Tag Archives: purple tape productions

Review: Afterglow (Griffin Theatre Co)

Posted in Theatre by

Venue: Belvoir St Theatre (Surry Hills NSW), Jul 9 – 25, 2026
Book and Lyrics: Sheanna Parker Russon
Music: Lillian M. Hearne, Sheanna Parker Russon
Directors: Cassie Hamilton, Lily Hayman
Cast: Lincoln Elliott, Cassie Hamilton, Lillian M. Hearne, Nat Jobe, Nic Prior
Images by Lucy Parakhina

Theatre review
Michael and Tom first cross paths at a barbershop quartet convention in 2012, back when the scene remained a strictly male preserve. There is an instant spark between them, yet neither has quite learned to love themself; as a result, they discover they cannot love each other as fully as they had hoped. Sheanna Parker Russon and Lillian M. Hearne’s Afterglow uses romance to explore gender authenticity on an intimate scale, while the competitive barbershop world surrounding it illustrates how gender is performed and policed in social spaces. A comedy musical with plenty of amusing moments and several charming songs, the piece nonetheless struggles to render its characters with sufficient depth; we never quite invest in their journeys, and the plot lurches forward abruptly at times, giving the narrative an occasional air of contrivance.

Directors Hearne and Lily Hayman compensate for the script’s limitations with undeniable verve, yet the production never achieves the crispness that would fully immerse us in the story and its characters. Geita Goarin’s set and costumes, while hardly surprising in their design, competently serve the world and its inhabitants. Tyler Fitzpatrick’s lighting could stand to be more responsive to the characters’ shifting emotional temperatures, though the overall visual quality remains adequate. As musical director, Hearne sets her sights admirably high: with only a keyboard and a cappella voices, she attempts to capture the full complexity of the emotions at play. The ambition is impressive, even if the execution occasionally falls short of its own reach.

Hamilton leads the cast with remarkable exuberance, infusing the proceedings with infectious, indomitable cheer. Nic Prior, playing the more subdued Tom, proves less mischievous but ultimately more convincing, fashioning a character that feels genuinely lived-in. Lincoln Elliott as Matt and Nat Jobe as Rupert also deserve mention; in smaller roles, they supply sharp comic timing and a welcome polish.

In reality, self-acceptance does not resolve everything the moment one arrives at a fuller understanding of gender. Yet it is true that for someone in turmoil over their identity, the world can feel relentlessly dark. When we first meet Michael and Tom, they are still chrysalises; by the final curtain, they seem to emerge complete. The more honest truth, perhaps, is that they have merely found their wings. The real work of learning to fly still lies ahead.

www.griffintheatre.com.au | www.purpletapeproductions.com

Review: Werkaholics (25A Belvoir)

Posted in Theatre by

Venue: Belvoir St Theatre (Surry Hills NSW), Jul 29 – Aug 17, 2025
Playwright: Vivian Nguyen
Director: Nicole Pingon
Cast: Ruby Duncan, Georgia Oom, Shirong Wu
Images by Lucy Parakhina

Theatre review
As an influencer, Lilian is bombarded with conflicting signals about her worth. Each piece of digital content that earns her praise also draws criticism for perceived narcissism. In contrast, Jillian, a struggling actor, endures relentless rejection and financial hardship, yet is considered to be leading a life of apparent integrity. Capitalism is the problem, in Vivian Nguyen’s Werkaholics, a play about two Asian-Australian women who can do nothing right. We watch Lilian and Jillian try to attain success, by following various prescribed methods, only to find the rulebook turning against them.

Werkaholics is a clever and exuberant piece of writing that although tends too often to turn convoluted, offers a thoughtful meditation on modern economics in an era defined by digitised social life and the unprecedented commodification of the personal. Direction by Nicole Pingon is memorable for a charming and irreverent playfulness, that allows us to regard the feminist message in a commensurately subversive, and distinctly queer, manner. The show is one that practises what it preaches.

Set and costumes by Ruby Jenkins are rendered with a simplicity that foregrounds the female bodies that tell a story about worth and exploitation. Video projections by Harrison Hall and Daniel Herten offer seamless enticements into realms of artifice, while lights by Frankie Clarke convey emotional complexity. Music and sound by Christine Pan imbue a charged atmosphere, heightening tension in both its comedic and dramatic turns.

Georgia Oom as Lilian and Shirong Wu as Jillian form a compelling duo, drawing us into a sharp interrogation of social structures marked by deep-rooted injustices along lines of gender and race. Each performer radiates infectious energy, leaving a lasting impression with the bold effervescence they bring to the stage. Ruby Duncan is effective as Sage, a duplicitous character who personifies the sinister hypocrisy of those intent on preserving entrenched institutions that profit from marginalisation and exclusion.

