★★★
Adelaide Fringe Festival. The Warehouse Theatre. 22 Feb 2025
I Can Have a Darkside Too is actor/writer/musician/ventriloquist Glenn Wallis’s first solo show as actor/writer. It comes in just under 40 minutes and it is both humorous and disturbing as it explores themes of grief, suicide, mental health, and self-efficacy.
Nate, played by Wallis, is a children’s entertainer who is commissioned by schools to deliver ‘fun’ lessons on stranger danger and the like. But he has personal demons that surface and interfere with his state of mind and how he approaches his work. In fact he’s dangerous. The text delves deeper into Nate’s thought processes and his less than pleasant memories of his childhood and his relationship with his mother who has recently passed away under tragic circumstances. The mirror into Nate’s disturbed psyche is through a sock puppet called Emmett that Nate controls.
Emmett is foul mouthed and brutal in what he says, and he upsets Nate’s equilibrium at every turn, but the audience lap it up. There are plenty of chuckles and the dialogue frequently lands its punches, but there are also many occasions where the gag lines need to be more incisive and even crueller than they are.
Wallis’s physicality is impressive. There is not much of the stage that he doesn’t use and at times the sock puppet seems larger than life and behaves like a rat cunning street fighter. It distracts us from Wallis’s emerging ventriloquist skills.
The show has an impressive soundtrack with various voice overs that Wallis uses to perfection.
This show merits further development and making a return visit to Fringe.
Kym Clayton
When: 22 Feb
Where: The Warehouse Theatre
Bookings: Closed
State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Playhouse. 12 Feb 2025
Oh joy.
What a brilliant start to 2025 in the Adelaide Theatre.
What a wonderful buzz percolating through a departing audience.
Housework is a hit.
Emily Steel shines forth as a bright new playwright with this pertinent play profiling the machinations of Australian politics.
Yes, there’s nothing domestic about this housework. It is House of Parliament.
Steel has slipped beneath our political news cycles and explored the hows and, especially the whys of those seeking careers in politics. To this end, she has created an almost perfect cast of characters who profile the inner sanctum machinations of Canberra. Their careers revolve around a newly elected federal MP and her determination to get her policies moving through the system. Yes, she has a feminist agenda. But let’s not say “feminist”.
Her team seeks for her the support of a senior minister in Canberra and her seasoned Chief of Staff, a tense and cynical, perchance battle-scarred, veteran of those hallowed halls has the connections. There are layers and histories which surge to the surface as part of the learning curve of the super-keen new junior staffer, Kelly. Steel has cleverly potted the dramas and vulnerabilities of the capital's soft underbelly with a delicious wry wit. It is a very funny play. And yet, it does not hold back on the truth-telling. It is a skilful satire on that old Westminster system we hold so dear.
It plays its own pun on its title with the prelude scene of the Sunitra Martinelli as the cleaner giving thorough spit and polish to Ailsa Paterson’s expansive set. This is dominated by a huge revolvable meeting table and backgrounded by a pillar-lined “corridor of power”, down which darting figures may hint at the pressure cooker rush of Parliamentary life. Multi-purpose, effective and, under Nigel Levings' inimitable lighting, it also is of very pleasing aesthetic. It brings another production-values star to this fabulous show.
It was commissioned by the wonderful Mitchel Butel as State Artistic Director. What a sterling stamp he leaves on the quality of modern Australian theatre. As they say in the classics, he can pick’em.
Herein, he lifts playwright Emily Steel into the glow of audience headlights as, perhaps a new David Williamson.
And, with Shannon Rush risen as an enlightened and perceptive director with a thrilling program ahead, he leaves Adelaide so much the better. And Australia.
This play has legs. Its political theme follows the zeitgeist of Utopia with a streak of Clarke and Dawe and Gilles and a dash of Yes Minister.
It is clever, funny and finely wrought. A splendour of box ticking,
It is political without fear or favour.
And, of course, it features not only a deliciously quirky percussive musical embellishment by Andrew Howard, but some award-worthy performances.
The ever-elegant Renato Musolino finds that fine line between complacency and deviousness in the political-power-games powerhouse with his portrayal of “call me Paul” in the Federal Ministry.
There’s wonderful veracity in the scene in which everyone is eating dumplings. Really eating, And Musolino is a cheek-bulging phenomenon. There are many pithy touches to this work.
Susie Youssef plays the new MP, at first galling in her ineptitude and then, as Susie develops the character with her excellent comic timing, she emerges as ever more endearing and credible. It is a nice profile of the novice political animal. Then playing the new MP's career foundation chief of staff, Emily Taheny, gives nothing less than a tour de force performance with some absolutely torrential dialogue delivery. Phew. One was surprised she did not score a burst of spontaneous audience applause on opening night. Then again, Housework features a number of applaud-worthy moments both in performances and message. Franca Lafosse is a heavenly innocent abroad as the junior staffer while Benn Welford presents a rather moving portrayal depicting the actual predicament of those who become political media advisors. Oh yes, Emily Steel has not held back. She’s done her homework in those shadowy back rooms and has thrown a few home truths out into the theatrical limelight.
