Equus, Free-Rain Theatre, ACT Hub, 12-22 November

 (photo - Olivia Wenholz)

Peter Shaffer's 1973 play combines a then-modern sex-violence-and-disturbed psychology story with ancient ritual in a dramatic story that ratchets up the tension as we delve deeper into the mind of disturbed teenager Alan Strang with the help of his not-that-much-less-disturbed psychiatrist, Martin Dysart. Dysart narrates at length, exposing the audience to his own professional doubts in the use of his methods as he struggles to bring the truth out of the boy - with every sequence leading up to the shattering final sequence when the horrible act that brought Alan into his care is re-enacted. The strong stylisation of the telling (with a chorus of six actors playing the horses that Alan forms a disturbing relationship with, in masks and platform-shoes that resemble hooves) lets the audience do the necessary transformation in their head and invokes the religious rites that Shaffer's play draws on. 

This production borrows the horse headpieces from Rep's previous 2014 production (reviewed here) but in a number of ways is a very different production - Cate Clelland's design gives it a sense of rings-within-rings as we zero in on Alan's mind going further down the rabbit hole with Dysart. Arran McKenna gives Dysart a sense of self-hating wit, hating his own pedantry and precision even as he keeps on applying it to the world around him, and Shanahan gives us a walled-off Strang, sarcastic and defensive but with a lot of rawness underneath which is revealed as we delve deeper. Sam Thompson as the lead horse, Nugget, has imposing presence enough to explain why he becomes an object of fascination and co-dependance to Alan, with a great stare across the audience. The ensemble works well together to provide live soundscapes (prepared by Crystal Mahon) that bring the ritual into being. 

Anne Somes ties the production together (with contributions from movement director Amy Campbell) with a strongly presentational production that holds the audience compelled til the final blackout. "Equus" is a compelling drama that needs the full physical production of a company of performers tied close together with their audience and Free-Rain's production does exactly that. 

Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical, Hayes theatre company, 17 Oct-22 Nov

 

Image by John McRae

A deeply silly musical, Steven Kramer's "Phar Lap" tells the familiar story of the famous NZ-born horse who became a national phenomenon as one of the great racing horses of all time, in a fast, furious, somewhat ridiculously full-of-horse-puns-nz-accents-and-high-pitched-jockey-voices way. It's a gloriously confident show from opening number (The Race that Stops the Nation) to closing (Heart) - staged by Sheridan Harbridge in the intimate Hayes in a way that combines 1930's swing-era and 2020's dubstep and edge. Joel Granger as the titular horse has pure dopey innocence that warms us to him immediately, and leading most of the plot is Justin Smith as trainer Harry Telford, a confident elder statesman looking after the shy youngster as he emerges into fame and glory. The rest of the ensemble is strong too, from Manon Gunderson Briggs' announcer at the top of the show, through Lincoln Elliot's standoffish brother Nightmarch, Shay Debnney's S&M-tinged Jockey Jim Pike, Amy Hack's mysterious Madame X and Nat Jobe's cynical David Davis, whether in their main roles or swapping into multiple small roles all over the place. 

This is a delight from the moment the show starts to the final bows, and richly deserves the full houses it's been having. If you can't catch it this time, hopefully this will be a long runner, returning to delight audiences all over the place. 

The Pajama Game, Neglected Musicals, Foundry Theatre, 5-8 November

 Neglected Musicals has been presenting shows in a stripped-down format for 15 years in Sydney - most famously, they had a go at "Calamity Jane" in 2016, giving a production that is currently touring in revial again, but also mixes of classic, modern, better-and-lesser known shows that have not had a mainstage revival in a while - in this case, a 70 year old classic dealing with romance against the background of a labour disptue at a pajama (or, to spell it properly, pyjama) factory in Iowa. It's got lots of jokes, lots of memorable songs and a few big dance numbers, and offers some great roles siezed in this performance by the cast. The format (cast carries scripts with them and has one days rehearsal to learn the songs and the choreography with an accompaniment of a sole pianist), allows for a reasonably bare-bones presentation, though clearly in the last 15 years they've learned how to find time to appropriately costume the cast and polish up the choreography a tad.

Certainly by the final matinee the scripts-in-hand were largely formalities, with the performers confident in their roles - leads Zoe Gertz and Drew Weston in particular giving confident, brash, 50's performances completely in style, and strong support from Catty Hamilton as the ditzy Gladys, P Tucker Worley as the tight-wound time and motion man Hines, MacKenzie Dunn as the quippy Mabel and Dean Vince as the clutzily lustful Prez. Director/Choreographer Lisa Callaghan keeps the production flowing on a stage with nothing more than a few chairs here and there, and Michael Tyack musical-directs and plays the score with flourish and verve. 

This is a fine quick-and-dirty format to catch a show you may have missed - while yes, it isn't quite a full production, it's got the cast, the choreography and the costumes in place - only the expanded orchesttrations and the sets are missing and, if this production is any guide, it's a good way to catch a show I've not seen before.  

Meow Meow's The Red Shoes, Belvoir St Theatre with Black Swan State Theatre and Malthouse Theatre, Upstairs theatre Belvoir Street, 4 Oct-9 Nov (and at Malthouse 19 Nov-6 Dec and Black Swan 26 Feb-1 Mar)

 

(image by Brett Boardman)

Meow Meow is an internationally celebrated cabaret performer, who this time is involved with her accomplices in performing an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's story of punished desire. But mostly what it's about is thinly controlled chaos, with Meow Meow half tragic figure, half diva, all conquering as she performs song by herself, Radiohead, Paul Anka and Fiona Apple. It starts with three accompaniasts announcing her, surrounding her by three deconstructed pianos and each performing a short note or phrase before the accompaniment moves around her in a sonic and visual feast, delves into her climbing a mountain of junk, before engaging with stories both mythical and personal, occasionally tying in vaguely with the one about the shoes. 

To say the least, this is a long way from a narratively driven show- it's mostly a chance to spend an hour and change in the world of Meow Meow and her strange companions, in a production that is immaculately staged by Kate Champion and designer Dann Barber. It's a rich indulgent chaotic evening that finds beauty and pathos amidst the pathos, whether from Meow Meow or her support team, Kanen Breen, Mark Jones, Dan Witton and Jethro Woodward, who play multiple instruments and sing and play alongside her

The Shiralee, Sydney Theatre Company, Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House, 6 Oct-29Nov

 

(photo by Prudence Upton)

Kate Mulvaney's adaptation of D'arcy Niland's 70 year old novel loses none of its essential qualities - the story of a rough-living man who's impulsive taking of his 9 year old daughter on the road after he discovers her mother in bed with the landlord, and how they find their way towards one another takes essential Australian mythos of solitude and independance and surounds it with the truths of how interdependant the human animal actually is. After adapting two works by Niland's partner, Ruth Park ("Harp in the South Trilogy" and "Playing Beatie Bow"), Mulvaney adapts the road-story into a piece for two actors backed by a six-strong ensemble - Josh McConville absolutely convinces as someone who's lived a long rough life but has deep passions coated with history, and Ziggy Resnick as the daughter is so fresh and innocent, open for anything and taken by sudden whims and surprisingly strong devotions.

The ensemble is full of gems too - from Paul Capsis, performing two roles I'd call Capsis specials (a Kings Cross torch singer and a wandering bush poet), to Mulvaney as two complicated maternal figures, Stephen Anderson playing a mix of threatening and friendly figures, Catherine Van-Davies as a lost love and another that Macauley finds on the road, Lucia Mastrantone and Aaron Pederson as various road eccentrics, they combine as narrators and create a wider world for Macauley and Buster's story to play out on, working in concert with Jessica Arthur's staging on Jeremy Allen's deceptively simple set (adapting to be both wide open plain and gathering places, country stores, byways, inner city slums, workplaces and friend's houses). 

This is a story for the heart first and foremost, about human connection between a parent and a child, raw, strong and powerful. It's funny, incisive and tear-jerking in several places, but it's always honest and true about the people at the centre of the story. 

