Reviews

This ‘tour de force’ production is another feather in the cap of the Ballina Players. 

Director Mike Sheehan has assembled an outstanding cast of seasoned and new recruits in this epic Court (Martial) drama, led by Dylan Wheeler as Lt Daniel Kaffee, Mel Strawbridge - Lt Cmdr Joanne Galloway and John Rado - Lt Col Nathan Jessep (in the movie version these roles were played by Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson).

Liam Gatt, Luke Mulder, Carl Moore and Graeme Speed also gave strong performances as the Naval personnel caught up in the drama.

There’s a special joy that comes from viewing locally created works that could easily hold their own on a world stage. Brisbane playwright Steve Pirie has delivered such a script with his devilishly funny horror comedy Jane and Kel Go to Hell. The play is a laugh-out-loud, thrilling, well-paced buddy story with relatable characters and nonstop quotable dialogue. Amid the laughter, thrills and familiar songs, he’s incorporated a heart-warming tale of friendship and love.

If you’re looking for an enjoyable, relatable, laugh-out-loud comedy, God of Carnage is not to be missed. As is often the case, the show’s hilarious foundations begin with an excellent script. What Sunnybank Theatre did with that foundation simply amplified the excellence of the written words.

Upon arrival, the first thing that hit us was the outstanding attention to detail in the set design. The costuming was also very well chosen and together, they both spoke volumes about the characters before a single word was uttered.  

Nick Dear’s 2011 adaptation of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein is a brilliant inversion of the original novel. For a start, the dramatic narrative is told from the Monster’s point of view. Victor Frankenstein’s sin is not the creation but rather his abandonment of the Monster; it is the drama of ‘nurture’ (or lack of) not ‘nature’ that is major theme of the play.