Hard Rubbish – review
Malthouse Theatre, MelbourneMen of Steel's playful yet poignant production about old furniture is a metaphor for modern life and a lot of funBack in 2002, Spike Jonze made a famous ad for IKEA. We see...
View ArticleSummertime in the Garden of Eden, Sisters Grimm – review
Theatre Works, MelbourneBeneath the frothy fun and glorious wit, Sisters Grimm's production skewers prejudices around race and sexualityIt is melodrama on amyl nitrate; the recipe a dose of Scarlett...
View ArticleArden v Arden, the Hayloft Project – review
Northcote Town HallWatching Arden v Arden, the Hayloft Project's adaptation of the anonymous sixteenth century play Arden of Faversham, it occurred to me that sometimes obscure plays are obscure for...
View ArticleThe Book of Everything — review
Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank TheatreA play about domestic violence in post-Nazi Netherlands may seem like grim fare for children but it proves ultimately upliftingThe Book of Everything is set...
View ArticlePrivate Lives, Melbourne Theatre Company – review
Southbank Theatre, MelbournePrivate Lives, Noël Coward’s acid romantic comedy, opens with an irresistible conceit: Elyot and Amanda, divorced for five years after a tempestuous marriage, encounter each...
View ArticleCock, Melbourne Theatre Company – review
Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax StudioThe most provocative aspect of Mike Bartlett’s play Cock is its title. A contemporary twist on the conventional love triangle, it’s a comedy of identity that riffs...
View ArticleThe Government Inspector review – a scrupulously polished backstage farce
Melbourne’s Malthouse theatre launches its 2014 season with a deliciously funny Simon Stone comedy that illuminates the absurdity and vanity of human behaviourA good backstage comedy is a thing of joy...
View ArticleNight on Bald Mountain review – scathing satire and sensual tragedy
Malthouse theatre, MelbourneA complex and rarely-staged Patrick White play is directed like a musical score, and the cast is extraordinaryUntil now,Patrick White’s fourth playNight on Bald Mountain has...
View ArticleGhosts review – a stilted take on Ibsen's anger
Southbank Theatre, Melbourne Theatre CompanyThe decision to play Ghosts like a melodrama has robbed the play of its emotional complexityGhosts, which has opened in a Melbourne Theatre Company...
View ArticleThe Good Person of Szechuan review: Brecht's bleak tale brought rudely to life
Malthouse theatre, MelbourneAn exceptional cast and a rough-edged production full of intriguing details make this Chinese/Australian take on Brecht refreshing, vulgar and vigorousThe gods come down to...
View ArticleThe 70% drop in Australia Council grants for individual artists is staggering...
Individual artists – predominantly writers and visual artists – are the biggest losers of the government’s bungled arts policy and Australia Council funding cutsLast week, the Australian arts community...
View ArticleThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time review – spectacle devoid...
This stylised adaptation of Mark Haddon’s bestseller is effectively an animated book rather than a translation into theatreArts Centre MelbourneThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a...
View ArticleThe House of Bernarda Alba review – an ingenious and powerful feminist parable
Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre MelbournePatricia Cornelius’s Australian adaptation of Lorca’s classic puts the wounds that men inflict on women centre stage• Sign up to receive the top stories in...
View ArticleCosì review – something deeply off kilter lurks at heart of Louis Nowra’s farce
Southbank Theatre, MelbourneAt turns amusing, soulful, moving and dull, the contradictions in this 1992 classic are not just in the telling of itLive theatre, Louis Nowra once said, is the creature of...
View ArticleCloudstreet review – play is big on spectacle but can't solve the problems of...
Malthouse Theatre, MelbourneStage adaptation of the beloved story grapples with colonisation, but like all Winton’s books, it is essentially about the menI know it’s deeply un-Australian of me, but...
View ArticleWake in Fright review – channelling the gothic nightmare of settler Australia
Malthouse Theatre, MelbourneZahra Newman brings Kenneth Cook’s novel to the stage in shamanic, hallucinatory performanceIt’s impossible to think of Kenneth Cook’s 1961 fever-dream of white Australian...
View ArticleShakespeare in Love review – a merry romp and a sumptuous feast for the eye
Playhouse, Arts Centre MelbourneMelbourne Theatre Company’s adaptation of the Oscar-winning romcom works so well on stage you wonder why it was a film in the first placeIt’s often a bad sign when a...
View ArticleCome From Away review – a feelgood 9/11 musical? Believe the hype
Comedy Theatre, MelbourneThis hugely entertaining tale about passengers diverted to Newfoundland after the 2001 attacks is an ode to kindness and the power of communityI’ve often been troubled by the...
View Article'You leave changed': critics pick the best of Australian theatre in 2019
From a reimagined Wake in Fright to Hannah Gadsby’s post-retirement juggernaut, some electrifying shows hit Australian stages this yearSydney Theatre Company, at the Drama theatre, Sydney Opera...
View ArticleWhen we woke on the first day of 2020, we knew this year was going to be...
It seems that every problem that has rumbled beneath our feet for the past 60 years has hit crisis point, all at onceThis is part of a series of essays by Australian writers responding to the...
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