Reviews

Playwright Steve Rodgers, who adapted this story by Peter Goldsworthy for the stage, says this play “is about love and grief”. Director Darren Yap describes it as a “deeply moving story … full of pain and full of love, where family is everything.” It is all of this – and more – and, as such, it is a play that requires tenderness and understanding, sensitivity and compassion.

Arriving at the theatre knowing only that I was to see two female actors in a play about how Matt Damon and Ben Affleck came to write Good Will Hunting, I was totally unprepared for what ensued.

Rusalka is an interesting exploration of mermaids throughout the world, their history and impact on modern day folklore. The different incarnations of mermaids are interspersed with circus acts using the theme, glitter and scales of mermaids.

The actual story of Rusalka is the last of the stories. It is the tale of a young woman who had died in or near a river and would return as an undead. She was not invariably evil, and could die in peace if her death was avenged.

Ayckbourn is a self-professed social commentator of his time. His plays reflect that he is a keen observer of people. Two of his favourite themes, marriage and social class, form the framework of How the Other Half Loves. Written in 1969, this play, in fact, is known to have secured his success as a playwright. Ayckbourn himself commented, "I like to deal in the basics – marriage; it's so tragic and comic, you know - the things people can do to each other. Or the way the rich and the poor do things.”