Almost three quarters of a century after it was written, the power, passion and desolation intrinsic to Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949) remains intact. It is a devastating and iconic piece of work, magnificently performed by the 11-strong cast from Hearth Theatre at Chapel Off Chapel. The three-hour production explores themes of change, isolation, depression,…
Mesmerising graphics and non-stop, often helter-skelter, action mark the thrilling new Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which has no shortage of dark edges. The animated adventure takes off after the events of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). It centres around 15-year-old Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore). Miles’ parents – police officer Jefferson Davis (Brian…
It’s all good, clean, innocent, engaging, adventurous and flirtatious fun, until it isn’t. It is 1939 and I speak of a pair of first year boarding school students at Cambridge in England. These young ladies get to know lads from the university who make it a habit to climb edifices across town at night. Rosalind (Meg Taranto)…
What is truth and what is fantasy? The lines are blurred in the dramatic play Moth, which speaks to teen angst and mental health. Superbly executed with a minimalist darkened set and striking lighting and sound, the actors impress in their realisation of playwright Declan Greene’s work. Fifteen-year-old Sebastian (Adam Noviello) isn’t exactly the most popular…
The Blue Caftan is a sensitive and engaging queer themed story. It won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes in 2022 and was Morocco’s official entry for the Oscars. The film centres around a middle-aged married couple named Mina (Lubna Azabal) and Halim (Saleh Bakri) who are childless. Mina and Halim run a small sewing shop…
Racism, disadvantage, “the mob” and money collide in the incendiary new work from Declan Furber Gillick, five years in the making. Commissioned through MTC’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program, the cumulative impact of the 100 minutes is devastating. Indigenous man Jacky (Guy Simon) is on the road to “making it”, or so it seems. He is renting a…
Moving and at times confronting, At What Cost? leaves the audience in a stunned silence for a moment, until the thunderous applause and standing ovation inevitably follow. It’s a powerful piece of theatre in which the one hour and forty-five minutes without interval seem to fly by. Indigenous playwright, Nathan Maynard, has crafted a compelling,…
Having just sat through The World According to Dinosaurs, I am sorry to say I can’t really tell you much about the narrative, save for an extinction event. A big part of the reason is the verbiage in the work was frequently drowned out. Frankly, the sound mix was appalling. From the get-go, the narrator was swamped…
Based on a true story, this is a dramatic recreation of a court case that took place in the French town of Saint Omer in 2016. Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) is a young mother and Senegalese immigrant who is put on trial for having killed her fifteen months old daughter, supposedly to protect her from…
Irish writer and Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett’s works can be difficult to get your head around. So, it is with Worstward Ho at Theatre Works, featuring a bravura showing by Rob Meldrum who plays a figure wrestling with the end of the world. Now true confession time. I sat there for an hour and had no…
