Reviews

Metro Arts’ exhilarating new festival, DANCE24, made a memorable debut with the premiere of Matriarchs. This contemporary dance performance delved deeply into the experiences of Indigenous Australian women, shedding light on how the lives and struggles of the maternal ancestors have shaped their modern descendants. The piece was profoundly moving, often heartbreaking, yet fiercely powerful, uplifting, and aesthetically captivating.

There’s something magical about the Northern Lights, and they certainly have breathed a little magic into the Castle Hill Players' latest production, Almost, Maine, written by John Cariani.

Here, love is the common theme, presented in 9 tiny pieces (or vignettes) stitched into an unexpectedly poignant night at the theatre. The romantic, dramatic comedy explores various facets of love through interconnected vignettes in the fictional Almost, a small town in Maine, USA. 

When I saw The Guilty Feminist podcast was going to do a live show at the Arts Centre I thought ‘that’s interesting, I’ll go’ since most of the time, I feel like a guilty feminist. I’ve never listened to the podcast because as a single mum, I have so many stresses and pressures in my brain I do not have the room to inject any podcasts. If I’m going to unwind, it has to be to something that completely transports me away from my work as a feminist poet, writer and performer.

The remarkable transformation of MCA into a grand opera house truly exceeds expectations. This large-scale production successfully manages to create a quality intimate theatrical experience in this vast space. There is a surprising positioning of the orchestra on an elevated platform behind the singers on stage. This facilitates the magnificent acoustics and provides delightfully unusual glimpses of the orchestra.