Tag Archives: review

Review: Present Laughter (New Theatre)

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Venue: New Theatre (Newtown NSW), Nov 11 – Dec 13, 2025
Playwright: Noël Coward 
Director: Louise Fischer
Cast: Lib Campbell, Peter Eyers, Liz Grindley, Molly Haddon, Oliver Harcourt-Ham, Michela Noonan, Reuben Solomon, Larissa Turton, Luke Visentin, Emily Weare
Images by Chris Lundie

Theatre review
It is England, circa 1940, and stage star Garry seems to spend his days deflecting admirers and his nights dazzling audiences. Noël Coward’s Present Laughter unfolds in this bubble of delightful frivolity, offering exactly the kind of airy escapism wartime audiences must have craved. Its antics may feel less coherent to contemporary sensibilities, but Coward’s charm endures — a style at once nostalgic and unmistakably evergreen.

Directed by Louise Fischer, the production cultivates an appealing old-world ambience, though it struggles to maintain momentum over its three-hour span. The comedic cadence frequently slackens, revealing an unevenness that the staging cannot fully disguise. Conversely design elements prove more assured. Tom Bannerman’s set makes good use of space while providing a measure of opulence befitting the celebrity milieu on display. Costumes by Helen Kohlhagen and Deborah Mulhall are likewise evocative of the era, offering a gentle wash of glamour providing a welcome sense of visual elevation.

Playing Garry, Peter Eyers is suitably debonair and self-satisfied, yet he never quite leans into the necessary silliness or flamboyance for the humour to land with conviction. Reuben Solomon and Luke Visentin offer welcome surges of energy in their respective roles as Morris and Roland, but it is Lib Campbell’s portrayal of Joanna that proves most compelling, her wholehearted embrace of the role’s inherent extravagance aligning most effectively with the production’s comedic register.

It is noteworthy that the role of Henry has been reconceived as Hetty in this rendition of Present Laughter, thereby transforming a key relationship into a same-sex one. This adjustment gestures toward the enduring significance of Coward’s legacy for queer communities, reaffirming our ongoing celebration of his oeuvre. Aesthetics and values inevitably shift across generations, but for now at least, Coward’s humour continues to cut through — proof that real wit ages better than most of us do.

www.newtheatre.org.au

Review: Get Sando (Flight Path Theatre)

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Venue: Flight Path Theatre (Marrickville NSW), Nov 12 – 22, 2025
Playwright: Claire Haywood
Director: Claire Haywood
Cast: Mark Lee, Susan Ling Young, Emily Sinclair, Di Smith
Images by 

Theatre review
Brianna is determined to expose Sando, a local councillor with a dubious past, while Micky pursues her own vendetta, convinced Sando is tied to a cold case murder. When the two women meet, their goals align in a bold attempt to take down the corrupt politician. Get Sando by Claire Haywood is a spirited and incisive work that sparks conversation about corruption, enlivened by sharp dialogue and thoughtfully drawn, likeable characters.

Haywood’s direction, however, lacks precision, leading to moments where the storytelling becomes confusing. The humour remains enjoyable, yet the frustration of missing key plot points is hard to ignore. The ensemble of four bring warmth and energy, yet the production would benefit greatly from sharper pacing and more rigorous rehearsal.

Unlike the precarious business of independent theatre, local government brims with the promise of profit. For decades, opportunists have slithered through loopholes and backdoors, reminding us that where money gathers, morality tends to scatter. The machinery of bureaucracy, polished by charm and paperwork, provides endless hiding places for those who know how to navigate its shadows. Every regulation conceals an escape hatch, every committee meeting a chance to trade favours in plain sight. It is a theatre of another kind — one where the stakes are higher, the scripts are dirtier, and the applause is measured in contracts and kickbacks.

www.flightpaththeatre.org | www.wonderlandproductions.com.au

Review: Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (Sydney Theatre Company)