9 to 5, Queanbeyan Players, The Q, 31 Oct-9 Nov

 

image by photox - Ben

1980's hit movie launched Dolly Parton's acting career with a blam, along with starting Dabney Coleman's career as sneaky jerkwads that occupied most of the rest of the decade, giving Jane Fonda a rare chance to play comedy and a rare chance for Lily Tomlin to play lead. Almost 30 years later it became a Broadway musical, and now, another 15 years later, it's playing locally. The show is distinctly set back in period, including the dreaded Xerox and the early wave of women fulltime in the workplace, taking their grievances at the professional world seriously even as it weaves a fairytale farce around their accidental-then-deliberate revenge on their oppressive boss, Franklin Hart Jr. There would be no point doing the show without Dolly Parton's iconic title song, alas the rest of the score never quite lies up to that level, though there are moments of fun and introspection in the rest of the score, from independent-woman-power ballads like "Shine like the Sun" and "Get Out and Stay Out" to comic cravenness in "Heart to Hart" to a romantic duet on "Let Love Grow". Patricia Resnick's script takes her script of the movie and adjusts it for stage representation, oddly enough increasing the roles of a few of the men (love-interest Joe and son Josh, as far as I remember, never appeared in the movie originally). 

Sarah Hull directs with a brisk energy, particularly in moments of high farce like the hospital sequence, aided by a tightly choreographed cast by Lauren Chapman and a strong band from Jenna Hinton. 

The central trio of performers are gold, from Kate Einsenberg's confident but frustrated Violet who warms to the opportunities the plot gives her to Sarah Copley's initially mousy Judy, blossoming as the shenanigans give her confidence, to the spectacular Sienna Curnow, who takes the Dolly Parton template of Doralee and relishes every hollering, confident moment. Up against them, Steven O'Mara oozes sleeze as the obnoxious Hart, and Shennia Spillane is delightful as his obsequious partner-in-sneakiness, Roz. Dave Collins takes a role that could feel superfluous and makes it necessary by turning his adorability up to 11 - he's endearing whenever he's onstage, and the payoff of his relationship with Violet feels deeply earned. 

Thompson Quan-Wing's set is an adaptable marvel at shifting around the offices of Consolidated Industries and into a few other places too, and Samantha Marcedo's costumes do a great job of feeling period-appropriate without being overly parodic of the period. 

Jacob Acquilina's lighting picks out the areas of the stage well and comes up with good mood combos for the shifts into and out of fantasy, and Telia Jansen's sound hits just the right balance between impact and overwhelming the audience. 

This is a fun show, played with verve and enthusiasm by its cast - it's playful, charming and with just a little bit of heart and soul in the middle to give the pudding some heft to it. 

The Musical of Musicals (the Musical), Everyman Theatre, ACT Hub, 17-25 October

 It's been 12 years since we last joined a quartet of actors and a pianist to tell the same plot 5 times in 5 different styles, and while we have one new actor in Will Collett and a decade's wear and tear means that Jarrad West is now performing Bob Fosse inspired choreography in a knee brace, it's still mostly the show I reviewed back then. It's a more-or-less loving tribute to musical theatre storytelling, in the style of Rogers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Kander and Ebb, with the more loving attention paid to the first two and the last one and the more satiric barbs hitting Herman and Lloyd Webber, the gags coming thick and fast throughout and using five variations of the same simple plot of "she can't pay the rent, the landlord wants the rent, the grand dame gives inspirational advice, the dashing hero comes up with the rent at the last minute".

Hannah Ley's return to Canberra is, of course, a triumph, given everything she did when she was here was a triumph and her skills have not dropped one iota in the last decade or so. As the various aspects of ingenue June, from petulant country girl, neurotic new yorker, lisping simpleton, ambitious diva or ambinguously-chicago-berlin-dive-bar dancing girl, she's perfection in all of them. Similarly perfect are Louiza Blomfeld as grand dame Abby, whose advice whether stoic, drunken, spectacular, brooding or Kurt-Weill-ian is always welcome; new entrant Will Collett fitting right into whatever's needed from cocky cowboy to dimwitted nephew to slutty dancing boy, and Jarrad West enjoys various delights from dream ballet to inconveniently stopping swivel chair to a spectacular entrance look to a very fun cape to a startlingly suggestive harnesss arrangement in an OTT german-ish accent. Duncan Driver pops up from the corner now and then to narrate to perfection, filling in where the budget can't. 

Nick Griffn accompanies it all in high style on piano/keyboard with aplomb, and all in all it looks mabye just that little bit fresher than it did a dozen years ago, played confidently with maximum ridiculousness for a fun, silly, spectacular night out. 

A Chorus Line, Free-Rain Theatre, The Q, 30 September – 19 October 2025

 

(photo by Janelle McMenamin)

"A Chorus Line" hit the nerve of Broadway in the mid 70s, with its take on dancing as both a passion and as a profession, using the device of an audition where the director asks for an intrusively large amount of personal information to dive deep into the lives of 17 auditionees for an 8-person dancing chorus. It talks about how the passion is nurtured, both in joy of the achievement (Mike's "I can do that") and in escape from a messy home life (Sheila, Maggie and Bebe's "At the Ballet"), getting into how the profession gives them body dysmorphia (Connie's "4 foot 10" and Val's "Dance 10 Looks 3"), giving us a chance to know them all as individuals, before a finale where they all join in an immaculate, identical chorus of parts in a director's whole vision. It's very much drawn from the 70's encounter-group movement (it originated as a series of taped workshops, making it one of two musicals drawn largely from verbatim material opening this week, between this and "Come from Away"), and the mix of deep emotions and glib joking in the dialogue by James Kirkwood Jr and Nicholas Dante is a very 1970s broadway phenomenon, albiet one that in its original production ran from 1975 to 1990, making it at the time the longest running broadway show ever (since outrun by "Cats", "The Lion King", "Phantom of the Opera", "Les Mis", "Wicked" and  the 90s "Chicago" revival, ironic given "Chorus Line" dominated the attention during "Chicago"s initial run). 

Free-Rain's production is directed and choreographed by Michelle Heine who uses a choreographer's eye to create strong stage pictures for the story to play out in, supporting the performers as they transition in and out of dance as part of the storytelling (there's an additional credit of "acting consultant" for Isaac Gordon, so I'm not sure exactly how this worked in the rehearsal room but certainly the performers embody their roles with skill and care). Craig Johnson's 12 part orchestra underpins the production with a strong brassy Broadway sound, with moments of delicacy where required in "At the Ballet" and the ballad "What I did For Love" handled well too. I'd normally pick out the performers for individual praise but in a show with 19 prlincipals that would make this unbearably long - let's just say they each bring out the individual soul of their characters with skill and power, performing their humanity strongly. 

Zac Harvey's lighting design is precise and skilled, giving us firm beams down on each cast member in isolation as the nerve-wracking auditions begin and letting the space widen for groups to assemble. Telia Jansen's sound design balances a big brassy orchestra and individual voices well, getting the vital lyrics across articulately and giving us a well-scaled sound. 

This is a chance to see a legendary phenomenon on stage and to see a local cast at the top of their game execute one of the classics. 

Trent Dalton's Love Stories, a QPAC / Brisbane Festival production, Canberra Theatre, 24-27 September - subsequent tour to Darwin Entertainment Centre (2 – 4 October) and HOTA Gold Coast (9 – 11 October).

 A writer sits in a public square asking people to tell him about their love stories. A simple premise, played here with a mix of storytelling, video, and choreography, looking at all types of love (romantic, familial, friendships, even self-actualisation). It's a technically sophisticated telling of these stories, beginning with live video of the audience and various written declarations from the audience of their definition of love. We're introduced to the writer (Jason Klarwein), and the location, a busy pedestrian mall in Brisbane, where various regulars approach the writer with their stories or where their story is pulled out of them - with stories mixing from being told directly the audience, playing out told directly to a wandering camerman (Anthony Dyer) or in a couple of instances just played on the big screen on the back of the stage. The stories are tied together by a framing device about the writer's own relationship with his wife (Anna McGahan) but the heart and the soul of the show is some immactulate ensemble work from the cast - including the radiant Valerie Bader, the warmly yearning Bryan Proberts, the stoicly strong Kirk Page, the joyous Will Tran, the heart-rending Ngoc Phan and the warm movements between Jacob Watton and Hsin-Ju Ely. 

