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Alex First

Alex First is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.

One Song (Melbourne Town Hall) – theatre review

Music like, I dare say, you have never seen it performed before. An hour-long pulsating beat, complete with athleticism, instruments struck and strummed outside the norm, treadmill vocals and wild cheering from the bleachers. There’s also a commentator and a highly enthusiastic cheerleader who, too, breaks the conventional mould (in fact, the whole performance piece does). All…

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Radical – movie review

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education”: Albert Einstein In Matamoros, Mexico, an idealistic teacher by the name of Sergio Jaurez Correa arrives at Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary School. It’s 2012 in a neighbourhood where poverty is entrenched, crime is rampant and corruption omnipotent. In many cases, due to basic survival…

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Ghosts (Theatre Works) – theatre review

Take Henrik Ibsen’s controversial 1881 play – a scathing commentary on morality – and move it from its original Norwegian setting to the Victorian bush in the late 19th century. That is what the award-winning team of playwright Jodi Gallagher and director/designer Steven Mitchell Wright have done with searing impact. Having spent years in Paris, widow…

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Bad Boys: Ride or Die – movie review

The Bad Boys action-comedy franchise dates back to 1995. Now the fourth film in the series – Bad Boys: Ride or Die – sees buddy cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett defending their former boss’s honour. Detective Lowrey (Will Smith) has married his physical therapist, Christine (Melanie Liburd). His partner, Burnett (Martin Lawrence), has had…

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Blackout Songs (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre) – theatre review

Addiction unplugged. The rollercoaster. Ecstatic. Imaginative. Outrageous. Vitriolic. Sexually charged. Ugly. Brutal. Destructive. Deadly. So is the relationship with the bottle explored in Joe White’s no holds barred drama Blackout Stories. Alice is gregarious, demonstrative and creative – the life of a party. She drinks and her mind is like a sieve. She constructs colourful stories. She spots…

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