Strong is the New Pretty, A Brisbane Festival, Sydney Theatre Company and Trish Wadley Productions Co-Production, Canberra Theatre Centre, Playhouse, 24 – 26 September (and subsequently at Geelong Arts Centre (8–11 October) and Sydney Opera House (22 October–5 December))

 

Image - Morgan Roberts

Suzie Miller has done a rare thing in Australian Theatre - recently getting a cover story in the Australian Women's Weekly, after a couple of years writing plays that get international hit productions (between "Prima Facie" and "Inter Alia"), and also developing strong commissioned works to wide Australian audiences ("RBG" most recently). "Strong is the New Pretty" is a dramatisation of how the WAFL came together and the first season, looking at some of the challenges and its eventual success, and has a lot of the same strengths, together with a virtuoso staging by Sarah Giles. 

The narrative is abstracted through three main characters - an AFL administrator (Tara Morice) who believes strongly in pushing the code to find ways to incorporate women, a high profile lawyer who joins the board of commissioners (Lucy Bell), and an eager coach (Amber McMahon) - with the remaining cast playing a mix of roles from players to board members to commentators to whatever is required (at my performance with assistant Director Julia Robertson fitting in smoothly for an indisposed Contessa Treffone). There's some strong staging here - the simple design by Christina Smith has an over-head videoboard to provide titles, locations, scores and commentary (video designed by Craig Wilkinson). Kelley Abbey provides movement that lets the cast move as blocks and to re-enact gameplay, and the narrative moves slickly. If there is a slight complaint, it's that, being a history play, the success of the WAFL does feel inevitable almost from the second the ball starts rolling - there isn't a lot of space spent on resistance (though certainly the uglier side of football fans does get shown). 

Miller has another hit on her hands - even if more of a local one (I can't see this having the international potential of "Facie" and "Alia" due to its topic), but it's definately a play that will resonate strongly and loudly. 

Daisy Pulls It Off, Canberra Rep, 10-26 Sep

 

Photographer: Ross Gould.

Denise Deegan's 1983 play is a loving tribute to the post-war Schoolgirls novel, in which an all-round talented young woman faces trials and tribulations in a private school, involving achievements academic and sporting, plus a spot of treasure hunting and plucky adventurism, before finally winning the acclaim of all around her. It's the lightest of light entertainments, offering not much of significance beyond the enjoyment of a good old-fashioned adventure, with maybe a minor lesson about snobbery and good-old-british pluck, and is full of delightful period britishisms like "Scrummy" and "top hole". 

Kate Blackhurst's production gives this an all female cast (for a play where all but two of the roles are female anyway), bouncing around Grangewood School for Girls in quick manner, from dorm to classroom to playing fields to hallways lined with secret clues. Ashleigh Butler narrates and plays the titular Daisy as a delightful charmer, the perfect heroine, with Elaine Noon romping delightfully as her sidekick Trixie. Up against her are Alex McPherson as the sneaky, snide Sybil, relishing all her worst qualities and Kara Taylor as her sneaky sidekick Monica. Lily Welling as prefect Claire Beamont attempts to keep everyone in line, plus Azerie Cromhoult's firm-but fair Miss Gibson as principal, and a staff varying from Antonia Kitzel's strict Miss Granville to Sue Gore Phillips' resolutely foreign-accented Mr Scoblowski who very successfully red-herrings his way through the plot. 

Annie Kay designs the school, giving it a solid historic-oaken look with a charming set of school uniforms, while Nathan Sciberras lights to help us around the various locations and Neville Pye adds a few somewhat modern musical stings to help with the empahsis.

All in all this is a jolly fun romp of a play, with a rich team rolling us through Daisy's first student year as she faces perils, triumphs and a few surprise secrets on her way to a resolutely super-joyous-happy-ending. 

Disney’s Frozen, The Broadway Musical, Free-Rain Theatre, The Q, 15 September – 11 October

 Image: Ben Appleton - Photox

Disney's 2013 animated film was an instant sensation, winning acclaim for its strong set of songs and its story of two sisters, both isolated from the world and each other and what happens when they emerge into the wider world on the day of Elsa's coronation. In 2017 it was adapted into a Broadway musical by the same team that wrote the script and music for the movie - the stage version wasn't quite as much of a sensation, partially because of the challenges of running a show over the COVID era, partially because the requirements of changing a 100 minute movieinto a two and a half hour stage show means there are extensions to fill in the bonus time that aren't always great (diva Elsa gets an act two ballad to match her iconic "Let it Go", and it doesn't quite) and some storytelling that worked great on screen with cross-cutting and editing looks messy on stage (in particular the last ten minutes, when to cover bits of plot the chorus suddenly show up to narrate some action that would otherwise be confusing). 

  Free-Rain makes a fairly good whack of some messy material, with a fine cast and production design uniting to give it a strong glossy feel. Sonically, it sounds epic from the echoey Sami-inspired chanting at the open across the entire score, with Charlotte Morphett's Elsa absolutely owning "Let It Go" (which, let's face it, is the reason most people are in the theatre in the first place) for a thrilling act one climax. Chloe Stevenson is an endearingly charming Anna, even as her own mistakes and needs put her in more dangers. Joe Dinn is an adorable Olaf, endearing and charming. Jackson Gibbs as Kristoff the ice-hauler is effective as he tries to dissuade Anna while they slide more and more into a side romance, while Joshua Kirk looks and sounds the part as a Prince who is not quite as charming as he appears at first sight. Cameron Thoms enjoys the chance to play with Scandanavian vowels as trader Oaken with his goofy act two opener defining the concept of Hygge (go to Ikea if you're not sure what that is), and Sam Thomson and Kate Lis are a lovely pair of mystic forest-figures for additional magic in the sidelines. Young performers Millicent Fitzgerald and Meadow Kuske ably reflect their older counterparts as the young Anna and Elsa.

This is a rare chance to see a show led by two strong female performers and it absolutely gives both of  them lots to play with, with a lot for the rest of the cast to enjoy too. And there's visual spectacle in the set design of John Nichols and Ethan Henderson and the lighting desing of Jono Gerdes, and a real feel of the wide outdoor Scandinavian ranges in Chris Neal's sound design. My main nitpick is in some of the adaptation choices in the original material - with some tighter storytelling and a better act two ballad for Elsa, this would be a 10 out of 10. Instead, it's a great team carrying a slightly limping vehicle. 

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Presented by LPD Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co, 28 Aug-27 Sep

Image by John McRae

Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows reteamed 11 years after their hit "Guys and Dolls" - again, Burrows wrote most of the script after someone else's script was deemed not entirely useful (but the other writer got a credit anyway), with Loesser on music and lyrics duty. This time round, moving on from gangsters, showgirls and Salvation Army members to the far more dubious world of Big Business,  the duo told the story of the rise of J. Pierpoint Finch through a series of sketch-like scenes as he goes from mailroom to executive suite through a mix of charm, nerve and some gratuitous good luck when the plot requires it. It won the Putlizer prize over the likes of Tenessee Williams' "Night of the Iguana", Ossie Davis' "Purlie Victorious" and Paddy Chaefsky's "Gideon", and has recieved multiple revivals ever since, but this one serves it quite well - director/choreographer Cameron Mitchell gives it a jazzy, slinky style that suits the era, with a cast of 15 jazzing it up all across the Hayes stage. 

