PLAYBACK (Or, a play about but not starring a famous politician)

 

Playback (Or a play about but not starring a famous politician) by Tom Glassey.

Directed by Craig Alexander. Cast Andrea Close and Tyler Jenkins. Caroline O’Brien (Voice of Debt Collector).  Lighting and Stage Design Veronique Bennet. Costume Design Leah Ridley. Luke Patterson Videographer and Editor. Diana Nixon Voice Coach. Development Consultant Ross Mueller. A Street produced professional theatre production. Developed through The Street’s Resident Theatre Production. Street Two. The Street Theatre. May 22-31 2026. Bookings: www.thestreet.org.au

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Tom Glassey’s writing is razor sharp, pointed with knife-edged perception and the thrust of opinion. His new play Playback (Or a play about but not starring a famous politician), developed through the Street Theatre’s Resident Theatre Production is finely honed satire, subtle yet undeniably resonating with uncomfortable truth. The plot is  purposefully unambiguous. An ambitious young man (Tyler Jenkins) worms and lies his way into securing a job as a videographer for Deborah Grant (Andrea Close), a former broadcaster, edged out in favour of a new and younger breed and now the producer of her political podcast Proper Gander. Maybe Glassey’s intent is not so subtle after all.  Grant is after a scoop, hot on the trail of political obfuscation and discombobulation. She has managed to secure an interview with Scott Morrison after his valedictory speech to the Parliament . Morrison is the perfect target for her campaign to exhaust and assassinate, to expose the perpetrator and exonerate all responsibility from those presumed guilty before being proven innocent. 

Tyler Jenkins in Tom Glassey's 

Playback (Or a play about but not starring a famous politician

Part documentary, part political drama, part investigative journalism Tom Glassey's Playback(Or, a play about but not starring a famous politician) rattles the saber, slices through the dramatic events of Scott Morrison’s time in office and grapples with the motives and ethics that resulted in disastrous consequences for ordinary Australians. Glassey’s play is an attempt to elicit answers and cut a swathe through the mediocrity of a man whose complexity became the root cause of inane judgement and contradiction. As a Press Gallery journalist and podcast enthusiast, Glassey’s insightful perception of   the motives and manipulation of political opportunism feeds an engaging and thought-provoking one act reality doco. It is made even more riveting by the fact that in Playback(Or, a play about but not starring a famous politician) the past is no foreign country. The past remains presently raw, charred by the ashes of the 2019 bushfires, buffeted by the accounts of lost souls and refugee boats cast against the rocks and victims of government actions that fail to protect. Videographer Luke Patterson unearths footage that utters condemnation in its images.

Andrea Close as podcaster Deborah Grant

 And yet, Glassey’s play is not solely cast in acrimonious condemnation. Confusion befuddles any partiality.  We see the child actor in film footage of a young Morrison playing Oliver alongside his father as Fagin.  We see the devoted groom with his beloved bride Jenny.  We see the adoring family man. We see the devout man of God. We see the man espousing virtuous values in his Maiden speech. It is here that we see Glassey’s search for answers as he attempts to reconcile with the man who doesn’t hold a hose, goes on holiday as Cobago burns, helps his kind and turns his back on others, destroys lives with the law and holds multiple portfolios. Glassey’s crafting of his drama is masterful, leading us towards empthy one moment while casting us into doubt the next. One man is neither wholly good, nor bad. And yet Jenkins’s enigmatic Man is entirely single-minded in his ambition. Close’s Deborah Grant is obsessed with discovering that one question that will destroy any doubt in the cat and mouse game of political journalism. Glassey is careful to avoid prejudicial condemnation and yet his play leaves little doubt of calumny.

 A wave of anger consumes me at the announcement of a Robodebt victim’s death. The emotion has been building during the seventy-minute drama. Director Craig Alexander directs his excellent cast with purposeful intent, allowing an audience to reflect in the  pauses and differentiate Jenkins’s quirky  and ambitious zeal with Close’s vulnerability as she strives to hold on to past professional dominance. Power shifts and we see Grant grapple with personal and professional challenges. Close and Jenkins are superbly cast. The generational difference is expertly played with believability that gives the production authenticity. The Street’s Resident Theatre Production initiative offers an outstanding opportunity for the development of new works with a consultant, in this case Ross Mueller, to guide the process. 

