Reviews

Three Tall Women

By Edward Albee. Directed by Siobhan Vincent. Garrick Theatre, Guildford, WA. May 5-21, 2022

Three Tall Women is a well presented, well-acted interpretation of this interestingly constructed play by Edward Albee.

Toast

By Liz Newell. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Emily McLean. Studio Underground, State Theatre of Western Australia, Perth, WA. May 5-15, 2022

Liz Newall’s Toast premiered at the Blue Room in 2017, winning their award for Best Production. Black Swan’s remount has allowed this locally written gem to reach a wider audience, in a very successful short season. The story of three sisters, grappling with the loss of their mother and the sale of their family home, is a well-drawn look at changing relationships.

Chicago

Book by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb. Music by John Kander. Blackout Theatre Company. Pioneer Theatre Castle Hill. 13 – 22 May, 2022.

Chicago isn’t just a musical! It’s an adaptation of a play that’s based on real characters and real crimes that really did occur in Chicago in the 1920s. Crime reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins wrote the original play in 1926. Accused murderers Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner were the “celebrity criminals” on whom she based Roxie and Velma.

A Letter For Molly

By Brittanie Shipway. Directed by Ursula Yovich. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. 9 May – 4 June 2022

When free-spirited indigenous artist Renee is asked what part of Australia she comes from she doesn’t say Coffs Harbour or Korora (er, where’s that?), she says ‘The Big Banana’ (oh, yes, right, I’ve been there!). And when asked how far back she goes, she says, proudly,’60,000 years!’ The opening night audience at the Ensemble thundered their applause at this, and Gumbaynggirr writer Brittanie Shipway, creating and playing Renee, must have known that she had arrived.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Phoenix Ensemble, Beenleigh, Qld. Director - Shane Webb. Musical Director – Nicky Griffith. Choreographer – Victoria Sica. May 6 – 28, 2022

With over 30 musical numbers and comparatively little unsung dialogue, Sweeney Todd might be where musical theatre meets opera as its theme of unusual and often graphic (this aspect was certainly soft-pedalled in this production) violence, born of pent-up revenge, together with a complex, but brilliant, musical score has kept this Tony Award winner on producers’ short lists since 1979.

The Chimerical

WildHoney Performing Arts. Director: Eloise Wood in collaboration with Margie Mackay. The Park Gasworks Arts Park. 11th - 19th May 2022

This event, in a blend of ceremonial actions and traditional narrative, bravely invites the audience to step into the world of the mystic and unreal.

While gathering, the audience was invited to write a word on a ribbon and decorate a metal ring which was carried and used to make ceremonial gestures throughout the journey.

Katie Noonan - Joni Mitchell's Blue 50th Anniversary

QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 8th May, 2022

There was a large audience of fans (for either Katie Noonan and/or Joni Mitchell) at this one-off concert, celebrating Katie's favourite Joni Mitchell album 'Blue'. Along with an ensemble of two electrified folk guitarists (Brandon Mamata and Ben Hauptmann), a bass player (Steele Chabau) and drummer (Katie's son Dexter Hurren), with some solo piano accompaniment, Katie's golden dulcet tones filled the auditorium with a purity and clarity of tone and deftly captured the essence of this iconic artist.

The Human Voice

By Jean Cocteau. Translation by Iris Guiliard. Theatre Works. Directed by Briony Dunn. 4 – 14 May 2022

Jane Montgomery Griffith renders an extraordinary ‘tour de force’ with the Theatre Works production of the haunting one-woman performance of The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau, directed by Briony Dunn. 

Cathedral

By Caleb Lewis. State Theatre of South Australia. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 6 – 21 May, 2022

Caleb Lewis’ Cathedral is (as the playwright has stated) ‘a play about a diver still haunted by loss, still lost in the deep and the dark. It asks why do some of us sink when others swim? What draws us down into the dark and what calls us back into the light?’ This is fully realized in Shannon Rush’s excellent production for the State Theatre of South Australia.

The Real Inspector Hound

By Tom Stoppard. Artefact Theatre Company at St Martin’s Youth Theatre. Director: Matthew Cox. 29th April - 14th May 2022

This classic, clever, relentless Tom Stoppard with all of his verbal brilliance and room for physical contrivances is satisfactorily delivered at a whirlwind pace. Attempting to present a classic which has been thoroughly explored is always a challenge.

Artefact Theatre Company has drawn together an experienced group of actors who are easily able to deliver the verbal duets between the critics, Moon and Birdboot and the well-worn emotional highs and lows and incessant threats of murder with competent ease and aplomb.

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