King Lear: Presented by The Theatre Guild

King Lear

King Lear Rating

★★★★★

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1

The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild have placed their production of King Lear in a post-apocalyptic dystopian setting which is set amidst the madness of a world in ruins more than reminiscent of the Mad Max series. I would not have been surprised if Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) walked in to play the old deranged king, there are a number of parallels.

Director Brant Eustice says, “There is enormous joy to be found in Shakespeare’s universal themes and a brilliance in his writing which not only allows, but also encourages theatregoers to continue exploring the depth, complexity and beauty of his stories in new styles. Due to a global calamity, civilisation as we view it has collapsed and has returned to the ways of a distant past. We find ourselves in a world which is slowly trying to rebuild itself.”

This production succeeds in most ways, but does not always achieve Eustice’s aims.

For those who don’t know the play, King Lear is based on the legend of Leir of Britain. Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, but he is deceived by the flattery of Goneril and Regan, who turn against him, and he banishes the loyal Cordelia, who loves him. Lear becomes mad and wanders in a storm, while Cordelia returns with an army to restore him. The play ends with the deaths of Lear and his daughters.

According to the esteemed critic Frank Kermode, “the play…offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty”. I disagree with Kermode in that while cruelty is more than evident, there is an abundance of humour in the play which Eustice highlights.

Every centimetre of the Little Theatre is used to advantage and thanks to Eustice’s direction, the scene changes are quick and efficient, and the characters are well developed.

His direction is complemented by Kate Prescott’s set design, Lisa Lanzi’s costume design, Richard Parkhill’s moody lighting, Sean Smith’s sound design. Michael Green’s original haunting music and Anne-Louise Smith’s hair teasing and primping.

King Lear
King Lear

This production features 16 performers, some playing multiple roles.

Michael Eustice joins an illustrious list of actors to play Lear; Orson Welles, Christopher Plummer, Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, and Glenda Jackson to name a few. Eustice’s Lear is bombastic, demanding and convincing in his decent into madness. His scene with the dead body of Cordelia is memorable.

Sharon Malujlo’s Kent holds the narrative together, especially when in disguise and provides comic relief to the more sombre sections of the play.

Robert Baulderstone’s Edgar is compelling to watch. His physicality is wonderful and his voice crystal clear. His ‘naked’ scene is a highlight of the play!

Sean Flierl’s Edmund is appropriately villain-like as he plots against his father and brother. His swordplay with Edgar is frighteningly realistic.

Geoff Revell as Fool steals every scene with carefully delivered wisdom and the occasional breaking of the fourth wall to include the audience. I loved his scene with Lear on the mezzanine level of the theatre.

As the three daughters, Georgia Stockham as Goneril, Rebecca Kemp as Regan and Rhoda Sylvester as Cordelia all deliver solid work, but there were some problems with diction and projection at times that resulted in some of the dialogue being lost when their backs were turned or voices raised.

Tracey Walker is a commanding Albany with one of the clearest Shakespearean deliveries I have heard.

Director Brant Eustice replaced Mick Young (who had to withdraw due to illness) as Gloucester gives us a moving performance, particularly in act 2 when his eyes are gouged out.

Imogen Deller-Evans, Mike Leach, Harry Passehl, Tony Sampson, Tom Tassone, and Lizzie Zeuner complete the cast playing multiple roles.

Being a long play (even with cuts), it might have been advisable to start this production at 7pm.

King Lear is one of the Bard’s greatest works and the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild’s production is well thought out and delivers some fine performances. I think the Bard would approve of the new setting!

Barry Hill OAM

For Tickets:-
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/theatreguild/

Ticket Information
$25 Full Price
$20 Concession / Tertiary Student

Performance Dates
Friday 16 August at 7:30pm
Saturday 17 August at 7:30pm
Sunday 18 August at 4pm
Wednesday 21 August at 7:30pm
Thursday 22 August at 7:30pm
Friday 23 August at 7:30pm
Saturday 24 August at 7:30pm
Sunday 25 August at 4pm

Venue
Little Theatre
The Cloisters, Victoria Drive, University of Adelaide
Please allow extra time for parking, especially when there is an event at Adelaide Oval.

