The triumphant triple bill 4 Seasons won rapturous applause at its opening in Brisbane. A mix of dancers and choreographers from Hong Kong and Brisbane combine to create three performances intertwined by the title and yet so totally different in delivery. There were 20 dancers, six from Expressions Dance Company and 14 from Hong Kong…
Darwin is sweltering and it’s raining cats and dogs. Ruben’s (Dion Williams) life is in the toilet. A court has sentenced him to attend counselling after he hit a cop, but he isn’t willing to play ball and he makes his situation worse. He’s full of resentment, struggling to cope with his brother Joe’s death, for which…
I long to see whatever Joanna Murray-Smith generates (and her output is prolific) … with very good reason. Her writing is pithy and pointed, insightful and invigorating. The shocking and dynamic Fury is a case in point. Salt is rubbed into raw wounds and new scars created in this “take no prisoners” drama about cultural…
What a lot of fun I had watching The Longest Minute. It had a terrific script, was filled with an array of great characters, had a brilliantly human storyline, and moved as fast as a winger with a try scoring intercept. And it all revolves around the 2015 NRL Grand Final and a Townsville family…
What was happening while young wizard Harry Potter and his friends were honing their skills at Hogwarts? What about the less skilled wizards and witches? They who would scarcely amount to much as Potter struggled against dark Lord Voldemort. Specifically, what happened to an orphan named Wayne Hopkins? Well … Puffs reveals all with much…
The Nightingale and The Rose is a Gothic fable. It was first published in 1888 as part of Oscar Wilde’s anthology titled The Happy Prince and Other Stories. It explores the beauty of love and art from the perspective of an effervescent nightingale. The bird hears the longing cries of a young student desperate to…
Hardly enough happens in The House of Bernarda Alba to sustain its 105 minute running time. Playwright Patricia Cornelius takes on Federico Garcia Lorca’s classic tragedy. Cornelius has transported the action from the villages of Spain in the 1930s to contemporary rural Western Australia. Along the way, she explores themes of passion, repression and isolation….
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic Oklahoma! revolutionised the American musical. This version from The Production Company (TPC) features a searing lead performance, a superb principal cast, and a wonderfully creative set. Thirty-two performers take to the stage, along with TPC’s own orchestra. Oklahoma! is set outside the town of Claremont in 1906. It tells the story…
You might not be able to buy love, but you can Rent it. I discovered this 22 years ago when I saw Jonathan Larson’s iconic rock musical on Broadway. That year it won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and received four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. As a self-confessed Renthead, I not only know the…
What a night; laughs galore, some of the funniest characters you’ll ever seen on a stage, amazing comic performances from a superb cast, brilliant set, lighting and costumes, a whole heap of catchy new music from Tim Finn and finally a well deserved and triumphant standing ovation. Shakespeare would have been applauding in his grave….