Hence, the satisfaction at the cultural and intellectual feast of this new theatre work which comes complete with a few wee kickers at the end.
Five stars and then some.
Samela Harris
When: 12 to 22 Feb
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: my.statetheatrecompany.com.au
Pelican Productions. Musical Theatre Camp and Spotlight. Michael Murray Centre for Performing Arts - Westminster School. 18 Jan 2025.
Pelican Productions theatre camps and Spotlight programs are twenty years old already. Time’s speed is scary.
Directors Jen Frith and Kylie Green marvel in their program notes about the latest production named Twenty in honour of this landmark twentieth, saying it is “nothing short of phenomenal” that it all comes together. True.
The scale of Pelican productions is massive. There are so many talented young performers that their shows are divided into four huge casts so that everyone can have a spotlight.
It’s a talent factory on the grand scale and thank heavens that Westminster School has a really big stage and auditorium to accommodate it all - especially, as on this Twentieth anniversary production, an added vast array of alumni swarmed into the theatre and massed on and around the stage. And they were all wonderful. Love was in the air. So much love.
Pelican achieves all this with its Musical Theatre Camps and Spotlight programs, bringing top entertainers and masters of their arts in to train the upcoming entertainers and theatre workers. Hundreds of people.
The wondrous end product is a mass of young performers up there giving their all. Trained to a tee. Beautifully costumed, well miked... Every single one of them is focused on performance and works as if they are the only one on stage.
This 2025 first big show followed the Pelican productions pattern of excerpts from major popular musicals: a bonanza of hits and big cast numbers.
This critic attended the “Broadway” cast’s Saturday-night performance.
There were not many things to criticise. Mainly it was the tendency towards oversinging, which has become endemic in this era of “Everyone’s Got Talent” shows. Hence, singers who sang rather than belted were standout. A few issues with understanding lyrics but, then again, there were some pretty terrible lyrics. Not all musicals are works of art and one now knows that one never wants to see a full performance of The Great Gatsby Musical. Or &Juliet! (Then again, off the subject, keep an eye out for Romeo + Juliet which is really fresh youth version which is currently packing Broadway with teens.)
Pelican's spectaculars always are a bit overwhelming, and it seems unfair to see only a proportion of the talent in just one of the casts. But that’s how it rolls.
From the Broadway cast’s production, there are quite a few names for which to keep a future look-out.
There’s Sebastian Cox, a phenomenal dancer. There’s Lluka Wadey, outstanding from one of six stunners in Six the Musical. There's Gracie Cheung in Beettlejuice. There’s April Sprules as Annie. There’s Belle Letic as Daisy in Gatsby. There’s Casey Mifsud and Aidan Salmon from Book of Mormon which, incidentally, was delivered as a totally breathtaking opener to the show. The overall showstopper was Finn Green with Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat from Guys and Dolls. He’s a star alumni.
There are the soloists from The Lion King and big tick to the stilt-walking giraffes, albeit the Circle of Life animals were generally a tough call.
Further big ticks to all the techs behind the scenes. Production values were high and the projection sets were extremely effective. Ditto the costumes. Some of the choreography was beyond excellent. The discipline of the performers was copybook. The praise can go on.
Whoever the baritone was who featured in the alumni grand finale was just “wow”. But then again, there was too much to praise. This reviewing job is impossible.
Brava Jen and Kylie. You’re a class act delivering countless class acts.
This state and show biz owes you a lot.
Samela Harris
When: 17 to 19 Jan
Where: Michael Murray CPA
Bookings: Closed
A Christmas Musical. The Flying Elephant Company. Burnside Town Hall. 18 Dec 2024
If anything can do the heart good at Christmas, it is the sight of a new generation bursting not only with ace talent but with a serious oomph of initiative.
Last month we saw Ben Francis waving the future’s flag with his stunning Elton John tribute show for one night only up at the Shedley. Hey, now it’s coming to town.
This month, it’s that award-winning Benji Riggs mounting a wildly ambitious brand-new Christmas musical with and for the young.
He’s hired the super-handy and accessible Burnside Town Hall's nifty theatre space for his season - which comes to the stage after a couple of years of devotion from Benji. It’s a corny pun to say he’s outstanding because he is very tall. But he has been head and shoulders above the crowd since he was a prodigy kid and now, as a young man, he just keeps rising as a multi-talented phenomenon. His past credits are legion: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; The Boy with the Golden Fox; and work with Independent Theatre just this year.
That the inspiration figures in this work are Charles Dickens and Stephen Sondheim shine forth from the show. Yes, it is Dickens-a-la-Riggs with a very neat, foot-tapping Sondheim-esque original score. It all fits together rather nicely, once one stops puzzling about the title. One imagines Book Nooks is just catchy, like the music.
It certainly evoked a vivid and very memorable set design from Adrian Joy - a stage embraced by book-laden bookshelves with a Christmas tree in the middle and, OP, a big armchair corner for the narrator, Seven Parker, the only adult on stage.
The performers all are miked and, while obviously there is not a full orchestra onstage, the excellent sound is indeed orchestrated by writer/director Riggs.
