There’s something funny going on in Australian politics these days: double-crossing, two-timing, back-stabbing, one-upping, back-pedalling…or is this just a normal day at work for a politician? Showroom Theatre certainly has something to say about the recent machinations of Australia’s leaders … Continue reading REVIEW: A Raging Election | Showroom Theatre
There’s a hairy drag queen in a sequined dress lying on a lounge, bathed in magenta light. There are cow skulls sitting on shelves next to vials of curious things and strange artefacts. There are two black-clad angels with white wings posed on either side of the room. There is music in the air, a kind of music that makes you think you’ve arrived in some deep inner sanctum. In fact, you have. The lounging drag queen awakes and comes forth to perform some kind of mysterious ritual. The angels attend and we realise we are watching God at work … Continue reading REVIEW: The Tribe | Renegade Productions at The Blue Room
Ruth Wilkin brings her award-winning cabaret show Just a Little Something I’ve Been Working On Downstairs at the Maj for their Cabaret Soirée season. Wilkin has devised the show with Trevor Jones as co-musical director, who accompanies her on piano. Billed as a “tongue-in-cheek look at cabaret and its performers in the style of Chris Lilley and Tina Fey,” I was hoping for a bitingly funny satire of the cabaret genre, but it was more like a gently irreverent ribbing. Wilkin appeared costumed in a black strapless maxi dress, which she glammed up with a tacky rhinestone brooch and a … Continue reading REVIEW: Ruth Wilkin’s Just a Little Something I’ve Been Working On
Black Swan State Theatre Company officially launched their 2014 season Monday night at the Heath Ledger Theatre at the State Theatre Centre. On hand for the evening’s festivities to warm up the buzzing crowd was Perth jazz chanteuse Libby Hammer, and amongst the denizens were a few nationally famous faces and a considerable number of Perth’s own star talent. The normally sparse brass-and-wood lobby was decked out in greenery and colourful paper lanterns, reminding us that summer and a new season is just around the corner. Once inside the theatre, General Manager Shane Colquhoun and Chairman Mark Barnaba gave a … Continue reading News: Black Swan State Theatre Company 2014 Season Launch
This week in the spotlight, Cicely Binford catches up with John McPherson and James Marzec, the dynamic duo behind the brand-spanking new, world premiere musical being produced in Perth called A Raging Election. These guys have taken what they learned from writing and producing their first major musical in 2012, the barely-pronounceable Lawyers and Other Communicable Diseases, and have sharpened their mighty swords (and by swords, I mean their pens, of course) to bring us an completely topical, satirical musical comedy set in a newsroom during a leadership spill. Read the full article here. Continue reading INTERVIEW: James Marzec, John McPherson and Showroom Theatre
North Sea Boat Terminals’ reworking of Shakespeare’sRomeo and Juliet is budding with interesting and daring ideas that ask the audience to think about this tale of woe in new ways. It’s not just modernisation, not just deconstruction, although the adaptation does both. The storyline and much of the essential dialogue remains, but has been condensed and then pulled apart slightly to allow for some stylistic breathing room. The original cast of a dozen or so has been shrunk to four actors, two playing the eponymous characters, and two playing all the rest. Read the full review here. Continue reading REVIEW: R&J | North Sea Boat Terminals
Your company’s name is quite unique – what is its origin? I was reading a book on theatre by American performance group Goat Island and was inspired by a story they included. It’s a lovely story, but a bit of a long one. They wrote about the Danish architect, Rem Koolhaas – quite well known for his ‘big ideas’ approach to architecture – who was asked to build a two million square foot ferry terminal in the North Sea. He replied that due to the size of the request, they needed to consider the philosophical implications of the architecture and … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Sarah McKellar and North Sea Boat Terminals
Joe Lui stands out from the crowd. Once you’ve seen or met Joe at some show in Perth, you’ll start to see him all over town. One time I stepped into an elevator in a car park under King’s Perth Hotel and there was Joe, carrying an amp on his way to a gig. I wanted to serenade him with, “Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that amp in your hand?” but then I figured he’s probably heard the “Hey Joe” reference all his life, and he probably doesn’t think it’s funny anymore. Lui stands out from the crowd, not … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Joe Lui and Renegade Productions
Broken Colour, a new work written by Nina Pearce, directed by Michael McCall and presented by The Blue Room and Same Cat, tackles the subject of mental illness and coupling in the modern world. It aims to take an insider’s look at a manic episode, to make it understandable to outsiders who have never suffered such a crisis of the spirit. Pearce deconstructs the interior of a manic episode just enough to take the fear out of it for her audience without demystifying it completely. She expresses the strange poetry that exists within the mind of a person suffering from … Continue reading REVIEW: Broken Colour | Same Cat and Blue Room
This was my first introduction to this beloved Australian story, one that generations of Aussie children grew up on, either through Colin Thiele’s book or the 1976 movie based on the book. It’s a uniquely Australian story because of its characters, its setting and its cultural landscape, but thematically and dramatically, it’s completely universal. It’s the kind of story that endures and can be retold without losing its relevance; it’s simply the kind of story that should be retold.Company (STC) are bringing the story of Storm Boy to Perth and Sydney audiences in a co-production of Tom Holloway’s stage adaptation, directed by … Continue reading REVIEW: Storm Boy | Barking Gecko and STC
Perth Arts Live 