A distressing story about intimidation and forced relocation, Aboriginal playwright and performer Brodie Murray dug into his own family history to bring it to life. The Whisper is a reimagining of his grandmother’s journey on horse and cart in the 1940s. When she was just a little girl, under cover of darkness she travelled with her family…
Set a generation after the height of the AIDS crisis, The Inheritance looks at what it is like to be young and gay in New York. It explores love and legacy and what we owe to those that came before us. At the heart of the work is the decent and caring Eric Glass (Charles Purcell),…
A Dodgeball Named Desire is a clever, creative and involving hoot, contrasting the literary with the sporting. It is a decidedly fresh take on A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. First performed on Broadway in December 1947, that is the story of former Southern belle Blanche DuBois, whose personal circumstances have changed for the worse. An…
Myra in Space is a dramatic comedy from independent theatre company Baggage Productions, which is dedicated to producing original scripts written by women. It concerns female agency, unfulfilled potential and, possibly, mental illness. Myra Foreman (Kelly Nash) is a 65-year-old married woman with two grown children, who is at the crossroads. For as long as she can…
A superbly nuanced performance by Izabella Yena elevates an outstanding piece of writing from Benjamin Nichol, who directs kerosene with Yena. She plays Melbourne-based Millie, brought up by her grandfather, known as Gramps, who was raised in Coober Pedy. Yena weaves a tale of love, loss, loneliness and obsession. So convincing is she that I was immediately transported to…
A tension-filled head scratcher, unease is apparent from the get-go in Far Away. A young girl, Joan (played by Noray Hosny, who alternates in the role with Darcy Sterling-Cox), is spending the night at her aunt Harper’s (Alison Whyte) place. It is the wee small hours and both are still up. Joan tells Harper she heard shrieking. Her…
With five in the cast on a catwalk-like stage, this is a modern, generally slapstick and cartoonish interpretation of Euripides’ Greek tragedy Medea. In the historic work, Medea seeks revenge on her unfaithful husband. In Jane Miller’s Just a Boy, Standing in Front of a Girl, all the characters have received a contemporary makeover. Further, misogyny, fat shaming…
Set in Dubin in 1912, Richard Rowan (Doug Lyons) is a highly intelligent writer plagued by self-doubt. Richard married the woman he desired, Bertha (Lucy Payne), but nine years on their light appears to have dimmed. When the couple moved to Rome, he exchanged long letters and chapters of his book with another woman from his past,…
Pierre Anthon is a massive thorn in the backside of his classmates in year 9. Just one utterance changed their perspective of the world and now they are out to prove him wrong … and they will stop at nothing to do so. Anthon, who we never meet, says “nothing matters” and even as a youngster he…
Accompanied by a lone cellist (Thomas Veitch) and dressed in period costume, Michael Veitch weaves a deeply personal and tragic tale with aplomb. It is one he wrote with Peter Houghton. In August 1852, Michael’s great great grandfather, James William Henry Veitch, was the surgeon on board the emigrant clipper Ticonderoga when it sailed from Liverpool…
