In a bravura showing, Noni Hazlehurst delivers a world class performance as the ageing proprietor of a small, old-style, inner city Melbourne pub that she inherited from her father. No public bar. No Ladies’ Lounge. Just one room, something she describes as “never much of a place”. Metaphorically, it is last drinks for Rose Grey,…
If you are into slapstick humour, you are going to have a ball. This riotous theatrical disaster is stumbling its way around Australia and has just opened in Melbourne. The premise is straight forward enough, but its execution something else entirely. The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is attempting to stage a 1920s Agatha Christie-style murder…
The Aussies and the Irish get along like a house on fire. Shared values, a love of sport and Guinness aren’t a half bad starting point. But, let me cut to the chase – the adoration for what Michael Flatley achieved with his invigorating take of Irish step dancing hits it out of the ballpark….
Our worst fears about artificial intelligence are realised in The Machine Stops, which is an adaptation of the 1909 novella by former English author E.M. Forster. It shares a common conceit with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s 1984 (1949). “The Machine” has sent humans underground and subjugated freedom of thought. Technology…
No matter your view of Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, there’s no denying the power of Justine Clarke’s performance in Joanna Murray-Smith’s Julia. The actor is on stage speaking for all the work’s 90-minute running time, with no interval. She is uncanny in her portrayal of a leader who divided opinion when elevated…
Fear and activism sit alongside one another in a deeply felt, personal story about apartheid, set in South Africa in January 1976. In this world premiere production, the focus is on a “coloured” family, which has lost its matriarch. After several years away studying, 24-year-old Ezra Jones (Barry Conrad) returns to his hometown in Natal….
What is the highest compliment you can pay a tribute band, in this case one that looks at the life and times of the most successful folk rock duo in history? Simon & Garfunkel sold more than 100 million records. The answer is simple: shut your eyes and they sound just like the real deal….
What a stunning song cycle! It premiered off the West End in 2008 and off Broadway the following year and first appeared in Australia in 2012. The work of American composer and lyricist Adam Gwon, it concerns two relationships in New York City. Warren (Joel Granger) is an artist who is house sitting another artist’s…
Spirited and playful, with a series of dazzling and often surprising acts, Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo looks back on the life of a clown named Mauro. He imagines it is his funeral and he is being attended by angels. As other characters drift in and out, it is not a wake, but a celebration –…
Light-hearted and fun, Footloose: The Musical is centred around change in conservative America in the 1980s. Navigating it, especially when it is forced upon you, can be mighty difficult, especially when it leaves you feeling like a fish out of water. That is the situation for the central figure in the story, Ren McCormack. About…
