RENEGADE ARTS CRITICISM
BY THE PUBLIC, FOR THE PUBLIC
Lily was once a committed fangirl. [YOUR NAME] is a play about fanfiction, that Lily’s directing at KXT on Broadway. Read her essay about both of those things here.
Erica wakes up every morning wanting nothing more than to tell the best stories she can. She’s written a play about women who grow teeth in their vaginas, called The Hero Leaves One Tooth. Read her essay about the process here.
Charlotte is a reforming perfectionist and an excellent procrastinator. Porpoise Pool played at Belvoir’s downstairs theatre about a month ago, and Charlotte’s only managed to write about it (and the process of reviewing) now. Read the full essay here.
Robin puts the “imp” in “imposter syndrome”. They like a bit of cross-dressing here and there, and so does The Northman’s He-Witch. Read Robin’s essay about both of those things here.
Robin puts the “imp” in “imposter syndrome”. They’re also obsessed with fantasy, Celtic culture and the way it echoes into modern fantasy. Read their essay about it here.
Jacob is a friend of Dorothy. He’s written a play about growing up queer that opens this week at KXT on Broadway. Read his essay about the joys and tragedies of growing up queer here!
Alex’s ex told them to go and write a play about their breakup. Come Again, a play written by Alex, opens this week at KXT on Broadway. You can read about their ability to spitefully follow throwaway comments as instructions here.
Lana hates when people ask her “when” she’s going to have kids. She had a weird dream about being stuck in an elevator with her ex, and turned it into a play called Expiration Date. Read her essay about writing and staging it here!
Charlotte is on a mission to intellectualise musical theatre. Belvoir’s new version of Into the Woods is smart and exciting, but ultimately not confident enough in its vision to create something new. Read Charlotte’s review/essay about it here.
MKA theatre brought their show for one audient to KXT on Broadway’s Vault in January. Charlotte the theatre critic doesn’t know how to be alone, or how to write about anything without inserting themselves into the narrative. This is an essay about Charlotte’s experience of Nobody Special, the show, and not being special, the life.
Martha is a loser nerd who’s always trying to feel like she’s 16 again. Read her essay on retro gaming, downloading and redownloading, and nostalgia here.
Maddy is an Australian musical theatre performer who’s shocked, but not surprised, about the atrocities in the production of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat that’s currently touring Australia. Read her full essay on the role of actors and institutions in it’s making here.
Martha loves mirrors, has complicated feelings about theatre, and went to see Pony Cam’s Grand Theft Theatre at Melbourne Fringe. Read her essay about all those things here.
Matt delivers parcels better (and more often) than he delivers verses of poetry. Read his essay about two wildly different TV workplaces here.
ESSAYS
Ro is a non-binary icon who loves loving stuff. Deathwish is a very cool 90s comic that’s very much worth loving. Read Ro’s review of it here!
Zoe has a weird mum. So does Charlotte. Zoe went to see a play/sermon/gig about weird mums performed by a different Charlotte and directed by a different Zoe. Read Zoe’s review of that play, The Changelings, here.
Charlotte likes to immerse themselves in new things. The Lost Boys is an immersive theatre experience by the Little Eggs Collective, running at the Seymour Centre for a few more days. Read Charlotte’s review of it here!
Clare is a queer music nerd. G Flip recently played a gig at the Enmore Theatre for the first time as part of their Drummer tour, and it was electric. Read Clare’s review of it here!
Maddy is smart and hot. Beauty Queen, a one-woman show playing this Melbourne fringe, is also smart and hot. Read the review of it here!
Bec likes a play that’s upsetting. The Approach is a play about three women reaching for each other, and failing, that makes some somewhat clunky arguments. Read Bec’s review of it here!
Charlotte enjoys plays that smash boundaries. The Hero Leaves One Tooth is a play that’s a sci-fi story, a musical and a dinner party drama. Read Charlotte’s review of it here.
Ceridwen likes to be uncomfortable. The Turn of The Screw is a new stage adaptation of Henry James’s gothic novella written and directed by Richard Hilliar. Read Ced’s review of it here.
Bec was a queer teenager once. Dumb Kids is a play by Jacob Parker about growing up queer. Read Bec’s review of it here!
Bec had the pleasure of seeing the “sort of everything” musician Obongjayar live at the City Recital Hall. Read her review of it here.
Chelsea was eleven when her grandfather broke the news she’d probably never get into Oxford. Climbers focuses on Rosalind and Lucy, two best friends whose dreams of tertiary study are also shattered by the men in their lives. Read her review here!
Charlotte went to a Catholic school and was forced to write an essay on sin in Year 9 Religion. All His Beloved Children is a play about myths, morals, and how we twist them for our purposes. Read Charlotte’s review of it here!
Bec is a scaredy cat at the best of times. DARKFIELD and Realscape Productions’ FLIGHT and SÉANCE are immersive theatre experiences that’ll have you too scared to board an aeroplane any time soon. Read Bec’s review of them here.
Charlotte likes musicals that do something new. Metropolis is a dystopian musical written in six months by the brilliant team at Little Eggs Collective. Read Charlotte’s review of it here.
Mitchell is a finance bro with film bro origins. UFO, by re:group collective, is a live cinema experience that played at Griffin Theatre as part of Griffin Lookout. Read Mitchell’s review of it here.
