Zany and deliberately over-the-top, the burlesque, drag play POKÉLESQUE, featuring improvisation and audience participation, makes for a fun night out. Written and directed by Rosie Roulette, the starting point is a love of Pokémon, originally released on the Game Boy handheld game console in 1996. Thereafter, the Japanese media franchise responsible for it released trading…
Why is Ed Sheeran one of the most beloved (and, unquestionably, highly talented) musical artists on the planet? Having arrived by train from Sydney, he answered that emphatically on the opening night of a three-night stadium concert series in Melbourne, part of his Loop Tour. Marvel Stadium was metaphorically heaving under the collective anticipation of…
What an experience! I speak of a searing, at times humorous trilogy covering 16 years and lasting seven hours, in which, on several occasions, the characters eviscerate one another. And “yes”, I approached it with fear, simply because even for an unashamed theatre enthusiast like me 420 minutes in a small, black box theatre seemed…
What makes life meaningful? Why do we do what we do? These large existential questions are dealt with humorously and poignantly in Jean Tong’s Do Not Pass Go. Flux (Ella Prince) walks into a new job needing the money for surgery, as they are not comfortable in their own skin. There they meet the strait-laced,…
White man has a lot to answer for … and Black Light makes it clear just how much in an expressive family drama with comedic elements. A cataclysmic event envelopes the nation. Planes have been grounded. Blackouts are frequent. There is no choice but to wait it out. Outside Darwin, three generations of the one…
Sexually charged, Pillion is a dramatic comedy that opens the door on relationships between gay men with a dominatrix mentality. Written and directed by Harry Lighton, it is based on the 2020 book Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, which was set in the pre-AIDS era. Colin (Harry Melling) is an introverted, naïve homosexual parking officer…
The power and punch of Martin Crimp’s 2019 free adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, as superbly realised by Artefact Theatre Company, will stay with me for a long time. It is a sharp, modern version of Edmond Rostand’s classic love triangle, set in 17th century France, with toxic masculinity at its core. Insecurity and self-loathing…
The Great Gatsby is one of those timeless works that artists want to recreate. The latest rendition a stunning production from a partnership between Queensland Theatre and Shake & Stir Theatre Company. When it was released in 1925, the original F. Scott Fitzgerald novel wasn’t a commercial success. A tragic story set in the Jazz…
Eleven-year-old Juniper May is different. With artists for parents, she is smart, speaks her mind and loves robots. Her favourite is drawn from a short-lived Japanese animated 1983 television series known as Battletac. A loner, Juni doesn’t fit in with others and doesn’t want to go to school. In the back garden is an old…
Bittersweet, comes this slapstick, but poignant tale of sisters looking to escape from their mundane small-town (Dumfordton, population 340 and falling) existence. To do so, with her school dropout, songwriting little sister Shannon’s (Alana Louise) undying support, 25-year-old Jodi (Sarah Palmieri) has her heart set on winning Simon Cowell’s the X-Factor. Shannon has a history…