 I leave the theatre with more questions than answers. And yet Glassey’s play does raise one lasting question “What is legacy and how can it be defined?” For me this is the one query that made Playback (Or, a play about but not starring a famous politician) a must see production.

Photographs by Nathan Smith Photography 

 

 

 

SHELTERING - Bangarra Dance Theatre - Canberra Theatre

Daniel Mateo in "Brown Boys" - Photo: Cass Eipper

Canberra Theatre Centre May 23 - 27, 2026.               

Premiere performance May 23^rd reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

2026 is shaping up to be a memorable year for Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Fresh from its Sydney Opera House season of Flora, a co-production with the Australian Ballet, Bangarra is premiering Sheltering in Canberra ahead of its first national tour of 2026.

Sheltering is partly a celebration of Bangarra’s international recognition after the Vienna Biennale Danza 2026 awarded the company the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The honour will be presented before Bangarra performs Terrain at the Biennale Danza, the Festival of Contemporary Dance in Venice, in July.

Fittingly, Sheltering gives the company a chance to present a triple bill that honours both its past and its future.

Bangarra dancers perform "Keeping Grounded" in SHELTERING 

Photo: Daniel Boud

The first work is a remount of Keeping Grounded, created for the 2023 program Dance Clan by NAISDA Dance College graduate Glory Tuohy-Daniell, who joined Bangarra in 2016 through the Russell Page Graduate Program.

Keeping Grounded is dominated by a huge net designed by Shana O’Brien, first revealed draped over eight dancers. Created to honour Indigenous connection to land, the work opens with what appears to be a mound of earth at centre stage.

Tamara Bouman and Daniel Mateo in "Keeping Grounded"

Photo: Daniel Boud

As Karen Norris’s evocative lighting slowly reveals the stage, the dancers emerge through holes in the net and perform intricately choreographed floor sequences—first with their arms, then with their whole bodies.

Subtle lighting shifts and the constant repositioning of the net allow Tuohy-Daniell to explore its possibilities as a moving sculpture through which the dancers climb, swing and play.

The work unfolds in six sections, danced in varying combinations and marked by subtle costume changes. Designed by Clair Parker, the costumes range from loose earth-toned pants and tops to striking brown unitards.

Although the significance of each section is not always clear, the effect is mesmerising, not least because the dancers perform Tuohy-Daniell’s demanding choreography with impressive skill and precision.

"Sheok" in SHELTERING. Chantell Lee Lockhart (Keeper) (c)

Photo: Daniel Boud

The evening’s major work is Sheoak, created by Frances Rings in 2015 in response to the threat of Aboriginal community closures and the misconception that life in remote communities was merely a “lifestyle choice”.

Little appears to have changed since then, and Rings’s revival of this seminal work has lost none of its force. Across its three sections—Place, Body and Spirit—it celebrates the resilience of First Nations women.

The choice is especially resonant because Sheoak is set to the last score David Page composed for the company before his death in 2016.

The printed program includes a moving tribute to Page’s contribution as a songman, storyteller and performer, and as composer for twenty-seven Bangarra productions.

Since its inception, Bangarra has been celebrated for a design aesthetic grounded in natural elements. This production offers superb examples from three artists central to that reputation: Jennifer Irwin (costumes), Jacob Nash (set) and Karen Norris (lighting).

Bangarra dancers performing "Sheoak" in SHELTERING.

Photo: Edward Mulvihill.

At first, Irwin dresses the dancers in striking white two-piece costumes overprinted with black tree-branch silhouettes. Nash complements them with old-growth scar tree poles that descend from above and become part of the choreography.

Later, Irwin overlays these costumes with extraordinary skeleton-like waistcoats, giving the dancers a zombie-like appearance. In an aggressive male section, the dancers push and shove one another while dressed in black streaked with red, suggestive of blood.

For the final section, Spirit, Irwin costumes the company in flowing pants for the men and skirts for the women.

Bangarra dancers perform "Sheoak" in SHELTERING.

