Is he a hero or a villain, a revolutionary or a zealot? Fair questions to pose about a man who spent seven years in exile and a further five in prison. Of course, I speak of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the subject of a powerhouse new play from Patricia Cornelius, directed by Susie Dee. In…
Tough, gritty and uncompromising. That is the incendiary combination that marks the work of co-creators Patricia Cornelius (also writer), Susie Dee (also director) and Nicci Wilks (also performer). They have done it before with RUNT, a study of the underdog, and now Bad Boy, which tackles misogyny and domestic violence. A female actor, Wilks, get…
Deliciously absurdist, The Long Pigs is one of the cleverest, most creative shows of the year. The three artists on stage – Clare Bartholomew, Nicci Wilks and Mozes – adhere to the adage that actions speaks louder than words. Very few words are spoken. Some sounds are made and the eclectic music bed is triumphant. As you…
Their father was big and strong. He could be fun, but more often than not he was scary, angry, brutal and dogmatic. He couldn’t land a job and so money was always tight. He drank. After surviving WWII, which included being shipwrecked and a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway, he had PTSD. His wife,…
Wittenoom, the former town and declared contaminated site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia was, in short, a death trap. During the 1950s and early ‘60s, it was Australia’s only supplier of deadly blue asbestos. The mine was shut down in 1966. Wittenoom, the play – a work of fiction – uncovers just how toxic an…
What does it mean to be Australian … to live in this country? What expectations do you have of others’ behaviour towards you … and what is the harsh reality? Who is exploiting who? Who is taking advantage and how significant is the social, class, gender, racial and cultural divide? These are some of the…
What a superb piece of writing, so magnificently realised … set up with a crackerjack opening monologue! Big Heart should be mandatory viewing in an ever-burgeoning multicultural Australia. Mother (Andrea Swifte) is affluent – significantly so. She has married and divorced twice and never aspired to give birth naturally. Now though, she decides the time…
