Tag: review
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Congratulations, Get Rich!
By Merlynn Tong HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Drama It’s the Opening Night: Seventh Night of Chinese New Year (AKA Human Day) Extravaganza at the Money Money Karaoke Bar. But the mood is sombre. Karaoke bar entrepreneur, Mandy (Merlynn Tong), is curled up on a podium. Her despair is palpable. Her boyfriend, Xavier (Zac…
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The Talented Mr Ripley
HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Drama A minimalist stage is brightly illuminated. Three or four large beach umbrellas stand in the middle distance. Somnolent Italian folk music plays in the background. A man selling colourful balloons strolls across the beach scene. Dickie Greenleaf (Raj Labade) and his girlfriend, Marge (Claude Scott-Mitchell), luxuriate in their…
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Circle Mirror Transformation
HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Drama The stage lights come up. Five characters, in various forms of active wear, are lying on the floor of a multi-purpose community centre. One-by-one they call out a number as the group, collectively, counts to ten. When two characters speak over each other, everybody giggles. The stage lights…
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Drama It’s December 1918. The Great War has just ended and Roger Button is a happy man. As he walks – nay, prances – through his Cornish fishing village, Roger stops to tell various townsfolk that today is the day! Today is the day he will become a father. Oh,…
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Back to the Future
CATERPILLAR EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐ The Drama If, somehow, you do not know the story…take this as your friendly spoiler alert! It’s 1985 and Doc Emmett Brown (Roger Bart) has built a time machine…from a DeLorean. It may have taken 30 years – since he fell from a toilet and hit his head and saw…
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Sunday
CATERPILLAR EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐ The Dramatic Premise Sunday Reed (Nikki Shiels), along with her husband, John (Matt Day), are patrons of the arts. They see life, itself, in painted works. Action. Pathos. Life. They can distinguish good art from bad art; the exalted from the derivative. And they are full of passion. Passion for…
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Sweat
By Lynn Nottage HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Dramatic Premise We’re in Reading, Pennsylvania. It’s the early 2000’s and George W Bush has just been elected President. Childhood friends, Tracey (Lisa McClune), Cynthia (Paula Arundell) and Jessie (Deborah Galanos) are meeting at the local bar. There’s a jukebox in the corner and an electric…
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The Odd Couple
HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ By Neil Simon The Dramatic Premise Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison are the best of friends. But they are nothing alike. Felix is slim and well dressed. He feeds off his nervous energy. He’s the neatest of neat-freaks. Oscar Madison is overweight and uncouth. He feeds off the junk food…
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Death of a Salesman
By Arthur Miller HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Dramatic Premise Willy Loman stands centre stage. Behind him are the wooden bleachers of Ebbets Field where other characters sit in the shadows, like the dimly lit ghosts of all of Willy’s intangible pipedreams. Somebody asks whether Willy is liked. He spins around, with uncharacteristic agility, points at…
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The President
COMFORTABLE EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐️⭐️ The Dramatic Premise The First Lady of a small, unnamed European country is getting ready (albeit slowly) for a State Funeral. Her husband, the President, is – evidently from sounds emanating from off-stage – in the bath. Photo Credit – Daniel Boud / STC The story line unravels slowly as…
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No Pay, No Way
By Dario Fo and Franca Rame Adapted by Marieke Hardy CATERPILLAR EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Dramatic PremiseAntonia and Margherita are aghast! The economy is in the pits. They can’t pay the gas bill, let alone the rent. And the local supermarket has just doubled its prices! The cost-of-living crisis is at its zenith. Photo…
