Political correctness is turned on its head in the lighthearted New Zealand comedy, The Breaker Upperers. But the movie is set to polarise audiences. Fifteen years ago, Mel (Madeleine Sami) and Jen (Jackie Van Beek) discovered they were being two-timed by the same man. Bitter and cynical, they became fast friends. The pair then formed The…
One of the takeaways from Bare the Musical is that the Catholic Church has a lot to answer for. This heart-wrenching musical concerns life’s most intimate struggles with equality and fairness. At its core are a couple of seniors – Peter (Adam Di Martino) and Jason (Finn Alexander) – who attend a Catholic boarding school….
Can lightning strike twice? Well, “yes” according to playwright Lachlan Philpott whose work was inspired by real life events. Colder concerns the disappearance of David in Disneyland at age seven and then again in a different place 26 years later. On the first occasion, he reappears after seven frantic hours. The second time, he does…
Strong, emotive performances are the hallmark of Venus in Fur. This sado-masochistic two-hander is brim full of verbiage. It’s a play within a play, during which the power shifts. New York theatre director Thomas (Darcy Kent) is trying to cast the lead female role for a play. It’s a play he’s adapted from the 19th century book…
I’ve been waiting to read the final copy of The Sisters’ Song by Louise Allan for a long time. I first read this book as a beta reader for Louise about two years ago – and I still remember the day she phoned me, full of excitement, to say she had an agent. Finding my name in…
Marianne (Marta Dusseldorp) and Johan (Ben Winspear) are cosy in the comfort of their overly-scheduled, boring bourgeois lives … well that’s what they tell a magazine interviewer when being asked about their union. But what lies behind their facade and how long will it be before their imperfect love begins to dissolve? These are the…
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a genteel look at the ménage à trois behind the creation of iconic feminist superhero Wonder Woman. Its direction fittingly boasts a decidedly feminine touch. Truth is stranger than fiction in this origin story outside the norm. Harvard psychologist and inventor Dr William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) was the…
Luke Rogers, director of the new Australian play In Real Life, began a collaboration with writer Julian Larnach almost three years ago. In the program notes, Mr Rogers uses a quote from Sherry Turkle, a Professor of Science and Technology: ‘Technology doesn’t just do things for us. It does things to us, changing not just what we…
A New Map of Love by Abi Oliver* brings readers an old-fashioned life-in-an-English-village story about George, who leads a predictable but comfortable life until his wife, Win, dies. Life is suddenly a whole lot less predictable but a whole lot more exciting, especially widow Sylvia arrives on the scene with her heaving bosom and fluttering…
Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor, from TV series Peaky Blinders) is a sullen, morose young man working on his family farm in Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country. Since his father Martin (Ian Hart) suffered a debilitating stroke, he has had more responsibility loaded on his shoulders. It’s a hard and often lonely life for Johnny. He…
