What Did She Think?

WHAT: The World According To Dinosaurs WHEN: 24 May - 4 June 2023 WHERE: La Mama Courthouse WRITTEN BY: Belle Hansen and Amelia Newman DIRECTED BY: Cassandra Gray COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN BY: Jack Burmeister DESIGN BY: Casey Harper-Wood PERFORMED BY: Michael Cooper, Matilda Gibbs, Belle Hansen, Chris Patrick Hansen, Anna Louey, Amelia Newman, Izzy Patane, and Emily Pearson LIGHTING BY: Theo Viney STAGE MANAGED BY: Brigette Jennings Amelia Newman and Belle Hansen - Photo by Darren Gill The World According To Dinosaurs , now playing at La Mama Courthouse, is a full energy, singing, dancing, WTF dystopian brain explosion brought to us by Frenzy Theatre Co . Likening the extinction of dinosaurs to the extinction of humanity - and perhaps the planet - this coffee swilling, puppet wielding company take us far back in time, to the deepest depths of the ocean, and into a murky (perhaps not so far off) future and all in the space of 65 minutes. Frenzy are the same company which brought us

WHAT: Worstward Ho WHEN: 24 May - 3 June 2023 WHERE: Theatre Works (Explosives Factory) WRITTEN BY: Samuel Beckett DIRECTED BY: Richard Murphet PERFORMED BY: Roberet Meldrum Rob Meldrum - photo by Chelsea Neate Worst. Better. Not worst. Say better. Done better. Not worst. Say done better. Say on. Better on. Done better on. Nohow. Somehow. On. Done on. Worstward Ho done on. Theatre Works Explosives Factory . Go now. Go in. Go how. Nohow. Somehow. Go on. The last text ever written by renowned playwright and novellist Samuel Beckett was the novella Worstward Ho . Under the auspices of the Victorian Theatre Company , Melbourne theatre legends, director Richard Murphet and actor Robert Meldrum have come together to turn this unique piece of writing to the stage as performance. Samuel Beckett's writings are notorious for their dystopian outlook, lingual density, and philosophical interogation. He is considered a surrealist writer and has written some of the most seminal theatre piece

WHAT: Beyond The Beehive - Amy Winehouse's Musical Mastery WHEN: 18 - 21 May 2023 WHERE: The MC Showroom (Main Stage) CREATED BY: Carol Whitfield MUSICAL DIRECTION BY: Ryland Sack PERFORMED BY: Christine Rathjens, Rachel Reyes, Ryland Sack, Lucy Varley, and Carol Whitfield Ryland Sack, Carol Whitfield, Rachel Reyes, Christine Rathjens and Lucy Varley Amy Winehouse is one of the infamous 27 Club - famous musicians who died at at the age of 27. In her short life though, she made a global impact as a singer/songwriter spanning genres and fusing past influences with current ones. In Beyond The Beehive - Amy Winehouse's Musical Mastery , now playing at The MC Showroom , Carol Whitfield takes us through Winehouse's greatest hits and, along the way, gives us a masterclass on the singer's influences and impact. Starting from that timeless standard 'Rehab', Whitfield and her lively band cover all the key musical check marks which exemplify the range of Winehouse's

WHAT: Marie Antionette WHEN: 11 - 20 May, 2023 WHERE: The MUST Space WRITTEN BY: David Adjmi DIRECTED BY: Annabelle Wemyss SET BY: Suba Selvarajan COSTUMES BY: Marni McCubbin PERFORMED BY: Felicity Barrow, Luca Edwards, Tash Frost, Yemaya Greenwood, Bella Kourdoulos, Marlley McNamara, Esther Penman, Elena Ruefenacht, and Lindy Zurbos,  LIGHTING BY: Nicolani Susanto SOUND BY: Roni Corby STAGE MANAGED BY: Jay Seow Felicity Barrow and Elena Ruefenacht - photo by Julia Kaddatz If you like your theatre full of high wigs and great coats, Clayton is the place to go. MUST is presenting David Adjmi's Marie Antionette and the court of Louis XVI never looked so good. The play Marie Antionette is a kind of snapshot precis of the life and experiences of Marie Antionette from a few years after the coronation of Louis XVI. It is important to note this play is fiction, so it is dangerous to take it too literally although it does hit most of the high points of the generally known bullet point

