Watching Dead Skin—which won the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s Young Playwright’s Award and had its world premiere at the Kings Cross Theatre Sydney this week—I was impressed by the complexity of the narrative structure, the ease and flow of dialogue that authentically captures the energy and angst of youth, as well as the... Continue Reading →
ONE Archives Foundation, in collaboration with Invisible Histories Project, announced today a historic virtual reading of Larry Kramer’s largely autobiographical play The Normal Heart on Saturday May 8th at 5pm PT. Directed by Emmy Award-winner Paris Barclay, this new presentation will be the first time the Tony Award-winning play features a cast that is predominately BIPOC and... Continue Reading →
One thing we’ve learnt through this pandemic is that “Zoom theatre” is gawdawful. And while previously recorded theatre productions (like London’s brilliant National Theatre Live) have gone some way to filling the gap, new productions have been rare and of vastly varying quality. Which is why this production of The Picture of Dorian Gray is... Continue Reading →
After a particularly challenging week in the news cycle, the outright misogyny and with those in power continuing to act with impunity, this show could not have been performed at a more important time. On Friday night, Sydney's Riverside Theatres was host to a compelling and cathartic piece of performance art that reminded the audience... Continue Reading →
Jeremy Goldstein’s Truth to Power Café and a new production of Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing straddle this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. For The Queer Review, Goldstein speaks with Harvey about his now classic play and what it means to him to see it revived. Jonathan Harvey is among our greatest living... Continue Reading →
After a hit debut run at Belvoir Theatre in 2020, the new musical Fangirls has made its way to the larger Seymour Center in Sydney to bring some preemptive post-pandemic music-mania to the stage. The tale of three schoolgirls and their obsession with the boyband True Connection and lead singer Harry (yes, you may notice... Continue Reading →
The prestigious celebration of West End theatre, the Olivier Awards, took place at London's Palladium yesterday. Well, sort of. As with much of theatre this year, the Oliviers were an odd mix of the live and not-quite-live. Some awards had already been given out, with the winners sworn to secrecy, and the full ceremony streamed... Continue Reading →
Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley's frequently hilarious high camp queer absurdist dark comedy Circle Jerk is very 2020. It's confronting, chaotic, unrelenting, far-fetched, deranged, and overstimulating. The theatrical equivalent of spending 100 minutes or so multi-screen doom scrolling yourself down a wormhole of alt right conspiracy theory threads punctuated with viral TikTok lip sync videos... Continue Reading →
The 2020 Tony award nominations were announced this week, and in what is perhaps the most 2020 of theatrical metaphors, nobody actually knows when the winners will be announced. Much like the uncertain future of Broadway theatres, which will remain closed through May 30th 2021. The belated nominations announcement, which should of course have happened... Continue Reading →
A gay Brooklyn teenager (The Inheritance’s Samuel H. Levine) charts his own sexual awakening and the complexities of his Russian Jewish family in documentarian Eric Steel’s narrative debut Minyan. The work of James Baldwin is certainly in the zeitgeist again as, much like Tomasz Jedrowski's brilliant debut novel Swimming in the Dark, Giovanni’s Room provides... Continue Reading →
