Reviews

Blithe Spirit

By Noël Coward. Directed by Georgia Comerford. PAANDA - Performing Arts Society of Notre Dame. Prindiville Hall, University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle WA. Nov 2-13, 2021

Noël Coward’s 80-year-old classic - Blithe Spirit - seems an unusual choice for student actors in their teens and twenties, and their young audience, but PAANDA - Performing Arts Society of Notre Dame is finding an audience for this show, with its well-attended season of this show.

Away

Written by Michael Gow. Directed by Daniel Evans. Presented by La Boite Theatre. Roundhouse Theatre, Brisbane. 25 October – 5 November, 2021

La Boite Theatre is saying farewell to its 2021 season in style with the beloved Australian classic Away by Michael Gow. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in our theatre community who doesn’t know and love this play. For the few uninitiated, it’s the story of three families whose summer holidays don’t go according to plan. It sounds simple, but of course there’s so much more to unravel in the subtext of this tragicomedy.

Sweet Charity

Book by Neil Simon. Music by Cy Coleman. Lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Directed by Jess Purdy, with Dennett Hudson as musical director and Callum Mansfield choreographer. Presented by BAMT at Hayward Street Studios (Brisbane). October 27 – November 14, 2021.

First performed on Broadway in 1966, then made into a movie in 1969, Sweet Charity, is now presented by students or recent graduates of BAMT and they give it plenty of vim and vigour.

Meet the Wallers

Documentary. Distributed by Antidote Films. Brisbane Film Festival, 2021

We all agree that art is an important part of our lives. But how far would you go in devoting your life to art when it means not paying all the bills while your family need school lunches? That's the crisis at the heart of Meet the Wallers, a documentary by Brisbane-based director, Jim Stevens.

Miss Bilby and the Moss-Covered Cleric

Written by Linda Aronson. Directed by Suze Harpur. Presented by Mates Theatre Genesis. Birkdale School of Arts Hall, Queensland. 25 – 31 October, 2021

Linguaphiles and fans of all things vintage and retro were in for a treat this Halloween at Miss Bilby and the Moss-Covered Cleric. The punny satire of Miss Marple and Agatha Christie style murder mysteries was brought to us by a cast and crew entirely made up of seniors. It was Mates Theatre Genesis’ inaugural Seniors Perform production, an initiative which serves to support the creative development of seniors in the arts.

Van Gogh Alive

Created by Grande Experiences. Produced by Andrew Kay in association with BBC Studios and Fane in partnership with Lexus. The Grand Pavilion, Northshore. 28 October – 24 December, 2021

Have you ever wanted to walk inside a beautiful painting? Have you wished you could get up and close to the tiniest brush strokes of a masterpiece? Do traditional art galleries leave you wanting a little more? Don’t worry dear reader, Van Gogh Alive has got you covered. This isn’t your grandma’s reverentially quiet, controlled, security guarded gallery. This is an in your face, immersive, multi-sensory experience.

All New People

By Zach Braff. T.E.N. Performing Arts. Directed by Nicholas Allen. Camelot Theatre, Mosman Park, WA. Oct 29-31, 2021

T.E.N. Performing Arts present this offbeat black comedy at Camelot Arts for a very short season. Written by Zach Braff, perhaps best known for his role on Scrubs, it is a darkly twisted modernisation of the drawing room comedy, set in winter at an expensive beach house.

Open Homes – Be Our Family

Hannah & Gabriel Lee. OZAsia Festival 2021, presented by Jeffrey Tan & No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability. Oct 22 – Nov 7, 2021

Be Our Family with Hannah and Gabriel Lee is the second Open Homes experience that I have seen. There are six in this extraordinary series, played in the privacy of the homes of real people who live in Adelaide and the surrounding regions, including Aldinga, Noarlunga, Klemzig, Athelstone, and Golden Grove. As with the previous one (Journey to the South) Be Our Family is a beautiful and uplifting experience.

Pinoy Street Party with DJ Kuya James

OzAsia Festival 2021. Lion Arts Centre, Adelaide. Oct 29, 2021

Pinoy Street Party is the brainchild of celebrated modern music maestro DJ Kuya James. This celebration of ‘everything that is Pilipino’ is a music feast incorporating traditional as well as modern Pilipino and Australian music, including Indigenous dance, hip-hop, poetry, and R & B. Pinoy Street Party was first successfully staged in Darwin and now, for the first time, in Adelaide as part of this year’s Oz-Asia Festival.

Queer as Flux

By Stace Callaghan. Directed by Leah Mercer. The Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Oct 26-Nov 13, 2021

Queer as Flux is a dynamic, fascinating and heartwarming solo show, written and performed by Stace Callaghan at the Blue Room Studio. 

The product of The Nest Ensemble, Queer as Flux is based on Stace’s life experience, including transitioning throughout life, from football-mad tomboy, to school captain of a Brisbane Girls’ School, to proud lesbian and now a trans man, who uses they/them pronouns, told with a realisation that everyone is transitioning at all times, including ageing parents, and society itself.

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