Reviews

The Scottish play, a famous Shakespeare tragedy, tells the story of a noble who wanted to be king, and encouraged by his wife, kills anyone in his way of the crown, bringing civil war to his country, and death to his family. Inspired by a real Macbeth from six hundred years earlier, Shakespeare’s story is familiar to audiences, not just in the many interpretations presented through stage and screen, but through the comparisons to the machinations of world leaders from every time, greedy for more power.

Very rarely has this reviewer seen an entire audience rise from their seats as one to give a standing ovation! Nyilamum, featuring Dr Lou Bennett AM and the Australian String Quartet, have created a pivotal event in the bridging of First Nations’ and Western music. The effect is moving and an experience for the senses!

To colonisers of Australia, the unknown vastness and mysteries of this ancient continent must have been terrifying.  Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel about three schoolgirls and their French teacher who vanished at Hanging Rock in central Victoria – and then Peter Weir’s landmark film – is a masterpiece of this dark Gothic Australia.

Beth Paterson opens the show, sitting at a table, surrounded by archive boxes. There are dozens of books piled up on and around the table – the spines suggest history, culture, philosophy – and Barry Humphries.

Paterson tells us of her Saturday morning visits to see her Nana, bribed with a hot chocolate, and aged 14, watching the clock so she’d know when it was time to leave. She didn’t want to be there – her Nana, Niusia, might have been a holocaust survivor, a concentration camp hero, but to teenager Beth, she was a bitch.