By George Bernard Shaw. National Theatre Live. Sharmill Films. In cinemas from Oct 24th, 2025
These days, it’s hard to believe that Mrs Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw, written in 1893, was not performed until 1902 because the Lord Chamberlain, the censor of plays, refused it a license because its subject is organized prostitution.
It is, of course, about much more than prostitution. It is a play about relationships, power and compassion.
Performed by Michele Owen. Motley Bauhaus. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Oct 6th - 12th, 2025
Loserland is a solo character comedy performed by Melbourne based physical comedian Michele Owen. She performs to a full room in The Cellar at The Motley Bauhaus. The Motley Bauhaus is truly living up to its modus operandi of being a hub venue for fringe artists. Even at 6pm on a sunny Tuesday evening the venue has a buzz. The Cellar stage that Michele performs on is less than one metre deep, the room is small, so the audience, by necessity, is directly involved in the show.
By Daphne Du Maurier. Adapted and directed by Anne-Louise Sarks. Presented by Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank Theatre. The Sumner, 140 Southbank Blvd, Southbank, Melbourne. 30 September — 5 November 2025.
This sumptuous adaptation preserves all the fundamental elements of De Maurier’s novel whilst also acknowledging its contemporary relevance. This is achieved by de-contextualising the setting visually. Locations are still referred to in the text, but the set design (Marg Horwell) is more suggestive of the locations rather than attempting to recreate them. This is particularly effective as the set design incorporates some stunning elements that make a great aesthetic impact. The costume design (Marg Horwell) is also mostly quite timeless.
By Jonathan Larson. Opera Australia and LPD Productions. Director: Shaun Rennie. Music Director: Jack Earle. Choreographer: Luca Dinardo. Set Design: Dann Barber. Lighting Design: Paul Jackson. Sound Designer: Evan Drill. Costume Design: Ella Butler: Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. 27 September to 1 November, 2025
As a teenager in the 1960s and early1970s growing up to a dual soundtrack of Broadway musicals on the family stereo and rock’n’roll on my transistor, their synthesis into rock musicals like Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Rocky Horror was my theatrical and musical happy place.
By Tom Ballard. Melbourne Fringe Festival. ETU Ballroom, Trades Hall. 1 – 12 October 2025
Tom Ballard and director Ben Russell have assembled a fine and varied cast of comedians/actors (including Ballard himself) to play a bunch of comedians chewing the fat, reminiscing, swapping gags, competing (of course) and complaining about audiences. They’re backstage at a pub venue on a Tuesday (the slowest) night, waiting to go on. We see them go on for their acts, and we see them come back, and we hear their audience responses – or lack of them. These are weary, battle-hardened veterans – except maybe Tiana Hogben (‘Mai’), who calls hersel
By Claire Yorston. Presented by Sun and Wine Arts Company. PIP Theatre Studio, Brisbane. 26 September to 4 October 2025
Joni Mitchell explored an intense breakup and new relationship through the colour ‘blue’, and Bob Dylan certainly paid some dues getting tangled up in ‘blue’, but Brisbane-based writer/director/lighting designer, Claire Yorston, uses her interpretation of ‘blue’ to tinge a rom-com scenario with a whole shade of anxious doubt.
Written & directed by Nathan Ellis. SUBJECT OBJECT. Produced in Australia for SUBJECT OBJECT by Harry Dowling. Melbourne Fringe Festival, Common Rooms, Trades Hall. 30 September – 12 October 2025
Each night of this show’s run, a different performer arrives on stage alone. On my night, we got Tomas (my computer won’t supply the appropriate accents on his name) Kantor. He was brilliant. I say ‘was’ because he’s not doing this again.
The performer/actor, in this case Tomas, knows only that they will be called upon (‘instructed’) to perform a script they’ve never seen - the text of which is on a teleprompter.
Music and Lyrics: Max Martin & Friends. Book: David West Read. PACA Productions. Directors Rodrigo Medina Noël & William Pulley. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. 3 – 19 Oct, 2025
PACA’s announcement within months of the closing of the professional production of &Juliet that it had obtained the amateur rights caused a ripple of delight among performers young and old. A musical with popular songs, a story that re-writes the ending of the “star-crossed lovers” with a feminist twist and includes characters like William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway – no wonder there was some excitement!
By Gideon D Wilonja. Jewel Box Performances & Footscray Community Arts. Footscray Community Performance Space. 1 – 4 October 2025
I Met an Angel Named Jacques is a passionate play, filled with strong, naked emotions at high pitch and with traumatic, destructive secrets. The playwright himself uses the term ‘operatic’ in his statement, and we can see what he means.
Melbourne Fringe. Do Theatre. The Meat Market – Stables 2. Sep 30 – Oct 4, 2025
Imprisonment, isolation and a cruise ship are the ideas behind the new dance performance and theatre production by Do Theatre. Formed in 2021, they have since travelled around Australia winning audiences and accolades for their enthralling theatrical shows.
Their new show The Ship is based on a thriller novella titled The Royal Game written in 1941 by Stefan Zweig, set during the occupation of Austria by Nazi Germany. This spine-chilling reinterpretation is set in 1943 aboard an ocean liner sailing from Shanghai to the Southern Hemisphere.
