Reviews

Review: SIX the Musical – Comedy Theatre Melbourne (VIC)

June 26, 2022June 26, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - Leave a Comment

Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. When it comes to the stories of Henry VIII’s wives, most of us will only be familiar with these one-word summaries of their harrowing fates. In their Tony-award-winning, tour de force musical, SIX, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have sought to rectify the injustices of historic female representation. Relying on the politically charged and socially precarious Tudor times as a framework, Marlow and Moss set the standard for empowering women’s voices and allow them to tell their own side of the story. Read the full review now!

Reviews / Reviews: Plays

Review: The Sweet Science of Bruising – Theatre Travels Productions (NSW)

June 18, 2022June 18, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - Leave a Comment

Theatre Travels Productions and One Good Act transport us back to 1869 Victorian London, to a theatre where only the strongest survive. Four very different women from four very different walks of life are brought into the dark underground world of female boxing; the result being unexpected freedom beyond the constraints of their corsets and the patriarchal world. Playwright Joy Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science of Bruising weaves a comical and tragic and tale that resonates beyond its setting. Read the full review now!

Reviews / Reviews: Plays

Review: 5 Stars – Theatre Works (VIC)

June 18, 2022June 18, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - Leave a Comment

5 Stars is a relatively simple story at its heart; two souls who love each other in different ways, cannot be without each other and yet cannot escape the reality of the pain that is destined to haunt them. Read our full review here!

Reviews / Reviews: Plays

Review: Daddy Developed a Pill – Kings Cross Theatre (NSW)

June 14, 2022June 14, 2022 - by Charlotte Smee - Leave a Comment

With limericks, prolapses and secret doors galore, Daddy Developed a Pill is a frantic farce that explores everyone’s need to impress the Daddies in their lives. Cynthia, a blue-feathery-pyjama-ed young girl, makes limericks with her Daddy any chance she gets. Then, Daddy develops a pill that makes him rich and takes him away from Mummy and Cynthia. Cynthia grows up to become a pill-taking, rich, self-indulgent darling girl, and develops her own pill to impress Daddy. Read the full review now!

Reviews / Reviews: Plays

Review: Coil – UnWrapped at the Sydney Opera House (NSW)

June 11, 2022June 13, 2022 - by Charlotte Smee - Leave a Comment

“Streaming killed the video store”, and re:group performance collective are determined to pay homage to the communal space of adventure, possibility, camaraderie that was the aisles of Leading Edge or Blockbuster or the many others lost to time across Australia. Coil is an innovative and semi-autobiographical piece of “live cinema”, in which Steve Wilson-Alexander and Carly Young play themselves, and Solomon Thomas follows them with a camera to capture tiny snippets of footage that they edit together onstage and then later play together as parts of a larger film. Read the full review now.

Reviews / Reviews: Musicals

Review: Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Regent Theatre (VIC)

June 5, 2022June 5, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - 1 Comment

How do you breathe new life into a well-known fairy tale, especially one so familiar and loved? Hailed as “Cinderella but with a ‘modern push for independence” by director Josh Rhodes, the cast and crew retain the original magic of Cinderella while infusing it with a modern dash of justice and a few twists. Read the full review now.

Reviews / Reviews: Plays

Review: Hercules – Arts House (VIC)

May 29, 2022May 29, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - Leave a Comment

There are two Hercules in modern canon. The Hercules who overcomes 12 incredible labors, a proto-superman who has come to be synonymous with strength, power and heroism. Then there is the Hercules who murdered his wife and children in a fit of madness, a madness he blames on the gods and spends the rest of his life seeking redemption. Hercules by the Daniel Schlusster Ensemble (DSE) is a play about these men and their use to us. Read the full review now.

News / Reviews / Reviews: Comedy

Review: Woah, Alyssa! – Sydney Comedy Festival (NSW)

May 22, 2022May 22, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - Leave a Comment

Stuffed into an intimate shipping container inside the Factory Theatre, comedians Col & Fil present the outrageously chaotic comedy duo Woah, Alyssa! – two gay best friends who are also a couple who are also still sl*ts, according to the show’s description. An hour of riotous, filthy, absurd, and sexy comedy was lustfully thrown our way as Col & Fil battled technological mishaps, tight spaces, and an embarrassing pair of audience members. Read the full review here.

Reviews / Reviews: Plays

Review: HOW TO LIVE (After You Die) – UnWrapped at Sydney Opera House (NSW)

May 17, 2022May 17, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - Leave a Comment

Following a serene, transporting minute of scene-setting music, renowned filmmaker and artist Lynette Wallworth entered the stage and welcomed us into the landscape of a section of personal history that she had held close for a long time. “Some stories are like family,” she explained, “you have to look after them for a long time before allowing them out into the world.” It was a striking way to begin, and gently but clearly informed us that it took great vulnerability to create the work we were about to experience. Read the full review now!

Reviews / Reviews: Comedy

Review: Funny As Sin – Sydney Comedy Festival (NSW)

May 13, 2022May 13, 2022 - by Theatre Thoughts Team - Leave a Comment

Caristo and Kochan are a couple who normally perform stand-up independently of each other, and have now combined their energies into a double act. After an extended intro– during which we were given a wealth of insight into their loving, albeit comedy-rich relationship– the two took it in turns to deliver some of their own solo stand-up. For this main portion of the show, the comic not performing sat to the side of the small stage and followed along with looks of what can only be described as total adoration. Occasionally they would even deliver some words of affirmation, anticipation, or playful criticism– despite, as they pointed out, having experienced the show themselves many times before. Read our full review now!