Joanna Murray-Smith has been named as the first ever winner of the Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers, receiving a $30,000 prize. The Award is the only one of its kind in Australia, and recognises “an outstanding Australian woman who has written for the stage and/or screen”. It is named for the…
Read More
Murray Lambert’s new Australian play, My Father’s Left Testicle, is a triumph. Funny, thought-provoking, challenging and engaging – this is independent theatre (and thinking) at its best. My Father’s Left Testicle is a play about travellers from a land across the sea. Persecuted for their beliefs, they seek refuge in a ‘lucky’ country, where they…
Read More
The Days Are as Grass is a delightful series of short plays that sheds light on the lives and experiences of the older members of our community. Performed by a stellar cast, this production is sure to have you thinking deeply about your own life and making the most of the time that you have….
Read More
Excellent direction and inspired design make Secret House’s production of Cymbeline a surprisingly entertaining night out. One of Shakespeare’s least-known works, Cymbeline reads like a bingo card of the Bard’s favourite devices: gruesome murder, adventures in the woods, cross-dressing, a confused King, banishment, star-crossed lovers and war. Tick, tick, tick, Bingo! At nearly 4,000 lines,…
Read More
Dream Lover – The Bobby Darin Musical is the perfect show for a casino – packed to the brim with classic cabaret and jazz tunes, a live big band and dazzling set and costumes. Add to the mix an engaging story and a first-rate star and you’re guaranteed to have a mainstream hit on your…
Read More
Laura Johnston’s one-woman show Hitchcock’s Birds is superbly researched and well performed, but leaves the audience wanting more. The concept behind this show is compelling: an insight into the mind of film director Alfred Hitchcock, delivered from the mouths of his leading ladies. The script is taken entirely from real life interviews with Hitchcock’s actresses,…
Read More
Alfred Hitchcock’s films are renowned for their female protagonists, put in peril by a master of the suspense genre. But what did the actresses who played these women really think about the man behind the lens? Laura Johnston wants audiences to find out, as she takes them on a one-woman-led journey into the minds of…
Read More
A great play and strong visual design set Edgewise Production’s The Women up for success, but inconsistent performances mean it falls just short of its potential. The Women was written in 1936 by Clare Boothe Luce. Described as a comedy of manners, with dialogue purportedly taken from conversations overheard in Manhattan powder rooms, the story…
Read More
Montague Basement’s Tammy & Kite is something just a little bit special, and a must-see in this year’s Sydney Fringe Festival line-up. This delightful, playful new creation introduces us to sisters Tammy and Kite (and the super-cute Philip the Duck). Through their play, we learn they are best friends, share a love of fart jokes…
Read More
Talk about a big undertaking! For this year’s Sydney Fringe Festival, Montague Basement has tackled ‘15 books of the finest Latin poetry known to man’, by creating their own adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. What it lacks in finesse, this production certainly makes up for in entertainment value. Tracing the history of the world, from the…
Read More
If you ever wanted to step back in time to the golden age of Broadway, now’s your chance, because Opera Australia and John Frost’s My Fair Lady is about as close as it comes. This is a nostalgic, faithful and lovingly-recreated production that will have musical theatre fans coming back for more. My Fair Lady…
Read More
This September, Caroline O’Connor will take to the stage in the world premiere of Dream Lover – The Bobby Darin Musical, playing the dual roles of Polly (Bobby Darin’s mother) and Mary (Sandra Dee’s mother). I asked this Australian musical theatre icon what drew her to the project and about the challenges of playing two…
Read More
Andrew Henry gives a tour de force performance in Red Line Productions’ well executed take on the British classic, Look Back in Anger. Henry plays Jimmy Porter, a disillusioned young Englishman living in near-poverty with his wife and their flatmate in a one-bedroom flat in the Midlands. Well-educated but devoutly loyal to his working-class upbringing,…
Read More
In 2011, Oliver Burton undertook the ambitious task of building an improvised show in which the actors speak only in Shakespearean-style language. Five years on, the idea remains as fresh as ever, and the Post-Haste Players are now entertaining Sydney audiences with their take on Shakespeare’s History plays. I asked Burton about taking on the…
