Over and over 100 out

With Covid still causing disruptions, I was surprised to ultimately make it along to over 100 shows again this year. Here are my highlights from the 2022 Brisbane theatre year.

1. The Normal Heart (Ad Astra)

The Queensland premiere production of Larry Kramer’s largely autobiographical “The Normal Heart” was absolutely absorbing and inspirational in its unflinching look at the horrific time in our history that was the start of the AIDS epidemic.

2. A Girls Guide to World War (Musical Theatre Australia)

Inspirational, also, was Musical Theatre Australia’s tell of the true story of some amazing women forgotten by our history. The February show, which was my favourite then for most of the year, was richly rewarding in both its entertainment and education about the courageous and compassionate real life humanitarian adventurers at the core of its story.

3. Holding Achilles (Dead Puppet Society and Legs On The Wall)

My 2022 Brisbane Festival highlight, the grand Dead Puppet Society and Legs On The Wall co-production was an exquisite world-class design-led theatre experience, as much a celebration of the craft of storytelling as a retell of one of the Western canon’s oldest narratives

4. The Sunshine Club (Queensland Theatre)

Queensland Theatre’s bright revival of Wesley Enoch and John Rodgers’ joyful musical was a historical work of a particular time, but also a story of love, hope, heartbreak and the shared humanity of these emotions, easy to watch and love.

5. 42^nd Street (Queensland Conservatorium)

There was much to also love about Queensland Conservatorium’s massive musical production of “42^nd Street” as its assured performances, quality orchestrations and show-stopping ensemble production numbers captured the spirit of the show’s era and also the grand musical genre.

6. Oliver! (Savoyards)

Savoyards excellent musical revival was full of highlights and everything needed to entertain its audience around the troublesome aspects of “Oliver!” to a resonance of resilience and hope.

7. The Last Five Years (La Boite Theatre Company) 

La Boite’s two-hander share (in two different directions) of the ill-fated five-year relationship of aspiring artists was certainly clever in its alternate musical narration, however, was also slick in its use of space and tight in its telling thanks to the moving performances of its charismatic performers and musical stylings of its varied, bitter-sweet score.

8. Mary Poppins (Disney and Cameron Mackintosh)

The Disney spectacle that came to life on the Lyric Theatre stage was a celebration of imagination, and, thus, an unforgettable production that could easily be seen again and again, making for a “Mary Poppins” anew for the whole modern family.

9. Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (La Boite Theatre, Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Green Door Theatre)

Just before the floods came, there was this fierce and furious coproduction, sharp in its satire of cancel culture and appropriation in a viral world, but also wickedly humorous.

10. First Casualty (Queensland Theatre)

The hard-hitting storytelling of Queensland Theatre’s landmark blockbuster season closer was elevated by an epic soundscape and dynamic lighting to take us into a world not previously seen on stage…. the last days of Australian troop involvement in Afghanistan.

And of particular note….

Best Drama – The Normal Heart (Ad Astra)

Also the most moving and thought provoking production of 2022, Ad Astra’s “The Normal Heart” allowed us to bear witness to each stage of the play’s centrepiece romance as it played out in unfiltered vulnerability, raw anger, complex beauty and undeniable love, against the backdrop of a community living in fear of AIDS.

Best Comedy – Hidden in this Picture (Villanova Players)

The one act “Hidden in this Picture” (from the pen of Emmy Award-winning playwright Aaron Sorkin), which appeared as part of Villanova Players’ intermezzo series, was full of over and over again laugh-out-loud moments emerging from the increasing hyperbole in share of what was essentially a duologue inset with simple interjections.  

Best Cabaret – Women in Voice

The 2022 outing of this Brisbane institution was the best yet in its curated program of different musical styles from its empowered female performers.

Best Dramatic Performance – Vivien Whittle – Gaslight (Growl Theatre)

Whittle was simply wonderful as the vulnerable, tormented and humiliated Bella, whether bustling about in fleeting, naive belief that all is well or blubbering in flustered confusion after being raged at by her psychologically-torturous husband Jack.

