Reviews

Betrayal

By Harold Pinter. Sport For Jove. Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo NSW. July 18 – August 10, 2025

Harold Pinter’s renowned 1978 classic reveals the lies and infidelity swirling between a woman, her publisher husband, and his best friend, a literary agent.  Pinter famously tells the story backwards, beginning when the two now former lovers have a polite reunion and ending when the affair began a decade earlier. 

This rear vision makes the lies in both their marriages all the clearer - whether mistaking petty details or white fibs or the gross, fundamental lies.  We focus on these sliding truths, not any chronological melodrama.

The Visitors

By Jane Harrison. Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 23–26 July 2025

Presented by QPAC, this Moogahlin Performing Arts and Sydney Theatre Company production of Jane Harrison’s award-winning The Visitors is a must-see piece of theatre. And it is the perfect choice to kick off QPAC’s annual Clancestry First Nations Festival as a piece that celebrates indigenous connection to country while raising deep questions about our past in a drama that overflows with humour and heart.

The Sleeping Beauty

Music by Tchaikovsky. Original choreography by Marius Petipa with production and additional choreography by David McAllister. The Australian Ballet. Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. July 22-29, 2025

The Australian Ballet have pulled out all the stops with their production of The Sleeping Beauty. The word I kept hearing at intervals was ‘exquisite’ and exquisite it was!

Last seen in Adelaide in 2018, it has not aged a day and looks as fresh as ever.

Heart Lines

Written and directed by Kerry Bowden. Melville Theatre, Booragoon, WA. Jul 11-26, 2025

Locally written play Heart Lines examines a spiritual yet intangible bond between a heart transplant recipient and his unknown donor. Well portrayed by a young cast, this 70-minute play holds our attention throughout.

The play alternates between Noah, who is making a video message for the family of his donor, and a student share house, occupied by his yet undisclosed donor, and their friends. We begin to see connections spiritual, connective and actual between two young people on two sides of Australia.

We Will Rock You Young@Part

By Queen, Ben Elton and Marc Tumminelli. Western Theatrics. Directed by Simon Oxley. Koorliny Arts Centre, Kwinana, WA. Jul 17-20, 2025

Western Theatrics’ We Will Rock You Young@Part, was a vibrant, high-energy production, that was well directed, smoothly executed and nicely polished but retaining enough edge to keep it feeling organic. It had its audience clapping and stamping along and crying out for more.

Circle Mirror Transformation

By Annie Barker. Directed by Dean Bryant. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf 1 Theatre. July 12 to September 7, 2025

You can understand why a good director would want to produce this play. Set over a six-week acting course, with drama exercises a focal point, it is a brainy text which focusses on human behaviour, that firmly tests the skills of the performers.

In between the lessons there are blackouts with  sound effect of those delicious warm-up exercises such as  mmmmmmmmmmm and  ahhhhhhhh.  I even took this as a cue for some quiet audience participation.

Bruised

By Vivienne Glance. Directed by Talia Zipper. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Jul 8-26, 2025

Bruised is a new play that uses a series of interconnected vignettes to examine climate change. Bitter-sweet but strong in its convictions without being morbid, it features a strong all female cast.

Written by Vivienne Glance, who also appears, the action centres around the participants at a presentation by a former astronaut, who uses her experiences as a call to action about climate change, then branches into the audience’s experiences, including immigration, bird watching and the overwhelming feelings faced by young people at their potential future.

Terry Pratchett's Men At Arms

Adapted by Stephen Briggs. Directed by Bradley Towton. Roleystone Theatre, WA. Jul 18 - 26, 2025

Many of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series books have been adapted for the stage, and have somewhat of a cult following. The seventh Pratchett directed by Bradley Towton features many familiar actors, characters and even a familiar set.

Breaking The Castle

By Peter Cook. Theatre Works, St Kilda, Vic. July 15 – 19, 2025

A tale of a recovering addict pulls at our heart strings searching for empathy and support. Peter Cook, the writer and performer of this one man show, lays bare his life and traumas in his fictionalised personal story, directed by Bridget Boyle and produced by Deb Wilks from Cluster Arts Global (a Brisbane based arts and culture company).

Brief Encounter in concert

By arrangement with ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Park Circus Films and Southbank Centre, London. Presented by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 19-20 July, 2025

Excerpts from Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto were on display this last weekend, accompanying live Noel Coward’s famous movie adaptation of his one-act playStill Life and directed by British veteran David Lean. With the distinguished and talented Konstantin Shamray in full flourish at the piano and popular conductor Benjamin Northey at the helm, this was a unique and moving alternative to view the romantic classic, bringing to the forefront the importance of how a musical score can add pace whilst enhancing the emotional makeup of the on-screen characters.

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