Reviews

Monash University Student Theatre (MUST) in collaboration with Bloomshed have produced a very fine and facetious adaptation of Gogol’s iconic text. Placing the themes and ideas in an Australian context is already a strong political statement and suggests an absurd decline in the contemporary political and economic landscape. The reference to the scandalous behaviour of big supermarket giants and likening their actions to Gogol’s very sardonic and jaded vision of Russian bureaucracy is ingenious.

Joel Bray is a talented actor, dancer and writer who has collaborated with Peter Paltos and Emma Valente to produce a very personal and penetrative insight into his experience as a gay man in a Pentecostal church. His queer identity and religious faith are inevitably two incompatible worlds. This high spirited and humorous account of his experience of discovering just how at odds these two worlds are, is often very poignant.

Beneath the veneer of polished wood and designer decor lies the tumultuous world of The Norman Mailer Anecdote, a riveting production that marks the debut of Queensland Theatre's Door 3 program. Stepping into the Diane Cilento Studio, audiences are transported into the lives of an upper-middle-class Brisbane family. Directed by Julian Curtis and written by Anthony Mullins, the play delves into themes of sexual assault, family dynamics, and the consequences of alcohol-fuelled decisions.

A full house greeted the opening night of QSO's foray into a program of ecclesiastical music, fittingly performed in one of Brisbane's iconic and historical buildings and to celebrate the cathedral's 150th birthday.