CONSTELLATIONS

 

Constellations by Nick Payne. 

Directed by Kelly Somes. Stage Managers Sue Gore and Liz Phillips. Set concept and design Kelly Somes and Cate Clelland. Sound design Kelly Somes and Neville Pye. Lighting design Aidan Bavinton. Costume design Kelly Somes and Cate Clelland. Production photography Janelle Mcm,enamin and Michael Moore. Free Rain Theatre at ACT HUB. April 16-25. Bookings ACTHUB.COM.AU

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

To see actors Lucy Goleby and James O’Connell in Nick Payne’s Constellations at ACT HUB is to watch two actors at the top of their game, working in perfect synchronicity. This is ensemble acting at its very best, each actor completely attuned to their character’s complex relationship and conflicting emotions.

Marianne (Lucy Goleby) and Roland (James O’Connell) meet at a barbecue. She is a physicist, intelligent and curious about the natural laws of Qantum Mechanics, String Theory and quantum cosmology. Roland is a grounded beekeeper, a maker of honey. Both in their own way observe the laws of Nature. Marianne proposes an hypothetical multiverse, comprising many universes in which the natural laws pertaining to our universe can vary within the multiverse. This is of course a philosophical notion rather than a concept sustained by evidence. Roland’s definable universe is the ordered society of the bee colony, comprising the hierarchy of Queen Bee, Drones and Worker Bees.

Contrasting to a multiverse is a constellation, a recognizable pattern of stars, identified by formation or mythical figures. This too suggests a certain behavioural pattern that denies the existence of free will. Payne ingeniously uses multiple repetition of dialogue and situation with variations that could suggest parallel universes. Marianne recounts their first meeting at a barbecue, Roland at a wedding. Throughout we see the same scenario played over but from different perspectives or with different outcomes. In one episode, Marianne admits to an affair with a young office worker. In the same scenario it is Roland who has had the affair with another woman. The responses may be similar but the outcomes could be very different. As Payne’s multimoments evolve we watch the relationship develop, fracture,revive, result in marriage and finally confront the horrifying reality of Marianne’s illness.

Payne poses a universal conundrum. Do we possess free will? Are all choices predetermined by established laws? As implied in Marianne’s opening line, is it deliberate that we are designed in such a way as not to be able to lick our elbows as evidence of our inability to achieve immortality. It’s a pick up line that cannot but succeed to intrigue. Marianne’s mother has no fear of dying. She fears being kept alive. She fears the denial of free will. This presents a fascinating conjecture of scientific theory, hypothesis and definable laws of Nature.

For seventy five minutes, Constellations balances scientific theory with human emotion. It is a fascinating expression of action and reaction, determining a choice, subject to the dictates of changing circumstance. Roland’s proposal could have a very different impact at another moment in time or within a different emotional state. In Free Rain Theatre’s outstanding production, Payne’s dialogue is repeated with different responses or choices. And yet human nature remains constant. The sense of betrayal at the discovery of infidelity will be as true to Marianne as it would be to Roland in a similar circumstance. In the end Marianne chooses to exercise free will to intervene in the progression of her illness.

Director Kelly Somes has staged the production in the round with audience on four sides. Three chairs are placed at certain points on the stage. As Payne’s dialogue presents alternate realities the actors move the chairs into different positions to represent changing moods and physical relationships. Somes’ direction is purposeful and fluid, enabling an audience to follow the shifting scenarios and reactions. Director and actors create a fascinating pattern of connection and disconnection, intimacy and separation. Somes’s direction is craftily manoevured in a production that never fails to intrigue, fascinate and provoke. There is ample food for thought, concepts to wonder at and Marianne and Roland’s alternate choices to identify and recognize. Free Rain Theatre’s visiting production of Constellations is too good an opportunity to miss. Entertaining, engaging and intellectually stimulating, Somes, Goleby and O’Connell under Free Rain Theatre’s umbrella have brought to ACT HUB a production to light up Canberra's theatrical universe.

