Illawarra Performing Arts Centre - Night Out:
VELVET – Spiegeltent production - April
What a great night we had! Met for dinner first at
Jasmine Rice, then on to the show.
This is what the promotional material said and we
couldn’t say it better. A divine discotheque circus!
Star of the show... Marcia Hines.
“Welcome to Wonderland…Boogie Wonderland!
Slip behind the red velvet rope to visit a glitter ball
world of fantastic sensory overload! Having
dazzled audiences around the globe, VELVET arrives in Wollongong to headline the greatly anticipated
inaugural Spiegeltent Wollongong season in the stunning 1920s Aurora Spiegeltent. Travelling from its
home in Belgium to adorn the Arts Precinct, the ‘mirror tent’ will house not only VELVET but dozens of
other events. VELVET is a seductive fusion of disco, dance and circus that will take you on an electrifying
journey to a world of glamour and abandon. Loosely inspired by Studio 54, and starring an international
ensemble including legendary diva Marcia Hines, this is a raucous party with an exhilarating disco
soundtrack that never lets up. This review sums it up: “A show that’s big, brash, noisy and buckets of fun.
The audience is whipped into a frenzy of disco glitterball nostalgia.” - The Guardian (UK)
Favourite Book Review
May
A book review evening is always a very interesting one. We each review different books that we have
enjoyed at some stage during the year and as we hear about the stories portrayed in these wonderful
books, we then have the enthusiasm to seek out the next great ‘read’ particularly from the ones reviewed.
Two books brought to our attention were written by Alice Campion, the
pseudonym for five friends from a Sydney book club who challenged
themselves to write a '21st Century captivating rural novel, presenting the
reader finally with 2 unique and intriguing stories in
PAINTED SKY (5 friends) and THE SHIFTING LIGHT (4
friends). The finale was a painting of what the friends
thought Alice Campion might look like and entered into
the
Archibald
portraits
exhibition.
The oldest story to be reviewed was ANNE OF GREEN GABLES written in 1908,
by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Written for all ages, it has been
considered a children's novel since the mid-twentieth century. It recounts the
adventures of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl who is mistakenly sent to
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a middle-aged brother and sister who had
intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of
Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. The novel recounts how Anne makes her way
with the Cuthberts, in school, and within the town. I’m sure this novel would
have to be a favourite of many women of our era.
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