It's spectacularly well technically managed, with life editing and effects work from video systems tech Josh Braithwaite, and uses the full size of the Canberra theatre stage better than a lot of attempts to put plays on the bigger theatre - often plays can get swallowed whole by the space which lives more comfortably with concerts, but this one manages to fill the theatre to the back row with heart, soul and theatrical skill. If it's very much a Queensland story put on tour, well, all universal stories are local stories at their heart, and the specifics make the universal elements stand out more. Director Sam Strong and adapter Tim McGarry integrate the combination of spectacle and human moments well, with the assistance of choreographer Nerida Matthaei. It's simultaneously the simplest posisble thing - storytelling between cast and audience - and utilising the finest of modern tech to do that, and it never trips over its feet once in doing that.

I Watched Someone Die on Tiktok, Canberra Theatre Centre New Works, Courtyard Studio, 19-21 Sept

 

Charlotte Otton's solo show is a one hour dive into the extremes of social media - how a young woman growing up in a social media age has been affected by exposure to extreme images of life, death, trauma and sexuality. For someone around 15 years older than her, it's a reflection of all our worst fears of the web (and I say that as someone currently typing this review onto the web, who's aware that I wouldn't be doing this on a regular basis if the web didn't exist, and I've been pretty directly told by traditional media owners that I wouldn't be hired by them because I don't hold a relevant degree, just ... you know, several decades of being an audience, reading theatrical literature, and writing this stuff... no, I'm not bitter at all, how dare you suggest that). 

Back to Otton's show for a second - she sells her material with precision, singing, embodying, narrating and trauma-dumping like a demon. It's a tight show, circling its point and provoking all kinds of thoughts while the multimedia screens play a curated set of material from social media that merely hint at the level of 

There is a wider debate about whether social media is just the same sins that always existed with the barriers removed - the salaciousness of reporting on Jack the Ripper in the 19th century, for example, is from the same source as a modern true-crime reporting on any violent act today - but it's certainly true that the guardrails of editing and control are off. And reckoning with the implications of that is a big topic that Otton explores with precision and skill. 

Lend Me A Tenor, Free-Rain Theatre, ACT Hub, 17-27 Sept

(photo by Janelle McMenamin)

 Ken Ludwig's 1986 farce was a retro charmer even at its first productions - set in the 30s in a grand opera company in Cleveland, where two tenors, a stressed impresario, a demure ingenue, a wife, an ambitious soprano, a daffy dame, and a fanboy bellhop all collide over the course of one long afternoon and the following night. I've enjoyed it for many years -on tour in 1993 in Wollongong with Stuart Wagstaff, Rowena Wallace and Maggie Kirkpatrick, working backstage on Rep's 2006 run with Steph Roberts, Colin Milner and Andrew Kay, and now back in the audience almost 20 years later. It's still a delightful romp, using the Feydeau formula of people in lavish clothing chasing each other around from the most primal of emotions - lust, expediency, wrath, rage, and fear. 

In Cate Clelland's production, it's in the hands of a master. Timing is perfect to hit every laugh, with a cast game for everything and a set and costumes that are the peak of era-appropriate chic. Farce is the kind of thing that can easily fall off the rails if the audience has a moment to think "hey, wouldn't they do something else if they thought about that for a second..." so the answer is to go full throttle and get the performers doing something at all times to avoid thinking about it too much. And given everything that the performers are doing is delightful, it's easy to forget about any plot holes. 

Central to the production is John Whinfield as the sweet-natured Max, the dogsbody who rises through circumstance to become a conquering hero - Whinfield is sweetness personified, an underdog we're desperate to see come through and one we celebrate the triumph of. Around him is Michael Sparks doing some great seething as the constantly-stressed impressario Henry Saunders, most of the rage kept under for as long as possible before sudden explosions. Maxine Beaumot has the right mix of sweet-natured and inner determination as the not-entirely-innocent-but-we-don't-mind ingenue, Christina Falsone brings Italian passion and fire to the role of Maria, William "Wally" Allington brings a sweet nature to the slightly egotistical tenor Tito, Meaghan Stewart is all the right kinds of sultry vamp as Diana, Sally Cahill is deligthfully scatterbrained as the socialite chair of the opera, and Justice-Noah Malfitano is just the right kind of irritant as the sarcastic bellhop. (Whinfield and Allington are both also required to sing a duet from Verdi's "Don Carlos" to convince us they both would pass as opera-suitable tenors and both pass that test with flying colours)

Fourty years after it first premired, this is still a charmer - after rewrites to change the opera from "Otello" to "Pagliacci" (thus removing unfortunate blackface), a sequel, a musical and a genderswap to become "Lend me a Soprano", the bones of the original still hold true and in its current incarnation it should be bringing delight to audiences at the Hub for the next week-and-a-bit. 

Lizzy, D'Arcy and Jane, Canberra Repertory Society, Canberra Rep Theatre, 4-20 Sept

 

Joanna Norland's play looks at the creation of "Pride and Prejudice" in the context of Jane Austen's own romantic entanglements, with Lizzie's fate in her novel varying as Jane's own pursuit of love refuses to run smoothly. On the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth, it's probably worthwhile having some kind of celebration of her, but unfortunately the play itself is a little pallid - Austen comes across here as a somewhat nervy character, who seems to be very easily influenced by her characters into letting them have their own fate, rather than the behind-the-scenes mastermind plotting everything intricately together. Still, Alexandra Pelvin's production gives it a solid production, empire-line-dresses and stylish scenery and all, in a production that has some liveliness in some of the performances even when it doesn't perhaps entirely exist in the script. 

Dylan Hayley Rosenthal as Lizzie has a good wilful cynicism as the character requires, with a certain twinkle in her eye. Sterling Notley manages a tricky trio of roles as an amiable Bingley, a snotty younger Harris and a somewhat more vulnerable older one, and various modes of odiousness as Mr Collins. And Rachel Hogan drips imperious power in incarnating the dreaded Lady Catherine De Bourgh. 

Eliza Gulley frocks the ladies and frock-coats the gentlemen appropriately, and Kayla Ciceran gives a nicely open design for story to take place. 

I've liked some of Rep's other attempts at Austen but unfortunately, here, the play itself wasn't really enough to hold my attention - Austen's writing remains fascinating but, at least here, her personal life just doesn't have the same draw for me. For others it might.

The Cadaver Palaver: A Bennett Cooper Sullivan Adventure, Bare Witness Theatre Company, Canberra Theatre Centre New Works, Courtyard Studio, 12-14 Sept

 

Christopher Samuel Carroll has prepared a delightful one-man tribute to Victorian adventurers, with dramatic twists, battles, secrets and saucy seductions aplenty, delivered by Carroll with vocal and physical dexterity as he takes us from far eastern dens of iniquity to the backstreets of Edinburgh with brisk efficiency.

To a certain extent this is a simple vehicle for Carroll to show off his skills and he serves himself well - relishing his words with linguistic glee, and using various physical gags, intense pacing and a spectacular moustache to tell his tale. It's a convoluted conspiratorial narrative where ... well, some secrets need to be kept, but I can safely say that Cadavers and Palavers certainly feature high on the agenda.  Sullivan gets himself into and out of all manner of sticky situations along the way to a suitably dramatic conclusion, by way of a dramatic opening and several dramatic confrontations along the way.

