A diligent young teacher is caught up in a seemingly never-ending downward spiral in Ilker Catak’s film The Teacher’s Lounge. Try as she might, whichever way she manoeuvres seems to make matters worse. Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is in her first job at a German school. She teaches 12-year-olds (sixth-graders) and cares a great deal….
Power, passion and subterfuge make for a heady cocktail. And so it is in Opera Australia’s Tosca. It is a compelling thriller with a great deal of bite, being staged at Margaret Court Arena because the State Theatre is closed, while undergoing a three-year upgrade. Amidst the unrelenting drama, stirring arias and evocative set design predominate. With…
Devastating bushfires and a baby koala and miner in peril. These are just two of the interwoven threads that run through the excellent, interactive solo work KOAL, in which sound, music and lighting play a critically important role. The piece was conceived by performer Jacinta Yelland. In 2019, she was sitting in her living room in the United…
In New York, two separated guys – best mates – move in together. They are like chalk and cheese … polar opposites in terms of their approach to life. One – news writer Felix Ungar – is uptight, angst riddled, awkward and “anal” about cleanliness and cooking. The other – sportswriter Oscar Madison – is laid back…
A contemporary twist on an old fancy, Monash University Student Theatre (MUST) in association with Bloomshed, have taken aim at supermarket greed. The plot is drawn from the satirical play The Government Inspector (1836) by Russian dramatist and novelist Nikolai Gogol. It is a comedy of errors, satirising greed, stupidity and political corruption in Russia. In The Government…
Billy Elliot The Musical remains as moving and evocative as when I first saw it at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 1stJanuary, 2009 … and what a magnificent show it is. For me, this is up there with the best musicals brought to the stage. It is based on the successful 2000 film, which starred Jamie…
Being identifiable as Jewish today is more fraught than at any time since the Holocaust. Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the growing tide of antisemitism has been relentless. That is why Ron Elisha’s thought-provoking work could not be more relevant or timely. Many words are spoken in Rootless Cosmopolitans, at the heart of which…
Intrigue and subterfuge abound in the rich and engaging period action drama The Three Musketeers: d’Artagnan. This is Part I in the sprawling adventure, to be followed by Part 2, Milady, in a few weeks. Based on Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel, the film opens in 1627 France. Spirited young swordsman Charles D’Artagnan (François Civil) is…
Sharing a house with friends and/or strangers can be anything but straightforward. Sometimes, mighty testing, in fact. So it is in the new Australian musical Share House, which is simply delightful. Former classmates Lucy and Jane are as different as chalk and cheese. Now young adults, they have been living together for what seems like forever. Bossy, at times…
Noted for her interpretation of French ballads, Edith Piaf (19th December 1915 – 11th October, 1963) was one of the world’s most lauded singers. Forever searching for love, her dramatic style and expressive voice appeared to reflect the troubled and difficult life she led. Her small stature (she was only four foot eight inches tall) and stage…
