Set at the height of The Troubles in Belfast, The Beautiful Game is a powerful and affecting musical that reveals the impact of the turmoil on members of an Under 21 soccer team and their partners. We’re talking the years 1969 through to the early ‘70s when political and religious violence has engulfed the community….
Head First Acrobats have taken the adage “boys will be boys” to new heights in the cheeky and cheery Railed. The quartet – AJ Saltalamacchia, Callan Harris, Adam O’Connor- McMahon and Harley Timmermans – are born entertainers who know how to rev up a crowd. Through feats of strength, skill and balance they perform their…
Fangirls begins with a couple of criminals on the run. The scene is one of 14-year-old smart, scholarship-girl Edna’s (Yve Blake, who is also responsible for the world premiere musical comedy’s book, musical and lyrics) imagining; she is the Beyoncé of fan fiction according to her online friend Saltypringl (James Majoos), specifically that written in…
King Henry VIII certainly had a way with the ladies! After all, he had six marriages, all to varying degrees of success. But it was his last wife, Catherine Parr (Kate), who had a way with the king. The Last Wife by Kate Hennig is a faintly historical drama/comedy set in a contemporary context. The…
As you enter the theatre, all you can see is a steel-framed bed with a thin mattress and blanket. To the left is an old wooden chair; with an army-issued flask and food container, a pair of worn boots. Think the World War I. At nearly 18 years of age, Private Thomas “Tommo” Peaceful –…
“If at first you don’t succeed, lie, lie again…” The characters of Perpetual Wake churn out lie after lie when challenged, as effortlessly as they stomp and strut all over the stage, diving in and out of the present and of the fictional world of a novel that may or not be the next greatest…
How can you stand up to a bully? That’s the question at the centre of the crime drama Dogman. Timid dog groomer Marcello is separated from the mother of his young daughter, whom he adores … and vice versa. He lives in a barren, downtrodden Italian neighbourhood and gets on well with everyone. To make…
If provocative theatre and the art of confrontation are your thing, then have I got a play for you! Ulster American is wildly funny, but not for the feint-hearted. Playwright David Ireland takes aim at politics and the treatment of women. Jay Conway (Steve Bastoni) is an arrogant – but Oscar-winning – actor. The American…
Caroline, or Change is a work, an autobiographical work from Tony Kushner. He is famous for Angels in America (1993). Born in Manhattan, his family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana, when he was a young boy. He wanted to write about race relations, the civil rights movement, and African Americans and southern Jews in the…
If you don’t know the names Betty Burstall and Buzz Goodbody, I’m not sure you’ll be all that much wiser after seeing the play The Other Place. In Carlton in 1967 schoolteacher Burstall begins sketching plans for what will eventually become the iconic La Mama Theatre, the pre-eminent, independent home of new, experimental unseen Australian…
