Review Samples

“Trent Baker's production is sensitive to the power and the impotence of words.

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Michele Williams traps in amber the mannerisms and coquettishness of an upper-class teenage girl lost to time. It’s a finely chiselled performance, brittle with mischievous intelligence and pathos…”

Cameron Woodhead The Age, June 16th, 2010

“Trent Baker creates a first-class staging.

Holding the space magnificently, Michele Williams doesn’t miss a beat. Her fleeting expressions convey the wrenches of Deborah’s internal struggle…

Phil Roberts is excellent; likewise, Felicity Soper, (also excellent) playing the sister who has also devoted her life to caring for Deborah. There is a palpable sense of the melancholy of three lives lost with the unspoken needs of the two carers acutely present in the space.

This is masterful theatre. Nothing is lacking.”

Liza Dezfouli, Australian Stage June 12th 2010

“Michele Williams plays the role of Deborah with discipline, subtlety and emotional range, creating an increasingly alive countenance with microscopically rendered physical acting…

Phil Roberts is secure and believable as the family physician. Felicity Soper’s performance, as the dutiful widowed sister was well-crafted…

Christina Logan-Bell designed costumes and set with lighting designer, Lucy Birkinshaw… As the lights flicker on, so they flicker off…

…we feel a disquiet inside…a window in to help us look with empathy at a most improbable and hellish torment of the human soul.”

Gary Anderson, Arts Hub Editor, Wednesday June 16th, 2010

“Winterfall Theatre’s production of A Kind of Alaska is a gripping, immersive theatrical experience expertly directed by Trent Baker.

Christina Logan-Bell has created an understated, period perfect design and Lucy Birkinshaw’s lighting expertly enhances the journey of the play.

Michele Williams gives a magnetic, captivating performance as Deborah.  Pinter’s script is dense and complex; Williams handles every word, sentence and pause with forensic precision and astounding natural ease…

Phil Roberts’ portrayal as Hornby is intelligent and accomplished. Felicity Soper gives a fine performance as Deborah’s sister, Pauline.”

Inpress Magazine, June 13th, 2010

“I was engrossed with this performance from beginning to end.

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The script is horrifying and beautiful, a masterful piece of writing as one would expect from Harold Pinter. We witness the seemingly unbelievable reality of a woman whose body froze at the age of sixteen, rendering it a statue for a staggering thirty years. This illness, Encephalitis Lethargica, or “sleepy sickness” targeted millions of sufferers after the First World War. 

Pinter’s central character is Deborah who “re-awakens” at the age of forty-five, believing that she is still a teenager.  

Michele Williams’ acting is flawless as she takes us right inside the psyche of a woman facing a torturous, unimaginable nightmare. Her performance is formidably intelligent, at times funny, at other times, achingly vulnerable. Anyone who loves theatre should make it their business to see her in this role.

The other two actors, Phil Roberts and Felicity Soper are likewise brilliant. Roberts has a masterful grip on the rhythm of the language, using Pinter’s famous pauses to serve the tone of the play. Sopher gives an accurate and sensitive portrayal of Pauline." 

ABC Radio June 12th, 2010