He did not do the excellent choreography, though. He knows a good choreographer when he sees one and this one is Bridget Tran. She has that cast brilliantly drilled. It is a tough little performance space but it is astutely used and the dancing cast is attentive and precise, sharing an infectious look of engagement upon their faces.
The story line is new but also as old as the proverbs. It is the realisation of a granddad's story of secret book spirits animating in a quest to find a little boy’s lost joy. The little boy, beautifully sung by Nemenja Illic, doesn’t get to look happy until the end, of course, but the book spirits reflect all sorts of emotions and are heaps of fun and are exuberantly costumed. Outstanding among them is Sophia Genary, a highly stage-experienced 11-year-old who is clearly going places. Josh Curtis, playing Cecil, also is one to watch. Indeed, full marks to Riggs on the casting: Keira Wubbolts, Harrison James Thomas, Jonathan Snow, Milla Illic, Ava-Rose Graves, and Kushi Choudhari. There are fine and focused performances from each and some marvellous singing. Clearly, everyone has worked really hard, and it has paid off.
Give or take a few inaudible lyrics, Book Nooks is an extremely slick and professional production. It is also bravely mounted at this busy time of the year but it makes for a fabulous pre-Christmas family treat and this jaded old critic loved it to bits and has no reservations in recommending it to one and all - to enhance a really happy Christmas.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 21 Dec
Where: Burnside Town Hall
Bookings: flyingelephantcompany.com
Independent Theatre. Star Theatres. 29 Nov 2024
Few things in this life are as deeply satisfying as a really good, solid piece of old-school theatre. Or so think many of us. Rob Croser has been delivering this entity in a state of high finesse for years - and at affordable ticket prices. We don’t know how lucky we are.
He’s done it yet again, with designer David Roach ingeniously transforming the old Star Theatre into a very comfortable and believable London flat of the 1950s. Walking in onto the set, which is at the foot of the front row in the Star, took this 60s London flatter right back to that life, replete with its period gas fire and coin-hungry gas meter. Both set and costumes of The Deep Blue Sea are absolutely spot-on.
Hester Collyer has come upon hard times in post-war London, reduced to digs in a converted Victorian mansion the like of which, by rights, would have been hers had she not forsaken her knighted husband and run off with a dashing toy boy. Her mistakes are coming home to roost in this Terrence Rattigan portrait of broken hearts and wasted opportunities. Not even the kind people around her can extinguish her stubborn victimhood.
Through one long day, post unsuccessful cri de cœur with aspirin and gas, she wafts and wallows, dishevelled and in dressing gown, beyond hope or reason.
Hester Collyer is one of theatre’s great melodramatic roles for a seasoned actress, renowned from performances by Googie Withers and Peggy Ashcroft. With his general directorial impeccability, Rob Croser has cast the eminently capable Lyn Wilson in this emotionally exhausting lead role. In thrall, the audience follows the desperate vales, trenches and hysterical highs of her committed characterisation.
There is, of course, a human commonality to her plight and, although one may not like the spoiled hobby-artist, Hester Collyer, one understands her mindset.
She has created a love triangle. Her husband, Sir William, the judge, is still desperately in love with her, but not she with him. She loves the fun-loving drunkard, Freddie Page, a relic of WWII derring do-air combat, now a failed test pilot.
On this crucial day after her birthday, the emotional gambles of her past converge. Everyone comes knocking.
Handsome Freddie is a lovely posh cad, quite perfectly embodied by Patrick Marlin while Chris Bleby stands aloft, fairly literally, as the cuckolded noble husband. His is a beautifully expressive performance and one’s heart breaks for his heartbreak.
The supporting cast uniformly delivers strong and credible performances. Rose Vallen is salt of the earth and commonsense heart of gold as Hester’s landlady and cleaner while Ryan Kennealy and Sophie Livingston-Pearce turn in very entertaining cameos as busybody fellow tenants. Tim Everson very neatly encapsulates the spirit of slightly upper crust decadence in the atmosphere of postwar London hedonism as Freddie’s old school bestie.
Finally, there is Mr Miller, the sad old disgraced German doctor who also has digs at this Ladbroke Gardens address. Mrs Elton, the landlady, knows his and everyone else’s secrets. She almost keeps them. She and Mr Miller provide both physical and philosophical succour for poor Hester, with some of the best lines if this finely wrought play.
Yes, The Deep Blue Sea is very much a period piece. It is precisely dated, and this is part of its significance in the canon of English theatre. The 1950s was an era of damaged people in a bomb-scarred city, of a society trying to put the salve of stiff upper lip upon its war traumas.
While this wonderful Croser production with its splendid Roach set is attracting an audience of older citizenry still with memories of those not so long gone times, it is really a work to which Gen X, Y and Z should be exposed.
While the characters arrayed in the play are of their era, their stereotypes and their places in the cut and thrust of the human predicament are reborn through every generation.
This is a five-star piece of theatre, eminently worth your valuable time.
Samela Harris
When: 29 Nov to 7 Dec
Where: Star Theatres
Bookings: trybooking.com