The Jewish mother has somewhat become a stereotype in
entertainment. The portrayal of the overbearing matriarch, who
steadfastly drills in to her offspring the crucial importance of
retaining the Jewish tradition, has been widely represented in
literature, film and theatre.
Short & Sweet
offers a good opportunity for theatre dramatists to have their work
seen by the general public, to be validated as artists, to practice and
grow in their craft.
Swan Lake is a bold, dynamic and clever interpretation. Bourne throws in elements of jazz, modern dance, Latin (including an energetic paso doble set to Tchaikovsky’s Spanish Dance) as well as ballroom and folk.
Nothing quite adds a sense of reality to a “night in the woods” like a
diegetic thrum of real cicadas. At one point a chorus of kookaburras
struck up, as if perfectly on cue to provide a fanfare for Titania’s
entrance!
Young
girls tumble across the stage, flip over and over, handle enormous
numbers of hula hoops, stand on large balls, and fly, twirl and spin
through the air. And this is only the overture.
Burkett
is undoubtedly a master of guiding his cast through all matter of human
(and otherwise) gesture, but the real magic is his ability to convey
characters across his player puppets.
Boston Marriage, performing at the Darlinghurst Theatre depicts two deliciously etched bitches
with one thing on their mind. It’s not the same in each case, however.
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.
