Ruby Moon | Ad Astra
Ruby Moon is an important work and was inspired by the headlines of missing children in the past. When we think of the tragic news of Daniel Morcombe and William Tyrell, and how today we live in a world where media plays such a big role in our lives that when a story like that happens it becomes almost unavoidable to not get caught up in the anxiety or feel the grief of their family. I think it does a great job at exploring the corruption of innocence and how our perceptions can drastically change after such incidents.
Love Lust Lost | Broad Encounters
It’s almost impossible to describe the experience to someone if they’ve never attended an immersive theatre show. It’s part musical, part Choose Your Own Adventure, part adult playground, and part fever dream, with a dash of meta-narrative and so much more. If you attended Broad Encounter’s record breaking run of A Midnight Visit last year, you’ll have an idea about what to expect – gloriously detailed set design that you’ll want to explore at length, beautifully twisted characters roaming the sets, secret passages, numerous secrets about the world that can be found throughout the rooms and interactions with the characters and even a few puzzles to get lost in. All the stuff that you’d expect from a good immersive theatre show.
"Every possible aspect of what the audience may experience must be thought through." Kirsten Siddle dishes on 'Love Lust Lost'.
The work has been in creative development for almost three years, so we’re pretty thrilled that it’s finally premiered. Creating immersive theatre is challenging! There is an infinite amount of detail involved, everything must be layered and layered over each other and absolutely every possible touchpoint and aspect of what the audience may (or may not) experience must be thought through, carefully curated and dramaturgically analysed. There’s a team of more than 100 superstars behind this show, so there’s a lot of moving parts, but the team is a true powerhouse and every problem is tackled with creativity, flair and determination.
Our Blood Runs In The Street | Shane Anthony and Ensemble
All in all, Our Blood Runs In The Streets does the job it set out to do. It provides audiences with a hidden history of this place and does so in a way that is emotionally evocative rather than destructive – with a slightly more nuanced range of representations and more rehearsal I think this work could have left me a sobbing mess rather than a lightly weeping one.
An Ideal Husband | Lewis Treston & La Boite Theatre
An Ideal Husband provides a grim insight into how a lot of the peril we encounter currently – climate change, corruption, rampant racism, homophobia, and xenophobia – could have been prevented had a few more people stuck to their principles and didn’t give-in to corporate greed or a lust for power. All while managing to be the most joyous experience I’ve had in a theatre in a long time. Deeply hilarious. Wild(e)ly entertaining.
The Sunny Tribe District | Robert the Cat
The cast were tight knit; not a move or beat out of place in delivering this chaotic script. Each member of the cast effortlessly carried the weight of the responsibility placed on the ensemble. From the Olivia Rodrigo sing-along, to the synchronised, lavish dance sequences to the perky rap battles to the overly sexual demonstration of how to pour water over each other, everything that they threw at us no matter how absurd or obscene was executed to glorious effect.
West End Film Festival promises a wildly innovative program for 2022
This year’s Festival is hyper local yet national featuring flicks from chilly Melbs to humid Darwin covering content on hot topics, music videos, animation, dramas, youth, other cultures and a wonderfully inspiring, provocative, yet diverse program from our own homegrown 4101 and SEQ filmmakers. Audiences will get to view an amazing talent of multimedia events across West End plus find unexpected popup film events in non-traditional film settings.
La Traviata | Opera Queensland
What does it mean to choose love when it always ends (either in death or heartbreak)?
What is it to truly connect with people in a world obsessed with the immediacy of pleasure?
Why do men still feel entitled to scorn and humiliate women when they live in authentic ways?
Why must women only be one thing? Why can’t they decide to change? Why does society still berate them for their multitudes?
La Traviata | Opera Queensland
As curtains rose on the lavish opening party scene, I couldn’t help but feel it was simply an extension of the pre-show mingling that I’d borne witness to just outside the doors. I’d also heard that opera, in its penchant for the re-staging of classic works and the capacity to afford to do so, often offers a vivid window into an era, a place, or a moment in time. And for Opera Queensland’s La Traviata, this was true of both the stage and the foyer.
