Language
and its role in culture and identity is central to this work and it is
explored in all its complexity. Do we need to hang on to the language
of the past in order to be ourselves?
A relatively recent addition to Melbourne’s theatre scene, The Eleventh Hour has quickly established itself as an independent company of note since winning a couple of Green Room awards last year.
Based loosely on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Kiss Me Kate was Cole Porter’s most successful musical, sweeping the Tony Awards in 1949 and once again in 2000 following a Broadway revival.
Presented in an appealing format of nine vignettes, Almost, Maine
sets the simultaneous interlocking love stories on a chilly Friday
night in a mythical North American town.
Set
on the eve of federation, the still current fears of colonial Australia
are writ large in this play within a play within a play. The Malthouse Theatre, led by director Michael Kantor, revels in the so-bad-its-good gaudiness of pantomime with this latest production of Babes In The Wood,
In The Chosen Vessel, Melbourne Company Petty Traffikers has brought three short stories by Barbara Baynton, a contemporary of Henry Lawson, to the stage.
In John Howard's Farewell Party Quantock, in his inimitable way, takes his audience on a friendly and rambling journey through his memories of the Howard years.