OFF THE CUFF

 

 Off The Cuff – Shortis & Simpson at Smith’s Alternative, Canberra, June 21 2026

Reviewed by Frank McKone

John Shortis and Moya Simpson, since their first appearance in the one-time School of Arts Cafe in Queanbeyan as the Shortis & Curlies in June 1996, have created themselves into an original work of art in their own right.  They write and sing songs with a built-in sense of humour – often satirical of social and political norms, yet always under-pinned by warmth of humanity.

The full house today, perhaps entirely of mature members of our community, was a measure of the warmth of feeling in response to Moya and John beyond mere enjoyment of their show – with our appreciation of their particular place in our lives.

My reviews over all these 30 years are available at www.frankmckone2.blogspot.com, and here at the Critics’ Circle blogspot since 2010.  Though Off The Cuff will not be their final show, with at least more political satire planned for later this year and a 100th Year celebration of the opening of Old Parliament House in 2027, the show today is a kind of wander through their personal stories from Moya’s teenage years in London and John’s professional beginnings, writing children’s songs for the ABC.

Each song has a story behind it.  Waterloo Sunset is a reminder of the days when Moya had to catch the train from Waterloo Station to Yorkshire for teacher training – almost sentimental.  But then John cannot stop himself writing a Theme Song for today’s show, even though the wandering has no theme.

Moya responds with a combination of Whiter Shade of Pale and Streets of London, taking her to Piano Man – that is John himself.

It is the interplay between the two of them, not just as a team of two performers but as a married couple, full of banter and laughter, which we all feel part of.

The range of songs - from I’m Not Afraid / I’m A Green Pea to parodies of politicians – like President Trump who, in his first time in office, according his tweet, met the Prince of Whales (who is now, of course, King Charles III, at least in England, or King Charles I of Australia) – is constantly surprising.  I count 17 songs in Act One and 13 in Act Two.

Perhaps the one we laughed about most was the famous quote from the newly arising Tony Abbott, which they had used for the title of their song and a whole show in 2013 – The Suppository of Wisdom.

On the other hand, Moya presented songs of many other singers who had been important to her, such as oldies like As Time Goes By, Blue Moon and Autumn Leaves.  Without being sentimental, love is the force in all John and Moya’s work.

 

 

 

BETTIE BOMBSHELL - A NIGHT OF BURLESQUE ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2026

 

 

Bettie Bombshell – A Night of Burlesque. 

Space Theatre Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. June 18-19 2026.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Hoots and hollers, screams and shrieks as each item of costume slips and slides away. Bettie Bombshell is your mischievous Emcee of the Burlesque. With a smirk and a smile and a beckoning palm to raise the roof, the Glam Reaper  promises a night of burlesque like no other and she and her company of burlesque artistes deliver with all the panache and sexy sassiness of the sensuous art of the striptease. That’s what it's all about Bettie tells us – tease and glamour, timing and fun and on opening night of A Night OF Burlesque in the Space at the Adelaide Festival Centre, Bettie Bombshell will set off a blast of entertainment with all that slap on the bum cheekiness that makes burlesque a panacea to banish the blues. What one can expect from the Number 1 burlesque artist in Australia and Number 2 in the world is a top-class night of whip-cracking wicked desire, a sumptuous banquet of star-studded burlesque.

 

Lyla Labelle

Bombshell has handpicked four of Australia’s classiest, sexiest and best burlesque artists to give her show that special zing. Blonde siren Lyla Labelle does it with a boa, luring the victim to her seductive charm. There is an air of defiance and dominatrix control to her steady art of authority. Like a spider luring its prey to the web, Labelle has you in her lair. Winchester Angel is a devilishly daring vixen with her fire-eating  to set her act aflame. This is burlesque with flair. As the strippers of the vaudeville era told Gipsy Rose Lee, “Ya gotta have a gimmick”, Karlee Tiana Misipeka takes them at their word with a Barbie number in a remote controlled car all pink and sugary to titillate and delight.

