Wonderful music, a kaleidoscope of colourful costumes, warmth and good humour permeate the Playhouse in a showcase of talent that is Hello, Dolly! circa 2017. Lyrics and music are by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart. The show is based on Thornton Wilder‘s 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The…
A penniless wheeler and dealer gets in with the big boys and finds himself caught up way over his head. That, in a nutshell, is what the cleverly conceived and executed mind-bender Norman is all about. Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money. He is a would-be…
Based on a true story, the Australian courtroom drama Don’t Tell shares a common theme with the Oscar winning drama Spotlight. Both films deal with themes of sexual abuse, cover ups, abuse of power, truth, justice and the courage to fight against injustice. While Spotlight depicted the Boston Globe’s investigation into allegations of sexual abuse within…
An intense study of vulnerability, heartache, anger and loss, Shrine packs punch. Written by Tim Winton – the only author to have won the Miles Franklin Award four times – the play is directed by Marcel Dorney. 19-year-old Jack Mansfield (Christian Taylor) has died in an early morning car crash. He was in the vehicle with…
Pablo Neruda was the pen-name (and later legal name) of Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, who lived from July 12, 1904 to September 23, 1973. In 1971, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lyrical, poetic and steeped in politics, Neruda is what I would term a “festival” film; one for purists. It’s…
Woody Harrelson stars in the title role as Wilson, a lonely, eccentric misanthrope who reunites with his long estranged wife Pippi (Laura Dern). He gets a shot at happiness when he learns he has a teenage daughter, Claire (Isabella Amara), he’s never met. The script has been written by Daniel Clowes, based upon his graphic novel…
Pirates just want to have fun! Dead Men Tell No Tales is the fifth instalment in the successful film franchise originally based on the Pirates Of The Caribbean theme ride at Disneyland, and the series has so far grossed over $3.7 billion at the box office, making it one of the most successful film franchises…
Pop culture meets high art as the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) presents Marvel: Creating the Cinematic Universe. The exhibition follows Marvel’s superheroes and adversaries from comic book page to cinema screen. It’s also the first major Marvel-related exhibition to be staged in Australia; and the largest ever presented in an art…
In Owl & Cat’s new production Crush, Celia (Mardi Edge), editor of the (fictional) Melbourne Sentinel newspaper, is a having a less than satisfactory affair with a married man. Johnny (Seb Muirhead) – who has a deep-seated fear of drowning – is in love with Celia, or so he thinks. He is attracted to her passion and…
A Boston-born Jew in Montreal and a Gaza-born Palestinian in Melbourne have just published the first English-language anthology worldwide in any genre of drama, prose or poetry by Jewish and Palestinian writers. The winner of Canada’s prestigious biennial 2017 Patrick O’Neill Award, Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas is edited by award-winning playwrights…