Read More
Doth thou speakest true? Not a script betwixt these players yet drama and merriment dost ensue! It’s hard not to get carried away with the language used by the Post-Haste Players in their latest production, The Post-Haste Histories, especially because the Shakespearean-inspired script is developed entirely before your eyes. This is improv theatre at it’s…
Read More
Director Kevin Jackson freely admits Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters is his favourite play of the last century and you can certainly feel the love in Sport For Jove’s production of the classic work, now playing at the Seymour Centre, Chippendale. The three sisters are Olga, Masha and Irina, who we follow over a period of five…
Read More
The Depot Theatre’s production of Christina in the Cupboard, by Paul Gilchrist, is bewildering at first, but eventually gets to a thought-provoking point which will have you pondering long into the night. The play, first performed at the Tap Gallery in 2013, is an exploration of one young woman’s retreat inwards as she struggles to…
Read More
Simple Infinity successfully combines three art forms to create an enchanting and genuine experience that encourages us to look again. We begin by engaging with the work of artist and designer David Hawkes, who has created both a large-scale installation and performance space. Taking its cue from the infinity sign, Hawkes invites the audience to…
Read More
The stars of cult TV series Ru Paul’s Drag Race got ready to lip-sync for their lives at Sydney’s Luna Park Big Top this past weekend, arriving in a flurry of sequins, glitter, fake lashes and vertigo-inducing high heels. Fans delighted in performances from some of their favourite artists of the last seven seasons, but those…
Read More
You’ll be guaranteed to be singing the Cold Chisel classic after attending this production, but sadly the theatrical version doesn’t quite rise to the heights of its musical namesake. Written and produced by Aussie dramatist Wayne Tunks, Flame Trees is a story about the unforgiving nature of country towns. Past actions are not easily forgotten, as…
Read More
Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II is set for a radical makeover in a new production for Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre opening this July. Adapted by Australia’s Anthony Weigh, who is currently an Associate Artist at the renowned Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London, this Edward II speaks with a contemporary voice, referencing 21st century lust and politics. Unlike…
Read More
The life and times story of an American woman experimenting with feminism in the 60s, 70s and 80s may not seem like it has much relevance on today’s Sydney stage. But in bringing Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles to life, the team at the New Theatre have successfully highlighted the very long way women still…
Read More
A desire to connect communities and celebrate the diverse cultures that exist within Australia is the driving force behind the New Beginnings festival, to be held on 18 June at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour. Showcasing the talents, cultural expressions and stories of people with refugee backgrounds and those who are seeking asylum, New Beginnings features…
Read More
In this period of YouTube celebrities, reality TV starlets and Kardashians, it can be challenging to relate to theatrical characters. Audiences are regularly plated-up a plethora of classics, complete with over-the-top performances and melodious, fruity language contrasted against edgy, overly dark interpretations of long-lost fables. Presented on stark stages that we struggle to comprehend (but…
Read More
It’s hard to be critical of non-professional productions, because they are the training ground for so many working in the industry. Certainly, newcomers should be congratulated for sticking out their proverbial necks and adding to Sydney’s ever-expanding theatrical quilt. But unfortunately, some productions just don’t work, no matter how much effort the creatives put in….
Read More
The subject of masculinity and what it means to be a man in today’s Australia are skillfully explored in Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s production of Savages, written by Patricia Cornelius. Opening with a blast of light and sound, we meet four thirty-something Aussie men, about to embark on the ‘trip of a lifetime’ aboard a cruise…
Read More
In her play Savages, currently showing at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst, Patricia Cornelius brings us face to face with a segment of society that is all too familiar these days – the violent man. Inspired by the death of Diane Brimble aboard a cruise ship in 2002, Cornelius takes a look at what drives…
Read More