Reviews

Uncle Vanya

By Anton Chekov, adapted by Annie Baker. Presented by Theatre Guild Student Society. Little Theatre, Adelaide. 22-25 November 2023

Uncle Vanya looks after the run-down house on the family estate. He lives and works there with his mother, Maria, and his niece Sonya. She is the daughter of Vanya’s late sister and the now ageing Serebryakov, who has turned up at the estate with his new – and much younger – wife, Yelena.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]

By Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield. Canberra Repertory Society. Directed by Ylaria Rogers. Theatre 3, Acton, Canberra. 15 to 26 November 2023.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s madcap medley of Shakespeare’s plays has once again appeared in the fair city of Verona [strike that: Canberra! – Ed] Canberra, with Canberra Repertory bravely challenging the Bard to cut all the excess verbiage and condense his entire oeuvre to its most essential 97 minutes.  To make the challenge more interesting, after declaiming the oeuvre’s inclusion of no fewer than 1122 characters, the script demands that the complete “reduced” collection of 37 plays be performed by just three actors.

Prisoner At The World’s End

By R. Johns. La Mama HQ, Carlton, Vic. Nov 15 – 26, 2023

Set in London’s Belmarsh Prison, dubbed “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay”, in the high security unit, the high-profile Julian Assange is detained, along with many terrorist suspects held there without charge. Playwright Rosemary Johns was stirred by a PEN event she attended back in 2019, where Human Rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson spoke of freedom of expression in defence of her client Assange. Inspired by the talk, Johns spoke to Robinson, who told her of her conversations with a women’s volunteer group known as the Tea Bar in Belmarsh Prison.

Titanic – The Diamond of Dreams

By Ken Cotterill and Tanya Paige. Richmond Players. Director: Neridah James. Richmond School of Arts. Nov 4, 11, 18, 24, 2023

The flyer says: “The movie will never be the same again” and it’s not wrong! This is a spoof on the movie, with the sort of innuendo and slapstick you might expect from a 1970s British sit com! There aren’t any chases or slamming doors, but there is a “knees up” in steerage, and some funny goings on in one of the cabins … and in a car stored in the cargo hold!

A Very Jewish Christmas Carol

By Elise Esther Hearst with Phillip Kavanagh. Melbourne Theatre Company. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. 14 November – 16 December, 2023

Lead Writer Elise Hearst and Phillip Kavanagh take the structure (more or less) of the classic Dickens story A Christmas Carol but make it the story of a Jewish family and their ghosts, via the clash of Christmas and the contemporaneous Jewish festival of Hanukkah.  They don’t have Dickens’ prose, but they tell a story that is much, much funnier, more real and way less sentimental.

The Ballad of Maria Marten

By Beth Flintoff. Director Louise Fischer. New Theatre. 14 Nov – 16 Dec, 2023

“We have tried to create beauty so that it can be mourned.” Louise Fischer, Director

IRL

By Lewis Treston. La Boite. Directed by Sanja Simić. 6-8 Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove QLD. 6 - 25 November, 2023

The latest show to hit the La Boite Theatre, IRL, brings a whirlwind of pop culture, cosplay, and young love to the stage. It's like a collision of fanfiction and fairytales in a quest for 'happily ever after' set amidst the vibrant and creative backdrop of a pop-culture convention.

The Amateurs

By Jordan Harrison. Ad Astra, Brisbane. 16 November to 9 December, 2023

The Amateurs is certainly a curious little play – part Medieval Morality, part drama history thesis – a lesson in theatre, from ancient Greek masks and choruses right up to the modernist and absurdist styles perhaps favoured by plaid-shirted hipsters from Brooklyn. That’s an in-joke perpetrated on the playwright by the playwright at the play’s midway point, when the actors ‘break the fourth wall’ and become the performers who are portraying the medieval players.

Things I Know to be True

By Andrew Bovell. Three River Theatre. Director: Leigh Oswin. Set: Terry Ryan. Sound: Matt Harris. Lighting: Chris Jackson. Costume: Janice Molineux. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston, Tas. 15-19th November 2023

A 3am phone call carries the same possibilities as Schrödinger’s cat in its box. Is it possible to walk away from either and not know what there is to know?

Things I Know to be True opens with middle aged Bob Price arrested at the moment of answering the phone. Over two acts, encompassing four seasons of the year, the accumulation of circumstances leading to this moment is revealed.

Peter Pan

By James Barrie, Carolyn Leigh, Morris Charlap, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne and Jerome Robbins. Directed by Blake Jenkins and Neroli Sweetman. Koorliny Arts Centre, WA. Nov 17- 25, 2023

Peter Pan, in its many forms, is a production that it continues to be a favourite. With several versions playing in Western Australia at the moment, and the credit appearing in many of this cast’s biographies. This production manages to find some points of difference and is a quality production with strong production values.

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