Rhys Lightning

For a change of mood, Bombshell introduces a new work to the accompaniment of girlfriend Rain on guitar, providing a snake charmer’s seduction to the prowling artiste. Bombshell traverses the boundaries of burlesque to show that it is more than feathers, boas and fans. Her show teases; it entertains and it educates. It is liberating, empowering and political. And finally for something entirely different Rhys Lightning moves with serpentine swiftness, the Satan of male strippers strutting with peacock bombast and muscular athleticism.

The night ends with a celebration of the artistry and sheer fun of burlesque and a night to fill the room with joy and laughter. To bare all before a room packed with strangers is more than an act of teasing and impish fun. For an hour audiences are entranced, enticed and edified. It is an ultimate act of self determination and self-expression. From devilish playfulness to the artful languor of the striptease, Bettie Bombshell and her guest seduce and surprise in a fun night of desire and delight.

Photo of Bettie Bombshell by Georgia Maloney

The Good Boy Game

 

The Good Boy Game by Patrick Vermillion USA).  Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre – Drama, Q the locals. June 18-20  2026

Reviewed by Frank McKone
June 20

Creatives & Production Team
Writer: Patrick Vermillion    Director: Caitlin Baker

Cast & Characters
Alastair McKenzie as James; Giuliana Baggoley as Mary-Beth
Bruce Hardie as Sam; Elaine Noon as Judith

Running time: 100 minutes without interval

Audience advice:
Contains coarse language, references to sex, misogyny, violence, murder and other mature themes.
Also contains simulated physical and gun violence, explores mature/taboo themes and contains loud noises and flashing lights.

Recommended for ages 16+ 



The Good Boy Game is Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus Complex theory made explicit.  

In Sophocles’ original play, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother without knowing they were his parents.  In Vermillion’s play, taking Freud’s misinterpretation of the ancient Greek myth literally, 16-year-old James knowingly kills his father, and “marries” his mother (though not finally including incestuous sexual intercourse).

Set in modern America, the actors need to express highly complex emotional details, rapidly changing as the characters each rationalise their attitudes.  The intention behind every character’s words creates a change in direction in the other’s response.  All done at rapid pace in quite short scenes on each of the three settings, with the quick changes headlined on the upstage projection screen – the family dining room, the attic and the counsellor’s rooms.

This set design is simple, but very effective in keeping the drama moving.

All four actors, in action and in argument, drew our attention tightly to follow a highly complex examination of this young man’s avowed intention to kill as many people as he could, because of his hatred – of society, where he saw himself as being on the outer.

“How do good boys become dangerous men?”, is the central question, and asks, can an approach using reward points offered for good behaviour, with losses for bad, and ‘priced’ – just as we do with money – change the boys’ behaviour for the better?

The play’s answer is ‘No’, despite Giuliana Baggoley’s remarkable efforts as James’ mother.  Her role in the story is crucial to our understanding of toxic masculinity, online radicalization, and the manosphere, in light of the far too common ‘mass shootings’ in America; and Giuliana as an actor is crucial to the success of the drama.

Elaine Noon as the psychological counsellor Judith, who offers the points system, was precise in her professionalism in that role – absolutely believable to us.

Bruce Hardie as husband and father Sam, clear in his mind as a ‘progressive’ but conflicted in practice, and finally attacking his son, played the role very well to the point where his issues and responses could not fail to bring our own experiences to mind.

And then the awfulness of Alastair McKenzie’s James, especially in the final scene with his mother, was terrifying to watch.

But this is the point of presenting this drama – that we have to accept the truth of the motivations for killing, so basic to so many men.

Freud’s invention of the idea that ‘hysterical’ women who claimed to have been sexually attacked by their fathers had really brought that upon themselves – the Oedipus Complex – was a convenient lie which Vermillion exposes in Mary-Beth’s relationship with her son James.

