Reviews

The Explorers Club

By Nell Benjamin. The Guild Theatre, Rockdale, NSW. Jun 6 – 28, 2025

A snappy, pacy farce, laced with lots of slapstick fun, director Tim Dennis’ tight, perfectly timed production of The Explorers Club at the Guild is two hours of bright, lively fun.

Looking down from upstage centre onto the audience, Queen Victoria’s portrait holds sway somewhat ironically over an impressive set depicting a 19th Century ‘gentlemen’s club’, its walls festooned with hunting trophies and other exotic treasures.

 

The Burton Brothers

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Banquet Room, Adelaide Festival Centre. June 12, 2025

If you could bottle and sell performance energy, then The Burton Brothers would be millionaires!

Their 60-minute sketch show set entirely in the year 1925 features comedy, sketches, songs, slapstick, improv and audience participation. I must confess, I have never seen a show like this before but can’t wait to see more from these boys!

Looking for Alibrandi

By Vidya Rajan. Adapted from the novel by Melina Marchetta. Brink Productions and State Theatre Company South Australia. Director Stephen Nicolazzo. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. 11 – 15 June, 2025

Vidya Rajan’s adaptation of Melina Marchetta’s novel fits snuggly into an even more multicultural Australia than Marcetta described in1992. Whilst it is retrospective, the story Marchetta tells is one that is still being experienced by girls – and boys – in families everywhere. Life is complex for young people, whatever their cultural or social background, and social media today adds complications that were never envisaged in the 1990s.

Out of the Mist

Celtic Spin. Featuring KRSD Dance Performance Ensemble, the St Andrews Pipe Band. Artistic Director/Producer: Elie Roe Daniel. Co Producer: Kim Roe. Princess Theatre, Launceston. One night only, June 7, 2025

The seed for this show was planted several years ago when the then newly-formed highland dance company ‘Celtic Spin’ created a small scale 20 minute performance (also dubbed Out of the Mist) which was staged as part of a double bill. That cautious little experiment had to have been well received…to justify embarking on the monumental exercise of wrangling Out of the Mist 2.0 into being.

Northern Lights

Presented by Wesfarmers Arts and Musica Viva Australia. Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt St Southbank. 10 June 2025

This exquisite performance is special in many ways. The extremely talented Swedish-Norwegian violinist, Johan Dalene, makes his debut in Australia alongside the renowned Australian pianist, Jennifer Marten-Smith. At the age of only 24 Dalene has already developed an astonishing career. He won the prestigious Carl Nielsen International Competition in 2019 and was recently named Artist-in-Residence with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The program presented by Dalene in this concert is varied, romantic and dramatic.

I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg

Created and Performed by Melody Rachel. Pride Festival. The Substation, Qtopia, Darlinghurst. June 9 & 10, 2025.

Melody Rachel’s solo show has been a work in progress for five years - but it still lasts only 40 minutes and has minimal script. 

Her latest version is at the old Substation of Sydney’s Qtopia in Darlinghurst as part of its Pride Festival through June.  Yet it needs more work. 

Legends (Of The Golden Arches)

By Joe Paradise Lui and Merlynn Tong. Melbourne Theatre Company / Rising Festival. Southbank Theatre, The Lawler. June 5 – 28, 2025.

Two friends hook up over an annual Hungry Ghost (Getai) festival to honour and pay respect to their grandfathers. Legends (Of the Golden Arches) is an entertaining and exciting piece of theatre.

Christ Almighty – A Comedy of Biblical Proportions

Book and Lyrics Tommy James Green. Composers Gianna Cheung Jeremy Kindl. Popular Playhouse Production. Director: Miriam Rihani. Flight Path Theatre, Marrickville, NSW. 5 – 21 June, 2025

If laughter is the best medicine, then the cast of Christ Almighty - A Comedy of Biblical Proportions measure it out plentifully in this funny irreverent musical satire. Reprising his 2023 performance, Giuseppe Rotondella as a “millennial Jesus” leads a group of “pseudo-revolutionary students and a sex worker” through Jerusalem in an irreligious romp of both biblical proportions and distortions!

A Streetcar Named Desire

By Tennessee Williams. National Theatre Live. A Young Vic / Joshua Andrews Co Production. Sharmill Films. Showing in Australian cinemas June 19th, 2025

Tennessee Williams is perhaps the best-known American playwright of the 20th Century. Famous for plays like The Glass Menagerie, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Rose Tattoo, Suddenly Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tine Roof and many more including the seminal A Streetcar Named Desire, he is indeed a prolific playwright.

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

By Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Rebekah Hannah. Garrick Theatre, Guilford, WA. Jun 5-21, 2025

When Garrick announced that they were doing Sweeney Todd, there were more than a few raised eyebrows - questioning how to fit such a large show onto the handkerchief sized Garrick stage. Using minimal settings and foregoing a live band, for a quality backing track, Garrick have used a cast of 22 to stage this Victorian stye show.

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