The Breakfast Club at Koorliny Arts Centre - Review

The Breakfast Club at Koorliny Arts Centre - Review

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Posted 2018-07-27 by Nessa123follow

Thu 26 Jul 2018 - Sat 28 Jul 2018

Fans of the original Breakfast Club rejoice! For the first time ever in Australian history, comes the official stage adaptation of John Hughes' beloved teen drama, playing live at Koorliny Arts Centre for a limited time only!



Expertly directed and co-produced by Brenton Foale, who also plays Claire's father in this show. The Fremantle Performing Artists production of The Breakfast Club , which in this case is set in Perth during the 1980's, stars Blair Allen as John Bender, A.K.A. 'The Criminal', who absolutely takes to the spotlight, like a moth to a flame and truly does justice to the character and nails the pose at the end of the show!



Arianne Westcott-King as Claire Standish, A.K.A. 'The Princess', who plays her role with great believe-ability and emotion.



Newcomer to community theatre, Cameron Fawcett as Andrew Clark A.K.A. 'The Athlete', who put on an impressive performance and although he had one or two hiccups, he expertly recovered.



Rebecca Collin as Allison Reynolds A.K.A. 'The Basket Case', who owns her role in so many ways and portrays a very true representation of her character.



Archer Larwood as Brian Johnson A.K.A. 'The Brain', whose humour and emotion shines through in this role, which truly flourishes with the nostalgia of pure teenage angst.



And Ian Banks as Assistant Principal Richard Vernon, who is the antagonist of the story and while he certainly pulled off the role of a school teacher, who's fed up with the punks in his class, I felt that he lacked the passion that was portrayed through the character in the original film.



This production also features a wonderful supporting cast; Claire Burke who shines in her role as Carla, the former student of the year, turned cleaner of the school she graduated from and while she is a great side character, she is hilariously terrible at cleaning up after the students. Newcomers to the stage, Sarah Fawcett as Brian's mother and Harrison Bond as his brother (in the original film, Brian has a sister, however, the stage show adapted the role to be played by a male cast member, which works very well). They each have a lot to bring for such small roles and I truly look forward to seeing what they do next! And Nick Fawcett, who plays Andrew's father, is exceedingly natural in his role and ultimately steals the spotlight in his few scenes.



The props, costumes, makeup styles, lighting and sound were well selected for this production and truly capture the essence of 1980's nostalgia, which really brought me back to my younger days.

The only negatives I could find with this production, which could have been down to opening night jitters were the sound was mixed far too loudly for the small venue and was quite distorted in places, the backstage crew could be seen running around stage right during the performance, which was very distracting and the voice-over towards the end of the show, would have been better as a pre-record, as opposed to live, because the audience could clearly hear the microphone being switched on and off, as well as a number of pops during the dialogue, which in some places made it difficult to understand what was being said.

All in all, this is a great production and a must see for all those interested in theatre, the original film, or just looking to relive the good old days of the 80's.

To see the official trailer for this wonderful stage production, click here now!

[LINK=http://koorliny.com.au/book-tickets/]Tickets: Adults $30, Senior $25, Student/child $20
With special family rates also available.[/LINK]

Don't forget to bring some extra cash on the night to purchase a t-shirt and a copy of the program which the cast are more than happy to sign.

The Breakfast Club Live Stage Production is rated PG as it contains adult themes, drug use and adult language.

9.5/10

#Drama
#kwinana
#near_perth
#performing_arts
#shows
#theatre
#theatre -reviews
#july
!date 26/07/2018 -- 28/07/2018
%wnperth
210487 - 2023-06-16 06:28:26

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