Reviews | Stage Whispers (2024)

As a poet, I have never attended an event with my art critic hat on and had the uncontrollable need to express myself poetically by what was unfolding before me, but last night, hearing Maria Callas at the Arts Centre, as I wrote in my notebook in the dark, the poetic lines were just falling out of me, and as I write this review the next morning, I can still see her image and hear her voice. It’s as if my mind believes that I really did witness Maria, like she arrived to me in a dream, her ghost came to me, to us, at the Arts Centre.

This presentation of four short chamber music pieces encapsulates what the Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) is all about: collaboration, cross-pollination, and contemporary beginnings. And so the one-hour musical presentation included one World premiere and one Australian premiere, with sounds ranging from the experimental and abstract to the harmonically sublime. This sonic adventure was all achieved by four outstanding musicians – some at the start and others well into their international stage careers, but thankfully all currently based locally.

Showing Up, the latest film written and directed by Kelly Reichardt, is an apt film to view at the beginning of the Perth Festival at the Somerville outdoor cinema.

It deals with ordinary people who create art and the everyday mundanity of their lifestyles and necessary collaborations to get their art to an audience.

Lizzy, portrayed with grounded realism by Michelle Williams, sculpts ceramic figurines to express herself just as her father (played adeptly by Judd Hirsch) uses more functional pottery to put his voice out into the world.

It is hard to explain the phenomenon that is the Cheap and Dodgy Shows. Incredibly popular and much adored, this short season also raises money for a host of local charities and worthy causes, one of the more unique being to sponsor local students to attend WAAPA.

This year’s Brisbane Music Festival is the sixth to fulfil its aim of bringing us “music that dances, breathes, uplifts, haunts and stimulates”. And the Gala that started the Festival’s Part 2 event certainly lived up to the promise. The new loft-style space in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD is the perfect venue to immerse yourself in Artistic Director, Alex Raineri’s eclectic mix of music style, instruments and performers – showcasing all the talent that Brisbane has to offer, plus some friends from interstate and overseas.

Darlington Theatre Players'Once Upon a Pantomimeis lots of your favourite pantomimes smashed into a single (if a little convoluted) story. Featuring all our favouritepantomime tropes, including lots of opportunities to boo, cheer and say “aw”, baddies, goodies, a dame and singing and dancing. It is playing to healthy, noisy audiences at the Marloo Theatre.

With its optimistic storyline, Cyndi Lauper songs, a universally talented cast, exuberant choreography, skilled, pacey direction from Martin Croft, and great costumes, this production of Kinky Boots delivers the audience a big warm, hooting and stomping evening.

Fans, families, fun seekers, followers – gay and straight – they filled the Enmore, downstairs and in the balcony! Just for a couple of comedians? Well, yes! Nicholson and Creasey, alone and together, have a wide appeal. In person, on TV, on the radio, they reach across generations and genders, so it’s not surprising that their “Family Christmas” shows attract a large, eclectic crowd.

Kudos to Little Triangle director Alexander Andrews for his fresh ensemble interpretation of Ryan Scott Oliver’s musical theatre song cycle, based on Matthew Murphy’s photography, though that vision did require some homework either before or after the show for maximum impact.

Swan Lake is the epitome of classical ballet, the Hamlet of its genre, and worldwide most ballet companies have a few productions on the shelf. The Australian Ballet staged it in its first year in 1962 and, after imaginative reinventions this century by Graeme Murphy and Stephen Baynes, has appropriately revived it for this 60th anniversary year.