If you don’t know the names Betty Burstall and Buzz Goodbody, I’m not sure you’ll be all that much wiser after seeing the play The Other Place. In Carlton in 1967 schoolteacher Burstall begins sketching plans for what will eventually become the iconic La Mama Theatre, the pre-eminent, independent home of new, experimental unseen Australian…
Last year Widows took the crime drama genre out of the hands of men and into those of women. The Kitchen tries to do the same thing but fails. We’re in New York City in 1978. The 20 blocks of pawnshops, porn palaces and dive bars between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River owned by…
You’ve next seen a family Christmas quite like this before. Australian Realness has each cast member playing dual roles – one bourgeois and the other uncouth. The time frame is Australia in the late ‘90s. The posh and haughty meet the rough and ready. And for one heavily pregnant family member, a dream quickly turns…
Gerard Butler is at it again … saving the leader of the free world from a secretive group intent on bringing him down. Angel Has Fallen is the third installment of the franchise that kicked off with Olympus Has Fallen in 2013, followed by London has Fallen three years later. Secret Service Agent Mike Banning…
A Midnight Visit is an immersive theatrical experience that combines dreams and whimsy with performance art. I spent a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours visiting three dozen specially decked out rooms inside an abandoned North Melbourne warehouse, dubbed the House of Usher. In the anteroom (representing a funeral home) an undertaker expresses his condolences for…
Golden Shield is a new play by Anchuli Felicia King, having its world premiere production from the Melbourne Theatre Company. It’s set against a background of antipathy between the US and China. Their animosity has reached deeply worrying levels and Australia is caught in the middle. The play deals with “Big Brother”, mistranslated words and…
The Australian Dream is a vitally important documentary that calls out intolerance for what it is. I’m ashamed to say – and notwithstanding that many, most even, may deny it – I believe Australia is a racist country. Are we more racist than other nations? Perhaps not, but that’s not the point. Any racism is…
For virtually as long as humans have existed, men have felt entitled. They’ve subjugated women by dictating what they can and can’t do. Let Me Tremble addresses the disparity and calls out the bad behavior for what it is – inappropriate, anachronistic and inexcusable. Front and centre is the church, but the play has to…
Willy Wonka’s magic carpet ride hits town with its world of wonder and make-believe. Based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel of the same name, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the story of a boy from an impoverished family who’s obsessed with sweets. He’s Charlie Bucket and he lives with his mother and four bed-ridden…
Two shows run in parallel at Melbourne’s Gasworks in Albert Park until 23 August 2019. Ghost Quartet (Antipodes Theatre Co) A palpable chemistry exists between four excellent performers who bring a surreal musical experience to life. They are music director David Butler (on piano, synthesizer and spring drum), Melissa David (on keyboard, harpsichord and drum),…