Primary among the cast is Jake Speer as the butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth Finch - a smooth singer and a smooth talker. Another member of the inexhaustible Laga'aia clan, Georgia, plays his love interest, Rosemary, who sells her blithe conviction that she and Finch belong together even as Finch only occasionally takes interest in her.Simon Burke plays the boss, JB Biggley, with an endearing mix of arrogance and stupidity. Elsewhere in the cast, Wayne Scott Kermond goofs it up in two separate roles, Noni McCallum is both intimidating as the queen bee of the secretaries and knocks her solo during "Brotherhood of Man" into a cocked hat, Kaeng Chan is wonderfully flip-flopping as the yes-man Brat no matter who he's saying yes to, Max MacDonald is glorious sneaky villainy as Bud Frump, and Lucy Lalor is a great dumb-like-a-fox Hedy. 

Musical Supervisor Damon Wade and musical director Kim Gilbert mostly makes a band of four sound a whole lot bigger, set Designer Dominic Foffani adapts various office locations from mailroom to washroom to boardroom very well, and Chrisitne Muutton gives them that professional sheen in a great set of outfits. 

This is a classic show that feels fizzy, fun and fresh 65 years after it first performed. Yes, it's definately of an era but it's a slightly acidic look at that era which knows both the flaws (the gender politics) and the glories (the outfits and the tunes). 

Housework, Sydney Theatre Company, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, 5 Sep-17 Oct

 

Image by Prudence Upton

"Housework" is a contemporary comedy drama set in and around the corridors of power in Canberra when a first-term member of parliament decides to start campaigning on her pet issue and comes face to face with some sticky moral conundrums into the bargain. While this originally premiered early last year, it feels somewhat older, with a lot of COVID material at the top of the play suggesting the vintage of its early drafts, and writer Emily Steel gets a bit too enthusiastic to get into the salacious scandal elements of the plot at the expense of what begins more like a more contemplative piece about how women get socialised in politics and what happens to naive good intentions, before becoming more interested in throwing shock twists at the audience.

But to start with the high points - designer Ailsa Paterson uses the iconic look of Parliament House's columns for a stylish institutional design together with a large revolving table to represent the various meeting rooms, corridors of power, restaurants and serviced apartments where the action takes place. Emily Taheney as the lead, adviser Anna, has a strong authority as someone who has very much been around the block and is only starting to become aware how much it may have cost her. Susie Yousef as the MP gives the role some frantic crash-through style, showing the raw passion that probably got her elected along with the inability to stop herself that will hold her back later. Indira Naidoo brings her undoubted authority to a late-in-the-play cameo role (and also serves to assist with a fair number of set changes). Meanwhile Lawrence Boxhall, Franca Lafosse and Johnny Nasser are in thinner roles that basically exist to service plot more than character, and serve them well enough to keep the pot boiling.

This isn't bad but I don't think it really delivers much more insight than any number of other political thrillers - given what the last decade of politics has given us to work with, this feels like nothing much we haven't seen before done better. It's given a glossy production by Shannon Rush but it feels like a lot of style and not very much substance.

The Book of Everything, Belvoir St Theatre in co-production with Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image, Upstairs Belvoir, 22 Aug-20 Sept

 Image by Brett Boardman

This is the return of Belvoir's 2010 production with a lot of the original crew back (four of the original 8 actors returning to the same roles, and the same design and directorial team) - so long ago that I missed it and have only seen Rep's outstanding 2013 production instead (reviewed here). So this is a chance to see a reproduction of a legendary production, with Kim Carpenter's astonishing original designs, Neil Armfield's warm and adorable direction, and with all the playfulness, heart and soul that this coming-of-age story needs.

To start with the newbies - John Gaden gets to be both a terrifyingly real threat as Father and a comical one as the Bumbiter, Pamela Rabe glories in her chance to play in an ensemble and to relish a spectacular pair of slacks as Auntie Pye, Rebecca Massey is both the egotistically superior older sister and the angry protective one when required, and Bridie McKim makes us fall in love with her as much as Thomas does with her gentle Eliza. The original cast are back owning their roles, from Matthew Whittett's central, innocent, hopeful Thomas to Julie Forsyth's endearing Mrs Van Amerhorst, Claire Jones' warm mother and John Leary's super-sociable Jesus. 

This is a play and a production that knows where the warmth and the hard-edged bits are, and plays both to the hilt. It was an instant classic then and it remains just as vibrant and powerful now, 16 years later. It's a great trip back in time to see something truly great. 

Mum Club, Griffin Theatre Company in association with Belvoir Street Theatre, Belvoir Downstairs, 22 Aug-20 Sept

  photo by Phil Erbacher

"Mum Club" looks at a recent indigenous mother who's moved to Sydney from Perth for her partner's career, and is suddenly raising a child without any of her family connections. Her attempts to join a local mothers club find her in the middle of what might technically be called "white women's nonsense", while the Redfern Medical Centre may just offer her the friendship she needs, together with some bonding over the power of Romantasy fiction. 

Jorjia Gillis' play wanders a bit in tone between broad satire and more emotional drama - protagonist Sadie faces threats both comic and more serious - but it captures the isolation that new motherhood can create and the desire to create connections that aren't necessarily the best for you. Stephane Somerville carries the weight of much of the dramatic side of the equation while also being the straight-women to some of the broader comic roles of the rest of the cast - Alex Malone and Ruby Teys are mostly playing broad caricatures, while Megan Wilding brings a warmth to her supportive role as someone slightly more trustworthy. Ian Michael's production tends to attempt to surf the tone shifts but in the tiny Belvoir Downstairs space feels slightly clunky as the shifts in location and mood aren't always achieved smoothly.

 It does feel slightly like a more pointed political comedy has been a little defanged in the rewrites and the production into something a bit more crowd-pleaser, and while it certainly gets the laughs, the truths underneath tend to go wanting a little. It's not unpolished but there does seem to be a gutsier version of this that would have hit harder on the genuine dillemmas of indigenous women traversing spaces that claim to value diversity but only seem to value diversity as a nice flashy token, not as a way to understand others' experiences. 

In short, this feels like this lands more in the "pleasant night out" than "essential theatre" - it is certainly still pleasant and, again, the ideas underneath seem interesting but they're not really brought out in the open to get full exploration. 

Saplings, Australian Theatre for Young People, The Q, 22 Aug (annd subsequent touring to Penrith, Bairnsdale and Warrnambool)

 

Image by Clare Hawley from original 2024

"Saplings" looks at a mixture of young people who encounter the criminal justice system in various ways (either directly as perpetrators or as family members of people in prison). Four actors play a variety of figures on an institutional grey set, co-designed by Angela Doherty and Morgan Moroney and lit strikingly by Moroney. The scenes are linked by a hip-hop soundtrack by Michael Weir. There's strong performances across all four actors-  Sam Harmon perhaps most strikingly in a monologue that ties together Mi-Goreng noodles, family dysfunction and a sense of purposelessness, but there's also strength that comes from Malyan Blair in a scene about his fear of what comes after prison, from Danny Howard as 

This is rough-edged material, writer Hannah Belansky drawing from direct contact with young people in the system and reflecting their raw experience back in her writing - and director Abbie-lee Lewis gives it a striking, physical production with the occasional moment of beauty and warmth in among the rougher edges. There are a couple of issues with audibility here and there - not sure whether actors are simply going at too fast a pace or if they're letting authentic language clash with diction too- but for the most part  the material comes across strong and impactful, in a production that holds a lot of interest to anyone who's interested in younger voices.

I love you, you're perfect, now change, Free-Rain Theatre Company, ACT Hub, 19 Aug-5 Sep

Photo by Janelle McMenamin

"I love you, you're perfect, now change" is a series of sketches and songs - act one looks at dating leading up to a wedding, and act two deals with what comes after  - children, routines and the possibilities of divorce and widowhood. Writer Joe DiPetro's gone on since this show to write the Elvis-themed "All Shook Up",  Tony-winning "Memphis", the cult favourite "Toxic Avenger" musical, the delightful "Nice Work if you can get it", and the somewhat tacky "Diana" musical, while composer Jimmy Roberts career hasn't gone very far since this - but this is a show that's played wide and long all over the world simply by being relatable, small scale and quite entertaining. 

