A darkly comedic, sick and twisted story concerning an extreme job interview to find a perfect hit man or woman, you are highly unlikely to forget this one in a hurry. Six candidates enter a premises without any idea of what they are in for. The agency looking to recruit a new employee is KOC – which…
A slow moving, wordy piece about loneliness, fragility and connection, I can’t say The Curtain lit up my life. Set in a small country town, Ada Munroe (Milijana Čančar) is a widow. She lost her husband John some time ago and on the anniversary of his passing each year she visits his grave and then…
The 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire is the most celebrated of Tennessee Williams’ works. The classic drama is poetically symbolic but also grimly naturalistic, as represented by the detached but detailed staging of Brisbane Arts Theatre’s production. The staging emphasises the play’s symbolism through its use of glassless mirrors and also aesthetically. The lighting…
Billy Elliot The Musical remains as moving and evocative as when I first saw it in Melbourne more than a decade ago … and what a magnificent show it is. For me this is up there with the best musicals brought to the stage. It is based on the successful 2000 film, which starred Jamie Bell…
Pre-show music and mingling sets the tone of The Neighbourhood, as the show’s performers (Cieavash Arean, Nima Doostkhah, Aurora Liddle-Christie, Dr Matt Hsu, Naavi Karan, Anisa Nandula and Amer Thabet) converse with the audience to prompt conversation around consideration of our neighbourhoods. Clearly, the concept of home is a complicated and abstract one and it…
The creator of and actors in Italian American Reconciliation, which premiered off Broadway in 1988, seem to have forgotten the adage “less is more”. Aldo (Josh Massarotti) is a larger than life character – a single Italian American – who hasn’t seen his best mate Huey (Dean Gunera) for a while, so he calls around…
War Horse stands as a case study of the perfect theatrical experience. In all departments, whether it’s the plot, script, acting, lighting, sound, direction, costumes or set design, standards are exemplary. Be aware though, sentimental heartstrings will be pulled, stretched and battered as the story of Joey the War Horse unfolds. Based on the novel written by Michael Morpurgo and…
The Great Australian Play is a thoroughly bewildering take on Australian history – specifically one of this country’s most alluring legends – and contemporary Australia. Of the former, I speak of a vast gold-bearing deposit in the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory purportedly discovered by Harold Lasseter around the turn of the 19th century. After…
Fun, funny, light hearted, colourful and energetic, Shrek The Musical surprised me with its warmth, relatability and good natured banter. Of course, the 2001 Dreamworks Animation film starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow – upon which it is based, along with the 1990 book by William Steig – was a huge box office…
Two gifted and extremely funny actors create an even bigger farce out of an already brilliant Victorian farce in an hilarious adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. They take Wilde’s late 19th century play – the ultimate comedy about manners – and turn the screws, assuming nine roles between them. David Wood and…
