Reviews

Concert-goers were treated last night to a unique blend of musical styles with Baroque composer Vivaldi's classic example of one of the earliest forms of 'program' music (music designed to evoke an image) being coupled with a selection of Argentinian composer Piazzolla's avant garde tangos, arranged for solo violin and string orchestra by Ukranian-born Leonid Desyatnikov.

The story of Mother Courage captures an incredibly bleak vision of humanity when operating purely on survival instinct. This production captures all the intricacies of the different ways that individuals must navigate the realities of the Thirty Year War and somehow keep their dignity intact, as well as eek out what ultimately turns out to be a miserable existence.

Presented by the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Western Australia, Iolanthe is, as G&S Society President Kevin Langoulant describes it, deliciously fanciful Victorian nonsense. Well-presented and beautifully sung, this Victorian comedic operetta remains a lovely distraction, 140 years after its first performance.

2023.  The city is like a furnace and blanketed with smoke.  Jane (Cassandra Hart) takes her asthmatic teenager Owl (Geo Valentine) down the coast and dumps them (that’s how Owl sees it) on Owl’s old Grandad, Albert (Don Bridges).  He lives alone in a lighthouse overlooking an ocean choked with rubbish.  He’s self-sufficient and unexpectantly having a teen around is bad enough – let alone a prickly ‘gender fluid’ teen – and at first it’s a discombobulating experience for him.