Photo: Daniel Boud

Linking the two works is the striking six-minute film Brown Boys.

Co-directed by Daniel Mateo and Cass Mortimer Eipper, choreographed by Mateo, with music by Leon Rodgers and design by Elizabeth Gadsby, the film reinforces the program’s central theme.

A meditation on the dislocation from Country felt by young urban brown boys, it is gorgeously shot by Liam Brennan and compellingly performed and spoken by Mateo. It also provides an imaginative way to avoid breaking the program’s mood with an interval.

   This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

MR. DARCY'S NIECE

 

A talk by Penny Ashton. The Street Theatre 3pm May 24.

 

NZ performer Penny Ashton sandwiched this little talk about her working life as a performer and a deviser of shows into a brief Canberra season of her Jane Austen one woman show Promise and Promiscuity. A knowledgeable audience jammed onto the show’s set to listen to the whys and wherefores of a performer’s  life in these modern times.

 

The talk ranged fascinatingly from the kid leaping around in youthful shows in Aotearoa to the older actor forging a path, that, it turns out, contains quite a few literary tributes and manglings. Austen’s clearly a favourite, however.

 

And it turns out that Ashton has a personal link. She’s the 5th great grand niece of one Thomas Langlois Lefroy who may or may not have been a serious bidder for Jane Austen’s hand and who may or may not have been a model for Mr Darcy. She absolutely and rightly delights in having found such an appropriate connection.

 

And so did the talk’s audience.

 

She connected her touring travels to a discussion of Austen’s personal life and restrictions on gender. She made links between the punishing lives of convict women in Tasmania and the restrictions placed on Austen because of gender. The perils of child bearing. You might want to stay unmarried. Poverty, patterns of inheritance that favoured men and the lack of access to education are part of Austen’s story.

 

She touched on the precarious existence of arts workers and praised the excellent support The Street Theatre was giving a passing performer like her. They pay her. The tech support is terrific. She travels with her costumes but has to borrow some pieces of period furniture - a table, a chair, a carpet, a screen, and maybe a big  potted plant  - in each location Promise and Promiscuity plays. That can mean a lot of scrounging. At The Street the items were found for her.

She expressed amazement at the state of things on London Circuit and has now got a picture of the ongoing and everlasting diggings on her slide sequence.

 

And she likes a gobo. For those of you not the children of an old Christchurch born theatre lighting bloke, that’s a metal pattern put into a stage lantern to create an effect like light coming through leaves or a window that never has to be built. You can do the Forest of Arden or the whole nunnery in Sound of Music without building a thing.

 

But Ashton was there to talk about Jane Austen and the lovely imaginative funny use she makes of her work and she described the development of all of this to an audience who had seen the show the night before or were just about to.

 

Promise and Promiscuity is not her only foray into Austenesque shows as tantalising clips showed. Nor, happily, is it likely to be the last. All of this affectionate parody is an ongoing tribute, greatly appreciated by audiences who know that countryside, the films, the many series and at the core of it all, the novels themselves.

  

Alanna Maclean

 

 

LES MISERABLES - Queanbeyan Players - Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre

The cast of Queanbeyan Players production of "Les Miserables"

Director: Dale Rheynolds – Assistant Director: Sarah Powell 

Movement Director: Belinda Hassall – Production Manager: David Tricks

 

Musical Director: Brigid Cummins – Conductor: Jen Hinton

 

Costume Designer: Helen McIntyre – Set Designer: David Abbie 

Lighting Designer: Zac Harvey – Sound Designer: Telia Jansen

The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. May 22nd to June 6th, 2026 

Opening night performance reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Set in 19th century France Les Miserables has been running continuously on the West End in London since 1985. Despite numerous productions around the world, audiences never seem to tire of the epic scale of it’s up-lifting story nor the glorious score in which every song is a classic. 

Although Canberra audiences have been treated to quite a few productions of this musical over the years, there are many reasons why this newest production by Queanbeyan Players deserves your attention. Not least, the intriguing concept for the production by first- time director, Dale Rheynolds. 