Many of us participate in systems that ultimately work against our own interests, simply because they often represent the only means we know to survive. Indeed, their stratagem involves projecting a sense of inevitability, as it conceals the subterfuge of deplorable injustices. Some believe that we can alter its machinations while operating within it. Others argue that history shows how little meaningful change is effected without radical tactics. In any case, we need to be unafraid of disruption and continue finding new ways to create change, believing that every impact, big or small, will contribute to a consequential resistance that moves us toward something better.

www.belvoir.com.au | www.purpletapeproductions.com

Review: [Your Name] (KXT on Broadway)

Posted in Theatre by

Venue: KXT on Broadway (Ultimo NSW), Jun 14 – 29, 2024
Playwright: Kate Bubalo
Director: Lily Hayman
Cast: Lola Bond, Andrew Fraser, Georgia McGinness, Evelina Singh
Images by Georgia Brogan

Theatre review
It is 2013 and Kris, Nadine and Petra are fourteen-year-old girls obsessed with a certain world-famous teenage wizard. They write erotic fan fiction about him, and share it online with other enthusiasts, but disaster strikes when a chapter is mistakenly sent to their teacher, Mr. Isaacs. The play [Your Name] by Kate Bubalo demonstrates the anxiety we have about burgeoning sexuality, highlighting our inability to reconcile something purely natural with unrealistic conceptions of girlhood.

It is a raucous comedy, imaginatively directed by Lily Hayman who brings an impressive eye for detail, along with a commendable boldness, to deliver a show that never diminishes in effervescence. Set design by Tyler Fitzpatrick is simple, but noteworthy for the sleekness it brings to the production. Also by Fitzpatrick, are the wonderfully dynamic lights, beguiling with their surprising elaborateness. Clare Hennessy’s purposeful sounds are intricately assembled, to enhance every dramatic nuance of a show intent on expressing very big, youthful emotions.

An extraordinary cast of four takes us on a wild ride, memorable for their remarkable cohesiveness, and astonishing with the dedication they exemplify. Lola Bond, Andrew Fraser, Georgia McGinness and Evelina Singh bring an unbridled campness to the experience, full of charming irreverence, yet sensitive and earnest in their representation of adolescent angst.

So much of sex occurs in our minds. It follows then, that our personal identities are closely connected with our sexual fantasies. In private explorations of deepest desires, we can discover the truest core of who we are, whether or not those fantasies are ever to be rendered to life. How a person is, is intimately related to how one wishes to relate to the world. Discovery of the self may not entirely be about sex, but mysteries can certainly be solved, when examining one’s strongest libidinous urges.

www.kingsxtheatre.com | www.instagram.com/purpletapeproductions

Review: Expiration Date (Meraki Arts Bar)

Posted in Theatre by

Venue: Meraki Arts Bar (Darlinghurst NSW), Apr 27 – May 13, 2023
Playwright: Lana Filies
Director: Lily Hayman
Cast: Lana Filies, Flynn Mapplebeck
Images by Clare Hawley

Theatre review

A man and a woman are trapped in a lift, and because they had been romantic partners not too long ago, this moment of serendipitous awkwardness imposes upon them, an occasion of confrontation that neither would have volunteered to undergo.

Lana Filies’ Expiration Date is a 50-minute two-hander containing themes that are admittedly of great concern to many of us, but presented with dialogue that is more than slightly tinged with a soap opera style parochialism, the play will perhaps not be to everyone’s tastes.

Direction for the piece is provided by Lily Hayman, who imbues an urgent energy, that insists on our undivided attention. Design work by Tyler Fitzpatrick is minimal in approach, but rendered with an impressive sense of finesse, that gives the staging precisely what it needs, for its story to be told.

Filies plays the woman in Expiration Date, excessively animated in initial scenes, but able to deliver a convincing realism when it matters. Portraying the man, is Flynn Mapplebeck who brings a contrasting effortlessness to the comedy, with a natural charisma and a quirky blitheness, that help with  the show’s entertainment value.

We are at a point of evolution where many can become our own persons, of lives commensurate with our own dreams and ambitions, without having to comply with age old notions of marital relationships. No longer do all of us have to make traditional choices in order to survive, yet there is something maybe biological, or maybe social, that seems to want to turn us into conformist creatures, that makes us pine for all that is pervasive, conventional and ordinary. Circumstances have changed for many, yet only a few will ever take the road less travelled.

www.purpletapeproductions.com | www.meraki.sydney