AUDITORIUM

✮✮ Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children Belvoir St Theatre | Sydney directed by Eamon Flack It cannot be denied that war is a part of human nature. We can certainly imagine a world with no battles, but history proves that it is in fact inevitable, that people will fight, over religion, money and land, no matter how catastrophic the results may be. We are however, resilient and optimistic, with a survival instinct that does not easily give in to threats and destruc

✮✮✮ Jada Alberts & Anne-Louise Sarks' Elektra / Orestes Belvoir St Theatre | Sydney directed by Anne-Louise Sarks Classic Greek tragedies depict life at its extremities to explore the human condition. Elektra and Orestes are siblings, separated by grievous circumstances, but eventually united by a need for revenge. The death of their father King Agamemnon had torn the family apart. Murdered by their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, the legacy is one of blood drenc

✮✮✮✮ 1/2 Ibsen's The Wild Duck in a version by Simon Stone & Chris Ryan Barbican Theatre | London directed by Simon Stone At the heart of Ibsen’s Wild Duck is the killer concept of the ‘life-lie’ – the big fib that we all rely on, consciously or not, in order to get by. It’s cognitive dissonance at its most benevolent. The question is what happens when a well-meaning Samaritan comes along to kick the psychological crutches away. It’s testament to both the self-sufficiency and

✮✮✮ 1/2 Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie Belvoir St Theatre | Sydney directed by Eamon Flack Tennessee Williams refers to The Glass Menagerie as a memory play. The work is semi-autobiographical, inspired by events, people and recollections from his own life. The making of art often involves the search for an understanding of the artists’ self and their immediate environment, through the expression of subjects that are familiar and intimate. Williams’ story examines the

✮✮✮✮ 1/2 Seneca's Thyestes in a version by Thomas Henning, Chris Ryan, Simon Stone & Mark Winter Holland Festival | Amsterdam directed by Simon Stone If at this moment in time you believe theatre within the British community is exciting, fresh, challenging and most importantly, life-changing, I’d beg to differ. With a few exceptions, such as Marianne Eliiott and Simon Stephens’ The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, British theatre has the tendency to reside on the

✮✮✮ 1/2 Ibsen's Hedda Gabler Belvoir St Theatre | Sydney directed by Adena Jacobs Not every audience member would know what Ibsen’s story is about, but virtually everyone who enters the Belvoir Street venue would be aware, even before the show commences, that the title role on this occasion is played by a leading man. Gender subversion remains controversial in the twenty-first century. On a deeply personal level we all invest in gendered concepts that are applied to our daily

✮✮✮✮ Simon Stone's The Government Inspector inspired by Nikolai Gogol Belvoir St Theatre | Sydney directed by Simon Stone First published in 1836, Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector has long been considered a masterpiece in comedy, farce, and political criticism. This co-production by Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre and Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre takes its inspiration from Gogol's work, and while retaining certain thematic and structural features of the original, it stra

✮✮✮✮ 1/2 Simon Stone's Miss Julie after August Strindberg Belvoir St Theatre | Sydney directed by Letitia Cáceres It’s not going to be OK. The realisation dawns early, as a menacing depth charge of music signals the show is about to begin. The housekeeper is warm and humane, the bodyguard is loyal and long-suffering, the kitchen is spotless, but it’s not going to be OK. ​ Simon Stone’s bold rewrite of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie takes a text which was shocking when it firs