Esther (Janet Anderson) is lacking definition. She is asking the people in her life to describe her in a single word or phrase. The word she uses for herself is “collapsible”, like one of those chairs. Stable one moment and folded over the next. She has broken up with her girlfriend and lost her job,... Continue Reading →
HIV+ activist & theatre maker Jeremy Goldstein reflects on his Sydney WorldPride Arts experience
Renowned HIV+ theatre maker and queer arts producer Jeremy Goldstein surveys Sydney WorldPride Arts for The Queer Review, and finds a radically inclusive multi-artform festival of gender, identity, and sexuality. Beyond the Mardi Gras and the usual circuit parties, WorldPride Arts reinvents the harbour city as one of the world’s greatest LGBTQIA+ cultural destinations. I... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (Sydney Theatre Company) ★★★★
Edward Albee’s pedigree as the chronicler of domestic dysfunction is well earned and the Sydney Theatre Company’s new production of The Goat or, Who is Sylvia revels in the nasty details. Dark comedies don’t get much darker than this, and when we say "the goat", we don't mean "the greatest of all time". Martin and... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Comfort, Spin, Travel (Meraki Arts Bar, Sydney) ★★★★
Comfort, Spin, Travel is a story of trans frustration. Our narrator is spending a late night in a branch of Officeworks—a big box office supply chain—thinking about his past and his family, and trying to come to some kind of peace with the world around him. Is he a good person? Written by Lu Bradshaw... Continue Reading →
Dance Review: King (Seymour Centre, Sydney) ★★★★★
There is magic here. Choreographer Shaun Parker’s collaboration with composer and vocalist Ivo Dimchev has produced something truly luscious to behold in King, newly relaunched work at Sydney’s Seymour Centre. The group dynamics of men, sexuality and masculinity are illustrated and deconstructed in Parker’s kinetic and humorous piece. With a company made up of a... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Sex Magick (Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney) ★★★★
Sex Magick lives up to its title with a lot of flavours of sex and seemingly endless amounts of magic (both the practical, theatrical kind and the more ephemeral). Funny, frisky, and confronting, Sex Magick leaves you spent but very satisfied. Ard Panicker (Raj Labade) is a former elite physiotherapist that’s been reduced to seeking... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hayes Theatre, Sydney) ★★★1/2
Sydney's Hayes Theatre is taking us back a century this WorldPride season with the roaring twenties set, classic 1940s feel-good musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The Hayes has really gone to town with this production; there are big voices, a big marketing push, and a big set (perhaps a little too big for the space).... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Opera Up Late (Sydney Opera House, Sydney) ★★★★
Opera Up Late takes opera's biggest hits and sprinkles them with some late night fairy dust. Stars of the Sydney Opera House's Dame Joan Sutherland theatre are dragging up, getting down and belting the high notes for an evening of delights that’s making an early claim to be the real highlight of Sydney WorldPride’s cultural... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: CAMP (Seymour Centre, Sydney) ★★★1/2
CAMP, a new play by Elias Jamieson Brown, chronicles the rise of the Australian Pride movement through the women who fought through their pain and losses to win us the freedoms we enjoy today. It’s a decades spanning tale, elevating Australia’s own Gay Liberation story, just in time for Sydney WorldPride 2023. Sydney, in the... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Blessed Union (Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney) ★★★★★
There’s a simple pleasure to be had in sitting back and watching everything on stage being done well. Belvoir’s new queer family dramedy, Blessed Union, is seamlessly terrific. Funny, emotive, and probing. Flawless. No notes. I could end the review here, but obviously I won't... Ruth (Danielle Cormack) and Judith (Maude Davey) have always upheld... Continue Reading →