Rheynolds has conceived a production in what you don’t see is almost as important as what you do, embracing a colourless set design by David Abbie which first appears deceptively simple, but surprises with its flexibility. 

The brilliant lighting design by Zac Harvey hides set changes behind walls of light, which miraculously don’t blind the viewer, but allow subsidiary characters and ensemble to appear and disappear through the shadows while keeping the storytellers clearly in focus.

Sophie Hope-White (Cosette) - Alexander Unikowski (Marius)

To enhance her beautifully staged set-pieces Rheynolds relies on Helen McIntyre’s resourceful costuming to provide colour, and Belinda Hassal’s imaginative movement direction to keep the stage alive with well-executed group movement. 

It is obvious that the production has required a huge team effort from the company and Rheynolds has marshalled her resources wisely to achieve fully committed performances from her large cast. 

Being a fully sung-through show Les Miserables requires huge musical resources to do justice to Schonberg’s glorious score. Musical Director Brigid Cummins has assembled a first-rate team of musicians, conducted by Jen Hinton, who are certainly up to the task. 

However, there were moments where essential lyrics were lost in the mix. Hopefully this can be rectified in future performances because in a sung-through show, clarity of lyrics is essential.

 

Dave Smith (Jean Valjean)

In an excellent cast, both Dave Smith (Jean Valjean) and Max Gambale (Javert) appeared to be struggling vocally, no doubt due to a strenuous rehearsal week leading up to opening night. 

However, both gave superb performances in their roles, and both deservedly earned cheers for their renditions of "Stars" (Javert) and "Bring Him Home" (Jean Valjean) as did Jess Waterhouse as Fantine for "I Dreamed a Dream" and India Cornwell for "On My Own" (Eponine).

 

Jess Waterhouse (Fantine) 

There were excellent performances aplenty in this cast though, particularly from Sophie Hope-White (Cosette), Alexander Unikowski (Marius) and William Allington (Enjolas). 

Queanbeyan Players have achieved a high-water mark with this inventive production of a musical classic.

                                        Photos by Ben Appleton - Photox

    This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 23.05.26

Sheltering

Bangarra Dance Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre,

Until May 27.

Reviewed by SAMARA PURNELL.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this review contains the name and image of a deceased person. 

Sheltering is a triple bill dance production that honours both past and present, with a remount of the 2015 work Sheoak alongside two works from emerging artists. It also fondly remembers David ‘Dubboo’ Page, the brother of former artistic director Stephen Page, and composer for Bangarra over many years. Of all his beautiful soundscapes created for the company, Sheoak was his last. 

Dancers move under a heavy net, slowly spreading and rising until they emerge, to a slow thumping beat. Keeping Grounded is the contemporary work choreographed by Glory Tuohy-Daniell, exploring "An energetic connection to the earth and ancestral land" as the program explains.

Holes that look like burns allow dancers to move in and out of the net, beginning with playful swaying in the net and popping through the holes. Some lovely partner work was on display - dancers appeared to playfully confront each other, clutching a handful of each other's costumes as they lifted and rolled around each other. The choreography is angular with some movements being robotic and with moments of jerking or vibrating - those weaved subtly through the final dance work and gave it a choreographic reference point. 

Photo by Daniel Boud

The dancers were costumed in tops and pants in a neutral palette before reemerging in unitards of brown and ochre.

A straight jacket was passed between the dancers, possibly to symbolise intergenerational incarceration. It also appeared to represent a struggle of fitting into an imposed routine and a loss of connection to roots. 

Brown Boys is a short film by Daniel Mateo and Cass Mortimer Eipper, filmed against the stark white backdrop of a film studio set. Mateo stands in a small structure made of talas (Tongan mats, representing that side of his heritage) and recites his own poetry recalling what it was like growing up a brown boy, whilst extreme close-ups focus on his hands, feet, his tattoos and beautiful brown eyes. Dirt and sand run over his hands, representing his Aboriginal heritage and he smears ochre across his face as he speaks of dirt and honey, love and hurt. He is at once parts and whole, connecting to and consumed by his bond to culture and Country. As the film concludes and the camera zooms out, he is owning his identity, standing proud with waist-high earth forming a protective skirt around him as he proclaims that “brown boys have been beautiful for a long while”.