 Carroll is assisted by nothing more than a set of around five Persian carpets on the ground and some sympathetic lighting by Ash Basham, operated by Riley Whinett. With nothing more than a dashing brown suit, a cane and a largely bare stage, he conjures up a whole victorian world of intrigue, adventure and suspense with aplomb, and I hope for further Bennett Cooper Sullivan adventures (or whatever else strikes Carroll's fancy) in the future. 

In the Heights, Marriner Group and Joshua Robson Productions, Comedy Theatre (and later at HOTA Brisbane), 1 Aug-6 Sept.

 

Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2008 Broadway debut is inevitably overshadowed by the show that came next, but it's a fun depiction of a place and milieu on the corner of a Washington Heights neighbourhood - deliberately somewhat small-scale as we follow the day-to-day lives one summer of a couple of Latin American characters dealing with money troubles, degraded infrastructure and urban blight. This production, grown from a run at the Hayes in 2018 to runs at the Opera House and previous tours along the NSW central coast, has a strong emphasis on the dance elements of the show, constantly moving from beginning to end under Amy Campbell's strong choreographic hand. While the plot is a somewhat familiar slice-of-life as various characters dream, romance and handle rising temperatures on the street, the execution is sharp and skillful.

Unfortunately, i was at a performance where understudy Jerome Javier was on for Ryan Gonzalez as the lead, Usnavi - Javier is undoubtedly a skilled performer and can handle the technical requirements of the role well, spitting out Miranda's dense lyrics clearly and precisely - but they're also a younger performer and the role really requires someone who can give the impression of having lived in a rut for a while, and the fit is not quite precise enough to make them a seamless replacement.   Elsewhere, the regular performers are strong - from the ever-dancing ensemble to the gossiping trio at the beauty parlour played by Olivia Vasquez, Vanessa Menjivar and Tamara Foglia Castaneda, to scene-stealing Richard Valdez as the gleeful Piragua Guy and Dayton Tavares' smooth moves as Grafitti Pete. The ensemble sell joy in numbers like "96,000", the act one climax "Blackout" and the celebratory "Carnival Del Barrio" and also emotional depth in Abuela Claudia's "Pacience Y Fe", and deliver the meat of the show well. 

Director Luke Joslin keeps the show on a fairly simple staging, leaving space on the stage for dance to explode, and Mason Browne's set design is a similarly simple design adapted for maximum utility. It's a solid production rather than a revalatory one, mostly serving as a vehicle for its perofmers and its choreographer which both drive well. 

Kimberly Akimbo, State Theatre Company of South Australian and Melbourne Theatre Company, Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, 26 Jul-30 Aug

 When David Lindsay-Abaire decided to musicalise his 2001 play in 2021, he had the advantage of having previously worked with composer Jeanine Tesori on the "Shrek" musical, before Tesori went on to win best original score for "Fun Home" (she'd later win again for this musical). Changing technologies means that his play, previously a contemporary work, was now a period piece, and the musical doubles down on the late-90s-ness of the story, using a daggy suburban high school and its antendees to broaden out his central gimmick of a 15-turning-16 year old girl with a rapid aging disorder that means she looks like the 61-year-old Marina Prior, and her tricky relationships with her disreputable family. The musical introduces a quartet of high show-choir geeks to the cast but otherwise tracks pretty closely, including subplots about Kimberly's cheque-fraud-committing aunt,  her not-entirely-responsible parents and the boy in her class she falls in love with. 

Mitchell Butel's production manages to wrangle a small scale story onto the somewhat broad space of the Arts Centre Playhouse without too much damage, and manages to keep Kimberly central even when there are so many more colourful personalities jockeying for attention. It's not the smoothest production - the costumes and set lead towards a tendency to caricature more than perhaps is wise, but in centering Prior it knows where the humanity is in the story and lets her reactions guide us through to a joyous conclusion. 

At this point in her career, Prior could be resting her laurels in a series of comfortable revivals but it's good to see her using her intense likability in a new show that trades off that in interesting ways - playing a child in an adult body with such vulnerability yet inner knowledge that we take her and her journey to our hearts. Casey Donavan as the disreputable aunt Debra is an energetic force of nature - we've known for 24 years she's a powerhouse vocalist but her comedy sense is spot on too. Christine Whelan Browne as Kimberly's mother showcases a likeable empty-headedness in contrast to her baddy in "Bloom" earlier this year, and Nathan O'Keefe as Kimberly's dad has all the right twitchy anxiety moves. Darcy Wain as Kimberly's anagram-obsessed geek love interest is also a sweetheart, and makes it easy to understand why she goes for him. And the showchoir quartet of Marty Alix, Allycia Angeles, Alana Iannace and Jakob Rozario showcase a combination of teen desire and inner turmoil as they support Kimberly's narrative.

This is a tender, sweet little story that realises its message in the nicest way in the final moments, while bringing somewhat wild circumstances to vigorous life. Hopefully this should get a later tour and the wider audience it deserves, if for no other reason than to showcase Prior's gently powerful performance - never pushing for affection but bringing us in all the same. 

Beetlejuice, The Musical, Michael Cassel Group and Warner Bros Theatre Ventures, Regent Theatre, til September 11.

 

Adapting Tim Burton's 1988 film into a musical, Scott Brown and Anthony King's script narrows the focus onto the titular Beetlejuice (notoriously only on screen in the movie for 17 minutes) and Lydia Deetz, the Winona Ryder character - making both key actors in the way the Beeetlejucie animated series did, while giving Lydia a strong sung desire to connect to her late mother as an emotional backbone to the story. With Eddie Perfect's songs giving a varied range of material from Lydia's power ballads to a fun back-and-forth duet on "Say my Name" to a bonkers bouncy showtune on "Creepy old Guy", some thoughly character-appropriate costuming from broadway legend William Ivey Long, a set design combined with projection work from David Korins and Peter Nigrini that allows the supposedly simple house set to transform looks instantaneously as the plot requires. 

Eddie Perfect is a weird case of a creator appearing in their own work - in music theatre, we've not seen Tim Minchin appear in "Matilda" or "Groundhog Day" and Kate Miller-Heidke sat out "Muriel's Wedding" - but in many ways it's the perfect mix of performer and material - Perfect's irreverent tunes in his previous cabaret work and in his "Shane Warne" musical suit him as a performer as well, and he taks the reigns and is a suitably chaotic narrator, nemesis and semi-protagonist, keeping us entertained the entire time. Karis Oka matches him, bringing emotional intensity to her solo "Dead Mom" and also playfulness to her dealings directly with Beetlejuice anywhere else, whether trading off with him in "Say My Name" or "That Beautiful Sound" or playing with the ick in "Creepy Old Guy". Elise McCann adds to her stockiple of great solid leads with another thoroughly charming female lead as the coming-into-her-own Barbara Maitland, and Rob Johnson gradutes from a run of utility performer roles like his "Calamity Jane" part to a strikingly dorky, charming Adam Maitland. Erin Clare is a charming weirdo as Delia, and Tom Wren goes from uptight to insane to sympathetic as the role of Charles requires. 

Alex Timbers directs with verve and action for most of the show (though there are a couple of points where the second act gets a bit stuck having to do inevitable plot-stuff to get us through to the finale), and it's a lively fun musical that knows its source and delivers what an audience wants even if it's not letter-perfectly reproducing the original, instead boiling it down to its essence and hitting the core beats while playing around to give us something surprising at the same time. 

Once on this Island, Curveball Creative in association with Hayes Theatre Company, Hayes, 2-31 Aug

 

This is an odd one-  a musical version of a Caribbean retelling of "The Little Mermaid", with emphasis drawn on elements of Caribbean social politics and religious practice. It premiered on Broadway 35 years ago and in this production there's a lot of pacific-island references in the design and some of the choreography. The darker tone of the Hans Christian Andersen original is maintained here - a young woman sacrificing all for the sake of a man who's not worthy of her, while the gods around her make dark bets on her fate. The production does bring across the power of the material, which is Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's score and Ahrens's smooth script, incorporating magic, dance, and tradition. In Brittanie Shipway's production it uses the intimate Hayes stage to create a community and two different worlds of the island, both the small village where heroine Ti Moune grows up, and the grand hotel where the richer side of the island indulges themselves - Nick Pollard's set design uses the tightness of the Hayes to make the set up from what look like found objects, incorporating small elements like slatted windows and a grand gate in as the location gets more sophisticated. Choreographer Leah Howard makes sure the show moves with a mix of pacific islander movement and more traditional dance vocabularly, and absolutely belongs to the cast members. 