Cool Story Bro | Big Fork Theatre
One of the coolest parts of Cool Story Bro is that every show night is its own opening and closing night. What happened on Friday night will never happen again, and the only people in the world who got to experience it are those who were in the room. So for all those reading this, I’m sorry, but you will never, ever, get to experience the pure extasy of watching a group of people spontaneously assume the role of sperms and egg in the fight for fertilisation.
Love Lust Lost | Broad Encounters
This desire to return immediately to a show I have just seen is a trait I feel is unique to immersive theatre. Most theatre tickets will send you to witness a story, while a ticket to Love Lust Lost is a ticket to send you into a new world. A must-sea.
Love, Lust, Lost | Broad Encounters
Words cannot give this show justice, as the level of immersion and the depth of character cannot be overstated. Immersive theatre is the way of the future, and Love Lust Lost proves that. No show has ever made me so curious, and I want more people to see the show simply so that I can talk to more people about it. I would say I will see the show again, but I worry that won't be enough.
THREE 2.0 | Australasian Dance Collective
The dance pieces intrigued me and left me thinking about the meaning and message behind them. Each piece was abstract and unique, and brought out their own essence, mood and atmosphere. The choreography, utilising various techniques, with both soft and sharp movements, efficiently expressed human being’s emotional boundaries, the surrounding political physical space, our individuality, as well as our relationship with other people.
The Ugly One | AllEntertainment
This performance is lively and light-hearted, not skirting away from its darker undertones but embracing them with a jaunty devil-may-care attitude. It’s an absurd play, with the supporting actors playing multiple characters each with the same name; which had me tumbling for clarity on a couple moments. It is relentless; the scenes blur quickly into, across, under and over each other, and the actors did a fantastic job of taking us along for a ride with them.
Between Olas | NUDO
It was evident how dedicated the performers are at their craft. Each performer excelled in what they do, both bringing their own cultures to the stage, and performing in sync with each other, culminating in the dance routines coming off as flawless.
Club Extimacy | The Black Box Collective
Each character felt like a person I’d met in a club bathroom, or at least someone like them. The work was a revolving door of fleeting interactions, as the world of the club thumped just outside the piss-stained walls. A hilariously authentic depiction of the bathroom chats and antics that many of us know all too well, this show accurately captured the liminality of club bathrooms.
Carnival of Animals | CIRCA
Carnival of The Animals has been performed many times (almost 300) since its premiere in 2014, and for this season Circa redid and added sections of the show to include an ensemble of local children. These kids took part in group acrobatics with the Circa ensemble and with each other. It was a sweet addition that suited the show, and many of these kids clearly have a strong acrobatic foundation in which to grow into. It might be them in the professional Circa ensemble in a decade or so.
The Time Travel Café | Spacefold Technology
Each of the five players were extremely talented in their own right, and they worked brilliantly as a team. When their timelines crossed it felt like the magical realism of an epic Doctor Who episode, when all your favourite companions come back to save the day.
Murder On The Not-So Orient Express | Mystify Events
The story, written by Siobhan, had all the tangled storyline fun of a classic absurd crime mystery, with lots of crossovers with the pasts of the passengers, and a plot full of exciting twists and turns. Audience members were inserted into the show by the actors, taken out of their seats and placed right into the action. The cast were skilled at picking these people, and moving on quickly if someone seemed hesitant to be thrown into the spotlight.
STOP THAT NONSENSE | Nicholas ‘Prince’ Milverton & IMA
In spite of its brevity, STOP THAT NONSENSE managed to touch on what it takes for a young black man to excel with the loving support of his adoring parents and set within the context of race, privilege and perception underpinned by colonialism. I look forward to the playwright expanding STOP THAT NONSENSE into a full-length work where the many levels of black excellence can be explored in greater depth.