Reviews

Polish refugees Fania and Simkeh escaped the evils of World War II to settle in Melbourne. They hold steadfastly to their Jewish faith – and the rituals, customs and traditions that have endured despite generations of persecution. Though safe in Australia, they will never forget Hitler’s devastating march through Europe and the massacre of so many they held dear.

Tom, an Australian visitor to Berlin, has chatted up Charlotte, a bartender in a ‘real Berlin’ bar, claiming he has no hotel.  She invites him to sleep on her couch.  Her apartment is comfortably furnished and lived in.  (Design by Christine Smith.)  Charlotte confesses to being an heiress.  There’s a Constable painting on the wall in her loft bedroom, but she says it’s only a reproduction. 

‘He chose you, isn’t that enough?’ Brandon’s answer to Adam’s dilemma of having a boyfriend who is also a Christian. Next Fall explores the often-avoided subject of homosexuality versus religious faith and examines what it means to ‘believe’ and what it might cost if we don’t.

Premiering Off-Broadway in 2009 and using humour as a base, Next Fall’s themes are still as fresh today, diving into relationship conflicts, family disfunctions, mid-life crisis, coming out, and coping with loss among others.

Fifty years on, and still argued to be his best play, David Williamson’s The Removalists is here given a wickedly funny yet violent production by Johann Walraven at the New.

The director is blessed by Laurence Coy’s outstanding performance as the relentlessly bullying Sergeant Simmonds, a bull engine of spite and moral platitudes. His victim from start to climatic finish is young Constable Ross (an inventive Lloyd Allison-Young), fresh from training school, but the arrival at the station of the two sisters brings fresh meat.