It’s an important play – even though the conclusion is not promising.  I can only hope that this production of The Good Boy Game can have an extended run and travel further afield as it deserves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEEL MAGNOLIAS - Canberra Theatre

 

STEEL MAGNOLIAS – Canberra Theatre

Jessica Redmayne (Shelby) - Belinda Giblin (Ouiser) - Lisa McCune (M'Lynn) -
Mandy Bishop (Truvy) - Lotte Beckett (Annelle) - Debra Lawrance (Clairee)

Written by Robert Harling – Directed by Lee Lewis

Set and Costume design by Simone Romaniuk – Lighting Design by Paul Jackson

Composition and Sound Design by Brady Watkins

Produced by Neil Gooding Productions and Woodward Productions.

Canberra Theatre Centre – July 17^th – 21, 2026.

Opening night performance – July 18^th reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Debra Lawrance (Clairee) - Belinda Giblin (Ouiser) - Lisa McCune (M'Lynn)

Written by Robert Harling in 1987, originally as a coping mechanism to deal with the death of his sister, “Steel Magnolias” is far from the gloomy narrative one might expect. Instead, the play, offers a laugh-a-minute glimpse into the lives of six Southern women living in a small fictional community in Louisiana.

These women have formed a strong bond and regularly gather in Truvy’s hairdressing salon where they challenge and comfort each other while sharing the minutiae of their daily lives, which when the play opens, is focussed on the upcoming wedding of Shelby, who’s engaged in a combative relationship with her mental health counsellor mother, M’Lynn about details of her wedding.

Mandy Bishop (Truvy) - Lotte Beckett (Annelle) - Jessica Redmayne (Shelby)

Harling’s play became an audience favourite majorly due to the 1989 film which starred Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley McLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton and Daryl Hannah.

Many of us treasure memories of the original 1988 Australian stage production in which Nicole Kidman made her stage debut as Shelby in a cast that included Nancye Hayes, Maggie Dence, Melissa Jaffer, Genevieve Lemon and Pat McDonald.

Many others have become familiar with the play through the numerous community theatre productions around the country over the years. 

For this national tour, Producers Neil Gooding and Alex Woodward have mounted a visually beautiful production of this play for which they gifted director, Lee Lewis, known for her meticulous eye for detail and nuance, with the challenge of captivating a new generation of audiences.

Lewis’ response has been to devise a visually beautiful production with set and costumes by Simone Romaniuk, and cast it with some of the country’s best known and accomplished actresses in Lisa McCune, Belinda Giblin, Debra Lawrance, Mandy Bishop, Jessica Redmayne and Lotte Beckett, all of whom have grasped the opportunity to create fresh, memorable characterisations destined to remain in the memories of all who experience them.

 

Debra Lawrance (Clairee) - Mandy Bishop (Truvy) - Lotte Beckett (Annelle)

Mandy Bishop, well-known for her many years delighting audiences with her chameleon-like ability to inhabit multiple characterisations in the Wharf Revues, plays the warm-hearted, Truvy, owner of the salon, confidant and keeper of the secrets.

Sporting an outrageous blonde wig and deep Southern accent, Bishop resists the temptation to offer a cheap caricature of Dolly Parton. Instead, she invests her role with a myriad of detail to create a delightfully funny and compelling character around whom much of the action revolves.

Lotte Beckett plays the mysterious young hair stylist, Annelle, who Truvy has just employed. Annelle’s emergence from shy introvert to confident born-again Christian is charmingly and believably portrayed by Beckett.

Portraying Shelby, the young bride struggling with the effects of Type 1 diabetes, Jessica Redmayne charms with her optimistic enthusiasm. As the effects of her condition become more noticeable, Shelby’s enthusiasm frustrates her stylish, uptight mother, M’Lynn, in a superbly modulated and moving performance by Lisa McCune, which reaches its zenith in a fierce outburst by M’Lynn, prefacing the funniest scene in the play.

Jessica Redmayne (Shelby) - Lisa McCune (M'Lynne)

Rounding out a superb cast, Jane Phegan on opening night, replacing Debra Lawrance, and Belinda Giblin portray two frenemies, Clairee and Ouiser, who disguise their deep affection for each other under a constant barrage of hilarious barbs.

