REVIEW: Julius Caesar (Pop-up Globe)

January 26, 2018

[Bloodbath and Beyond] For all the controversy surrounding the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar last year, casting a Trump-like leader in the title role, the Pop-up Globe’s rendition of the play is a far less critical reflection of our contemporary world. Outside of a few banners with familiar taglines and some playful anachronisms, director Rita […]

REVIEW: Sister Anzac (Stark Theatre)

August 25, 2016

[Honour & Horror] Theatre can do certain tones well. Visceral dread is not usually one of them. Sister Anzac is the rare drama that manages to feel like a completely theatrical yet horrifically immersive experience. Told from the perspective of three green New Zealand Red Cross nurses and their formidable matron, Sister Anzac (written by Geoff Allen) presents the battlefields of […]

REVIEW: Sister Anzac (Stark Theatre)

September 4, 2015

Women at war [by Sharu Delilkan] We’ve all seen numerous theatrical incarnations this year commemorating the centenary of WWI but one heralding women is definitely a departure from the norm. And that’s exactly what sets Geoff Allen‘s show Sister Anzac apart from the otherwise male dominated war stories. Inspired by Allen‘s grandfather A. S. Allen’s experience of ANZAC nurses on […]

REVIEW: Passionate Acts (SHAKEITUP!)

February 12, 2014

Passionate Acts Shake It Up [by Sharu Delilkan] “Not Shakespeare again” I thought en-route to the preview of Passionate Acts, Grae Burton’s and Alistair Browning’s scenes of passion from Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Driving up the entrance to the magnificent Pa Homestead I lamented how and why Shakespeare persists when there is so much modern and contemporary excellence around, some […]

REVIEW: Live at Six (Show Pony)

November 14, 2013

Not the Six O’Clock News… but close enough [by James Wenley] Recall when Judy “Mother of the Nation” Bailey had to read the auto-cue about herself on the six o’clock news when her pay packet became a top news story? That’s one way to respond when the newsreaders become the newsmakers: continue on as normal. Now imagine if Judy Bailey had […]

REVIEW: Cloud 9 (Good Company)

April 4, 2013

I’m on it [by Matt Baker] Cross-gender and cross-racial casting, an era-specific time relocation, and characters represented by dolls or never seen at all are three fundamental theatrical constructs employed by Caryl Churchill to present the themes of sexuality, oppression, and identity in her 1979 play, Cloud 9. Such constructs illustrate said themes to the audience in a blatant and […]