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Chaotic Nonsense Of The Best Kind

05/04/2025 Helen Rath🆕

Farndale Rating

★★★★★

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Thrive Theatre’s latest production is an absolute hoot. Directed by Susan O’Toole Cridland, The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery is a delightful play within a play that invites audiences into the chaotic opening night of Murder at Checkmate Manor, where anything that can go wrong, hilariously does.

Led by the determined Mrs Reece (Sandy Adsett), The Farndale Dramatic Society valiantly attempts to stage their murder mystery, despite countless mishaps. Her long-suffering cast includes the incorrigible Thelma (Izabela Wasilewska), the flustered Felicity (Lindi Milbourne], earnest Audrey (Claire Marchesi), the charismatic Gordon (Isaiah Harrison), together with their perpetually bewildered lighting and sound technician, the show quickly becomes a comedy of errors, plagued by collapsing sets, missing props, and forgotten lines. Yet, it’s precisely this relentless madness that results in the very best kind of chaotic nonsense.

From beginning to end, this production is laugh-out-loud funny. The cast and crew convincingly portrayed a carefully orchestrated disaster. The actors handle the dual realities with impressive comedic timing and genuine flair. Special mention must go to Isaiah Harrison, whose Inspector O’Reilly feels like the love child of Patrick Swayze and John Cleese. He would steal the show, except he couldn’t wrestle it away from the other actors.

It took balls for O’Toole Cridland to step out of her comfort zone and direct a farce, and there are certainly plenty of balls in this production. Thrive Theatre has boldly embraced farce, absurdism, musical theatre, and tennis in this production, with exceptional results.

The KSP theatre venue is delightfully nostalgic, with a relaxed atmosphere and convenient parking. One cannot fail to mention the generous cheese platters, which can be ordered upon booking.

With everything going on in the world, this joyful, light-hearted production feels exactly right—comforting, uplifting, and genuinely entertaining. It’s like chicken soup (and a cheese platter) for the soul.

To book tickets to Farndale, please visit Farndale Tickets.

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Unforgettable Passion: A Review of No Regrets: The Edith Piaf Story

06/04/202505/04/2025 Jess Woodend🆕

No Regrets: The Edith Piaf StoryNo Regrets: The Edith Piaf Story Rating

★★★★★

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The Home of the Arts is a remarkable venue, most famously regarded for its shows, exhibitions, and live events. With a variety of performance spaces, HOTA hosts a diverse collection of performances year-round, catering to all audiences, interests, and passions.

Located in the intimate setting of the basement, with an exclusive show on April the 4th only… talented Australian artist Nikki Nouveau presents ‘No Regrets: The Edith Piaf Story’. Nikki has many years of experience as an entertainer, which is evident in her most recent cabaret performance.

In No Regrets: The Edith Piaf Story, Nikki Nouveau offers a captivating and heartfelt journey of the legendary French singer, Edith Piaf. The audience is immersed in the essence of Piaf’s life and music within the first five minutes of the performance, through emotional delivery. Nikki transports the audience to the heart of Paris, with her deep connection to Piaf’s legacy.

The emotional resonance of Piaf’s story is enhanced by Nikki’s ability to speak both French and English seamlessly. Angelic vocals evoke the profound emotional connection between Nikki, Piaf, and the audience. The show begins slow, as Piaf’s life begins quite sad but ends with joy and passion – taking the audience on an emotional rollercoaster.

Nikki incorporated costume changes and accessories into her show, as a visual element of character development. The show began with Nikki wearing a black dress, to represent her femininity. In the second act Nikki wears a suit to portray the dominance and strength that Edith Piaf has adopted by this point in her life. A top hat was worn for a small sequence of songs as a character change – singing about Edith Piaf’s close friend Marlene Dietrich.

Each of these costumes were black, so they were timeless, sophisticated, and dark to represent the somewhat depressing story she was telling. The room was in relative darkness, and the stage was framed by red curtains and a stark white spotlight. Throughout the performance, Nikki performed flowy, elegant arm movements to match the music.

A standout was one of Piaf’s most notorious songs, La Vie en Rose, which coveys the bittersweet emotions that come with love. Nikki’s exceptional delivery aroused strong feelings of nostalgia and romance. Along with Nikki’s impressive vocals, there are moments where the music takes centre stage, with creative yet dramatic instrumental scores.

The changing dynamics in the music enhanced the atmosphere and highlighted the raw emotions tied to Piaf’s iconic and timeless songs. The music is an integral part of the storytelling, and Nikki moves to the side so the instruments are featured. John Reeves is an exceptional pianist and accordion player who deserves much recognition for his talent and musical ability.

Although the show started off deliberately slow to match Edith’s early years, it gathers pace, leading to the whole audience clapping along towards the end. Overall, this was a wonderful performance from Nikki and her musicians, full of passion, soul and music.

