Talk about high-concept. An unlikely pair of Swedes try to make a go of it as semi-skilled (but totally unlicensed) private detectives in Stan’s Swedish Dicks. The outcome is a kind of Get Shorty meets Scandi-crime. It’s fair to say this Swedish-US collaboration doesn’t aim very high. The producers aren’t looking to make another Fargo here. Swedish Dicks plays…
In the vein of the TV sitcom Seinfeld (1989-1998) and perhaps best summed up as “much ado about nothing”, Untitled Three-Hander deals with several inconsequential issues. Mind you, at the heart of this new work by Hayden Hayes is human connection and a desire to be wanted and needed. The title is a deliberate misnomer. Untitled Three-Hander…
Ben Affleck isn’t exactly one of my favorite actors. Not that he’s such a terrible actor, but he’s such a smooth guy who manages to play in some outstanding movies every time. Movies that didn’t leave an everlasting impression on me anyway. In retrospect, it’s really a giant list I’ve seen him in, such as…
As they say, only lawyers benefit from divorce proceedings. That rings true in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) have been married for a decade. They live and work in New York. She’s an actress originally from Los Angeles. She met Charlie when she travelled to New York as a…
RBG: Of Many, One is distinguished by a virtuoso performance from Heather Mitchell, in which she metamorphosises into Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In fact, it is unquestionably one of the greatest solo theatrical offerings this country has had the good fortune to witness. As Ginsburg, the second woman to be appointed to the US Supreme Court, Mitchell talks…
A secret imaginary rendezvous between two towering but polar opposite African American leaders plays out in The Meeting. The pair lived in the same era. Both were assassinated at age 39. One preached non-violence, the other violent rebellion. I speak of Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) and Muslim…
Okay, this is a tough one. Shirley is out-there cinema for the dedicated cinephile. If you like a nice logical, linear plot with likeable characters, well, I’m afraid this isn’t for you. Director Jennifer Decker crafts an imagined portrait of the acclaimed writer Shirley Jackson that bathes in both the American Gothic that Jackson championed,…
After a two-year hiatus and a restructure, JYM Theatre Co, Australia’s only Jewish musical theatre company is back, re-launching with a Stephen Sondheim musical, from a book by George Furth. Born in 1930, Sondheim has a rich and enduring legacy in musical theatre. He has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards,…
The Australian Ballet’s glorious production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a fitting tribute to the splendid State Theatre before it undergoes a three-year refurbishment. It is a colourful, highly creative, whimsical work – a sensory sensation. The winner of the 2018 Helpmann Award for Best Ballet, Christopher Wheeldon choreographs the translation of Lewis Carroll’s beloved book. The…
Dr John Everyman (Dennis Coard) is a retired and much-loved GP who lost his wife Sophia, when she was just 59. She was taken 13 years ago and he hasn’t been able to fill that void. To this day he rages at God for the “theft” of his beloved wife (he calls it “an act of divine…