Duration
2.5 hours plus interval

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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Lost In Yonkers

Lost in Yonkers

Lost In Yonkers Rating

★★★★★

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6

Neil Simon’s Tony Award and Pulitzer prize-winning comedy Lost in Yonkers is an absolute delight.

Presented by the Roxy Lane Theatre in Maylands, which provides a warm, community theatre welcome from the moment you step through the door. This is clearly a group that enjoys what it does and works hard to put on a good show.

Directed by Karin Staflund, Lost in Yonkers centres on brothers Arty (Daniel Keenan) and Jay (Toby Shepherd), who are sent to live with their grandmother (Sarah House) and Aunt Bella (Seren Healy) in the summer of 1942 while their father goes away to work off a debt he owes to a loan shark.

The prickly Grandma Kurnitz is estranged from her son Eddie (Zane Alexander) and his boys. However, she begrudgingly agrees to take Arty and Jay in at Bella’s insistence and makes it clear this will be no holiday as they’re forced to work in her shop downstairs.

Throw in an uncle who is a local gangster (Geoff Miethe) and Aunt Gert (Julia Webster), who is so frightened of her mother that she struggles to breathe; you can tell it’s going to be a long summer for Arty and Jay.

Lost in Yonkers
Lost in Yonkers
Lost in Yonkers

The cast’s youngest member, Daniel Keenan, steals the show as Arty. With an extensive number of lines to remember and maturity beyond his years, he brings the right amount of humour and warmth to his role. Seren Healy’s portrayal of childlike Bella is both hilarious and heartbreaking as a young woman stuck between her learning difficulties and wanting a life and family of her own.

The cast’s accents were fabulous, and the clever use of the time between scene changes with train sound effects and lighting, while you could already hear the hum of the local train in the background, added to the experience.

The set was well done and made great use of the space given. At times, a sofa bed was front and centre. There were also a number of costume changes for each character, all of which suited the characters to a tee.

With nine performances to go, and if opening night is anything to go by, this is one local production you don’t want to miss.

August 17, 18*, 23, 24, 25*, 29, 30 and 31, September 1
Evening shows at 7.30 pm
*Sunday matinees at 2 pm
Bookings at https://www.TAZtix.com.au/roxylanetheatre/ or phone TAZ Tix 9255 3336.

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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Mad Nun Productions Presents Flick

Flick

Flick Rating

★★★★★

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4

From the moment ‘Flick’ (Madelaine Nunn) walked on stage, the entire audience was drawn into her captivating story and exploration of life, love, loss, and grief.

Brilliantly written, with a humanly comedic through-line, this one-woman show is exactly what we want to see in theatre.

The somewhat extraordinary, yet in other ways, quite ordinary and very relatable storyline was so beautifully crafted and conveyed by Madelaine. It felt like we were there with her; every awkward, funny, hopeful, or devastatingly sad step of the way.

‘Flick’ follows the story of a 30-something year old a palliative care nurse, who comedically draws the audience into her world of working with those at the end of their life. All whilst juggling her own experiences of love, lust, friendship, death, grief, and loss through various relationships she has in her own life.

With a blank stage, a single stool, and the most basic of lighting and sound, Madelaine’s performance alone took us deep into Flick’s world. The only visual hint for the audience, being that she is dressed in her work scrubs. It just goes to show that when the writing and acting is en pointe, there is no need for fancy sets, lighting, or sound. The performance speaks for itself, and the audience’s imagination is enough.

For anyone like myself, who has worked in healthcare (and even moreso, for those of us who have worked in end-of-life healthcare), so many relatable moments were expertly and honestly written into the show (in the often unexpectedly humorous ways that they present themselves in real life).

Flick
Flick
Flick
Flick

And even to those who have not had those lived experiences, the truth and honesty of the storytelling and character relationships were in and of themselves fundamentally relatable to our own human behaviours.

If I wasn’t genuinely laughing at the (often far too!) relatable moments, I was drawn to tears on more than one occasion through the very real moments of the deep sadness that come with grief and loss.

This show brilliantly explores and highlights the dichotomy and often seemingly non-sequitur nature of our human emotions and experiences: how there is so often unexpected humour in the face of death, melancholy in happiness, or how sometimes our behaviour in grief may just be a little bit (or a lot) on the crazy side. And what a wonderful way to remind people that these are all very normal aspects of the human experience.

