Gone Girls, REVIEW July 28, 2022 ***

THEATRE

Written by Patrick Livesey & Annabel Larcombe

Gasworks Arts Park, until August 6, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: *** (3)

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Sunday 31 July and in print on Monday Aug 1 2022. Click this link Gone Girls

Gone Girls-Patrick Livesey, Annabel Larcombe- Image by Jacinta Oaten

Gone Girls is a political satire about the successes, failures and rivalry of Julia Gillard (Patrick Livesey) and Julie Bishop (Annabel Larcombe), two high-achieving, Australian female politicians and, in a fortuitous confluence of events, it opens as the new federal parliament boasts a record number of women representatives.

 

Gillard and Bishop’s political careers burned brightly for a time then flamed out; Gillard occupied shadow and government ministries and enjoyed a short-lived period as Labor Prime Minister, while Bishop served in Coalition ministries and as Lib Deputy Leader but failed in her bid for the Prime Ministership.

Unsolicited Male REVIEW July 26 2022 ***1/2

THEATRE

Written by Ron Elisha

Produced by Q44 Theatre

At Chapel off Chapel, until August 7, 2022

Stars; ***1/2

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Thur July 28, 2022 and in print on (TBC) Fri July 29, 2022. KH

Russell Fletcher & Kym Valentine- image Jodie Hutchinson

Sexual relationships in the workplace are a potential minefield in the post #MeToo era and Australian playwright Ron Elisha’s 2018 play, Unsolicited Male, dissects gender and power politics and issues of consent by taking a deep dive into a single, messy incident between a male boss and his female employee.

 

Boss Zeke (Russell Fletcher) is confident in his business role, but feels awkward, weak and unattractive to women in his personal life, while his employee Wendy (Kym Valentine) knows that her power is limited in the workplace but is very aware of her attractiveness to men.

Paradise Lost REVIEW Darebin Speakeasy, July 21, 2022 ***1/2

THEATRE

Created by Bloomshed 

At Northcote Town Hall Art Centre until July 30, 2022 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***1/2 

This review was first published in The Age Arts in print and online on Monday July 25 2022. Click this link to read at The Age online: Paradise Lost KH

Paradise Lost_James Malcher & Elizabeth Brennan-photo Sarah Walker

Bloomshed’s bastardised and bonkers reimagining of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost is a literary, political and religious satire with a fair dose of blasphemy.

 

There is much to recommend in this production, not least of which are the remarkable, floral set design (Nathan Burmeister) and the inspired and hilarious opening that features lighting trickery (John Collopy) and a cast of tiny cherubs. Milton is satirised mercilessly – described dismissively as “a blind, 17th century Protestant poet” – and his celebrated work is stripped down to its narrative essence in this contemporary interpretation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Cheer Up Carl, REVIEW La Mama July 20, 2022 ***

THEATRE

By Louis Dickins

At La Mama Courthouse until July 24, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Friday July 22, 2022 but not in print. Click this link and scroll to the third review.  Cheer Up Carl

Cheer_Up_Carl_ Simon Chandler, Maddie Roberts, Gabriel Egan-Pic Darren_Gill

Think of the most self-absorbed, free-loading, angry, miserable git you have ever known, and you have an image of Carl (Gabriel Egan), the central character in Louis Dickins’ short, comic play Cheer up Carl.

 

Carl is a relentless visitor to the home of his obliging, considerate brother Peter (Simon Chandler) and Peter’s less tolerant wife Sonia (Maddie Roberts) who he regales with tales of woe about his dog Grover’s death, his drug-trafficking girlfriend’s deportation and his summary dismissal from his role on Neighbours after he attacked the director. Carl now writes bleak, self-indulgent poetry that is totally ignored by everyone except his admiring brother Peter.

The Comedy of Errors REVIEW July 15, 2022 ***

THEATRE

Written by William Shakespeare

By Bell Shakespeare

At Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne until July 23, 2002

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Sunday July 17, 2022 and in print on Monday July 18, 2022. Click this link Comedy of Errors to The Age and scroll down to the second review after 9 to 5.

