Reviews

The “Broadway Bound” class of NAPA presented a well rehearsed production of this popular musical. Lynn Dyer and Kim Reynolds have set a high standard over the years and this offering was no exception.

As the “Blonde Bombshell”, Chloe Finlay set and maintained the pace of the performance and was well-supported by Grady Rosvear, Aizha Poynton, Conor Putland, Starla Martineer and Rhys Field and the rest of the cast.

The ensemble worked extremely hard and their enthusiasm was infectious and both of the dogs in the show were well behaved.

Short + Sweet is exactly as it’s named: plays that are no longer than 10 minutes. That concentrates the playwright’s mind marvellously, and spurs the director to ingenious solutions. The ten plays shown in the final are the best of a gruelling process over two weeks. Plays come from Canberra, local and interstate theatre companies, and one play from the USA.

This play uses the poetry of John Donne, a nod towards Shakespeare, beautiful music, a spare set, a dynamic soundscape and masterful acting to explore the journey towards death. At the beginning of the play Professor Vivian Bearing (Jane Montgomery Griffiths) announces she has stage four metastatic ovarian cancer and is very likely to die. She reflects on the contribution her teacher, Professor E. M.

This is the second play written by the celebrated director Benedict Andrews, now running a global career from Iceland.  Critics shredded his first play, Every Breath at Belvoir, about an indulged, bullying family living behind top security.

In Gloria, this time a star actress (Marta Dusseldorp) and her fractious family live high in a penthouse as a dystopian city below explodes into civic mayhem.