There's a great set of performances here too - Thalia Oseceda Santos is a powerhouse as the innocent Ti Moune, passionate and sweet and so fragile we fear for what the world has in store for her - and the quartet of god performers, Godgoorewon Knox's water god Agwe, Paula Parore's bountiful earth goddess Asaka, Cyprinana Singh's romantic goddess Erzuilie and Rebecca Verrier's intimidating god of death Papa Ge, contribute strongly to the storytelling as they impose their will on the world below them. 

There's a warmth to this folk tale even as it pushes the darkness in under the warmth, and we see the legacy of colonialism on a culture in ways that are painful to us as the darker ending emerges out of old divides. It's a gorgeously compiled production and well worth seeing.  

Circle Mirror Transformation, Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1, 12 Jul-7 Sep

 

We observe a small class in the middle of the US doing a six-week drama course, consisting entirely of drama exercises- we can tell it's not that successful as the four students include the co-ordinator's husband as a ring-in - and slowly we get insight into them through small moments. Annie Baker's play is precise and builds from the smallest parts - you may think nothing has happened, then suddenly you realise how much you know and have warmed to these people over the course of watching them struggling - through a small view we see the bigger world that these characters bring with them into the class and where they may take it afterwards. 

Rebecca Gibney and Cameron Daddo as the husband-and-wife team may feel like stunt casting from the outside but both absorb well into their characters - Gibney having the right slightly-smug, hippyish vibe, satisfied that her program can help the group even as her exercises wander closer to misguided psychological experimentations, and Daddo as the dropout lawyer who's realising maybe his rebellions never really set him up for the family connections that he craves. Solid also are Nicholas Brown as a lovelorn carpenter clearly looking for a connection, Ahunim Abebe as the resistant teen looking for something more substantial than this class appears to be shows a gentle warming as the time proceeds, and Jessie Lawrence as the somewhat flamboyant Theresa who realises just how much she needs to bring herself back in. 

In a moment like now when all the views from America are huge and impactful, something this small and human-scaled may feel underwhelming - but it's exactly when we need something on a personal scale . Annie Baker's a master of finding truth in small surprising moments and in making lived-in worlds for her characters, and it's the kind of thing that can easily be overlooked but shouldn't be. 

Grief is the thing with feathers, Belvoir St Theatre and Andrew Henry Presents, Belvoir St Theatre, 26 July-24 Aug

 

This is virtuso theatre - Toby Schmitz making his comeback to Belvoir after quite a while away, in a piece he's co-adapter of (along with director/co-designer Simon Phillips and lighting/co-set-designer Nick Schlieper, both of whom are showing similar virtuoisity in their own ways), offering him the role both of a father dealing with his two sons in the wake of his wife's death, and the chaotic crow that comes into their lives and provokes them with its raw, basic needs and unpitying stare.

It's an irresistable role for an actor, and Schmitz devours it whole -morphing between the introspective, bookish father and the force-of-nature Crow. The two boys are also great roles for adult performers Phillip Lynch and Fraser Morrison, both bringing a childish innocence and glee into their performances as they rebel, explore the world around them and stretch against the limitations of their lives. 

Schlieper's lighting gets a chance to bring all the bells and whistles, from a spectacular arrival for the Crow to projections taking us into the worlds of the characters, sharply shifting from intimacy to broad open spaces. Cellist Freya Schack-Arnott gives it a driving energy underneath, pushing things along with oomph and power. 

For all this virtuosity, I did feel like the spectacle at times was slightly overwhelming the meaning -  I don't feel like I came out thinking about much that was said so much as the sounds and the visions - for an adaptation of a literary work I didn't come away with many words. But it's definately worthwhile seeing a powerhouse actor in a role he absolutely barnstorms with. 

Waltzing the Wilarra, The Q and Hit Productions, 15-16 Aug (and touring around NSW, Qld and NT til October)

 

David Milroy's 2011 musical in some ways definitely resembles last year's touring The Sunshine Club - set post-world war 2 and looking at the clubs that mixed white and indigenous audiences and participants in song, dance and comedy. But Milroy's aims are wider than mere nostalgia - there's a complicated love quadrangle at the centre and the second act picks up threads several decades later and looks at the issues that block reconciliation. There's a strong thread integrating the vaudville-based-radio comedy of Roy Rene in an indigenous context, using puns and innuendo to tell the wider historical context of the state of play of indigenous treatment in the period of the show. It's quite the rich show with a touring cast of 8 plus a band of two on piano and drums,  and is smoothly directed by Brittanie Shipway with charm and skill.

As the central trio, Shaka Cook, Lorinda May Merrypor and Clancy Enchelmaier show a strong push-and-pull between the three of mutual love and respect, along with the conflicts that arise over the course of the story. Juliette Coates as the one who picks at the edges of the trio plays an entitled child well, even in the later era where she's lost none of the blatant selfishness. As club-runner Mr Mac, Jalen Sutcliffe sings like a dream and, as the memories turn more bitter in the second act, provides honesty and resentment in equal measure. As mother/carer/conflicted by her role and her soul, Lisa Maza is a strong solid presence. Hannah Underwood does double duty as both half of the double-act in act one and as an inept well-meaning co-ordinator in act two, performing both roles solidly. And Leonard Mickelo as the lead part of the double act is at once charming and incisive, delivering his jokes with a tight barb while wooing us into the story. 

This is important work, and I'm glad I got to catch it, and that it's getting a chance to reach a wider audience on its extensive Australian tour.  

M’ap Boulé, The Q and Performing Lines, 8 August

 

M'ap Boulé is Haitian Creole for "I'm on fire", and performer/writer Nancy Denis is indeed a firey powerhouse of a performer - punchy, physical, moving with beauty and wit as she tells of her background as a child of Hatian imigrants, raised in Australia and confronting the society in front of her with no apologies and no quarter given. With the assistance of songs written by the late Carl St Jaques, rap performer Kween G Kibone and musicians Victoria Falconer and Jarrad Payne, she brings us into her story, along with a quick lesson on the history of Haiti, some light choreography, a few costume changes and even some non-threatening audience interaction. She's a charming presence and her show is a fine vehicle for her skills as a performer. 

There's some strong use of Maitê Inaê's set, an intimate circle full of candles and with a dominant rough-cloth-full moon circle at the back for projections, bring us into the space with Denis and her team - it's a show that cuts deeper than it might because of Denis's charm, meaning she can bring in quite confronting topics of race, culture and the effects it has on a young woman while keeping the connnection with the audience and bringing us along on her journey.   

Spider's Web, Canberra Repertory, 24 July-9 August

 

Agatha Christie has a simple appeal to readers and theatre audiences - pure plot and puzzles with a mystery to be solved by the finale. "Spider's Web" falls into the more obscure part of her theatrical repertoire - it doesn't have the hook that her top rank plays like "Witness for the Prosecution" or "And then There Were None" have, but there are its own compensations - it plays with the whodunnit form in interesting ways, not taking itself terribly seriously without ever activley spoofing the whole thing.

The formula is so well known at this point (last spoofed at Rep with the energetic "Bloody Murder" last year) that playing it somewhat straight can be challenging, but this production plays it pretty down the line. The tone is mostly reasonably light but the characters are taken seriously - we believe in them enough to be engaged in the story. For most of the length of the show, the question isn't "whodunnit", it's "will we be able to fool the police so the wrong person isn't arrested", and us being on the side of the wrongly-accused helps the tone be a mixture of tense and comic. Director Ylaria Rogers has pitched the show just right - it's just the right side of the gap between cozily familiar and cliche. 