Felix Jozeps (facing front) with cast- image Brett Boardman

Shakespearean comedy collides with hedonistic, 70s disco culture, and classic TV series, Fantasy Island, in Bell Shakespeare’s lively and colourful production of The Comedy of Errors.

 

The tangled, farcical narrative involves two pairs of identical twins, separated in infancy by a shipwreck, who are mistaken for each other with madcap results. When Antipholus of Syracuse (Skyler Ellis) arrives in Ephesus with his servant, Dromio of Syracuse (Julia Billington), their lives intersect with those of Antipholus of Ephesus (Felix Jozeps) and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus (Ella Prince), leading to dizzying complications, love mismatches, imprisonments and general confusion.

9 to 5 The Musical REVIEW July 14 2022 ****

MUSIC THEATRE 

Music and Lyrics  Dolly Parton; Book by Patricia Resnick 

At State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne until September 18, 2022 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ****

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Sunday July 17, 2022, and in print on Monday July 18, 2022. Click this link 9 to 5 the Musical.

9 to 5 -Casey Donovan, Marina Prior, Erin Clare & Ensemble- image David Hooley

 

9 to 5 The Musical is much like its creator, Dolly Parton: perky, colourful, amiable, singable and fully renovated – and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s almost enough to make you want to visit Dollywood! Almost.

 

The inimitable Parton is front and centre in the new, updated version of this eminently consumable and frothy production directed by Jeff Calhoun who realised that audiences wanted to see and hear Parton in person – well, pre-recorded, at least. Her beaming smile and broad southern accent feature on the enormous clockface above the stage, from where she provides background to characters and even sings along to 9 to 5 in the finale.

 

This feel-good show is a workplace revenge comedy with music and lyrics by Parton and book by Patricia Resnick, screenwriter of the original 1980 movie starring Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.

Looking For Alibrandi REVIEW July 13 2022 ***1/2

THEATRE

Adapted by Vidya Rajan from book by Melina Marchetta

At Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse until July 31, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***1/2

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Thur 14 July and in print on Friday 15 July 2022. Click this link  Looking for Alibrandi to read the review in The Age online. K

7. Chanella Macri, Lucia Mastrantone c Jeff Busby

The 17-year-old Josie Alibrandi (Chanella Macri) is a product of Australia 30 years ago – or more. Her story, told today, feelis dated, and unrepresentative of Italo-Australians in 2022 – however, Vidya Rajan’s stage adaptation of Melina Marchetta’s youth fiction novel, Looking For Alibrandi, is buoyant and entertaining.

 

The production is book-ended by the annual ritual of tomato passata bottling which Josie calls “National Wog Day”. Be warned: only Italians, quips Josie to audience, may use the term “wog”. The play, like the novel, depicts Josie’s experiences during year 12 as a successful, scholarship student at a privileged Catholic girls’ school. Josie’s life is inextricably entwined with her single mother, Christina (Lucia Mastrantone), and her domineering Nonna (Jennifer Vuletic). Her family expands upon the arrival of her long-absent father, Michael Andretti (Ashley Lyons), a successful lawyer.

Jane Eyre REVIEW July 7 2022 **1/2

THEATRE
Adapted by Christine Davey from the novel by Charlotte Brontë

By Skin of our Teeth Productions

At La Mama Courthouse until July 17, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: **1/2

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Sunday July 10, then in print on Monday July 11 2022. Click link to read my review of Jane Eyre online at The Age Arts. k

Tess Parker as Jane Eyre at La Mama Courthouse. Credit:Darren Gill

Adapting a novel to stage – even a great, dramatic novel – isn’t a guarantee of great drama.

 

Difficulties can rear their heads: for example when the script, trying to stay “true” to the text, unimaginatively transposes chunks of the original prose on stage as dialogue and narration. Another danger is trying to cram too many episodes and narrative threads into the play.

 

Christine Davey’s adaptation of Charlotte Brontë‘s classic novel Jane Eyre for the Skin of our Teeth company sees Jane Eyre (Tess Parker) narrate the 130-minute production, delivering extracts of Brontë’s prose directly to audience, even addressing us as “dear reader”.

