Reviews

Winter may be the time to ‘hunker down’ but it’s also the time we need a bit of cheer, and Sydney Theatre Company brings that cheer in this production. Though set in contemporary America, the play has universal appeal, requiring very little modification to change it to an Australian setting. After all, Grand Horizons could be any retirement village in any relatively wealthy first world city – and Nancy and Bill French could be any retired couple. Perhaps.

How hard it is to write about this wonderful production after so much has been said and written already – and everything you’ve heard or read is right! It is warm and poignant. It is fast and funny. It is both celebratory and commemorative. It is, indeed, what good verbatim theatre should be – real stories sensitively translated into a theatrical form that reminds us of the truths that need to be documented about humanity … at its worst, and its very best.

This is a finely crafted text that addresses coming of age issues from an insider perspective. Sheehan’s sharp and raw dialogue captures the snide belligerence that often characterises millennial teen speak. This is nicely contrasted with moments in the play that are more surreal. Here the text becomes rich and poetic, effectively taking the characters into mystical realms.

Maiden Voyage’s production of Ugly Virgins, a fabulous dose of “roller derby realness”, has been well over a year in the making - but has absolutely been worth the wait. A motley crew of roller derby skaters find themselves out of luck and out of a team, so join together to lift their skills, finding out a great deal about themselves and each other along the way.