Reviews

Shaz (Ruby Johnston) suffers from agoraphobia, the fear of open or public places, and hasn’t left her house in five years. Her contact with the outside world is limited to what she sees on television, what is expounded by politically domineering neighbour Lorraine (Izabella Yena), and delivered by the worldly and desirable postie Johnno (Benjamin Nichol).

Miranda’s Young Frankenstein is as spectacular as it is fun. The cast gets all the vaudeville, innuendo, double entendre, single entendre, and slapstick (or should that be schlappshtick?) absolutely right.

The Paris Underground Cabaret returns to Melbourne and the opening of the new season went off with quite a bang, I expected nothing less and received more, expectations exceeded. Treated to a feast of sophisticated performances, we had a taste of magic, circus, song, dance, burlesque, and if all this is not enough to satisfy, there was clever comedy to carry us gracefully through the show.  All this packaged into a seductive cabaret, a visual sensation that delighted the eye accompanied by the pleasure of French singing and music to be relished throughout.

This is a charming theatrical venture that draws directly from the theatre of the absurd. PARLEY! especially looks to the work of Beckett in Waiting for Godot. Ant (Larkin) and Pea (Besselink) are two characters who are lost at sea and this functions as a metaphor for their existence. There is an instant quaintness about their appearance which is aided by a beautifully designed and very atmospheric set. The gentle rhythms of the dialogue convey warmth from the characters that is rather unexpected and uncharacteristic of the genre.