REVIEW: S-27 || Feet First Collective and Fremantle Festival

S-27 Review by Lorna Mackie July 12, 2019 S-27, written by Sarah Grochala, is presented by Feet First Collective as part of Fremantle Festival – 10 Nights in Port 2019 at the Fremantle Arts Centre. S-27 is a dystopian, partially immersive theatre experience shown in the round. Set in a fictional world where ‘The Organisation’ controls everything, the audience, as traitors to The Organisation are taken for Assessment. Audience members have the option to volunteer for some physical interaction (which is well managed by the cast) prior to the Assessment, which is a more traditional seated play in the round. … Continue reading REVIEW: S-27 || Feet First Collective and Fremantle Festival

REVIEW: Floor Thirteen || Marshall Stay and The Blue Room Theatre

  Floor Thirteen Review by Lorna Mackie 27 June 2019 Floor Thirteen, presented by The Blue Room Theatre and Marshall Stay, is a fascinating and challenging new work. This is its premier run, however, it feels highly polished. Floor Thirteen is performed in the round, a brilliant directing choice by Marshall Stay (one of many such well-considered choices) to make the best of some incredibly strong physical theatre, and had me captured from start to finish. The show features an emotional and nuanced performance in the character of Phoebe (Kylie Bywaters), stuck in a lift at 3am, anxiously recounting the … Continue reading REVIEW: Floor Thirteen || Marshall Stay and The Blue Room Theatre

REVIEW: Jupiter Orbiting || Joshua Pether and PICA

PICA is currently presenting a curious and intriguing work by dance artist Joshua Pether called Jupiter Orbiting. Pether has been developing and performing the piece, a dance/physical theatre hybrid, since 2018, when it premiered at the Next Wave Festival. Jupiter Orbiting features music created by Daniel Jenatsch and videography by Neil Berrick, and takes us into an eerie realm of light, form and childhood artifacts. The show opens with Pether standing in a white unitard, crowned by a matted pink party wig, his face obscured by something made with fishnet, with empty balloons, Lego pieces, and animal figurines pinned to … Continue reading REVIEW: Jupiter Orbiting || Joshua Pether and PICA

REVIEW: Paradise Lost | Bare Witness Theatre Company

Paradise Lost Review by Cicely Binford 3.2.2017 John Milton’s Paradise Lost was first published 350 years ago, and Bare Witness Theatre presented its first stage adaptation of the work 5 years ago. Performer Christopher Samuel Carroll brought the adaptation to Fringe World last week, and showed us that a 350-year-old epic poem adapted for the stage isn’t a museum piece; in the right hands it comes alive and fascinates, even amidst the frivolity of Fringe. The first astonishing thing we remark about the piece is the text itself. Condensing thousands of lines of text into a 55-minute piece must have been arduous, to … Continue reading REVIEW: Paradise Lost | Bare Witness Theatre Company

REVIEW: Risscht! | Open Lid Ensemble

Risscht! The Little Match Girl Review by Susie Conte 1.11.2016 Perth is rapidly becoming THE town of small pop-up charming venues for theatre and music. A new discovery was the Red Room at Little Creatures NextDoor. Decked out in a big circus top and twinkling fairy lights, it was a great space to see a theatre show. As part of the Fremantle Festival, The Open Lid Ensemble have re-imagined Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale of a little dying girl’s hopes and dreams into a modern day movement parable, employing physical theatre techniques to create a world of meaning. As she … Continue reading REVIEW: Risscht! | Open Lid Ensemble

REVIEW: The Astronaut | Samantha Chester

Samantha Chester‘s solo work The Astronaut is a standout work in The Blue Room’s Season One. It’s different in form and content from the majority of the other shows we’ve seen this year, and it is a welcome refresher this winter. The Astronaut is a strongly visual physical theatre piece full of atmosphere and charm, created and performed by Chester and directed by Frances Barbe. The show begins with Chester resting blankly in an armchair in front of a television in the corner of the stage space. She’s lit by a floor lamp and we can see a bowl of mandarins, some half-peeled, on … Continue reading REVIEW: The Astronaut | Samantha Chester

REVIEW: On the Face of Things | Halina | Talk Dirty to Me

We venture out of the Blue Room/PICA Summer Nights precinct and into the outer Fringes of Perth for a 3-show Saturday binge. First on the bill is WAYTCo‘s On the Face of Things at The Parrott House in Maylands (formerly known as Chrissie Parrott Arts), then we cross town to the CBD for Open Lid Ensemble‘s Halina at Laneway Lounge, and finally wind up back in the Cultural Centre for The Cutting Room Floor‘s Talk Dirty to Me at The Stables.       On the Face of Things | WAYTCo Who’s in charge here? Who is to be held … Continue reading REVIEW: On the Face of Things | Halina | Talk Dirty to Me

INTERVIEW: Ankoku Buyo Collective

Ankoku Buyo Collective is a young theatre collective founded by dancer and director Jay Emmanuel. Jay was born in India and was trained in Indian classical dance, graduated from ECU/WAAPA, and cites many influences which include Antonin Artaud, Kazuo Ohno and Zen Zen Zoh, just to name a few. He’ll soon be on his way to study the Physical Theatre Creation course at the renowned L’Ecole Internationale du Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France. Ankoku Buyo Collective (ABC) is currently in production with a new work called MOH – On the Concept of Love. Read the full interview here. Continue reading INTERVIEW: Ankoku Buyo Collective