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Ghosts, at Theatre Works - 96 minutes
Take Henrik Ibsen’s controversial 1881 play – a scathing commentary on morality – and move it from its original Norwegian setting to the...
Alex First
Jun 8, 20242 min read
Counting and Cracking, at new Union Theatre, University of Melbourne - 2 hours 50 minutes, plus two intervals
A country in turmoil and family trauma are at the heart of a multi award-winning drama with comedic elements. Counting and Cracking...
Alex First
Jun 7, 20242 min read
Julia (MTC staging of STC and Canberra Theatre Centre production), at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, as reviewed by Alex First
It was 9th October 2012 when Prime Minister Julia Gillard drew a line in the sand … when she refused to stay silent any longer. To that...
Alex First
Jun 5, 20243 min read
100 Reasons for War (Calamity Practice), at fortyfivedownstairs - 90 minutes, with no interval
Tom Holloway’s 100 Reasons for War (2015) has been updated to reflect present day conflict in Calamity Practice’s uproarious, disturbing...
Alex First
Jun 2, 20242 min read
Carpet and Sand (Calamity Practice), at fortyfivedownstairs - 90 minutes, with no interval
Call it searching for creativity or a descent into madness. That is a matter of interpretation. Carpet and Sand is a fanciful re-telling...
Alex First
Jun 2, 20242 min read
Multiple Bad Things (Back to Back Theatre), at Merlyn Theatre, at Malthouse Theatre - 60 minutes
Just what are people capable of? Can we exist in harmony? Is symbiosis even possible? Those questions are explored in the darkly comedic,...
Alex First
Jun 1, 20243 min read
Club Vegas (Dion & Randall International), at Athenaeum Theatre - 2 hours 5 minutes, plus a 20-minute interval
Spectacular, colourful and creative headdresses, feathers and finery are front and centre as performers from Club Vegas hit the stage....
Alex First
May 31, 20242 min read
Sunset Boulevard, at Princess Theatre - 2 hours 40 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
To bastardise a popular expression, those flying closest to the sun shine brightest before they burn up. That set of words could be the...
Alex First
May 30, 20243 min read
Shimmery Burlesque (touring) - 2 hours, including a 20-minute interval
Saucy and stylish, creative and captivating. Such is a very special burlesque show that breaks new ground in a long-standing, traditional...
Alex First
May 27, 20242 min read
Tosca (Opera Australia), at Margaret Court Arena - 2 hours 40 minutes, including two 20-minute intervals
Power, passion and subterfuge make for a heady cocktail. And so it is in Opera Australia’s Tosca. It is a compelling thriller with a...
Alex First
May 25, 20242 min read
KOAL, at Theatre Works' Explosives Factory - 75 minutes
Devastating bushfires and a baby koala and miner in peril. These are just two of the interwoven threads that run through the excellent,...
Alex First
May 25, 20243 min read
The Odd Couple, at Comedy Theatre - 2 hours, plus a 20-minute interval
In New York, two separated guys – best mates – move in together. They are like chalk and cheese … polar opposites in terms of their...
Alex First
May 24, 20243 min read
We’re Banking on It! (Monash University Student Theatre in association with Bloomshed), at fortyfivedownstairs - 75 minutes
A contemporary twist on an old fancy, Monash University Student Theatre (MUST) in association with Bloomshed, have taken aim at...
Alex First
May 22, 20243 min read
360 ALLSTARS, at Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne and touring - 60 minutes
Picture this family friendly environment that has children and adults intoxicated. Hip hop music, drumming, a livewire DJ and urban...
Alex First
May 19, 20242 min read
Billy Elliot The Musical (CLOC Musical Theatre), at The National Theatre - 3 hours, including a 20-minute interval
Billy Elliot The Musical remains as moving and evocative as when I first saw it at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 1stJanuary, 2009 … and what a...
Alex First
May 19, 20243 min read
Rootless Cosmopolitans (Monstrous Theatre), at Chapel Off Chapel - 85 minutes, without interval
Being identifiable as Jewish today is more fraught than at any time since the Holocaust. Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on...
Alex First
May 19, 20243 min read
Share House: The Musical, at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne - 90 minutes, without interval
Sharing a house with friends and/or strangers can be anything but straightforward. Sometimes, mighty testing, in fact. So it is in the...
Alex First
May 18, 20243 min read
PIAF! The Show, at The Palms at Crown and touring Australia - 2 hours, including a 20-minute interval
Noted for her interpretation of French ballads, Edith Piaf (19th December 1915 – 11th October, 1963) was one of the world’s most lauded...
Alex First
May 17, 20242 min read
Homo Pentecostus, at Beckett Theatre, at Malthouse Theatre - 75 minutes
What did I know about Pentecostalism when I entered the Malthouse Theatre? Little to nothing, save for a few colourful stories about...
Alex First
May 16, 20242 min read
HE, at Theatre Works' Explosives Factory - 60 minutes
The ocean, the family, the lover – 20 years on a man returns to his childhood home and revives memories of his past. I speak of a small...
Alex First
May 10, 20242 min read
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