Category: Sydney

What happens when two strangers meet after the endless swiping, matching and messaging of modern dating? Strategic Love Play sees playwright Miriam Battye turn the awkwardness of a first date into something much more unpredictable. Presented by Sharehouse Production Company in association with Flight Path Theatre, the production places two…

★★★★☆ Neil Armfield’s revival of The Book of Everything at Belvoir St Theatre is a joyous, playful delight. It’s a totally refreshing production in a world full of endless digital noise, and a constant push for faster is better. Richard Tulloch’s adaptation of Guus Kuijer’s 2004 Dutch novel premiered on…

★★★★★ New Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge is a powerful exploration of the fallacies of masculinity.  Tragic playwright Arthur Miller is best known for the 1949 play Death of a Salesman and the 1953 play The Crucible. A View from the Bridge came out not…

★★★½ Top Silk, David Williamson’s 1989 play revived at Ensemble Theatre Sydney, goes full ‘80s. There’s ambition, corruption, family drama, gloss and, of course, the shoulder pads. The play captures the gilded surface and corrupt underbelly of the decade in true Williamson form. Jane (Gordon) is a legal aid solicitor…

★★★★½ Jane Harrison’s Bennelong in London, directed by Ian Michael in its world premiere at Sydney Theatre Company, is a haunting, vital piece of truth-telling. It takes history off the museum walls and asks us to feel it in our bones.  In a cosy living room, actor Sebastian Anderson (Guy…

★★★★☆ The award-winning play, Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) by Isobel McArthur, has made its Sydney debut as the second stop on its national tour. This adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel is told as it should be: through gossip. Directed by Simon Harvey, it follows the plot of Pride and…

★★★★½ The Diary of Anne Frank premiered on Broadway in 1955 and won several Tony Awards, including Best Play and Best Actress. In 1956, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The original script was written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, in close collaboration with Anne’s father, Otto Frank…

★★★½ There are moments in The Jungle and the Sea that crack right through you, that shake you out of the comfort of your theatre seat and into something devastatingly real. S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack’s epic companion piece to Counting and Cracking, now returning to Belvoir St Theatre, is drawn from real-life…

★★★★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…

★★★★☆ The Day of the Triffids was originally written as a novel by John Wyndham in 1951. Today, adapted by award-winning director J. James-Moody, it takes the form of a play at New Theatre in Sydney. The post-apocalyptic tale is set in London after a meteor shower leaves its population…

★★★☆☆ First, Do No Harm is an original play by AACTA-nominated and award-winning playwright Grace Malouf. It is one of three plays produced by NIDA in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre (and Talia M-K presents) as part of the NIDA KXT New Writers, New Works Festival. The show surrounds a couple’s…

★★★★ What does one do when they are in their fifties and possibly (most definitely) going through an identity crisis? Find a roommate who is also in their fifties and possibly (most definitely) going through an identity crisis. The Australian premiere of Jen Silverman’s The Roommate has just kicked off…

★★★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…

★★★★☆ Having recently swapped England for Sydney myself, I found an unexpected taste of home in Dollhouse Collective’s production of Simon Longman’s Milked. On now at the Old Fitz Theatre, rural Herefordshire is brought to life in this powerful and darkly funny two-hander. Directed by Simon Porro, this dark comedy…

★★★☆☆ Created by Jye Bryant, Here & Queer is a collection of six plays, running for a limited season at Flight Path Theatre, that jab at issues plaguing the queer community.  The short plays were written by Bryant with the intent of reintroducing himself to writing, with workshops beginning in…

★★★★★ “Darling, I’m furious, that’s why I’m here.” I left the theatre with this line running in loops in my mind. Thinking of the hurdles, the obstacles, and the pressure women face in male-dominated industries, and yet, we still succeed. W, the new and provocative play by New Ghosts Theatre…

★★★★★ Alfred Kouris and Harry Stacey Bake A Cake does exactly what it says on the tin. Alfred and Harry WILL bake a cake, you WILL get to eat some and you WILL have one of the funniest nights, maybe ever. At least that was my experience. I caught opening…