How difficult is it to find the perfect match, the person you are prepared to commit to for the rest of your life? If you buy into the conceit of the new romantic drama Materialists, it is a shark pool out there and finding Mr or Mrs Right is the stuff of nightmares. That is…
Evocative and entertaining, All is Good … in the Glow of Moonlight is a remarkable insight into the life and times of Soviet writer Isaac Babel and his creations. It is resplendent with vivid storytelling and fine music. Babel (played by Joseph Sherman) was born in Moldavanka, a historical part of Odessa, in the Russian…
Question: What does it take to really appreciate the life you have? Answer: Getting close to death. That is the conceit expertly explored by Andi Snelling in a zany, powerhouse show that grew out of the pain and despair she was feeling after being bitten by a tick. She contracted debilitating Lyme disease while on…
It is October 1915. Private James Martin (Oliver Tapp) is lying in bed on the hospital ship the Glenart Castle coughing his lungs out. Memories of his family back home in Australia come flooding back. This is the story of a boy who, after blackmailing his parents, enlisted in the Army, having falsified his age….
An unquestionable highlight of winter in Melbourne is Lightscape at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Now in its fourth year, it is bigger and better than ever, with many new and captivating light installations up above, in the trees and on the ground. It is a true A-lister, suitable for the whole family and how many…
A delightful new play with originality stamped all over it, Welcome Home concerns two women who each believe they own the same house. Joyce (Julie Arnold) is elderly. She has just returned to the home her father built, having spent several months in hospital and rehab after a fall, only to find the place considerably…
With a powerful rock score, the talent on display in the new Australian tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch is phenomenal. With music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell (JCM), the storyline is hardly conventional. The musical burst onto the scene off Broadway in 1998, before beginning a…
First up, a confession. I am not sure I really understood The Selkie Project. The whole thing felt experimental and somewhat repetitive, even though it only ran for one hour and 10 minutes. It is based around an ancient myth, whereby a seal-like creature removes her skin to take on human form and taste the…
Francois Marsault (Andre Dussollier) is a former military man. Now aged 75, he lives life on his terms. Married to Annie (Sabine Azema) since she was 19, they have three grown up children. The eldest, Amaury (Gael Giraudeau), has followed his father into the armed forces. At a family gathering to mark his mother’s birthday,…
Jaws (1975) meets Dead Calm (1989) on steroids in the new Australian psychological horror Dangerous Animals. Jai Courtney is positively chilling as Gold Coast charter boat operator Bruce Tucker. He specialises in taking tourists out to sea and dropping them into the ocean in a shark proof cage to watch the Apex predators up close…