Photos by Janelle McMenamin

 

CONSTELLATIONS

 

Written by Nick Payne

Directed by Kelly Somes

Free-Rain Theatre production

ACT Hub Theatre, Kingston to 25 April

 

Reviewed by Len Power 17 April 2026

 

On the surface, “Constellations” sounds like a simple romantic drama – a couple’s chance meeting, emotional involvement, a breakup and then reunion and marriage. But life is not as simple as that. Mix in theoretical physics and the chance to consider the number of choices we could make as we interact with others, and you have the structure for a fascinating and compelling play.

Written in 2012, Nick Payne’s play explores life through maths and science. Do we have free-will or are we just “particles governed by a series of very particular laws being knocked…around all over the place.”? Audiences should be allowed to discover the unique structure of this play for themselves.

The author, Nick Payne, has a finely tuned ear for natural dialogue and human interaction. We can easily identify with his characters and their stories.

Director, Kelly Somes, keeps the focus firmly on dialogue and character with a bare stage and three chairs. The audience is seated on all four sides of the action, giving an intense intimacy to this production.

Lucy Goleby (Marianne)

Lucy Goleby plays Marianne, a theoretical physicist. James O’Connell plays beekeeper, Roland. Both give carefully nuanced performances of great depth and sensitivity. They meet the challenge of the multi-layered script with skill, making each moment highly believable. Their playing of the final sequence is touching and memorable.

James O'Connell (Roland)

Both performers and the director have personal connections to Canberra. The choice of “Constellations” for their return here is an excellent showcase for the trio and a gift for local audiences.

 

Photos by Janelle McMenamin.

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/.

 

Constellations by Nick Payne

 

Constellations by Nick Payne (UK).  Free Rain Theatre at The Hub, Kingston, Canberra, April 16-25, 2026.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 17

Cast

Marianne – Lucy Goleby        Roland – James O”Connell

The best way to describe Constellations, as I see it, is to think of a classical-style piece of music for two instruments.  I’m thinking,  as an  example, of the arrangement for piano and violin of "Softly awakes my heart": from Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Each instrument plays themes and variations of those themes, together in concert, so that though you hear and recognise the core of the themes being repeated, the music develops and maintains our interest as each of the piano and violin play different variations of their own, and the relationship between the two changes along with the interplay of each variation.

I think of Roland as the piano, which is never merely an accompaniment but a player with the violin, Marianne.  The core theme of the piano is Roland as a bee-keeper maintaining the consistency of social structure in the hives and producing honey; while for Marianne it is the wonder of the universe working so differently at the macro and micro levels, which raises the ultimate ‘if’ question – could each replay of a theme be in a different parallel universe?

This makes the play, for me, a kind of music of words, and silences, and even at one time of gestures – or a kind of poetic theatre – rather than a drama with a through-line and obvious plot.

It’s an original approach, which unexpectedly creates moments of laughter, of concern, sometimes of anger, and warmth of one-ness between the two – characters, or instruments – in a play of personalties for whom we feel empathy and with whom we can identify.

Lucy Goleby and James O’Connell play like the best of violinists and pianists, and I marvel at their dexterity as each shift in scene comes upon them.

Supporting their success is a small constellation of creatives:

Director: Kelly Somes
Stage Managers: Sue Gore and Liz Phillips
Asst Stage Manager: Lucia Morabito
Set Concept and Design: Kelly Somes and Cate Clelland
Set Realisation: Cate Clelland and Ron Abrahams
Sound Design: Neville Pye and Kelly Somes
Lighting Design: Aisan Bavinton
Lighting Consultants: Bronwyn Pringle, Craig Muller, Felix Tiornton
Lighting and Sound Operaters: Sue Gore and Liz Phillips

Acknowledgement: “Over the Sea” by Elizabeth Sarah Stringer
More available about the author online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellations_(play)

Very well worth the experience.

