In the original published text of Dinner – which differs from what we see in this production – Paige (Caroline Brazier), a famous gourmet hostess, invites a group of middle class intellectuals (not aristocrats, as suggested in the program) to a, supposedly, celebratory dinner. The event is to celebrate the successful publication of her husband’s,…
An octoroon is a person who has one-eighth black heritage. This now-politically-incorrect titular understanding is at the centre of Queensland Theatre’s An Octoroon we are told in a meta-theatre pre-emptive explanation of the Act Four function in melodrama. The clarification is not necessary, but appreciated given all that is going in American writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’…
A little over a year ago, the Victorian government was presented with the idea of building a full-scale working replica of Shakespeare’s theatre, the second Globe, to be filled with a festival of the Bard’s masterworks. The concept from founder and artistic director Dr Miles Gregory and executive director Tobias Grant originated a year before…
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…
Accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment for mental illness should be a given, but as history shows, often that’s not the case. In Asylum, two involuntarily institutionalised patients are put through the wringer by an overly officious (read: downright brutish) doctor. One is a young man, Ben (Steven Oktaras), who believes he is dead. Most of all, he…
An emissary from a New York publishing house (Giuseppe Rotondella) is dispatched to Switzerland to convince reclusive crime novelist Patricia Highsmith (Jenny Davis) of The Talented Mr. Ripley fame to sign a new contract. A bold move to stage a two-hander at an hour forty five minutes with no intermission in the Heath Ledger. The…
Jimi Bani is a ‘remote area boy’ from Torres Strait (not PNG or Fiji). His home, Mabuiag Island, has a rich history and culture. Jimi and his family are trying to keep that alive amidst the cultural chaos of the changing modern world. And My Name is Jimi really is family affair. Jimi performs alongside…
Characterised by soaring vocals, Jesus Christ Superstar is a bold and moving version of Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion. With no spoken dialogue (it’s all sung), the show is set to wow audiences anew. That’s just what it did nearly 50 years ago when composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice got together. It debuted on Broadway in 1971,…
Superbly acted and directed, the theatrics and dramatics in the richly intelligent Australian premiere of Incognito are compelling. The experience begins as you walk through the narrow passageway into the theatre. That’s when you notice a thin, taut, crisscrossed black rope along one wall and then liberally strewn throughout the theatre itself, dropping down to a…
The Plant, by Kit Brookman, is the winner of the Ensemble Theatre’s 2016 New Writing Commission. Sue (Sandy Gore) and her three children, Erin (Helen Dallimore), Daniel (Garth Holcombe) and Naomi (Briallen Clarke) are packing up the family home not long after the death of the husband/father from, what one of them describe as: ‘in-built…
