Gracie Lai Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★★★

“An incredible night out.”

“Priscilla The Party” is joyous, tremendous musical fun. Based on the 1994 Academy Award winner “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, “Priscilla the Party” hails from Australia in 2006. It is a rip-roaring celebration of drag, queerness and camp musical theatre. Each scene is calibrated towards entertainment and intrigue from the start. The story follows ‘Tick’ (Owain Williams) as he travels across Australia to reach his wife (Kimberly Blake) and his child (a stooge) as part of a fabulous trio of drag queens travelling in a bus they christen “Priscilla”. Adam (Reece Kerridge) and Bernadette (Dakota Starr) accompany Tick as he travels throughout Australia battling homophobia, transphobia, making allies, and delivering hit after hit. The show is an immersive experience (developed and directed by Simon Phillips), with staging and actors moving throughout the crowd on the dancefloor. The set (Brian Thomson and Justin Nardella) and direction make great use of the atmosphere of a club with an impressive line up of dance hits from “Say a Little Prayer” to “Born This Way”. A tale of love, adversity and Aussie humour shines with amazing theatrical gravitas throughout.

Every cast member performs with outstanding energy, delivering a varied set of pop/dance songs in a jukebox musical for the ages. The quality of musical performance is high with remarkable talent on display throughout as Queens deliver ballads and romps with equal intensity and stage presence. Beautiful vocals draw us into the story and relay the emotions of the characters. The band are brilliant and you can tell they know they have the best gig in town (Musical Arrangements and Orchestration Stephen ‘Spud’ Murphy). The stage management team work tirelessly to coordinate movement of stages as they weave throughout the crowd. The sound design (Ben Harrison) includes familiar hits, punctuated by topical music in the breaks that ensure a continuation of the party. The multi-media venue makes use of video backgrounds (also Thompson and Nardella) and vibrant club lighting (Per Hörding). The show includes all the best parts of a drag show with all the precision and thought of a well-crafted musical (Musical arrangements and direction Steve Geere). A highlight are the fantastic costumes (Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner) and wigs, delivering camp, classic and heightened drag in the best possible way.

Seated dining experiences are available, though dance floor tickets make up the bulk of audience members who get to join in the concert-like drag-show-esque party atmosphere. “Priscilla the Party” is stunningly unique and totally immersive, taking the audience on a hugely enjoyable road trip through Australia whilst delivering one spectacular party en route. The close to three hours playing time flies by as the colourful scenes progress in and around the gloriously camp ‘Cockatoo Club’. Arrive early to enjoy the full experience, as there are superb opening acts to enjoy. With drag queens and musical actors combining their strengths, “Priscilla The Party” makes for an incredible night out.

Call Me Fury

Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 19th September 2019

★★★

“an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments”

It is hard to know what to make of Call Me Fury at first. The set (David Spence) emanates aspects of folk horror, with bright autumn leaves scattered against straw and an ominous-looking cross – a palette that works well against the performers’ stark pilgrim black (costumes by Helen Stewart). But when the cast snap into action with snippets of wry and ironic commentary, it becomes clear that something different is at work in this production. What emerges over the play’s 75 minute running time is an anthology-style study of witchcraft, which eventually spills over into a piece seeking to tackle the entrenched lies and elusive truths of women’s history.

The main narrative thread that binds the show together is the well-worn story of the Salem witch trials, carried out with much meta-referential criticism of Arthur Miller’s iconic version of the tale in The Crucible. All of the cast (Mairi Hawthorn, Gracie Lai, Olivia Kennett and Sasha Wilson) take on the familiar roles from history: Abigail – the young girl who cries ‘witch’; Samuel Parris – the quick-to-condemn preacher; Tituba – the slave so easily cast as a villain; and Sarah Goode – the poor and despised woman who first faces the accusatory finger, as well as many others. The writing (Sasha Wilson) adds new depth to the characters of Salem through monologues that speak to the power of past trauma and the alienating nature of fear.

However, apart from these few monologues, for the most part the cast play out the action of the trials and their consequences while jumping quickly between being participant and commentator, stopping suddenly to narrate historical backstory and offer their own conclusions and jokes. It is sometimes these parts that feel the least effective element of the whole ensemble – summoning up the over-exaggerated melodrama of the original legend only to pull it apart in asides. It is when the performers branch out into discussions of witchcraft more generally that the dialogue delivers up moments of insight.

Alongside the Salem witch trials, the audience is treated to brief vignettes that examine the fate of other witches through time – spanning from the ancient past to eerily close to the present. The staging is used the most cleverly in these quick scenes; slick body movements and vivid red cloth convey the Gothic pathos of these tales well. Folk songs also punctuate the drama, and these give the performers more time to shine. They keep the mood of the piece anchored when elsewhere the tone so often shifts, and bring a delightfully haunting magic to the stage.

The direction (a collaboration with Hannah Hauer-King) allows the cast a lot of movement so that nothing feels static and the audience is always engaged, but there are moments where some pauses or drawn-out moments of drama might be welcome, in order to let some of the script’s heavy subject matter penetrate more deeply. The lighting (Holly Ellis) is effective, but there are some hints at the start as to how it could have been used more throughout the show.

Altogether, a combination of compelling performances from the cast and a bold mixture of different ideas explored in the writing make Call Me Fury an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments.

PRISCILLA THE PARTY! at HERE at Outernet

★★★★★

“An incredible night out.”

PRISCILLA THE PARTY! at HERE at Outernet

Reviewed on 24th March 2024

by Jessica Potts

Photography by Marc Brenner

Recently reviewed by Jessica:

PRISCILLA THE PARTY!

PRISCILLA THE PARTY!

Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 19th September 2019

★★★

“an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments”

Altogether, a combination of compelling performances from the cast and a bold mixture of different ideas explored in the writing make Call Me Fury an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments.

Reviewed by Vicky Richards

Photography by David Spence

Call Me Fury

Hope Theatre until 5th October

Previously reviewed at this venue: