A rabblerousing and riveting display of humour and talent, the Melbourne University Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Richard III proved to be an enjoyable and in your face interpretation of the Shakespearean tragedy. Packaging together laughter, lust, and a solid amount of filth, Filthy Rick spilled the guts of its rowdy and turbulent characters to deliver a thoroughly engaging production. The first point of success for … Continue reading Filthy Rick: Dirty Deeds Done Well

The plot of Legally Blonde will be familiar to most people, and though there are some differences between the popular movie and the stage musical, the celebration of friendship and traditional femininity is still central. With so many big musical numbers requiring strong voices and dedicated dancers, it’s certainly an ambitious choice for student theatre, especially for first time director Alex Guérin. But while there … Continue reading Legally Blonde: Time to Get Serious

FLW’s BABY is a semi-narrative, semi-surreal exploration of motherhood, and more broadly womanhood in general. Created and directed by Amy Spurgeon in collaboration with the cast and creative team, BABY presents a thematically and theatrically engaging piece of new theatre. The script navigates seamlessly through the banter of teenage girls, mythological story telling and intense soliloquy, all the while maintaining a balance between making its … Continue reading BABY: A Little Bundle of Brilliance

Trinity College’s production of This Random World presents a non-naturalistic mosaic of tonally diverse, confidently acted scenes in a meditation on human interconnectedness. While there is no strict plot and the characters’ meetings are coincidental and brief – some never even exchanging names – the play elicits a deeply felt sense of intimacy. Deftly traversing the potentially logy themes of love and death, Lucinda Halls … Continue reading This Random World: About Chance

St Hilda’s production of 9 to 5 The Musical screams ultimate girl power! In our journey through ‘Consolidated Industries,’ we meet three women who are connected in an unknown and surprising way. Violet (Anna Zehrung) is a widow who is constantly proving herself worthy of a promotion but is denied due to her gender. Doralee (Elsa Vartola) is your typical country bombshell who just wants to be … Continue reading 9 to 5 The Musical: Girl Power

“You’re not what I want but you are what I need” Scout Boxall’s Self Preservation is a beautiful new play exploring the complicated relationship between people with chronic illnesses and their medication. The piece, divided in three distinct acts exploring three illnesses, combines elements of physical theatre, poignant monologues, and some dark humour. Prior to writing Self Preservation, Boxall researched the topic in depth, drawing … Continue reading Self Preservation: Keep on Keeping on

Bookended by two lively musical numbers, the Law Revue presents an entertaining and high energy night of comedy. With excellent projection, characters and a play on the fear of dreaded audience interaction, the show is composed of two acts of engaging and contrasting sketches. The revue is polished and lively, presenting a wide variety of scenes, from ensemble driven musical parodies to a solo raver … Continue reading Sketchual Healing: Full Credit to the Cast

Edna Pontellier and Nora Helmer are two famous literary women, from Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House respectively. Despite their differences, the characters share one crucial similarity: both leave their husbands at a time when to do so was radical and condemned. In adrift in my ocean of sugar tears, written and directed by Adelaide Greig, the original characters are uprooted … Continue reading adrift in my ocean of sugar tears: Learning to Swim

Jess Zanoni’s Tunnel Vision presented a complex realisation of the intricacies of interpersonal crisis, introspection, and living for and around others. Drawing an audience into the tightknit world of its five equally idiosyncratic characters, Tunnel Vision left you feeling like you’d been leafing through the pages of a detailed and revealing journal. The production’s primary strength was its prolonged and in-depth character development. Each character … Continue reading Tunnel Vision: Up Close and Personal