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Venue: Roslyn Packer Theatre (Sydney NSW), Nov 7 – Dec 14, 2025
Playwright: Edward Albee
Director: Sarah Goodes
Cast: Emily Goddard, Kat Stewart, David Whiteley, Harvey Zielinski
Images by Prudence Upton

Theatre review
Martha and George are locked in perpetual combat, their hostility not merely private but performative. Their decision to invite a young couple into their home becomes an act of exhibition, a deliberate staging of their mutual destruction. In Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee exposes the tenacity with which individuals cling to their own suffering, sustained by an insatiable attachment to prestige, privilege, and power. Though Martha and George possess the agency to abandon their cyclical torment, they remain ensnared by the illusion of respectability, choosing the stability of social appearance over the uncertainty of liberation.

At sixty-three years old, the play has become something of a grand old dame of the theatrical canon, yet its genuinely subversive sensibilities ensure it remains as confrontational and affecting as ever. Under the direction of Sarah Goodes, the work gains renewed vitality: she not only excavates the raw truths within Martha and George’s volatile dynamic but also deftly unearths the humour embedded in their vicious exchanges. Goodes has taken an enduring classic and rendered it freshly incisive—polished to a gleam, yet capable of striking with the force of a blunt instrument.

Harriet Oxley’s production design evokes the period with accuracy—perhaps a touch conventional, yet undeniably effective in grounding the drama. Matt Scott’s lighting, together with music and sound design by Grace Ferguson and Ethan Hunter, begins with subtle restraint, almost imperceptible at first, but grows increasingly potent as the evening unfolds. By the time the bickering subsides and the underlying trauma surfaces, their contributions prove essential, shaping the production’s emotional crescendo with impressive efficacy.

Kat Stewart could hardly be more compelling in the role of Martha. She delivers a richly nuanced portrayal, demonstrating an intricate grasp of the character’s psychological intricacies while imbuing every moment with delectable theatricality. Her gestures, whether minute or grand, command attention, and we remain enthralled by each. As George, David Whiteley conjures the precise timbre of the mid-century American bourgeoisie through his masterful vocal modulations. His comparatively restrained approach proves just as resonant and magnetic as Stewart’s flamboyance, creating a riveting equilibrium in this deliciously acrimonious marital duel. By contrast, the younger couple, Honey and Nick—played by Emily Goddard and Harvey Zielinski—are less persuasive. Though their performances elicit steady laughter, their characterisations lack conviction, never fully embodying the personas they attempt to construct.

We can see so clearly that Martha and George could lead far better lives, if only they could embrace a simpler existence. Yet the seductive allure of wealth and status keeps them shackled to their interminable misery. Each day, they choose to persist in their poisonous habits, unable—or unwilling—to relinquish the trappings of class that sustain their suffering. In the end, we recognise something of ourselves in their torment—the way we cling to what hurts us most, simply because it feels like home.

www.sydneytheatre.com.au

Review: So Young (Old Fitz Theatre)

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Venue: Old Fitzroy Theatre (Woolloomooloo NSW), Nov 7 – 22, 2025
Playwright: Douglas Maxwell
Director: Sam O’Sullivan
Cast: Aisha Aidara, Ainslie McGlynn, Henry Nixon, Jeremy Waters
Images by Richard Farland

Theatre review
Just three months after Helen’s death, her husband Milo finds himself in love again—with Greta. When Helen’s best friend Liane learns the truth over dinner, her fury is as sharp as it is justified. In So Young, Douglas Maxwell turns his attention to grief, and to the bewildering variety of ways we try to survive it. His writing glimmers with wit and tenderness, and though he captures the ache of love and loss with real conviction, the story’s moral crescendo feels a shade too emphatic—leaving us moved, yet faintly smothered by its sincerity.

