It’s time again for canberra’s 4th most popular local awards ceremony (unless there’s another theatre awards that has come along to pip me at the most in the last year that I haven’t’ noticed yet). It’s been a big year in theatre (I’ve reviewed more than ever before and there’s stuff I saw in previews or otherwise in a non-reviewing capacity that I also saw) and there’s been a lot of excellent work, but the amount of awards I can give out is limited only by when I get exhausted about typing about things. If you wanna know why I didn’t give an award to a particular favourite of yours, it might be between the lines in the relevant review, or it might not, I may have thought something else was better.
First of all it was a big year for solo performances. Between local line ups of “Queers” and “Bombshells” letting performers take our attention completely for an extended period, the individual achievement of “Every Brilliant Thing”, the touring likes of “After Rebecca”, “RBG”, “Highway of Lost Hearts”, “Julia” and “A Balloon Will Pop” ,or interstate the standups Ed Byrne and Zoe Coombs Marr telling personal stories in “Tragedy Plus Time” (Byrne) and “Every Single Thing in My Entire Life” (Marr), or Belvoir’s enthralling “Nayika: A Dancing Girl”, we were given complete access to single performers using the oldest of storytelling traditions in new and surprising ways. All performers had gripping stories to tell, whether drawn from themselves or elsewhere, and brought the audience in
It was also a big year for Queanbeyan Players, who produced three shows with great theatrical energy – a skilful “Next To Normal” at the beginning of the year, intimate, heartfelt and strongly sung and acted, a rockingly powerful “American Idiot” which gave Green Day’s album-and-a bit that makes up the show compelling life, choreography and sheer vocal impressiveness, and a thoroughly delightful “Nice Work If you Can Get It” which took an old-fashioned musical and delivered it to perfection with grand Busby Berkley epic choreography, intimate duos for a perfect leading-man-and-leading-lady as they fell for each other despite the complications of a ludicrous set of plot devices, some pitch-perfect singing, goofy comedy and a blithely perfect meringue of a show – it’s nothing but sugar and froth but it’s so perfectly made you don’t mind at all.
Interstate, there were a couple of strong plays – Griffin’s exit from the Stables with “The Lewis Trilogy” brought three different-but-connected plays to life in a marathon production that gave an afternoon-and-evening that compelled and gave a strong company some intriguing through lines between three very different shows. The middle production of “Cosi”, in particular, did that thing so rarely done with a classic where a familiar show was illuminated anew, tightened and played with life and energy.
Otherwise I was a big fan of Belvoir’s imported production of Queensland Theatre’s “Tiny Beautiful Thing”, featuring a perfect Mandy McElhinney as an advice columnist and compassionate individual struggling with her own issues and the ways her correspondents provoke thought about those issues, and Sydney Theatre Company’s spectacular production of “Into The Shimmering World” which told a familiar story of rural rot with style, compassion and heartbreak – particularly in the relationship between Colin Friels and Kerry Armstrong, told in small gestures and silences in between that spoke volumes as circumstances accumulated.
“Groundhog Day” was a great production of a strong contemporary musical – capturing the essence of the film while going deeper into the emotional truth of the story while also providing spectacle, comedy and delight. It’s a pity this was a limited season in a single venue rather than a long run and national tour, but the fact it existed at all was enough to make it well worth the trip to Melbourne.
Locally touring I was a big fan of “Trophy Boys”, a great modern play given a vigorous production – it felt energetic, relevant, hilarious, heartfelt, angry and powerful in all the right ways – it was a delight to catch this on its way round the country and to see a strong independent production on its way onwards and upwards.
I was also pleased to catch all of ACT Hub’s Hub-a-Thon, an epic attempt to do seven plays over 12 hours in staged readings – while it bit off slightly more than it could chew (with an attempt at Ideal Husband that ran out of time), it was still great to get exposed to a bunch of shows I otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to see (two of which are coming back in the Hub’s 2025 season, hopefully with at least some of the cast intact), and to see performers stretch way outside their comfort zone in roles that showed they could definitely bring the theatrical thunder.
“The Inheritance” had an unfair advantage going into it that I already loved the script and I have an obvious taste for theatrical epics that demand a larger-than-usual amount of my time and give me a chance to delve in deep. But Everyman’s production went above and beyond, deepening the characters, making visual what could be a script that is a wall of exposition, and breaking audience’s hearts even as it enthralled us. It was a powerful pair of shows and I have no higher praise than that it’s the only show this year I sat through all of twice and loved both times seeing the magic unfurl.
“Sauce” was a great wrap-up to the year, using nothing but two performers and a stage and capturing an inner-and-outer world of passions, desires, betrayals, addictions and connections. Funny and soulful, with non-stop energy, I unashamedly loved the hell out of it.
I’m looking forward to a similarly busy 2025 and to being surprised, amused and delighted by theatre of all types. Long may it conquer.
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