The 2025 "Well I Liked It" awards

 Tis the time of year when I give out Canberra's 4th most relevant theatre awards, the WILIs. It's a long-standing tradition, surprisingly robust, and a standout in its field due to being completely guided by one guy's whimsy. And let's face it, it's more fun to just read the results rather than have to go to some awards ceremony where you have to look at all your competitors when you'd much rather be watching or making theatre.

"Garry Starr: Classic Penguins" was probably pre-ordained to win a WILI - not only did I pretty much mention how much I was looking forward to it when I gave a WILI to his last two shows in 2023, it also won most Outstanding show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Still, it largely seems to have passed a lot of locals un-noticed (probably due to performing in Queanbeyan at the same time as a local Awards Ceremony) but if you picked going to anything else over seeing this, you missed out. Hugely. Yes, I was a little worried going in that Starr's schtick of audience participation, goofy jokes about elevated topics and extreme physical ridiculousness maybe wasn't worth a third hour of stagetime, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong, and I'm very glad to be so. 

Joel Horwood directed a one-two punch of shows I really liked - "The Moors" at the Mill was a tense, surreal, ridiculously charming act of faux-Bronte sisters with hidden passions and natural and unnatural desires all over the place, with standout performances from Steph Roberts, Andrea Close among the cast. "Sweet Charity" at the Q is a musical which I admit I went into expecting good songs and a messy script from previous encounters, but with a lead performance like Amy Orman and a clever, abstract-but-personable staging, it became a warm, funny, stylish delight. Horwood's departure is Canberra's loss but hopefully the theatre world's gain as they explore pastures new.

Fortunately, Canberra still has Jarrad West, this year showing off his talents both as performer and director - anchoring the Hub's "Present Laughter" with a performance that allowed him to play circus ringmaster to a supporting cast that lifted to his level, then directing and appearing in scene-stealing delightfulness in "Musical of musicals The Musical" and directing a remounting of "Hand To God" that had the same level of delight as the original. I would never want to take West for granted, and hopefully 2026 gives us more opportunities to not do that.

A great interstate production was "Posh" at the Old Fitz - an intimate, brutal production of a play with a strong cast of 10 men looking at the English Class system at its absolute worst. Margaret Thanos directed with a firm hand - I didn't get a chance to see the other show that created a sensation in Sydney, her version of "Timon of Athens", retitled "I hate People" but on the basis of this I'm looking forward to seeing both her big Belvoir and STC directing debuts next year with "A Mirror" at Belvoir and "The River" at STC. 

A couple of bonus mentions - I had a great time with four different musicals - the Warumpi Band tribute musical "Bit Name No Blankets", the Hayes' "Phar-Lap the Electro-Swing Musical", the melbourne production of "Beetlejuice" and the MTC's "Kimberly Akimbo", which delivered up various chunks of music, heart and ridiculousness with a certain amoutn of epicness. It was great to have solo excellence from Christopher Samuel Caroll in "The Cadaver Palaver" giving adventure and a solo performance of power and charm. 

Hand To God, Everyman Theatre, ACT Hub, 10-20 December

 

Photo: Janelle McMenamin and Michael Moore

Three years after the previous production and the different Old Fitz production, Tyrone the puppet and his victim/handler Jason are back for an exploration of trauma, religion, lust and felt in a play with something to offend pretty much anyone. With either 4/5 or 4/6s (depending on whether you count Tyrone and Jason as separate people) of the cast all new, it's a refreshed production where the desperation and trauma are close to the surface in ways that push the comedy further. Michael Cooper's performance is still just as grounding between the shy, retiring Jason and the confident, agressive Tyrone (and just as committed in ways that I hope aren't permanently physically damaging), and it's joined by Amy Kowalczuk embracing the chance to let all her crazy hang out as his mother, Meaghan Stewart being grounded, warm and, when required, just as deeply nuts as his friend Jessica, William "Wally" Allington showing the blossoming of teen rebel Timmy as he gets all kinds of wrong attention, and Lachlan Ruffy being all the right kinds of deeply wrong as the not-very-successsfully-hiding-his-attentions Pastor Greg. 

Jarrad West restages the work with his usual precision, care and willingness to let any joke no matter how obscure hit the target. Nathan Sciberras' lighting design lets the moods shift as the show tips deeper into insanity and Nikki Fitzgerald's sound design gets us in the mood of a small-town puppet ministry and lets the demons flow out when they get loose. Special congrats to Lucy van Dooren and her crew for setting and resetting a chaotic set nightly. It's a hysterical evening in the hub and absolutely worth the visit. 

Bob Downe - 40 Ridiculous Years, Hot TKT, The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, 7 December

A performer 40 years into their career usually has some reliably solid schtick and a  way to keep that entertaining the market. Certainly Bob Downe, he of the supreme dagginess in song, dance, hairstyle and dress-sense, has a timeless way of attacking multiple retro hits, this time largely from the year of his "birth" (1985ish), with various talks about his way of engaging in the wider world, whether it be through young people, apps, or through acquiring a younger sidekick to emulate his unique singing and dancing styles. It's a fun 80 minutes down memory lane with Bob - who's slightly evolved these days, partially due to the guy behind Bob, Mark Trevorrow, having a very active career as himself, presenting publicly at Mardi Gras and on varous ABC projects, the gags about Bob being not-very-successfully-closeted have largely disappeared into the background (though there is a video appearance by his long-term fiance, Coralee Hollow (Gina Riley)). There's choreography, there's his trademark teeth-forward, crazy-eyed vowels-only-song stylings, and there's a fabulous costume change for the encore, plus a plug for the merch-stand during the show. What more could you possibly want?