Nearly two decades ago, an incident shattered a family and now the patriarch – a feted, but ailing author – is intent on making good before he drops off the mortal coil. Forever sickly, stumbling about, popping pills and turning to the bottle, his name is Andrew Dyer (Bill Nighy). He lives a reclusive life…
Inspired by fact, a significant moral dilemma confronts actors in a small amateur theatre company five days before opening night. While the performers must decide whether to proceed with the show, they are not the only ones with a difficult choice to make. In a juicy twist, we, the audience, too, become heavily invested in…
The massive impact of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983 – 2009) on one family is brought into sharp focus in the incendiary play The Jungle and the Sea. It is a moving follow up to S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack’s highly acclaimed Counting and Cracking, which played at Union Theatre in June 2024. It…
Displacement, cultural identity, colonisation and shifty adoption practices are in the firing line in Chenturan Aran’s compelling dramatic comedy Cut Chilli. The writer himself was culturally displaced with his parents by the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) and subsequent research and interviews informed the script. Cut Chilli was inspired by pervasive adoption fraud in Sri…
Protests in the heart of Paris are rife. We are talking 2018. Society is on the precipice and people are struggling, so they pour their anger and dissatisfaction into verbal and violent demonstrations. Many are from the regions – first time protestors, families even, some who haven’t had cause to come to Paris before. Police…
A mother’s desire to see her daughter escape from a good for nothing, small-town, working-class existence drives the fierce drama Break of Day. She (Pam – Kat Stewart) had aspirations too when she was her daughter, Rae’s (Sherry-Lee Watson) age – 17. But that was the year she gave birth to Rae and the die…
They are largely Indigenous children whose future is looking decidedly shaky. From a young age they are in trouble with the law for a variety of offences. Breaking into homes and stealing money and valuables, they play the system. Often, they are immediately bailed, only to rinse and repeat. Then, in many cases, incarceration follows….
We are confronted by distressing imagery of natural disasters and the aftermath of war, where nothing remains but the grey shell of homes that once were. In contemporary terms, think Gaza, the Ukraine and Russia. This, on a large scale, on a big screen, begins a more intimate portrayal of the impact of devastation. A…
Innovative and highly creative, east meets west in playwright Shane Woon’s love story about Chinese gods and AFL football. The Rabbit in the title is the Rabbit God Tu’er Shen (played by Sean Yuen Halley), the patron saint of queer people. Watson (Anton Pan-Cassin) is a budding AFL player, at age 22 on his last…
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is an epic retelling of one of the oldest surviving works of ancient Greek literature. Homer composed the poem Odyssey in the 8th or 7th centuries BC. It concerns the exploits of the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Matt Damon), as he attempts to make his way home many years after the…
