Reviews

Wonder

Presented by Southern Cross Soloists and QPAC. QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 12 Oct, 2025

To mark its 30th anniversary, the SXS Chamber Ensemble presented a thoughtful program centred on the lives of Robert and Clara Schumann and their close friend Johannes Brahms - a fitting choice, given their enduring influence on the Romantic chamber repertoire. This was no ordinary concert: excerpts from their works were interwoven with spoken verse, some drawn from the composers’ letters and with choreographic interpretations by two dancers, Georgia Lorange and Jai Fauchon, from Queensland Ballet’s Jette Parker Young Artist Program.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

By Larry L. King, Peter Masterson and Carol Hall. Primadonna Productions. Directed Carole Dhu. Boardwalk Theatre, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, WA. Oct 10-12, 2025

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a rarely performed musical, with only three renditions in Perth and Peel in the last three decades. Primadonna Productions, in association with Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, brought the production to Mandurah for a very short season.  Featuring a large cast and a strong live band, this was an audience pleaser that deserved its large crowds.

Rebecca Lloyd Jones and Alex Raineri

Fourth Wall Arts, Brisbane. 11 October 2025

The intimate space at Fourth Wall Arts was the perfect venue to appreciate the musical and collaboration skills of Brisbane-based international performer and percussionist, Rebecca Lloyd Jones, and Brisbane-based pianist, Alex Raineri, who has been touring internationally and around Australia of late. These two musical explorers created a one-hour performance of four pieces for piano and percussion. The programme started with Alex’s own composition, ‘Labyrinth’, inspired by the film of the same name.

Manon

The Australian Ballet, with Orchestra Victoria. Regent Theatre. October 10 – 22, 2025

In September the dance community lost Australian Ballet founding member Colin Peasley OAM. Creative Director David Hallberg started tonight’s performance by recognizing Peasley’s contribution to dance and dedicating this season of Manon to him and his long lasting legacy to Australian Dance.

The Edit

By Gabrielle Scawthorn. Unlikely Productions and Legit Theatre Co. Director: Gabrielle Scawthorn. Belvoir 25a, Belvoir St Theatre. Surry Hills. 10 - 26 October 2025

Despite her own experience and extensive research into the industry, writer/director Gabrielle Scawthorn still loves reality TV. Yet in her play The Edit she systematically picks away at the silky flesh of its participants and producers gradually revealing skeletons scarred with the fractures of ambition, mistrust and abuse, lies, control and manipulation.

Hot Girls Don’t Poo

By The Sh*t Stirrers. Backbone Festival. Ron Hurley Theatre, Qld. 9 – 17 October, 2025

If you’ve never considered defecation an act of defiance, you’re about to get your mind blown. Hot Girls Don’t Poo is an absurdist feminist romp that splatters the walls of polite society with equal parts wit, slapstick, and social commentary. Presented by Brisbane comedy duo The Sh*t Stirrers (Madeline Armit and Tai Kane-Potaka), the show takes the taboo of female bodily functions and turns it into a full-blown (and gloriously ridiculous) rebellion.

The Sorcerer

By W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Sydney. Directed by Elizabeth Lowrencev. Musical Direction by Rod Mounjed. North Sydney Shore School. Oct 10 to 12, 2025.

Gilbert and Sullivan were on the cusp of superstardom when they penned The Sorcerer, their third collaboration and first full-length operetta.

An aficionado told me in the foyer that you can hear the seeds of The Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore in the score.

With a sumptuous 36-piece orchestra, a fine troupe of young emerging stars, experienced older hands and disciplined chorus, the company produced a very pleasing traditional production of the piece.

Flesh Mirror

Co-devised by Weave Movement Theatre with Rebecca Jensen, Marco Cher & Zoe Scoglio. Presented by Arts House and Melbourne Fringe as part of Pulse. Arts House, North Melbourne. 8 – 12 October 2025

In dim light, people sit at a table, face down, unmoving.  Asleep, unconscious, dead?  No – they begin to speak, as much to each other as to us, of what they see – see not imagine.  Masses of colour, shapes that might be something else...  As they reveal these visions, they are filmed by an abled camera operator with a long, slow developing shot that is projected on a huge screen above them...

Four Real - A Series of One Act Plays

By Jean Blasiar, Kristen Doherty, David Ives and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Darlington Theatre Players. Directed by Dean Michael, Rebecca McRae, AJ Giltrow and Breanne Lucas. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount, WA. Oct 3-18, 2025

Darlington Theatre Players’ season of one act plays offers something for everyone, with a great variety of short plays, all of good quality, which together give us a well-rounded evening of entertainment.

Disorderly Women

Written and directed by Gillian Sealby. Performed by The Disorderly Company. Melbourne Fringe. Curate Space, Little Collins St. October 9 – 12, 2025

Disorderly Women, a superbly crafted musical theatre show, explores the lives and times of four convict women who were sentenced and transported to Sydney Cove, one year after the First Fleet on the only all-female convict ship, the Lady Juliana, arriving in 1789.

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