Best Comic Performance – Troy Bullock – Hidden in this Picture (Villanova Players)

Meanwhile, Bella’s gaslighting husband Troy Bullock gave the funniest performance as a first-time director Robert, intent on obtaining an Oscar-winning shot in for his movie’s final scene, until three cows make appearance along with the hundreds of extras.

Best Musical Performance – Priyah Shah – Oliver! (Savoyards)

Shah’s show of strength but also vulnerability ensured that her Nancy was not just a kindly, but a complex character and her strong vocals left the “Oliver!” audience equally impressed in rollicking tavern sing-a-long and torch song numbers alike.

Best duo – Marcus Corowa and Irena Lysiuk – The Sunshine Club (Queensland Theatre)

The chemistry between Corowa and Lysiuk was not only evident in their protagonists’ duets, but warmed the audience into investment into the blossom of their childhood friendship in to more after his post-WW2 return to Brisbane.  

Honourable mention to Christopher Morphett-Wheatley and Darcy Rhodes – Into The Woods (Beenleigh Theatre Group)

Morphett-Wheatley and Rhodes were audience favourites as they dynamically pranced about in pantomime-esque play off each other’s bravado energy as two-dimensional princes attempting to one-up each other in argument.

Best Ensemble – Heathers: The Musical (Millennial Productions) 

Millennial Productions’ debut musical was a highly professional independent production, in part due to its strong performances, with nobody holding back even in edgier scenes. There were no vocal weak links as each performer was given an opportunity to shine and there was a clear level of focus in all performances, resulting in no missed beats within the show’s tight rhythm. 

Best Independent Production – Boy, Lost (Belloo Creative)

The years-in-the-making tell of the true story of one family’s loss and redemption was also an ensemble production with its actors playing multiple characters (including themselves at moments), jumping in and out of different roles with simple prop or costume enhancements, yet, as an audience, we always knew what was happening as we moved through its tightly-woven emotional journey.

Most fun – All Fired Up (Box Jelly Theatre Company)

The show so nice, I ended up seeing it twice to contemplate if a trip to the ‘80’s and a chat with your 15-year-old self really can solve a mid-life crisis? With a live band perfectly capturing the nostalgic energy of the era it was all incredibly feel good, fun and funny.

Best Staging – Holding Achilles (Dead Puppet Society and Legs On The Wall) 

The mythical magic of “Holding Achilles” may have been multi-layered, but this was built upon a performance space reminiscent of classical Greek amphitheatres with staging exposed to the audience, in contrast to the modern technology used to sometimes literally soar the story along with aerial artistry.

Best Sound and Lighting Design – First Casualty (Queensland Theatre)

The sound and lighting design elements of “First Casualty” were likely worth the price of admission alone. Paul Jackson’s lighting design transformed the space and its surfaces to tell the show’s many multifaceted narratives, while sound design by Brady Watkins and THE SWEATS added to the onstage action, whether dynamic or subtle in tone.

Best Choreography – Mary Poppins (Disney and Cameron Mackintosh)

Matthew Bourne’s and Stephen Mear’s “Mary Poppins” choreography (recreated for the Australian production by Richard Jones) filled the Lyric Theatre stage with a burst of moving bodies, brooms and brushes in spectacular, precise, fast-paced numbers like ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ and ‘Step in Time’.

