Reviews

Just a picture-perfect family. Mum, Dad, two kids, and the dog. It might look ideal, but it’s far from it in this new musical from Dr Erin McKellar and Jeremy Anderson, where the dysfunctional family are only held together by the shared affection for the dog, Billy.

Drawing on the musical allusions inherent in this play and expanding them to develop music, dancing and song gives this text an inspiring new interpretation. Pop and rock music is cleverly woven into the play and parts of the text are given musical adaptations. The characters are dressed like new romantic artists and pop culture is instantly and seamlessly married to historical Messina where the play is set. Soldiers are swapped for members of a band (Benedick and the Love Gods) and Beatrice (Anna Burgess) and Hero (Larissa Teale) headline their own group (The Babes of Disdain).

Born in Albania in 1998, Mario Banushi is a director and actor and the creative force behind Goodbye, Lindita which premiered at the National Theatre of Greece in March 2023, the second work in a planned trilogy.  He moved to Greece at the age of six and went on to study drama at the Athens Conservatory.  Much of the heavy symbolism in this piece hails from the director’s cultural ties to the Balkan regions; indeed the work was inspired in part by the enduring image of Banushi’s stepmother surrounded by flowers upon her deathbed.

A thriller comes to Sydney’s Broadway. Usually thrillers belong to the cinema, but this one is definitely a theatrical event, with a moral dilemma in a creepy setting in a country far, far away. Where are we? What style of language am I hearing? We are definitely deep in the back-blocks but, with no program to aid me, I had no idea where. And when I obtained the brief program downloaded onto my phone, I still had no idea.