NEED AN OPINION?
HERE’S OURS
Essay: Belvoir’s Into the Woods demonstrates musical theatre’s constant dilemma
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.
Review: the ArtsLab: Body of Work festival is an encouraging glimpse of our artistic future
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.
Review: Gundog is brilliant and bleak
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
Review: Apocka-wocka-lockalypse reaches beyond the fuzzy wuzzy puppet sillies
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.
Review: Comfort, Spin, Travel is overshadowed by the play it could have been
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.
Peer Review: Anything You Can Do or, On the Origin of Data
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.
Kaleidoscope Recs: five bits of theatre that aren’t afraid to go big
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.
Essay: on performing the oldest profession
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.
Review: Blessed Union brings the queer family kitchen to the stage
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!
Review: this is a choose-your-own review of Burgerz
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!
Review: plenty of fish in the sea is a thrilling adventure
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!
Review: Bright Half Life holds a prismatic exploration of memory
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!
Essay: Nobody Special knows how to be alone
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.
Kaleidoscope Recs: the Dyke’s Guide to theatre and art at Sydney WorldPride
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!
Review: Lemon Tree On Dreg Street is a glorious breath of fresh air
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.
Review: Blue is an enthralling portrayal of grief and love
Thomas Weatherall’s debut monologue explores a young man’s experience of family, the ocean, and coming of age. Read Bec’s review of it here.
Review: ROOM is a beautiful snapshot of modern circustry with very few answers
ROOM defies categorisation, melding music and dance, mime and circustry across a stage that is artfully arranged to look like a crumbling studio. It’s a very French adventure — read Bec’s review of it here!
Sun & Sea shows us our true colours under a blistering sun
An opera performance by Lithuanian creatives Lina Lapelytė, Vaiva Grainytė and Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė reflects the complexity of life by letting you watch a version of yourself on the beach. Read Bec’s review of it here.
Essay: the newest production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is shocking but it’s not surprising
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.
Review: Purgatorio is a surreal examination of forgiveness
Ariel Dorfman’s lesser known play Purgatorio takes shape in an expansive white gallery at Flow Studios. Read Charlotte’s review of this emotional puzzle here.