Our Town | State Theatre Centre Courtyard | til 23rd Feb | ★ ★ ★ ★ Intrigue urged me to review the latest Black Swan Production in the use of community members to play characters alongside three professional actors with indigenous heritage: Abbie-Lee Lewis (Emily), Ian Michael (Stage Manager/George), and Shari Sebbens (Mrs Gibbs). The intention was […]
Xenides | State Theatre Centre | Until 11 November | ★ ★ ★ ★ When Black Swan State Theatre Centre announced that they would be producing a new work, a world premiere to conclude their 2018 season, a musical, or a play with songs, a production about the life of game show hostess Adriana Xenides – I’ve […]
Johnny Carr takes on a challenging role in Black Swan Theatre Company’s production of David Greig’s play The Events. Appearing opposite Catherine McClements he plays everybody else in the play about an unfathomable tragedy. From lesbian girlfriends, to grief counselors, confused parents and the plays nemesis – a young man at the centre of a horrific […]
Assassins | State Theatre Centre | Until 1st July | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Assassins is on one level a challenging work for an Australian audience. When the writer behind A Little Night Music, Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George sat down to create this clever and theatrical march through American history – an audience in Western […]
In his musical Assassins Stephen Sondheim traverses US history visiting each assassination attempt on an American President. From the well known, including the deaths of John F Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, to attacks on the lives of Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, James Garfield and William McKinley. It’s a musical journey highlighting that being leader of […]
Hir | State Theatre Centre | Until 27 May | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This 21st century story of a family tackling issues of toxic masculinity, gender fluidity, independence, domestic violence and roles expectations goes full throttle from start to end. It’s zooms like a bullet train, unstoppable, powerful and driven. Isaac Connor returns from three years […]
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll | State Theatre Centre | Until 20 May | ★ ★ ★ ½ Ray Lawler’s classic Australian play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is his most well-known work, it’s been staged everywhere from Broadway to local community theatre and high school productions, it’s been a feature film with big name stars, and even turned […]
Taylor Mac, who uses judy (lowercase j) as a gender pronoun, left a memorable impression when judy appeared at the Perth Festival back in 2011. Now Perth audiences have another chance to enter the world of the drag legends creative realm as Black Swan State Theatre Company stage judys play Hir. The plays name is […]
Let The Right One In | State Theatre Centre | Until Dec 3 | ★ ★ ★ ★ If a modern vampire romance were to be anywhere, I’m glad it was the Western Australian State Theatre. In the gold of the entranceway it seemed only natural to be greeted by makeup artists offering bite marks and undead […]
I Am My Own Wife | Studio Underground, State Theatre | Until 29 October | ★ ★ ★ ½ Shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall, playwright Doug Wright met Charlotte von Mahsldorf. Living in East Germany the eccentric woman was the curator of a Museum of Everyday Objects. Born Lothar Berfelde, she had surprisingly […]