Sian Harrington leads the cast as Clarissa, the genteel hostess of the evening - creative, compassionate, we always wonder just what she's thinking and are usually surprised by the answer. We're mostly carried along the plot by her and she's always a watchable enjoyable lead. Adele Lewin as the bluntly-spoken gardener Mildred Peake is a delight- forthright, opinionated and a strong presence. Therese Maguire at my performance played Pippa, the stepdaughter, as an enthusiastic teenager with just the right amount of hints at her troubled past. Terry Johnson, Anthony Mayne and John Winfield as three golf-club types dragged in to assist in the mayhem are a delightfully posh set of 1950s gentlemen, helpful and slightly dufferish. David Bennett has poise and sternness as Elgin, the Butler who may know a little more than he's telling, Robert Weardon as the sinister Oliver Costello gives us good reasons to dislike him early, Leo Amadeus is suitably bemused as the inquisitive Inspector Lord, and Sophia Bate looms impressively as Constable Jones.

Sarea Coate's set design has all the charm of a mid 50s country house complete with visible garden through the french windows, and Ange Fewtell dresses the cast well, between Clarissa's bright red cocktail dress, the men's formal suit and Mildred's casual garden wear. David Brown lights smoothly with a couple of mood moments for the more thrilling bits, and Neville Pye keeps the sounds right in period.

In short, this is a delightful distracting charmer - absolutely something to take with the Rep Bar's warm Glühwein as a winter comforter.  

Zach Ruane & Alexei Toliopoulos - Refused Classification, The Street Theatre, 24-25 July

 

A tribute to early 2000s film culture and Margaret Pomeranz in particular, this two-handed comedy documentary show combines history, improv, recreations, infodumps and the dramatic reading of an Office of Film and Literature Classification report in a show that is hilarious, informative, emotionally heartwarming and politically provocative. It's a look at Australian Film Censorship history, at the changing nature of how we consume media, and at once intricately researched and completely ridiculous. 

Alexei Toliopolous and Zach Ruane at various times play Margaret and David, both in slightly cheesy grey wigs, before switching to narrate and to play other roles in the narrative - in particular, the dark nemisis of the show, the Reverend Fred Nile. The start of the show contextualises the controversy over the film "Ken Park" that Margaret involved herself in, by using the Movie Show review before she started talking about the topic (2 Fast, 2 Furious) - with Ruane a delightfully snobbish Stratton, relishing the joy of saying the word "Tyrese", and Toliopolous giving all of Margaret's passion and enthusiasm, beffore we dive into the main meat of the show - looking at how two seemingly very mainstream cultural pillars became clear forces of radical action in defence of civil liberties. Both Ruane and Toliopolous bring a lot of themselves into the show, and they're both very engaging personalities - able to both go very broad but also to respect the heart of the show, and the political point it's making even as it makes us double over with laughter. There's a very Australian sense of daggy charm and anything-can-happen in a show which is several months into a tour post Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival - for a show that has a strong technical component with video and lighting, it still feels very loose and playful, with both performers conveying a passion for their subject. 

In short, for anyone who ever watched David and Margaret in any of their TV forms, anybody who likes cultural history played out with enthusiasm, and anyone who likes a bodgy wig.  

Julius Caesar, Chaika Theatre, ACT Hub, 23 July-2 August

 

Shakespeare's grand tragedy of assassination and what comes after is notable for the title character being killed at the top of Act 3 - it's more about the world created by the tyrant as it is about him as a central character. Caitlin Baker's production captures this in a modern production - the suited entourages finding quiet spaces to plot and plan, the cynical creation of a public consensus and the manipulation that switches that consensus in seconds - and the flailing hoplessness that comes afterwards. It captures complex realpolitik in real time, moment by moment, up close and very personal.

Central to the production is Lachlan Ruffy's performance as Brutus - brooding and thoughtful, tempted to action by strong rhetoric and appeals to his intellectual honour but unable to see how he's being manipulated. Yanina Clifton as Cassius is cold fire, sharp and precise in her attack, knowing just what argument to make up until the point when all her smarts fail her and she's left to an ignoble end. Colin Giles seizes his moment in the funeral centerpiece, passionate and powerful as Mark Antony, compelling the audience with his passion and soul. Michael Sparks has the capricious power of a true Caesar, imposing and confident up until the point where he falls to arguments to go to the forum and his ultimate fate. Karen Vickery as Casca is clear, determined and wily as she switches sides in an instant, confidently serving whoever suits her best. Amy Kowalczuck as both Brutus and Caesar's wives gives emotional support in attempts to steer both men away from their predetermined fate and gets an all-too-rare opportunity to unleash her powerful singing voice in the second act. Joshua James gets a double as both the servile Lucius and the arrogant Octavius, and there's strong support from Paris Scharkie as Decius and Sophia Mellink as Cimber. 

Baker's set design is a simple catwalk that uses both ends strongly, bringing different areas into focus under Lachlan Houen's sensative lighting. Paris Sharkie's composition gives the show a strong musical backbone, keeping the tension moving. 

In short this is a powerful production of a classic - leaving the audience shaken as the price of rebellion without thought to what comes after is laid bare - as those who have no thought beyond the initial threat find themselves steamrolled by the circumstances they have created. 

Big Name, No Blankets, ILBIJERRI Theatre company and Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra Theatre, 10-12 July (and subsequently touring to Desert Festival Araluen and Papanuya)

 

(note - photo from the 2024 Sydney Festival season - some cast changes since this run)

A biomusical about the history of the Warumpi band from the point of view of one of its members, using the inside perspective of several key family members, "Big Name No Blankets" is part rock-tribute-concert, part narrative, combining warmth, politics and pure rock power. The simple set design (an area on the left of the stage representing the Papunya land that the Butcher brothers remain connected with) and a central rock band setup with grand lighting and a projection screen at the back to take us anywhere and everywhere, using the band cases as setpieces for various scenes for the character's travels gives us something simulatenously epic- filling the stage of the Canberra Theatre - and intimate for personal connection moments in the plot. Baykali Ganambarr as narrator Sammy Tjapanangka Butcher gives genial warmth to the story, telling of how the band came together and how personal drives ended it, leading through the triumphs and the personal tragedies with an ingratiating charm. 

As lead singer George Rrurrambu Burarrwanga, Taj Pilgrim has the moves, the attitude and the voice to be a compelling frontman - from his first song to the ending he's got every rock credential you need, bringing the audience to their feet in foot-stomping, communal joy as he slides across the stage in moves that are part Hutchence, part Jagger and part traditional aboriginal dance. It's a triumph of a performance and absolutely sells the Warumpi's material with power and conviction. The cast alternate between acting and band, and are a truly rocking ensemble, playing it loud and powerful. 

With the show co-directed and, at this performance, introduced by Sammy's daughter Anyupa Butcher, and with two of his sons in the backing band, plus Sammy in as story and cultural consultant, this does feel very much like a family affair, very personal and heartfelt. And the combo of family intimacy and the power of fine epic rock music really plays well together - feeling both home-made and polished and skilful. It's a great true story that will delight anybody interested in one of the foundational music acts in Australian history. 

The Pirates of Penzance, Queanbeayn Players, The Q, 3 Jul-13 Jul

 

After a very trimmed down touring verison earlier in the year from the Hayes, it's good to have a full-cast chonky orchestra version of this Gilbert and Sullivan warhorse - though this is the Essgee version created with new orchestrations by Kevin Hocking, adaptation by Simon Gallaher and with additional lyrics by Melvyn Morrow, so the purple pants jokes are indeed back in abundance. As suits a company having a 60th anniversery, it's a frothy fun party of a show with joy bouncing across the footlights into the audience -while the Essgee version is a 30 year old revision of a 145 year old original, the only place where the age is felt is in Gilbert's victorian era freak-outs over older women having a sexuality (which is always moderated by Sullivan writing really great stuff for them to sing - one of the reasons G&S holds up to all ages is that Gilbert is fundamentally a cynic and Sullivan a sentamentalist - the two tones appeal to the different moods of the audience and somehow manage to unite gloriously harmonically in the best of their shows). 

