Theatre

A new take on a theatrical classic makes this Calamity Jane a must-see. And the classic I’m referring to is not the musical – it’s the oft ridiculed theatrical style of ‘Broadway dinner theatre’. Everything bar the meal is here: interactions with the audience, contemporary references (insert Trump joke here), entrances and exits through the…

There are some standout performances in White Box’s production of Blackrock, now playing at Sydney’s Seymour Centre, but they’re not enough to lift it to the heights this play deserves. At a time when violence against women remains high in our nation’s consciousness, we need plays like Nick Enright’s Blackrock to hit us where it…

It’s so refreshing when an original piece of work is brought to a wider audience, especially one that shines a light on a snippet of Australian history. Ladies in Black had such a successful premiere season last year that they’ve come back to delight audiences once again, this time touring to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and ending in…

Michael Gow’s Away is one of Australia’s most popular plays and this latest production makes it easy to see why. The current Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre Production sees the play return to its second home at the Sydney Opera House (the show played here one year after it debuted at the Stables Theatre…

Michelle Law’s Single Asian Female says all the things we’re not allowed to, the things we should be allowed to. The things we know are right even though more often than not Australian culture and politics gets it so wrong. This show says all of that and lets you laugh while they do it. After…

Sport for Jove’s Summer Shakespeare Season is in its eighth year and is impressing audiences once again, this time with their double bill – Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. Designed to be viewed back-to-back, with some of the actors reprising their roles in the second play, politics, intrigue and murder abound. Suzanne Pereira is…

Bare is, in my opinion, one of the most underappreciated musicals. Ever since I first heard it it has been a favourite but I always knew the chance of seeing it live was going to be small. So when I read The Depot Theatre in Sydney were producing it I was extremely excited. I had some trepidation though,…

Mack and Mabel is a musical that I hadn’t yet gotten around to listening or paying much attention to. When the Hayes announced that they were producing it however, I decided to take a nosy into what it was all about. From what I could garner the musical was a bit of a well-known, somewhat…

Written by Jeffrey Archer, The Accused is an edge-of-your-seat courtroom drama in which the audience are the jury. Directed by Bernard Teuben, we see a man accused of murdering his wife through poison and are presented with several witnesses who argue his guilt. An abrupt judge, two bickering barristers and a colourful cast of witnesses…

The Seymour Centre is known for its innovative and provocative productions, and 2017 looks to be no different. In its seventh year, the Reginald Series present unique performances from some of Australia’s leading small and independent arts companies. With work that touches on transgender and gender issues, violence against women, future technologies and speaking out…

Speed The Plow is a somewhat calm and controlled satirical stab at the American movie business, at relationships and convenience, and at wanting to be a good person and yet always having to succumb in the end at the hands of money, money, money. As Bobby says in defeat: “I wanted to be good, but I became…

The final show for The Production Company‘s 2016 season ended with a dazzling reincarnation of Dusty The Musical. The look, the legend and the music. Three attributes that describe this show in all its glory with an outstanding leading lady in Amy Lehpamer. Over the years we have seen Lehpamer grow into the performer she is…

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…

Monkey Baa Theatre specialise in creating inspiring, award-winning theatre for young audiences, creating productions which present a multifaceted reflection of the world. The launch of their upcoming 2017 program was met with enthusiasm and high expectations. The audience was afforded a glimpse into the nine performances, which will make up the 2017 season, each one…

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….

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,…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

After the Pythons re-united for a brief run of shows at the O2 in London in 2014, John Cleese and the team behind the show started thinking about what else might work on the stage. Cleese’s brilliant, all-too-short but totally classic series Fawlty Towers seemed to be the obvious choice, and they immediately began to…

Who Am I? Where did I come from? What was my family like? We’re all hit by these questions at some point in our lives, hit with that desire to find out more about those bits of life that have faded into half formed memories. It is this desire to find out more about her…

Samuel Beckett might have brushed up against your memory like a shifty cat quickly grazing past your leg before changing its mind and scampering off into the darkness. Or perhaps you’re very familiar with his work that planted him firmly at the forefront of absurdist theatre when it was at its peak of creation. Regardless…

And just like that, the biggest show to open in Australia this year has blown the socks off audiences. Ever since it was announced to make its Australian debut, the hype surrounding Disney’s classic Aladdin has been immense, with industry professionals and theatre lovers alike counting down the days until opening night. Every childhood memory…

Most people are familiar with the story of On Golden Pond, with many having seen the 1981 film starring Henry and Jane Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. The story centres around relationships and families, in particular the dynamic which exists between Norman Thayer, JR (Dave Kirkman), his wife Ethel (Carole Grace) and his estranged daughter Chelsea…

There’s an overwhelming urge amongst Australian societies to divulge themselves in to the case of missing people – particularly children. Stories that dominate the media also capture us. The case of Daniel Morcombe is a case in point, where the pubic followed it religiously for more than a decade until there was some sort of…

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…