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…
Doubt. A Parable, the play by John Patrick Shanley, won the Pulitzer prize and the Tony Award in 2005. All four of the actors were nominated for the Tony, too. The actors, Cherry Jones and Brian F. O’Bryne won. It was made into a film, directed by Mr Shanley, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman,…
Energetic, powerful and haunting – such is Spring Awakening. This is a musical journey from adolescence to adulthood set in Germany in 1891. Teenagers struggle with the adversity of coming of age at a time when sexual education is deliberately ignored and adults appear to hold all the cards. The focus is on Wendla Bergmann (Jessie-Lou…
A stunning 60th anniversary recreation of the original 1956 Broadway production, including sets and costumes, My Fair Lady is a showcase of all that is great about musical theatre. It is, of course, the beloved tale of a Cockney flower girl named Eliza Doolittle. Her world is forever changed by the brilliant and demanding phonetician Henry Higgins,…
Big Brother is watching your every move and is judging you … harshly – very harshly indeed. In the case of Int, Big Brother is a “she” and she appears to have a firm grip on you; at least initially. That is what I took away from this 50-minute, one woman performance art piece – a polished…
Between the Streetlight and the Moon is a new Australian play by, Melita Rowston. It was shortlisted for both the STC Patrick White Award and The Silver Gull Award. Zadie (Lucy Miller) is an art academic/curator and PHD candidate, the Phd concerning the Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) and her possible illicit relationship with her…
Growing old and frail, becoming ill and disabled, hardly seems like a whole heap of fun or a bundle of laughs. And yet that is the backbone of MTC’s latest production, Minnie & Liraz, which produces a surfeit of rib-tickling moments that the first night audience greatly appreciated. The cacophony begins even before the play starts,…
I’m delighted to be able to say that Cabaret retains the edginess that saw it take the entertainment world by storm when it first appeared on the scene more than 50 years ago. Given the hostile political and cultural climate in which we are living today, its present-day relevance certainly wasn’t lost of me either. In fact,…
If theatre is about making you think about life, then former QTC Artistic Director Michael Gow’s Once in Royal David’s City (his first play in seven years) is theatre at its best as it takes audiences on a beautiful and emotional journey through life’s phases of hearing, living and telling stories, in exploration of what…
If you are into slapstick humour, you are going to have a ball with The Play That Goes Wrong. This riotous theatrical disaster is stumbling its way around Australia, starting in Melbourne. The premise is straightforward enough, but its execution something else entirely. The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is attempting to stage a 1920s Agatha…
