Reviews

Janet’s Vagrant Love

Written & performed by Elaine Crombie. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Trades Hall, Common Room. 18 - 23 October 2022

Elaine Crombie has problems with her guitar.  She thought it was tuned, but it’s not.  Her excellent accompanist, Amaru Derwent, gives her an ‘E’.  She tunes the guitar, but it won’t stay tuned.  She invites us to the ceremonial burning of said guitar.  She’s come on stage, laid back, very relaxed, almost as if we just happened to drop in so we’ll have a bit of a yarn, sing a few songs and that.   

The Caretaker

By Harold Pinter. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Directed by Iain Sinclair. 14 October – 19 November, 2022

Written in the 1950s, premiered as the 1960s just got started, Pinter’s The Caretaker is a brilliant example of New Theatre writing. His first big hit, the play is a wild portrait of three men who are all, in different ways, damaged misfits. 

Hedda GablerGablerGabler

Director, Production Designer and Co-creator: Mary Angley. Performers and Co-creators: Caithlin O’Loghlen, Sarah-Jayde Tracey, and Emma Jevons. Lighting Designer and Production Manager: Max Woods. Sound Designer: Ethan Hunter. La Mama Courthouse. 18-23 October, 2022

Henrik Ibsen published Hedda Gabler in 1890. While its intense exploration of the role of women was exciting in the late 1890s, given the huge changes in the possibilities available to women, this production’s challenge is to find the play’s current relevance and contribution.

Radium Girls

By D. W. Gregory. Directed by Ellis R. Kinnear. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth, WA, October 14 – 30, 2022

Old Mill Theatre’s Radium Girls is a historical drama with an amazing storyline that packs a punch. It is presented with a strong ensemble cast at Old Mill Theatre.

The moving, true story of watch dial painter Grace Fryer and her colleagues from the U.S. Radium Plant, who fought for compensation after being poisoned by radium at work, is very well acted - including an impressive performance from Abbey Mc Caughan In the central role - convincingly playing a woman suffering a physical demise, but still determined to fight for her rights.

Beige Bitch

Performer – Emily Carr. Director – Jackson McGovern. Melbourne Fringe Festival. The Motley Bauhaus. 17 – 23 October - 6.30

Beige Bitch elicits many, many laughs from the audience.  Emily Carr has a delightful stage presence and sweeps her audience along on a fun rocky journey for a solid 60 minutes of wacky lively anecdotes, lived experiences and story.  It’s an aspiring actor’s story really – recognisable and very real and far from mediocre.

Heather

By Thomas Eccleshare. Gavin Roach Producer. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Meat Market Stables, North Melbourne. 17 - 22 October 2022

Spoiler alert: this review contains spoilers.  But since the play is a speculative, provocative play of ideas - described by the playwright as a ‘thought experiment’ - and not a play of character or emotions, that doesn’t matter too much.

Disco Pigs

By Enda Walsh. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Meat Market Stables. 17 - 22 October 2022

Disco Pigs begins with a SNAP out of black and there they are: Pig (Jonathan Shilling) and Runt (Antoinette Davis) either side of the stage.  They were born on the same day.  They describe their births in graphic and exuberant detail.  Just born, the babies Darren and Sinéad see each other.  They connect.  They live next door to each other.  As little kids playing with farm animals, they give each other their own special names: Pig and Runt.  They are inseparable.  As they grow together it’s all about television, drinking and fig

The Whisper

By Brodie Murray. Melbourne Fringe. Fringe Hub: Trades Hall – The Studio, Carlton. Oct 15 – 23, 2022

The show l attended was a performed stage read in honour and memory of the recent passing of Elder Uncle Jack Charles (1943-2022).

Naomi

Written & performed by Patrick Livesy. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Trades Hall, Solidarity Room. 16 - 23 October 2022

Patrick Livesy’s portrait of his mother Naomi is a mosaic of voices and characters given life via writing and performance.  They create the eight characters, moving about, standing still, sitting, speaking in each of the voices.  What we experience, so movingly, is a series of monologues from different characters in Naomi’s life.  Some talk at length, some are brief, some are loving, some a bit affronted, some uncomprehending, some defensive, some funny, and some achingly sad. 

End Of

Written and performed by Ash Flanders. Griffin Theatre. SBW Stables Theatre. Oct 15 – Nov 5, 2022

Ash Flanders began theatrical life in a Melbourne carpark producing fabulously funny queer satires with Declan Greene, now AD of Sydney’s Griffin Theatre. Sisters Grimm, as they were called, is a hard act to follow.

Here the agile Flanders is in pants playing a (perhaps) theatricalised version of himself as he remembers the death of his mother and other relatives.  We first see him though in his day job transcribing police interviews – he argues it’s a good, real-life way for desperate artists to meet new characters and find new storylines.

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