The play starts with a heartfelt warning from one of the characters that only tragedy puts you on the map. A plea to save ourselves as it is too late for her rings out. Hence begins the tale of an unremarkable mining town in Tasmania beset by evil. It is called Bluewater and after a chequered history it…
Tessa Ensler (Sheridan Harbridge) is a successful barrister. She knows the tricks of the trade and defends her clients – many alleged sexual offenders – vehemently. She relishes the game … circling witnesses until she is ready to pounce, having lulled them into a false sense of security. She is good … very good. Those who know her,…
Showmanship, humour, pathos, anger, overt messaging and song are part of this well-meaning but noticeably stretched offering. At its core is a gay man, Cole (Stephen Loftus), now comfortable in his own skin, although it wasn’t always that way. He talks about his school years and coming out to his parents. And then, after Cole references a mentor…
A fly-on-the-wall expose of the world of talk-back radio is the basis of Melanie Tait’s outstanding new play A Broadcast Coup. It is set almost entirely in the studios of Australia’s largest public broadcaster (conspicuously nameless). The play provides the impression of a workplace which runs by default and is dominated by individuals whose egos…
‘What are the things I know to be true?’, a naïve and broken-hearted 19-year-old Rosie Price (Eleni Koutsoukis) wonders after an ill-fated encounter hiccups her great European adventure, forcing her to return home to her family in Adelaide. Why wouldn’t she return when her family is the best thing since sliced bread? As we are…
Jonathan Larson wrote the smash hit Broadway musical Rent. How he got there involved pain and persistence. That’s the subject of tick, tick … Boom! Living in New York, Jon (Hugh Sheridan) dreams of being a Broadway musical writer. His creativity is recognised by his close and loyal friends, but he is on the cusp of 30…
Wittenoom, the former town and declared contaminated site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia was, in short, a death trap. During the 1950s and early ‘60s, it was Australia’s only supplier of deadly blue asbestos. The mine was shut down in 1966. Wittenoom, the play – a work of fiction – uncovers just how toxic an…
Queensland Theatre can’t go wrong opening its 2023 season with this entertaining and sometimes searing comedy-drama from the prodigious David Williamson (Emerald City, Don’s Party, The Removalists and many more). Family dynamics clash with topical politics and social issues in the tight, interval-free 90-minute play directed by Artistic Director, Lee Lewis (Prima Facie, Mouthpiece). Family…
In a word, Mary Poppins is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! The theatrics – the staging, set design and magic introduced into this Disney and Cameron Mackintosh production are sublime. I speak of everything from the doll’s house that opens up to the Banks’ family home to the appearance of Poppins’ iconic large-scale brolly towards the end of the show. You simply…
Sunday Reed is a firecracker. She is a woman unlike any other. She is instinctive … a free spirit. Although she has some mental health issues, Sunday doesn’t hold back. She says what she thinks and feels. Married to John, he surprises her when – on a whim – he purchases a farm in Heidelberg (in Melbourne’s northeast) in the…
