Reviews

When I first saw The Bodyguard in London I thought it was a show that would work in Australia provided they cast a performer who could sing the Whitney Houston songbook and sing it well. Is Paulini up to the task? She certainly is. When she’s belting out those pop-diva arias she’s the real deal, delivering powerhouse after powerhouse performance and pulling the maximum emotional weight out of every key-change. “I Will Always Love You” was simply goose-bump thrilling.

J. B. Priestly’s play, written in the mid 20th century but set in 1912, has been described as “a potent blend of fine dramatic craft and good old-fashioned social conscience” and Helen Williams’ production for Pymble Players emphasises both qualities of the play. Though set in England over a century ago, the play has resounding messages that are still relevant today.

Olympic gold medallist Matthew Mitcham doesn’t mind telling people his problems. This is the champion diver’s second autobiographical cabaret, where he talks and sings about his struggles, admitting to depression, past drug addiction and plenty of bad decisions. He’s written a book about himself too.

It’s a rare delight to attend a play whose performance is as convincing as that by Jenkins and Lexi Sekuless in Constellations.  The mental agility necessary to convey the varying significance in consecutively played word-identical scenes several times in a row and in many alternatives to the one scene with little to no break between them was impressive; the memory necessary to replay all the variations one after another must be prodigious.  And this cast of two pulled it