It's written for a small ensemble playing multiple roles, and in Free-Rain's production it's immaculately performed by six performers - Amelia Andersson-Nickson, Connor McNaught, David Pearson, Deborah O'Toole, Sam Thomson and Sarah Copley - who cover multiple roles and relationships. As a show originally from the late 90s (though rewritten slightly in this version), it's very much from the "Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus" school of gender-essentialism, but the gags mostly hold up 30 years later. In this production, it's given a stylish look on an abstracted chessboard by Janie Lawson, with some sketches somewhat localised and other sketches staying in the US context of the original material. The musical accompaniment by Leo Amadeus (who has also coached the cast in the tight vocal harmonies) and Laura Ley on violin is small but impactful, going from speedy tense rhythms to touching ballads to genre spoofs. The cast is stylishly costumed by Louise Newey in a mix of reds, whites and blacks.  

The ensemble cast play very well together, whether it be Copley and McNaught exploring alternate personas as "A Stud and A babe", Andersson-Nickson and Thompson fast-forwarding through a relationship in "Better Things to Do", or O'Toole and Pearson finding gentle resolution in "I Can Live With That", or in solo showcases like Thompson's Baby song, Copley's videodate speech, Pearson's scared-straight monologue or Andersson-Nickson's Bridesmaid's lament (aided by some clever lighting by Craig Muller). 

As we transition into spring, it's not a bad time to think of mating-and-dating rituals, and this is a fun way to celebrate it - it's not a groundbreaking show so much as a pleasantly reassuring one. But it's fun to see this ensemble in some material that gives their talents room to show off. 

 

Diamond, Q The locals, The Q, 6-8 August

 Image: O&J Wikner Photography

Liz Lea is a 50-something showgirl, exploring post-menopause in a show that combines dance, song, video, pyrotechnics, comedy and burlesque. She's a fascinating figure and puts on a show that is visually spectacular - choreographing herself and two dance teams in a range of production numbers and moments that makes for a tight one hour of spectacle and insight.

It's difficult to pin this one down into a specific genre - it's not quite a dance show, not quite a standup routine - but part of the joy of the genre shifting is that it never becomes dull as there's always something new coming up soon . Lea is fantastically costumed (costumes by herself, Bruce Scott and Cate Clelland), stunningly lit by Karen Norris and supported by strong video elements (technical director Roni Wilkinson). Some of the writing for the stand-up portion, in all honesty, could be a little tighter - but it makes Lea relatable in her confessional nature, not too over-polished (though talking about her concussions makes me a little worried when she starts dancing again that she doesn't endanger herself!). The support of seven-member showgirl troupe High Kix and dance troupe Silver Stars gives the show added dazzle when required. 

A visual spectacle with a strong theme, this is a joyous, compelling look at aging that never stops being entertaining. 

Izzard: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Bohm, Canberra Theatre Centre, Playhouse - 31 Jul-1 aug

 Suzy Eddie Izzard has been touring this one-woman Hamlet since 2024 across the US, UK, Canada and recently New Zealand and Australia, with plans to perform in other countries in the future. It is a marathon effort, playing 23 characters across around 2 and a half hours of Shakespearean dialogue, plotting and counterplotting, in a story of desperation, revenge, inner turmoil and outer rebellion. And while, yes, it is to a certain extent a stunt, it's for much of its length a reasonably bold and impressive stunt.

Izzard's performing history as a stand-up comedian and street performer means that it's a very direct in-your-face production - barebones in terms of set, lighting and costumes  (two side lights means that if Izzard stands near the back of the stage she strikes two notable shadows, and a single spotlight near the back of the stage is used for appearances by the ghost). It's easier in scenes with only a few characters and some characters register more than others - Orphelia slightly disappears except for her mad scene, and the sword fight near the end is a mishmash of a lot of swirling around. The script has been trimmed and slightly modernised by Suzy's brother Mark (so Hamlet no longer talks about bearing fardels, but bearing burdens instead, and the post-death speeches are a lot brisker) and Izzard moves fast through the speeches - taking her time over some of the soliloquies but rattling through a lot of the text at quite a pace, demanding the audience keep up - and for the most part we do. Her Hamlet is a somewhat aloof, suicidal intellectual who cannot stop from arguing with the world around her - even before the ghost shows up, she's already talking about how this too too solid flesh should melt - and it feels like the play gets somewhat more chaotic after intermission as Hamlet's first attempt at revenge goes hideously awry. 

This is a powerful night of theatre that keeps an audience captured through multiple hours of solo shakespeare, and while it may not be the easiest or most powerful Hamlet out there, it's an impressive event. 

The Glass Menagerie, Canberra Rep, 23 July-8 August

 This is my second time seeing "The Glass Menagerie" (after the Belvoir production 12 years ago reviewed here). For this one, Geoffrey Borny moves back to the original text that was modified for the Broadway production, including slides with titles and images underlining key phrases and thoughts in the characters' heads. It's a play that is both told as a memory of Tom's and features characters reaching back for their glory days - whether Jim and Laura's remembrances of their early encounters in high school or Amanda's reveries of her glory days in the Old South (albeit ones which were clearly only glorious due to the availability of  African-American servants). And it's about how the combination of memories of the past and hopes for the future can be painful, as neither are quite how you want them to be. 

The framing device of Tom's reminiscences results in a peculiarly distant performance from Rob DeFries - he's never quite immersed with his fellow actors the way he should be - the concept of casting an older actor in the role is a good one theoretically in focussing on how the play is his reminiscences but it does mean that when he's sharing scenes with other characters, he's never entirely in-the-part. This means that the play tends to work more solidly when he's isolated monologuing on the porch or where scenes don't feature him - this is not necessarily a problem with DeFries as a performer so much as it's the conception of the role in this production - there's no particular tugging of him back into the family so much as a lot of pushing him out of it. Elsewhere, Victoria Tyrell-Dixon is a force of indomitable nature as the planning, driving Amanda, Jamie Johnston creates a figure of delicacy and vulnerability as Laura without ever being too easily pre-broken, and John Whinfield is a charmer as the gentleman caller who isn't quite aware what he's walking into and is even less aware what his departure leaves behind - not an insensitive clod so much as someone who just doesn't realise how much those around him have invested in his presence.

Craig Muller's lighting handles the candle-lit second-act sequence well, though around that there's some lapses here and there between areas meaning shaded patches show up where they shouldn't. Sarea Coates' set creates a tight space for the family to gather with a substantial balcony area for Tom to retreat to. Nev Pye mixes like an old-style Hollywood epic on a rich soundtrack. 

"The Glass Menagerie" is a rich classic that still speaks to today in its heartbreaking tale of past-present-and-future-hopes, and this production is a strong evocation of that classic material. 

Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche, Everyman Theatre, ACT Hub, 17 Jul-1 Aug

 

Photo by Janelle McMenamin

Everyman's latest takes us to the meeting hall of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein for their 1956 Quiche breakfast - full of fine Americana bunting and women in their Sunday best. The Quiches have been baked, and it's about time for the first tasting. But a sudden incident means the five office holders start to feel free to let down their hair and expose a few deep dark secrets - but can they survive each other with just the one quiche for support? 

Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder's script emerged from their work with Chicago's New Colony, a playwrighting collective that used a mix of improv and intense development to produce multiple new works. And it does have some of the hallmarks of improv - a loose set of plotting (multiple setups aren't really fully paid off) and a joy in exploring individual moments of performance. With this quintet of performers, it's a rich banquet of comedic performance, from Sian Harrington's mousey Mancurian Ginny to Meaghan Stewart's aggressively New Jersey Vern, via Steph Robert's Minnesota-Nice Wren, Crystal Mahon's southern steely Lulie and Ylaria Rogers' bubbly glee as Dale.  They elevate Hobgood and Linder's setups to glorious heights, letting us delight as circumstances force all of them to unburden themselves of secrets both obvious (see title) and less obvious (in particular, one doozy of a surprise for intermission). 

Jarrad West's gifts for directing comedy have frequently been obvious but this shows them off well - it's a production that keeps motoring along even as events threaten to become more and more over-the-top. Visually it's a delight as well, from the cosy set design by West to the perfectly-pressed costumes from Fiona Leach. Delightfully giggle inducing throughout, even as the comedy verges towards the black in the last ten minutes, this is a chance to see five fine performers show their talents at their best. 

Gia Orphelia, JB Theatre Co in assocation with Canberra Youth Theatre, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, 8-11 July

 

Photo: Phil Erbacher

Grace Wilson's "Gia Orphelia" is a one woman play about a young female actor who faces a career crisis during a residency workshop working on shakesperean performance- it's very much a performer's piece with a lot of jokes that are very much for anybody who's ever been exposed to the rougher end of an acting class. Like most monologues, it's distinctly internal and personal, showing the inner insecurities of a performer who may just about be aging out of her dreams at 29 (at 52, having aged out of a lot of dreams, I can recognise the pain but also know that it's a transition to the Next Thing). There's some interesting twists and turns to the narrative, but this is very much a play that sits in the trauma rather than finds a way through - and its power works in that moment. 

Annie Stafford owns the role absolutely, shifting personas between narrator, mentor, classroom colleague and disengaged partner, and keeping us with her as her emotional spirals get more and more intense. She's constantly giving us something to connect to whether it be sarcasm, naked desires, some startling physicality or emotional stillness.

Director Jo Bradley stages it mostly reaosoably well, though I'm not sure the courtyard space has been used as well here as it has in the past - there may be financial or logistics reasons why a more intimate configuration (a la "Pony" staged by Griffin here in 2023) hasn't been used - the opening and closing scenes in particular are up against the back wall of the stage which creates a distancing effect for these that makes it take a little more time than it should to warm to the play (when we move into the workshop and Stafford is able to use the whole space, the play comes alive). 

This is probably a play for anybody who is an aspiring actor or who knows one, or who knows what it's like to see dreams go into the rear vision mirror. It's funny, it's got a lot of heart and soul and it's a tight 75 minutes. 

Caligula, Performative Theatre Company, ACT Hub, 1-4 July

 (photography - Jack Dent)

Camus' play, started before WW2 and performed after it, looks at the most infamously insane Roman Emperor of them all and how he exercised his absolute power - starting after the death of his sister/lover Drusilla, we see him start toying with the people around him, exercising his whims, using a perverse kind of logic to turn all the citizens of Rome against him. Isaiah Prichard's production brings us a richly designed pageant of decadence, power games and carefully rationalised insanity in a feast for the eyes and the mind.

Leading the cast is Mischa Rippon as Caligula - he's a compelling presence whether completely silent on his first entrance, ranting and railing, deconstructing those around him or indulging himself in dance, godhood or sexuality. Around him, Tash Lyall as his enabling wife Caesonia impresses with her calm engagement in his madness, simultaneously amused and compelled by his actions. Dan Fonn Prichard's Helicon has a grand contempt for the Roman citizenry as Caligula's majordomo of misrule - there's a clowning power to his actions. Alex Elwood and Amy Gottschalk as two of the citizens who stand against Caligula are simultaneously compelling victims and counterplotters with their own agendas. 

Kathleen Kershaw's set design is maybe the most epic I've seen in the ACT Hub space - dominated by a large face of Caligula, using various marble-esque set elements and with striking enhancements throughout increasing the richness of the setting. Alex Elwood's costume designs are eclectic and fascinating, starting with a simple mostly-white palate and then exploding across eras and styles into a feast for the eyes. Paris Scharkie's compositions increase the urgency underneath the finale as madness stretches to breaking point.  

This is a compelling new company performing an active, impressive production of an underexplored absurdist classic, and is absolutely worth your time. 

The Good Boy Game, Q The Locals, The Q, 18-20 June

Patrick Vermillion's "The Good Boy Game" is a jet-black comedy in the tradition of the early Neil LaBute or Tracy Letts plays, dealing with a parenting crisis in suburban New Jersey when mum and dad realise that their teenage son has been planning a school shooting, and the pop-psychology attempts that two liberal parents adopt to fix their son. There's a number of twists and turns, some as old as Sophocles, on the way to a brutally dark finale. It asks the age-old question, "Can good really repair evil?" and doesn't find many comforting answers - in an age when liberal values are proving increasingly ineffective in the face of intolerance and anger, is gamifying morality a solution?

At the centre of the play is Giuliana Baggoley as Mary-Beth, the mother who uses her psychiatrist's theories and dives in deep - Baggoley plays her with a high level of tension behind every activity, even as she tries to find resolutions that get increasingly inappropriate, even in the final scene when everything appears to be resolved, you still feel the tension underlying her every move. As the son she tries to reform, Alastair McKenzie is a tight ball of rage, with most of his concessions coated with venom. Bruce Hardie as the father caught between his disgust for his son and his fear of the social implications of revealing his actions is compellingly weasel-like in his contortions. And Elaine Noon as the therapist who blithely advises without fully knowing the circumstances, has power and presence in her not-at-all-helpful suggestions, up until the point when she gets insight into what's been done with her ideas. 

Vermillion's play doesn't let anybody off the hook - it's more an exploration of liberal hypocracies than it is of the poisons of the manosphere, and it's presented in appropriate "In Yer Face" theatre style by Caitlin Baker, complete with Brechtian title-cards and hard-rock electric guitar stings between scenes. Baker also co-designed the impressive toy-house set with Kayla Circeran and co-designed the sound, bringing a raw-edged play to the usually-polished Q stage. There's impressive fight choreography too from Lachlan Ruffy at the point when liberal platitudes fail the cast and something rawer is required.

This is a piece that is edgy and prickly in several ways, and it's not an easy one to take. But if you want theatre that slaps you in the face a bit, this will certainly do that.   

Travelling North, Canberra Rep, 11-27 Jun

 David Williamson's "Travelling North" was the last of his run of plays of the 1970s - a decade that began with the one-two punch of "The Removalists" and "Don's Party" in 1971 and which had shown him go on to be an essential part of the Australian playwriting firmament, as well as developing a reputation as a screenwriter. It's based on the story of the mother of his second wife, Kristen, who entered into a relationship with an ex-communist and moved to the central coast of NSW, away from her adult children. It's a tale of late-in-life love, an escape from winter into a lush rich world of abundance, and gives Williamson the chance to look at two characters near the end of their lives, looking back at their past and finding a path ahead together.

Leading the cast is Danielle Spiller as Frances, a woman discovering her inner adventurer and dealing with the frustrations when their journey north stops somewhere around Tweed Heads when her partner's health begins to delay him - she's an active participant in the relationship and a warm protagonist. Alongside her is Pat Gallagher as Frank, cantankerous, opinionated but realising as his time gets closer that his past has occasionally rubbed other people the wrong way. Matilda Millar-Carlton is a force of nature as Frances' uptight daughter Helen, taking affront at everything from her mother to her in-laws to her frayed relationship with her husband. As the academic daughter, Sophie, Margeux-Arundell Williams plays a character with her own academic snobbery but willing to fight back against her sister. Stephanie van Lishout as Frank's daughter Joan gives us an understanding of who Frank has previously been and what a past with him has been like. Steven Kennedy as the neighbour Freddy is a charming delight as someone who differs with Frank in many ways but displays all the good nature of neigbourliness. Adrian Breen as Frank's doctor Saul enjoys the challenges of a difficult, challenging patient with warmth and humour. Kumar Kartikey Gupta and Grace Cassidy make the most of small cameo roles in various roles of officialdom.

