Highness review | Arts House

Melanie Jame Wolf's returns to Arts House with Highness, the second of three parts in her exploration on what it means to be a woman while looking at three distinct archetypes: the Whore, the Queen and the Hag. The first, Mira Fuchs (2016), was an engaging and intimate piece that focused on Wolf's time as a stripper with thoughts and discussion raised on issues such as gender, sexuality, desire and stigma. In Highness, Wolf looks at the women who have been in her life, the Queens, and what it means to wear a crown.

While Mira Fuchs expressed its ideas in an engaging and immersive atmosphere, the same cannot be said for Highness, which gets stuck in repetitive acts being performed on stage and little semblance of any narrative or structure. There were no statements or questions being asked of the audience and while there were moments where it seemed like Wolf was about to put something out there, the scene dragged on to a fizzling conclusion.

Prehistoric review

Brisbane's punk music scene vividly comes to life in a return season of Elbow Room's critically acclaimed Prehistoric. Set against the backdrop of the corrupt Bjelke-Petersen government in 1979, Prehistoric is more than just a play about four young people coming together to create a punk band. It's a rousing production about having the freedom to make our own choices and fighting to ensure that everyone can feel safe in their own community. 

The performances by Brigid Gallacher, Grace Cummings, Sahil Saluja, and Zachary Giles Pidd are electric, as they deliver sharply authentic portrayals of Deb, Rachel, Nick and Pete. They convey their vulnerabilities and angsts while simultaneously showing the resilience and rage that is boiling inside them. The four work exceptionally well as an ensemble and in their individual scenes, creating some deeply affecting moments.

PUFFS review | Alex Theatre

I am not a Harry Potter fan, and I say that having never read the books or watched the movies, but the story of a boy wizard and magic spells have never interested me. That is, until I saw PUFFS or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic. Set during Harry and friends' time at said school of magic, PUFFS focuses on another student who was around at the time of Harry's reign, Wayne, and his friends who had been assigned house Puff, the house that no one really wants to be assigned.

Written by Matt Cox, PUFFS is littered of Harry Potter references and in-jokes, and while some of them went over my head, if you are at all familiar with the tropes of such stories, then you will still find yourself laughing along. Cox isn't just making cardboard cutouts of fantasy stories in his play, but creating fully fleshed out characters with motivations and desires that you find yourself supporting wholeheartedly. This is done so carefully and considered, that you don't realise how emotionally attached you are to the characters until the final genuinely suspenseful scenes.

fluttering hearts // thinking machines review

Forest Collective has been creating works focusing on contemporary classical music since it was founded in 2009. In their latest performance, fluttering hearts // thinking machines the company collaborated with queer artist Addison to consider how technology and our emotions intersect and what the impact of modern living has had on our interactions and relationships with others.

Joining Addison on stage was an orchestra of ten Forest Collective musicians: Nick Yates, Kim Tan, Vilan Mai, Nathan Juriansz, Clare Gorton, Nikki Edgar, Bec Scully, William Elm, Trea Hindley and Ryan Williams. The intimacy of the venue at Abbotsford Convent gave us the opportunity to watch every musician - led by conductor Evan Lawson - playing their instrument and be mesmerised by how each one would lose themselves to the music. The trombonist who closed her eyes and was swept by the music, the flutist who tapped her foot to the beats and the accordionist who used his entire body to play their instrument was enchanting to watch. In turn, it allowed us to give ourselves over to the performance and be taken on our own journey and reflection of love and loss.

Her Father's Daughter review | Prahran Council Chambers

It's been just 120 years since Hedda Gabbler was introduced to the world in Henrik Ibsen's acclaimed play of a young woman searching for her personal freedom with devastating results. While it remains a classic in its own right, writer Keziah Warner has taken this story and transported it into a contemporary setting with Her Father's Daughter.

Performed in the Prahran Council Chambers, it is initially the perfect setting to reflect the lifestyle that Hedda and her husband have. The difficulty with performing in the chambers, while appropriately opulent, is that none of these 'rooms' create an atmosphere of being in someone's home and as such you are unable to believe in the world being presented.

Despite this, director Cathy Hunt utilises the spaces to allow for constant movement and action from the cast that prevents them from being enveloped by the adornment and furnishings of the rooms. She ensures there's a familiarity with the way in which the actors interact with the environment but the final scene had a few issues with blocking and the tension between Hedda and Brack could have gone further in exploring the intensity and gravity of the events leading up to that moment.