Perth - Whats The Show

Murder on the Magic School Bus

7 February 2025 Breanna Redhead

Murder on the Magic School Bus (Fringe World) Rating

★★★★★

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In a fun re-imaging of a nostalgic children’s favourite – Murder on the Magic School Bus is precisely what it makes out to be, promising just under an hour of laughs, twists and schoolyard drama.

In what could best be summarised as ‘The Breakfast Club’ meets a murder mystery, the show follows a class excursion to a crime scene-turned-disaster with the group left to resolve the death of one of their own.

Kate O’Sullivan is at the helm as the iconic Miss Frizzle, confidently leading pupils through a masterclass in criminology with great gusto.

The student pool is rounded out by the distinct archetypes of a typical school environment – a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal – if you will.

Clare Boon earns a lot of laughs as ‘miss popular’ Lexi, bouncing well off Jasmine Ward’s brooding Ash. The pair share great chemistry with a fun, albeit unexplored, enemies to lovers type side plot.

Dominic Depiazzi shines as brainiac Jamie – commanding the stage with his strong presence. While Genevieve Wilson and Sarah-Beth Aldridge nicely round out the group as the sporty Sam and quiet Charlie respectively.

Callum Fairweather provides a good neutral ground among the smorgasbord of personalities, offering frank narration as victim Xavier.

While good use of the stage was made, with some particularly enjoyable ‘appearing’ props, blocking sometimes felt repetitive and lineal. The pacing could also be improved (though this could have been opening night jitters), with actors often interjecting one another in a bid to keep up with the quick-fire dialogue.

Props, however, must go to the cast for seamlessly adapting to the night’s chosen killer, in what appears to be open-ended every night, offering the right dose of audience interaction whilst still leaving enough to the imagination to bring keen audience members back for more.

Overall, this production is a fun concept, with sturdy foundations that I’d love to see further fleshed out, but nevertheless makes for an enjoyable night out to see some promising local talent take the stage.

To book tickets to Murder on the Magic School Bus (Fringe World), please visit https://fringeworld.com.au/whats_on/murder-on-the-magic-school-bus-fw2025

This year’s Fringeworld Festival Perth runs from 17 January to 16 February. For more information, please visit https://fringeworld.com.au.

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.

Breanna Redhead

Booze & The Bard: Macbeth! The Scotch Play

1 February 2025 Manuela Kacomanolis

Booze & the Bard: Macbeth! The Scotch Play Rating

★★★★★

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With the show’s title named Booze & The Bard: Macbeth, I had a feeling this wouldn’t be your typical Macbeth play. As part of Perth’s annual Fringe Festival, five young actors bring a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s infamous Macbeth to the stage.

Held at Four5Nine Bar at the Rosemount Hotel, a cosy little venue, the audience and the actors had no idea how the play would pan out. The concept reminded me a little bit of those “choose your own adventure books” where the reader’s choices determine the main character’s actions.

The play started off smoothly; all the standard lines are acted out with an injection of modern language sprinkled throughout (I loved this because, as someone who myself am not a big follower of Shakespeare’s plays, it made the play easier to follow and understand). When the play continued too smoothly, that’s when the actors shook things up a bit. There were drinking games (audience members could also participate if they wished), but either way, the actors are drinking throughout the play.

The major shakeup of the show was the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel had a variety of rules that the chosen actor had to follow when the tab landed on any of these rules, and this could happen at any moment throughout the entire show. The narrator would usually bring the spinning wheel to an audience member to spin.

For example, when it landed on ‘accent’ the chosen actor had to say his lines in an Irish accent for remainder of the play. I especially though it was funny when it landed on ‘western’ and the actor playing Macbeth, Ethan Milne, had to act out the rest of the play as though he was in a western movie, topping it off by wearing a poncho.

There were moments when the actors would be calling out ‘noooo’ when the spinning wheel was pulled out. I could feel their pain. It would not be easy to recite a Shakespeare play and then force put a spin on it at the last minute.

It’s ironic that Macbeth is actually a tragedy, but this show was far from tragic. The Booze & the Bard’s Macbeth, the Scotch Play was a fun, chaotic, silly, comedic retelling of a Shakespeare classic with many twists.

You certainly do not have to be a Shakespeare fan or understand Shakespeare to enjoy this show. It’s clear the actors were all having a lot of fun, and this naturally pulled the audience in.

If you are looking for a light-hearted show with plenty of laughs and, of course, drinking, then this is the show for you.

To book tickets to Booze & the Bard: Macbeth! The Scotch Play, please visit https://fringeworld.com.au/whats_on/booze-the-bard-macbeth-the-scotch-play-fw2025

This year’s Fringeworld Festival Perth runs from 17 January to 16 February. For more information, please visit https://fringeworld.com.au.

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.