A remount of Sheoak, premiered in 2015 and choreographed by Bangarra artistic director Frances Rings, with a score by David Page was the final piece in Sheltering. The program notes explain that “Sheoak tree branches symbolise indigenous culture passed through generations, its trunk stands for strong leadership and self-determined governance, and its roots anchor us in culture and lore”.

Striking costumes by Jennifer Irwin were exceptional to observe - fitted shorts in a silver and black snake print, with black and white textured bodices depicting a backbone, ribs, perhaps even gills. Ghost-like and beautiful. 

Photo by Daniel Boud from previous staging of Sheoak

The work covers a lot but there is a focus on feminine energy as  redemptive and protective. Chantelle Lee Lockhart embodies the keeper - a shamanic figure who oversees and protects yet bears a heavy burden.

The side-lighting, dramatic costumes, and Page’s soundscape creates a mysterious and captivating atmosphere. The male group dance, with unified choreography is a highlight, before the women appear in pretty, sheer tunics and silhouetted by dawn, with a softness and calming energy that would be used to try to save the men who have been affected by drugs, alcohol and violence. The men twitch, stagger and throw punches, the red and black skirts look like blood on skin, in a confronting depiction.

Large sticks are used as a burden to carry, a fence to form, a hunting tool and a legacy to pass on, before curved branches descend around the dancers, forming a ribcage, in a striking stage design. These branches seem to offer a choice of redemption, an escape or a return to despair. 

The segment of two dancers wrapped in a glowing blanket wasn’t clear in its purpose and didn’t fit in. The work concluded with ghostly figures emerging from mist and imagery of a fossil tree. 

It was exciting to see that many new, talented dancers have joined Bangarra, with Roxie Syron and Donta Whitham giving especially eye-catching performances. Sheltering is a contemporary style bill, introducing several new dancers and emerging choreographers, and bringing David Page’s meditative soundscapes to the stage again, by this much-loved company. 

Timeline of David Page's works. Taken from official program

An edited version of this review appears at citynews.com.au

SHELTERING BANGARRA DANCE THEATRE

 

 

Sheltering. Keeping Grounded. Brown Boys and Sheoak.

Artistic Director, Co-CEO and choreographer Sheoak. Frances Rings. Choreographer Keeping Grounded Glory Tuohy-Dniell. Choreographer and Director Brown Boys Daniel Mateo. Composer Sheoak David Page (dec). Music Director Sheltering and Composer Keeping Grounded. Composer Brown Boys Leon Rodgers. Director Brown Boys Cass Mortimer Eipper. Set Designer Sheoak Jacob Nash. Set designr Keeping Grounded Shana O’Bren. Set and costume designer for Brown Boys Elizabeth Gadsby. Costume Designer Sheoak Jennifer Irwin APDG. Costume Designer Keeping Grounded Clair Parker. Lighting Designer Sheoak and Keeping Grounded Karen Norris. Rehearsal Director Rikki Mason. Director of Photography Brown Boys Liam Brennan. Producer Brown Boys Michael Le.

The Dancers: Courtney Radford. Kallum Goolagong. Kassidy Waters. Jye Uren. Maddison Paluch. Daniel Mateo. Emily Flannery. James Boyd. Chantelle Lee Lockhart. Edan Porter. Tamara Bouman. Roxie Syron. Amberlilly Gordon. Donta Witham. Zeak Tass. Eli Clarke. Maddison Fraser.

Bangarra Dance Theatre. Canberra Theatre. May 23 – 27 2026. Bookings: canberratheatre.com.au

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Sheltering is Bangarra Dance Theatre like you have never seen them before. The dance’s origins remain traditionally rooted in the indigenous culture and audiences who have been fortunate enough to experience the wonder of Bangarra’s work over its thirty year history will recognize in Sheltering the spirit and visceral connection of a work that draws on 60,000 years of song, dance and storytelling passed down through ceremony over the ages. In the Canberra Theatre that reflection of indigenous storytelling through the exquisite magic of Bangarra’s dancers is heightened by the extraordinary use of technology to embellish the power of the creative imagination, making the experience of Sheltering a spiritual meditation on what Auntie Violet in her Welcome to Country rightly observes when she says “We are all human”. Sheltering, like all of Bangarra’s work is a gift of understanding and connection, expressed through the conventions of contemporary dance blended with traditional inspiration. On the one hand Sheltering is a tribute to survival. On the other it is an artistic acknowledgement of the power of the dance to bridge time, culture and experience and restore harmony and reconciliation.

