Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl is a deeply affecting work – I had tears running down my cheeks on the final scene. We’re in rural Ireland in 1981. Cait (Catherine Clinch) (aged 9) is one of five children who keeps to herself, says very little but observes much. There is no love shown to her…
Identity is the theme of a dramatic comedy about a 34-year-old who is trying to get a sense of self. Korean-born Lucy (Susanna Qian) was adopted by her quintessential Australian parents – Shirley (Maude Davey) and George (Syd Brisbane) – when she was four. She was brought up with much love in a small country town. Now, out…
A deceptively clever period crime drama, director Graham Moore’s The Outfit is a slow burn mesmeriser. Set in Chicago in 1956, all the action takes place at the premises of a bespoke tailor. Leonard (Mark Rylance) is a well-spoken, nondescript British “cutter” who takes great pride and pleasure in his work. His narrative about what…
After spending two years in a Chinese jail for organising a protest that never happened, Lin Bo (Louis Le) has given an exclusive interview to The New Yorker. The artist explains what led to his imprisonment and interrogation, which included beatings. He speaks about the abject conditions in prison – appalling food, cockroaches aplenty and not even a…
In Orphan: First Kill, Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman) looks every bit like a 10-year-old girl. But she’s actually 31 and the most dangerous patient in an Estonian psychiatric institution. Particularly devious, she’s also deadly. When she escapes from the facility, she poses as the long-lost young daughter of a wealthy American family. Thinking his daughter has…
From the folk tales of One Thousand and One Nights, to highest grossing film of 1992, Aladdin, the story of the genie in a lamp is familiar. Now director George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) provides a new take on the tale with Three Thousand Years of Longing. Dr Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is a…
Clever and melodic, The Dark Web is a delightful, rib tickling, original musical from the vivid imagination of its writer, composer and star Ariella Gordon. The 90-minute show without interval, with four principal performers and another four in the ensemble, concerns a dysfunctional family. June (Gordon) plays 15-year-old Andy’s (Eleanor Davey) aunt, to whom she is…
I have seen Come From Away three times now and on each occasion I exit the theatre in awe of what I have just witnessed. Simply put, it is a show I can’t get enough of … and with very good reason because it is such a brilliantly told, magnificently performed and most remarkable story. Behind it…
A cavalcade of song, movement and colour, Shake Rattle ‘N’ Roll breathes new life into the sounds of the ‘50s and ’60s with entertainment aplenty. A poised and polished cast of five singers and eight dancers light the fuse and keep it burning for more than two hours. The pretence is the re-creation of famous, gravelly voiced…
From Babette’s Feast to Big Night, from Eat Drink Man Woman to Chocolat and many besides, foodie movies have their own place in popular culture. Now along comes a Swedish offering from director Annika Appelin, Tuesday Club. Karin (Marie Richardson) and Sten (Bjorn Kjellman) are about to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. They have invited…
