Category: Comedy
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Masterclass (Sydney Opera House) ★★★★
Feeling the energy in the theatre shift from gleeful laughter to uncomfortable tittering to bewildered joy and finally buzzing chatter is simply delicious. This is a brilliant example of how theatrical forms can be used to enlighten and subvert. Yes, it’s a two hander about sexism in the arts, but that description barely scratches the…
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Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall (Ensemble) ★★★1/2
Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall isn’t the first play to derive comedy from a night at the theatre going wrong before your eyes, but it may be the first to do so with such a tender heart.
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Darwin’s Reptilia (Belvoir 25a) ★★1/2
Darwin’s Reptilia, closing out 2023’s Belvoir 25a season, is bonkers. Whether you think it’s “good bonkers” or “bad bonkers” is going to be entirely up to you, but at $25 a ticket it’s hardly a huge investment.
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The Memory of Water (Ensemble) ★★★★
The premise of Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory of Water sounds like the set up to a farce. After the death of their mother Violet (Nicole Da Silva), three sisters converge on the family home for the funeral. They each deal with their grief in different ways. It’s a comedy that’ll make you cry.
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Blaque Showgirls (Griffin) ★★★
Blaque Showgirls is both a daft comedy and a commentary on the status of indigenous Australian lives. Terrible and terrific at the same time, it has the energy of a Christmas panto fueled with bags of cocaine – to be honest, I loved and hated it in equal measure.
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Venus & Adonis (Seymour Centre) ★★★1/2
Damien Ryan’s Venus & Adonis feels like a companion piece to Jessica Swale’s Nell Gwynn, both reframe Shakespeare with a female protagonist, lashings for humour and cutting commentary on the battle of the sexes.
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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Hayes Theatre) ★★★★★
Perfect. No Notes.
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Summer of Harold (Ensemble Theatre) ★★★1/2
Written by Hilary Bell. World Premiere. Ensemble Theatre. 8 Sep – 14 Oct, 2023. Hilary Bell’s triptych of short plays focuses on the way memory interacts with our present-day lives. From heart-warming stories of youth, to tales of past snubs and regrets. Summer of Harold, Enfant Terrible and Lookout are beautiful vignettes of life, showcasing…
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Murder for Two (Hayes Theatre) ★★★★★
Music & book by Joe Kinosian, lyrics & book by Kellen Blair. Hayes Theatre. 4 Aug – 3 Sep, 2023. I’m just going to come out and say what I’m thinking. Murder for Two is the best thing I’ve seen at the Hayes Theatre in years. It’s exactly the kind of show the venue is…
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Forgetting Tim Minchin (Belvoir 25a) ★★★★
Book, music and lyrics by Jules Orcullo. Belvoir Street Theatre. 12-29 July 2023. Ooh what a cheeky little show this is! It had me all living off the scrappy underdog vibe and then [SPOILERS]. I love a meta-musical about musicals as much as the next theatre nerd, but to add this much heart into it…
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