Reviews

Holy Cow

Joyce Slaughters the Sacred Cows of English Literature. Directed by Jennifer Sarah Dean. fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 13-17 June 2018.

The Bloomsday in Melbourne script team have cleverly adapted the episode in which the protagonist Leopold Bloom (Hunter Perske) visits the maternity hospital in James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses. This is an exceptionally complex text and focusing on this lively episode is a good way to tackle the enormous literary tradition housed in this text.

Lea DeLaria

Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Festival Theatre, 11 June, 2018

Lea DeLaria opened her show in Adelaide with a beautifully arranged jazz adaptation of the Bowie classic “Boys Keep Swinging”. It is no accident that these lyrics, heard so many times before, are suddenly heard in a new way. As DeLaria sings, ‘Heaven loves ya, The clouds part for ya, Nothing stands in your way, When you're a boy’, there can be little doubt that the woman standing before us keenly feels the inequalities between the genders.

Assassins

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Directed by Dean Bryant. Choreography by Andrew Hallsworth. Musical Director Andrew Worboys. Set and Costume Design Alicia Clements. The Hayes Theatre Co. June 7 – July 1, 2018

The return of Hayes’ Theatre’s stunning production of Assassins to the stage of the Playhouse was marred by a painful injury to Bobby Fox just as he concluded his brilliant, light, swift-footed, crazed depiction of Charles Guiteau (hanged for the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881). After an amazing song and dance routine, including a skipping sequence with a fluorescent rope, Fox faltered and fell.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Play by Simon Stephens based on the novel by Mark Haddon. Director: Marianne Elliott. National Theatre of Great Britain. Concert Hall, QPAC. 12 – 24 June 2018 (and touring)

When it opened in London in 2012 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time consolidated the acclaim heaped upon director Marianne Elliot following her groundbreaking War Horse.

Eight gigabytes of hardcore pornography

By Declan Greene. The Tasmanian Theatre Co. The Moonah Arts Centre. Director: Melissa King. 6-16 June 2018

The set says it all. Separate spaces not much larger than a grave plot; two venetian blinds (from which to view the world or hide our secret selves) evoke the confessional; a shared space mediated by a grid of computer components. This is how we live. Alone, rarely together and mostly in the ether. Pared of the commodities which insulate, the characters are stripped bare, naked as they came into the world and naked as they will leave it.

Radio on Repertory Lane

Canberra Repertory. Directed by Jarrad West. Theatre 3, Canberra. 7–16 June 2018.

What a brilliant conception this is: a behind-the-sounds look at how radio actors and sound-effects artists work together to create drama and comedy purely through sound, giving the theatre’s “studio audience” a look at the comedy behind the comedy.  In this delightful production, the voice-actor characters worked beautifully together, their silent off-mic doings as interesting as their on-mic parts, and this unfolding of visual elements added amusement even to the material of greatest inherent interest.  In a radio skit as familiar as “The Good Old Days&rd

Eight gigabytes of hardcore pornography

By Declan Greene. The Tasmanian Theatre Co. The Moonah Arts Centre. Director: Melissa King. 6-16 June 2018

The set says it all. Separate spaces not much larger than a grave plot; two venetian blinds (from which to view the world or hide our secret selves) evoke the confessional; a shared space mediated by a grid of computer components. This is how we live. Alone, rarely together and mostly in the ether. Pared of the commodities which insulate, the characters are stripped bare, naked as they came into the world and naked as they will leave it.

Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland exhibition currently at ACMI, Fed Square, Melbourne until 7 October 2018.

In celebration of Alice in Wonderland’s 150 years - not so, so, so long ago -Wonderland has captured the imaginative prowess of the original text. It is an enchanting and maze-like journey down the infamous rabbit hole that has inspired many and charmed others for generations.

A mock Victorian study mimics Lewis Carroll’s world and his time at Trinity, Oxford where he penned Alice In Wonderland. The Lost Map of Wonderland (paper map) ushers you through the Hallway of Doors that will lead you into the Wonderland puzzle.

Pride & Prejudice – A New Musical

Script by Carl Lawton, adapted from the novel by Jane Austen. Music by Louella Jury, lyrics by Carl Lawton. The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Tasmania. Director: Anne Blythe-Cooper. Playhouse Theatre Hobart. 8 – 23 June 2018

This is the third performance of a musical version of Pride & Prejudice – A New Musical I have seen, a wonderful adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel (by Carl Lawton – words and Louella Jury – music).The first two were presented by Huon Valley Theatre Inc. as a vehicle for showcasing the skills and talents of the Huon Youth Theatre group. This is a more fully realised vision, showcasing the talents of The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Tasmania.

Taking It Up the Octave: Antoinette Halloran

2018 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre. 8-10 June, 2018.

Can the worlds of opera and cabaret comfortably co-exist and intermingle? Antoinette Halloran and her instrumental accompanist Patrick Lawrence have attempted to prove that they can, but their undeniable talents and efforts have yielded mixed success here.

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