Reviews

The Flea brings a welcome, madly inventive young director and designer to Sydney’s New Theatre with Patrick Kennedy. 

By British playwright James Fitz, it’s about the very exclusive homosexual brothel in Cleveland Street, London, which in 1889, when stumbled upon by police, threatened to bring down its aristocratic gay clientele, including, as rumoured, the grandson and heir of Queen Victoria, Prince Eddy.

Wondering what has happened to her youth and feeling like her family see her as just a servant rather than a wife or mother, Shirley Valentine regularly talks to the wall about her lost opportunities and unhappiness. When a friend of hers invites Shirley to join her on a trip for two to Greece, she leaves a note in the kitchen and flies away for two weeks. There she quickly rediscovers everything she thought was lost and decides to stay on in her Mediterranean paradise.

It’s not often that one of the great plays of literature, by Anton Chekhov in his 1901 prime, is presented in your local theatre. If you live in the vicinity, I recommend that you hasten to the cute little theatre in the middle of Marrickville before it has gone, just like the teetering lives of the three Prozorov sisters in the play. Olga, Marsha and Irina pine to return to their hometown, Moscow, but everything seems to stop them. Don’t delay your visit to these ‘Three Sisters’.

Somewhat of a Fringe World stalwart, Comma Sutra has had sold out seasons at five previous Fringe World festivals, and having not seen it since 2017, I went back for another look, at its sold-out single performance.

This gorgeous celebration of language, especially the quirks of grammar, is tailor made for the people who shudder when they see someone selling ‘potato’s’ or literally misusing the word ‘literally’.