Reviews

An award-winning ballet dancer, Emma here presents an excellent stage persona in this self-devised and performed autobiographical, multi-media, musical show – inspired and liberally quoting from Sheila Heti’s famous book: Motherhood.

Merlynn Tong’s play opens a fascinating window on the underbelly of Singapore’s glossy high capitalism with cultural traditions buried by the social imperative to get rich.

Tong and Charles Wu play estranged siblings standing in an apartment cleared out after the suicide of their mother.  With their father long dead, the innocent 14-year-old Girl and the Boy, 21 and proudly in a criminal drug gang, face being orphans and, worse in Singapore, being poor.

Miranda Musical Theatre Co’s second show of the year, the fun-filled comedy musical The Full Monty, based on the hit movie from late ‘90s was a joy to see, bursting with energy and enthusiasm from the opening line to the finale. A compact stage / set design of LED screens along with vibrant costumes from the late ‘80s / early ‘90s and a colourful lighting scheme combined well to transport the audience to Buffalo NY, 1989.

Bleak Expectations makes its WA premiere with this production by Wanneroo Repertory. A recent release, it had its West End debut just last year and is described as “A Dickensian Romp with a Dash of Monty Python”.

The programme for this production is a delight (albeit very expensive at $7 for 8 pages) filled with little quips and faux advertisements that set the tone for the play.