In this production, the emphasis is on as much romping as possible, and on having as large a cast as can fit onto the Q's stage (plus orchestra) to deliver the music and some great stomping choreography. Led by Adam Best in full physical-comedy mode as a Pirate King who keeps chopping himself with his own sword and does dramatic lunges and big line readings in the grand manner, he's a delight to watch. David 'Dogbox' Cannell as the Major General is similarly fun as the finicky, goofy father of way-too-many-daughters, with all kinds of sideways nonsense thrown into the role, occasionally channelling Stephen Fry as General Melchett when in bellowing mode but also able to find some quieter moments to draw the audience in. Lachlan Eldterton as dim-but-nice hero Frederic is thoroughly charming with a smooth, gentle tenor, expressing the character's innocence in a way that is lovely to see. Louise Gaspari throws herself into the role of Ruth with enthusiasm, particularly enjoying a chance to wave a cutlass in act two. Demi Smith is a perfectly lovely soprano as Mabel, particularly when singing a squad of policemen to hopefully die in glory, despite them not really wanting to. The trio of daughters played by Emma White, Tina Robinson and Lillee Keating do some delightful scene stealing on the margins, popping up to surprise in all kindsa spots. Wally Allington as pirate assistant Samuel gives good swashbuckle, and Joe Moores as the Police Sergeant is sweetly adorable as the slightly soppy goofball. 

There's strong chorus work and musical direction under the firm hand of Jenna Hinton (who also gets to banter with the cast occasionally), and Jodi Hammond gets the cast moving in all kinds of spectacular ways. Alison Newhouse pulls the whole production together so it never quite spins off its axis to become pure nonsense - the occasional sincere emotional moment is given its due and respected. 

As a celebration of 60 years of Queanbeyan Players I can't think of a better way to launch into the next 60 years - yes, it's a look backwards at one of the classics, but it's a classic that works for a reason, and it's a show that will have people pouring into the Q and pouring back out with big smiles on their faces. 

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Free Rain, ACT Hub, 25 June-5 July

 Martin McDonagh kicked off his writing career in 1996 with this sharp black comedy about a mother and daughter in a relationship that veers between caregiving and mutual hatred, and the two brothers who's lives intersect with theirs, before going on to a career that's seen him write and direct cult film "In Bruges" and two Oscar-contendors, "Three Billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri" and "The Banshees of Inersheerin". This initial play, though, is a tight classic of the form, with the mutual destruction of the two women at the centre, the possibility of romance cruelly denied, and the rural frustration that drives the population of a small Irish village. 

Cate Clelland directs an intimate production in a corner of the Hub stage, with the audience right on top to hear the bitter barbs and feel the spaces between the characters. Janie Lawson and Alice Ferguson anchor the play as the longing, tired daughter and the bitter, needy mother, more alike than they'd like to think in their mutual battle. Bruce Hardie as possible suitor Pato Dooley has a charming romanticism and delivers the largely expositional act-two-opening letter with gentle care, giving a sense of his own aging frustration and gentlemanly forbearance. And Robbie Haltiner is deliciously irritating as the gossipy Ray Dooley,so caught up in his own petty issues that he never realises what he's doing to the people around him. 

Clelland has designed a solidly realistic set, a tight cage for the cast to push up against one another in, slightly faded and tired like the characters. 

This is a strong solid production of a modern classic  - at almost 30 years old, it's a play that speaks to the gap between family and kinship, and to the destructive nature of need. 

A Doll's House Part 2, Canberra Rep, 12-28 Jun

 

Taking the question of what happens 15 years after Nora walked out the door in the original, and looking at what the costs of personal liberation might be, "Doll's House Part 2" brings us a tightly contained drama of lost connections, possibilities and emotional truth. Lucas Hnath's script brings the language up to the moment (with some significant swearing) but keeps the dilemmas timeless. Joel Horwood's produciton uses the width and height of Rep's stage for a grandly imposing room, minimally furnished but with stark lights and angles introducing shadows and isolated spaces for the four characters to meet, argue and sometimes find a moment of connection. It's an impressive production visually as well as dramatically, on Tom Berger's grand set under Lachlan Houen's equally spectacular lighting, but the emotional side isn't lost in this stark, simple space. It's a show that doesn't require an in-depth knoweldge of Ibsen, though there are some links back to the original, and indeed connections to a couple of other Ibsen works which pay back the informed, but the central situation and stakes are set up easily for those coming in just for this story. 

Lainie Hart owns the stage as Nora - bringing the excitement of her adventures in the world outside and her slow-dawning realisation of what her choices have cost those left behind, and her realisation of how some of the history she left behind may be about to recur. It's intelligent, emotional, compassionate yet powerful. Joining her are Elaine Noon as the compassionate-but-concerned Anne-Marie, Anna Lorenz as the determined-to-be-distant Emmy and Rhys Robinson as the somewhat-shattered-but-still-in-motion Torvald - all strong characters determined to not be steamrollered by Nora again. 

This is an immaculate production - impeccably accurate, with a strong, simple design sense and powerful performances. 

The Queen's Nanny, Ensemble Theatre, The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, 19-21 June (and subsequently Wyong, Cessnock, Springwood, Port Mcquarie, Gouburn, Griffith, Wagga Wagga and Dubbo)

 

(photo from 2024 season, not the 2025 tour)

A fast moving true story, covering almost 60 years over 90 minutes of stage time, staged with a cast of 3 using two large chairs, a couple of model houses, a carpet bag and a train, "The Queen's Nanny" looks at the career and after-effects of Marion Kirk Crawford, who was the titular nanny to Queen Elisabeth the 2nd from 1931 until 1947 - how during her time she became somewhat more of a mother to Lillibet than her actual mother, and how afterwards she was virtually excommunicated by the royals after a puff-piece interview became a bestselling book. In Priscilla Jackman's production it's a tight, compelling story of a woman fighting to own her own story against forces bigger than her, and an emotional tale of duty and inheritances. Melanie Tait mentions in her writers note she comes from a republican angle (which is apparent in the last five mintues of the material) but she's still interested in the humanity that lives inside an institution and how it treats those involved in it. 

The three cast members (two new to this tour) are all solid. Matthew Backer is the one who's come back for the tour, and he's got the tour-de-force role of narrator and odd-role-man, engaging the audience as easily as any long-term Play School presenter should do and switching between hard-bitten journalists, the child and subsequent woman Lillibet, the stuttering awkward Bertie and the aloof footman Ainslie. Briallen Clarke as Marion is engaging with all the firm compasison of a true scotswoman, letting us see the years working their way on her. And Sharon Millerchip delights in the role of Queen Mother Elizabeth, from flighty party girl to stalwart of the blitz to warrior for her own position in the family. 

Michael Hankin's set design is stunning in its simplicity, using simple rearrangemetns of elements for most of the scenes. Genevive Graham's costumes have style and power, locking in who is who easily for the audience to take in. Morgan Maroney's lighting design does a lot of the work of set in the colours of the backcloth, and James Peter Brown's sound design takes us from salon to wartime easily. 

This is a subject and production that should feel like cosy, polite theatre, but instead it's alive and thought provoking, letting us inside the corridors of power and never taking the gentle comfortable path with it. It's the kind of thing that should tour well and capture eyeballs in all kinds of locations.

Eureka Day, Outhouse Theatre Company, Seymour Centre, Reginald Theatre, 29 May-21 Jun

 

"Eureka Day" is a comedy set in a private, somewhat liberal Californian school during the 2018-19 school year - when the school is disrupted by a case of the mumps which precipitates a debate about immunization that nobody is ready for and which rips the school apart. It's a wild look at modern liberalism in crisis - the language that emphasises mutual respect and the way that mutual respect is abused by people who cannot brook any compromises at all - and how civil debate breaks down into emotional pleading and gratuitous insult. 

