The year 2014 was possibly not the strongest overall but there were a few shows that stood out, in no particular order.
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Johnny Castellano is Mine. This was collaboration between The Street Theatre and Canberra Youth Theatre that produced a tense and beautiful physical theatre monologue about love and obsession. Performed by Alison Plevey, directed by Karla Conway and written by Emma Gibson.
Presented in association with The Street Theatre, David Atfield's Scandalous Boy was notable for its funny yet melancholy look at the relationship between Emperor Hadrian and the young Antinous. Its use of uninhibited male nudity was refreshingly there for dramatic and historical reasons. Atfield both wrote and directed and brought off this difficult double act with considerable style.
Free Rain's production of Tracy Letts' August: Osage County. This was a long and absorbing piece about family disintegration done splendidly by a large cast that rose to the play's challenges under Cate Clelland's strong direction.
Bell Shakespeare's Henry V as directed by Damian Ryan was an intriguing and mostly successful setting of the play in a bomb shelter classroom in World War II London. Sounds risky and it was but it worked on so many emotional levels to put this play both into the context of war and the context of a 1940s English class.
Free Rain's Legally Blonde the Musical was a tight, intelligent and energetic musical version of the film that at first seems to be nothing more than another take on the archetypal "dumb blonde". But the script challenges a few stereotypes and under director Derek Walker a strong ensemble led by Mikayla Williams as Elle Woods gave the piece a terrific life. Jenna Roberts was particularly funny and impressive as Paulette, the beauty salon owner who finally finds luck in love.
Pick for 2015
Damien Ryan came up with a challenging way to do Henry V. Hamlet
