Reviews

Julius Caesar

By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. 18 – 28 July 2018 – and touring.

The virtue of this pared back, ‘poor theatre’ production of Julius Caesar is its simplicity – and therefore its clarity.  The cast is young – or seems young – and they wear what look like op-shop clothes – that is, an everyday hotchpotch of contemporary no style. 

Gaybies

By Dean Bryant. Directed by Joshua Maxwell for Jopuka Productions. Youth Arts Warehouse, Gosford. July 20-27, 2018.

This piece was first conceived (pardon the pun) for Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival in 2013 and performed as a moved reading to rave reviews. Not unlike The Vagina Monologues in tone, the text was similarly derived from a multitude of interviews with children (aged 4-40) of same-sexed couples. To emphasise the authenticity of the dialogue, the cast maintain a book-in-hand prop throughout.  This updated version also includes reactions to the landmark political events of the past year.

Abduction

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Librettist: Christoph Friedrich Bretzner. Additional Dialogue: Jim Jones & David Koresh. BK Opera. Director: Kate Millett. Musical Director: James Penn. Northcote Town Hall. July 18 – 22, 2018

BK Opera continues to produce operas in a different light. In this case it was Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail transposed from the Middle East to the Bible Belt of America. So the Pasha becomes the leader of a cult.

Highness

Writer, Director & Choreographer Melanie Jame Wolf. Savage Amusement. Arts House, North Melbourne. 18 – 21 July 2018

The show begins, appropriately, with an immobile, monumental female figure seated on a podium.  This is, after all, a show about queens – or Queens - every kind of queen: ‘royal’ queens, film star queens, queens of pop, drag queens, warrior queens, even queen bees…. 

Beautiful

Music & Lyrics: Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weill, Barry Mann, & Others. Book: Douglas McGrath. Michael Cassell production. Director: Marc Bruni. Musical Director: Daniel Edmonds. Choreographer: Josh Prince. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. From 19 July 2018

With a sharp script, some good performances, and great singing, The Helpmann award-winning Carole King musical Beautiful opened last night at QPAC’s Lyric Theatre on the last leg of its Australian tour.

Hotel Sorrento

By Hannie Rayson. HIT Productions. Directed by Denny Lawrence. The Q, Queanbeyan. 18–21 July 2018, and touring.

Three reuniting sisters focus involuntarily upon their joint history, examining their lives’ integrity and struggling with their difficult past and present choices and with what each is to the others.  By this means, Hotel Sorrento uses the sisters’ particular circumstances and characters to shed light on the Australian psyche as its playwright saw it at the time of writing.

 

Aida

Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Antio Ghislanzoni. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Opera Australia. July 18 - August 31, 2018

Opera Australia blasted into the digital age with a new production that amplified the spectacle of ancient Egypt through the use of giant LED panels, which moved and spun around the stage, creating a giddy spectacle. It depicted a smorgasbord of moving images, ranging from an ominous giant panther, to a rider on a horse back charging through a desert and an extraordinary golden snake, which wrapped its slithering leather around the entire backdrop of the stage.

The Mikado

By Gilbert and Sullivan. GSOV. Director: Andrew McGrail. Musical Director: Timothy John Wilson. Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre. July 19 – 22, 2018

I have often seen Andrew McGrail perform for GSOV, but this is the first time I’ve seen him direct and I was impressed. It’s difficult to find something new to add to this old warhorse, but Andrew certainly did that.

It opened with a prologue taken from the film “Topsy Turvy”, detailing the events that led up to the creation of The Mikado. Sullivan, naturally, was played by the MD, Timothy John Wilson, who then took his place in the pit. It was interesting, but I’m not sure it added that much.

Avenue Q

Music & Lyrics: Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx. Book: Jeff Whitty. Hobart Repertory Theatre. Director: Darren Sangwell. Musical Director Aaron Powell. Playhouse Theatre Hobart 14 – 28 July 2018

Even if you know what to expect of Avenue Q – a puppet show musical for grownups – (sometimes referred to as the adult version of Sesame Street) – it’s still a surprise to see the very conspicuous handlers, and hear the ribald jokes and saucy themes. It only took a few beats to get the idea that this was a show packed with characters, the puppeteers as important as their felt and fur charges.

The Unexpected Guest

By Agatha Christie, Directed by Sharon White, New Farm Nash Theatre Brisbane. July 13 to August 4, 2018

Unlike the murder – mystery novels, which are part of our folklore, and for which Agatha Christie is famous, The Unexpected Guest was written as a play and was first performed in 1958. Although not as well known as her play The Mousetrap, it still offers an intriguing plot that keeps the audience absorbed to the end. It starts on a foggy night when Michael Starkwebber enters the home of the Warwicks through a window in the study. He finds the dead body Richard Warwick and Richard’s wife holding a gun that supposedly killed him.

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