HEATHERS THE MUSICAL - Canberra Theatre

 

Emma Caporaso (Veronica Sawyer) - Amelia Rojas (Heather Duke ) -Calista Nelmes (Heather Chandler) - Abigail Sharp (Heather McNamara) in "Heather the Musical" 

Book Music and Lyrics by Kevin Murphy & Laurence O’Keefe

Direction by Andy Fickman – Choreographer and Associate Director, Garry Lloyd

Musical Director, Martine Wengrow – Set and Costumes designed by David Shields

Lighting design by Ben Cracknell – Sound design by Dan Samson

Produced by Bill Kenwright Ltd, Paul Taylor-Mills, GMG Productions and Stoddart Entertainment.

Canberra Theatre August 14^th to 23^rd 2026

Opening night performance on 14^th August reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

The Cast of "Heather the Musical"

The cult film favourite, Heathers, satirises 1980s high-school films. Writers Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe and director Andy Fickman have softened the 1989 film’s plot for this musical adaptation, in which outsiders Veronica and JD kill their tormentors.

While the predominantly youthful audience gave the musical an enthusiastic reception on opening night, some found the uneasy blend of comedy and cruelty, disturbing viewing in a world where High School massacres, youth suicides and school bullying are becoming the new norm.

Emma Caporaso as Veronica Sawyer and Conor Beaumont as JD in "Heather the Musical"

Heading the mainly young cast, Emma Caporaso, in her professional debut, performs with confidence. Her character, Veronica, having been unexpectedly welcomed into Westerberg High’s powerful trio of Heathers, falls for troubled newcomer JD, becoming implicated in deaths staged as suicides.

Caporaso makes Veronica’s shifting loyalties believable, moving from uneasy mean girl to thrilled insider, devoted girlfriend and, finally, a young woman strong enough to confront JD.

Conor Beaumont brings a restrained, unsettling presence to his characterisation of JD. Glimpses of the character’s pain emerge through his intense outbursts. Beaumont keeps JD dangerous without reducing him to a stock villain, bringing a convincing edge to his songs, Freeze Your Brain and Our Love is God.

Each Heather has her own distinct brand of polished cruelty. Calista Nelmes is cool and cutting as Heather Chandler, Amélia Rojas gives Heather Duke fierce ambition, and Abigail Sharp exposes the insecurity beneath Heather McNamara’s confidence.

Mel O'Brien as Martha and Emma Caporaso as Veronica Sawyer in "Heather's the Musical"

Sweet voiced, Mel O’Brien balances sadness and humour as the rejected Martha, and while David Cuny and Nic Van Lits work well together as Ram and Kurt, winning their fair share of the laughs, their characters’ menace never feels entirely comic.

Among the older characters Zoe Gertz brings strong comic timing and impressive vocals to her rendition of Ms Fleming’s misguided anthem, Shine a Light, although it was Ellis Dolan who achieved the most enthusiastic response of the night with his song, My Dead Gay Son.

The enthusiastic ensemble works hard delivering Gary Lloyd’s slick retro music-video inspired choreography with admirable precision.

David Shield’s impressive two-level school set, teamed with the excellent lighting design of Ben Cracknell, allows the action to flow seamlessly, but it is his cropped jackets matched with red, green and yellow tartan skirts that give the three Heathers the production’s clearest visual identity.

This production of Heathers the Musical delivers copious laughs, songs that are enjoyable rather than memorable, and a deliberately unsettling exploration of teenage anxiety, reinvention and rebellion. But perhaps best to leave Grandma at home for this one.

                                                    Photos by Cameron Grant, Parenthesis

                        This review first published in CITY NEWS on 15th August 2026 Link here

The Girl on the Train

 

 

 

 The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins & Dreamworks Film, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff & Duncan Abel.

Mockingbird Theatre at Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra, August 5 – 22 2026

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Aug 15

Cast
Rachel Watson – Morgan HeathWilliams; Tom Watson – Robert Weardon
Scott Hipwell – Timothy Cusack; Megan Hipwell – Susie Todd
Kamal Abdic – Ankush Singh Khanchi
Detective Inspector Gaskill – Paul Sweeney
Anna Watson – Sabrina Fu

Production Team
Director/Designer – Chris Baldock
Assistant Director – Dale Rheynolds
Stage Manager and Tech Operator – Aoife McFoley
Lighting Design – Rhiley Winnett and Chris Baldock
Projections and Video Design – Chris Baldock
Sound and Music Design – Chris Baldock
Costumes and Props – Chris Baldock, Dale Rheynolds and the cast
Intimacy Consultant – Steph Evans


The purpose of the best theatre is never merely to entertain, but, in doing so, it is to engage us in better understanding of ourselves, individually and as members of society.

The seemingly ironically named Mockingbird Theatre’s choice of the theme of domestic violence is vindicated this very morning as I write, by John Hanscombe’s The Echidna article, Sunday August 16 2026, in The Canberra Times: “A number that shames us all”.

“So far this year – and this number will in all likelihood be out of date by the time you read it – 30 women have been killed, according to the Counting Dead Women Australia register, too often by men known to them.  Partners, husbands, sons.”

Chris Baldock’s directing and design of this stage adaptation of the Paula Hawkins novel, and the quality of realism he achieves with his excellent team of actors, makes this production of The Girl on the Train essential viewing.  Only the very ending scene is questionable, as I see it, from a drama point of view.

The original novel raises a question of its scientific veracity, and a source such as the University of Warsaw : Tetiana Grebeniuk. Narrative Unreliability in Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train as a Strategy of Reader Immersion supports the science and says about reading the novel – 
“Attention is focused on two components of reader gratification as manifest in Hawkins’ novel: intellectual satisfaction due to the solution of the murder mystery (temporal immersion), as well as satisfaction resulting from the protagonist’s psychic recovery and revenge (emotional immersion)”.

https://www.researchgate.net/4050_Tetiana_Grebeniuk

Morgan Heath Williams is remarkable in creating an entirely realistic characterisation of that protagonist, Rachel Watson, described in Google AI as exhibiting – 

Reality invalidation: The antagonist exploits Rachel's self-doubt and drinking habits to make her believe she caused her own blackouts and violent behavior.

Self-gaslighting: Victims under prolonged abuse often internalize blame, convincing themselves their own perceptions are entirely untrustworthy.

Coercive control: The dynamic isolates the victim emotionally, creating total reliance on the abuser's version of events.

That antagonist is Tom Watson, played eerily by Robert Wearden as the least likely to be the murderer until finally found out by his ex-wife Rachel’s determination to find the truth.

The search for the truth makes the play something like a Sophocles tragedy – mythical but essential for understanding why such things happen.  On this point, in the ending scene, when Tom takes the child, his child, onto the railway track, I – and my wife – felt the tragedy would have reached its ultimate awfulness if the child had not been retrieved just in time, and had been killed by the train with him, in what could be seen as Tom’s suicide.

Of course, it was still not exactly a happy ending, if you imagine that baby growing up; but that ending softened, perhaps weakened, the dramatic effect – compared, I think, with the numbers reported in John Hanscombe’s article.

For example, Rosie Batty’s story, of her husband’s killing of their son Luke, and his threatening and then being killed by police, and her becoming a prominent domestic violence campaigner and being named the 2015 Australian of the Year, takes us from fiction to fact.  And gives Mockingbird’s The Girl on the Train all the justification it needs for its presentation today.

Not to be missed – and hopefully for an extended season or even tour, considering that a strength of the production is its in-the-round intimacy for a necessarily quite small audience.  Less is more, I suggest.

ANASTASIA THE BROADWAY HIT MUSICAL

 

 

Anastasia. Book by Terence McNally. Music by Stephen Flaherty. Lyrics by Lyn Ahrens.

Directed by Darko Tresnjak. Choreographed by Peggy Hickey. Musical Director David Piper. Set Design Alexander Dodge. Costume Design Linda Cho. Lighting Design Donald Holder. Sound Design Peter Hylenski. Video Design Aaron Rhyne. Hair/Wig Designs Charles G. LaPointe. Orchestrations Doug Besterman. Vocal Arrangements Stephen Flaherty. Dance Arrangements David Chase. Original Musical Supervisor  Tom Murray. John Frost for Crossroads Live and Opera Australia and Adelaide Festival Centre with Willow Wealth. Adelaide Festival Centre. Festival Theatre. Until August 31 2026. Bookings: 131246

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

The Australian Cast of Anastasia

Could the survival of Tsar Nicholas’s youngest child be merely a rumour? History has proclaimed it to be untrue. And yet the legend lives on and the mystery remains in the hearts and minds of many who may still find it difficult to believe that the Bolsheviks assassinated every member of the Romanov family during the 1917 Uprising. Whatever the case, the fairytale magically entranced the audience, transported and captivated by Stephen Flaherty’s enchanting music, intrigued by Lyn Ahren’s lyrics and enticed into the adventure from Soviet Russia to unconventional Paris by Terence McNally’s book. In Darko Tresnjak’s direction it becomes obvious that John Frost’s sumptuous and splendidly staged production of Anastasia presents a fusion of the elements that breathe new life into this century old myth.

Eleanor Flynn and nancy Hayes in Anastasia

McNally’s characters are the stuff of mystery drama. It begins with a conspiracy, concocted by rogues, Dmitry (Robert Tripolino) and Vlad (Rodney Dobson) who discover Anastasia look-alike Anya, a humble Leningrad street sweeper. Their task is to persuade the exiled Dowager Empress (Nancy Hayes) that the reformed Anya (Manon Gunderson-Briggs, excellently stepping into the role originally performed by Georgina Hopson in the production I saw) is indeed her beloved granddaughter. The subterfuge is threatened by the pursuit of the Soviet official Gleb (Joshua Robson), who Javier like must confront his human failing and unrequited love of Anya. One may perceive a Pygmalion reference in Anya’s transformation and echoes of Les Misérables in Gleb’s dereliction of his duty to kill the imposter. In a book that traverses time and countries McNally is careful to distil the essence of each dramatic moment in skilfully crafted vignettes, that advance the adventure with the aid of Peggy Hickey’s choreography, outstanding US video design and lighting design on Alexander Dodge’s grandiose set design. The production elements are awe-inspiring in the true tradition of the great Broadway Musical. From Hickey’s vibrant recreation of the Romanov ball to the delightfully staged moments of Tchaikowsky’s Swan Lake or the gayly abandoned Charleston of the Neva Café in Paris the stage explodes with colour and movement in Linda Cho’s costume designs. Everything about this production of Anastasia is imbued with stylish elegance and professional mastery.

Rhonda Burchmore as Countess Lily in Anastasia

From the very opening scenes of Romanov opulence and privilege and the eruption of revolutionary violence one is swept along by the sheer grandeur of director Tresnjak’s staging of this epic musical. The casting is impeccable. The legendary Nancy Hayes brings a dignified and imperial stature to the authoritative Dowager. Rhonda Burchmore’s Countess demonstrates comedic mischief with Rodney Dobson’s Vlad and Tripolino’s charming naivety appeals in his love for Anya.  Gunderson-Briggs takes on the demanding task of assuming the title role and enchants in her musical numbers  ( In MY Dreams and Journey to the Past). The success of the musical rests heavily on Gunderson-Briggs’s ability to arouse doubt in the veracity of history’s verdict and belief that the street sweeper could have been the escaped heir to the Romanov fortune. Gunderson-Briggs assumes the task convincingly and charmingly.

Robert Tripolino as Dmitry in Anastasia

Ultimately Anastasia succeeds as a reflection of our dreams and desires, a concocted fairy tale that holds the promise of fulfilled fantasies. It is why John Frost’s production for Crossroads Live and Opera Australia and the Adelaide Festival Centre and Willow Wealth is such a huge success and survives at a time when other musicals are folding throughout Australia. It appears that no expense has been spared in bringing this Broadway Hit Musical to Australian audiences with a superb Australian cast. The tragic tale of the Romanov assassination and the violence of the Revolution may not conjure an impression of an appealing subject for a musical. However, this outstanding production dispels all doubt and the rapturous applause of the audience around me, many of whom were young members of the audience, confirmed that the story of one woman’s dream became interwoven with their own.

Photos by Jeff Busby

 

THE JUNGLE AND THE SEA - Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse

Anandavalli as Gowri in "The Jungle to the Sea"

 

Co-Written and Directed by S.Shakthidharan & Eamon Flack

Set & costume design by Dale Ferguson – Composed by Arjunan Puveendran

Lighting design by Damien Cooper – Sound design by Steve Francis

Performed by Anandavalli – Indu Balachandran – Emma Harvie – Shiv Palekar – Dushan Philips – Nadie Kammallaweera – Arjunan Puveendran – Aswin Selvanathan – Hari Sivanesan- Kalieaswari Srinivasan -Rajan Velu.

Musicians: Indu Balachandran – Arjunan Puveendran

A Belvoir Theatre Production with Kurinji and Lingalayam Dance Companies.

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse 6^th – 9^th August 2026.

Matinee Performance on 9^th August reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

The family set out on their trek 
Kalieaswari Srinivasan - Anandavalli - Nadie Kammallaweera - Prakash Belawadie -
Emma Harvie - Najun Velu

 

Over nearly three hours, including two intervals, this engrossing epic production follows the experiences of a six-member Sri Lankan Tamil family from 1995 to 2022, during and after the civil war in Sri Lanka.

Eight actors perform multiple roles, except for the matriarch, Gowrie, portrayed by charismatic Bharatanatyam dancer Anandavalli.

The family’s religious beliefs vary. Gowrie is Hindu and her husband is Christian. Their eldest daughter, Abi, is Hindu, second daughter, Madhu is Christian and youngest daughter Lakshmi is an atheist. Their son Ahiklan is Hindu.

The narrative moves back and forth in time, with simple markers at the side of the stage, identifying each year.

When civil war shatters the family’s idyllic life and forces them from their home, Abi leaves to study in Sydney and Ahiklan joins the Tamils.

                               Gowrie vows to wear a blindfold until her family are united

                    Emma Harvie - Prakash Belawadie - Nadie Kammallaweea - Anandavalli

Gowrie reacts by putting on a blindfold, vowing to wear it until her children are reunited. She then sets out with Madhu and Lakshmi on a dangerous search for safety.

What is most remarkable is how clearly and effectively this complex story emerges with deceptively simple staging, as the actors share in seamlessly portraying the many characters Gowrie and her daughters encounter on their arduous journey.

Dale Ferguson’s starkly simple setting consisting of a grimy, bullet-scarred wall surrounding a constantly revolving stage. A raised platform to one side, accommodates the two musicians who create the music and sound effects, which include bomb blasts and rifle fire.

It grows increasingly evocative with the addition of model cars, trains, planes and even a miniature Harbour Bridge to signal shifts in place, time and travel, while the actors bring on and remove the necessary props.

The roadside wedding

Damien Cooper’s lighting design is especially impressive in the beautiful roadside wedding and the harrowing massacre scenes.

“The Jungle and the Sea” is a powerful, engrossing production which demonstrates the capacity of good theatre to illuminate human experience through deceptively simple staging and exceptional performances.

                                                          Photos by Sriram Jeyaraman

        This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ART REVIEW on August 16th Link here

 

Reading Frames: explorations in what makes a photograph work

Book Review by Brian Rope

Reading Frames: explorations in what makes a photograph work | W. Scott Olsen

The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City ©2026. All rights reserved.

Copyright for photographs remains with the individual photographers.

ISBN: 9781647692810 paperback | 9781647692827 epub

 

In 2020, I received an email from Tomash Trzebiatowski, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of FRAMES magazine asking if we could connect via Zoom. We did so nine days later. Six years on Tomasz and FRAMES have achieved extraordinary things. As I write the FRAMES Magazine Facebook group has 25,200 members.

I have read many of W. Scott Olsen’s monthly essays for FRAMES magazine. This book is some Olsen essays from the digital pages of FRAMES. Trzebiatowski correctly suggests Olsen’s writing is mentorship.

Using “plain language” for “people deeply involved in making photographs”, Olsen explains how images combine artistic elements and, thus, reach levels of sophistication and insight. Each essay starts Let’s begin with, and stay with, the image.

The first image I want to share here is by an Australian, Lyndall Gerlach. The Contemporary Lifestyle is a triptych I have seen before; once accompanied by these words:

It is 2021, 2 years into a pandemic that has so far killed 4,692,850 from 228,413,499 infected people. We are accepting there will be more deaths, as our society tries to find ‘normal’. My triptych illustrates life for some vulnerable ‘high risk’ people. It’s about their contemporary lifestyle choice, staying alive. Time and relationships irrelevant, days merge, contained, among written memories of other times, a far-seeing telescope, a couch to sleep on. Curtains shade reminders of life, alcohol dulls the pain and encourages sleep. Time passes. Painful aloneness, living it is a contemporary lifestyle for some.

The Contemporary Lifestyle by Lyndall Gerlach

In this book, Olsen writes beautifully describing the three parts of the triptych as the equivalent of a musical chord which has at least three notes played together, creating a richer, more nuanced combination. He suggests the three panels form an intellectual narrative.

Next, an image by Monica Riveiro from Spain. On her website she says photography inhabits a space between dreams and reality. Her image here is of two boys jumping into the sea from a pier. It is one of numerous street photography images she took in an urban space, Punta de Liquerique.

From Tales of Liquerique by Monica Riveiro

Olsen writes about the frozen moments that become photographs. He says at first glance the situation shown here was completely familiar, but that a deeper look revealed an inviting mystery. He suggests the somewhat ominous sky and city appearance in this black and white image would instead have a mood of summertime joy if it was in colour.

My third chosen image portrays a ballerina, photographed whilst the photographer was visiting Cuba. Cathy Cakebread, from the USA, uses photography as a way to slow down and, here, she has sought to capture the movement by doing just that – slowing it down.

Cuban Ballerina by Cathy Swain Cakebread 

Olsen discusses how to make a ballet image fresh and original and says Cakebread has done it wonderfully. He explores shapes in the setting, elements of art, the ballerina’s pose, our privileged point of view, and the defining blur. He tells us what he saw.

My fourth selection is a view from a hotel window in Scotland. We’ve all taken such shots. This is by Ross Duncan, another Australian. It shows some old, inhabited buildings. The central home here is deliciously lit becoming a feature we are drawn to. 

View from a hotel window by Ross Duncan 

Olsen talks about the title identifying the point of view - the photographer is in a temporary residence looking at someone else’s permanent home. He sees a sadness created in the disconnect between hotel and home and suggests the twilight image is mesmerising because that is a time of change.

Finally, I share an Italian renaissance. Photographer Giuseppe Gradella from Mantua in Italy believes in memories and dreams, and this fine-artwork has a beautiful dream-like feeling. 

Italian Renaissance by Giuseppe Gradella 

Olsen comments about the frosted glass both revealing and obscuring the woman holding it. He draws our attention to squares and right angles, to the direction of cascading light, to the visual and narrative motion in the still-life image. He sees a specific real woman, a specific real place – and a moment where one woman becomes every woman.

Exploring this book has made me think more about images that stop me - on webpages, in books, at exhibitions. I encourage you to do likewise.

This review is also available on the author's blog.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF - Theatre Royal - Sydney

Troy Sussman as Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof"

Book by Joseph Stein – Music by Jerry Bock – Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Directed by Jordan Fein – Resident Director: Gary Abrahams

Choreographed by Julia Cheng – Resident Choreographer: Christopher Tendai

Designed by Tom Scutt – Musical Director: Dominic Woodhead

Lighting Design by Aideen Malone – Sound Design by Nick Lidster

Presented by Trafalgar Theatre Productions, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Brian and Dayna Lee. Theatre Royal, Sydney, until 3 October 2026.

Matinee performance on 8 August 2026, reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

A moment in "Fiddler on the Roof"

Since its Broadway debut in 1964, “Fiddler on the Roof” has become one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals. Australian audiences first fell in love with Tevye, his wife Golde and their five daughters in 1967, when Hayes Gordon made an indelible impression as Tevye in the first Australian production.

Since then, Australia has seen many professional and amateur productions, and many memorable Tevyes, most modelled on the Hayes Gordon template.

I had my own opportunity to direct a production in 1978, with Australian Opera baritone Ronald Maconaghie in the role.

Much has changed since then, particularly in Australia, making the story feel more relevant, and more prescient, than ever. That relevance stirred an unfamiliar unease as the theatre’s fire curtain remained down five minutes after the advertised start time.

The unease began to lift when the curtain finally rose on a lone fiddler playing a plaintive melody. As the platform beneath him slowly rose and the villagers filled the stage to the stirring strains of “Tradition”, the effect was so visceral that tears streamed down my face.

Not tears of sadness, but of joy. Jordan Fein’s staging may be fresh and inventive, yet the resilient mamas, papas, sons and daughters of Anatevka remain as inspiring as ever, proudly declaring their roles and the traditions they follow.

Troy Sussman quickly weaves his magic and establishes himself as a memorable Tevye, the village milkman and elder, stoically facing life’s travails, including a lame horse, a long-suffering wife and five dependent daughters.

Troy Sussman as Tevye - Ben Adler as The Fiddler perform "If I Were a Rich Man"

Here, Tevye’s marvellous conversation with his maker, “If I Were a Rich Man”, is compromised by the fiddler’s presence. By directing many of the lyrics towards him, as though he were another villager rather than a cipher for Tevye’s attitude to life,  the song loses the privacy of Tevye’s special relationship.

The fiddler is far more prominent in this production, and when he is played with Ben Adler’s virtuosity, it would be a pity not to use him. Yet twice his presence feels intrusive, here, and in Act Two, when his instrumental duo with a clarinettist replaces the “Chavaleh” ballet.

Alexis Fishman as Golde and Troy Sussman as Tevye perform "Do You Love Me?"

Heartfelt performances abound. Alexis Fishman captures Golde’s irascibility while radiating maternal warmth; her “Do You Love Me?” duet with Tevye is a joy.

John Waters brings heft and exuberance to Lazar Wolf, the village butcher, particularly in the spectacular “To Life”, for which choreographer Julia Cheng gives the excellent male dancers a vigorous workout.

John Waters as Lazar Wolf and villagers perform "To Life".

Despite the brilliance of Cheng’s work elsewhere, the original Jerome Robbins choreography is retained for the celebrated “Bottle Dance” in the wedding scene. Brilliantly executed by this cast, it remains a production highlight.

Ellen Ebbs as Hodel - Freya Boltman as Tzietel - Caity Plummer as Chava perform "Matchmaker, Matchmaker". 

Astute casting allows each of Tevye’s daughters to register as an individual. Freya Boltman is a charmingly determined Tzeitel, the first to test her father’s resolve by persuading him to break tradition and permit her marriage to Felix Star’s delightfully eccentric tailor, Motel.

Ellen Ebbs is entirely believable as Hodel, Tevye’s second daughter, who loses her heart to the revolutionary tutor Perchik, played by Maxwell Simon. Their duet, “Now I Have Everything”, following Tevye’s second capitulation, receives an exuberant staging that contrasts with Hodel’s later, heart-wrenching farewell, “Far from the Home I Love”.

It is Chava, his third and favourite daughter, beguilingly played by Caity Plummer, who pushes Tevye to the brink. Her love for Jacob Steen’s young Russian, Fyedka, forces him to choose between religion, tradition and his daughter.

At this performance, Danielle Barnes played the village matchmaker Yente in Sigrid Thornton’s absence. Damien Bermingham, who understudies both Tevye and Lazar Wolf, brought a strong presence to Avram in a cast distinguished by individuality and commitment.

Conceived for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Tom Scutt’s minimalist design consists of an open stage surrounded by sheaves of wheat and relies on Aideen Malone’s evocative lighting for atmosphere and visual interest. Tables, chairs and essential props are carried on and off by cast members, who sit around the stage’s perimeter as observers. This approach keeps the focus firmly on Anatevka’s residents.

It also showcases Fein’s inventive staging, especially his remarkable re-staging of the nightmare, as well as wedding and pogrom scenes.

Yet because the sparse design offers few clues about what the villagers are leaving behind, the final scene, when they sing of their longing for Anatevka while gathering their meagre possessions, loses some of its impact.

Quibbles aside, this joyous, exuberantly performed reimagining of a superbly written musical, with its life-affirming story of family, perseverance and tradition, is a theatrical experience not to be missed.

                                                                 Photos by Daniel Boud.

                             This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. Link here

The Winter's Tale - Mill Theatre

 

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare.  The Mill Theatre, Dairy Road, Canberra. August 5-15 2026 inc. previews.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Opening night August 12

Cast

Aleksis Andreitchenko: Hermione and Perdita
Dakota Paull: Cleomenes, Archidamus, and Shepherd
Jarrah Palethorpe: Polixenes; Jennifer Noveski: Emilia and Mariner
Joanna Tollis: Camillo and Officer; Max Wilson: Leontes
Tabby Silberman: Paulina and Mamillius
Nick Parr: Antigonus and Florizel
Phoebe Chua: Female & Non-Binary Contingency Actor
Chipz Jin: Contingency Actor

Production Team

Director: Heidi Silberman; Production Designer: Tania Jobson
Production Stage Manager: Steph Evans
Lighting Designer: Will Smith; Sound Designer: Lexi Sekuless
Technical Directors and Mentors: Ezekiel Chalmers, Andrew Snell and Tim Sekuless
Assistant Production Designer: Chris Jobson; Verse Nurse: Lexi Sekuless
Photographer: Daniel Abroguena
Producer: Lexi Sekuless Productions

Major Sponsor: Sidestage
Front of House: Heidi Silberman and Lexi Sekuless


Energy and enthusiasm are the life blood of theatre.  The Mill Theatre tonight was bursting out all over.  Does it matter that not every Shakespearen syllable is reverently enunciated?  Not a jot, in this expressionist style, telling us this weird Ancient Greeky myth about a baby found by a shepherdess who turns out to be a king’s daughter.

Not quite the Oedipus Rex story, but certainly about familial relationships going astray – with love in a happy ending, despite some family violence on the way.  Just the thing for modern times, and The Mill presentation of “its first-ever Youth Production, created for emerging actors aged 18-25.  More than a training opportunity, this is a fully realised Mill Theatre production, created to the same professional standards and production values as every show in our mainstage season.”

From this production, full of action, very loud noises off (effectively ‘on’ in the tiny Mill Theatre), fast and forceful speaking and tyrannical decision-making (some seriously reminding me of President Trump), you might think Will wrote this as a young actor challenging social expectations, perhaps just like today’s cast, full of instant emotional reactions.

I’m not unhappy with director Heidi Silberman’s take on the play – often seeming like a satirical comedy version of the myth, rather than taking it too seriously.  And yet I have to admit that when Bell Shakespeare put it on in 2014 (see https://frankmckone2.blogspot.com/search?q=Winter%27s+Tale+2014 ), I was equally impressed with seeing the play as magical and sad, set in a children’s nursery.

In fact Shakespeare wrote The Winter’s Tale in 1610, in his mid-forties, and produced it at The Globe in 1611, in the period scholars call his “late romantic”, making it a metaphorical play, picked up again in The Tempest, about power in society.

In the end, this youthful energy in The Mill production achieves Shakespeare’s end – that it is only love that holds us together.  And you feel that love is there among this young team of actors – surely the message we all need to appreciate in theatre.

A new Mill Theatre original – well worth watching.

 

 

 

 

ANU - LUNCHTIME FACULTY RECITAL

Edward Neeman, piano

Larry Sitsky Recital Room August 11

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

It was a lunchtime recital with a bit of everything – melody, drama, emotion and a hint of greatness.

The centrepiece of the recital was the Sonata in F minor by Australian composer, Frederick Septimus Kelly. Incomplete, it was his last work before his death in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 in World War I. Pianist, Edward Neeman, played two complete movements and the fragment of a third movement which had been sketched out prior to Kelly’s final return to the war.

The first movement was highly dramatic, even heroic. Hints of war and other colourful moments were quite breathtaking in their complexity. The second movement was beautifully, almost painfully melodic and the fragment of the third movement showed the potential so cruelly interrupted. Neeman gave it a sensitive and highly satisfying performance, leaving us wondering about the work Kelly might have done had he lived.

Edward Neeman

Also on the program was the Piano Piece No. 6 in F sharp minor by Elisabeth von Herzogenberg. A student and close friend of Johannes Brahms, a small amount of her work was only published by her husband after her untimely death at age 45. This richly melodic work again showed the composer’s potential, especially at a time where women had little opportunity to have their work acknowledged.

Two works by Brahms followed - the Capriccio in F sharp minor, Op. 76, No. 1 and the Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 76, No. 6. Neeman brought out the sublime melodies and emotion of these works, and it was interesting to compare them with Herzogenberg’s work.

Also played was Robert Schumann’s Variations on the name “ABEGG”, Op. 1 which was based on the musical notes spelled out by the name Abegg. Keeping track of the ingenious variations was fun and Neeman gave it a performance of great clarity.

The recital finished with Etude No. 12 in D minor by FS Kelly. This highly dramatic work full of tumbling emotions was well played by Neeman and reminded us yet again of the untimely loss of this composer.

 

Photo by Stephanie Neeman

 

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 12 August 2026.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

Len Power also presents the weekly Concert Hall program on Artsound FM, playing recordings of some of the best concerts from in and around Canberra. Concert Hall can be heard on Sundays at 8pm and is repeated on Wednesdays at 2pm.

  

THE DROVERS WIFE - Opera Australia - Sydney Opera House

 

Nina Korbe (Molly) - Shauntai Abdul-Rahman (Black Mary) - in Opera Australia's "The Drover's Wife"

Composed by George Palmer AM– Libretto by Leah Purcell AM with George Palmer AM.

Conducted by Tahu Matheson- Directed by Leah Purcell AM

Associate Director: Imara Savage - Choreographed by Yolande Brown

Set Design by Isabel Hudson -Costume Design by Tess Schofield

Sound Design by Michael Waters – Video Design by Craig Wilkinson

Produced by Bain Stewart for Oombarra Productions

Joan Sutherland Theatre – Sydney Opera House - Aug 7 to Aug. 15, 2026

Opening night performance reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

The cast of Opera Australia's "The Drover's Wife".

A new Australian opera is a rarity – a new First Nations opera in the Sydney Opera House is a moment of history. As Leah Purcell said prior to the Sydney premiere, “If we get this right, it’s gonna be something special”.

Judging from the enthusiastic standing ovation from the capacity audience at the end of the Sydney premiere performance, they certainly got it right, bigtime.

Composer, George Palmer, recognised the operatic possibilities inherent in Henry Lawson’s classic 1892 short story about a heavily pregnant young mother, Molly Johnson, left alone to care for her three children in a remote Snowy Mountains hut, while her husband was out droving.

Palmer found an enthusiastic collaborator to work with him on the libretto, in Leah Purcell. Besides mining Lawson’s story as the source for her best-selling novel, Purcell had performed Molly Johnson in the play and film adaptations.

Purcell also directed the resultant opera for its premiere season earlier this year in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre brand new Glasshouse Theatre, as she has these triumphant performances in the Sydney Opera House.

An outstanding feature of the opera is how comfortably the Purcell’s libretto responds to Palmer’s operatic treatment, which is epic, and superbly interpreted by the Opera Australia Orchestra sensitively conducted by Tahu Matheson who has been involved in the creation of the opera since its very beginning.

The initial shock of hearing Australian slang and indigenous language interwoven through Palmer’s ravishing score soon evaporates as the power of the storytelling begins to take over.

Nina Korbe (Molly) - Marcus Corowa (Yadaka) and the cast of Opera Australia's
"The Drover's Wife"

Played out in a truly beautiful setting designed by Isabel Hudson, in which a giant fallen snow gum dominates the stage. The tree provides shelter and protection for Molly Johnson and her brood, as well as a meeting place for the first nation people who keep a watchful eye over the family. Magically, the background divides to indicate the passing of time, the changes of seasons, and most particularly, the blazing stars of the Snowy Mountains.

Molly Johnson (Nina Korbe) treats all intruders with suspicion in her efforts to protect her family. However, the audience only meet her eldest child, Danny, who is bordering on manhood, and sensitively interpreted by Nick Smith.

Nina Korbe (Molly) - Marcus Corowa (Yadaka) - in "The Drover's Wife"

When a young aboriginal man, Yadaka (Marcus Corowa), on the run after being wrongly accused of murder, offers to work for Molly in return for food and sustenance, Danny is attracted by characteristics he perceives in Yadaka and is keen to emulate, Danny implores his mother to let him stay. Molly relents and an uneasy friendship begins to form between her and Yadaka.

However, tensions soon begin to surface between Molly and Yadaka when he informs her of her own aboriginality.

Marcus Corowa (Yadaka) - Shane Lowrencev (Douglas Merchant) in "The Drovers Wife"

Meanwhile, having been alerted by a passing peddler (Shane Lawrencev) to Yadaka’s presence on Molly’s property Trooper Leslie (Elias Wilson) and townspersons, Robert Parsen (Simon Meadows) and John McPharlen (Zoy Frangos) arrive, setting off a chain of truly horrifying events.

 Six First Nation dancers, among them Yolanda Lowatta and Waangenga Blanco, both well-known to Canberra audiences, together with Vanessa Coolwell, Leonard Donahue, Jeanette Fabila and Zoy Frangos, provide a mystical connection between past and present as they watch over the young mother.

Yolanda Lowatta in "The Drover's Wife"

Tess Schofield has costumed the dancers in soft earthy floating fabrics of which choreographer, Yolonde Brown, takes full advantage to create ghostly swirling images with which the dancers herald the ghastly events that climax the opera.

Purcell’s direction is secure and direct. She doesn’t shirk confronting images, nor is she afraid of sentimentalism, as in the beautiful first act aria, when Molly lullabies her stillborn baby with “Sleep my little child, Sleep my child”.

In the role which will define her career, Nina Korbe gives a compelling performance as the unfortunate Molly, a tragic heroine unafraid of uninvited intruders who threaten her security and that of her children.

Korby contrasts Molly’s stoicism with an appealing wistfulness and pristine vocals, especially in her lovely second act aria, “Each Night in the Silence of the Moonlight”, sung to the exquisite harp accompaniment of Natalie Wong, in which Molly longs for a gentler existence than the one in which she endures confronting beatings, even rape. 

Nina Korbe as Molly in "The Drover's Wife" 

 Her friendship with Yadaka provides her only hope of escape, but even that is cruelly dashed when he is subjected to a grisly fate.

As Yadaka, Marcus Corowa sings and acts with assurance, exuding gentleness and strength, qualities which inspire the young Danny to become the protector of his mother and siblings.

With this production Opera Australia have found a monumental opera of wide appeal, graced with a stunning score and gripping story to match and truly deserving of a place as a staple in its repertoire. It’s an opera every Australian should have the opportunity to experience. 

Nina Korbe as Molly and Nick Smith as Danny in "The Drover's Wife"

 

                                                            Photos by Carlita Sari

                                     This review also published in Australian Arts Review.Link Here