|
|
|
 |
 
by David Arthur-Simons, Holus Bolus Theatre Restaurant, Newtown, Sydney 
It is rare to find theatre restaurant shows that are not aimed solely at light entertainment… this piece is very funny, yet it is a superior piece of writing that forces you to think while you laugh. Michele Williams gives an extraordinary performance in this one-woman show, in which she plays five characters – a school girl, a middle-class house-wife, a film noir seductress, a deluded New Age Guru and a sixty-something bag-lady. Her transformation in each of these roles is so believable, it is impossible to tell which one represents her true age… …We know the actress is not in her sixties, however her portrayal of this bag-lady deserves special mention… her face, body, voice and soul appear to undergo a total transformation… an actress who displays a razor sharp wit and intelligence in moments, and a heartbreaking vulnerability in others… On the Street Magazine, Sydney 
by Diana Simmonds, Sydney explores the controversies revealed in Jean Genet’s THE MAIDS 
From left: Michele Williams, Catherine Normoyle and Maya Potter in THE MAIDS Caught up in and revealed by Genet’s poetic language are the answers bourgeois France was unable to see; that the murders were not inexplicable, not motiveless. That the ferocity of the sister’s attack perhaps symbolised an eruption of fury repressed by a lifetime of bondage. As rehearsals progressed, the actress, Michele Williams, began to explore the political ideology cloaked by Genet’s imagination. Williams sees the maids as having nothing – either to lose or to gain. “The mistress seems to have everything,” she says. “She has perfumes, powder, lace. She has her own free will …” Genet’s own personal, political and sexual stance put him outside and at odds with that bourgeoisie – perfectly positioned to make a kind of sense of the hitherto incomprehensible… Sydney Morning Herald 
by Beth Henley, directed by Robyn Moase, Sydney 
CRIMES OF THE HEART… it is a delightful second act that serves up an emotional cocktail of tragi-comedy. Thanks for this mostly belongs to Michele Williams (playing the screwball Babe with a zany sincerity) and Karen Vickery (as Meg). They work off each other with an assurance that pulls the play together. The Sun-Herald, Sydney Three more orphans, females this time, are to be found at the revitalised Bay Street Theatre at the centre of Beth Henley’s CRIMES OF THE HEART… The character of Babe (played by Michele Wililams) having just had a hot affair with a local 15-year-old black boy and shot her husband in the somach – keeps incompetently trying to kill herself. Here as it were, Tennessee Williams meets Anton Chekhov… …smooth instinctive interplay which marks ensemble acting at its best… The Bulletin 
I like the cast… Diana Denley, Karen Vickery and Michele Williams, as the sister Babe, present a remarkably coherent family portrait in which the absurd rarely dents reality… Daily Mirror, Sydney …the text is sharp and so true that the struggle of the cast with the material is theatrically compelling. Ruth Hessey, Sydney Morning Herald [Michele Williams plays the youngest sister, Babe.] Her monologues at the close of act one are excellent, as she explains her unhappy marriage and her sexual need for the black boy, Willy Jay. On the Street Magazine, Sydney 
by Franca Rame and Dario Fo
Performers: Geoffrey Baird and Michele Williams, from the 1989 Melbourne production Season One – The Kirribilli Theatre Sydney, and The Cue Theatre Penrith, 1988With a talent that justifies their overseas training and experience and a cheeky familiarity with each other and their audience, Gearard Sont and Michele Williams romp through this farcical situation with every evidence of having a great time. Their enjoyment is infectious while their situations and reactions are very involving… Carol Payne, North Shore Times, Sydney Melbourne Season at The Universal Theatre, 1989A Comic Look at CouplesTHE OPEN COUPLE, starring Michele Williams and Geoffrey Baird. Written by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, is a play in which the hypocrisies of sexual liberation are dissected… …The two characters in the piece are a husband and a wife. Like Fo and Rame, they have been married for some time. “The husband,” says Ms Williams, “suggests they have an ‘open’ marriage – meaning they have affairs with other people, but stay married. He’s already been doing this for a while, going out and having one-night stands. He’s the sort of guy that tells his wife, rather than keep it all hidden, and tells her she ought to do the same thing…” “…She tries to do it on his level – meaningless sex – and finds she can’t…” In the course of the play, however they both discover that one little thing leads to another. The wife meets another man. As Ms Williams observes, “he starts to play more of a role in her life than her husband, and the husband senses that. So, in place of a suicidal wife, we now have a suicidal husband…” “…I think the appeal of the play is that it’s very close to home…” Steven Carroll, The Age See more reviews: |
