Nominated for eight Oscars, David Lynch’s 1980 dramatic biographical film The Elephant Man – featuring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft and John Gielgud – remains seared into my consciousness. Now a clever and creative group of writers and composers (Marc Lucchesi, Sarah Nandagopan and Jayan Nandagopan) has taken the story’s essence, twisted it and turned…
I swear I close my eyes and I can hear the late, great John Denver. When I open them and see Darren Coggan performing in front of me, he bears a striking similarity to the world-renowned acoustic folk musician, born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31st, 1943 – October 12th, 1997). For well over an hour,…
Winner of the Best Screenplay at the Cesar Awards (the French Oscars), The Innocent is a comedic crime caper mixed with romance. Sylvie Lefranc (Anouk Grinberg) is a 60-year-old prison drama teacher that can’t help herself. She has a habit of falling head over heels in love with and then marrying the inmates, which inevitably…
Having closely watched all 75 minutes of Pear-Shaped, I remain utterly confused about what I just saw. It is a semi-autobiographical work (it contains both real and imagined experiences), written by Miranda Middleton and Ziggy Resnick, starring the latter and Luisa Scrofani. It concerns an eating disorder overlaid with Alice in Wonderland. What the? From what I…
Rolling Thunder Vietnam is a deeply emotional, richly rewarding musical and narrative experience that takes you to the heart of the highly divisive Vietnam War. Featuring 20 of the most affecting songs of the era, Rolling Thunder Vietnam prizes open the hopes and fears of the young soldiers who went into battle. It also looks at the…
The quirky dramedy Linoleum concerns a decent man of science who always wanted to be an astronaut. That man is Cameron Edwin (Jim Gaffigan). He hosts a local, late-night children’s TV science show, called “Above & Beyond”. One day a very strange thing happens – a red sports car crashes right in front of him,…
Brilliantly performed by Justine Clarke who, as the 27th Australian Prime Minister, displays determination, indignance and frustration, I would suggest one’s political predilection will have a fair say in how Joanna Murray-Smith’s words go down. As the writer, the latter has combined fact and fiction. She has taken incendiary language from shock jocks, political opponents and…
We’re among African Americans in a working-class suburb in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1950s. Although affable when it suits him, Troy Maxon (Bert Labonte) can be a hard man to stomach. A garbage collector, he has a “my way or the highway approach” and sometimes the choices he makes are decidedly ordinary. His upbringing was far from desirable….
What a hoot! Featured performer Jay James-Moody, the artistic director of Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre, has adapted (to the present day) and directs the musical play by Alan Jay Lerner to great effect. Dr Mark Bruckner (Blake Bowden) is a strictly evidence-based psychiatrist who has recently lost his wife. Returning to practice, he has a chance meeting…
Opera Australia’s Handa Opera Madama Butterfly sears with emotion. It is a splendid and spectacular offering, with surprises, against the backdrop of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The story concerns a US navy lieutenant named Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton who takes advantage of a beguiling former Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, in Nagasaki. While she – nicknamed…