Cate Clelland directs and designs using a three-layered set to represent the three worlds of the play (Melbourne, Sydney and Tweed Heads), with a mural of tropical abundance at the back. Claire Middleton and Darcy Abrahams dress the cast in a mix of tropical comfort and melbourne late 60s/early 70s fashion, setting the period well. Nev Pye's sound design mixes classical style for the transition and tropical sounds for the scenes in elegant style. Craig Mueller's lighting design sets out spaces for the characters to work well.

This is Williamson in a slightly reflective mode, given a production that is perhaps a little classical-and-stately in manner, but which still hits with some great comedy and some heart-felt moments. It's a rare case of Williamson writing about a generation before his own, and understanding them well, both their struggles and their successes. And it's a fine production of a classic play. 

The Deep Blue Sea, Chaika Theatre, Act Hub, 12-27 June

 (Photography Tony Knight)

Terrence Rattigan was one of the writers who the "angry young men" of the late 1950s British theatre were reacting to - his plays used British reticence and stiff-upper-lip to show characters falling apart beneath the facade of good manners. "The Deep Blue Sea" concentrates on Hester, who we meet just after a failed suicide attempt - the play goes into why she has been driven to suicide and the start of her slow way out of that despair as she realises everything that's led her to this point has to be abandoned, most specifically her inadequate lover, Freddie Page. In this production, played in the taverse in the ACT hub, we are up-close-and-personal as we dive into Hester and those around her, and about how the start of a way forward might be found.

Jenna Roberts is, of course, a powerhouse actress and in this play she gets one hell of a leading lady role. She's adept at playing both the stylish front and the deep anguish behind the front, the yearning and the recognition that the yearning is unlikely to be fulfilled. As the lover-who-can't-quite-satisfy, Sol Mason is exactly as irritating as the role requires-  finding moments of casual cruelty and occasionally not-so-casual, as someone who realises his own failures but is incapable of being better so thinks doubling down will finally drive her away. Michael Sparks is the ex-husband who still wants the past back in its place, not quite realising how over everything is and that he can't just wish the past back - there's a melancholy yearning in his performance that breaks the heart. Elsewhere, Kate Blackhurst is a fine gossipy landlady who you understand why people trust her with their secrets even as she lets them back out again, Jack Shanahan impresses as a slightly opinionated busybody who never the less has compassion that never quite stretches far enough to be useful, Meaghan Stewart is his wife experiencing her own type of isolation, Karen Vickery is the ex-doctor who cannot help but try to heal anyway despite her experiences, and Blue Hyslop is Freddie's friend who finds exactly where his own limitations of that friendship is.

Ylaria Rogers dresses the cast in fine period style, with Michael Sparks setting out a design that finds the right set of spaces for these confrontations to happen. Disa Swiftie lights smoothly and Yanina Clifton has found the right selection of period props to bring us into the period. 

This doesn't always completely avoid the slight tinge of melodrama in Rattigan's play (in particular the declaration "we're death to each other" feels way bigger than the rest of the play) but it's a fine production of a personal, emotive play that will have the audience feeling along with the characters. 

Les Misérables, Queanbeyan Players, The Q, 22 May-6 June

 

Photo by Ben Appleton - Photox

It does take the pressure off a bit if you're reviewing a show that has already sold out. So instead of being a consumer choice, this is more of an appreciation for what Queanbeyan Players has pulled off - a grand epic treatment of Boublil and Schonberg's adaptation of Victor Hugo's epic novel of pursuit, poverty, desperation, love requited and unrequited and vast amounts of invocations of god. Dale Rheynold's production richly stages the work, keeping the action flowing across several decades worth of plot as the attention swaps between large ensemble numbers and emotive solos, keeping us in 19th century French mode from the opening to the stirring finale. As someone who's loved this show for the better half of four decades now (and last saw it 11 years ago at the Capitol), this is a version that hits all the necessary notes and keeps it fresh and lively. 

We should begin where the show begins, with Dave Smith's Valjean. Smith is one of Canberra's great tenor voices, and he hits the part running (given the role requires him to go from introduction to soliloquy in about five minutes, it kinda demands no hesitation) - we feel his anguishes at his failings and his deep moral certainty just as much as his strong high B4. Alongside him is Max Gambale as Javert who gives the role all the smug moral certainty it requires from his entrance up until the point when everything shatters in his final breathtaking soliloquy. Jess Waterhouse as Fantine breaks all the hearts the role requires in a role that goes from itntrouduction-to-soliloquy-to-downfall-to-death-scene and navigates every transition flawlessly. Greg Sollis and Tina Robinson are the Thenardiers, and provide exactly the right level of criminal sleeze the roles require - it's possible to overly-cute-up the Thenardiers and fortunately that trap is completely avoided - both have the cocky interior knowledge that the audience is entirely on their side, which makes us feel complicit in their scheming. Alexander Unikowski gives Marius a blithe and cocky air on his introduction, which sets up his inevitable fall into sorrow. India Cornwall as the unrequited yearning Eponine is compelling from the moment she enters until her exit from the story, delivering a heartbreaking "On My Own". William Allington delivers strong moral certainty as Enjolras, singing the big stirring ballads strongly and compellingly. Sophie Hope-White sells the love-at-first-sight plot well, though she's stuck with a character who really doesn't have a lot of dimensions to play - she plays the ones she has effectively. Dude Gambale is a delightfully cocky, confident Gavroche, joyous at getting to team up with the students in their revolution and getting a chance to show what he's learned on the streets. The ensemble are a strong and capable team, fleshing out the stage and giving a sense of the environments in which the story takes place. 

Musical Director Brigid Cummins gets powerful work out of both the orchestra and the ensemble, with a rich sound for this all-sung show. Costume Designer Helen McIntyre finds rich variations for the cast to wear from galley-slave-to-slum-to-student-to-wedding finery. David Abbie's set design is adaptable and rich in sweeping across the narrative requirements. Zac Harvey's lighting design hits all the right points distinguishing location-from-location, and comes up with clever light-washes for the big set changes. Telia Jansen's sound design keeps it all in balance from solos to ensemble work. 

In short (too late), this is a strong, powerful production of a modern classic, with fine performers engaging in the material in a meaty way. If you've got a ticket, enjoy, if you've missed out, watch out for these performers in anything else they may do later. 

The Birds, Belvoir presents a Malthouse Theatre production, 16 May-14 June

 (picture from the Malthouse production by Pia Johson)

Daphne DuMaurier's 1952 short story was adapted into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, moving the story from Cornwall to Bodega Bay in California and from a married couple with children to a young socialite and the lawyer she's interested in - but both feature motiveless attacks by a large number of birds. that become increasingly deadly. Louise Fox's adapation hues close to the original short story and makes it a one-woman story as the protagonist tells of her increasing nerves and experiences multiple bird attacks. Matthew Lutton's production peaks during these attacks but, while there's some interesting moments about the conspiracy theories that others buy into around the bird attacks, the production never really gets to a satisfactory conclusion, dribbling away in its final moments.

It's a pity as Paula Arundell is a powerful performer and when this peaks, during the attacks, with the assistance of Niklas Pajanti's lighting and J. David Franzke's soundscape, it's really quite powerful, but the messy ending means this never quite lands - there's not really a sense of why this story matters now, beyond vague hints of environmental concerns and of the way conspiracy theories roll in on the slimmest of precepts - it doesn't feel like the basic scripting has gone far enough so all the technical bells and whilstles can only go so far.  

