Following middle-aged Sandra as she battles through the Sydney housing shortage after her housemates give her two weeks to leave, Brooke Robinson’s new work introduces a critical conversation to the Sydney stage. When we’re all familiar with the housing crisis on a macro scale through rising house prices and sales of car-sized land going for millions of dollars, Good Cook. Friendly. Clean. is a confronting portrayal of the personal cost for someone who slips through the cracks and is routinely denied basic human necessities.
Tag / theatre
Still Point Turning: the Catherine McGregor Story | Sydney Theatre Company
Constructed as verbatim theatre out of interviews Catherine McGregor has given over her lifetime, Still Point Turning: the Catherine McGregor Story is less a narrative, or the ever popular trans narrative, and more a staged biopic, simply explaining what happened and what it felt like for McGregor to live through it. I had a lot of misgivings about this production when it was first announced; thinking that with her politics and position, McGregor didn’t have anything new to say to me. After reading assistant director Charles O’Grady’s Audrey Journal article about his experience within the production and considering McGregor’s impact on Australian discourse throughout her transition, I realised I was approaching this story all wrong.
The Effect | Red Line Productions
Image by John Marmaras
During a drug trial for a new anti-depressant, two young participants begin to fall in love and threaten to derail the entire experiment. Meanwhile, the psychiatrists behind the trial are still unsure whether their experiment is proving anything at all. The Effect is a story about the boundary between the mind and the heart and whether the embracing of science and reason will destroy our conception of emotion or how we express love.
Blueberry Play | Griffin Theatre Company
Adolescence is really, really hard but add on an unwell dad, struggling mum, burgeoning sexual relationship, and an absurd blueberry costume and it can all become overwhelming very quickly. Staged as part of Griffin’s Batch Festival, Ang Collins’s Blueberry Play is an emotional roller coaster through a 17-year-old’s life in small town Australia. Plus, there are some pretty schnazzy labrador animations.
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing | Brevity Theatre with Aya Productions & bAKEHOUSE
Based on Eimear McBride’s 2013 novel of the same name, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing is a brutal and unrelenting portrayal of the life of a young Irish woman from before her birth into her early 20s. Seeming to move from trauma to trauma and diving deep into the horrors of poverty, sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, illness and death, the protagonist understandably struggles to understand herself through the lenses that the surrounding world imposes on her.
The Carousel | bAKEHOUSE & Pip & Han Inc.
Two sisters in Sydney’s western suburbs grow up together, teaching each other about how to love themselves, connect with others, and understand the world around them. After a medical scare, older sister Christa hatches the perfect plan to help younger Jamie overcome her mental health issues and hermit-like lifestyle but, like a lot of sibling interactions, she realises she’s gone much too far. This debut production for Pip & Han Inc. shows us how love can steer you so wrong.
Going Down | Sydney Theatre Company & Malthouse Theatre
A pseudo-autobiographical recount of the aftermath of the publication of her memoir, Banana Girl, Michele Lee’s new play bends the boundaries of past and present, reality and dreams in an exploration of the self as daughter, writer, woman, and outsider. Following her alter ego Natalie Yang through an out of control downward spiral of self-doubt, professional and personal failure, and disappointment with the illusion of success, Going Down contains all the elements of a powerful contemporary mirror for the millennial generation.
Kill Climate Deniers | Griffin Theatre Company
Kill Climate Deniers is a new Australian political satire about the state of the political, scientific, and social discourse around climate change in our country. It depicts a group of eco-terrorists storming Parliament House during a Fleetwood Mac concert in order to hold the audience, including the Minister for the Environment, hostage and demand the Australian government put an immediate stop to global climate change. Written by David Finnigan, it won the 2017 Griffin Playwrights Award.
Are We Awake? | bAKEHOUSE
Charles O’Grady’s third original play makes a return to the stage at Kings Cross Theatre as part of Sydney’s 2018 Mardi Gras. Are We Awake? details a crucial morning in the lives of Endymion (Mathew Lee) and Hypnos (Daniel Monks) as they navigate the complexities of their relationship. O’Grady’s script is a well-balanced one which flows smoothly between the joy, desire, frustration, anger, and (dis)comfort of contemporary queerness, disability, love, and external practicalities. It’s a balance placed in the safe hands of director Sarah Hadley who adds a delicate direction to the two-hander.
Single Asian Female | La Boîte Theatre Company @ Belvoir St Theatre
After a much acclaimed run at La Boîte Theatre in Brisbane, Michelle Law’s debut play, Single Asian Female, is back at Belvoir St! It’s a show I would not miss after weeks of reading rave reviews on Twitter in 2017. Marketed as witty, fierce, and fresh, Single Asian Female promised to be properly contemporary Australian comedy. Get ready for another rave.
Night Writes 