Reviews

Bridget Mackey has penned a very unusual story in that she prioritises the perspective and fantasies of a teenage girl and fully indulges them. Bored by life in mundane Australian suburbs, the fourteen-year-old girl (Matilda Gibbs) has strong fantasies about becoming a witch. While online she finds an older man (Daniel Schlusser) who claims he can teach her how to practice witchcraft. 

This is the last of Angus Cerini’s loose trilogy of dark Gothic plays about violent and insecure men or defiant women out on the land grappling with Australian nature.

Farmer Ray is near cracking with anxieties as the drought digs in. The rains – and elation – do finally arrive but, as is the Australian way, they bring a catastrophe of flooding. His farm is destitute, the cattle swallowed by mud or shot dead, and Ray’s anguish is seeping through his stoic, blokey reticence.  

It speaks volumes when a community theatre fosters - and even discovers - new writing talent. Even at its most frugal, the budget for mounting a full-length play puts considerable strain on the company. And yet, without these productions, how is new talent ever going to be nurtured? Spotlight knows this and, for the sake of future theatre, gives new talent every chance it needs to grow.