Take 21 of Tom Lehrer’s most irreverent songs and put them into a one-hour revue and you have the makings of a delightful evening with Tomfoolery at Gasworks in Albert Park, part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. An American singer-songwriter and satirist, Lehrer’s turn of phrase is spectacular; his satire twisted. Cameron Mackintosh and Robin…
What the hell am I seeing? What does it mean? Why am I even in the theatre? What a total and utter waste of time and space. How boring. These thoughts came flooding into my head five minutes into Working With Children. A slightly transparent white curtain and a pair of white runners and folded…
As clever and highly regarded as it is, I can’t say I particularly warmed to Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. An atmosphere of frustration and menace permeates the setting – a basement in Birmingham. A couple of hit men are awaiting instructions for their next assignment. As the play starts, Ben (John Wood) – the…
Brisbane Festival’s 2018 program brims with big-name acts, more world premieres than ever, and a new light-and-laser show on the river that will see Brisbane illuminated for 22 days of celebration. There will be almost 600 performances – 100 of them free – of close to 70 shows across 17 venues. More than 1,000 artists…
Blasted is a remarkably insightful and deeply traumatising work from British playwright Sarah Kane, first performed in 1995. Ian (David Woods) is a broken, middle-aged journalist. He’s brought a much younger woman, Cate (Eloise Mignon) – who he’s known for some time – to an upmarket hotel room. But when she resists his advances, he…
Depression and suicide are hardly topics to make light of. But humour proves to be a powerful weapon in building understanding of the challenges associated with mental health in Chemistry. This is one of a trilogy by American writer Jacob Marx Rice that he dubs his suicide comedies. It features a pair of bright twenty…
I love Hamlet; it’s my preferred Shakespearean tragedy. Visiting its Kronborg Castle setting was my favourite of all days when touring in Denmark. There’s something rotten in the Denmark of this ultimate revenge drama though. After his father’s death, Prince Hamlet (Silvan Rus) is overlooked for the crown in favour of his uncle, Claudius (Ben…
Poignant. Deeply moving. Brilliantly conceived and executed. A life story rich and redolent. That’s what awaits you when you enter Red Stitch Theatre to experience multi award-winning British playwright Abi Morgan’s Lovesong. Billy and Maggie are a young English couple who have migrated to Australia. He practices as a dentist and she’s a librarian. They…
Nell Gwynn, by Jessica Swale, won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2016. In a large number of short scenes – it’s in two acts and almost three hours long – the play brings to life the career of Nell Gwynn (Bishanyia Vincent). She’s a young woman who grew up in Cheapside experiencing…
A bravura performance from renowned Australian actor Colin Friels highlights Scaramouche Jones. This intoxicating work was written by Brit Justin Butcher in the final months of 1999. Scaramouche Jones has been a clown for 50 years. Now he’s marking the final hour of his life on Earth. It’s New Year’s Eve 1999, exactly 100 years to…