Sam O’Sullivan directs with a keen psychological instinct, guiding each confrontation with an honesty that keeps us firmly inside the characters’ heads. The production might benefit from sharper attention to its comedic undercurrents, but it never loses momentum, even as emotions flare and settle in quick succession. Kate Beere’s set design grounds the story in familiar domestic realism, while Aron Murray’s lighting is finely tuned to our shifting emotional responses. Johnny Yang’s understated sound work offers just enough texture to sustain our focus without distraction.

Aisha Aidara, Ainslie McGlynn, Henry Nixon, and Jeremy Waters are evenly matched in their performances, each as compelling as the next. Their portrayals are strikingly authentic, revealing with clarity and empathy the distinct emotional truths that collide within the play’s central argument. Through their efforts, we discover a touching immediacy, revealing how grief seeps into every connection, reshaping love and loyalty in its wake.

Time is the slow balm that touches every wound, even if it never truly restores what was lost. Sorrow and anguish are woven into the fabric of being alive, as constant as breath itself. The yearning to escape pain is ancient and human, yet in watching ourselves grieve, we learn what it means to endure. To see how we break is to see how we love—and how we might heal without hurting more. However impossible it feels, the truth endures: the living must matter more than the dead.

www.oldfitztheatre.com.au | www.outhousetheatre.org

Review: Monstrous (KXT on Broadway)

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Venue: KXT on Broadway (Ultimo NSW), Oct 31 – Nov 15, 2025
Playwrights: Zev Aviv, Lu Bradshaw, Byron Davis
Director: Lu Bradshaw
Cast: Zev Aviv, Byron Davis
Images by Valerie Joy

Theatre review
Chris and John meet at work, and an inexplicable attraction develops—something not quite romantic, yet undeniably charged with desire. When they finally give in to that magnetic pull, Chris moves on as though nothing has occurred, but John is irrevocably altered. His encounter with Chris has changed something fundamental in his mind, body, and perhaps even his soul. Monstrous keeps its meaning deliberately elusive, as if subscribing to the modern dictum, “if you know, you know.”

Lu Bradshaw’s direction fuses horror and the supernatural to conjure a meditation on embodiment—how the body can betray, transform, or transcend itself—exploring corporeal experience in all its contradictions: metaphysical yet visceral, intimate yet alien, and ultimately revealing the uneasy truth that our bodies are never as stable as we believe them to be.

Zev Aviv plays Chris with a compelling ambiguity of intent, yet an identity that is unmistakably trans. Their very presence signals that Monstrous’ meditations on flesh and blood emerge from a distinctly trans gaze, even if the work never makes that perspective explicit. Byron Davis, as John, is bright and mercurial, his performance brimming with restless energy that draws us in completely—by turns beguiling and bewildering, but always alive.

Corey Lange’s set design is understated yet effective, grounding the production in recognisable, everyday spaces. Lighting by Theodore Carroll and Anwyn Brook-Evans is boldly executed, heightening the story’s sense of the fantastical and encouraging us to see the body anew. Ellie Wilson’s sound design adds both intensity and texture, its esoteric undercurrents propelling us toward a heightened awareness of our physical selves, creating an aural landscape that seems to pull our bodies into the mystery it seeks to unveil.

John is one thing one moment, and something entirely different the next. What emerges takes him completely by surprise, leaving him powerless to resist. His own body becomes unfamiliar terrain—something alien, unpredictable, and alive with hidden will. There are many moments in life when our bodies can feel foreign to us: strange, unrecognisable, beyond our control. The body remains an endless mystery, even as we insist on treating it as something fixed and knowable. That tension between discovery and fear is where the terror lies—in realising that what feels monstrous may only ever be natural, when its strangeness refuses to conform and the body asserts itself in ways our simple minds cannot quite comprehend.

www.kingsxtheatre.com | www.instagram.com/red_zebra_productions

Review: The Lovers (Theatre Royal)

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Venue: Theatre Royal (Sydney NSW), Oct 31 – Nov 16, 2025
Book, Music & Lyrics: Laura Murphy
Director: Nick Skubu
Cast: Natalie Abbott, Jason Arrow, Jayme-Lee Hanekom, Loren Hunter, Stellar Perry, Mat Verevis
Images by Joel Devereux