The Amateurs REVIEW Red Stitch, July 3 2022 ****

 THEATRE

The Amateurs by Jordan Harrison ★★★★ (4) 

At Red Stitch, until July 24, 2022 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

 

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Monday July 4 and in print on Tuesday July 5 2022.

Click this link The Amateurs and scroll down to the second review. 

Darcy Kent, Emily Goddard in The Amateurs.Credit:Jodie Hutchinson

The Amateurs portrays a troupe of pageant players travelling Europe seeking to outrun the Black Death. But this tragic-comedy sees playwright Jordan Harrison paint multiple layers that echo our recent global pandemic and also the AIDS epidemic and its dreadful toll.

Harrison’s play-within-a-play, deftly and sensitively directed by Susie Dee, seems on the surface to be a cleverly wrought, often hilarious depiction of a motley group of medieval players who hope to impress a duke with their morality play, Noah’s Flood, so that he will take them under his protection thus saving them from certain death by plague.

Passing Strange, MUSICAL REVIEW, June 30, 2022–The Age ***

MUSIC THEATRE

Meat Market Stables, North Melbourne, until July 10, 2022

Stars: *** (3)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Sunday July 3, and then in print on Mon July 4, 2022. 

Read the review in The Age online here: Passing Strange

Grant Young, Gabriela Van Wyk, Tier Ataing, Zahrah Andrews-pic, Angel Leggas

Passing Strange is a peculiar hybrid of rock musical, theatre, rock gig and narrated story that breaches theatrical conventions, even being dubbed an “anti-musical”. Let’s call it a narrated rock musical journey about a middle-class African-American, known simply as Youth (Grant Young), on a quest to find his purpose, art, freedom and identity.

With book and lyrics by US singer-songwiter, Stew, and music by Stew with Heidi Rodewald, multi-award-winning Passing Strange is a partially fictionalised version of Stew’s youth. The Narrator (Augustin Tchantcho) is older Stew commenting with hindsight on his youthful mistakes.

Here We Are Amongst You, Rawcus, REVIEW, 29 June 2022, The Age ***1/2

Devised and performed by Rawcus Ensemble

At Arts House, Queensberry St North Melbourne, until July 10, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

 Stars:  ***1/2

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on Thur 30 June 2022 and then in print on (date TBC- Fri July 1?). 

Read the review in The Age online here: Here We Are Amongst You

Prue Stevenson with Rawcus Ensemble in Here We Are Amongst You. Credit:Sarah Walker

“For the next hour, you don’t have to do anything. We’ve got it.” This gentle introduction to Here We Are Amongst You, Kate Sulan’s final work with Rawcus, sets the audience at ease. There is a palpable sense of release and an audible sigh from the 50 people anticipating this intimate, almost meditative performance.

The audience sits in a single row of chairs arranged in a circle around the empty, central performance space. This is non-narrative, physical performance with a difference, devised and performed by an ensemble of idiosyncratic artists “with diverse minds, bodies and imaginations”. You need to watch this work with your heart as well as your mind and eyes.

The playful, exhilarating movement ebbs and flows: running, walking, turning, passing, veering, grouping, separating, slowing and speeding up to keep flowing without colliding. We feel the whoosh of air as runners whisk past, rushing from the centre past the audience to dart around behind the chairs. When they eventually stand still behind us, we hear their heavy breathing from the exertion.

Come Rain or Come Shine, MTC, REVIEW, June 24, 2022–The Age ★★★

MUSIC THEATRE

Book by Carolyn Burns, Music by Tim Finn, Lyrics by Tim Finn & Simon Phillips

Based on the story by Kazuo Ishiguro

By Melbourne Theatre Company

MTC Southbank Theatre, until July 23

 

 This review first published in The Age Arts online on Sunday 26 June 2022, then in print on Monday 27 June 2022.  

Click the title link, Come Rain or Come Shine, to read my full review of this new, Australian musical at MTC. 