Daniel Mateo in Brown Boys Photo by Cass Eipper

Sheltering comprises three separate performances all linked by the emotive expression of indigenous experience through the art of Bangarra’s dancers. Keeping Grounded presents five short pieces, expressing a humanity that we all share. Migi (Ground) summons our connection to shared country. Muted Contact announcing the peril of disconnection and loss of shared communication. Guliyapa (cheeky) is a condemnation of greed and materialism. No pull up is a condemnation of a society, caught in a vortex of superfluity, ignoring the value of pausing in a pressured world. Blues tells us to value what exists and cherish the moment and finally Ngulibi (Water) advising us to let go in response to the tight pressures that weigh upon our lives. It offers hope for the future, advising us to value what we have and who we are. From the early beginnings, emerging from beneath a net that rises and offers sanctuary and enclosure to the creation of patterns of connection and separation to the creation of imagery through the body in motion Keeping Grounded is a warning that offers hope. The dancers mesmerize, using the body as a vessel of communication, accompanied by an evocative composition by Brendan Boney, thrillingly choregraphed by Glory Tuohy-Daniell and designed by Clair Parker.

Daniel Moto’s performance piece Brown Boys is a short video featuring Mateo in salutation to his race and with a deep connection to country, to the earth and to his nature. There is pride in his portrayal of abrown bot, standing Samuel Becket like in a mound of dark earth and smearing his mouth with earth mixed with honey. His beauty is captivating, his performance in closeup a celebration of self and identity. At only six minutes, Brown Boys, performed in a cocooned wurley, reminds us of the pride in who we are. Designer Elizabeth Gadsby and director of photography Liam Brennan keep us riveted to Mateo’s performance. It is a compelling piece that, like Becket’s Happy Days deserves development into a longer work of theatre.

Keeping Grounded  Photo by Edward Mulvihill

The major work of the evening is a reimagined revival of the 2015 work Sheoak, choreographed by Bangarra’s Artistic Director Frances Rings. In Sheoak we discover the abundant richness of symbolism, myth and story. A decade on, this work born of a time of conflict, resonates with the power of righteousness. Advances have been made, but grievance lingers and rectification still needs to be addressed. Amberlilly Gordon enters the stage as Sheoak, an ancestor and sentinel, observer of her culture over generations and in thee sections depicting the human experience of Place, Body and Spirit. Sheoak is a remarkable work, not only for the astounding athleticism, control and beauty of the dancers in spirit and in movement, but also for the late composer David Dubbo Page’s resonating rhythms and sounds combining traditional and contemporary composition. The loss of David Page in 2016 after twenty years of composing for founding Artistic Director Stephen Page’s creations is still felt deeply but the revival of his startling and empowering composition in the current performance of Sheoak remains a lasting tribute to his legacy. In Place, the old is being replaced by a new way of life and the people must adapt. Change brings resistance and dysfunction in Body as the ancestral figure struggles to maintain the old. At the end of Spirit and the search for a new spirit for the age, Sheoak emerges to bring hope and renewal.

Sheltering is a phenomenal collaboration of dancers and the creative team. It is a metaphor for reconciliation and the power of art to transform and heal. The dancers are extraordinary, not only in their athleticism but in their capacity for emotional truth expressed through the choroagraphy, accompanied by the composition, settings and lighting effects in a performance that once again places Bangarra at the pinnacle of contemporary dance in the country and an ambassador for the indigenous citizens of the land. I have witnessed many Bangarra productions over the years but none has revealed the wondrous artistry and power of collaboration so vividly or in the closing image of Sheoak offered hope for change and renewal to heal the loss and wrongs of the past.

 Photos by Daniel Boud, Cass Eipper and Edward Mulvihill