Reviews

You know when someone gives you a bouquet as a gift and in amongst the blooms is an occasional twig or piece of greenery? This bouquet- The 2024 Variety Gala is a bouquet of joy - not a twig or boring leaf in sight.

Jonathan Biggins is no stranger to those who are devotees of The Wharf Revue, where Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott satirised the mean and the mighty for over twenty years. Biggins has played everyone from Bob Brown to Donald Trump and King Charles. But it is his wry, sardonic, self-assured interpretation of Paul Keating that audiences love best. Perhaps because, like the once PM himself, he keeps coming back to haunt the revue’s more recent political targets.

They meet on the street, outside an AA meeting.  He’s in a neck brace, groggy, inarticulate – but boyishly sweet and attractive.  She’s got a fast and loud mouth; she’s older than him, curious, needling – and a risk taker.  Both are alcoholics.  He’s a painter.  We’ll learn that he needs the drug for his creativity – or so he believes.  She’s a well-heeled rebel, fighting normality and boredom.  Both resist the pain of sobriety.  Both are dangerously vulnerable – he the more so; she has a bet

SXS's welcome return to the stage again demonstrated a selection of diverse compositions and arrangements from a group of talented and passionate artists. The concert began with a short, eloquent demonstration of the didgeridoo from Artist in Residence and Queenslander Chris Williams who has made a remarkable name for himself as an exponent of the instrument internationally whilst additionally collaborating with established composers to commission new works for the instrument over the next ten years.