Reviews

Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience

Interactive Theatre International. Castlereagh Boutique Hotel, Sydney. June 8, 2024, and touring.

The hotel restaurant of the old British TV hit, Faulty Towers, is perfect creation for this madcap Dining Experience, with lookalikes Basil, Sybil and Manuel serving our meals with their signature appalling service. 

After 25 years, there are now half a dozen versions of this show in hotels and theatre spaces around the world, yet with its vaudevillian carry-on,  Faulty remains a distinctly British Experience.

Nocturnal

By Brooke Leeder and Dancers. The.Studio, Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Jun 7 -15, 2023

Nocturnal is a brand-new contemporary dance work, choreographed and presented by Brooke Leeder and Dancers. This very dark piece, obviously set at night, is dark in costuming, set and lighting - an intriguing piece with elements of secrecy, nightmares, and self-reflection.

Life in Plastic

Christie Whelan Browne. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Banquet Room. 8 June, 2024

Christie Whelan Browne proudly announces her goal in Life in Plastic is to empower the women in the audience to love themselves, and we are with her all the way!

Her show Life in Plastic is a tribute to women, to their resilience and the sisterhood. We journey with her for an hour through her life, which has been full of joys but also full of many difficult times. The empathy from the audience was palpable.

The Ballad of Maria Marten

By Beth Flintoff. Hunters Hill Theatre Company. Director Jennifer Willison. Club Ryde. 7 - 23 June, 2024

In 1827, in a little town called Polstead in Suffolk in the UK, a girl called Maria Marten disappeared. It was not until a year later that her body was discovered under the floorboards of a barn. She had been shot, strangled and hit with a spade by William Corder, the man she loved. The same man who had abused her psychologically in a nasty form of coercive control. The “Murder in the Red Barn”, Corder’s trial and very public execution are part of Suffolk history.

Coppelia

Choreographed by Greg Horsman. Queensland Ballet. Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 7 to 22 June 2024

This co-production of Coppelia by Queensland Ballet and West Australian Ballet has something for everyone. Based on the gothic stories of ETA Hoffman, there is a macabre fairytale featuring a lifelike doll created by a reclusive doctor; a cheeky love story told with jealous young lovers straight out of Shakespeare central casting; a village of flirtatious young couples with dance-offs to rival Hollywood-style Seven Brides for Seven Brothers energy; and, to top it all off, a boisterous football match!

Moonlight and Magnolias

By Ron Hutchinson. The Rep. The Arts Theatre, Adelaide. June 6-15, 2024

Gone with the Wind is an iconic American story with the 1000-page novel by Margaret Mitchell earning a Pulitzer Prize in 1937. Exploring politics, romance and contentious issues including human rights, it sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. The nearly four-hour movie adaptation in 1939 was also a great success, boasting one of cinemas most often quoted lines, ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn’, which is cleverly built into the script of Moonlight and Magnolias, currently being performed by The Rep.

Pygmalion

By George Bernard Shaw. Directed by Fred Petersen. Garrick Theatre, Guildford, WA. June 6-22, 2024

Classic plays are held in esteem for a reason, and it is always a pleasure to see a well performed classic play hit our local stages. Garrick’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s much-loved Pygmalion also features some brand-new talent, and it is great to see some new faces on stage.

2024 Cabaret Gala

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Festival Theatre. June 7, 2024

You know when someone gives you a bouquet as a gift and in amongst the blooms is an occasional twig or piece of greenery? This bouquet- The 2024 Variety Gala is a bouquet of joy - not a twig or boring leaf in sight.

Jekyll & Hyde

Presented by A Slightly Isolated Dog. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre. 7-9 June 2024

The crazy faux-French fivesome are back at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, after the success of their interpretation of Don Juan, this time taking on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic novella, injecting it with their effervescent energies, contemporary twists, and ridiculously clever physical theatre.

The Gospel According to Paul

By Jonathan Biggins. Playhouse Sydney Opera House. 4 – 23 June, 2024

Jonathan Biggins is no stranger to those who are devotees of The Wharf Revue, where Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott satirised the mean and the mighty for over twenty years. Biggins has played everyone from Bob Brown to Donald Trump and King Charles. But it is his wry, sardonic, self-assured interpretation of Paul Keating that audiences love best. Perhaps because, like the once PM himself, he keeps coming back to haunt the revue’s more recent political targets.