According to American novelist Flannery O’Connor, “the beginning of human knowledge is through the senses”. This underpinning of human perception is at the core of playwright Elise Grieg’s world premiere work Magpie; its all-encompassing description offers theatre-goers immersion into the experience of a Brisbane summer, where thunderstorms threaten for longer than they onslaught and nothing…
If you haven’t heard of Kill Climate Deniers you probably should have. The hyperbolically titled play’s controversial take on the contentious climate change debate in Australia saw it hit the headlines in 2014 when its playwright David Finnigan received $19 000 from Arts ACT to write a play exploring climate change and Australian politics. The…
Premiering to rave reviews in 2015, The Dinner Party (former title The Host) is a gripping contemporary dance work from Queensland’s award-winning Expressions Dance Company. And in its 2019 reincarnation, the work, which is choreographed by internationally renowned choreographer and former Artistic Director Natalie Weir, has audience members once again absorbed, from the very first frame…
A pre-show soundtrack of Oz-rock classics adds an air of excitement to the experience of audience members awaiting the Brisbane season of Belvoir Theatre’s Barbara and the Camp Dogs by Ursula Yovich and Alana Valentine. It’s an effective emphasis of the pub rock atmosphere for anyone who hasn’t gathered the feel of set designer Stephen…
Brisbane Arts Theatre’s latest mainstage production sets a frenetic pace from its opening scene. It’s a necessity perhaps given its stated aim to share the complete history of comedy, albeit abridged. What follows is a somewhat comprehensive trip through comedy in many of its guises. These include the memorable tell of ‘the chicken’ and its…
It’s been a long time since I have read George Johnston’s 1964 Miles Franklin Award-winning My Brother Jack. However, through the lens of undergraduate literary-study nostalgia, I still recognise the seminal Australian novel’s place as part of our country’s canon, despite its challenge to our comfortable assumptions of national character. Still, like many I imagine,…
Next to Normal begins with a familiar modern family scene; suburban mother Diana Goodman (Carly Skelton) waits up late for her son Gabe (Christopher Batkin) and attempts to comfort her academically-anxious daughter, Natalie (Hannah Kassulke). Soon husband Dan (Adam Bartlett) rises to help prepare the family for “Just Another Day”. Yet their lives are anything…
‘Single Asian Female’… it’s a clever play-on-movie-title precis for dating profile purposes. Zoe (Michelle Law) however, is so much more than just this descriptor… classical musician, sister and daughter. Like many, her fractured family oscillates between being a constant of disorder and an annoying inconvenience… and this is even without her knowledge of her mother’s…
A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters is the heart-warming story of two people who share a lifetime of experiences through the now old-fashioned medium of handwritten letters. The epistolary work is a unique theatrical experience, not quite a play reading and not entirely a play, but very much an unforgettable event. For those unfamiliar with the play, its…
“I really love the story and I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with it,” I overheard in the pre-show audience at Brisbane Arts Theatre’s take of the Australian cult classic Picnic at Hanging Rock. It’s hardly a surprising expectation; the story of the disappearance of three boarding schoolgirls and a teacher during a picnic…