Theatre review
Helena loves Demetrius, who only has eyes for Hermia, who happens to fancy Lysander—who, luckily, fancies her back. Into this romantic tangle stumble Oberon and Puck, whose antics send the entire affair spiralling into chaos. In The Lovers, Laura Murphy reimagines Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a pop-fuelled rom-com, and it proves a stroke of brilliance. Murphy’s songs are crafted with such wit and precision that an otherwise frivolous love polygon becomes something exuberant and uplifting—a celebration of desire, confusion, and the sheer delight of losing oneself in both.

Nick Skubij’s direction leans into the work’s pop sensibilities, resulting in a production that feels consistently sweet and effervescent. At times, his approach may lack a certain inventiveness or sense of play, yet there is an undeniable momentum that keeps the show engaging throughout. Isabel Hudson’s set and costumes are tasteful but somewhat pared back for a story so gleefully fantastical. Fortunately, Trent Suidgeest’s lavish lighting design and David Bergman’s refined video projections lend the staging a grandeur that transforms it into something visually majestic and memorable.

We meet a superbly cohesive cast of six, each performer brimming with talent and conviction. Natalie Abbott’s Helena and Stellar Perry’s Oberon prove especially magnetic—both returning from the 2022 production with a mastery that infuses every scene with confidence and flair. The vocal work throughout is first-rate, and under Heidi Maguire’s deft musical direction, the show achieves a gleam of polish that ensures it is the songs, above all, that continue to echo long after the curtain falls.

www.theloversmusical.com.au

Review: Bonny & Read (Qtopia)

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Venue: Qtopia (Darlinghurst NSW), Oct 29 – Nov 8, 2025
Music and Lyrics: Ben James, Aiden Smith, Emily Whiting
Book: Aiden Smith, Emily Whiting
Director: Holly Mazzola
Cast: Elliot Aitken, Tori Bullard, Percy Chiu, Max Fernandez, Ben James, Helen Jordan-Lane, Gabi Lanham, Jack Mitsch, Alex Travers
Images by Patrick Phillips

Theatre review
Mary Read’s longing for the sea compels her to disguise herself as a man and sign aboard a merchant vessel. Fate brings her face to face with the infamous pirate Anne Bonny, and what begins as captivity soon evolves into love. In Bonny & Read, writers Ben James, Aiden Smith, and Emily Whiting revisit this 18th-century romance through a distinctly contemporary lens, crafting a musical that reclaims two legendary women from history’s margins and lets their passion sail freely at last.

The songs are engaging, if somewhat conventional, elevated by Iris Wu’s sumptuous musical direction and the cohesive aural textures shaped by sound designer Sam Cheng. While the story itself is compelling, the book of Bonny & Read can feel unnecessarily convoluted, and Holly Mazzola’s direction does little to untangle its narrative knots. Still, her instinct for spectacle is undeniable, and with Lauren Mitchell’s energetic choreography, the production maintains a lively momentum even when its storytelling falters.

Geita Goarin’s production design is modest but evocative, sketching the period with just enough texture to spark the imagination. It is, however, Luna Ng’s lighting that truly captivates — rich in drama and ambition, it shapes the emotional contours of the piece with clarity and grace, revealing the story’s subtler undercurrents and giving its sentiment a luminous depth.

Vocally, the cast ranges from competent to exceptional, with Gabi Lanham delivering a standout performance as Mary Read, her voice both rich and assured. The acting, however, is uneven across the ensemble. Tori Bullard brings sincerity and emotional intensity to Anne Bonny, offering a grounded presence amid the production’s more variable performances.

