Reviews

Earlier this year, a valued and much loved member of the Perth community theatre community, 104 year old David Goodall, made international headlines when he travelled to Switzerland to avail himself of physician assisted suicide. In 1995, voluntary euthanasia was briefly available in the Northern Territory, and terminally ill Max Bell attracted similar media attention when he drove from Broken Hill to Darwin in order to die with dignity.

To say this production is a work of love would be to understate the concentration of experiences and diverse performance styles Aanisa Vylet has artistically fused “to smash the limitations of how female narratives can exist on stage”. Nor would it adequately explain the feeling of ‘family’ that radiates from the production.

The ‘Bi’, in case you’re wondering, means bi-sexual. That is what this show is about.  It’s explicit, graphic (verbally anyway) and not afraid to send itself up.  It’s a show delivered with such panache, such humour, charm and polish by three very talented women that it overcomes any resistance that might still be out there (in fact, that is its serious purpose), is hugely enjoyable and my audience – gay or straight – had a thoroughly good time.

This opera is famous for launching the career of Dame Joan Sutherland into the stratosphere. The frenzied ovation on opening night had an intensity which brought back memories of La Stupenda.

Jessica Pratt was towering and terrifying as the insane Lucia. Her top notes could almost crack glass.  Driven to murder on her wedding night she enters the stage covered in blood. In a giddy night of highlights her duetto with a flute, at the height of her madness, was the most sublime moment of the evening as her voice and the instrument echoed then melted into each other.