NEWS: What’s on this week
No excuse for staying in this week if you’re a theatre and dance lover, as three exciting shows have their official openings around Perth’s stages. Check out the links below for more information.
MUSIC THEATRE: NEXT TO NORMAL
Black Swan State Theatre
Runs 11-22 November
About the show:
Meet Diana Goodman, loving wife and mother who wants nothing more than for her husband Dan and their two children to get along like one big happy family. But in a seemingly perfect suburban neighbourhood, their struggles, like most families, are anything but normal. They test and mock each other at every turn but how are they meant to cope when one of them suffers from hallucinations?
Filled with music, fun and pathos, this play revolutionised the genre and is the most critically acclaimed musical since Rent.
Featuring songs like My Psychopharmacologist and I, Didn’t I See This Movie?, and Superboy and The Invisible Girl this world-class production is the prescription you need for the ultimate in contemporary music entertainment.
Featuring a live 6-piece band: David Young on Keyboard, Michael Perkins on Drums/Percussion, Shane Pooley on Bass, Andrew Weir on Guitar, Brian Kruger on Violin and Laura McGorgan on Cello.
Directed by Adam Mitchell
DANCE: WHITE MATTER
Shona Erskine and The Blue Room
Runs 12-18 November
About the show:
It is hard to swallow. The synapses in the brain buzz with electrical impulses, slowed and inhibited by lesions on the nerves in the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve – caused by multiple sclerosis.
This story is told through the eyes of two siblings. As the physical body deteriorates, they are challenged by the arrival of new symptoms. The established balance of their relationship is brought into question as one must care for the other. They try to make sense of their situation, choosing what to reveal and what to keep private.
The reality of living with disease is thrown into sharp relief through their playful and provocative relationship.
White Matter employs the abstract and emotive language of contemporary dance to portray an experience of living with multiple sclerosis. This beautiful and important work has been choreographed by Shona Erskine, mentored by one of Australia’s foremost dance makers, Sue Healey.
Recommended for audiences 14+
Please also note there is a male cast and a female cast:
10 – 14 November – male cast
17 – 21 November – female cast
24 November – male cast
25 November – female cast
26 November – male cast
27 November – female cast
28 November (6pm) – male cast
28 November (8:30pm) – female cast
Choreographed by Shona Erskine.
THEATRE: THE MAIDS
Tempest Productions and Subiaco Arts Centre
Runs 11-14 November
About the show:
Jean Genet’s The Maids caused a scandal when it opened in Paris in 1947 for its stark portrayal of seething working class discontent.
This dark and brooding existential play depicts two sisters, servants in an upper-class Parisian home, who nightly engage in a secret ceremony of revenge while their mistress is away.
The story follows the sisters as they weave through past and present, fiction and fantasy, truth and lies, and finally, detection and escape. Featuring Kylie Maree, Aisling McGrogan and Maree Grayden.
Directed by Susie Conte