Bats Theatre
Jan 11-Feb 3 | Reviewed by Diane Spodarek

NOT JUST another dysfunctional family story His Mother’s Son is a powerful theatrical experience of the consequences of a father’s drinking. And it’s funny. We laugh because the acting is so good, the direction is unpredictable and multi layered, and the story is true to life. A well-crafted and clever set design by Peter King provides changing locations for past, present and future scenarios with a fast-paced, tight direction by Katrina Chandra. We witness this family’s history: the first flirtation of the mother and father; the birth of a wanted son; the son doing his homework in his room and later drinking there; mother and son moments; and father and son confrontations with other domestic events in this family of three.

Downstage
Jan 18-Feb 3 | Reviewed by Diane Spodarek

SOLO performances are amazing theatre. Female solo performers can be traced back to Ruth Draper who perfected the art with her various women characters. Draper was born in 1884 in New York, a few years before Katherine Mansfield’s birth of 1888. Draper devoted her acting career to the monologue, writing them herself and touring all over the world. She died in 1950 hours after a solo performance in New York.

Bats Theatre
Jan 11-20 | Reviewed by Diane Spodarek

Iris. What does the title mean? Since programme notes were not available, I can only speculate. What is in a name? Is it the flower? Or, the membrane around the pupil of the eye? Iris the messenger of the gods from Iliad? The device on a camera that allows in light to form an aperture? Or, is Iris a woman?