Or read review below.  KH

Angus Grant, Gillian Cosgriff, Pic Jeff Busby

 

The review:

New stage musicals are rare, and many recent offerings are based on existing source material or utilise a catalogue of well-known songs. A new, totally original and successful Australian musical is a unicorn. Come Rain or Come Shine is new and Australian, but a unicorn it is not; it is adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s short story and incorporates snatches of classic tunes – including Ray Charles’ poignant Come Rain or Come Shine – that eclipse the original songs.

This “boutique” musical, with book by Carolyn Burns, music by Tim Finn and lyrics by Finn and director, Simon Phillips, has a cast of only three, along with four musicians.

SIX, June 23, 2022, REVIEW, The Age *****

MUSICAL THEATRE

Book, Lyrics & Music by Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss

At Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, until August, 21 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***** (5)

See my review of SIX the musical  first published in The Age Arts online 24 June 2022 then in print Monday 27 June 2022. 

Or read review below. KH

 Loren Hunter,Chelsea Dawson, Phoenix Jackson Mendoza, Kala Gare, Kiana Daniele, Vidya Makan-Pic credit: James Morgan-Getty Images

SIX sets the stage ablaze with its opening, rocking song, Ex-Wives, that introduces and gives voice to the six wives of Henry VIII – then proceeds to reframe and reimagine their “her-story” through a 21st century lens of modern gender politics and pop culture.

This outstanding, dynamic production, with musical repertoire inspired by pop divas including Beyonce, Adele, Shakira, Sia and girl groups, was conceived by talented UK duo, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (book, lyrics, music), and is fiercely directed by Moss with Jamie Armitage. A tight, all-female, four-piece band, Ladies in Waiting, and evocative set (Emma Bailey) and lighting (Tim Deiling) complete the atmosphere.

YUMMY ICONIC, REVIEW, June 22, 2022 – The Age ****

DRAG CABARET

Meat Market Nth Melbourne until Sat June 25, 2022, then touring to London's West End

Stars: ****  (4)

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This review was first published in The Age Arts online on on Friday 24 June, then in print on Thursday 24 June 2022.

Click this link: Yummy Iconic.Scroll down to the third review (past SIX and Harlequinade) to read Iconic review. (Part of a collection of reviews in The Age). 

Or read review below. KH

Valerie Hex with bears in Yummy’s Iconic.Credit:Jacinta Oaten

The review:

 Iconic, a wickedly audacious, flamboyant drag and burlesque show by award-winning Australian cabaret company Yummy, tantalises with high-camp acts that satirise and celebrate pop culture, divas and icons.

An excitable audience sits on three sides of a catwalk, with the front row close enough to touch artists performing acts ranging from trapeze to striptease, magic and fan dancing, all accompanied by pulsating pop tunes.

The cast sashays onto the catwalk in a parade of eye-popping, extravagant costumes fashioned from lamé, velvet, patent leather, lycra or gossamer-thin fabrics in outrageous, backless, topless or bottomless outfits that reveal muscled bodies.

Kids' Holiday Entertainment, June-July 2022, pub. in The Age, June 21 2022

Read my very first story for the Age Arts pages on this link to The Age:

Fart jokes and death metal lullabies-Kids hol shows 

This article first published in The Age Arts online on Tues 21 June 2022 and thereafter  in print. KH

The Listies in ROFL

The article: 

Children’s holiday entertainment springs to life in a burst of colour at the start of every school holiday break, then disappears as suddenly as it emerged. 

The field of events during June-July includes theatre, dance, circus, puppetry, comedy, magic and shows based on award-winning picture books. Most events have short runs, with some popping up for only one date.

One annual source of holiday diversion is the Roola Boola Children’s Arts Festival with a diverse program of performances and arts-based workshops at Chapel off Chapel in Prahran. A highlight is The Listies’ ROFL (Rolling On the Floor Laughing) which is precisely what kids do during the show. Forget adult stand-up and treat the whole family to some “kidult” comedy in this rambunctious and ridiculous show.

