AUDITORIUM

✮✮ 1/2 Shapespeare's Twelfth Night or What You Will Belvoir St Theatre | Sydney directed by Eamon Flack Characters in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or What You Will are drunk with infatuation. They chase after that sweet sensation of being overcome by the notion of love, obsessed with finding reciprocation from the object of their desire. It is an escape from the harsher realities of life, this frivolous respite. Taking us away from stories of war, of incarcerated children, or

✮✮✮ James Graham's A History of Falling Things Ensemble Theatre | Sydney directed by Nicole Buffoni It is like a long distance love affair, except Jacqui and Robin live just 30 minutes apart. They have only ever seen each other via the internet, as both suffer from severe phobias that keep them indoors. James Graham’s A History Of Falling Things is a quirky love story about two perfectly ordinary and charming individuals who happen to be limited by mental illness, although it

✮✮✮✮ Jesus Christ Superstar Regent's Park OpenAir Theatre | London music Andrew Lloyd Webber lyrics Tim Rice directed by Timothy Sheader "What's the buzz?" sing the apostles in this frisky al fresco staging of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's first major hit. "Tell me what's a-happening." Well, the buzz is that Timothy Sheader, Artistic Director of Regent's Park OpenAir Theatre for almost a decade, has given us a rip-roaring production whose enjoyment factor goes through th

✮✮✮ Harold Pinter's Betrayal Ensemble Theatre | Sydney directed by Mark Kilmurry In Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, everyone cheats on their spouses. The play first appeared in 1978, with a plot that moves in reverse chronological order, and in some ways, we do have to go back many years in time to find an appreciation of the work. Its drama relies on a sense of scandal and taboo that is no longer scintillating. We may still hold the concept of marriage in high regard, and still be

✮✮✮✮ Markus Potter and David Hothouse's Stalking the Bogeyman Southwark Playhouse | London directed by Markus Potter This is a play that does not hold back. No sooner have the lights gone up than we are confronted with a harsh fact from the main character: he was violently raped by a family friend when he was just seven years old. This is a shocking statement to open a play with – partly because of the extremely upsetting nature of child abuse, and partly because it is a subj

✮✮✮✮ Robert Lepage's Needles and Opium Barbican Theatre | London directed by Robert Lepage Needles and Opium centres on three different men: Miles Davis, Jean Cocteau and ‘Robert’, an actor who has recently gone through a painful breakup – three artists who have lost a love. The men are significantly different, separated by time, place, background and so on. Yet they are united by love, addiction and creativity. The parallels between which are powerfully presented in three in

✮✮✮✮ 1/2 Catherine McKinnon's Hurt The Old 505 Theatre | Sydney directed by Kim Hardwick A horrific road accident brings the breakdown of a relationship to its accelerated boiling point. Surrounded by trauma, Mel and Dom are in a state of anguished disintegration, trying to make sense of marriage and family amidst the smithereens. Catherine McKinnon’s Hurt is ruthless in its depiction of human frailties. Through themes of parenthood and misfortune, her play illustrates life a

✮✮✮✮ 1/2 Florian Zeller's The Truth Wyndham's Theatre | London directed by Lindsay Posner Florian Zeller is the golden boy of the British theatre scene at the moment, with the French playwright seeing three of his plays on London stages so far this year. The latest, The Truth, is a comedy with a simple premise: Michel is having an affair with Alice, the wife of his best friend, Paul. The dialogue is tight, but the plot seems slightly predictable. We think we know how this one

✮✮✮ 1/2 Arthur Miller's No Villain Trafalgar Studios | London directed by Sean Turner Staging early lost works by writers who found success later in their careers always seems like a bad idea to me. If they didn’t get staged at the time, there is usually a reason. So it was with some scepticism that I went to see Arthur Miller’s first ever play, No Villain, in its first production almost 80 years after it was written (first seen at the Old Red Lion theatre in December 2015).