An Illiad, Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf Theatre, 17 Apr-21 Jun

 

"The Iliad" was written by Homer around 2,700 years ago, and tells of events during the Trojan war- of grand battles, of great heroes, of gods, fates, of violations of the natural order of things and moments of petty hatred and of grace. Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare's adaptation brings this material brilliantly alive, using a single actor and a musician to tell the tale. In Damien Ryan's production, it's stripped to the bone in an industrial-looking, apparently bare stage by Charles Davis - David Wehnam begins the show by rolling up a roller door at the back of the stage and dragging in a Mother-Courage-like wagon covered in odds and ends, before using various of those odds and ends to tell the story (including musician Helen Svoboda who accompanies on varoius instruments, largely a double-bass though not always conventionally so). 

With not much more than the words, his voice and his body, Wenham conjures the world in front of him - the production has a few effects hidden up its sleeve but they're all deployed carefully to show just the right dramatic effect, and Wenham owns the story completely, bringing strong performance energy to the evening and bringing the audience in to him - he wears natural authority like he's been around since the stories he's telling, with a style that absorbs - there's some wry mischief in some of the moments, compassion, sorow, and some quite frightening wrath (one moment with a javelin has him stabbing the stage and leaving a divot - it's the kind of thing a performer only has to pull once becuase the audience is aware this kind of energy is lying in reserve all the time). It's been a long while since Wenham has been on a Sydney Stage (he was a regular back in the 1990s in shows like the original "The Boys" and "Cosi", or in the one-two punch of Laertes in Belvoir's Hamlet and a surprisingly prominent Alonso in "The Tempest" the next year, but it's been intermittent since - he's done one of the Melbourne run of "A christmas Carol" in 2022 but his last Sydney show was Benedict Andrew's controversial "The Seagull" in 2011. The success of this current season should see him return frequently - this is a play he absolutely owns and could do for as long as he wants in as many places as he wants. While this wasn't written for Wenham (originally written for O'Hare, who toured it internationally, including runs at the Perth and Adelaide Festivals in 2014), he owns it like it was, and it feels like between himself, Ryan and Svoboda they've found surprises, direct power and stunning effectiveness in presenting one of the world's oldest stories as something urgent and vital. 

Lose to Win, Belvoir St Theatre, The Q, 2 May (and other locations from Tralragon to Brisbane until the end of June)

 

(Image by Phil Erbacher from the Old Fitz run in 2022)

Mandela Mathia's one-man show tells the story of his youth in South Sudan and the refugee experience that brought him to Australia, about how those experiences have formed him and about how his experience as a South Sudanese refugee has been problematised by reactionary forces within Australia for their own political goals. It's an engaging story which Mathia tells alongside the musician Malin Sylla who drums and plays other instruments throughout - opening the show with a drum solo of power and rhythm, it binds the show together and makes what could be a personal travelogue into a rich aural experience.

Director Jessica Arthur ensures it's a strong visual experience too, with the help of a set design by Keerthi Subramanyam and a quite stunning lighting design from Kate Baldwin. Mathia uses pieces of luggage and small props from the luggage in telling the story, opening up a story that makes him more complicated than just a simple victim of outside circumstances, but also an active part of his own personal narrative. Mathia is an engaging teller of his own story - able to bring the various figures in his story to life, and very much taking us along the way of a deeeply complicated childhood without ever playing for sympathy or making things overly traumatic. It's a very friendly show, and richly deserves to be shared far and wide. If it tours near you, I recommend catching it. 

Constellations, Free Rain Theatre, ACT Hub, 16-25 Apr

 

Photo credit: Janelle McMenamin

Nick Payne's two hander has quite the credentials - from its opening at London's Royal Court with Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins in 2012 to a Broadway run with Jake Gyllenhall and Ruth Wilson to a filmed covid version in 2021 with four different pairings, including Peter Capaldi and Zoe Wanamaker and a gender shift to pair Russell Tovey and Omari Douglas. It's a tight play exploring a relationship between two people over the course of a number of years - one a beekeeper, one a theoretical physicist - but told in short scenes which play out in variations, reflecting the physicist's belief in multiversal theory. We're also shown fairly quickly where this relationship is heading, with a brutal decline hitting the physicist in her early 40s leading to tragic loss. 

Kelly Somes production plays this in the round, on a platform with three chairs, and keeps the protagonists constantly in motion around one another, connecting and disconnecting in moments, and playing the variations quick and smooth. Lucy Goleby and James O'Connell take the challenges and joys inherent in these roles and absolutely own them - bouncing dialogue between them in skilful rallies, finding different spins on repeated lines and rich depths under the words (the way Goleby says the word "Delicious" at one point is luxuriously wonderful). The variations between their essential personas are played with split-second timing, and these are performances that work just as well whether they're directly in front of you or on the opposite side of the platform, as they cycle around and play to all four audience quadrants very effectively. 

Aidan Bavinton's lighting design does a lot of work to separate moments and locations, from tight spots to more general washes, and does it very well. Neville Pye and Kelly Somes' sound design delivers sharp blips of sound to separate moments and get us from instant-to-instant in a way that fits perfectly with the material. 

This is a polished gem of a show, with all facets shining and reflecting, and something you can delve into over 80 minutes. It's as much a journey of the heart as of the mind, and it's a demonstration of two performers locking in to a text with passion, joy and fervour. Powerful work. 

Gutenberg! The Musical!, Hayes Theatre Company, Hayes Theatre, 10 Apr-10 May

 This goofy two hander is a tribute to enthusiasm, energy and love, as two barely-knowledgable men launch into an unlikely backers audition of their very-loosely-based-on-fact musical about Johannes Gutenberg (as in, it features him inventing a printing press in a vagely middle-ages German town, beyond that, everything else is made up). Stephen Anderson and Ryan Gonzalez are a delightful pair, Anderson as the one who thinks he knows slightly more, and Gonzalez as the slightly more vulnerable one - but you take them both to your hearts immediately as they attempt to do a mega-musical with a wide cast of characters with little more than a pianist, some hats with characters names on them and some cardboard boxes. 

I must admit I was expecting this to be a lot more improv-y than it ended up being - between my previous experience with Anderson being his loose-and-ridiculous Ruth, mother of Rose in "Titanique" and exposure to youtube videos of the cameos in the Broadway Josh Gad/Andrew Rannels run of the show - instead this is a very tight-but-looks-chaotic show, another triumph for Richard Carroll who's previous goes at the "everybody doubles a lot" aesthetic such as Pirates of Penzance has proved the fun of seeing performers stretch themselves. Gonzalez in particular reveals a fair chunk of range between the Evil Monk, the vulnerable maiden Helvetica and the shy composer Bud. The gimmick of the show means that we have a lot of material that falls just between the amateurish and the professional, but songs like "Creepy German Wood", "Might as Well Go To Hell" and the finale "We Eat Dreams" are goddamn earworms and stick in the brain afterwards quite effectively. Zara Stantos as musical director and as accompanist, "Charles" holds the musical side together, and choreographer Shannon Burns comes up with clever ideas for things to do that are dancey for two guys who are not meant to be skilled dancers (never mind that Gonzalez recently choreographed "Head over Heels" and smouldered it up in Moulin Rouge before discovering his inner loveable teddy bear in this role). 

This is a delightfully silly, inventive show that plays with musical convention, bringing the audience into the shared delusion of Bud and Doug with a surprisingly warm uncynical finale to bring grins to the audience's faces. And why the hell not. 