The story of Mary Read and Anne Bonny is a vivid reminder of queer forebears whose lives were too often erased or silenced by history. Their courage — at sea, in love, and in defiance of rigid conventions — still echoes across the centuries. Bonny & Read illuminates this hidden legacy, celebrating two women who claimed their freedom on their own terms, and suggesting that queer communities might take a page from the pirate’s book: to chart daring courses, embrace audacity, and live boldly, even when the world seeks to bury them.

www.qtopiasydney.com.au

Review: Naturism (Griffin Theatre Company)

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Venue: Wharf 2 Sydney Theatre Company (Walsh Bay NSW), Oct 25 – Nov 15, 2025
Playwright: Ang Collins
Director: Declan Greene
Cast: Nicholas Brown, Glenn Hazeldine, Fraser Morrison, Camila Ponte Alvarez, Hannah Waterman
Images by Brett Boardman

Theatre review
Ray presides over a small naturist commune on the outskirts of Melbourne, where its residents have lived off-grid for two decades. When Evangeline arrives unannounced, eager to join their secluded world, her intrusion sets off a quiet chain reaction that exposes the fault lines beneath the community’s calm surface. Ang Collins’ Naturism proves shrewdly more comic than polemic, even as an unmistakable ecological consciousness anchors the work. At a time when conversations about the environment often feel exhausting, Collins reminds us that laughter, too, can be an act of engagement.

Director Declan Greene wisely leans into the comedy, shaping a production that never hesitates to seize any opportunity for laughter. The exuberance he brings to the staging is infectious, even if the material itself often feels slight. Naturism may not offer much in the way of emotional or thematic depth, and our investment in its characters remains limited, yet the show’s buoyant energy and brisk 85-minute runtime ensure that our attention rarely drifts.

James Browne’s set design employs simple means to evocatively suggest the wilderness that frames the story. His costumes are a particular delight, especially in the hallucinatory sequences where the characters venture into the fantastical. Verity Hampson’s lighting is gloriously extravagant, embracing theatricality as the narrative heightens and the stakes rise. David Bergman’s sound and music design match that intensity, growing ever more vivid as the production slides into the deliciously bizarre.

The cast deserves admiration for their wholehearted commitment to what at times appears an unabashedly absurd enterprise. All five performers throw themselves into the work, mining every moment for humour and vitality. Their choices may verge on the outrageous, yet they sustain a surprising authenticity that prevents the piece from slipping into pure frivolity. It’s also worth noting that the ensemble spends much of the performance entirely nude — a fact that only deepens respect for their courage and conviction.

The characters in Naturism throw themselves wholeheartedly into doing right by the planet, yet their misadventures expose how fraught it can be to live by uncompromising ideals. We’re beginning to see that an “all or nothing” approach—whether ecological or political—often proves unsustainable, alienating those who might otherwise engage. The culture of guilt and moral absolutism around environmental action can drive people to withdraw entirely, when what the planet needs most are imperfect participants, not perfect abstainers.

www.griffintheatre.com.au

Review: Fly Girl (Ensemble Theatre)

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Venue: Ensemble Theatre (Kirribilli NSW), Oct 17 – Nov 22, 2025
Playwrights: Genevieve Hegney, Catherine Moore
Director: Janine Watson
Cast: Genevieve Hegney, Alex Kirwan, Cleo Meinck, Catherine Moore, Emma Palmer
Images by Prudence Upton

Theatre review
Deborah Lawrie’s ascent as Australia’s first woman commercial pilot came only after a gruelling battle through the courts and the Equal Opportunity Board, where she forced corporations to confront their own sexism. Fly Girl, the new play by Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore, revisits that hard-won triumph with warmth, wit, and reverence — though its faithful retelling can at times feel a touch too tidy for the turbulence it portrays.

Janine Watson’s direction sprinkles in flashes of theatrical flair, amid a production grounded in earnest discussion of gender disparity. Its sincerity may overwhelm at times, yet it leaves a valuable impression — a reminder of how stubbornly patriarchal thinking continues to hold its grip.