 

 

 

 

THOM PAIN (based on nothing)

 

Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) by Will Eno. 

Directed and mentored by Maddie Lee. Production assistant and acting coach Mark Lee. Stage Manager Bes Grant. Performed by Joey Minogue. A Mill Theatre Co- Production. Co-produced by Lexi Sekuless and Joey Minogue. The Mill Theatre. April 15-25 2026. Bookings: Humanitix.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Joey Minogue plays Thom Pain

Poor Thom. Pain wracks his mind. Is it the nightmarish image of the small boy in a puddle cradling the corpse of an electrocuted dog. Or the trembling fear of bees that causes such pain. Maybe it is the aching pain of sexual desire. Or simply the pain of grappling with life, of confronting one’s inadequacies and the inability to create magic.

Will Eno’s stream of consciousness monologue about a young man battling demons, reaching out for some assurance that his life has value, that it is more than a “whatever” or an” anyway “or a dictionary definition.  Is it rather the cynical ravings of a misanthrope or the despairing declarations of a nihilist. Eno charts a trajectory in which ADHD battles the depressing reality of bipolar mood swings.

Director Maddie Lee and actor Joey Minogue make the most of the intimacy of the Mill Theatre. Spots are used to catch Minogue like a startled rabbit in the light or swing to capture an audience member drawn into Pain’s attempts to make sense of his confusions. Minogue is charged with a nervous energy. Lee carefully directs his sudden changes of mood and preoccupation. We watch a man grappling with a life that has made him the sorry victim of a condition that has the audience at one moment laughing hysterically at its absurdity and at another moved to empathy. Minogue presents a character who shines a light on the plight of those who confront life’s challenges. Though Eno may ironically claim that the title is based on nothing, Thom Pain (based on nothing) is a plea for understanding and compassion. Minogue’s one-hour solo performance reveals Eno’s unique imagination while creating a riveting insight into an all-too-common problem in our complex society.  

Written in the early years of this century and lauded as a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, Eno’s Thom Pain (based on nothing) reflects the hardship of battling mental health problems in the search for identity and reassurance. Its importance is even more significant in a society that has become more reliant on support for and recognition of people undergoing mental health problems. The Mill Theatre co-production played to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience on opening night. They willingly engaged in any audience participation and clapped and cheered enthusiastically as Minogue took his highly deserved curtain call.

I couldn’t help but feel that this one act tour-de-force solo performance of the troubled Thom Pain should be supported by a touring grant and played nationally and followed by a Q and A. Eno’s originality and command of language ensures theatrical entertainment but this production is also an affirmation of the power of theatre to raise and actively support social issues. Eno’s luminescent text is not didactic. It presents a human being with whom we can all identify and empathize with. Director Lees and actor Minogue succeed admirably in illuminating playwright Eno’s spotlight on society’s individual and collective responsibility to improve the mental health of people struggling to make sense of their world.

Photos by Mark Ollman, Maddie and Mark Lee Photography

 

Thom Pain (based on nothing) - Mill Theatre

 

Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno.  Mill Theatre, Dairy Road, Canberra, April 16 – 25, 2026 

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 16

Cast
Thom Pain: Joey Minogue

Production Team
Playwright: Will Eno
Director and Mentor: Maddie Lee
Production Assistant and Acting Coach: Mark Lee
Stage Manager: Bea Grant

Co-Producers: Joey Minogue and Lexi Sekuless



In an ironic view of life, Thom Pain presents himself as a magician who can never succeed to make magic because what happens to any of us is at random chance.  The greater irony that I find is that the performer of the character succeeds very well in creating the magic of theatre.

Though theatre is an illusion, seeming to make fiction real, the success of creating an entertainment which is essentially philosophically cynical, undermines that very cynicism, because the experience we have in the theatre remains positive and memorable – it is the very magic which can be achieved by good directing and excellent acting.