Jonathan Spector's script is sharp and fast and twisted, starting out as a light parody of committeespeak and the way sensitivity feels gratuitously squeezed like cheese sauce on top of discussions, before exploding into rage, hidden agendas and power plays as intense as any more obviously political drama. The highlight is, perhaps, a zoom-meeting sequence that dissolves as the comments section pops up with each comment taking everyone further into an unresolvable argument, though in some ways this does constitute the greatest challenge in Craig Baldwin's production - the comments upstage a lot of what the actors on stage are doing during this sequence and it's difficult for them to regain focus during this sequence. It's something that is intrinsic to the script and I'm not sure if it is actually something where you can stop the onstage actors from being upstaged in this sequence - here, certainly, the battle is lost. 

Elsewhere, the cast are strong - Jamie Oxenbould as the school's principal, Don, proves to have a bit more political ability hiding under his sweet surface, Branden Christine as new arrival Carina is a great entry-point character with a steely strength emerging, Christian Charisiou as the somewhat smug Eli gets a few surprising comeupances, Deborah An as May goes throguh some emotional turmoil and as the utterly sure-of-herself Suzanne, Katrina Retallick utterly epitomises a certain type of person with a smiling assassin approach. 

This is a clever look at modern cultural norms and the ways they can break up the most determinedly-touchy-feely communities - while it isn't quite the villain-free-zone it pretends to be, it's still a good reflection on how we live now. 

The Spare Room, Belvoir St Theatre, 7 June-13 Jul

 Mortality comes to us all, but the way we choose to face it can vary and the way it affects those around us is also tricky territory to navigate. But in the hands of Helen Garner, Judy Davis, Eamon Flack, Elizabeth Alexander and the rest of the Belvoir team, it becomes an illuminating, often hilarious, frustrating, emotional and powerful night in the theatre. The setup is simple - a woman invites a friend into her home to stay for three weeks while the friend gets treatment for cancer, but it quickly becomes apparent the treatment is alternative at best and fraudulent at worst, and the clear acceptance of this stuff by the friend drives the host into distraction. 

Eamon Flack adapts Helen Garner's book with a clear centering of the narrator, Helen, played to perfection by Judy Davis - we get instant access to her emotions, her frustrations, her attempts to restrain herself from interfering in a friend's personal choices and the moments when the dam breaks and she lets loose with rage, managing to work through much of this while doing the challenging work of replacing fitted sheets repeatedly. Elizabeth Alexander as Nicola, the friend, has the right level of sunny innocence to her - you know exactly why Helen has remained her friend and why she tries so hard to hold back from hurting her friend as long as she does, but you also see the pain and frustration at her condition that drives the desperation to find other options - she's not just a suffering object in the corner or a fool who's easy to dismiss, she's a real and rounded character. 

The remaining supporting cast play multiple roles, of healers, friends, community members, allies and a few surprise elements - Emma Diaz, Alan Dukes, and Hannah Waterman all do a fine job of establishing rounded figures in a couple of lines and a moment of response to the main two in a set of fine cameos. 

Mel Page's set and costumes mix the domestic and the professional, using all the spaces available on the stage to tell a story that traipses all over Melbourne. The presence of cellist Anthea Cottee providing live soundtrack gives the show a soulful vibe and adds to the intensity in some of the more emotive moments.  

As someone who's got a friend currently undergoing cancer treatment, I found this enlightening, emotional but not overly indulgently so, and thoughtful about the bigger questions of facing the end. And between Davis and Alexander there's expert actresses embodying the story. 

Present Laughter, ACT Hub, 4-14 June

 Noel Coward's 1942 comedy is a self-portrait, or at least a portrait of the self that Coward wanted to present to the public - a celebrity at the centre of his universe, looked after by his colleagues and staff but somehow caught in hetrosexual romantic entanglements and crises of his own ego. Recent revivals have allowed elements of Coward's own homosexuality to enter the picture (both this version and the Old Vic production filmed for NT Live with Andrew Scott) in different cross-gender castings in key roles, but the story largely remains the same - of an egomaniac under siege. It's a show that needs a gentleman of a certain age to play the Coward-substitute, meaning that of the big 4 Coward Plays ("Hay Fever", "Private Lives", "Blithe Spirit" and this), it's the least revived - quality leading men are a rare supply.

Fortunately, the ACT Hub has Jarrad West, in fine form as Garry Essendine, the centre of this play's universe. Petulant, self-important, hectoring, lustful and frequently getting as good as he gives, West gets to use several of his considerable talents in giving us a rounded picture of a celebrity at home - from the sarcastic bon-mots cast at his colleagues to the sufferings when people intrude on him and make him the target of their own agendas. It's a consummate star performance and completely owns the stage. 

Fortunately, he's supported by a cast just as strong - Callum Doherty has never been as beautiful as he is as the flirtatiously dopey David Skillington, calculating yet vulnerable. Jenna Roberts steals scenes openly as the grim Swedish housekeeper Miss Erikson, mordantly enjoying herself with her tales of suburban spiritualism and cadging a few cigarettes into the bargain. Leonidas Katsanis as the valet Fred brings a practical, direct manner to the character, rising above the madness. Tracy Noble as secretary Monica gives us the effort to wrangle her erring employer towards some level of engagement with things he needs to actually be doing, along with a genuine affection towards him. Crystal Mahon as Garry's not-quite-ex-wife Liz gives charm and slightly scolding affection in a way that indicates why they're not quite-exes-yet. Michael Cooper as the bumptious Roland Maule is a strong, startling presence as the self-confident steamroller of a fan who starts by insulting before switching to equally threatening worship. Amy Kowalczuk has grand efficiency as gender-swapped Henrietta. Joe Dinn is all emotional crisis as Morris, and Karina Hudson is effortlessly seductive as Joanna. 

Karen Vickery directs with a slightly loose hand (in particular the melencholic tag of the play feels like it goes on a little too long) but when the play is at full farcial energy, it is delightfully over the top and fun. Fiona Leach nad Jennie Norberry's costumes are beautifully chosen, and Karen Vickery and Michael Spark's set gives glamour and luxury to the ACT Hub space. 

This is a delight, with a strong company giving support to a definitive, undiluted Jarrad West Stunner of a performance. It's stylish, charming and utter fun. Catch it quick. 

If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You, Everyman Theatre, ACT Hub, 14-24 May

 

(photo by Ben Appleton, Photox Photography) 

John O'Donavan's play looks at two young men in modern Ireland, a country emerging from a long history of conservative Catholic dogma into a more modern and accepting world - both have recently robbed a group of service stations and the parents of one of them and are hiding on the roof of a house near their home, wating for the heat to die down. But the main thing they have to deal with is their mutual attraction and what they're going to do with it - with Mikey being out and Casey not, they find themselves talking around the topic and finding rationalisations for not taking things any further. The big bag of cocaine that was hiding in Casey's mum's boyfriend's toilet is an incentive to push them into being more honest about where things stand, and to make decisions that will affect both of them. 

Joel Horwood directs this with a sensitive ear for the moments between the pair - keeping them moving on a realistic isolated island of a roof (designed by Horwood and Isaac Reilly), in their distinctive casual wear (costumes by Winsome Ogilvie). Robert Kjellgren as Mikey has the broader role, confronting how being out in high school has hardened him and made it more difficult for him to deal with the opening up of the world around him - while Joshua James as Casey is more ruled by fear and doubt and coping mechanisms in a more tightly controlled performance. There's a great give and take between the pair as they open up in between moments of fear and doubt, and like the best of Irish drama there's a great joy in the use of language as the character's phrasing feels precise and true. 

Lachlan Houen's lighting adds to the mood, as various risks arise below, with low-angled lighting pointing up at the young men, and Neille Pye's sound design adds street effects to take us to the small-town Friday night feeling. 

This is a compelling tight 90 minutes of drama that captures an emotional journey between two men with heart and soul - a mix of crime, romance and coming-of-age.