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Howlin’ for Baskervilles – Hound of the Baskervilles UpStage Theatre

04/04/202530/03/2025 Amanda Harrison🥉

Sherlock Holmes: Hound of the Baskervilles Rating

★★★★★

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The Hound of The Baskervilles is a classic Sherlock Holmes caper set at Baskerville Hall after the death of its previous owner. Unexpectedly, we follow Watson for most of the journey to collect evidence and interview suspects, working his way through the victim’s neighbours and lovers, all whilst a demon dog stalks its prey: them. Upstage Theatre’s rendition of this tale finds us in a Box Set of the sitting room in Baskerville Hall as we flit between conversations, dinner parties and occasional ventures out to the Moore.

The costuming was a real standout for this play, as every character had a uniquely curated wardrobe and style that was still accurate to the location and time of the play. It felt that much attention to detail and time was put into the design and curation, which elevated the atmosphere and created distinct differences between the characters.

There were nice moments where creative lighting assisted in the change of atmosphere, such as a flickering ‘fire’ effect over the fireplace to indicate a change of season. The use of prop candles was also well considered, with blocking helping to cover them when appropriate.

The Blocking and movement of this play was masterfully done, feeling natural and motivated at all times. At no point did characters behave in an unnatural way to meet a mark, begin needlessly pacing or start grandstanding when inappropriate; the best part of the blocking is that it didn’t feel like ‘blocking’. This is thanks to the wonderful, thoughtful direction of June Tretheway and David Bell.

High Commendations should be given to the standout of the show, Shaun King, in the role of Watson. King delivered an energetic and likeable performance with fantastic characterisation. Grant Caldwell, in the role of Henry Lewis, played well off of King to give us an engaging journey throughout the play. Virginia Gray was fantastic in the role of Mrs Franklind, providing comedic relief and a captivating spirit to the stage. As Beryl Stapleton, Emily Egan gave an endearing and earnest performance, along with Jessica Fletcher.

I would have liked to see some additional development of the sound design to further assist in building the atmosphere. The sound used was agreeable, but further consideration of this element of the production could have lifted it even more. The other aspect I would like to see evaluated would be the pacing. However, this should improve the further this production gets into its run, as opening night nerves could have been impacting this.

Overall, the Hound of the Baskerville is an enjoyable play, and the cast and crew should be commended for their efforts.

To book tickets to Sherlock Holmes: Hound of the Baskervilles, please visit https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1335625.

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Amanda Harrison🥉

Close, But No Cigar: A Polished And Playful Production

04/04/202530/03/2025 Paul Ellicott🥉

Close, But No Cigar Rating

★★★★★

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“Close, But No Cigar” is a comedic, well-paced murder mystery, featuring a vibrant, young ensemble cast – a perfect elixir on a wet Autumn evening, with a gin and tonic from the well-stocked BackDock Arts bar. Originally adapted from a QUT Bachelor of Fine Arts graduating piece, “Close, but no Cigar” transforms the stage into a living noir film; The makeup, costumes and lighting achieve this in creative, unexpected ways, with evocative and elemental splashes of red contrasting the clever black and white aesthetic.

As noted in the program, playwright Samara Louise took a collaborative approach to developing this piece, asking the cast to create characters they were passionate about playing, developing those character’s backgrounds, subtext and context, and then building a storyline around them. Instead of a broad narrative, the play focuses largely on the character’s individual lives, which intersect at a Private Investigator’s office in the wake of the murder of Senator A. Williams. These characters are enveloped in their own lives, each with their own amusing idiosyncrasies and secrets.

Borrowing liberally from the archetypes of old detective films, the cast adopt New York accents to consistently good standard, their physical spacing and shapes mostly well-utilising the compact space they gather in. The cast of Cullyn Beckton as Dick Clark, Mitch Guyatt as Dr Graves, Caleb Hockings as Arthur Blackbird, Claudia Lyons as Odette Blair, and Lucy Wilding as Viviene Fareweather, all perform with aplomb. Their timing and interplay is slick, and all shine individually and together in a script that gives them each fairly equal attention and work to do. Director Cale Dennis weaves a golden thread through this production, cohesively combining the separate elements into an entertaining whole, elevated far above the sum of its parts.

For me, the script works best when played with a wink; Beckton and Hockings deliver this beautifully, showing dynamic movement, fine physical comedy, and the best-developed characterizations of the cast – receiving hearty laughter from a near-capacity audience. A couples of times I thought cast could have leaned more into the campy elements of the play; Wilding has beautifully graphic, dark eyes, and I’d like to see her use them more as story-telling weapons, especially in a role with scope to be extra. I wonder if physically repositioning the cast to deliver monologues more to the audience, rather than the upstage cast, may further aid audience connection and audibility. The addition of musical effects reminiscent of a pulpy, radio-play would also be a fun addition, which would further clarify the play’s identity.

That said, I can enthusiastically recommend “Close, But No Cigar” as a polished and playful production with further potential that left me with sore cheeks and a smile on my face.

To book tickets to “Close, But No Cigar”, please visit https://www.tickettailor.com/events/backdockarts/1528759?.

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Paul Ellicott🥉

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