Part of the joy of this production is watching these prodigiously talented actors exercise their own and each other’s skills to create powerful, engaging moments capable of reducing their audience to a favourite place revealed by Truvy at one point -laughter through tears.

 

                                                          Photos by Brett Boardman

 

                         This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW.

                                 STEEL MAGNOLIAS - Australian Arts Review

THE GOOD BOY GAME

Written by Patrick Vermillion

Directed by Caitlin Baker

Q The Locals production

The Q, Queanbeyan to 20 June

 

Reviewed by Len Power 18 June 2026

 

A New Jersey, USA teenage boy plans to conduct a mass school shooting, followed by killing his parents. His plan unravels when his parents find out and hold him captive in the attic, trying to de-radicalise him with a therapist’s points-based reward system. That bit is kind of sane, but what follows is a furious and very black comedy that shows that his parents’ definition of good behaviour is just as crazy as the act planned by him.

The four actors deal with the over-the-top script more than competently, using a heightened style of acting, rather than trying to perform this for real. Particularly impressive is Giuliana Baggoley in the marathon role of the mother, who moves deftly from mother to monster to cartoon and back again. Bruce Hardie makes his mark early as the father even though he comes to a sticky end halfway through and Elaine Noon excels as the addled therapist.  Alastair McKenzie is truly frightening with the level of hate he achieves. The director keeps it all surging along at a breath-taking pace on a substantial and well-designed set.

Alastair McKenzie and Giuliana Baggoley

 

It took a while for the audience to get on the right wavelength and they responded with mostly nervous laughter throughout, almost as if they thought they shouldn’t find this funny. What’s not to like about school shootings, misogyny, sex, abuse, murder, suicide, incest, pornography, physical violence, gun violence and graphic and explicit language?

If any of those things turn you on, then this is the play for you!

 

Photo by Caitlin Baker

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/.

  

VIEW2026

XinShuo Zhuo, Among the Interstices, installation view, 2026.

Image: Gabrielle Hall-Lomax

 

As always when walking into this gallery, the works to the left are the first that visitors see. In this exhibition they are those of XinShuo Zhuo. The large cascading calligraphy scroll is the very successful feature piece amongst numerous small, distressed and toned prints decorating the surrounding wall spaces. The artist is seeking to explore the relationship between images, memory and environment. It draws on Zhuo’s personal life journey so far and encourages us to wonder about the future. Essayist Kung suggests this body of work awakens a tenderness, a fragility, creating an inward expanse that makes room for feeling.

Moving into the space to the right of the entrance, there are works by three more of the artists. On the left Dylan Marriott shows us two pieces from a forthcoming solo show he is to have in Melbourne. One shows youths we are barely able to see lounging along a river’s edge. It is an impressive and powerful work. This artist has said he is jealous of painting’s freedom of expression, yet here he has shown today’s photographers can also be similarly free.

Dylan Marriott, Wake, installation view, 2026.

Image courtesy the artist.

On the long opposite wall and the small end wall of this space there are fourteen pieces by Cass Li. The sole artwork on the end wall is vibrantly coloured capturing attention immediately, so much so that I examined it first before turning back to the other images by Li. Each piece looks at a different aspect of the last days of her grandfather’s life and the mourning period that followed. This documentary series is, for me, the highlight of the exhibition. Initially concluding that Together, There’s No Need to Cry, Li has most successfully pulled together how different generations of her family have dealt with their grief, whilst also tracing the family’s migration journey. Taoist rites, Chinese Timorese ancestry, belongings left behind, and much more are all part of this wonderfully creative and moving, yet documentary, project.

Cass Li, Fung Bao 2013-2024, installation view, 2026.

Image: Gabrielle Hall-Lomax

Cass Li, Popo in Kung Kung’s room, searching, 2024.

Image courtesy the artist.

Finally, in the back room, Elesa Stellios is exhibiting a three-screen video installation, employing an interactive program. And Toni Tait has two works, also involving video. One is described as “remediated video” - remediation being the process of adapting content from one medium to another. Tait’s other work has archival audio, field recording and a section of PVC pipe also contributing.

