Mitch Riley

The Soldier's Tale

"The Soldier’s Tale has been staged in many ways, often with actors and dancers alongside a narrator. While this is not the first time a single performer has taken on the entire dramatic burden, Riley’s highly animated and articulate performance is among the most compelling this writer has seen. His physicality is remarkable as he shapeshifts from soldier to Devil and back again, and there are delightful touches of humour..."

- Limelight

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Midnight Static (Récitations by Georges Aperghis)

"Riley made it an absolutely world-class performance. With incredible theatrics, he drew out the curious musicality of these strange vocal patterns and carved out his own emotional arc to add shape and flow through the repetition.

- Limelight

"... the standout of the evening, selections of George Aperghis’ Récitations, performed masterfully by Mitch Riley. Before the audience could cease their applause, Riley clumsily galloped on stage, launching straight into Récitation 11, flitting between panic and pleasure in an instant. The audience was gripped throughout the entire performance, as Riley expertly threaded stuttering syllables and fragments of phrases, injecting this “hot-potato” of meaning with an arresting obsequity, not dissimilar to an Andy Kaufman routine. In the 9th Récitation,  the addition of a new cell would dramatically modulate the feeling and meaning of what we had just heard before. Riley's virtuosity as an actor really shone here... using the physicality of his performance to invert the expression of a deep exhalation or a rhetorical question from that of a tyrant to a desperate man."

- classikON

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Gilgamesh

"Symonds exploits Riley’s unique vocal timbre, astonishing physical abilities, and extreme vocal range, creating a fascinating character out of the enigmatic figure of Enkidu. [...] Riley is astounding in his ability to convey the transformation of an undefined, writhing living creature into human form – both vocally with his wordless vocalisations gradually forming recognisable language, combined with the gradual physical emergence of a human being."

– Australian Book Review 

"Mitchell Riley is outstanding as this so-called “offspring of silence”, Riley’s body as agile as his ethereal trills and vocal range are remarkable. [...] When Enkidu is later marked for death by gods angry at the environmental devastation, Riley is riveting as he describes in song his own celestial end."

– Stage Whispers

"Mitchell Riley’s physicality is unforgettable as Enkidu, whether evoking the grotesque or the exalted, the performer’s energy bears a perverse beauty and magnetism, that keeps us fascinated in his interpretation of a heavenly being."

– Suzy Goes See

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The Shape of the Earth

"...singer/actor/hyperactive performance artist Mitchell Riley delivered an outstanding tour-de-force of nuanced vocal flexibility, dissembling characterisation and physical theatre."

– The Sydney Morning Herald 

"Riley delivers a gripping and eviscerating multi-faceted performance, journeying through an agonising and humorous pursuit of self-realisation."

– Limelight

"Allied to these astounding vocal qualities, Riley displays an astounding physical litheness and pliability that complements the kaleidoscopic music."

– Australian Book Review

"The Shape of the Earth [...] was given a searing performance by Mitchell Riley, often asked to sound as if in extremis and then to produce lines of great beauty. In his final song Riley was both a body in the dirt and ‘a spirit splintered into light’. It was a deeply affecting struggle between the flesh and the infinite."

– Opera

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O Mensch!, Sydney Festival

“Riley's voice has commanding resonance when needed but can also create wisps of whimsical falsetto, dark whispers and many shades between. Dramatically he seems able to hold the stage whether scolding humanity, exalting the stars in nervous anxiety or pontificating with elbow on knee and pointed finger.”

   – The Sydney Morning Herald

“The cynosure of all eyes throughout, Mitch Riley delivered the absorbing, committed performance that has become a hallmark of his many involvements with the company. His emotional range was extraordinary, and his voice answered the demands put on it.”   

   – Bachtrack 

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Oscar and Lucinda

"Riley displays his gift for comedy as Dennis Hasset and Oscar’s bosom friend, Wardley-Fish."

   – Limelight Magazine

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Fly Away Peter

“Mitchell Riley is a beguiling Jim, a deeply convincing actor with agile, characterful baritone voice.”

   – Sydney Morning Herald 

“Mitch Riley, as the central figure of Jim Saddler, has the most commanding physical presence – tall and balletic, he sings with firm line and a highly nuanced and varied tonal palette, effectively suggesting Jim’s humanity and vulnerability.”

   – The Conversation 

"The fine actor-singers are at turns lyrical, passionate and anguished and their diction and acting excellent—particularly Riley with his easy presence and acute sense of physical and emotional detail."

   – RealTimeArts

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...pas a pas - nulle part..., Sydney Festival

“Riley's performance [...] is a tour-de-force vocally and theatrically.”

   – Sydney Morning Herald 

“[...] a thoroughly convincing performance from baritone Mitchell Riley as he stares, grimaces, falls asleep, ponders, gives up and bounces back with comic verve and sung lines that wax lyrical, angst and leap into falsetto.”

   – RealTime Arts 

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The Lighthouse

"Vocal effects, especially well-handled slides by Mitchell Riley’s keeper Blazes, added to a masterful characterisation."

   – Artshub

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Climbing Toward Midnight

“[...] Mitchell Riley delivered another powerful performance as Parsifal. Singing with fresh-voiced clarity, he was also a strong physical presence in his encounters with Gavish.”

   – The Australian 

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Notes from Underground

“Mitchell Riley, as the "aboveground" Man, enacted self-imposed alienation with suppressed inner fierceness and sang with penetrating clarity.”

   – Sydney Morning Herald