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Land & Sea

Brink Productions. Queen’s Theatre. 15 May 2012Land can be born from the sea like South Pacific islands. And the sea’s water once ran off the land. While land and sea seem obviously exclusive, on another level they are intertwined in unending processes where their boundaries are continuously and often cyclically transformed. The creators of Land & Sea would say it’s also true of life.Award-w ...

Labels: Theatre, Adelaide, Brink Productions, 2012, Queens Theatre

Next to Normal

Six Foot Something Productions & The Factory. The Opera Studio. 12 May 2012In recent years director David Lampard has developed for himself a reputation of churning out productions of an exceptionally high standard, both in terms of performance quality from his cast, and the overall look and feel of the show from a technical aspect. This production was no exception, but I did struggle to conne ...

Labels: Theatre, Musical, Adelaide, 2012, The Factory, Six Foot Something Productions

South Pacific

The Metropolitan Musical Theatre Company of SA Inc. The Arts Theatre. 11 May 2012One of the things I love about musicals is everything doesn’t have to make sense, just so long as the romantic arc is that of Cupid’s arrow. When Joshua Logan was putting South Pacific together with Oscar and Hammerstein, only four years after the end of the war in 1949, it didn’t matter that a Frenchman was unlikely ...

Labels: Theatre, Musical, Adelaide, Arts Theatre, Amateur, The Metropolitan Musical Soc., 2012

Antigone

University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 12 May 2012Jean Anouilh wrote his Antigone in Paris in 1943. Some say he was a Nazi collaborator demonstrating submission to the Vichy fascists in his play. Others suggest that it slipped the censors, and telegraphed sub textural messages of rebellion. Well, he fooled everybody because the Gestapo didn’t shoot him and the Resistance didn’t b ...

Labels: Theatre, Adelaide, Amateur, UA Theatre Guild, 2012

The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams. State Theatre Company of South Australia – Dunstan Playhouse. 9 May 2012Tennessee Williams has written a classic ‘slice of life’ piece, which recounts a snapshot in time for a struggling depression era family.The characters each share disappointment and dissatisfaction with the trajectory of their lives, past and future. In a dreamlike state, Williams, through the voice of Tom ...

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Icons in Sound Series #1

St Peter’s Cathedral. 11 May 2012The ASO’s ‘Icons in Sound’ Series 1 was a most remarkable concert. As I have remarked in previous reviews, great concert music is often as much an aural experience as it is a visual one, and Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs performed in Adelaide’s St Peter’s Cathedral ticked all the boxes.First composed in 1976, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs burst onto the inte ...

Labels: Adelaide, Music, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, 2012, St Peter's Cathedral

Biddies

By Don Reid at The Street Theatre. 8 May 2012You can only fight ageing for so long before you have to come to terms with the fact that nature will ultimately win the battle – so instead of bemoaning the fact, this vibrant bunch of women “of a certain age” have come together to embrace their emerging biddy-ness.Connie (Donna Lee), Ruth (Julie Hudspeth), Jess (Linden Wilkinson), Beryl (Annie Byron) ...

Labels: Theatre, Comedy, Canberra, The Street Theatre, 2012

Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life

Walford Girls School. When I was asked to again review Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life, I did not hesitate for a second. This production which has been worked, re-worked, expanded and re-written continues to impress, and is always improving. Writer/performer Amity Dry has added new numbers and altered others to better capture the characters and explore them in new ways. Performed at the Walf ...

Labels: Theatre, Musical, Adelaide, Comedy, 2012

Kimbra

Adelaide Entertainment Centre. 8 May 2012 The first stop on Kimbra's latest country-wide jaunt, Adelaide was a test case for a tour that sees her upgrade from pubs and clubs to capital cities major venues. Having chosen the likes of The Gov on previous visits to our fair city, one acquired their tickets for this gig with some trepidation. A non-capacity crowd in a venue as notoriously sou ...

Labels: Adelaide, Music, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Triple J, 2012

Boy & Bear

The Governor Hindmarsh. 9 May 2012One of the nice things about music is that there’s always something new to discover. Sometimes discoveries are made at the very inception of an artist’s musical life, and other times, it’s when things are a little more well-seasoned. For me, the latter is certainly true when it comes to Sydney quintet Boy & Bear. With their British pub-sounding name, I’d defin ...