Back to Back Theatre’s smash hit production returns in a
whirlwind Australian tour, the sell-out of the 2005 Melbourne
International Arts Festival and more recently the 2007 Sydney Festival.
All My Sons is a good example of traditional, well-made drama,
based on ideas of responsibility and integrity, and a plot both deeply
considered and soundly constructed.
This is a highly comic and eccentric re-telling of the Nativity story produced by an amateur theatre company of three! Be ready for some segues back and forth in time, visual and verbal comedy, a touch of opera and some impressive sound effects including kookaburras and possums!
The group uses electronic and recorded, as well as live music, and
gives some importance to visual design and staging. This wide-ranging
perspective certainly lends considerable interest to its performances,
but the results are mixed.
With its somersaulting ‘acro-fairies’, a punch-up between leading ladies Hermia and Helena, and a completely manic Puck inclined to moon the audience at whim, this is one revved up, madcap production of what is arguably Shakepeare’s best-loved comedy.
The Spook was inspired by the true story of a young man recruited by
ASIO in the 1960s and asked to masquerade as a communist whilst spying
on his local party branch. However, as Reeves assures us in her program notes, The Spook is a totally fictional and sometimes ludicrous version of the story.
We
become engrossed in the web of intricacy of this Chilton 'clique' as we
are exposed to each boy's personalities and learn of their contribution
to the group dynamic.
