In JJ Winlove’s debut feature, June Again, a go-getting woman is gone. In her place is an empty shell. June Wilton (Noni Hazlehurst) has vascular dementia. She’s being well looked after in an appropriate facility, where the staff is kind and understanding. Her condition means she has visions of the past as if they were…
Crimes of the Heart was Beth Henley’s first full length play, and was seen at the Manhattan Theatre Club and then onto Broadway, where it played for 535 performances in the John Golden Theatre, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. I remember seeing it on my second trip to New York, Mary Beth Hurt as…
Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey’s fall from grace was quite spectacular. Not only was his performance as John Paul Getty in Ridley Scott’s drama All the Money in the World deleted and his performance re-shot with Christopher Plummer, but he was fired from his hit TV series House of Cards and his character was killed…
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict is a fascinating documentary that lifts the lid on a woman with a famous name who didn’t play by the rules. It reveals she loved art and sex, not necessarily in that order. Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim, who lived from August 26th, 1898 to December 23th, 1979 was not only ahead of…
Re-tellings of Greek mythology are all the rage at the moment. Some recent forays back into this world include Madeline Miller’s Circe, Colm Tobin’s House of Names, Mark Haddon’s The Porpoise and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls. The Miller and Barker books, in particular, seek to put a more feminist, female-centric spin on…
A Dog’s Way Home is a family-friendly and heartwarming animal adventure that combines elements of classics of the genre like Lassie Come Home, Homeward Bound, and even 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose. As a pup Bella was raised in the crawl space beneath a dilapidated house in Denver. She was rescued by Lucas (Jonah Hauer-King), who…
Lively, colourful and energetic, Bring It On!, The Musical focuses on the competitive world of cheerleading. Debuting in the US in 2011, the Tony award nominated musical was inspired by the 2000 film of the same name, written by Jessica Bendinger and starring Kirsten Dunst. The music is by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, lyrics…
Add a series of compelling, up-tempo songs to the darkly comedic gore that has spawned a cult following, stir liberally and you have the makings of a hit musical. As unlikely as that might sound, that – in a nutshell – is Evil Dead: The Musical. We are savage trees, dismemberment and chainsaws, so “yes”,…
Aimed at Gen Z, Zola has attitude but, arguably, few smarts. The premise is straightforward enough, namely how two twenty-something women fall out. Zola (Taylour Paige) works at a fast-food restaurant. She’s befriended by Stefani (Riley Keough) who she serves at the diner. Both are pole dancers and they have a night out in a…
American playwright Kiki Zapata’s 25 and F***ed gets a world premiere at Melbourne’s Owl & Cat Theatre. This is a comedic drama about three art-school graduates struggling with their daily lives. Layabout Zach (Saxon Evans) is a 25-year-old man-child with mental health issues. He has just returned home after several months abroad and can only scowl at his two…
