Reviews

Let’s face it. The whole idea was to perform the music of Queen other than in concert form and Ben Elton has concocted a convoluted story for that purpose. It works wonderfully well. The play is set in the future where individuality no longer exists – everyone wears the same style of clothes, and there’s no music or original thinking. A group of Bohemians is searching for the freedoms of the past. They meet in an old Hard Rock Cafe, try to understand what has gone before and name themselves after long lost stars such as Buddy (Holly) and Brit (Spears).

The Edge is unusual in that the central character, Josh, is never seen. We learn a lot about Josh in the two hour show. Josh is the favourite son of his mother; his brother feels the burden of caring for him; he has found a close friend in the café in which he works; his former flat mate has a crush on him; he has had the same best friend since childhood and he has recently proposed to his girlfriend. Josh is a high achiever, very artistic, but is also very troubled and is living on 'the edge'.

The set, the work of Jake Sanger, is enticing. The Victorian parlour, however, is not all that it seems, much like the conflicted man, Lewis Carroll. Projections and back lighting augment scenes in which Chris Hamley, as Carroll, narrates his tales. These are played out by an ensemble of three highly capable and versatile actors with great energy and humour.

These playfully mad episodes are juxtaposed against darker scenes in which Carroll appears to confront other demons.

If you missed Penrith’s Seussical then you missed a spectacular treat. This big bold musical that brings together major characters from the books of Dr Seuss was not only fantastic quality entertainment but was also a lesson in crowd management. There were 91 in the cast and whenever all or most of them were on stage (which was lots of times) they were positioned in such a way so that each one could always be easily seen. I don’t know how directors Bek Want and Brenden Neaton achieved this feat and made it look easy.