Reviews

Artistic Director, Miranda Hill, has steered this project for several years and successfully focused attention on the achievements of queer composers, singers and musicians. The many delightful, sometimes poignant, stories behind these works have been recorded and recounted by Hill in the most entertaining and endearing manner. These events are often an oasis or refuge for individuals whose sexuality is taken to be at odds with the mainstream.

Utopia is a moving and heartfelt play about the refugee experience. Set in Afghanistan, it looks at the reasons for needing to leave the country and the vision of Australia as a Utopia.

Feet First Collective’s This Is Where We Live is a highly poetic, unusually staged production about teenagers in a rural Australian town. Sensitively directed and beautifully acted, this moving play is fulfilling viewing.

What will strike you first is the unusual dialogue style, with some sounds, thoughts and actions verbalised rather than acted. At times it feels more like slam poetry than theatre - an interesting approach given that poetry is one of the play’s major themes. Actors also slip in and out of secondary characters.

The Rodgers and Hart Song Book was a beautifully presented cabaret from jazz clarinettist and pianist Adrian Galante and jazz singer Jessie Gordon. Lighting up the Ellington Jazz Club, it featured outstanding music and fun, relatable entertainment. 

Adrian is a superb player on both instruments and Jessie’s vocals are always a delight, performing a well chosen selection of the Rogers and Hart repertoire.