Reviews

Daytime Deewane

By Azan Ahmed. National Theatre of Parramatta. Director Sepy Baghaei. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. 18 – 25 Oct, 2025

British playwright, poet and actor Azan Ahmed remembers his father’s stories of the daytime raves in England in 1980s and 90s where young South Asians came together to escape strict family rules and the discrimination practised at night clubs. He recalls “Tales from my Baba’s teens, him cutting up the dance floor at 90s Daytimers. My aunts and uncles had similar stories … of young 2nd generation British Asians cultivating their own genres of music, fashions and slang which blended their identities.”

City of Angels

Book by Larry Gelbert. Music by Cy Coleman. Lyrics by David Zippel. Hornsby Musical Society. Directed by Logan McArthur. Playing at the Pioneer Theatre, Castle Hill. Oct 17 – 26, 2025

A jazzy, witty ride through noir and ambition, elevated by breathtaking design, lighting and choreography.

City of Angels is a dazzling and unconventional musical weaving a clever, jazz-infused homage to Hollywood’s golden age with a sharp-witted exploration of art, ambition, and the blurred line between reality and fiction. This production balances wit, melody, and satire with remarkable precision — a stylish love letter to film noir and the messy business of storytelling.

Chimp

Devised & performed by Conor Lynch. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Trades Hall, Old Council Chambers. 17 – 19 October 2025

Conor Lynch imitates or impersonates a chimpanzee just about perfectly.  Just about.  Dressed in a black singlet, black shorts and black shoes with separate toes, he represents a chimpanzee that we come to know and like and interact with over the course of an hour. 

Jubilee featuring Trial By Jury

GSOV’s 90th Anniversary Celebration featuring the works of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Director: Diana Burleigh. Musical Director: Timothy Wilson. Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne. 17 – 19 October 2025. The Arts Centre, Melbourne, 6 November 2025 (Special Trial by Jury presentation)

Two monumental anniversaries collided in glorious harmony as Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria (GSOV) celebrated both 150 years since W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan began their legendary collaboration, and 90 years of GSOV’s own musical legacy.

Convergence

Australian String Quartet. Elder Hall, University of Adelaide, North Tce, Adelaide. Oct 17th, 2025

I have to admit to being a Benjamin Britten opera fanatic, have been since University. However, I was not as familiar with his string quartets, that is, until I attended Convergence at the Elder Hall, performed by the esteemed Australian String Quartet on the eve of their 40th birthday.

Queen Machine

Written & performed by Anna Lumb. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Quilt Room, Festival Hub: Trades Hall. 15 – 19 October 2025

Anna Lumb has a story to tell – and a point to make.  And she is a performer with many strings to her bow.  So, her show begins in form-fitting silver, and some expertly done and funny robot moves (setting up her theme, incidentally) and then some awesome hoop work... And we get to then her story...

Masterpiece

Created and Performed by Rae Colquhoun-Fairweather and Will Bartolo. Melbourne Fringe. Meat Market – The Stables 1. October 14 – 18, 2025

Two clowns create ‘fragile’ havoc as gallery installers; Rachel Colquoun- Fairweather and Will Bartolo, a first-rate duo, work together seamlessly in their much-heralded show Masterpiece. They collaborate as opposites, in motivation, gag and performance. They step out on to the stage with a clunky shoe shuffle routine, holding on to the large art canvas (covered in bubble wrap and blue tape). It takes two people and four pairs of hands in white gloves to handle this piece of art. They are buffoons and want their audiences to be entertained with their story.

Lime Cordiale & SSO

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. October 16 - 18, 2025.

Two brothers from Sydney’s northern beaches are having an unbeatable home game playing to a capacity crowd in the Opera House’s Concert Hall, and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as a backing band.

Oli and Louis Leimbach’s sort of indie, pop-rock, surf-rock sound defies easy genre, just as their enthusiastic audiences include all ages. Their retro style - with their ties, sports coats and baggy trousers - reaches back to the 60s.

Alma Moodie Quartet Play Haydn and Brahms

Alma Moodie Quartet. Olivia Hans-Rosenbaum, guest clarinettist. Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank VIC. 16 October, 2025

Chamber music is intimate and vulnerable and in the Primrose Potter Salon the players’ interactions with the music and collaboration with each other are on full display. The Alma Moodie Quartet features violinists Kristian Winther and Anna da Silva Chen, violist James Wannan, and cellist Miles Mullin-Chivers.

The Wolves

By Sarah DeLappe. Presented by Mockingbird Theatrics. Direction, set and sound design by Chris Baldock. Belconnen Performing Arts Centre, ACT. 16 Oct – 1 Nov, 2025

This review only covers the first of the two casts performing this play.

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.