Reviews

Billed as a hilarious comedy about fake snow, fairy lights and the great Australian dream, Mates Theatre Genesis’s production of Matthew Ryan’s suburban parody Summer Wonderland is as Australian as Vegemite and certainly delivers the promise of laughs.

More a ‘let’s-see-what-we’ve-got-here’ than a play, Silenced gets a trial run under the flight path of landing planes in Marrickville, Sydney. The all-female cast of six copes well with the frequent jet noises, as they come to grips with the journey each has to take: being forcibly silenced by a male partner or family member.

Hearing the heartbeat of her son for the first time led choreographer Sara Black to what became Double Beat, a movement piece based around the different rhythms of beating hearts as they react to the pressures affecting the people whose bodies they charge.

Composer Alyx Dennison recorded the varying heart beats from nine people, combined them with the sounds of birds and wild life, and compiled them into a sound track that reflects the multitude of emotions and reactions that affect the human psyche and are mirrored physically in the changing rhythms of the heart.

This is a stunning production that exudes confidence, charm and elegance. Stacey Alleaume is outstanding as Violetta. The power of her voice conveys enormous depth of emotion and gives a sincere level of substance to what can seem like a superficial romantic story.  Alleaume is able to portray Violetta’s fiery yet extremely compassionate nature and this makes her character and her actions very comprehensible. Ho-Yoon Chung as Alfredo takes some time to warm up to his role and at times his voice is overpowered by the intensity of the other performers.