As You Like It (2011)

Orlando (Ashley Zukerman) loves Rosalind (Alison Bell). Rosalind is disguised as boy called Ganymede. Phoebe (Gareth Davies) loves Ganymede. Silvius (Shelly Lauman) loves Phoebe. Rosalind loves Orlando back, but Orlando doesn’t know that she is Ganymede. Orlando is hunting Oliver (Hamish Michael). Celia (Yael Stone) loves Oliver. Celia is disguised as Aliena. The Duke (Trevor Jamieson) is hunting Celia. The other Duke (also Trevor Jamieson) is hunting deer. Jaques (Bille Brown) loves the deer. Touchstone (Charlie Garber) is freaked out by Jaques. Audrey (Casey Donovan) loves Touchstone. Touchstone loves words…

As You Like It turns out to be a terribly difficult play to describe. It’s a ramshackle, gender-bending, pastoral romantic comedy. At the end there’s a big wedding and they all go home.

Following from his huge success with A Midsummer Night’s Dream (B Sharp/Bob Presents/Arts Radar) Belvoir’s Associate Director – New Projects Eamon Flack will bring his playful approach to Shakespearean comedy to the most outlandish of the Bard’s works.

Though placed firmly in the traditions of Elizabethan culture, with references to literature, society and the politics of the time, there are disarmingly modern thoughts at the centre of this play: the idea of true personal freedom, of people running away from the city to create a new society, a new way of living, in a pastoral paradise. These displaced people are running from something – corruption, family breakdown, injustice – and in the process meet a new kind of people who live, in a way, completely removed from the structures of life in the city.

As You Like It features what can only be described as a dream cast, the very finest theatre and screen actors around, getting the chance to cut loose with a wonderfully rich and hilarious text as a spring board into a festival of delight. Under the attuned eye of a talented director with a great approach to Shakespeare this delicious extravaganza will be full of colour, music and frivolity; this will be perfect summer fare.

Flowerchilden – The Mamas & Papas Story (2011)

Flowerchildren – The Mamas & Papas Story  is an exciting new musical about the turbulent private lives of The Mamas and Papas between their spectacular rise to fame in 1966 and their tragic demise only four years later, in 1970.

Penned by AFI winning writer, Peter Fitzpatrick (Hotel Sorrento), the musical explores the distrust, dangerous passions, and unhealthy co-dependencies behind this group who sold 100 million records worldwide and left a legacy of timeless hits such as ‘Monday Monday’, ‘Creeque Alley’, ’Words of Love’, and the iconic ‘California Dreamin’.

The powerhouse vocal foursome is made up of Helpmann Award winner Matt Hetherington, who most recently appeared in the MTC production Next to Normal and whose extensive list of theatrical credits includes Sugar and The Full Monty. As Papa John, Matt will be joined by Laura Fitzpatrick (Fiddler On The Roof, Title of Show) as Mama Michelle, Dan Humphris (We Will Rock You) as Papa Denny and The Sapphires and Big, Beautiful & Sexy star Casey Donovan taking on the role of Mama Cass.

Musically adapted and arranged by Simon Stone, flowerchildren will be directed by Magnormos Artistic Director Aaron Joyner.

The Sapphires (2010-2011)

Meet the McCrae sisters – four gorgeous singers from country Victoria whose biggest dream is to become as famous as their Motown idols.

It is 1969, and their Supremes cover band is performing in St Kilda’s Tiki Club when the sisters are spotted by a talent scout. Soon they are dreaming of fame, fortune and glamorous international careers. Instead, these Koori divas find themselves in the war zone of Vietnam, entertaining the troops. Based on the true story of his mother’s and aunts’ showbiz careers, Tony Briggs has created a steamy and swinging medley of the highs and lows of family, love, war and the hottest soul music in the jungle of ‘Nam!

This new co-production by Black Swan and Company B Belvoir of the hit musical The Sapphires will be bigger and better than ever, and features a stellar cast led by Christine Anu and Casey Donovan. Wesley Enoch directs this feel-good production full of the Motown classics that defined a generation, and our leading ladies are sure to raise the roof o as they perform such hits as Stop in the Name of Love, Chain of Fools, Sex Machine, Knock on Wood and Respect.

Miracle In Brisbane (2009)

This central and important work was produced by Brisbane Festival 2009 and tells the story of a group of homeless Indigenous people ‘living on country’ who build a shantytown on Brisbane’s outskirts. The discovery of oil under the site leads them to acknowledge ancestral spirits and the life-changing wealth of the land, but people with powerful interests soon start making other plans.

Miracle in Brisbane, through music, dance and ceremony touches on many powerful symbolic moments. From the removal of a baby girl, the rebuilding of family, clan relations and the gradual invasion of sacred country by the city’s looming development.

An outstanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cast, including Aaron Fa’Aoso, Deborah Mailman, Djakapurra Munyarrayan and Casey Donovan, brings to life an opera composed by Giorgio Battistelli and directed by one of Australia’s most accomplished directors, Rhoda Roberts.