I don’t read about a play or musical or film before seeing it. The reason: I want the art form to speak for itself. But taking that approach to Laundry Shoot! is problematic because the narrative is far from straight forward. This is what I could make out after seeing the 70-minute play before reading the program….
Driftwood: The Musical is a heart-wrenching and inspiring piece of musical theatre, reflecting a dark period of history that changed and destroyed the lives of millions. The starting point for creator Tania de Jong AM was her mother Eva de Jong-Duldig’s 2017 memoir “Driftwood – escape and survival through art”. The musical focuses on the true…
The challenges and complexities associated with mental health are front and centre in a compelling play based around a young man who hasn’t been (and isn’t) well. Institutionalised for quite some time, Adam (Ben Smalley) now lives alone. He listens to music, watches TV, shops when necessary, cooks some basics and ostensibly keeps to himself. His…
Australian actress, director and former head of the Queensland Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company, Robyn Nevin, AO, is the type of figure who deserves applause upon her every stage entrance. That is what deservedly happens at the start of Christopher Hampton’s powerful play A German Life. Nevin plays Brunhilde Pomsel and shares the…
What is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in a relationship between two adults, when one is clearly more powerful and significantly older than the other?That is the question raised and dissected in a crackling new MTC drama, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes. It is 2014. Jon Macklem (Dan Spielman) is an acclaimed author with tenure at…
With stone fruit now on sale and schools this week farewelling their Senior students, it is clear that summer holidays are but a whisper away. For many in this COVID-19 year, Christmas holidays will mean a road trip to a regional destination, which makes Queensland Theatre’s world premiere production, The Holidays (which was postponed due…
Just as all families are unique, it’s safe to say that all have their own individual issues and, accordingly, suburban family life has long been fodder for theatrical works. In the case of From Darkness Steven Oliver’s take comes with humour but so much more; the darkly funny drama is, at its core, about bigger…
If provocative theatre and the art of confrontation are your thing, then have I got a play for you! Ulster American is wildly funny, but not for the feint-hearted. Playwright David Ireland takes aim at politics and the treatment of women. Jay Conway (Steve Bastoni) is an arrogant – but Oscar-winning – actor. The American…
Rainbow’s End is a play by Jane Harrison, author of Stolen (1998). Both of these plays have become part of the school HSC syllabus. Rainbow’s End, written in 2005, is an evocation of the lives of three generations of First Nation’s women: the Yorta Yorta nation, in the 1950’s, in the northern Victoria region of…
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…
