Reviews

Stand-up comedian Alex Ward returns to her hometown of Brisbane, touring an hour-long festival show No Flirting. The performance opens very naturally. Alex appears comfortable and in control. She puts the crowd at ease and deals with latecomers without belittling them as many comics feel the need to do. She’s a very warm and welcoming performer. Her style is not aggressive or confrontational.

Alan Ayckbourn is one of Britain’s accomplished comedy playwrights and this script is full of surprises: he has even written three alternate endings as to “who done it”!

Ballina’s production is a lot of fun with a cast of five dysfunctional, eccentric family members and one sane outsider. As with most plays, the plot takes a little time to inform the audience as to who is who.

It’s fifteen years since Australian theatre lost one of its most popular and prolific theatrical creatives. Nick Enright was a real all-rounder – playwright, actor, director, screen writer, lyricist, translator, adaptor, dramaturg, teacher, mentor. Few could aspire to such a comprehensive CV; few could achieve so much and still stay a regular nice guy; few could reject the call of Broadway and Hollywood and come home to the country and people he loved and wrote about so prolifically.

For the first time the State Opera of South Australia has moved out of a theatre and into a central city venue, namely Victoria Square. Presumably this is based on Opera Australia’s successful ‘Opera on Sydney Harbour’.

The choice of Carmen for this first production was a wise one. Known by any opera fan, with hummable tunes (including a football team song) and a dramatic storyline, it has all the ingredients to be a sure-fire hit.