Kaleidoscope Recs: five great plays opening this week in Sydney
Charlotte Smee is a theatre nerd who’s the type of gender that makes everyone queer. Here’s five plays they’re excited about, opening in the second week of September/Sydney Fringe madness. Click titles for tix:
OVERFLOW
If you’re an up-to-date queer, you might have seen this one on ABC Queer’s Instagram already. Featuring the fabulous Janet Anderson and directed by Dino Dimitriadis, this is a love letter to the drunk girls in the bathroom at the club. With an all-trans team behind the rig and some exciting community engagement turning the Eternity Playhouse into a queer club, it’s “a future classic” you shouldn’t miss.
9 – 25 September, Darlinghurst Theatre Company
Under 30s tix are $45
POLES: THE SCIENCE OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION
Written by Millie Pitcher, this one has been described as “Fleabag if she was an Australian stripper”. A hilarious one woman show about strip clubs, the stigma of monetising your body and loneliness. What’s not to like? It’s only running from 13-17 September – so you better be quick! Get $25 tickets if you’re under 25 with code 25UNDER25, Tues-Thurs only.
13 – 17 September, Seymour Centre
$25 tix for under 25s, otherwise $38
THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN PLAY
In 1930, the extraordinary rumour of a golden reef in the middle of the desert was spread by Harold Bell Lasseter. In 2022, five screenwriters lock themselves away to create the next great Australian story about Lasseter’s reef. Sydney independent theatre experts Montague Basement take their shot at reimagining this play at the Old Fitz: that pub where they ring the bell when it’s time to go downstairs to the theatre. It’ll be spooky, it’ll be weird, and you can have a steak by the fire straight after.
15 September – 8 October, Old Fitz Woolloomooloo
Cheap Tuesday tix are $33, MEAA members/Pension/Student $38, Adults $45
TITANIC: THE MOVIE, THE PLAY
Brought to you by the high-energy, low-budget brains that presented “Speed: The Movie, The Play” in 2019, this is an outrageous homage to Titanic. Their own marketing is excellent, so I’ll leave you with that and tell you a trade secret: if the marketing’s good, usually the show is too.
Join aristocratic Rose and lowborn Jack as they discover love, loss and a lack of lifeboats on the “unsinkable” ocean liner.
The original costly iceberg is on the loose, and (spoilers!) not everyone will survive. But if you’re lucky, you might get to have sex in a car.
Warning: contains Hollywood-ish special effects, that awful Celine Dion song and jokes about Billy Zane’s career.
6:30pm and 8pm, 15 September – 2 October, Australian National Maritime Museum
GA tix are $49
THE OTHER END OF THE AFTERNOON
Winner of the Siver Gull Play Award 2021, this “delightful” new Australian play is for teens, adults, and those of us who haven’t grown up yet. Clive, a boy who wears a top hat to school in case he goes back in time is bullied by Bianca the cool girl who might have a crush on him. Xavier wants to be a crime lord, and Dylan is the school dropkick who’s about to snap. If you like YA fiction as much as I do, get down to the New Theatre this week.
14 September – 1 October, New Theatre Newtown
Previews are $15, Concession/Group 6+ $20, GA $25
This article was written by Kaleidoscope’s editor, Charlotte Smee.
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