Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble’s Bogga begins with a rent-a-crowd supported riot at Brisbane’s infamous Boggo Road Gaol; it’s one of the ‘80s riots probably provoked by the university 4ZZZ radio station as was seemingly the norm, soundtracked by songs of the ‘Pig City’ sort. And the old Cement Box Theatre proves to be the perfect location…
Question: How often can you watch a musical based on a 1939 MG movie musical? Answer: As often as they revamp the story the amazing way this production was. What a magical re-interpretation The Wizard of Oz is. You will be smiling all the way home when you leave the theatre. Jon Driscoll’s video designs were…
What Rhymes with Cars and Girls was the timeless first solo album by You Am I’s Tim Rogers. It tells of moving out and moving on, prompted by the ruin of Rogers’ own long-term relationship and relocation to Melbourne. And 18 years after its release, its songs still packs an emotional punch. Now it’s transformed…
Confession time…. I hate interactive/immersive theatre and I’m not much of a zombie fan. Yet I didn’t hate Directors of the Extraordinary’s Containment. This zombie adventure game sees the Brisbane Powerhouse transformed into a paramilitary-protected private research facility. Scientists have been weaponising a contagion that zombifies humans… until there was a leak in the lab….
Two men, Jean (Patrick Farrelly) and Bérenger (Brian Bolton) are sitting together talking when a rhinoceros charges past. Soon they find that their friends and colleagues are also transforming into rhinos. With this as its overview, it is quickly apparent that the French avant-garde playwright Eugène Ionesco’s play, Rhinoceros, is of the Theatre of the…
In true international award-winning Black Honey Company style, One the Bear bursts on the audience. In an apocalyptic aesthetic avalanche, its stars, the story’s titular One (Candy Bowers) and her best friend Ursula (Nancy Denis), emerge from a rubbish skip. One and Ursula are bears attempting to escape a hunter. Such is the reality of…
Director Kriv Stenders (Red Dog, etc) seems like he is trying to set up a series of films centred around significant national holidays. In 2007, he gave us the powerful but bleak, grim drama Boxing Day which told the story of one man’s desperate struggle to try and reconcile his estranged family on this one…
Without doubt Kinky Boots is the best new musical in years. It has everything: a great story line, wonderful characters, and toe-tapping music that moves the plot along. It’s such a joyful and refreshing spectacle to watch. I loved every damn minute of the two hours of music, dance, and drama. On top of all…
The Winter’s Tale: a fitting production to put on in this mild weather, it would seem. This is one work by Shakespeare I hadn’t seen before and am now quite happy to add it to my memory’s library. The play was performed by the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble and directed by Michelle Miall. This tight knit…
From little things, big things (re)grow. After a three-year hiatus, the Brisbane International Film Festival is back. And while this new BIFF is very much a slimmed down version of what it once was, the very fact of its return is a cause for celebration. Where once BIFF screened close to 200 films, the “new” festival…
