All in Theatre & Arts
Recognising the growing audience for spoken word both in Australia and New Zealand, David Stavanger and Anne-Marie Te Whiu have collected some of the most poignant and powerful poems in Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word. Bec Bowman spoke to Anne-Marie ahead of her appearance at the Festival of Ideas and Literature this weekend about her experiences with spoken word poetry and how this genre fits into the literary festival scene.
Ballet at the Quarry: Light and Shadow is a night of magnificence and grandeur, perfect for anyone who enjoys ballet and magical storytelling.
It was one of those transcendent moments when you walk out of a performance to find the world is still moving and you are entirely changed.
While the production presented itself on the surface as an irreverent, raunchy romp, underneath the wrapping of endless dick jokes, the play posed important moral questions about society’s views on sex, the abuse of political power, and consent.
Through the Looking Glass (and What Alice Found There) is an explosion of excitement, wonder and good old fashioned fun.
Playthings is a darkly comic, thought-provoking and enthralling new play from local playwright Scott McArdle.
Cephalopod grasps audiences with all eight of its tentacles, and doesn’t let go.
The latest interpretation of William Shakespeare’s great works has come to Perth, and it’s bringing its ancestral home along with it. If you’re like me, and have always wanted to see Shakespeare performed in its original setting, then the Pop-Up Globe is for you!
WAO’s Macbeth is a sumptuous production for the senses. The modern edge visually contrasts markedly with the near-timeless score, giving it a transcendent effect befitting a play simultaneously about the other-worldly and the closest of homes to all of us—the human heart.
I’m going to say it: Yirra Yaakin’s World Premiere of Ice Land was the most gripping production I have had the privilege to review all year. It was confronting, transfixing and gut wrenching all at once. Above all, with an exponentially worsening methamphetamine crisis plaguing Perth streets continually, it was very, very needed.
Verdi’s masterful operatic retelling of the seemingly immortal Shakespearean epic tragedy Macbeth is set to hit the His Majesty’s Theatre stage this weekend, courtesy of the West Australian Opera in conjunction with the State Opera of South Australia. We spoke to Tony Award-winning costume and set designer Roger Kirk.
What does it mean to be ‘Australian’? Furthermore, does the presence of such a supposed singular culture provide legitimate grounding to distinguish the ‘other’ from those deemed ‘Australians’? History lays down something of a jigsaw puzzle in reflection of this; a piece of which is provided by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa in Fully Sikh, a Barking Gecko Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company co-production.
Layla Majnun has been a labour of love for the Performing Lines team, and it showed in the care that was given to curating the space at Subiaco Arts Centre.
A stage filled with water. Two rocks, with one performer perched on each. A violinist, visible, but simultaneously blended into the background of the stage. A melancholic song, echoing throughout the room. This is how Two Canaries begins.
Originally commissioned by Sydney Theatre Co and brought to Perth thanks to the Black Swan Theatre Company, Black is the New White is a blessing to behold. It manages to challenge and educate audiences on complicated themes while delivering lightning-quick comedy that will leave you in stitches the entire way through.
The Book of Mormon was easily the most anticipated theatre event of the year, and it was worth the wait.
The Last Great Hunt produce works that inventively play with form and have the ability to engage the intellect as well as the heart. Perpetual Wake is a show that looks at our intrinsic need to please other people.
The Last Great Hunt is one of the most innovative and intelligent theatre making groups in Perth today. Founding member, performer and writer Jeffrey Jay Fowler sat down with Bec Bowman to talk about the origins of The Last Great Hunt and their new show Perpetual Wake.
Like the characters of Romeo and Juliet - to which Layla Majnun is most often compared - the two are dead at the end of this centuries old Persian love story. This is the only real comparison to Shakespeare’s’ tale, as we found out when we spoke to performer and driving creative force Ustaadh Feraidoon Mojadedi. Layla Majnun is presented by Performing Lines WA and features illUMEnate artists.
The Wolves is a tightly scripted play which explores the lives of a high school girls soccer team through their weekly warmup sessions.
