Detailing the travails of an inept handful of (very) small-time mobsters who run afoul of the real thing, Mojo gives us an entertaining vision of a 1958 London obsessed with imported Rock & Roll and American fashions, yet still profoundly British almost to the point of caricature.
Stephen Sewell’s new play, The Gates of Egypt is a clarion call to extend ourselves beyond our individual temporal concerns and act within a larger moral framework.
Bubbling with bouncy banter including every ludicrous Aussie-vernacular-cliché under our collective sunburnt brow, The Glass Boat loosely themes itself on time-travel, Christmas and a mental institution.
That Eva’s been dancing since 12 should surprise noone, since she does it with such consummate self-assuredness: while I’m gasping, in anxious anticipation of a fatal error, she’s dancing her heart and soul out.
The beautifully delicate crooning of Madeleine Peyroux, weighted with pained honesty of heart ache, loneliness and yearning, seems to be more suited to a more intimate venue rather than the vast space of the State Theatre.
Yohangza Theatre Company, has not produced a traditional treatment of the play. Bearing from South Korean, they have infused the production with Korean mythology, theatrical techniques and an Eastern sensibility.
‘Total theatre’ will only work if all elements are strong, and indeed Meryl Tankard’s direction, choreography and design in Kaidan: A Ghost Story brings an explosive fusion of art-forms.
A gifted embroider of words, Friel combines soft lyricism and hard meaning in his play, a tragical comical historical pastoral on a spree and spoiling for a spirited spar.
In the care of Pinchgut Opera’s director, Erin Helyard, this music, formulaic as it indeed is in some respects, sprang off the page into an experience rich in emotions.
Iolanthe and Janet Anderson work in cosmic, comedic accord, characterisation charismatic, timing impeccable, delivery precise, together a tour de force that ascends the cliché.
Blind faith and rational belief are always sparring partners in dramatic conflict and so it is here with the power play tinged with superstition and salaciousness.