Nelson has seen more theatre than anything else. Rising Arts Productions’ 35mm blends music, photography and incredible local talent to mixed effect. Read Nelson’s review of it here!
Jemima is 13. Theo is 9. Last week their big sister Charlotte took them to shake & stir’s Fantastic Mr Fox and then asked them a bunch of questions about it. Read their answers here!
Ceridwen is a weird horror film nerd who loves to perform interdisciplinary research. Last weekend she attended The Australian Ballet’s Don Quixote in a “pas de quatre” (a step of four). Learn some new ballet words with Ced in her review here!
Charlotte is a theatre nerd and Ceridwen is a film nerd. Last weekend they both saw Patricia Cornelius, Susie Dee and Trudy Hellier’s SHIT, a film based on a play of the same name and made by a very similar creative team. Read their review of it here.
Zoe loves love. So does Martha. No Love Lost is a zine mausoleum for love poems that have not withstood the test of time, published by Baby Teeth Journal. Read Zoe and Martha’s egg and tofu scramble review (with spring onions by Charlotte) here.
Charlotte is easily excited by new work by new voices. ArtsLab: Body of Work is the culmination of Shopfront Arts Co-Op’s emerging artists program, featuring two gallery works and three performance works. Read Charlotte’s review of the ArtsLab “marathon” here.
Bec likes to hurt her own feelings. Gundog is a brilliant and bleak work, the despair of which seeps into you for days after you’ve left the theatre. Read Bec’s review of it here
Charlotte loves silly things, bright colours and Play School. Apocka-wocka-locka-lypse has all three of those things, plus some climate crisis nightmare fuel. Read Charlotte’s review of it here.
Lu Bradshaw and Fruit Box Theatre’s Comfort, Spin, Travel has good intentions, but ultimately doesn’t always execute them. Read Bec’s review of the play here.
Martha is a bad scientist and a bad artist. Anything You Can Do by Pony Cam is bad science. Read Martha’s bad peer review of it here.
Charlotte is a little enby child of divorce who doesn’t know how to cook for one person. Read their review of Maeve Marsden’s debut play, a lesbian divorce comedy set in a family kitchen, here!
Martha hates art and burgers (not really). This is both a positive and a negative review of Travis Alabanza’s one-person show featuring Kikki Temple that she wrote. Read it here!
Charlotte hates dating apps and loves absurdist fiction/theatre. Read their review of the absurdist play about finding the perfect catch by Clockfire Theatre Company here!
Memory is as fickle as we are - and this non-linear play about two lovers shows you how. Read Ceridwen’s review of Bright Half Life at Meraki Arts Bar here!
Clare loves cry-laughing at high octane comedy, and sometimes cry-laughing at honey-sweet new Australian work. Read her review of the breathtakingly original Lemon Tree on Dreg Street here.
REVIEWS
Lily Hayman can’t keep away from the theatre. She runs Purple Tape Productions with Tyler Fitzpatrick, which aims to give opportunities to women and gender diverse artists. Check out her recommendations for five (plus a bonus!) shows made by women and gender diverse artists coming up this May/June.
Richard Hilliar is a person who believes you should go to the theatre to see capital T THEATRE. He’s also the writer/director of Apocka-wocka-lockalypse, a play with puppets singing about climate collapse. Check out his recommendations for five bits of theatre that aren’t afraid to go big coming up this March/April.
Bec is a super cool music dyke (see picture). She’s put together a list of the best gigs and events you should spend your gay little dollars on this WorldPride. Read it here!
Laneikka the lesbian playwright (pictured) and Charlotte the theatre dyke (not) have put together a list of the most exciting, history making and dyke-y bits of art coming to Sydney WorldPride this February. Read it here!
We asked some of our writers to tell us about the pieces of art that changed the course of their year in 2022. We don’t believe in “best”, but we do believe in the power of well-made, exciting bits of creativity to make us feel things. Read about some of them here!
Isabella Luna is a small kindness of ravens stacked together to form a writer, editor, and tea-enthusiast living on Dharawal Country. Check out their guide to poetry for poetry newbies here!
Bea Barbeau-Scurla is a rat of all trades with her fingers in every pie in the Sydney filmmaking and comedy scene. Check out her recs for fun, inclusive and secret comedy nights around Sydney!
Check out Savannah (sex worker) and Martha (not)’s recommendations for fun shows by sex workers, about sex workers this Fringe!
The Sydney Fringe is a wonderful place full of new jokes, weird stuff and chaos. Here’s a couple of comedy shows you can see for $12 in it’s final week.
Read all about five of hopeless romantic, writer and wine/cheese lover Sophie McCrae’s mushy recommendations for the third week of Sydney Fringe here.
Check out five really good bits of art opening this week in Sydney, as picked for you by our editor.
Check out the funniest, sexiest comedy shows coming up at Sydney Fringe 2022 according to Robyn Reynolds who is completely not biased at all.
Maddy is a sex worker of many kinds and a musical theatre performer of many other kinds. Sometimes she’s even performed as a sex worker in a musical, and she’s sick of the harmful way sex work is shown on the stage, screen and elsewhere. Read her essay about it here.