The fantasy romance Press Play concerns two young people who fall in love, before their happily-ever-after is struck by a boulder. For some time, Chloe (Lyrica Okano) has been keen to set up her best friend Laura (Clara Rugaard) with her stepbrother Harrison (Lewis Pullman). He works in a record store run by Cooper (Danny…
Sydney’s favourite four part harmony folk powerhouse All Our Exes Live In Texas have announced plans for a massive national tour this October after an appearance at the Lorne Festival in Victoria. All Our Exes Live In Texas have been putting the finishing touches on their upcoming debut album When We Fall so are promising…
Passion and genius are tested in a superb, intelligent and captivating creation from American playwright David Auburn. First staged on and off Broadway in 2000, Proof went on to win the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, as well as numerous other accolades. Gwyneth Paltrow was nominated for a…
George Bernard Shaw wrote Saint Joan, in 1923, six scenes and an epilogue. Imara Savage, the Director of this production, has ambitiously taken many liberties with the original text. This Sydney Theatre Company production of Saint Joan occupies the stage for one hour and forty-five minutes, straight through, without an interval. A great deal of…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is often little persuasion needed for a literary afternoon of Pimm’s or prosecco. In the case of Woodward Productions’ Plied and Prejudice, it’s literature and laughs aplenty as it takes it audience on a raucous adults-only parody romp through Jane Austen’s beloved classic Pride and Prejudice. It’s…
Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife* is a story of hardship and resilience. This magnificently shot film follows a woman living in the Australian bush trying her best to raise four young children. Purcell plays Molly Johnson, a woman living in the Snowy Mountains in 1893. Molly’s husband – as the title suggests – is a…
Eliza Henry-Jones is a new writer to me. Everything about Ache is beautiful, from the cover, with those piercing eyes, to the prose, which tumbles from the page and into readers’ hearts. Here’s the blurb: A year ago, a devastating bushfire ripped Annie’s world apart – killing her grandmother, traumatising her young daughter and leaving…
Strong socially progressive views, music and poetry distinguish Neil Cole’s new play An Audience with Don Dunstan. It shines a light on South Australia’s premier, who served in the role from 1967 to 1968 and again from 1970 to 1979. The flamboyant and eclectic Dunstan (21st September, 1926 – 6th February, 1999) was born in…
Eleanor Catton shot to literary fame by becoming the youngest winner of the Booker Prize in 2013 for her luminous historical novel The Luminaries. Ten years later she returns with Birnam Wood, much more contemporary, no less New Zealand but at the same time just as universal, a deep exploration of humanity that transcends time…
The cutthroat razor is sharpened and ready for the kill in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Forty-five years on, the musical thriller set in 19th century England retains its bite. It is a tale of murder, vengeance, cannibalism and entrepreneurial spirit. Benjamin Barker has been framed and is exiled to a penal…
