Review: DOGFIGHT at St. Jude's Hall, BrightonAugust 10, 2022Do you remember On The Town, that wonderful musical film from 1949; three young sailors on shore leave on the loose in New York, singing and dancing through life, and meeting girls? Well, Dogfight, presented by St Jude's Players, is a bit like that, but just a bit. It's a dark reflection on men and women, the traditional battle of the sexes cast in the most unromantic and misogynist mould.
Review: CHALKFACE at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival CentreAugust 10, 2022In a late career change, I gained a degree in Adult and Vocational Education, and then a post-graduate degree in Secondary Education, leading to several years of relief and contract teaching in music and drama for a number of high schools. I was, therefore, looking forward to State Theatre Company's latest production, Chalkface, a black comedy written by Australian playwright, Angela Betzien, produced in conjunction with the Sydney Theatre Company. One of their Resident Directors, Jessica Arthur, directed this hilarious co-production.
Review: DI AND VIV AND ROSE at Rumpus, BowdenJuly 22, 2022The play is so well chosen for this collective. It is a truth universally acknowledged, at least by me and my mentor, Myk Mykyta, that most modern plays are twenty minutes too long. Contemporary audiences have been conditioned by films and, especially, television to pick up the thread of a story very quickly. After all every millisecond of screen time costs 'squillions'. Live theatre can take its time and, while this new show from The Corseted Rabbits Collective, at Rumpus, Di and Viv and Rose, could be twenty minutes shorter, the establishment of character and story is done with such warmth and focus as to carry you along nicely.