Black is the New White, not to be confused with the television series Orange is the New Black, is about racism, class and identity. Humour is the principle vehicle used to highlight inequity, but perhaps not as you might have expected it. Charlotte Gibson (Miranda Tapsell) is a hot shot young aboriginal lawyer who has…
Slapstick humour and pantomime feature in MTC’s version of Shakespeare in Love. Adapted for the stage by Lee Hall, with music by Paddy Cunneen, this Australian premiere is based on the 1998 film of the same name. More specifically, it’s based Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s screenplay for that movie. In the MTC’s production, laughs…
A beautiful woman engages an older man in conversation … Sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s actually the beginning of the MTC’s production of Heisenberg. This story involves a couple of lonely people. One has been alone … seemingly forever; while the other has a deep-seated need for connection. The woman, Georgie…
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…
Plays like The Architect are why I gained an appreciation of theatre. Because it has the ability to move you … to feel deep-seated emotion. Helen (Linda Cropper) is a no-nonsense woman in her late 60s. She is dying. She lives in Victoria and is in a 10-year relationship with a doting partner, John Stafford…
What the hell am I seeing? What does it mean? Why am I even in the theatre? What a total and utter waste of time and space. How boring. These thoughts came flooding into my head five minutes into Working With Children. A slightly transparent white curtain and a pair of white runners and folded…
A scintillating script by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood and a trio of dynamic performances make for a highly involving two hours of entertainment in The Children. The devastating effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 inspired the play. When Kirkwood heard about the heroism of the retired work force returning to the plant to help…
Released in 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was arguably the most searing and memorable motion picture of my youth. The film starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, helmed by Milos Forman shone a light on mental illness and claimed five Oscars in the process. With a title drawn from a nursery rhyme, Ken Kesey’s…
One of the most creative and engaging plays I have had the good fortune to see, the moment it finished I wanted to see it again. What better recommendation is there? Put succinctly, North by Northwest is a beauty. So was the Alfred Hitchcock-directed movie, mind you, so the issue became how best to translate…
