Theatre: The Dreaming Hill (★ ★ ★ ½)

--> by Hellie Turner
WA Youth Theatre Co and Southern Edge Arts
Directed by Renato Fabretti
Assistant director Simon Woodward
Designed by India Mehta
Performed by Michaela Barker, Luke Binetti, Thomas Blowffwitch, Daisy Coyle, Austen Faulkner, Cambell Greenock, Liam Longley, Lachlan McGregor, Tess McKenna, Mikayla Merks, Tahlia Norrish, Andrew Phillips, Liannah Prior, Sam Reeves, Zali Stipanicev 

WA Museum 14 – 18 April, Albany Heritage Park 23 – 26 April

As the centenary of our seminal national tragedy looms, the surge of commemorative activity ranges from the deeply felt to the cynical, from the sublime to the excruciating.
Hellie Turner’s The Dreaming Hill, which was commissioned by the WA Youth Theatre Company and produced in partnership with Albany-based Southern Edge Arts and the WA Museum, is an impressive, valuable addition to those commemorations.
There’s no need to mention individual performances in the 14-strong cast of arresting young actors from Perth and Albany who have been brought together for this production, merely than to congratulate them, and, of course, observe that their ages, from 14 and 15 to their early 20s, is the same as their brave compatriots a century ago on those beautiful, fateful shores. 

Link here to the complete review in The West Australian

Theatre: Hedda

by Henrik Ibsen

Adapted by Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik and Renato Fabretti

Directed by Renato Fabretti  

With Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik, Tone Skaardal, Renato Fabretti, Richie Flanagan and Phil Miolin

The Blue Room Theatre

Until August 31 

The world’s in a bit of a spin over all things gritty and Scandinavian. Our televisions (or at least the best bits of them) are tuned to grim Swedish skies (various Wallanders and Girls With Tattoos) and rotten days in Denmark (serial Killings and Borgens) – the two countries have even combined forces, if not bodies, over The Bridge.

As far as I’m aware, the Norwegians have yet to join this small-screen splatter party, so this very tight, contemporary take on Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler comes at a fortuitous time.