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Duck Duck Goose (THAT Production Company), at Theatre Works - 90 minutes without interval
Set in Galway, Ireland between May 2016 and March 2019, Duck Duck Goose explores sexual assault and its impact. I refer to the effect on...
Alex First
Apr 6, 20243 min read


Michael Shafar – Lots to Say, at QT Melbourne, as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
In his seventh year at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Michael Shafar is laid back and effortlessly funny. In short, the...
Alex First
Apr 1, 20242 min read


Cirque du Soleil's LUZIA, under the Big Top at Flemington Racecourse - 2 hours 5 minutes, including a 25 minute interval
Prepare to be mesmerised. Cirque du Soleil continues to lift the bar with its latest show – its 38th original production – LUZIA. The...
Alex First
Mar 28, 20242 min read


Chicago, at Her Majesty's Theatre - 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
A superb production breathes new life into the multi award-winning story of vice that is Bob Fosse’s Chicago. We’re in the roaring...
Alex First
Mar 27, 20242 min read


The Great Divide, at Ensemble Theatre - 2 hours, including a 20-minute interval
Australia’s most prolific playwright has come out of retirement and has his finger on the pulse, addressing the cost-of-living crisis....
Alex First
Mar 25, 20243 min read


Zombie! The Musical, at Hayes Theatre - 2 hours 10 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
It is 1999 and the clock is ticking down to the opening of a new production for a community theatre company. The pompous, misogynistic...
Alex First
Mar 24, 20242 min read


The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre), at Theatre Royal Sydney - 3 hours 20 minutes, including two 15 minute intervals
An immigrant family business that grew and grew to become the fourth largest investment bank in the United States before it...
Alex First
Mar 23, 20242 min read


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (The Australian Ballet), at State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne - 2 hours 45 minutes, including two intervals
The Australian Ballet’s glorious production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a fitting tribute to the splendid State Theatre before...
Alex First
Mar 17, 20243 min read


Swansong, at Theatre Works' Explosives Factory - 90 minutes, without interval
A bravura showing from Andre De Vanny distinguishes the incendiary play Swansong by Conor McDermottroe. Set in the 1960s and ‘70s, it...
Alex First
Mar 15, 20242 min read


Every Lovely Terrible Thing (Lab Kelpie), at Theatre Works - 2 hours, plus a 20-minute interval
Chaos and trauma are at play in Every Lovely Terrible Thing. A highly dysfunctional family implodes and picks apart its innards. They are...
Alex First
Mar 15, 20242 min read


Leonardo da Vinci – 500 Years of Genius, at The Lume, inside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Has there been a creative intellect greater than Leonardo da Vinci? I dare say that question could spark animated discussion. Where would...
Alex First
Mar 15, 20242 min read


The 39 Steps (Hearth Theatre), at Chapel Off Chapel - 2 hours, plus a 20-minute interval
An adaptation of acclaimed film director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie The 39 Steps, Hearth Theatre’s production of the parody is...
Alex First
Mar 11, 20243 min read


Gaslight, at Comedy Theatre - 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
We’re in the 19th century. Trusting Bella Manningham is fragile. Not long married, she met her now husband Jack in Switzerland and they...
Alex First
Mar 9, 20242 min read


Wicked, at Regent Theatre - 2 hours 45 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
The prequel to The Wizard of Oz is back to delight anew and delight it most certainly does in a dazzling display at Melbourne’s finest...
Alex First
Mar 8, 20243 min read


37 (MTC), at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner - 95 minutes, without interval
A Premiership at what cost? Indeed, is snaring the feted trophy the be all and end all? The Cutting Cove Football Club, located in a...
Alex First
Mar 8, 20243 min read


Milked (The Ninth Floor Productions), at fortyfivedownstairs - 90 minutes, without interval
Mateship, isolation and mental health are on the line in the darkly comedic Milked. Paul Roberts (William McKenna) and Snowy (Laurence...
Alex First
Mar 4, 20242 min read


Yentl (Kadimah Yiddish Theatre), at Merlyn Theatre, at Malthouse Theatre - 2 hours 5 minutes, plus a 20-minute interval
We are in Poland in 1870. Yentl (Amy Hack) is driven by her desire to study … to learn and understand. Her father teaches at the local...
Alex First
Mar 3, 20243 min read


Ruthless! The Musical (Stagebugs Productions), at Alex Theatre - 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
Talent. Who has it and who doesn’t? It is a word readily bandied about, but it is fair to say that talent gets down to the eye (and ear)...
Alex First
Mar 2, 20243 min read


Dry Land (Flatpack), at Theatre Works' Explosives Factory - 90 minutes, without interval
Dry Land has much to say about abortion, female friendships and being a teenager, but it takes a long time to say it. It is the...
Alex First
Mar 1, 20242 min read


The Hate Race, at Beckett Theatre, at Malthouse Theatre - 65 minutes
Racism comes in many forms and from many quarters and can strike with the speed of a bullet train. That subject is explored in a dramatic...
Alex First
Feb 29, 20243 min read
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