WHAT: Meerta - Rise Up! The Ballad of James Arden WHEN: 11-12 May 2023 WHERE: Arts Centre Melbourne (ANZ Pavillion) DIRECTED BY: Dave Arden MUSICAL DIRECTION BY: Dave Arden and Daniel Jauregui PERFORMED BY: Jake Amy, Dave Arden, Brad Brown, Chris Cameron, Deniece Hudson, Daniel Jauregui, Ann Metry, Monica MacDonald, Wayne Morgan, Jordan Murray, and students from VCA&MCM ART & VIDEO BY: Dixon Patten Lead Guitarists: Daniel Juaregui and Dave Arden Yirramboi is a Melbourne festival which celebrates Indigenous art and artists. The word itself means tomorrow and the idea behind the festival is to highlight First Nation voices of resilience and evolution. The website speaks of cracking open "the heart of Melbourne, revealing the hum of country beneath." Listening to Meerta - Rise Up! The Ballad of James Arden , the driving bass drum of Chris Cameron and the words and tunes of master guitarist/songwriter Dave Arden raise that hum to a gentle roar as Arden tells the story

WHAT: The Wrong Horse WHEN: 10 - 14 May 2023 WHERE: The MC Showroom (Main Stage) WRITTEN BY: Marty MonStar DIRECTED BY: Marion Arditti DESIGNED BY: Sylvia Shao PERFORMED BY: Brigitte Jarvis, Darren Mort, Graham Murray, Dom Phelan, and Ian Rooney Dom Phelan, Brigitte Jarvis and Graham Murray - photo supplied Delightful. This is not the coolest word in the dictionary, but it is the best word to describe The Wrong Horse now playing at The MC Showroom in Prahran. I hear a lot of men bemoaning not being allowed to tell other people's stories these days, and complaining that leaves them nothing to write about. Those men need to look at the work of writers such as Marty MonStar and Shane Grant . Writers such as these two are showing us how many 'mens' stories there are which haven't been told. Stories which show us all that secret men's business they keep hidden from the rest of us in order to appear tough and stong and leaders. We are finally getting to see real men in

WHAT: The Critical Marriage WHEN: 3 - 13 May 2023 WHERE: Gasworks (Studio Theatre) WRITTEN BY: Mark Andrew DIRECTED BY: Karyn Hodgkinson DESIGNED BY: Karyn Hodgkinson and Barbara Yazbeck PERFORMED BY: John Bolger, Ian Ferrington, Janet Watson Kruse, Eleanor MacIntyre, and Carrie Moczynski LIGHTING BY: Natalya Shield SOUND BY: Ethan Hunt STAGE MANAGED BY: Barbara Yazbeck Eleanor Macintyre - photo supplied It is always intriguing when playwrights marry their stories to philosophical principals. In The Critical Marriage , presented by Melbourne Writers Theatre at Gasworks this week, playwright Mark Andrew does just that by juxtaposing a married for life couple of academics with philosophical mores around the divide between science and religion. The Critical Marriage is a retrospective type of play, moving from the present where an older Imogen ( Janet Watson Kruse ) is dealing with the death of her soul mate Bernhard. The play shifts between different layers of the past and present as

WHAT: Facing Up WHEN: 3-13 May 2023 WHERE: Theatre Works  WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Lynden Nicholls DESIGNED BY: Adam (Gus) Powers PERFORMED BY: Trudy Fatnowna Edgeley, Zerene Jaadwa, and Andre Prenc Zerene Jaadwa and Trudy Fatnowna Edgeley Very occassionally a piece of theatre comes along which is greater than the sum of its parts and has a clarity of purpose and message brighter than the purest diamond. Facing Up , currently playing at Theatre Works, is a show of that calaber. On the surface, Facing Up is a simple beast. Using the verbatim theatre technique, it simply follows the timeline of Australian Prime Minister-ship since Federation in 1901. From the first to the last each Prime Minister is given the chance to enunciate their Indigenous policy in their own words. Alongside, two First Nations women also speak in the words of their people to exhibit the practical experiences and outcomes for the people affected by those policies. Suffice to say it is not an honourable forward p

WHAT: Bayou Bart WHEN: 3 - 13 May 2023 WHERE: Theatre Works WRITTEN, DESIGNED & DIRECTED BY: Kalina Lauer COMPOSITION BY: Tash Atkins & James Carolan PERFORMED BY: Pippa Asome, Tash Atkins, Karin Chen, Bailey Griffiths, Daniel Hillman, Mikaela Innes, Lucy Knight, and Rowan O'Keeffe LIGHTING BY: Vanessa Gregoriou Pippa Asome and Tash Atkins The spark of inspiration for artists can come from any direction, any moment, any thing the artist touches feels and sees. In the case of Kalina Lauer the inspiration for Bayou Bart - currently playing at Theatre Works - came from a costume she created for a different objective. From the genesis of a gorgeous Bourbon inspired outfit, the idea of an alligator emerged. From the idea of an alligator, Lauer found her imagination flurrying around the wetlands of Louisiana. There may even be a hint of the picaresque adventures created by Mark Twain in this story. Bayou Bart is the tale of two homeless children wandering around Bayou Bartholo