Their mother has deteriorated sharply and her three children have gathered to determine which facility to send her to. She has Alzheimer’s and has been looked after at home by one of her two daughters, Vicky (Tottie Goldsmith), but it is time to put her into full time care. Vicky has visited several places and assessed each…
A 16-year-old by the name of Levi Presley plunges to his death after leaping off the ledge of a tall casino hotel in Las Vegas, so an American voiceover tells us. That may appear to be the start of a horror story, but while the act and its repercussions most certainly are, The Lifespan of a…
One of the joys of experiencing a Shakespearean play on stage rather than page is hearing the poetic beauty of the Bard’s language and expressions nuanced with articulations of human truth. It is initially startling, therefore, that Queensland Theatre’s Taming of the Shrew starts without words. In its opening scene, we are left long in their…
It was such a delight to welcome back to the stage musical theatre royalty in Debra Byrne. It was the mid ‘80s when she appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and a decade later she followed that up with another star turn in the maestro’s Sunset Boulevard. So, it seems only fitting that she should reprise solo…
Honour is at stake in Verdi’s powerful opera Ernani, which features a surfeit of rich, rounded and redolent performances. The music is superb, rousing from the magnificent opening chorus number (with many more to follow), not to overlook a series of emotional arias. The first half, in particular, I found strikingly impactful. The action takes place…
Jonathan Biggins magnificently captures the essence of former Prime Minister and Treasurer Paul Keating in a 90-minute tour de force performance during which you dare not avert your eyes for a second. He is witty, acerbic and insightful as he parades around a maroon coloured set complete with paintings, clocks on the mantelpiece, a banker’s desk…
Two guys waxing eloquently about their shared experiences. That is the essence of The Twins, a play about friendship, redemption, loss and regret. It is set in a tin shed studio in Kangaroo Valley, NSW, over a single day towards the end of 2019. The pair chatting – comedian and actor Greg Fleet and documentary filmmaker and philanthropist…
Meet Carol and Daryl Pitts, aka Stephanie Marion Wood and Brendy Ford. They are a pair of wellness gurus who ply their craft each Wednesday afternoon at the Shady Pines Nursing Home for the elderly and infirm. The senior citizens are in for a real treat as Carol and Daryl – lovers of life and each other…
“There’s nothing original about the skeleton of Honour, the play” says its writer Joanna Murray-Smith. I would agree. Its subject has been tackled over and over – in film, theatre and book form – for centuries. It goes like this: Ageing male in long term marriage is seduced by young and exciting vixen. He leaves…
The opening night of Opera Australia’s spectacular staging of Verdi’s dramatic opera Aida was blighted by a major technical failure. The surtitles, which were to appear above the stage and translate the lyrics into English, were nowhere to be seen for the first 20 minutes or so. So, if you didn’t happen to know the story you…
