Reviews

If you’re in the mood for a concert that feels less like a stadium spectacle and more like a warm catch-up with an old friend who happens to be a chart-topping singer-songwriter, Pete Murray’s solo acoustic tour is the ticket. Brisbane’s Lyric Theatre was the perfect setting for this intimate and heartfelt performance, with the stage dressed simply yet elegantly in flickering candlelight (flameless, naturally), subtle haze and low golden glows that framed the performers like memories in a photo album.

There was so much nostalgia in the air at the opening night of the 40th anniversary production of Cats, that it felt like the ghosts of Bob and Hazel Hawke were in the foyer.

The Prime Minister and his wife famously attended the premiere in 1985, ahead of a two-year run.

The musical felt like it had returned home to the Theatre Royal, with the stage strewn with rubbish for the Jellicle Ball and felines creeping up through the audience.

Since the 1950s over 200,000 Korean children have been sent abroad for adoption, many of them to Australia. Michelle Lim Davison was one of them. It wasn’t until she began searching for her biological family that she realised she was one of a global community of Korean adoptees “reclaiming its past and redefining its future”.

“This play,” she explains, “is one small part of that reclamation. It was inspired by my life, but it’s not a documentary. It’s imagined from reality.”

Stepping into Gurril Storm Bird feels like walking into a dream woven from gum leaves, laughter, and ancient stories that still shimmer with relevance. The moment you cross the threshold into the warmly glowing Cremorne Theatre, it’s clear you’re in for more than just a play—you’re being welcomed into a living, breathing story circle. This world premiere production, adapted from Trevor Fourmile’s award-winning children’s book, is a generous, spirited piece of First Nations storytelling that envelops its audience in both tenderness and truth.