The Durrells are one of those famed British families, like the Mitfords, who capture the imaginations of so many people through fictionalisations, dramatisations, and their own personal autobiographies about their unusual, unbelievable, adventurous lives. This new stage adaptation by Janys Chambers of Gerald Durrell’s autobiographic writing recreates the chaos and humour of 1930s Corfu for familiar and unfamiliar audiences alike.
Continue reading →
Times change, people grow older, and nothing lasts forever. Ray Lawler’s 1950s classic remains a mainstay of the Australian theatre repertoire for its dry-eyed portrayal of the end of the boom time. In this most recent reprisal, Barney, Roo, Olive, and Pearl serve as reminders of how thin the facade of endless growth is and the consequences of failing to see the reality underneath.
Continue reading →
Before Agatha Christie was a household name for crime fiction, she worked in hospital dispensaries, a profession that would later inform many of her future fictional poisonings. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Christie’s first published novel and one of the first books published by Penguin Books, features a mysterious poisoning that bridged the two realms of Christie’s careers in pharmacology and murder.
Continue reading →
Oscar Wilde famously had a keen eye for the hypocrisy and double standards underpinning the facade of polite London society as displayed prominently in his play The Importance of Being Earnest. But his wit and insight were in full force from his first theatrical work about the hard line between good and bad women.
Continue reading →
The queen of crime fiction Agatha Christie isn’t above the occasional trope or red herring. Besides, if all the clues were available to the audience, Poirot and Miss Marple wouldn’t seem as genius as they do. Murdered to Death takes all the quirks and foibles of a Christie classic and amps them up for a deadly satire.
Continue reading →
Can men and women every really be just friends? It’s a question that has continued to plague romantic comedies since well before Noel Coward’s 1920s take on it in Home Chat. But now, in a repeat of the Roaring 20s, most of us can agree that the question is out-dated, but that doesn’t mean we can’t poke fun at the fuddy-duddies with issues of propriety and reputation up their noses.
Continue reading →
In an attempt to capture a poetic representation of 1920s English and Indian relations during British occupation, EM Forster’s classic novel and Martin Sherman’s stage adaptation place an exoticising lens on Indian people, place, and culture to explore power imbalances of race, class, and gender.
Continue reading →
Hidden in obscurity since its cancelled 1931 premiere, the Secret of Chimneys makes its Australian debut nearly a century later in a rather more subdued 20s era. From the prolific crime writer Agatha Christie, this tale features stolen jewels, mistaken identities, political intrigue, and, of course, murder.
Continue reading →
Reduced Shakespeare Company have made quite a name for themselves by reducing enormous works of theatre and literature into short and witty stage plays. After the success of Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) the company added to their repertoire William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged).
Continue reading →
Image by Craig O’Regan
Crime fiction has long been a source of dark entertainment; imaging the worst case scenario, exploring the evil that lurks in plain sight, using a smattering of clues to hunt down a killer. Sherlock Holmes, the iconic detective, and his faithful assistant Dr Watson return to the Genesian stage in this new adaptation of the Death on Thor Bridge.
Night Writes 