Once, a reviewer in Edinburgh noted that Australian comedian Sam Simmons could read the phone book on stage and still be funny. So in his latest show, A – K this is exactly what he does, inset with a whole lot of randomness so cleverly crafted to tie its threads together that audience members remain…
County Kerry is a quiet, close-knit Irish community where everyone is a cousin or sorts and everyone’s stories have already been heard the night before in the local pub. So when a Hollywood crew comes to town to make a film (fil-em in the local dialect), there is excitement as many locals are hired as…
Crimes of the Heart was Beth Henley’s first full length play, and was seen at the Manhattan Theatre Club and then onto Broadway, where it played for 535 performances in the John Golden Theatre, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. I remember seeing it on my second trip to New York, Mary Beth Hurt as…
Two is play by Jim Cartwright written in 1989. It is a play for two actors playing fourteen characters. Two, like Mr Cartwright’s first and famous play, Road (1986), comes from his identity and personal ownership of the private dilemmas of his community, focusing on the marginalised and disenfranchised. He was born in Farnsworth, Lancashire,…
I was a big fan of The Fully Monty in its heyday, but that was then and this is now. Based on the smash hit 1997 British film, The Full Monty (which was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, but didn’t win any) is a feel good musical comedy. The show premiered in San Diego on…
Take a slice of nostalgia and add in colourful characters, headlined by a young “brainiac” with designs on furthering herself; then stir in a scintillating score with humour and heart, and a surfeit of highly talented and melodic voices. What comes out is a very special night of original Australian musical theatre that compares favourably…
Seems playwright Annie Baker is the flavour of the month in Australian theatre. While her latest, John, is being staged by the MTC in Melbourne, the play that shot her to prominence (and a Pulitzer Prize), The Flick, is showing in Brisbane in this co-production between Queensland Theatre and Melbourne’s Red Stitch. The Flick is…
A new play by a debut writer is always something worth seeing and Single, Asian, Female is no exception. Michelle Law’s opus contains some brilliant dialogue and characters you come to love, even with their flaws. They are truly people many of us can say “I know her – and her mum!” It is however…
The Little Dog Laughed, by American writer, Douglas Carter Beane, has had a previous outing at the Ensemble Theatre in 2009. The play had been nominated in 2006 for a Tony Award, in New York, and, I, based on the Ensemble production that I saw, could not understand why. It appeared to be one of…
What are the lengths to which people will go to get what they want? What does it mean to be a mother? These are the pivotal questions posed in the acerbic drama, Petty, Cash, a world premiere work written by prolific young playwright Thomas Ian Doyle. Centrelink has earmarked a wad of cash for development…
