her sisters.

Presented annually for the past four years, Queensland Ballet’s The Nutcracker has been so phenomenally successful that this year they’ve had to move the production to a bigger venue to accommodate the demand for tickets. Notwithstanding this production also saw the return to the stage for the first time in 18 years of Queensland Ballet’s artistic director Li Cunxin as Dr Drosselmeyer, a one-time only performance on 10 December that was sold-out within one hour of the tickets going on sale.

Independent theatre is booming in Melbourne and new kids on the block The Baker’s Dozen Theatre Company are forging ahead. A team of graduate actors from the Ballarat Arts Academy who got together at the end of 2013, have been consistently and tirelessly producing theatre that challenges and provoke audiences. Self-funded, with collaborative eclectic tastes, they consistently excel, producing classical and contemporary works. The Hitmen is no exception, a current piece of homegrown theatre by Mish Wittrup.