Sydney: Don’s Party

Reviewed by Joyce Chau

Frustrated idealism, ambitions and troubled marriages reveal themselves over the course of an election night party in suburban 1969 in David Williamson’s classic comedy Don’s Party.

Sydney: Miss Saigon

Reviewed by Katrine Narkiewicz

Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil’s musical theatre classic Miss Saigon is a heart-wrenching story about an ill fated romance between a Vietnamese bar girl and American GI set in war ravaged Saigon in the 1970s.

Sydney: Love Lies Bleeding

Reviewed by Nicole Bassil

I always find it a bit unnerving when a performer is onstage, perfectly lit and in character as the audience shuffles to their seats. It’s almost like the show has already started and I worry that I’ve missed something. Alex (played by Max Cullen) rested quietly in his wheelchair, completed unfazed by the restlessness around him and, amazingly, he remained there, motionless, for the entire duration of Love-Lies-Bleeding. It is actually quite a physically demanding skill to be stationary for an hour and a half. It is a worry, however, when the most striking aspect of a production is the ability of an actor to do nothing for so long.

Opera Australia: Tales of Hoffman

Reviewed by Nicole Bassil

I am sure I was among millions saddened by the recent death of Luciano Pavarotti. His legendary voice will resound in the ears of opera lovers for decades. I have never been lucky enough to hear Pavarotti live, but I have been treated to Opera Australia’s Rosario La Spina many times. He has always reminded me of Pavarotti, not for his rotund figure, but for his intense control of melody and the passion with which he delivers his arias. He has been criticized in a variety of reviews for being slightly off the note and still in his developmental stage as an artist but I just don’t see it. He mesmerizes me every time he opens his mouth and his title role in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann was no exception.

Sydney: Love and Money

Reviewed by Ash Walker

Sydneysiders now work some of the longest hours in the world. A lifestyle of working and accumulating material possessions consumes our every waking hour. Love and Money by British playwright Dennis Kelly arrives in Sydney to hold a timely mirror up to our consumer society.