Making good theatre is not an illusion, but emotional reality.

And then the question of the purpose of the play gets even more complicated.  If Will Eno meant to be cynical about trying to succeed in life, how does he live with the success of his own writing?

Or does this mean that I should be cynical about Will Eno’s intention?  Is the implied reference in his character’s name to the 18th Century Thomas Payne, who wrote The Age of Reason, a denial of the value of rational thought?

Or should I praise Will Eno for being an empiricist skeptic?

No matter how you take the meaning of the play, it is another great example of the thoughtful choice of theatre presented by Lexi Sekuless and Mill Theatre.  Suitable for grinding at The Mill, you might say.

The performance by Joey Minogue of the continual switching back and forth between the internal mental state of the Thom Pain character and his direct relationship with the audience, very much like a stand-up comedian, is fascinating to watch, to react to and even to take part in.

It’s a demanding solo performance, demanding from us great respect.

 


 

 

 

 

 

ANASTASIA - Sydney Lyric Theatre

 

Nancye Hayes (Dowager Empress) - Georgina Hobson (Anya) in "ANASTASIA"

Book by Terence McNally – Music by Stephen Flaherty – Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

Directed by Darko Tresnjak – Associate Director: Karen Johnson Mortimer

Choreographed by Peggy Hickey – Resident Choreographer: Nathan Pinnell

Musical Director: Anthony Barnhill – Costumes designed by Alexander Dodge

Set Designed by Alexander Dodge – Video Design by Aaron Rhyne

Sound Design by Peter Hylenski – Costume Design by Linda Cho -

Executive Producer- Opera Australia: Pella Gregory

Presented by John Frost for Crossroads Live and Opera Australia with Willow Wealth

Sydney Lyric Theatre April 10^th to July 18^th, 2026. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

The Australian company of "ANASTASIA"

 This sumptuous production tells the story of an amnesiac young woman named Anya. Anya hopes to find some trace of her past by siding with two con men to take advantage of her resemblance to the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov who was rumoured to have escaped and survived the execution of the Russian Imperial Family in the dawning days of the Russian Revolution.

Based on the 20^th Century Fox animation film of the same name, this musical play with music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and book by Terrence McNally, the Tony Award-winning team responsible for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, Anastasia premiered on Broadway in 2017.

Much in the style of classic musicals such as My Fair Lady and Phantom of the Opera, Anastasia boasts a cast of many of the country’s finest musical theatre performers headed by Georgina Hopson as Anya.

Joshua Robson (Gleb) - Georgina Hopson (Anya) in  "ANASTASIA"

Having already starred in a string of Australian productions of major musicals, among them Ragtime, Phantom of the Opera, both on Sydney Harbour and in the Sydney Opera House, My Fair Lady, and Evita, Hopson gives a luminous performance as Anya. Her soaring rendition of “Journey to the Past” elicited cheers from the first night audience.

Similarly, Joshua Robson, who previously starred opposite Hopson in the 2022 Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour production of Phantom of the Opera, thrilled with his commanding performance as the sinister protagonist, Gleb, charged with disproving Anya’s story. His chilling rendition of “The Neva Flows” setting the tone for his relationship with Anya.

Roberto Tripolino (Dmitry) - Georgina Hopson (Anya) in "ANASTASIA"

As Anya’s unlikely partners in crime, Robert Tripolino as the vagabond Dmitry, and Rodney Dobson as the fatherly Vlad both get opportunities to shine. Tripolino with his energetic performance of My “Petersburg”, and Dobson in his duet “The Countess and the Common Man” with Rhonda Burchmore.

Rhonda Burchmore (Countess Lily) and company in "ANASTASIA"

In this duet Burchmore as Countess Lily ( the role created on Broadway by Caroline O’Connor and who, co-incidentally, is starring across the city in another musical, The Prom), challenges Dobson by pulling out every trick in her formidable comedic armoury to deliver a scene-stealing performance that has little to do with advancing the storyline but is tremendous fun for the audience.

