Reviews

There’s a certain magic in theatre that resurrects places long gone. In Tell Me Something, written and directed by Sophia Davidson Gluyas, that magic is poured lovingly into the ghost of Sydney’s Hopetoun Hotel (affectionately known as “the Hoey”). Gluyas first brought it back to life in a ten-minute invisible theatre piece for the Surry Hills Festival a decade ago, and now, as a full production, that seed of nostalgia has grown into a funny, heartfelt, and beautifully messy ode to friendship and queer identity in the mid-2000s.

A lot will be happening at the Red Tree Theatre at Tuggerah next year.  At the opening night of Billy Elliot on Friday 17th October, the entire season for 2026 was announced which drew a lot of excited noises from the full house.  The option of season tickets was also introduced, which will make this already very affordable theatre space even more available to cash-strapped enthusiasts on the Central Coast. Exciting times ahead.

Dying undoubtedly seems like a very confronting and unappealing topic for any storytelling format. However, Cory Taylor’s account is poignant, funny, mournful and, above all, very real. Genevieve Morris as Cory is phenomenal. The adaptation for the stage is extremely clever in the way the text keeps Cory at the centre of the performance. 

It is 1980s industrial Sheffield, England. The steelworks have closed and men are out of work. This bleak setting provides the backdrop to The Full Monty, a play that captures the times and behaviour of the people who lived through it all.

Though the original steelworks were hell on earth to work in, the men in the play are angry, frustrated and confused as to why they have lost their jobs. But desperate times call for desperate ideas and the one they come up with is to become male-strippers.