Greatness often emanates from very humble beginnings. The story of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, is one such example. In Bronte, writer Polly Teale provides context about how three cloistered sisters wrote English literary classics such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Polly Teale’s storytelling is engaging and…
Loneliness. Pain. Emotional connection. Desire. Sexual kinks. Consent. That is US writer Clare Barron’s Shhhh, which has its Australian premiere at Red Stitch Theatre. Bold, confronting and, on occasions, perplexing, it is a play that concerns itself with sexual assault, rape culture, mental and physical wellbeing, and the sisterhood. Playwright Shareen (Jessica Clarke), who suffers from a…
Superb staging is a hallmark of Mozart’s dramatic opera Idomeneo, set on the island of Crete shortly after the Trojan War. Ilia, daughter of the defeated Trojan King Priam, expresses conflicting emotions. She has love for her rescuer, Idamante, son of Cretan King Idomeneo, and hatred for her father’s Greek enemies, who killed both her dad and…
With five in the cast on a catwalk-like stage, this is a modern, generally slapstick and cartoonish interpretation of Euripides’ Greek tragedy Medea. In the historic work, Medea seeks revenge on her unfaithful husband. In Jane Miller’s Just a Boy, Standing in Front of a Girl, all the characters have received a contemporary makeover. Further, misogyny, fat shaming…
Comedian and actor Mary Coustas is an emotional powerhouse, whose hour-long show endears her anew to a devoted fan base. She is an enormous talent who draws upon her personal experiences (how her life has been shaped) to make us laugh and cry, through love and loss. Combining verbal and physical comedy with pathos, her stories primarily…
With music by Gabriel Faure, Igor Stravinsky and Piotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky and choreography by George Balanchine, Jewels – by name and nature – is a gem. The world’s first full-length abstract ballet, it is actually three short ballets in one and is beautiful to look at and to savour. Sandra Jennings is responsible for the staging….
Disney on Ice is always wonderful family entertainment, but 100 Years of Wonder is the best yet. What a fabulous, engaging show it is – so warm, friendly and inviting. There were seven in my party on opening night, with the youngest being four. The look on her face throughout said it all. She was like the…
An equally amusing and moving theatre work, Tiny Beautiful Things from Queensland Theatre grips the audience from the first minute to the last. A sparse domestic set design of kitchen, living room and stairs leading up to an unseen upper floor (courtesy of Simone Romaniuk) shows us the home of Sugar – a woman who’s…
Revenge is the cornerstone of Is God Is, an incendiary play that explodes onto the MTC stage. What a hard life twins Anaia (Henrietta Enyonam Amevor) and Racine (Masego Pitso) have had in America’s south. It is a legacy of an ugly incident sparked by their father (Kevin Copeland) who tried to burn to death their mother…
Cinderella, like you have never seen her before. She’s an activist who refuses to be pushed around. She has strong views about the crown and its lack of action in addressing the needs of the people who are struggling to make ends meet. She is out to change that narrative. While all this seems to be driven by the…