Character callings

A Girl’s Guide to World War (Musical Theatre Australia)

Brisbane Powerhouse, Underground Theatre

February 3 – 20

Musical Theatre Australia’s award-winning “A Girl’s Guide to World War” tells the true story of some amazing women forgotten by our history. If its premise is not made clear by this hint as to its content, its sentiment comes through strongly during its first scene, which sees its narrator (Vix Sheather, lead singer and guitarist of Vix and the Slick Chix) interacting with the story’s protagonist Dr Anges Bennett (Aleathea Monsour). Always one for discretion, Miss Doctor Bennett is uncomfortable with having her story shared. Yet still, we drop into it just prior to outbreak of World War One, where she is trailblazing in provision of on-the-sly medical training of nurses at a maternity hospital. It’s all about the calling of science, we learn through the show’s first musical number ‘Nod and Smile’, and a woman’s right to higher education, despite the of-the-time attitudes that this is detrimental to their maternal functions.

Despite the belief of many that women should be seen and not heard, follow the rules, not ask questions, not go to university and not become doctors, Agnes conveys an inspiring optimism that things will not only change, but get better. And so, she soon finds herself as the Commanding Officer of the ‘Bennett Unit’ woman-run front-line hospital attached to the desperate Serbian army, which is suffering incredible losses in The Great War. Along with her passionate, no-nonsense Chief Surgeon (and later first woman registered as a Medical Practitioner in Queensland), Dr Lilian Cooper (Susie French), she runs it with efficiency and compassion. And while the two may bond over their similar shared experiences in ‘This Is War’, in their self-restrained and outspoken selves, they also remind us that feminism has its shades, for this is a show of respectful nuance in its rich characterisations.

An outstanding ensemble cast give its audience vivid portraits of fascinating, colourful individuals with whom we long to spend time. Katy Forde’s writing is full of natural humour, often realised through the dialogue of the war hospital’s high-spirited ambulance girls (Rachel Fentiman and Lucy French-Woerthy), who, like Rozencrantz and Guildenstern, almost function as one unit in their flighty upper-class English girl commentary of the goings-on and other characters alike. And there is also the determined optimism of philanthropist Josephine Bedford, the lifelong companion of Dr Cooper, delightfully realised through Justine Anderson’s endearing performance. Anchoring everything, however, is Monsour as the stern, forthright and socially awkward Doctor Bennett, uncomfortable with being the centre of attention, but steadfast in her beliefs in both efficiency and respectability. Hers is indeed a fascinating story and we can only give thanks for her diaries and personal letters that have allowed for the insight into her character that “A Girl’s Guide to World War” honours.

The new Australian musical’s balance between drama and musical numbers is facilitated by Linus Monsour’ simple, but versatile set design, courtesy of a collection of khaki boxes that shape into cars, operating tables and a platform from which ‘chief’ Bennett can conduct a daily roll call of nurses. Barry Somers’ lighting design guides us through the peaks and valleys of the wartime story’s emotions, making the early ballad ‘Purple Tree’ from a young soldier, appropriately melancholy. The simple and simply beautiful ‘Ask Me Once Again’ duet between lovers Josephine and Lillian is a wonderful showcase of the talents of band members Sue Moxon, Nicole Perry and Vix Sheather (sometimes joined by Monsour) and Anderson’s almost-ethereal vocals.

Craftedness is evident in every aspect of the production. Even songs like Josephine’s tender Celtic-type lullaby ‘Bonny Love’ that seem at the time to do little to advance the narrative, emerge to be both sensitive foreshadowing and insightful recall of the compassion at the heart of a character that we get to know better in Act Two. 

“A Girl’s Guide to World War” is a wonderfully uplifting work of education, inspiration and entertainment across the annals of time and it is appropriately well-received by its appreciative audience members. So rich are their lives that even the show’s running time seems insufficient to do these characters justice. Under Forde’s efficient direction, its 2 hours and 45 minutes’ duration (including interval) seems to fly by in absolute absorption. Without doubt, these women’s stories are compelling and ones that deserve to be shared… and celebrated. The show’s real-life subjects are humanitarians and adventurers, and how perfect it is that they found each other as they did. Even its epilogue outline of their achievements to come after this chapter of their stories is moving, as much as inspirational, in its courageous and compassionate reminder that better is indeed worth fighting for.