Reviews

Monkey… or How To Tell an Epic Tale from Another Culture of an Epic Journey With Not Much Money But With Energy, Jokes, Puppets, Acrobats and Loads of Imagination.

Everyone has their personal history with this fantastical heroine and those annoyingly catchy songs. For me it wasn't the book, nor the film but of one of those read-along books that came with an accompanying vinyl record. It featured narration, songs and sound-bites from the film and a tinkling bell to prompt pre-school me to turn the page. I'd all but forgotten about it until a recent viewing of Saving Mr Banks reminded me of just how huge Mary Poppins was back then. 

In the rarefied environment of the ‘acoustically rich’Salon at the Recital Centre, honoring some of the great women of Jazz and Cabaret, Julia Messenger entranced and delighted her audience.  What a treat it was to listen to Ms. Messenger’s carefully managed voice surfing effortlessly on, in and around the glorious musical accompaniment of Mark Fitzgibbon on piano, James Sherlock playing guitar, Ben Robertson on double bass and Darryn Faruggia, who’s playing I was really taken by, on drums.

This romp has it all: power plays, secret relationships, mystery, sex, more secret relationships, and lots of comedy.  When a new teacher arrives in a school that has given up on genuine education and a faculty beset by mismanagement, inadequacy, and political correctness, she finds encouragement in just two people: the vehemently indifferent young art teacher, and three A-grade students -- and she is instructed from the top to find unfair fault with the work of the absolute star of the year.  But the school’s executive team soon finds itself being pilloried in a