Christmas Carol, Ensemble Theatre 2022, Reviews
A newcomer to the mainstream is Emily McKnight, who plays the flute, manipulates the stylised, heartrending puppet that represents the Cratchits’ sickly son Tiny Tim (puppet maker Tina Williams), and also sparkles in her diverse roles.
-STAGE NOISE
Emily McKnight was consistently strong in all the parts she played. I must say, however, her ability to enliven a nearly featureless little puppet with a childlike wonder and crippled fragility, absolutely brought Tiny Tim to life. When she sang about potentially waking up tomorrow with the angels, I was a blubbering mess.
-THEATRE NOW
There are casts with great chemistry and there are casts that are truly a family, and the latter is absolutely the case in this production. Almost everyone takes on multiple roles – none so many as Emily McKnight, who single-handedly covers six roles including a puppet and plays the flute on top of it without breaking a sweat – and are in constant movement yet the choreography is seamless, comfortable. They’re so clearly having a wonderful time, and it resonates with the audience.
-TOASTING AUSSIE THEATRE
Emily McKnight is particularly noteworthy here. Alongside playing six characters, she accompanies Darryl Wallis with a flute, has her own solo musical number, and operates a small skeletal puppet, the play’s bizarre representation of Tiny Tim. Seeing her do it all is a feat just by itself.
-STATE OF THE ART
Emily McKnight offers an assortment of characters and a ballad or two throughout, but it’s her softness as she puppets Tiny Tim that wins the audience’s heart.
-THEATRE THOUGHTS
RECENT ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY MEAA, ABOUT EMILY'S PODCAST
- AN ACTOR SURVIVES
Emily McKnight gives a heartfelt performance as Lady Macbeth and the infamous monologue “Unsex me here” has never been so appropriately complex and emotive. It is during this speech we realise that her character represents the desire to abandon femininity for the sake of empowerment; and yet, this iteration of the work as a purely female version, changes the meaning and intensity around this entirely.
THEATRE NOW
Emily McKnight as Lady MacBeth was stirring and her raw emotion was palpable
The BUZZ FROM SYDNEY
Praise for Lady Macbeth
(Sheshakespeare's Macbeth 2018)
Emily McKnight as Lady MacBeth was stirring and her raw emotion was palpable
The BUZZ FROM SYDNEY
Emily McKnight as Lady MacBeth was stirring and her raw emotion was palpable
The BUZZ FROM SYDNEY
Praise for Jodie
(subtlenuance theatre, TickTickBoom 2018)
Emily McKnight is convincing in her performance of Jodie’s recalcitrance, for a portrait of teenage angst that we are all familiar with.
Suzy Goes See
Emily McKnight as Jodie plays the dark very well. Her little cruelties and binning of gifts is calculated hurt, informed by medicine and martyrdom. McKnight gives her character a surly and prickly attitude. Jodie appears to feel that she has a monopoly on suffering and her implied need for an audience is allied with an eye to a grand gesture. McKnight tightly controls the technical aspects of presenting an illness and keeps well away from the morbid but some relief from the character’s gruffness would better shade her creation. Her command of the monologues is unquestioningly good as she cultivates the audience empathy without overdone sentiment.
Sydney Arts Guide