The Listies comprise straight jokester Rich (Richard Higgins) and goofy, rubbery Matt (Matt Kelly), who are the hottest cult kids’ duo in and out of town. ROFL was formerly known as ROFLSHALBOWCO, an impossible to pronounce acronym for Rolling On The Floor Laughing So Hard A Little Bit Of Wee Comes Out, a line which provokes peels of naughty giggles from kids. No, they weren’t forced to change their cheeky title because wowsers complained, but for a very practical reason: “It made Google searches a nightmare”, admits Kelly. And, frankly, ROFL is easier to say.

Britney Spears: The Cabaret, Jan 18, 2012 ****1/2 Re-posted One show on 17 June 2022.

I'm re-posting this review of the show from Jan 2012. This show is doing one perfoormance on Fri 17 June, 2022. KH

By Dean Bryant

Midsumma Festival 

Chapel off Chapel, Prahran, Jan 18 to 29, 2012 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 18, 2012

Stars: ****1/2
Published in Herald Sun on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 (See review on this blog of first production, Oct 7, 2010)

Christie Whelan in Britney Spears: The Cabaret

Nearly 18 months after the 2010 premier of Britney Spears: The Cabaret, the charismatic and mischievous Christie Whelan still makes us laugh and cry at her depiction of the vacuous but troubled pop star and her demented behaviour.

Whelan, with her versatile voice and wearing a frighteningly brief, black frock that reveals her knickers more than once, lights up the stage with Brit’s own hit songs and Dean Bryant’s mercilessly satirical versions of them.

Britney’s personal life is now less controversial with her upcoming, third wedding, but her past remains absurd and chaotic.

Love’s Bitter Mystery by Steve Carey, online from 10 June 2022 ***

FILMED THEATRE

Filmed immersive theatre about James Joyce

Online from 10 June 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

 Get tics to view film online here: https://www.the-scene.net/lovesbittermystery-watch

www.bloomsdayinmelbourne.org.au

This review published only on this blog. KH

 Tobias Miller, Jacqueline Whiting, pic from video

When a planned stage production cancels because. of the pandemic, what does a canny producer do? Put it on screen, of course!

 

Love’s Bitter Mystery, Steve Carey’s play about the young James Joyce (Tobias Miller) at the beginning of his career as a writer, was planned to be an immersive live production in 2020 but the Pandemic changed that and, six days before the opening, the company decided to transform it into a film.

 

Like the stage version, the 75 minute film focuses on the period of 1903-1904, a watershed year in young Jim’s (AKA James) life and explores his relationships with the two women he loved: his mother (Rebecca Morton) and Nora Barnacle (Jacqueline Whiting) who became his muse and eventually, his wife. June 16, 1904, the date Joyce met Nora on the streets of Dublin, now marks Bloomsday, the event that celebrates Joyce’s acclaimed book, Ullysses.

Point8Six, by Tim Wotherpoon, REVIEW, 27 May 2022 (Live stream)

THEATRE-LIVE STREAM

At La Mama Theatre, live streamed on Fri 27 May 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

I reviewed this as a live stream on Fri 27 May 2022. This may explain some of my confusion about the content of the production. KH

Annabel Marshall-Roth & Lliam Amor, Point8Six image by Darren Gill

To describe Point8Six as a non-linear performance is a huge understatement!

 

It is a fragmented, absurd, non-narrative collision of ideas and styles, snatches of history, computer-speak, imagery, sound effects and quirky mutating characters.

 

The problem is that all of its elements lack any sort of linking membrane, so the piece is almost impenetrable. As one character says, I admit I didn’t follow all of that’, – and nor did I! Perhaps I missed some crucial dialogue because I was watching a live stream of the show.

Girl from the North Country, INFO, Melbourne from 12 May 2022

MUSICAL THEATRE

Written & directed by Conor McPherson

Music & Lyrics by Bob Dylan

At Comedy Theatre, Melbourne from 12 May to 11 June 2022

Then Canberra in August & Brisbane in September 2022

See website: Girl from the North Country-Melbourne

I'm waiting to find out if I can review a recorded version of the production. Fingers crossed people. KH

Girl From The North Country_Theatre Royal, Sydney_credit-Daniel Boud

Cast: