The latest instalment from Made In Canberra, The Fridge is an amusing piece of work that manages to avoid the worst of predictability but doesn’t quite distinguish itself with dialogue that encourages the suspension of disbelief. With characters that all seem to say exactly what they mean all the time, there is not a lot of room for the cast to perform. The words take over, and even the best one liners fall flat.
The program and advertising makes reference to Monty Python repeatedly, and attempts to position the play as a continuation of this tradition. This may go some way to explaining the lack of subtext. Python was certainly capable of developing great characters with little or no subtext, but here it…
Tags: Alister Emerson, Andrew Eddey, Canberra, Casey Elder, Chris Brain, Comedy, Daniel Minns, Elaine Noon, Fridge, Hagen Marsh-Brown, Hannah Baker, Jill Emerson, Karla Conway, Linley Jenkins, Loren Emerson, Mel Edwards, Michael Foley, Miriam Miley-Read, Monty Python, Morgan Little, Nick Stannard, Peter Matheson, Remy Graham-Throssell, Samantha Pickering, Thomas Papathanassiou
How often have you wanted to have one of your heroes sit on your shoulder and tell you how to make decisions about your life? Wouldn’t it be nice, just occasionally, to have George Calombaris in the kitchen while you cook, chatting and offering helpful advice? Or to have the ever-so-experienced Henry VIII providing his support during a marital spat? Decision-making would be so much easier with such a support mechanism in place. As long as you were willing to surrender something of your own will to this mentor…
The rest of this post is published on Australian Stage.
Tags: Adolf Hitler, Dallas Bland, Elizabeth Avery Scott, George Calombaris, Hanna Cormick, Henry VIII of England, James Scott, Made in Canberra, PJ Williams
We have a fascination with firsts. Having our first female prime minister has a sense of novelty about it, which would probably be equalled by a first Aboriginal prime minister. Both the reality and the possibility, however, are little more than symbols of a maturing atmosphere of equality; they offer nothing of real substance in themselves. The Girls, I think offers something of greater substance in its diverse vignettes around the theme of womanhood in a postmodern world.
The rest of this post is published on Australian Stage.
Tags: Diana Nixon, Government, Hanna Cormick, Hannah Ley, History, Julia Gillard, Leah Baulch, Peter Butz, Prime minister, The Street Theatre
Love Cupboard can be neatly summarised as the story of an adolescent girl who isolates herself from the rest of her life to live with her boyfriend (hence the love); and to avoid discovery, hides in a cupboard in his lounge room (hence the cupboard). The story is as quaint as its title…
The rest of this post is published on Australian Stage.
Tags: Arts, Cameron Thomas, Cathy Hagarty, Cupboard, David Atfield, Emma Gibson, Hanna Cormick, Peter Butz, Peter Matheson, Relationships, Romance, Scott Cummings, Tim Levy
The latest instalment from Made In Canberra, The Fridge is an amusing piece of work that manages to avoid the worst of predictability but doesn’t quite distinguish itself with dialogue that encourages the suspension of disbelief. With characters that all seem to say exactly what they mean all the time, there is not a lot of room for the cast to perform. The words take over, and even the best one liners fall flat.
