Reviews

Angels in America is a tale on an epic scale and Kushner’s incredibly rich and profound text has a well-earned iconic position in the LGBTI political landscape. The challenges involved in staging this lengthy play, set in the US, are as monumental as the piece itself. The text explicitly and unapologetically addresses confronting issues such as the AIDS epidemic, the corrupt nature of politics, racism and homophobia. This production breathes life into the text and animates it with majesty.

On tour from the U.K., Mikey Weinkove is the originator of “Talkaoke”, a method of stimulating face-to-face conversation in the public spaces and thereby enriching democratic participation, which is the aim of Weinkove and his non-profit group The People Speak.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Beeis based on and original improvisational play called C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E that was performed by ‘The Farm’, a New York based group.  It is basically a staged spelling bee for early secondary schools students who are desperately competitive and fraught with angst and ambition.  Outside America it was first staged in Australia by Melbourne Theatre Company in 2006.

Charles Morey’s adaptation of Beamarchais’ 1778 play has some funny lines, and some of those that satirise politics still ring true today, but the story itself is relatively bland without the music and arias that Mozart used when he adapted the play for the opera stage. Sure, Figaro and Suzanne’s plots to outwit the predatory Count make for some comical situations, but this production requires a lot more experience to find the pace and energy required by commedia dell’arte pranks that would make the production.