Reviews

Director Michele McNamara’s intention for Sarah Kane’s 1999 play (first performed in 2000) is to depict ‘a world where we can see what we feel’.  In this, she largely succeeds.  It’s a play ‘about’ the experience of clinical depression and the aim, for this director, is to take us into the world of mental illness.

Exceptional Us is a compilation of two one act plays, presented by Stirling Players Youth Theatre Group. The 11 -15 year olds performed with great energy, enthusiasm and teamwork, to a very receptive audience.

The Exceptional Childcare Centre, by Dale Schrifin, tells of a young boy accepted into a highly competitive preschool. He is given a one day trial in order to secure his place, but things go rather awry.

David Williamson’s 1977 play is, by this, a bit of an old warhorse that is constantly revived.  And why not?  It’s funny and its subject is a sport – or what that sport means to the characters – that is an obsession for millions of Australians.  In Melbourne, the trams and trains on a Friday or Saturday night are packed with fans (‘supporters’) in their club regalia heading for the MCG or the Etiad Stadium.  ‘Who d’you follow?’ is a question to which you better have an answer.  The play is also prescient about th

Ipswich Musical Theatre’s production of Les Misérables was top of the range community theatre – thrilling, emotional and exciting. I have rarely heard the show sung as well, nor has there been so much clarity in the story as there was in Christopher Bradtke’s concise direction. Bradtke, who’s Melbourne based and who recently directed the show for CLOC (who provided the set and costumes for this production), brings his considerable expertise and theatrical savvy to the project.