Stick five strangers together in a room for a week and see what comes out the other end. Are they themselves or acting out some fantasy to form a shield of protection or anonymity? If the latter, how long before the shield is lowered? Intolerance, disinterest and antagonism are par for the course in Malthouse’s…
Poms is a comedy in which senior citizens act like teenagers. Martha (Diane Keaton) has cancer. So she sells up her belongings in the city and retreats to a sprawling retirement community where residents are promised the time of their lives for the rest of their lives. But Martha isn’t your typical resident – she…
Lies, bravado and one-upmanship are explored in the satire Four Dogs and a Bone. The “bone” is a Hollywood film and the “dogs” baring their teeth are the producer, an ageing starlet, a newbie actor and the writer. Each wants things on their terms. The producer, Bradley (Kostas Ilias), throws his weight around. He needs…
Absurdist but with heart, Louis Nowra’s Cosi is fun to watch but appears to have aged. The setting is the Vietnam War era – 1971 to be specific – and the location is a mental institution. So, yes there’s a little bit of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest about it. A young man, Lewis…
In the tradition of Forrest Gump, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir is a wild ride, which combines coincidence with circumstance. It’s a quirky cross-cultural fantasy about a good-natured thief who makes good. Aja (Dhanush) is a poor young fakir (or magician) from the streets of India, being brought up by his single mother, whom…
Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810 – 1891) was the master of smoke and mirrors; the ultimate flimflam man. Although often down on his luck and short of money, he always managed to find a way out. That had something to do with his vivid imagination and a lot more to do with his grounded wife, Charity….
Based on the hoary chestnut of opposites attracting, Long Shot is a far-fetched comedy that, by and large, works. I dare say it will appeal to many fans of the two leads, Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, because a) they’re in it and b) it is so unlikely a tale, born of the #MeToo generation….
Thirty years on and boy-band (now very much man-band) Human Nature has still got it! On stage for more than two hours, performing a set of 30 plus numbers, these guys – brothers Andrew and Michael Tierney, together with high school friends Toby Allen and Phil Burton – are energetic and reverential. They love their…
Jim Cummings gives a bravura performance as a man on the edge in Thunder Road. This offbeat drama concerns a small-town US police officer who suffers a breakdown after the death of his mother. Cummings wrote and directed the piece, and appears in almost every scene. It’s based on his short film of the same…
The unerring passage of time as death nears is the subject of Wakey, Wakey. In it, an everyday man contemplates what has gone before. He is Guy, a role filled by Justin Hosking who has a delightful demeanour. The first lines say it all: “Is it now? I thought I had more time. Wow. That…
