Category: Performing Arts Reviews

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The Friendly Fire of Riverfire

Carrie McCarthy

I was sitting at my desk writing when the Super Hornets began their flyovers across the city – practice runs for Riverfire, a celebration of pyrotechnics and music that marks the end of Brisbane Festival. As they thundered past I wondered, not for the first time, at the incongruity of the relationship between warplanes and arts festivals. The day before had been the helicopters’ turn. Four ADF choppers flying low through the city, sending birds and old ladies into panic mode. From my high-rise apartment it looked like Obama was back in town. It didn’t take long for social media … Continue reading The Friendly Fire of Riverfire

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Desirelines at the Judy

Carrie McCarthy

Desire Lines, both physical and metaphorical, are single moments of defiance that quickly become the norm as others follow suit. They are the beaten dirt tracks that crisscross city parks and wild sand dunes, thick scrub and council nature strips, and they are the doors opened by trailblazers who break societal norms and give the patriarchy a shake. They are at once transgressive and progressive, having an impact on everything and everyone in their vicinity. But what happens when people conform to the disobedience and rebellion morphs into orthodoxy? Do we remain and toast the revolution, or head off again in search of new challenges? … Continue reading Desirelines at the Judy

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Seven Stages of Grieving

Carrie McCarthy

Last night at the opening of Queensland Theatre Company’s 7 Stages of Grieving, I made a big statement that I don’t really write about theatre. Not because I don’t enjoy it; rather it’s because I enjoy it too much to spend a whole performance trying to remember what I want to say about it. But then I saw the show and my brain went into overdrive. There are so many places I could take this piece right now. Discussions around family ties, the differences in Aboriginal theatre vs mainstream theatre, Australian politics, Brisbane’s arts scene, the benefit of a good script…lots … Continue reading Seven Stages of Grieving

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Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on the Stage

Carrie McCarthy

Here’s an interesting one… Today, 8 December, marks the 354th anniversary of women first appearing professionally on the English stage as actresses. Funny, isn’t it, that the theatre should ever have been so exclusory of women when I’ve always viewed it as a place of refuge, welcoming of practically anyone provided you could remember your lines and hit your mark. The suspended reality, the camaraderie when you and the rest of the cast are nervous and about to appear before an audience, the hiding behind another persona, the acclaim when it all goes well. I haven’t acted for what feels like a … Continue reading Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on the Stage

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Happily Never After with QTC’s The Magic Hour

Carrie McCarthy

Once upon a time there was a play at Queensland Theatre Company called The Magic Hour about the darker side of fairy tales. I know that what comes next should be a story with good and bad, and a heroine smart enough to know the difference. And of course a happy ending. Always a happy ending. Except there’s nothing happy about the endings of any of the fairy tales retold in The Magic Hour. In fact, the only happy ending was the one when the performance finished and the lights came up. The Magic Hour is two and a half hours … Continue reading Happily Never After with QTC’s The Magic Hour

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A Review of Sorts

Carrie McCarthy

Sometimes, no matter how many times I rewrite a piece, I just can’t connect what’s in my head and heart with what ends up on the page. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does I find both my body and mind start pacing. Backwards and forwards, up and down, tossing and turning. It’s an unsettling business when you can’t get out what needs dislodging, especially when you’re so very keen to do so. I’ve been fiddling about for hours now. Perhaps I’ll just start with the facts and see where it leads. I saw a play today, one I’ve been wanting … Continue reading A Review of Sorts

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SHIFT by WRUFFnTUMBLE

Carrie McCarthy

So, I have this friend called Oscar. Or Panda. Or Pandasaurus Rex. Really it depends on who you’re talking to. Whatever you call him, he’s a total firecracker – a tightly wound ball of electricity, hyperactivity and sensitivity packed into a 5ft human body. I first met him through friends here in Brisbane, dressed in black leather hot pants, some sort of harness/waistcoat thing, and a face covered in silver paint. I think there may have been nipple clamps and a gimp mask involved, it’s a hazy, tequila-fueled memory now. I wasn’t sure whether to embrace him or freak out … Continue reading SHIFT by WRUFFnTUMBLE

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Toying Around With the Gandini Jugglers

Carrie McCarthy

“Damn everything but the circus!” said E.E. Cummings one day, clearly fed up with his literary life. “The average ‘painter’ ‘sculptor’ ‘poet’ ‘composer’ ‘playwright’ is a person who cannot leap through a hoop from the back of a galloping horse, make people laugh with a clown’s mouth, orchestrate twenty lions.” Ol’ Edward Estlin was obviously having a bad day when he said that, but I do understand his jealousy of circus performers a little. Not because I particularly want to tame lions or leap through a hoop from the back of a galloping horse (trust me, I REALLY don’t want to do … Continue reading Toying Around With the Gandini Jugglers