Arts
The burden of past and present
Blessed is a play filled with the pain, despair and isolation of two disenfranchised people unable to escape the dire circumstances of their past or their present, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Predictable Shakespeare interpretation
USING Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a leaping-off point for a new play is courageous or, some might say, foolhardy, and Anti-Hamlet is a clear case of — well — both say reviewer Kate Herbert
Fortune, glory and music
The MSO knows how to put on a great movie night with the vastness of Hamer Hall taking on living room-comfort for a screening of Steven Spielberg’s multiple Academy Award-winning 1981 movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
Delta gives fans goosebumps
REVIEW: DELTA Goodrem has given her Melbourne fans a night to remember. And with her ability to make people feel — and feel good — she needs to tour more regularly.
All hail the doomed queen
ANNE Boleyn, second wife of England’s King Henry VIII and familiar figure of history, is sanctified in glorious and dark dramatic form in Donizetti’s two-act opera from 1830, Anna Bolena, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
A thrill for romantics
THE Light in the Piazza is an impassioned, contemporary musical about an old-fashioned, boy-meets-girl love story delivered with operatic passions and a neo-romantic, classical score by Adam Guettel, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Hewett steals the show
Colleen Hewett’s appearance for the last 10 minutes of Godspell Reimagined elevates this cheerful, entertaining but only intermittently satisfying show to another level, and any flaws in the earlier scenes are forgiven, writes Kate Herbert.
Kalatzis hits the highest note
SCINTILLATING soprano Panayiota Kalatzis swept all before her last night to win the 2016 Herald Sun Aria.
Kinky Boots ‘jaunty and engaging’
KINKY Boots is like a marriage of the high campery of Priscilla and Hairspray, with the gritty, British working class of Billy Elliot and The Full Monty, says Kate Herbert.
Last chance to see a five-star production
Beg, borrow or steal to get a ticket to Robert Lepage’s remarkable Melbourne Festival show 887, in which Lepage blends personal storytelling about his childhood in Quebec City in the 1960s with the political struggles of French-speaking Canadians during that same period, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Playful take on literary classic
DON’T expect grim imagery or an intensive or academic scrutiny of Leo Tolstoy from Gob Squad’s adaptation of War and Peace, because this production is playful and eccentric rather than confronting or impenetrable, writes reviewer Kate Herbert
Sprawling saga hits a high note
THROUGH both song and story, the Melbourne stage production of The Color Purple captures the heartache and pain of Alice Walker’s 1982, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel on which the musical is based, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Four stories, one narrative
In his new play Sunshine, four, unnamed characters’ monologues tell the tale of a damp and doomed night when a marriage ends, a dead husband is mourned, a man betrays his friend and two strangers’ lives collide.
On ice
There’s an icy twist to the Melbourne Festival show Vertical Influences, which is performed by figure skaters who take their artistic impression within and beyond figure skating, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Figaro goes to the footy
Aussie rules meets Mozart in this you-beaut, zany and delightful adaptation of the Marriage of Figaro, presented in true only-in-Melbourne style in the grandstand and clubrooms at the North Port Melbourne footy oval, writes Paul Selar.
A dark dance
Choreographer Lucy Guerin’s The Dark Chorus is an abstract but sometimes disorienting work that leaves much to personal interpretation, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Kids’ books make great story
Children’s books sales are booming and one Melbourne bookseller is going along for the ride with a speciality bookstore
A mixed bag of amazing offerings
This integrated circus, dance and theatre concoction, showing until Sunday as part of the Melbourne Festival, highlights the narrative possibilities of circus skills within a larger dramatic framework, writes Stephanie Glickman
Less than saintly
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is a wild ride with this gang of grotesque, offensive but loveable characters whose appalling behaviour embodies all we loath about teenagers, and all that we hope to nurture, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Snaps highlight women across racing industry
THINK thoroughbred racing is a man’s world? Think again. A Melbourne photographic exhibition showcases the roles many women play in the sport.
Downton Abbey star coming to Melbourne
A TOUCH of English elegance is being added to the Melbourne production of My Fair Lady,with a Downton Abbey star announced to play a role alongside lead Anna O’Byrne.
Melbourne’s best craft beer
ARE these Melbourne’s best small-batch brews and breweries? As we head into the weekend, here’s an ode to the craft beer capital of the country.
If the boot fits, wear it on stage
IT’S the role Callum Francis feels born to play, but there were some people he needed to ask before taking the lead in the Aussie production of Kinky Boots.
Hearty laughs from hapless guests
EVEN Fawlty Towers purists should find some hearty laughs in this stage adaptation of John Cleese and Connie Booth’s iconic 1970s BBC comedy series, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Ice Cold
Switzerland is a sharp-witted and intelligent play and its highlight is Peirse’s audacious portrayal of Patricia Highsmith, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Gumnut baby brilliance
The kooky critters from Australian author May Gibbs’s Snugglepot and Cuddlepie are brought to life in this school holiday production of the children’s classic, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
A triumph in Havana
It’s a shame to see Our Man in Havana just once but opera fans would be mad to miss this production completely, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
A high bar
Circus features prominently in this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival and Casus Circus’s Restrung is a strong example of both the extreme skill and offbeat ethos of Australian-grown circus in an intimate stage environment, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
Dance Dynamics
Chunky Move promotes emerging and established choreographers through the annual Next Move program and this year two duet collaborations share the Next Move bill, writes reviewer Stephanie Glickman.