Directed by Tony Award winner, Darko Tresnjak, who utilises opulent settings, enhanced with superb video projections, lavish costumes and swirling ballroom scenes to evoke the splendour of imperial Russia.

Witty choreography by Peggy Hickey, who manages to incorporate excerpts from Swan Lake without interrupting the flow of “Quartet at the Ballet”, Anastasia is both a visual and aural feast for the senses.

Eleanor Flynn (Young Anastasia) - Nancye Hayes (Dowager Empress) in "Anastasia"

However, it is the casting of the legendary Nancye Hayes as the Dowager Empress, a role that could have been written for her, that makes this production one not to be missed, at least for this reviewer.

From her opening scene with the young Anastasia, played charmingly on opening night by Willa Valaris, to her final acceptance of Anya’s claim for recognition, Hayes dominates every scene in which she appears, becoming the jewel in the crown of a magnificent production.

Rodney Dobson (Vlad) - Georgina Hopson (Anya) - Roberto Tripolino (Dmitry) in "ANASTASIA"

 

                                                       Photos by JEFF BUSBY

This is a slightly longer version of my review first published in CITY NEWS on 13.04.26

JULIUS CAESAR

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Directed by Peter 

Evans. Bell Shakespeare. the Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. April 10-18. 

 

Under tall smudged red panels that recall the wall paintings of Pompeii Bell Shakespeare’s latest Julius Caesar is an absorbing version.  There’s  an olive tree (symbol of peace in a play full of conflict?) and  the odd striking shaft of light (lighting designer Amelia Lever-Davidson) across the red walls. The costumes (designer Simone Romaniuk) are modern but have echoes of old Roman lines and drapes. 

 

There’s a certain amount of cross gender casting but Shakespeare himself had single gender casts and many tall schoolgirls have found themselves playing Caesar or Brutus. What matters is the performances and here they are strong and clear. 

 

A steady but self deluded Brutus from Brigid Zengeni is well matched by the contrast of Leon Ford’s irritable and fierce Cassius. Caesar’s elegant wife Calphurnia (Ava Madon) sees her nightmares about the dangers to her husband swept away by his arrogant reasoning and the devious challenge to his courage by conspirator Decius (James Lugton). Brutus’s wife Portia (Jules Billington) pleads lovingly but cannot penetrate Brutus’s deflections about the lethal plans that are being made.

 

Mark Anthony (Mark Leonard Winter) emerges as a man with the gift of an eloquence which will sway a crowd more than Brutus’ educated logical reasonings. 

 

And veteran Peter Carroll lights up the stage every time he appears, particularly early in the piece as the beautifully dry and cynical Casca.

 

Caesar himself (Septimus Caton) is a quite magnificently tall despot in a toga. When he falls he has a long way to go. It’s an impressive image.

 

This killing leaves the conspirators covered in blood. It’s very clear when Mark Anthony comes in who has taken part.

 

The military later part with its suicides and and defeats and the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius has the right feeling of the inevitable. 

 

The one true casualty in the script is that marvellous brief scene where Cinna the poet is mistaken for Cinna the conspirator and murdered by the Roman mob looking for vengeance after Caesar’s assassination. It is a cut that is questionable but it seems to have a history. You won’t find it in either the 1953 film with James Mason as Brutus or the 1970 one with Charlton Heston as Mark Anthony. But it did figure large in the classrooms of the 1950s and it is a short and brutal snapshot of the citizens of Rome let loose after the assassination. 

 

However, do not let that put you off. This is an imaginative and sensitive production where the actors might wander into the audience and the scale of things can be domestic as well as political. Director Peter Evans (who also designed that moody dark red Pompeiian set) has created a human and moving look at the play that is well worth a visit to the Playhouse.

Alanna Maclean