Anna is 18 and, while she hasn’t gone to uni or really figured out a plan at all, she wants to take control of her life. Part of this includes no longer taking the medication she’s been on for her entire adolescence in order to reclaim an earlier, more authentic version of herself. This isn’t a decision just for her, though, as a new boyfriend, her mother, and her long-term psychiatrist complicate the practicalities of mental health and being unwell.
Tag / Sydney
Hotel Sorrento | HIT Productions with Riverside Theatre
Image by Cathy Ronalds
Three sisters’ lives recollide after middle sister Meg’s novel is nominated for the Book Prize. With the death of their father and the questioning of Hilary’s son Troy, the sisters are forced to re-examine the life they lived in hometown Sorrento and what drove them apart. This is a piece of nostalgic Australiana from our recent history that attempts to unpack the Australian identity in a global culture.
Midsummer Mendelssohn Gala | Flinders Quartet with Chris Moore
Image by Sarah Walker
To finish up their July 2018 program, Flinders Quartet and guest violist Chris Moore performed a lively concert mixing music and theatre. It’s a charming play with text to add narration to the Quartet’s performance and movement in time with the music. The three pieces comprising this concert were distinct but carried a thread of life and joy throughout.
Carrie: the Musical | Louis Ellis Productions
Image by Rebeccalynne Photography
If recreating the classic Stephen King horror novel as a Broadway musical sounds like a bad idea to you, you’re not alone. Carrie, with music by Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and book by Lawrence D Cohen, was one of the biggest flops in Broadway history. Closing after 16 previews and 5 performances, it’s a show nobody wanted to touch for nearly 25 years. This version of events focuses a lot less on the supernatural and gruesome elements and instead turns the story into a high school drama about the consequences of bullying. With the prominence of school shootings and religious extremism still in our news cycles, this production seems timely with a touch of something darker.
You’ve Got Mail | Bondi Feast
Against a pixellated Manhattan skyline at sunset (the perfect backdrop for an Internet seduction) Joe Fox and Meg Ryan talk and flirt to escape their meat-puppet bodies. It’s a modern love story: two people fall in love anonymously online without knowing that, in real life, they are rival bookshop owners. In Ang Collin’s and Sarah Hadley’s retelling of the classic 1990s romcom, though, Meg_Ryan and Tom_Hanks are a lot, lot weirder.
Permission to Spin | Apocalypse Theatre Company with Red Line Productions
Image by Robert Catto
Miss Polkadot has won Children’s Album of the Year and producer Martin and manager Jim want to get a head-start on the celebrations of what will be the launch of a global franchise. Spirits are high, drugs, alcohol, and money are involved, but Miss Polkadot, or Cristobel, wants out. The reoccurrence of a traumatic ethical confrontation means Cristobel wants to walk away and start again, costing her management everything they’ve hoped for.
Roomba Nation | Hurrah Hurrah
Image by Stephen Reinhardt
Roomba Nation is a thought experiment about the meeting place of modern technology, represented by the Roomba, and clowning in the setting of a clinical farce. Hurrah Hurrah is looking to explore the emotional unrest and dis-ease technological advancement induces for those who need a miracle.
DRESDEN | bAKEHOUSE
Image by Clare Hawley
In a world premier, Justin Fleming connects Adolf Hitler and Richard Wagner across time through a love of art and opera. Asking the tough questions about want, creation, and responsibility, DRESDEN seeks to complicate the way we interpret both small moments and their influence on the large names of our history.
Wyrd: the Season of the Witch | Ninefold
Image by 51 Watts Design
Ninefold reworks Macbeth as a quick supernatural thriller about the dark motivations of ambition and control. Director, Shy Magsalin, integrates the Suzuki Method of Actor Training in a physically and stylistically challenging staging of this wyrd story. Wyrd: the Season of the Witch is Shakespeare shifted and reimagined in a way you haven’t seen before.
Things Not to do After a Breakup | Tunks Productions
Image by Bree Bain
Lauren and Gideon have just broken up and they’re tearing their friendship group apart. After torching all of her ex’s things, Lauren decides to funnel all of her destructive energy into writing the next bestseller, Things Not to do After a Breakup, full of rules and advice to make sure you don’t embarrass yourself, or break the law, after your own breakup.
Night Writes 