At 73 years old, Humphries is in remarkably good form. While Sir Les and Sandy Stone are still fresh, Dame Edna lacks some of the satirical bite and depth of character that made her a megastar.
In Berlin, on May 4, 1945, these boys are awakening to the fact that the game they were engaged in just a few weeks ago, which lends the play its title, is being played-out for real, in the streets above their manhole.
The creation of expat Swedish actress Danijela Hodges, Thore House is set in an erotic nightclub and tells the interwoven stories of several of its denizens.
While there’s more than a smattering of sparkling one-liners, too many are laboured and teetering on cliché. The references to the musical whose name the play parodies are scant and practically pointless.
Howard Brenton’s play Paul is the extraordinary story of St Paul, whose faith and fanatical commitment, in the playwright’s view, was as important in establishing the Christian religion as Christ himself.
City for Sale is a slick modern comedy based not so much on an Orwellian ‘Brave New World’ as a Swifter version of a past one, back to the future of feudalism.
Steeped in meta-theatricality, A Mirror prompts us to reflect on the status of storytelling, of its place in creating a culture, its manipulation into myth, its power to prick and to prod.
Young, O’Neill, Ionis, and indeed every member of the orchestra understood how to let this music crack open the psyche, yet hold us there in ways that can transfigure our souls.
Iolanthe and Janet Anderson work in cosmic, comedic accord, characterisation charismatic, timing impeccable, delivery precise, together a tour de force that ascends the cliché.