Posts tagged Dunstan Playhouse
RAW: Romeo & Juliet – Playhouse – Till 29th Aug – 4K
Aug 13th
Reviewed by Kosta Jaric
It takes a while to realize what is happening on stage, but once the confusion settles it is apparent that all six actors rotate roles throughout the play. As one actor takes part in a scene as Romeo, they may then transition into Juliet in the next. Once accustomed to recognizing the character by clothing or dialogue, it actually becomes enjoyable, and confirms how talented (and seamless) this cast is.
Director Geordie Brookman does something unique here in making the peripheral roles more prominent than the titular characters. Benvolio feels like more of a main character than Romeo, the Nurse more prominent than Juliet at times, and Mercutio gets the limelight like he has always deserved.
Josephine Were is great in her first full production with the STC opposite her former teacher, the always fantastic Terence Crawford (who perhaps is the most masculine Juliet since Victorian times). Another star of this production is the set designed by Pip Runciman. Almost a jungle gym for the cast, it hits fantastic extremes, gloriously morphing between scenes.
A lot of people would feel less inclined to see this famous play if they’ve seen it (or even one of the film versions) before, but they’ve created something unique in itself and definitely worth experiencing. It seems as if we’ve been blessed here lately with great productions and casts, but this one takes it a step further and perhaps surpasses The Toy Symphony (also involving Brookman) as the best performance seen at the Playhouse this year. The (perfectly placed) use of Roxy Music classic Love is the Drug throughout as a soundtrack and as dialogue is also brilliant, and sums it all up: “catch that buzz”.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
RAW: Letter’s End By Wolfe Bowart – Playhouse Till 31st July – 5K
Jul 29th
Adelaide parents and grandparents gather up in haste those pre-teen young ones in your life and make for the Dunstan Playhouse to revel in Wolfe Bowart’s Letter’s End. In a world of 3D and other cinema graphics, it is rare to see a single performer amaze and dazzle without all that tech. Bowart achieves that in trumps.
Mops that growl, apples that can be eaten off paintings, eggs that bounce and then don’t, a mosquito that never says die, blooms that transform from dead sun flowers to red roses and so it goes on in a never ending menagerie of products from a brilliant imagination that has children shrieking in joy and adults gasping in admiration.
His crowd interactions are fun with his helper on stage on opening night so full of joy even before he got on stage that it was obvious the goodwill of the whole show had infected all in the audience.
To be sure, this is mime of the highest order, in the Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton class for the 21st century. The sheer brilliance of not only the acts but the timing and the successful pursuit of magic throughout leaves those attempting to fathom how it is done exhausted and unfulfilled.
Please get your (grand)children along to Letter’s End, it will be an experience they and you will remember for a very long time.
Kryztoff Rating 5K
RAW: Entertaining Mr Sloane – Preview – 2 – 25 July – Dunstan Playhouse
Jun 29th
Subversively slipping this Oedipal sex-farce past the ever-watchful eye of the British censor in 1964, play writer Joe Orton raised innuendo to new and thrilling heights. Almost fifty years later, the funny and sexy Entertaining Mr. Sloane continues to be revived all around the world.
The State Theatre Company’s production, which kicks off this Friday, will be directed by Artistic Director Adam Cook and will feature one of Australia’s best loved actors, Jacki Weaver, fresh from much acclaimed role in the movie Animal Kingdom.
Set in the 1960s on the cusp of the sexual revolution, it may be the swinging in London, but out in the suburbs, behind closed doors, Kath is lonely. Craving love and affection, Kath and her bachelor brother Ed are more than happy to accommodate the attractive young charmer Mr Sloane within their home and lives.
Both Ed and Kath become so infatuated with their shady tenant with a murky past that to win him, they will let him get away with anything, even murder…
Entertaining Mr Sloane promises to be a gloriously witty romp full of sly sexiness and racy naughtiness.
Cast also includes Dennis Olsen, Sean Taylor and Renato Fabretti