Sistren, Griffin Presents A Green Door Theatre Company Production in association with Belvoir Street Theatre, Belvoir Downstairs, 9 Apr-3 May

 "Sistren" is an exploration of the bond between two schoolgirls - one trans, one afro-carribean. It's a hypermodern play about how the two experience and process the culture around them with a mix of private jokes and mutual protection, and about how their  two cultures bring them into conflict. Iolanthe's script is achingly contemporary and immaculately referenced down to fashion, phrases and who's been cancelled this week. There's interesting engagement with how intersectionality really works in practice and how the concerns of a trans girl and a bio girl are not entirely the same, about some of the modern contradictions of adolescence and the way social media can help people find a community as easily as it can set communities against one another. 

As performers, Iolanthe and Janet Anderson give it their all - they are engrossing, fun to be with, and relatable even when they start to get into touchier territory. Emma White's pink fluffy schoolroom of a set gives us a world that lives half-in-half-out of the two lead's heads - it's a femme-coded wonderland that you can't help but dive into. Director Ian Michael gives his cast just enough rope to know when to pull back and when to let things run riot, and it's a warm comfy time to enjoy with the pair. 

Drive your plow over the bones of the dead, Belvoir St Theatre, Upstairs Theatre, 28 Mar-10 May

 Belvoir's big adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk's novel is an epic, at over three hours with two intermissions.  It's an ambitious work - I'm not sure that all the ambitions are realised but there's a lot that this is going into - a murder mystery about an elderly Polish woman believing that the town's animals are beginning to rise up against humans, looking at small town relationships, corruptions, science, astrology and some literary allusions. 

Pamela Rabe narrates over 95% of the show and does it in fine style - it's a virtuoso performance where a lot of the big emotional effects are in the last 10-15 minutes and she nails them in a tireless performance that keeps us engaged throughout. The rest of the cast is a mixture of talented performers mostly in smallish cameos and working as an ensemble to create environments and play animals, scenery and occasionally murder victims. Eamon Flack's adaptation is a tad saggy and his direction does suggest that a couple of rehearsal improvs have stuck around into the production more than maybe they should have (there's a bit with a remote controlled car that really does feel awkwardly stretched out), but it moves across the several seasons of story with some striking visuals (with the particular assistance of lighting designer Morgan Maroney and the hardworking stage crew of Luke McGettigan as we move from winter snowdrifts through spring, summer and autumn. 

This is probably the definition of a mixed bag - I like some of the non-Rabe cast enough to wish that they had more to do than be visual scenery a lot of the time, and I'm torn between wanting a brisker version that just tells the centre of the narrative and appreciating some of the charm and meatiness of the diversions. And god knows, the theatrical canon needs more fat parts for women over 60, and this certainly does give Rabe a hell of one. But this doesn't entirely taste fully baked, even while some of the elements are strong. 

The River, Sydney Theatre Company, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, 8 Apr-16 Mar

 Jez Butterworth's 80 minute play is an enigmatic story of a man, some women and the cabin where he brings them to fish for sea trout during a brief season when they're spawning back up the river near his cabin. Over the course of the evening, we see romantic banter, a fish is scaled, gutted and cooked, and the connection between coaxing a fish and coaxing a partner are explored. Butterworth's writing and Margaret Thanos's direction scrape against something disconcerting about parnership but ultimately there's not quite enough here to feel like a full theatrical meal - it's a little too keen on remaining mysterious.

Miranda Otto is absolutely the marketing hook of the show so it's odd that the play itself has her in a role that doesn't require her on stage full time. This is not the first time that STC has marketed a show on a star that isn't quite as engaged as marketing suggests nor is it the is it the first time that the play has been a bit of a disappointment. It feels like there's not quite enough meat for her or for the audience to chew on here - there's some very nice design here (Anna Tregoan's set and Damien Cooper's lighting do a lot to bring in the wide stage of the drama theatre for a play that is largely duologues), and the other members of the cast (Ewan Leslie as the Man and Andrea Demetriades as the Oher Woman) are certainly solid, but in the end it's a lot of high talent on a script that doesn't feel like it's saying particularly much - yes, it gratuitously quotes Ted Hughes for a bit of literary cred, but that's not enough for this to feel quite as meaty as it should. 

& Juliet, Free-Rain Theatre Company, The Q, 31 Mar-26 Apr

 Photo courtesy Janelle McMenamin

I will admit I enjoyed this when I saw the original run in sydney - part of this was enjoying all the bells and whistles of a big flashy professional musical production with no budget spared (and as someone who sees a lot of their musicals at the Hayes or in amateur production, it's nice to see conspicuous budget once in a while). Almost two years later, without the budget and the flash, how does Free Rain's production compare?

The main reason for seeing this show is still the Max Martin songbook, and it's given some good rich performances from the cast - Chloe Stevenson as the titular Juliet, in particular is required to sing iconic songs from Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson and Katie Perry, and she delivers major pipes. Musical Director Callum Tolhurst-Close and sound designer Telia Jansen get some great rich pop sounds coming out of the 7-piece pit which, if it doesn't sound Just Like The Single, it's interesting enough to let the tunes run rich in our heads. Choreographer/Directors/Set Designer.s Charlotte Morphett and James Tolhurst-Close run a flowing production that keeps things spinning for most of the run (though their choice to do pre-show after the house closes rather than .. you know, Pre the Show, is ... certainly A Choice). Fiona Leach's costumes mix Elizabethan and street wear in funky ways although there is a little too many examples of corsets worn low enough to cover the crotch. Jacob Acquilina's lighting sets mood and flashes in spectacular style.  

Seeing David West Read's script without the flash, it does become a little more apparent how low-stakes the female-empowerment subtext here really is - it's about as deep as Martin's ballads and doesn't really give any of the women anything more socially interesting to do than to date or not date particular blokes - it's feminism as written by (probably) gay men. Yes, the script does squeeze the songs in successfully, but it doesn't really use them in interesting ways to deepen or examine the characters, rather it enjoys their original pop fizz and bounce. There's also, in this production, an over-reliance on American accents (yes, most of the songs were originally performed by Americans, but few of the songs are so dependent on accent to get the rhymes to work and we're looking at characters who are variously English, Italian and French anyway so why not use just a neutral one, unless performers are so wedded to doing music theatre in American accents that they can't drop them?) 

 Elsewhere in the cast, there's some nice work from the frisky older duo of Katie Lis as Angeliaque and David Satolin as the uberfrench Lance (the one who gets to escape the americanisms), Tate Sissian displays adorable vulnerability as the befuddled Francois, and Mackinley Brown's self-adoring posturing as Romeo is quite fun too.

Look, this is delightful turn-your-brain-off fun for the most part. But my brain kept on switching itself on during the show which meant I didn't quite fall completely in love with this. But if you have a taste for cheesy pop, flashy choreography and a thin serving of plot holding it all together and your brain does have a functioning off switch, this may be for you. 

Sammy J: Hero Complex, Canberra Comedy Festival, Canberra Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre, March 20 (and Melbourne International Comedy Festival 14-19 Apr, Sydney Comedy Festival 30 Apr-2 May, Brisbane Comedy Festival 16-17 May) )

 

Sammy J's show is a decade-later return season of a show that goes deep into his past, back to his school days, and how elements of what happened then have reverberated through the rest of his life, including a mutual love of Phantom comics, multiple trips to Canberra with significant effects on the rest of his life, a light act of larceny, a few songs, Jack Reacher and a waterfall in Samoa. It's a fascinating personal story which he tells with wit and geeky charm. It's surprisingly heartwarming and a comfy show to enjoy while also being geeky as hell and deeply frivolous. 

