Review
What virus? Tasmania shows how much fun a 2021 arts festival can be
Mona Foma has kicked off in Launceston and it was a plague-free oasis of hyperlocal art, music and culture.
- by Cameron Woodhead
Latest
★★★★½
Sydney Festival
Circa lives up to their reputation for the astonishing in Humans 2.0
The performers excel not only in the building of intriguing physical constructions, but the skilful ways in which they dismantle them.
- by Jill Sykes
★★★★
Sydney Festival
Queer voices become siren song in The Rise and Fall of Saint George
Paul Mac's electronic, operatic-tinged pop serves as an embrace.
- by Cassie Tongue
★★★★½
Sydney Festival
Maureen: Harbinger of Death catches you like a fly in a web of storytelling
You've heard the phrase "death warmed up"? This makes a play of it.
- by John Shand
★★★½
Sydney Festival
Circus at its grittiest as the grimmest future imaginable becomes real
Imagine grinding your own dislodged tooth into a powder so you can ingest it to survive.
- by Cassie Tongue
★★★½
Arts
Alice in Wonderland: Bright fun at a madcap pace
Plunging down a COVID-safe rabbit hole, Alice in Wonderland moves indoors.
- by Cameron Woodhead
★★★½
Arts
Nods to Shaw, Wilde and Kafka in transformational The Shape of Things
An unlikely love-match forms the basis for a show that is well worth seeing.
- by Harriet Cunningham
★★★½
Sydney Festival
Laughs mask chance for stiletto in the heart in Queen Fatima
James Elazzi's new play is half sit-com and half affectionate satire of Australia's Lebanese community.
- by John Shand
★★★½
Sydney Festival
Portrait of an icon: Goolagong's story writ large in Sunshine Super Girl
This is a play that educates and uplifts, light entertainment with a bite of wit.
- by Cassie Tongue
The three one-woman shows that lit up theatres in 2020
Small casts became the norm in the COVID year, with three essentially one-woman shows - aided by design and technical ingenuity - stealing the glory.
- by John Shand
★★★
Theatre
Blazing Sybylla leaves other roles in shade
Kendall Feaver's adaptation of Miles Franklin's novel fails to strike a balance between Sybylla and her antagonists.
- by John Shand