Saturday 23 May 2009

NOT: Optimism, Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt St, Southbank

Optimism is the Malthouse's new reworking of Voltaire's seminal satiral work, Candide. A quick read-up on wikipedia at least gave us a bit of a framework as to what to expect, but the production failed to turn the famously ludicrous story into something that make it easy for me to discern the deeper messages of the work. I certainly didn't sense that it was 'a cutting commentary on the ‘no-worries’ bravura of the Australian swagger'.

Also, I don't know whether it was because our session was only the second preview and of course the Malthouse is not the MTC in terms of budget, but it really felt like I was watching amateur hour. Mildly enjoyable, but not recommended.

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