Reviews

Two Hearts

By Laura Lethlean. Space Jump Theatre at Flight Path Theatre, Marrickville, Sydney. Directed by Kirsty Semaan. March 18 – 29, 2025

This play covers a relationship, born at a loud Sydney party, to its death a few years later in trauma and grief. Who’s to blame? How could the two participants have done things differently? Two Hearts follows the exciting formation and bitter ending of the kind of relationship we could all do without, but which will probably be heading our way.

The Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde. Presented by National Theatre Live and Sharmill Films. In cinemas from March 27, 2025

Written in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest is Oscar Wilde’s most popular play. It is a comedy of manners, the story of two bachelors getting into increasingly complicated situations in the pursuit of the women they adore.

The National Theatre production takes the script and gives it a Bridgerton makeover with bright primary colours and performances ‘as camp as a row of tents’.

Grand Septet

Ensemble Q. QPAC 2025 Series. Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 17 March 2025

Ensemble Q started their 2025 QPAC Series with an enticing program for septet that was engaging, enlightening and highly enjoyable. The Concert Hall reverse seating allows the audience to view the performers and their instruments at close range, as befitting the chamber music mode. The Grand Septet program was unique – a trip across Europe, featuring music from Hungary, Czechia and Sweden – and a world premiere of new music from Ensemble Q’s composer in residence for 2025, Melody Eötvös.

Peter and the Starcatcher

By Rick Elice. Playhouse Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 14 March to 6 April 2025

Based on the 2004 novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, (published by Disney), Peter Pan’s ‘origin story’ comes to life on stage as a theatre piece by Rick Elice, developed by Disney Theatrical Group, which premiered on Broadway in 2012 and went on to be nominated for a dozen Tony Awards, winning four for its design elements and one for best actor. That’s a lot of pressure on subsequent productions to live up to!

Nunsense

By Dan Goggin. Primadonna Productions. Directed by Carole Dhu. The Fishtrap Theatre, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, WA. Mar 7-9, 2025

Primadonna Productions’ (essentially) all female production of Nunsense included two performances on International Women’s Day during its three-day season. Playing to packed houses, audiences were treated to a fun musical showcasing some great female talent.

Djuna

By Eva Rees. Darebin Arts Speakeasy & Bullet Heart Club. Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre. 12 – 23 March 2025

Image (above): DJUNA by Eva Rees. Dion Mills (outcry). Photographer: Darren Gill

At a key point in this gripping thriller, Marcus (Dion Mills), a cool, self-possessed businessman, quotes Oscar Wilde: ‘Everything in the world is about sex, except sex.  Sex is about power.’  This aphorism provides the central idea of Djuna.  It’s also a play that, with chilling insight, is about self-hatred turned outwards and it’s about the way a victim can be overwhelmed and fall into a kind of love with the abuser...

MUD

By Maria Irene Fornes. Produced by Salad Days Collective. Directed by Callum Johnson. Venue: PIP Theatre, Milton. 14th to 22nd of March, 2025

Image (above): Jasmine Prasser as Mae, Alex O’Connell as Henry, and George Oates as Lloyd sit around the table.

Salad Days Collective’s production of Maria Irene Fornes’ MUD at PIP Theatre is an unapologetically raw, hauntingly beautiful portrayal of poverty, power, and longing for freedom — and it’s hard to shake even after the final blackout.

Ladies in Black

By Tim Finn (Music and Lyrics) and Carolyn Burns (Book). Beaumaris Theatre, Vic. March 7 – 22, 2025

Ladies in Black is an Australian stage musical written by Split Enz and Crowded House co-founder Tim Finn (Music and Lyrics) and Carolyn Burns (Book). It is based on The Women in Black 1993 novel by Madeleine St John and was the recipient of several Helpmann (Best Musical and Best Score), Matilda, and Green Room Awards

The Haunted Through Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Farndale Castle

Written by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. Director: Sharon White. St Luke’s Theatre Society, Queensland. Playing March 14 – March 29.

There have been a number of plays about the dubiously staged productions by the ladies of the fictitious Farndale  Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Dramatic Society, and they have made a spectacle of themselves yet again.  That, of course, is the reason the audience was there in such good numbers on opening night. Initially, it seemed to be no more than a shambolic rehearsal with calls for lines, the right props and so on but finally the ladies improved their skills by adding deaths and murders within the castle walls.

Macbeth

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Courtney Stewart and Lisa Fa'alafi. Dramaturgy by Sue Rider. La Boite Roundhouse Theatre. 6 – 22 March, 2025

The Scottish play has undergone a wicked witchy makeover in this latest production staged at Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre. Courtesy of the vision of co-directors Courtney Stewart and Lisa Fa'alafi and the dramaturgy of Sue Rider, this Macbeth is stripped back to the narrative’s bare essentials, resulting in an exciting, fast-paced tale of manipulation, ambition, and destruction. This treatment of the work highlights the ways in which the women use their words to influence those around them, while the men use violence.

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