Luna Gale is an American play, by Rebecca Gilman, written in 2014. Luna Gale has been taken into custody for her own safety. She is the baby daughter of Karlie (Lucy Heffernan) and Peter (Jacob Warner). They are, unfortunately, meth addicts, and have been dangerously neglectful of their child. Karlie’s mother, Cindy (Michelle Doake), a…
Nell Gwynn, by Jessica Swale, won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2016. In a large number of short scenes – it’s in two acts and almost three hours long – the play brings to life the career of Nell Gwynn (Bishanyia Vincent). She’s a young woman who grew up in Cheapside experiencing…
Cry Baby is an American musical from 2007. It’s based on a John Waters film, as was the musical Hairspray, which ran on Broadway for 2,642 performances. Cry Baby managed only 45 previews and 68 performances. One was a mega hit the other a mega flop. However, Cry Baby at The Hayes Theatre belies those…
You Got Older is an American play, from a young up-and-coming playwright, Clare Barron. It premiered in 2014 and won the Obie Award in 2015. You Got Older concerns cancer and dying. It seems the writer, Ms Barron, lost her job, had a break-up and received the news that her father had a bad cancer…
Well, the last Mary Rachel Brown play I saw in Sydney was Silent Night for the Darlinghurst Theatre Company late last year. It was a disaster. Approaching another evening with Ms Brown was a tentative commitment. However, I can say, it was worth taking a punt, for the experience was a better one. Permission to…
Unqualified is a new Australian play nurtured and commissioned by the Ensemble Theatre. Joanne (Genevieve Hegney) has found her TV star husband is heading to bankruptcy – and to Bali with his latest girlfriend. Enough is enough – this relationship MUST end. Felicity (Catherine Moore) has worked as a butcher in her father’s meat business…
What a luscious production of the timeless classic, Swan Lake. It is, of course, the love story of Prince Siegfried and the Swan Princess Odette, torn apart by the villainous sorcerer Rothbart. But wait, there’s more. The Imperial Ice Stars’ original version of Swan Lake premiered in Australia in June 2006. It then toured world,…
Marjorie Prime is an American play by Jordan Harrison, that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. The play is set in the mid-21st century. Tess (Lucy Bell) is caring for her ageing mother Marjorie (Maggie Dence). Marjorie is beginning to experience a creeping dementia. Jon (Richard Sydenham), Tess’ husband, has contacted a…
Dazzlingly frocked up, the seemingly ageless Rhonda Burchmore sizzles as the dastardly Carabosse in the delicious pantomime Sleeping Beauty, A Knight Avenger’s Tale. At one point she literally soars above the audience belting out Cher’s 1989 hit “If I Could Turn Back Time”. That’s one of several popular numbers that punctuate a familiar story with…
George Bernard Shaw wrote Saint Joan, in 1923, six scenes and an epilogue. Imara Savage, the Director of this production, has ambitiously taken many liberties with the original text. This Sydney Theatre Company production of Saint Joan occupies the stage for one hour and forty-five minutes, straight through, without an interval. A great deal of…