Each character explored through the lens of Flick was so honest and relatable: from her co-workers, to her the patients, to her best friend, or her mother. I could very easily place real people from my own life into each character.

It’s not very often that you walk out of a show and think that you’ve been a part of something quite special. But walking out of the opening night of ‘Flick’, with a full-house, and a standing ovation, I had that feeling.

For a one-woman-show to draw in and captivate an audience for over an hour through one continuous story arc is a great achievement. Madelaine’s performance did just that, and we all experienced a rollercoaster of emotions and relatable human experiences alongside ‘Flick’.

I would love to say to go and get tickets to this show at La Mama, but being a part of the ‘Explorations’ program, there are only three performances, all of which have unsurprisingly sold out.

But I get the feeling that this is not the last we will be seeing of ‘Flick’ and Madelaine Nunn. So, keep your eyes peeled for where it goes next. And then make sure to get a ticket, as this is a show not to be missed.

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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Thinner Than Water

Thinner Than Water

Thinner Than Water Rating

★★★★★

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4

‘Thinner Than Water’ written by Melissa Ross and directed by Tim Williams, offers a nuanced portrayal of a fractured family drawn together during a time of crisis. The play focuses on three half-siblings—Cassie (Amy Pollock), Renee (Katharine Innes), and Gary (Matthew Elliott)—who reconnect when their father’s health takes a turn for the worse. Renee, the eldest, naturally assumes a leadership role, displaying an authority over her siblings that is both practical and, at times, overbearing.

The other two siblings, though less organized, demonstrate a deeper empathy for those around them. This often puts them at odds with Renee, whose critical nature highlights the tension between them. The strained relationship with their father is apparent from the outset, setting the tone for the family dynamics that unfold throughout the play.

As the story unfolds, we see the shaky ground that Renee’s marriage is standing on. Her husband Mark’s level of criticism one-ups hers. As the play progresses, we find out Mark is not a cold-blooded narcist. The unfolding drama, acts as a catalyst that opens their respective vulnerabilities and provides stable-ground for them to have honest, productive conversations. Katharine Innes and Matt Trubiani take great writing, and deliver it with impeccable timing, humour, and stage chemistry.

Cassie is in an on-again-off-again relationship with Henry (Jerome Meyer) – a stable organised lawyer who is devoted to her, despite Cassie’s inconsistency in their relationship. The two have markedly different personalities and lifestyles. Henry’s similarity to Renee reflects interesting psychological subtext that is implicitly explored throughout the play.

Gary works in retail at a comic book store, and receives notable flack for it. He acts the part of stereotypical stoner meets anxious sweetheart. Like Cassie, Gary also struggles with responsibility. Him and Cassie are at ease with each other, where their mutual understanding anchors their relationship. Gary meets Angela (Nicole Chapman) at the start of the play. Angela is a single-mother looking for a reliable ‘big brother’ for her son.

Thinner Than Water
Thinner Than Water

When Martin is admitted to hospital the audience is treated to some great back and forth between Renee and Martins partner Gwen (Nin Macken), where the ball is largely held in Gwen’s side of the court. Gwen is a self-confessed chatterbox, Renee’s magazines, and forms prove inadequate barriers to deflect this. As the play progresses, we see the relationship between Gwen and Renee shift from superficial and one-sided, to honest and reciprocal, underscored by humour and depth.

There were a lot of set changes, broadcasting voicemails over these did help to alleviate their duration; but the play would benefit from shortening them. The use of the r-word felt unnecessary and could have been updated to something more appropriate. The narrative set-up is slowly drawn out over the first act, then after skipping forwards in time the resolution feels very compressed in the second act. I wonder if there might have been ways to alter this to convey the character growth that has transpired in this time- particularly in the case of Cassie, either through script changes, or acting choices.

Overall, this play is a funny, relatable, subtle, and complex work; supported with strong acting performances across the entire cast. The Alex Theatre was a fantastic venue, with great facilities. ‘Thinner Than Water’ is running 15-25 August at the Alex theatre in St Kilda, I highly recommend you take the opportunity to see it.

For Tickets:- https://alextheatre.au/thinner-than-water/

15 – 25 August 2024, 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Sundays 5 pm – 7:30 pm

Full $45 +BF
Concession $37.50 +BF

PREVIEW PERFORMANCE:
Full $35 +BF
Concession $27.50 +BF

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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