Reviews

The deep and dark ‘rooms’ of the Spring Hill Reservoir make a fitting location for a mosaic of soliloquies, dialogues real and imagined, and complete mash-ups of speeches by some of Shakespeare’s most loved characters – all of them women. Macbeth’s three witches set the tone with their opening chant and lead us in to hear from Juliet, Queen Gertrude, the Nurse, Cleopatra, Desdemona and Lady Macbeth, to name but a few who contribute to the hurly burly of action.

The dark underground caverns of the Spring Hill Reservoir are the perfect location for this new interpretation of Julius Caesar – the ultimate cautionary conspiracy tale. Presented by Brisbane-based, indie company, heartBeast Theatre, this is a streamlined version of one of Shakespeare’s most famous pieces dealing with the corrupting forces of power.

Successfully premiered in Adelaide in 2013, Caleb Lewis’ play ambitiously explores how wealth, debt and charity can strangle real empathy for those to whom we lend or give.

Maggie Stone is an opinionated, bigoted loans officer who lives alone with a lizard. In that jokey Aussie way, Maggie is a suburban racist; but she learns a lesson after the death of an African immigrant whose desperate request for a minor loan she’d rejected.  

Chocolate cake and silly string are smeared on the floor, along with a hat, a book, some googly eye glasses, an orange wig, pigtails and the Devil’s horns.

Stages from New York to London have looked like this after welcoming Potted Potter to town.

British actors Daniel Clarkson and Scott Hoatson won’t lie to you, it could have been grander, but their retelling of all seven Harry Potter books in 70 minutes is a silly business and the budget for delivering silliness to a brilliant standard cannot be calculated in Muggle terms.