Cultural Binge – independent theatre reviews from Sydney, Australia (mostly).
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GATSBY at The Green Light (Sydney Opera House) ★★★★
Jazz age-themed burlesque meets acrobatics, dance and circus tricks in a 75 min blast of sultry excitement. This is GATSBY at The Green Light, taking over the Studio at the Sydney Opera House with an international cast and the sliver of a classic story.
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The Wind in the Willows (KXT on Broadway) ★★★1/2
If I were to sum up The Wind in the Willows at KXT on Broadway in one word it would be ‘charming’. There is a quintessentially British charm to the story of Ratty, Moley, Mr Toad and Badger that taps into an idea of childhood without delving into childishness.
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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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35mm: A Musical Exhibition (Flight Path) ★★★★
35mm: A Musical Exhibition has the energy of noughties rock radio. So get ready for your girl-rock anthems, indie romance belters and quirky singer-songwriters all mixed with musical theatre storytelling.
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Track Works (Mortuary Station) ★★★1/2
Chances are you’ve driven, or caught a train past, Mortuary Station. You’ve probably caught a flash of the architecture as you sped past or maybe you’ve seen photoshoots for brands staged there. Well now you can hear some classic arie while gazing at the stonework in a new, site-specific show called Track Works.
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Looking Ahead to 2024 – Final Update!
Judging by the announced theatrical seasons, 2024 is looking pretty stacked with great stuff on our stages. I’ve done a bit of a dive into the seasons for Sydney Theatre Co., Belvoir, Ensemble, Griffin, Opera Australia, Hayes, Seymour Center and more to make some plans.
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The Seagull (Sydney Theatre Co) ★★★1/2
A familiar, classic play, adapted by a familiar, acclaimed playwright, starring a lot of familiar, adored faces. This should be an end-of-year showstopper, but as good as it is The Seagull is a bit less than the sum of its exciting parts.
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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 Master & Margarita (Belvoir) ★★★★★
When I read that Belvoir’s The Master & Margarita was “devised by the cast”, in addition to “duration: 3hrs” and adapted from a Russian novel… well my brain was prepared for a whole evening of pain. I should have known better.
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Oil (Sydney Theatre Co) ★★★★★
May, the heroine of Oil, is timeless. She is both a storytelling tool, an archetype that spans hundreds of years, and a mother doing her best for her daughter. But ‘doing her best’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘doing good’. If nothing else, Oil is about the cycles of our lives and the loops humanity finds itself…
Cultural Binge 