Reviews

I must be upfront in presenting this review of the music theatre classic, The Sound of Music.

I have known Glenda Kenyon for a long time, indeed directing her as Maria many years ago. I also admit to designing and creating the scenery for this production. Both the direction and design of this production is unashamedly traditional, not a T shirt in sight, or a milk crate or ladder. This production is Glenda’s directorial debut, fitting, as she knows this show so well, having performed the role of Maria on several occasions.

The nexus of Emilie Collyer’s play is netball – a game you can see being played any night of the week in any city and a lot of country towns across Australia.  Under lights, all seasons, mostly women – and women of all ages.  A lot of fun, a lot of bonding – and a lot of commitment – to be there, to give up something else, to work hard, to be fit and to compete.  Besides, the exercise, the physical demands, the game, the playing to win, means you can switch off for an hour from all your troubles and life’s myriad dissatisfactions.  The

This first play by Aboriginal writer H Lawrence Sumner has been given the full Sydney Theatre Company works by star director Neil Armfield – including scenic magic and brilliant on-stage musicianship. The crème of Sydney theatregoers stood and cheered him, surely a life-changing moment.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June amusingly juxtaposes and caricatures disparate people with contrasting attitudes, clearly setting out to highlight our collective human foibles.  But, rather than reveal the contradictions in the sociopolitical environment of 1960s and 1970s America, the play delivers somewhat blunt conclusions.  It deals heavy-handedly with notions of war, ownership of others, naïve idealism, and killing for pleasure and sta