Author: Ronson Blake

★★★★½ What do we do when confronted with something that threatens our worldview? Do we double down on our convictions based on a refusal to entertain uncertainty or a fear of change? What if our suspicions are aroused, but for which we have no real proof? Do we proceed with…

★★★★☆ Mary Rachel Brown’s 2010 play The Dapto Chaser makes its Ensemble Theatre debut at a time when the greyhound industry is shrinking under the weight of past indiscretions (to put it mildly) and a vanishing working class. It’s a play that examines the damage gambling wreaks on families, and the strength…

★★★½ Originally performed on the Belvoir stage with a stellar cast, Michael Gow’s Toy Symphony won multiple Sydney Theatre awards. Twenty years later, it returns to the locale that inspired it, the Sutherland Shire, headlining celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the former Sutherland Entertainment Centre – rebuilt as the Sutherland Pavilion. It’s…

★★★☆☆ On an unseasonably warm, wet, almost-winter’s night, we are appropriately at New Theatre’s production of writer Bess Wohl’s much-performed play Continuity. Directed with verve by Sahn Millington, it’s light and frothy and funny but with a sober message. Unlike the artificial world of a movie set, where continuity is a…

★★★★★ Is it possible to reduce an epic poem of warring gods and men to 100 minutes yet still manifest a universe of soul-rendering destruction that, 3000 years later, is accessible and meaningful to us? This stunning Sydney Theatre Company production of An Iliad, directed by Damien Ryan, replies emphatically, yes.  The…

★★★★☆ Premiering on the French stage in 1994, and then in London with Christopher Hampton’s 1996 English translation, Yasmina Reza’s play Art is now performed so frequently around the world that it’s almost never out of production. It’s easy to see why. Sharp, witty dialogue, a touch of cruelty, men fighting over…

The queue for Adelaide-based Windmill Production Company’s latest creation Mama Does Derby stretches down the Sydney Town Hall steps. The crowd, surprisingly older than expected, is buzzing. The cramped Druitt St foyer is packed with punters eyeing off the roller derby merch. Inside, the ground floor of the venerable old…

A shiralee is a swagman’s load, all his possessions carried on his back, a burden. In Sydney Theatre Company’s (STC) new production of The Shiralee, adapted from D’Arcy Niland’s 1955 novel by Kate Mulvany, an additional burden is Buster, played by Ziggy Resnick. She is Macauley’s (Josh McConville) young daughter, whom Mac…

When the American frontier closed in 1890, it ushered in the long process of urbanisation and a mythologising of the ‘West.’  The American Dream became, not one of expansion and conquest, but of wealth accumulation. Yet the romanticised pull of the West persisted. Playwright Sam Shepard was interested in how the…

Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr Ripley continues to hold a fascination. This Sydney Theatre Company production from director Sarah Goodes and playwright Joanna Murray-Smith follows some notable adaptations, including Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film and the recent 1960s-set Netflix series from Steven Zaillian. It is set, like the novel and film,…

Possibly the first novel I was made to read in school was John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps. Surprisingly, for such an obligatory experience, I really quite enjoyed it. It was boys’ own stuff after all, spies and derring-do, a real page-turner. But what stayed with me is the immediacy of what is…

“Who gives a f*** about whatever some girl is saying. We can shut her up.” – Owen Since its La Mama debut in 2022, Trophy Boys by Emmanuelle Mattana has played to hundreds of audiences, received a Green Room Award and is currently playing off-Broadway. Still directed by Marni Mount, and with only…

Adapted (and retitled) by director Margaret Thanos and Damien Ryan, Sport For Jove’s production of I Hate People; or Timon of Athens returns for a very short season, this time on the York Theatre’s thrust stage. Written by William Shakespeare in collaboration with Thomas Middleton, it is a play rarely performed. Ostensibly…

Harold Pinter’s plays are a regular feature on Australian stages, with the shorter one-act plays often paired, as they are here. The Lover and The Dumb Waiter are an interesting choice of two by director Mark Kilmurry. They work well in the home of Ensemble Theatre, where the confined space…

Eight plays, 17 cast members, 12 hours. If Sport for Jove’s production of The Player Kings sounds epic, it is. Split into two parts, The Hollow Crown (Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V) and The War of the Roses (Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3,…

Sydney Theatre Company’s The Dictionary of Lost Words returns to the Roslyn Packer Theatre after sold-out seasons around Australia. A co-production with State Theatre Company South Australia, this production shows the benefits of all those performances. Under Jessica Arthur’s assured direction, it is a smooth, seamlessly moving piece of theatre. Taking inspiration…