Reviews

Jonathan Larson’s story is as compelling as it is tragic, weaving together elements of Bohemia and Shakespeare. The artist, tragically destined to pass before fully embracing his success, is known for his global sensation, RENT. However, Larson's masterwork, Tick, Tick … Boom!, a semi-autobiographical, semi-fantastical, and completely soul-baring narrative, remained largely unproduced until the smash hit film adaptation released in late 2021.

Black Sun Blood Moon was first performed in Wagga Wagg in 2022. Its 2023 tour has been on the road since April, beginning in Cairns. From Parramatta it will move on to Western Australia, taking its message about climate change, activism, juvenile justice and hope.

Writer and director Chris Bendall was inspired to write the play based on his own daughter’s reaction to the fact that scientists have been concerned about climate change for 40 years and yet little has been done to stall it.

Family drama meets science fiction and psychodrama in writer Jojo Zhou’s Porpoise Pool. The play is a heart wrenching yet endearing display of the burdens of motherhood.

The main character Lou is harassed because she does not possess a natural feminine instinct to be a mother. We learn that she has been scarred by her own experiences as a child and during the play the set becomes a metaphor for motherhood itself.

Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour is considered one of the best American plays of the 1930s. Highly controversial in its time, it tells of two female teachers who face devastating repercussions after one of their students accuses them of being in a lesbian relationship. Based on a real event that happened in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1810, the 1934 play was considered very racy at its release, as in many jurisdictions the mere mention of homosexuality was forbidden on stage.