Lead actor Cleo Meinck approaches the role with diligence and poise, though her portrayal can feel restrained in tone. She balances feminine grace with quiet strength, but the performance would soar higher with more charm and humour. Around her, a nimble ensemble juggles countless supporting parts, their spirited playfulness ensuring the production never loses its buoyancy.

Grace Deacon’s set and costumes evoke the era with authenticity and colour, their vibrancy lending the stage a visual spark. Morgan Moroney’s lighting delicately sculpts tone and texture, its nuanced changes revealing the work’s shifting moods. Daniel Herten’s sound design completes the world, its careful intricacy transporting us through the play’s varied spaces and temperaments.

It has been nearly half a century since Lawrie shattered the glass ceiling and transformed the landscape for women pilots in Australia. It is tempting to believe that progress moves in a straight line — that equity, once achieved, simply builds upon itself. The reality, however, is far less stable. Every gain invites resistance, and even today, debates in the United States around diversity, equity and inclusion echo with old anxieties. Accusations that women and people of colour are being hired in aviation “without merit” reveal how tenacious patriarchal values remain. Lawrie’s legacy, then, is not a closed chapter but an ongoing call to vigilance.

www.ensemble.com.au

Review: Phar Lap (Hayes Theatre)

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Venue: Hayes Theatre Co (Potts Point NSW), Oct 17 – Nov 22, 2025
Book, Music & Lyrics: Steven Kramer
Directors: Sheridan Harbridge
Cast: Shay Debney, Lincoln Elliott, Joel Granger, Manon Gunderson-Briggs, Amy Hack, Nat Jobe, Joey Phyland, Justin Smith
Images by John McRae

Theatre review
Nearly a century ago, a horse captured the heart of a nation. In Steven Kramer’s new musical Phar Lap, that legend is reborn, charting the champion’s astonishing rise through Australia’s racecourses and reminding us how deeply his story remains etched in the national imagination. Kramer’s songwriting brims with wit and invention, while Jack Earle’s arrangements fuse modern electronic textures with the jaunty swing of the early twentieth century — a lively, irresistible blend that keeps the production buoyant and engaging throughout.

A parade of vivid characters fills the stage, each one smartly and playfully rendered by an ensemble whose energy lifts the entire production. Their exuberance is infectious, their confidence magnetic; whatever they offer, we accept with delight. At the centre gallops Joel Granger, whose Phar Lap radiates innocence and charm, a creature both wondrous and pure. Beside him, Justin Smith’s Harry Telford brings a steady, compassionate presence, their partnership blooming with the kind of trust that makes the impossible seem tenderly real.

Under Sheridan Harbridge’s direction, Phar Lap becomes a riot of camp and gleeful absurdity — a kaleidoscope of humour that wins us over from the very first beat. Her vision is bold and unrepentantly idiosyncratic, inviting us into a world where whimsy reigns and logic gladly takes a back seat. Ellen Simpson’s choreography adds its own spark, conjuring memorable images of horses dancing, feuding, and prancing through fantasy. It is all unabashedly silly, yet every bit of it lands with allure and precision, resulting in theatre that is as joyous as it is ridiculous.

Hailley Hunt’s set design creates an evocative backdrop that conjures the spirit of a bygone era while leaving generous room for the cast’s exaggerated physicality. Mason Browne’s costumes root us in the period, yet it is their quiet audacity, the flickers of flamboyance woven almost mischievously through the fabric, that bring the stage to life. Trent Suidgeest’s lighting underscores that sense of spectacle, bold and effervescent, adding a touch of decadence to the show’s already radiant charm.

There are forces that bind a people, though they are seldom of our intentional making; they happen, as wonder does, when hearts align by chance. Art, though, is the one miracle we can will into being — the act that turns isolation into communion. Each story told, whether strange or familiar, becomes a thread in that fragile web of understanding. And in these fractured times, art remains the heartbeat that reminds us we have no alternative but to belong to one another.

www.hayestheatre.com.au