Is the rock a portal to other worlds, the conduit for transformative magic, which allows people to simply disappear? These are questions raised in playwright Tom Wright’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic 1967 Australian novel, which spawned Peter Weir’s 1975 film. As Lindsay originally intended in her book, the theatre production raises important questions about…
Twenty-one-year-old Leo Joseph-Connell (Shiv Palekar) values his independence. He’s fallen out with his mother Jane and is on a cross-country bike trip. The family hasn’t heard from him in weeks and they are worried. Leo lands on the doorstep of his 91-year-old grandmother Vera Joseph’s (Nancye Hayes) apartment in Greenwich Village, dirty and smelly. He’s…
Boys on the Verge of Tears is one of the toughest, grittiest plays I have come across. Having premiered at the Soho Theatre in London in 2023, it is an unrelenting 95 minutes of mainly toxic masculinity, in all its forms. These are boys and men, some grappling with their identity and feeling the pressure…
Strong socially progressive views, music and poetry distinguish Neil Cole’s new play An Audience with Don Dunstan. It shines a light on the South Australia’s premier, who served in the role from 1967 to 1968 and again from 1970 to 1979. The flamboyant and eclectic Dunstan (21st September, 1926 – 6th February, 1999) was born…
Misery abounds in Anton Chekov’s Three Sisters. One hundred and 25 years after he wrote it, it continues to resonate. The three sisters referenced in the title moved from Moscow to a provincial Russian garrison town 11 years ago. It is now the first anniversary of their father’s passing and their mother is also no…
Dark and dramatic comes this contemporary adaptation of Georges Bizet’s 19th-century opera. What choreographer John Inger has done in recreating Carmen is visionary – bold and breathtaking – retelling the tale captured in Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella. Inger has reimagined the classic opera, with its electric score, as realised by Orchestra Victoria, under the baton…
Mike Leigh continues his gritty filmmaking endeavours with his 23rd film, the tragicomedy Hard Truths. Middle aged Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Secrets & Lies) is a perpetually angry and desperately unhappy woman. With a series of claimed ailments, she pays out regularly on her plumber husband Curtley (David Webber) and their 22-year-old son, Moses (Tuwaine…
Revolutionary back in the day, The Boys in the Band still packs punch 57 years later. In 1968, when the play premiered Off-Broadway, homosexuality and illegality were inextricably linked. The Boys in the Band put the joys and fears of being a homosexual into the public domain. Comedic, dramatic and angst riddled, it centres on…
It is such a cliché, but trust the magnificent wordsmith in Joanna Murray-Smith to give it so much edge and polish. I speak of an older man leaving his long-term wife for a younger woman. In this case, it is a feted journalist married to a writer – a poet, no less. She gave up…
Passion, intellect, history and legacy explode on stage in the masterfully written, acted, directed and produced romantic, dramatic, thriller Berlin. Australian Tom (Lachlan Hamill) has just landed in the German capital, keen to get to know the real city, not the tourist offering. He’s directed to a small watering hole, where he meets and is…
