Before the advent of television and the growth of televangelist greats like Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen, Evangelist preachers would tour all over the United States, spreading the word of God and performing miracle cures that garnered even more attention for their preaching. Just as televised fame was taking over the performance of prayer, a young woman sought out a miracle healer to take away her pain and make her future bright again.
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Parents are a complete mystery to children. They exist as these all-powerful figures who seem to hover over your life whether bossy, friendly, embarrassing, absent, or inexplicable. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, you are one yourself and the focus on your own parents becomes crystal clear for the first time. At least that’s what happened to the four generations of Gumbaynggirr mothers and daughters at the heart of Brittanie Shipway’s new play.
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Every few years a movie gets released with a central gay character whose life is tragedy and whose story ends in a tear-jerking death. And every time this reignites a conversation about this seemingly inescapable link between queerness and death. Is it a curse from God? Is it unresolved trauma from the AIDS crisis? Is it pedestrian homophobia? Or is it true?
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In 2004, while accepting the Sydney Peace Prize at the University of Sydney, novelist and political activist Arundhati Roy said, “There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” She was pushing back against the myth that oppressed groups are voiceless and need others to speak for them by acknowledging that the gaps in the discourse or debate or historical record are actually deliberate omissions and erasures. Silenced picks up on the same concerns and grapples with the social, professional, and political consequences of being one of the silenced, specifically of being a woman under patriarchy.
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One year ago Joanne and Felicity formed their temp job agency as a hare-brained scheme for them to do all the jobs themselves, no matter how unqualified, and rake in the money to help stabilise their lives. Now, post-COVID lockdowns and Joanne’s divorce, the end of their plan is in sight. But without the agency and their partner in literal crime, what will they have?
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It’s the original romcom where the beautiful and sweet Hero falls in love with the equally sweet and valiant Claudio only for their matrimony to be dashed by jealousy and greed. But love triumphs in the end and everyone gets what they deserve.
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While being one of Shakespeare’s less-performed plays, the Merry Wives of Windsor uses many of his classic theatrical elements including disguises, revenge plots, arranged marriages, and plenty of innuendo. With recognisable characters and plot points from other Shakespearean comedies, this rendition also aligns the script with equally recognisable comedy tropes from an Australian context to add extra dimension to the raunch and gossip.
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For city folk, the traditional debutante ball might seem like an outdated idea with unwelcome patriarchal overtones but the deb is still a thriving cultural tradition in many rural cities around Australia. It’s an exciting event where young adults get to celebrate who they are and mark the transition into adulthood all with a bit of pomp and glamour. But this year in Dunburn, the city and country perspectives collide with disastrous consequences for a small town already on the brink of collapse.
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Andrew Bovell’s 2016 family drama Things I Know to Be True has maintained a continued resonance with Australian audiences as evidenced in at least three productions across Sydney in recent years. In the most recent iteration, a fear of change forms the central focus as the Price family faces a year of growing up and letting go.
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While it might not seem that a play about the English Civil Wars and the Putney Debates of 1640s England would have much resonance in 21st century Australia, Caryl Churchill’s framing, even some 45 years after the first staging, see our protests as rehashings of the same concerns of religious freedom, democracy, and social justice.
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Night Writes 