The Cutting Cove Currawongs is a proud club steeped in tradition stained only by the lack of a premiership. With this as the focus, its team members are excited about the season ahead and the fresh opportunities offered by recruitment of two talented aboriginal players, cousins Jayma (a fine performance from Queensland Theatre newcomer Ngali…
Golden Shield is a new play by Anchuli Felicia King, having its world premiere production from the Melbourne Theatre Company. It’s set against a background of antipathy between the US and China. Their animosity has reached deeply worrying levels and Australia is caught in the middle. The play deals with “Big Brother”, mistranslated words and…
Brilliant staging and puppetry mark the MTC’s Storm Boy; a theatrical adaptation of Colin Thiele’s 1964 novel of the same name. The book has also been turned into two feature films, one in 1976 and the other earlier this year. This version remains faithful to the original. Youngster (Conor Lowe) lives in isolation in a…
Absurdist but with heart, Louis Nowra’s Cosi is fun to watch but appears to have aged. The setting is the Vietnam War era – 1971 to be specific – and the location is a mental institution. So, yes there’s a little bit of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest about it. A young man, Lewis…
Talented photographer Diane Arbus (Diane Glenn) meets sex symbol Mae West (Melita Jurisic – complete with sultry voice) in the MTC’s new play Arbus & West. In 1964, Arbus arrived at West’s pristine LA apartment to take snaps of the famous star, then 71. The play explores a fictional account of that real encounter between…
In the late 1960s, an elderly woman took up residence in a London street where many famous names lived. Nothing unusual about that, you might be thinking. But she lived in a decrepit, hand-painted yellow van crammed with old shopping bags and bits of carpet. She was a well-known “character” around Camden Town, sometimes mocked…
Often riotously funny, Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Twelfth Night is brilliantly staged by MTC and features several wonderful performances. With lots of musical ditties, it’s a tale of mistaken identities, love triangles and pranks. Here I’m indebted to SparkNotes for helping me to unravel the intricacies of Shakespeare’s Old English. The action is set in the…
A feel good Aussie comedy with dramatic undertones, Astroman really comes into its own in the second act. Set in 1984, the play centres on a 13-year-old indigenous kid, Jiembra Djalu (Kamil Ellis), who loves video games. He and his sporty twin, Sonny (Calen Tassone), their 16-year-old sister Natalie (Tahlee Fereday) and mother Michelle (Elaine…
What a delightful turn of phrase Oscar Wilde had. His wit and playfulness are there for all to see in the verbiage-dense An Ideal Husband. In case you’re not familiar, the play deals with blackmail and corruption in high society. And doesn’t this sterling 11-string cast do it justice! They have loads of fun with…
Unbridled ambition gets a thorough workout in Gloria. This Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama from American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is one of four MTC Australian premieres this season. Set in the offices of a prestigious Manhattan magazine, the play is a contemporary satire. The day-to-day drudgery is particularly wearing on a small group of editorial assistants. They…
