theatre
Review: The Merchant of Venice
Local community theatre company New Farm Nash Theatre have achieved an entertaining and engaging production of this romantic but dark comedy. In spite of a shoestring budget, the enthusiasm and dedication of the cast and crew make this more memorable and intimate than many bigger budget productions. The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s [...]
Review: The Neverending Story
Harvest Rain Theatre Company Popular 1984 movie The Neverending Story comes to life in this stage adaption. Director Tim O’Connor succeeds in asking the audience to use similar levels of imagination to the book on which the tale is based. O’Connor’s own imagination has flowered into a clear and compact concept that fits — magically [...]
Review: Dickens’ Women
Playhouse Theatre, Qld Performing Arts Centre Charles Dickens used his gift of the gab as journalist, author and actor to climb the social ladder. Miriam Margolyes, character actor extraordinaire, accompanied by pianist John Martin, gives us a whirlwind social tour of Dickens’ life. They settle comfortably into the Victorian drawing room featuring a gilt-edged portrait [...]
Review: Dr Zhivago
Based on an iconic book and epic three-hour movie, the musical adaptation of Dr Zhivago has a lot to live up to. After all, song and dance would not be the first choice for many to convey the loneliness, individualism and ideology explored in Boris Pasternak’s novel. Yet director Des McAnuff and composer Lucy Simon [...]
Review: Faustus
Queensland Theatre Company and the Bell Shakespeare’s immersion into necromancy, incest, rape, and self-mutilation somehow makes for a good night at the theatre. Like Dr Faustus who in compact with Lucifer brings the dead to life, director Michael Gow has revived the Faust myth itself: that old and prolific parable of the spineless genius who [...]
Review: Macbeth
New Farm Nash Theatre Blood and butchery, swords and sorcery, tyranny and tragedy, murder and mayhem, daggers and death are all promised in promotions for Nash Theatre’s production of Macbeth. It’s a promise the cast are clearly driven to deliver as much as Lady Macbeth in her wanton desire for the throne. Brenda White’s decision [...]
Review: Romeo & Juliet
It isn’t every ballet that uses rock music and motorbikes, but Queensland Ballet’s student production of Romeo and Juliet isn’t every ballet. The young faces on stage are the only indication they are students, for their talent and professionalism make this an outstanding production. As lines from Shakespeare’s play opened the ballet, artistic director Martyn [...]
Review: The Secret Love Life of Ophelia
Fractal Theatre (Metro Arts Theatre, Brisbane) Reading between the lines of Shakespeare’s Hamlet there is little doubt that the prince of Denmark had his way with the daughter of the king’s minister, Polonius – or at least tried to. Steven Berkoff speculates about the possibilities in this clever parallelquel to Hamlet, reminiscent of Tom Stoppard’s [...]
Review: The Clean House
Cremorne Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre Reluctant cleaners watching this clever play will be relieved to note obsessive cleaning and too much attention to fastidious detail may blunt your passion for life! As a high achieving, clinical, busy doctor, white-clad Lane has little time for life’s pleasures. She hires a young Brazilian to clean her [...]
Review: An Ideal Husband
New Farm Nash Theatre The wheels within wheels, the corruption, the bribery and the back room deals are as much a feature of modern politics as they were one hundred years ago.- Nigel Munro-Wallis, director. Set in London’s Grosvenor Square, Oscar Wilde’s classic play begins at a dinner party hosted by the wealthy and highly [...]
One man dares to review all
Chances are you have never met anybody like Myles Barlow and you’ve never seen a show quite like his.
Love potion works its magic
Wide blue skies, a windmill atop ochre coloured hills, and the token sheep of an outback station set the opening scene of the QPAC production The Elixir of Love firmly in Australian territory. The light-hearted opera, written in two acts by prolific Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti, premiered as L’elisir d’amore in Milan in 1832. This [...]
Review: Antigone
Nash Theatre More than 2000 years since it was written, any modern staging of Antigone requires an element of creativity to make it fresh and relevant. The New Farm Nash Theatre’s current production is certainly creative. Director Jeff Zayer has put together an eclectic production that borrows elements of ancient Greek and Roman aesthetic in [...]
Gen Y waiting to get into Godot
Tickets to Queensland Theatre Company’s educational production of Waiting For Godot sold out last week, proving the 1949 play still has appeal for Generation Y. The play is a dense absurdist drama about two characters waiting on a desolate road for someone called Godot, who (plot spoiler!) never arrives. Queensland University of Technology Drama Discipline Leader [...]
Review: The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco
This is a raucous play about the depraved and crazy antics of a flatshare in Brisbane.