Manuela Kacomanolis

I Watched Someone Die On TikTok

25 January 2025 Manuela Kacomanolis

I Watched Someone Die on TikTok Rating

★★★★★

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With the show’s title, ‘I Watched Someone Die on TikTok,’ I had no idea what to expect from this show. All I knew was that it would be a one-person show. Sometimes these can be the best sorts of shows without any preconceived ideas.

As part of the Perth Fringe Festival, WAAPA alumnus Charlotte Otton delivers a quirky, commentary-style and partial biographical performance involving her relationship with the internet and social media.

Although the performance is delivered in a humorous manner, it touches on serious topical issues such as social media addiction, minors on social media, cyber-bullying and the multitude of disturbing content found on the internet.

Charlotte takes the audience on a journey from the early stages of the internet in the early 90s to the colossal digital platform it now is.

She makes a point of how the internet is filled with so much dark content and how easily accessible this content is to any person of any age. This content she refers to includes people dying in hospitals, beheadings and people being beaten to death. In the early internet days, it may have been a bit tricky, but certainly not impossible, to access such content, but nowadays, videos, regardless of whether they are age-appropriate or not, so easily pop up in social media feeds.

The strong grip social media has on people’s lives is real, and Charlotte brings this to focus. In one segment, the absurdity of some of the TikTok challenges is brought to life as she playfully takes up the challenge that the audience selects for her.

Any person who is guilty of doom-scrolling will relate to Charlotte’s commentary.

I found this show immensely entertaining and Charlotte to be an outstanding solo performer. I never knew which way the show would go or what Charlotte would do next. Mirroring much of how Tik Tok operates, she performs multiple segments in the show at a fast pace—keeping the attention of the audience glued to the stage.

To book tickets to I Watched Someone Die on TikTok, please visit https://fringeworld.com.au/whats_on/i-watched-someone-die-on-tiktok-fw2025

This year’s Fringeworld Festival Perth runs from 17 January to 16 February. For more information, please visit https://fringeworld.com.au.

Photographer: Sophie Minissale

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.

Manuela Kacomanolis

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Irish Theatre Players

8 December 2024 Poppy Rogers

The Twelve Days of Christmas Rating

★★★★★

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While pantomimes aren’t a well-known concept to some, they are a Christmas tradition for many families in the UK. It’s also the one-time audience participation in the theatre that is not only expected but encouraged. Oh no, it’s not, I hear you say. Well, oh yes, it is!

The Irish Theatre Players’ production of The Twelve Days of Christmas takes us to the enchanting village of Old Dimpley Bottom, where the Royal family are planning a grand Festive Ball to bring joy to all the villagers. To mark this splendid occasion, a giant advent calendar with 12 doors is constructed on the Village Green, with one door to be opened each day until Christmas.

However, the festive spirit is threatened when Wizbad, the wicked wizard (Adrian Mills), steals the keys to the advent calendar and scatters them across the globe. Aided by the good Fairy (Anna Sirotkina), the characters embark on an exhilarating race against time, travelling to the world, from South America to Ireland, in their quest to retrieve the missing keys.’

The set got everyone in the Christmas spirit and saw clever use of a single flat interchanged as the residents of Old Dimpley Bottom travelled far and wide in search of the keys to save Christmas. The stage lights would go down, and when they were lit again, we had been transported to a new exotic destination with singing, dancing (yes, of course, some of it Irish) and a range of well-considered props to confirm where we were.

The Twelve Days of Christmas is fun for the whole family. It has the right amount of innuendo to keep the adults laughing, but the kids especially will love it. The audience was clearly well versed in their role, with the expected booing, hissing, and ‘he’s behind you’ happening from the very start.

The cast embraced their roles and hammed it up. The traditional pantomime dame, Gertie Gusset (Peter O’Connor), was a crowd favourite, and relatable local council workers Stampit and Clampit (Nathan Holland and Amanda Walker) were appropriately annoying as they provided fines for inappropriate parking of a wheelbarrow and an announcement after the interval that given its Christmas, instead of wheel clamping audience members’ cars, they’d been nice and had them towed.

Having a reasonably large cast, often on stage at the one time, and with children making up half of the ensemble, things could become a bit of a mess but the action was well choreographed and made great use of the space available, sometimes extending out into the crowd.

The costumes were fabulous and plentiful, keeping some of the main characters’ outfits simple but adding accessories such as Queen Cupcake’s headband…you guessed it, a cupcake. Every different country travelled to in search of keys featured costumes to suit, from French berets to leprechaun outfits.

With Christmas less than three weeks away, what are you waiting for? Head down to The Irish Club of WA in Subiaco to get yourself in the Christmas spirit. There’s even a bar should you need some spirit of a different kind.

Performance Dates: December 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15
Thursday, Friday & Saturday’s at 7.30pm
Saturday & Sunday matinees at 1.30pm.
Book your tickets quickly here:- TAZ Tix.

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.

Poppy Rogers

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