Navigating the vicissitudes in a relationship can be tricky at the best of times, but cross-cultural unions more often than not face additional difficulties. So it is with Ella (Eleanor Barkla) and Hasseb (Oz Malik). The pair meets at a performance workshop. They are from opposite sides of the Thames. He is a poet and she is…
Brilliantly performed by Justine Clarke who, as the 27th Australian Prime Minister, displays determination, indignance and frustration, I would suggest one’s political predilection will have a fair say in how Joanna Murray-Smith’s words go down. As the writer, the latter has combined fact and fiction. She has taken incendiary language from shock jocks, political opponents and…
Based on a memoir by the late Timothy Conigrave, playwright Tommy Murphy has given us an up close and personal look at a 15-year gay relationship. It starts in the teen years and works its way through to the HIV/AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Tim (Declan Clifford) has his eyes on the school football…
‘What are the things I know to be true?’, a naïve and broken-hearted 19-year-old Rosie Price (Eleni Koutsoukis) wonders after an ill-fated encounter hiccups her great European adventure, forcing her to return home to her family in Adelaide. Why wouldn’t she return when her family is the best thing since sliced bread? As we are…
Dr John Everyman (Dennis Coard) is a retired and much-loved GP who lost his wife Sophia, when she was just 59. She was taken 13 years ago and he hasn’t been able to fill that void. To this day he rages at God for the “theft” of his beloved wife (he calls it “an act of divine…
Twelve years ago, Justin (Matthew Connell) fell in love for the first time. That relationship with Jason (Lachlan Martin) lasted for 18 months. Next up, a six-and-a-half-year love affair in London with Sam (Yuchen Wang) was on the skids. And Justin also had a fourth month fling with Nick (Joss McClelland). Writer and director Justin Nott puts…
Opera Australia’s production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella is glorious from the get go. Though there is no real standout number, the musical’s soundtrack is glorious and easy-on-the-ear, filled as it is with recognisable Rogers and Hammerstein melodies and lyrics. Anna Louizos’ set design is superb, featuring slick transitions through scenes the sometimes include animal hand…
Who knows what the future holds? One thing seems certain, namely artificial intelligence (AI) will play a controlling role in our lives. This issue is the fundamental theme in Control, a play by Keziah Warner, presented by New Theatre at Newtown. If not for Warner’s humorous style, the subject matter would be quite dark and…
First up, a confession – I didn’t study science at school and I believe I am worse off because of that. I greatly admire scientific endeavour, though I have little to no understanding of what a scientist does day to day. Taking to the stage at The Butterfly Club are Michele Conyngham, Phil Dooley and Patrick…
Freedom and identity are in play in Looking for Alibrandi. It is the 1990s and 17-year-old Josie Alibrandi (Chanella Macri), of Italian origin, is a clever student in her final year at school, looking to pursue law. She isn’t enamoured by the tight reign being kept on her by her mother, Christina (Lucia Mastrantone), who fell pregnant…