 

Elesa Stellios, this is how i must look, video still, 2026

Toni Tait, This is Fair Dinkum, video still detail, 2025

Once again, the annual VIEW project has delivered interesting and diverse artworks by another group of early-career artists. The accompanying publication refers to the project being “resolutely focused on the broadest definition” of photographic practice. That certainly is true of this exhibition. The question that cannot be answered at this time in 2026 is whether or not these, or other, artists will continue to explore the same types of work or will move into other areas. We will have to wait and see where each participant goes in their future practices. Given what Alex Robinson has referred to as limitless possibilities, each of these artists might take their practices anywhere!


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

MAHALIA BARNES SINGS THE ROSE ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2026

 

Mahalia Barnes Sings The Rose.

Mahalia Barnes and The Soulmates. Dunstan Playhouse. Adelaide Festival Centre. June 14 2026

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Blues, Soul, Rock and Roll. Mahalia Barnes conquers all. In a concert that rocked old rockers out of their seats at the Dunstan Playhouse, Barnes stood tall, proud and loud ( and at times I mean very loud) on the shoulders of legendary singers who had struggled, suffered, striven and risen victorious as a voice for strong women in a male dominated industry. Their names are synonymous with a talent so supreme that music is glorified with their names: Middler, Joplin, Geyer, Turner and Simone. These are the singers whose legacy Barnes celebrates in Mahalia Barnes Sings The Rose. The first half of the show is the soundtrack of the film The Rose that encapsulates the story of the singers who have come from adversity, faced adversity and struggled through to triumph as an example to aspiring artists the world over.

Backed by her band The Soulmates, Barnes lifts the roof with her Rock and Roll opening number Whose Side Are You On from The Rose . With a voice that rasps from the depths of the soul to the tender ache of the Blues, Barnes pours out her heart with classics like When A Man Loves a Woman, Love Me With A Feeling and The Rose. From the age of 13 Barnes has been obsessed with Stay With Me. Raw and tearing apart the heart, the song is engraved in Barnes’s DNA. In a show that demands one’s all, Barnes gives it and more in her tribute to all female singers who have had to scratch a crawl their way through the quagmire of prejudice and exploitation to let their soul soar in the lyrics and music of their song.

What is so extraordinary as one watches Barnes take control of the stage is the relationship with the members of The Soulmates. She welcomes Adelaide ring-ins, Josh Chenoweth on Trumpet and Jack Degenhart on Saxophone as though they were part of the family. Each member is given their moment in the spotlight with obvious affection from Barnes. The show shines with the rapport and respect for amazing talent. Clayton Doley on keys gives a display of virtuosic musicianship on the organ. Guitarists Ollie Thorpe and Barnes’s husband Ben Rogers share moments with Barnes as does her bass guitarist Angus Radley and guitarist Franco Ragatt while drummer Mick Skelton beats up a storm on percussion. In a show as unforgettable as the names of the singers that Barnes pays homage to singer and musicians seduce an audience with love, passion and the adoration of the women who have forged the way.

The second half of the programme is dedicated to those women, their tragedy and their triumph, their struggle and their survival and the gift they gave to music and the world. Renee Geyer’s Mercedes Benz and Janis Joplin’s A Man’s World, Tina Turner’s I Love You Baby, and Nina Simone’s I Put A Spell On You all recall the addiction, the loss, the longing, the betrayal and through it all the resilience that keeps Rolling On The River.

In a repertoire that is gutsy, gentle and echoing with love, Mahalia Sings The Rose is a rich and uplifting cabaret experience. The man nearby, a baby-boomer like so many reliving their memories of their younger years cried out “I love you Mahalia!” It was obvious that he was not alone when voices called out for more. A show advertised at 75 minutes including an interval ran for ninety through two encores and no interval. With a flourishing finale Barnes had her audience dancing in the aisles to Tina Turner’s Rolling on the River. And the spirit of Barnes’s show kept rolling on.

Photographer: Claudio Raschella