Frankie McNair: Huge Ass Mindset, Canberra Comedy Festival, Courtyard, Canberra Theatre Centre, 20 Mar 2026 (and Melbourne International Comedy Festival 7-19 Apr)

 

Comedy festival shows run a wide gamut. But I saw two shows that were autobiographical, about personal encounters that left their narrator's changed, and about sudden reunions later in life that reflect the movement that the years between has affected. Frankie McNair's is the show with the trigger warnings in the lobby and a lot of aftercare available if necessary - the encounter is childhood sexual abuse and its effects, as you might imagine, have been monumental. But the show refuses to be just an angst fest - there's jokes a plenty, from why the "Law and Order: SVU" theme is such a sultry banger to being the latest comedian to have their autism/ADHD diagnosis, to some inspired new clowning in a 30s Private Eye setting, to talking about growing up catholic, to the titular mindset which is truly inspiring. Frankie very much Goes There in her truthful, wildly capable show. If you're looking for tonal consistency in a comedy show, this is not one for you - it's a rollercoaster that turns into a tilt-o-whirl with a quick trip through the Ghost Train, with material that is deeply confronting and other material that is wildly goofy. But if you're looking for modern standup that combines thought with clowning, that's emotional, true and ultimately quite empowering, this is something for you.  

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Canberra Philharmonic Society, ACT Hub, 12-28 Mar

 

A musical about children at a spelling bee may sound like a particuarly gruelling evening of precociousness, but filtered through the brain of an improvisational team led by Rebecca Feldman and the musical assistance of William Finn (who's work has been ofen described as Sondheim-esque, mostly due to a lot of his songs sounding very much like what would happen if someone sung their therapy), it's a hilarious, incisive and even occasionally heartbreaking musical about an unsually passionate group of kids discovering things about themselves, whether it be triumph, friendship, a resistence of parental expectation, a sudden bodily betrayal or surprising intelligence in places they never expected. 

Philo's production is a tightly cast and well-woven production, mixing in improv and audience participation into the mix as various guest-spellers are tagged in to participate. The three adults of the show (Amy Kowalczuk as the ex-bee-champion-and-present-bee-booster Rona Peretti with a truly impressive lady-bun, Tim Stiles as comfort-counsellor-and-community-service-server Mitch Mahoney who discovers his inner sympathy with the kids, and Michael Cooper as the chaotic word-pronouncer Vice Principle Panch) more-or-less organise things while the main cast of six kids go through their individual traumas - Amelia Andersson-Nickson as lonely Olive, introducing herself with the song "My Friend The Dictionary" before  breaking our hearts with the climactic "I love you Song"; Dave Collins grotesquely marvelous as the adenoidal, obsessive, magic-foot possessing William Barfée, constantly suffering under an unpronounced acute accent; Meaghan Stewart as ultra-achiever Lograinne Schwartzandgrubinnaire, coping with two very excitable dads; Joe Mansell as the goofily confused Leaf Coneybear; Ella Colquhoun as the over-it-all Marcy whose accomplishments are beginning to bore her.; and Sterling Notley as the highly accomplished Chip Tolentino whose one slipup may be due to the end of his pre-adolescence...

Nathan Patrech directs a show that could easily become genuine pandemonium and instead is just on the right side of controlled chaos. Choreographer Lachlan Ruffy plays up the goofiness with just the right amount of showbiz pizazz. And Samara Marinelli's musical direction gives high quality harmonies and a nicely bubbling soundtrack underneath. 

In short, this is a show that will make you giggle up until the point where it briefly breaks your heart, about overacccomplished kids who learn how to enjoy themselves (and one dimwit who discovers maybe he isn't as dim as everyone thinks). It's a charmingly fun show that should induce multiple giggles. 

My Brilliant Career, Melbourne Theatre Company, Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra Theatre, 7-15 Mar (and subseqently Sydney and Wollongong)

 

Five years after Belvoir's somewhat similar non-musical adaptation (down to sharing a lot of the same doubling and also having a piano on stage), the MTC's musical version shows up. There's some different points of emphasis - being a musical, the romance plot gets a lot more stage time here (being helped by Raj Labade's efortless charisma as Harry Beecham and his pure chemistry, in this case with understudy Melaine Bird as Sybylla) and some of the class questions that come up in the M'Swat section of the story seem comparitivley raced through on the way to the finale - but it's still Miles Franklin's classic story of a young woman emerging out of 19th century Australia on the way to finding herself and her options. Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant's book takes the first person narrative of Franklin's novel and gives us a heroine who's simultaneously highly willed and befuddled as she emerges into adulthood over the course of a few years. The score by Matthew Frank and Bryant runs high on self-empowerment-ballads and is performed largely by the cast who fade in and out of supporting roles in between time on percussion, guitar, keyboard and double-bass. 

Marg Howell's set of an area of outback scrub that can upgrade to the grand mansion Caddagat and downgrade to the scrubby M'Swat farm, and she costumes the performers in adaptable outfits that feel part-turn-of-the-century and part now. The production moves swiftly and cleverly across the runtime in a stylish, capable production from Director Anne-Louise Sarks, and it's difficult not to adore Sybylla and her awkward launch into adulthood.  

Head over Heels, Well Done Creative, Hayes Theatre, 20 Feb-22 Mar

 A pop musical using the songs of the Go-gos with a plot drawn from the 16th Century pastoral romance "Arcadia" by Sir Phillip Sidney, "Head over Heels" takes place in a blissful kindgom disrupted by multiple love plots and an oracle's prophecy, involving mixed gender romances including some crossdressing, a threat to the ruler and a trip through the forest on the way to a happy ending. But in this production it's largely an excuse for a whole lot of queer joy with a bunch of performers breaking out in songs like "We Got the Beat", "Our Lips are Sealed", "Vacation", "Beautiful" and the Debbie Carlisle ring-in "Heaven is a Place on Earth". Ellen Simpson directs a clean fun frolicsome production on Josh McIntosh's adaptable set as identities are twisted, rearranged and meddled with all over the place on an adaptable space with clever units used to reveal, conceal and show off the performers. 

Stealing a lot of the show is Shannen Alyce Quan as the princessy Pamela who gets carried away by passion in the most delightful of ways - they have a goofy pleasure in their performance that makes everything they do fun. Gaz Dutlow's high-drag oracle Pythio radiates power and poise at all times, setting up and resolving the situation with aplomb. There's also a lot of joy from Nancy Denis as offsider Dametus, mostly observing the consequences of the various nobles running around her until finally getting a part to play in the finale. 

Musical director Zara Stanton keeps a tight rocking band working all the way through, and Ryan Gonzalez choreographs with 80s cheese aforefront as the ensemble moves tightly through the pop-rock classics. All in all it's 120 minutes of joy in pop-cultural form. 

The Elecution of Benjamin Franklin, Griffin Theatre Company, Belvoir Downstairs, 21 Feb-29 Mar

 

Returning to the space where it all began 50 years ago, this revival of Steven J. Spears' worldwide hit is a compelling revisit of an era when homosexuality was still illegal, when elecution lessons were considered the social-climber's ticket to success, and when the youthquake of Jagger, Bowie and Skyhooks smashed against the Australia still despearate to pretend it was still the 1950s. Simon Burke takes on the mantle of our central figure, alone onstage but building up a world around him - of Bruce, his closted friend/lover/playmate, of the censorious neighbours, of the various clients including Mrs Franklin and her stuttering son Benjamin who explodes into his life and shakes everything up with a few surprising revelations about what a 1970s 13-year-old can get up to. Declan Greene's production is set very much in the original era with Isabel Hudson conjuring up a room with the tiled floor, green curtains, many many tchotchkes on the walls and a very very active telephone for Burke to interact with.

Burke owns the stage as a figure who's sarcastic, snide, clearly very much a sexual being keeping a lot of himself under wraps a lot of the time, and finally a figure who's been broken by society's judgements. It's a marathon part, and Burke holds the stage like the star that he is - compelling from startling entrance to final blackout.