The atmosphere of the era is set the moment one enters The Chapel at Chapel Off Chapel, which has been transformed into a den of iniquity. The band is playing and the mood is raucous and raunchy, with gamblers, showgirls and puritans mixing freely with the audience. Particular attention is paid to those seated at the two…
Now in her mid 80s, Caryl Churchill is regarded as one of the world’s greatest living playwrights. Her work is innovative … enigmatic, challenging and provocative, inevitably open to interpretation. Escaped Alone and What If If Only is the world-first pairing of two separate short plays by the acclaimed Brit. The former, which runs for 45 minutes,…
The consummate stylist of the American cinema is back and in top form. Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is another excellent entry in the director’s canon and is probably his most accessible work since Rushmore. As I’ve said in these (digital) pages before, Anderson is a love-him-or-hate-him proposition. If you’re in the “hate-him” camp, you can…
Morality and money are at the heart of the acerbic Telethon Kid. Inspired by his own medical experiences, Melbourne-based writer Alistair Baldwin’s play has two interconnecting threads. One concerns overstepping the mark in a doctor/patient relationship and the other Big Pharma’s bluff and bluster. We’re at the annual global healthcare conference held by fictious pharmaceutical company Geneuris. Each year,…
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…
Imagine a well-spoken woman of a certain age describing the sex life of slugs, before transitioning to elaborate upon a swap and trade social media platform. That is what you get at Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory with Rough Trade, which happens to be the moniker for a quirky, private Facebook group. Unlike Marketplace, the exchange of money…
A new Australian musical, Bloom hits the right notes. The delivery of effective aged care remains a contentious issue that has brought great consternation to many, before, during and after the COVID-19 lockdowns. Writer Tom Gleisner has taken that and run with it to create a humour-filled portrait of a facility for the third generation in desperate…
David Eldridge’s well-written two-hander Beginning has a runtime of 1 hour 40 minutes, without interval. Yet its story appears to fly by in what seems like the shortest of times, such is its well-written script of witty, but also honest banter of two singles, drawn together at a party’s end. It is in intimate real…
The hype has been enormous, but does Barbie, the movie, live up to expectations? Well, some elements do and others not so much. The film is populated by the Barbies and Kens of Barbieland, where women rule the roost and men trail in their wake. The chief Ken (bleach blonde Ryan Gosling, with a six-pack…
Love and friendship are tested in the comedic drama This is Living. Hugh (Marcus McKenzie) and his partner Will (Wil King), both in their 30s, are taking a short break to Hepburn Springs to see in the New Year. It was costume designer Hugh’s idea and Will, who works in a theatre restaurant, couldn’t talk him out…
