The Almighty Sometimes

 

The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver. Off the Ledge Theatre co-presented by The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, 19-22 November 2025.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Nov 20

Cast and Creative Team

Anna – Winsome Ogilvie
Renee – Elaine Noon
Oliver – Robert Kjellgren
Vivienne – Steph Roberts

Director/Lighting Designer – Lachlan Houen
Stage Manager – Lucy van Dooren
Set/Costume Designer – Caitlin Baker
Sound Designer/Composer – Marlene Radice
Movement Director – Kristy Griffin
Costuming & Marketing Assistant – Liv Boddington



Theatre off the ledge is exactly the right way of thinking about this remarkable production of The Almighty Sometimes.  Winsome Ogilvie enacts Anna’s continuous likelihood of emotional collapse in such detail in action, voice and expression of her feelings that one is amazed at her capacity and flexibility as an actor – while also feeling so sorry for Anna caught in the impossible confusion of her mother’s doing everything “right” and maybe even more than might be expected, for her child’s benefit.

Now, legally an adult, what will become of Anna?  What was was her “illness” in the first place.  Something we call ADHD I suspect.  As a young child she became an irrepressible story writer, but after her encouraging father died, her mother sought help to, essentially, calm her down and have treatment so that Anna’s obvious intelligence could be directed into her education.  As a teacher herself, this seemed sensible to Renee.

To quote Off the Ledge Theatre: Winner of the Judges’ Award in the prestigious Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting (UK) and the NSW and Victorian Premier’s Prizes for Drama, Kendall Feaver’s captivating play is a profound and compelling study of a young woman trying to discover where her illness ends and her identity begins.
 
As a teacher myself, I wondered if the issue of classifying some behaviours as illnesses, justifying drug treatments as the psychiatrist Vivienne – played very straight by Steph Roberts – does, was from the author’s personal experience.  

A fascinating interview in The Saturday Paper in 2020 (at https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/theatre/2020/11/28/playwright-kendall-feaver/160648200010780) doesn’t reveal the answer, but the importance of the play being presented – which I am sure The Q recognises – is that Anne’s experience, through to what seems to be no more than an isolated life in a ‘home’ from the age of 20, is that it makes a medical/political issue become real.  Made worse by how her blunt behaviour has ruined her possible relationship with old school friend Oliver.

Presenting The Almighty Sometimes is a valuable community contribution by the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre and Off The Ledge Theatre to the Australian Capital region.  Canberra has often led new developments in education.  With the expansion of social media on the internet, parent, teacher and children relationships are changing, and creating new and fraught issues, with attempts at control by banning phones in the classroom and even at school at all, and limiting social media accounts to over 16s.

I hope that this production’s short run can be followed by presentation on tour, hopefully with a secondary school program component.  

Establishing one’s identity, always the central concern for teenagers, is what this play is about, and it should not be missed.  I have my own memories as a 7-year-old boy who wrote poetry, and how I was treated - though long before modern psychiatry, no-one thought to class me as ill.  I got my own back when I got into Uni - the only one in my all boys' school class to choose to answer the poetry question.  So there!

Photos supplied:

Psychiatry session with Vivienne

Meeting up again with Oliver

Fraught lunchtime episode

 

One of the worst moments with mother
The Almighty Sometimes
by Kendall Feaver. Off the Ledge Theatre 2025

 

 

 

 

THE ALMIGHTY SOMETIMES

Written by Kendall Feaver

Directed by Lachlan Houen

Off the Ledge Theatre and Q The Locals production

Q Theatre, Queanbeyan to 22 November

 

Reviewed by Len Power 19 November 2025

 

Being an adolescent is hard enough without also dealing with a cocktail of pills that were prescribed to treat a severe childhood mental illness. Would life be better and maybe more exciting and fulfilling without the medication?

That is the question that eighteen year old Anna is grappling with in the play by Australian playwright, Kendall Feaver. This award-winning play looks at this young woman’s struggle to find the true identity which her medication may be masking. The effect on her, and those around her, raises serious issues in this thought-provoking play.

Winsome Ogilvie as Anna

Winsome Ogilvie gives a fine performance in the central and demanding role of Anna. The highs and lows of her character’s struggle are carefully judged and always believable. It’s a compelling and memorable study of a young woman trying to find herself.

Elaine Noon as Renee, the mother

Elaine Noon is very effective as the protective mother, Renee, who has difficulty in relating to her daughter as an adult. Steph Roberts gives a nicely edgy performance of Anna’s long-term doctor who keeps her distance professionally. As Anna’s tentative boyfriend, Robert Kjellgren deftly plays the confusion of youth as well someone trying to understand and deal with Anna’s behaviour.

 Director, Lachlan Houen, has obtained fine, in-depth performances from his cast in this highly emotional drama. It is thoughtfully staged and well-paced. The set by Caitlin Baker simply but effectively fills the large stage at the Q Theatre and her costumes for the cast have been well-chosen.

This is a good production of a compelling play. It’s confronting and makes you think but it’s also a play with humour, heart and a sense of optimism.

 

Photos by PHOTOX

 

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/.

 

  

The Dingo’s Noctuary

 Illustrated Verse Novel Book Review : Brian Rope

The Dingo’s Noctuary - an illustrated verse novel : Judith Nangala Crispin

Published by Puncher & Wattmann, 18 November 2025

Hardcover (88 colour plates)

ISBN: 9781923099715

COVER IMAGE: Ascending Being 1 - Martin dreams a barn owl into being, over Mt Jillamatong, on a night of flying saucers and stars.

Lumachrome glass print, chemigram, cliche-verre and drawing. Road-killed Eastern Barn Owl, sand, graphite, wax and ink on fibre paper. Exposed 32 hours in a geodesic dome.

In 2021 I read that Judith Nangala Crispin was a successful poet and lens-based visual artist working between Yuendumu in Australia’s Northern Territory and regional New South Wales. Her photography was centred on Lumachrome Glass printing, a cameraless method she developed using elements of early photochemistry. She has two published poetry collections. Her visual art has been exhibited and published internationally.

Prior to that, Crispin also had a stellar academic career in music, winning international prizes for composition, and teaching internationally. Much of her writing is centred around the experience of searching for her Bpangerang ancestry.

Her new novel, The Dingo’s Noctuary, explores themes of identity, belonging, and the fragile threads that connect all living beings. “At the heart of the tale is a soul’s dark night, the flight of a lady motorcyclist, in the prime of her invisibility, and her mongrel Lajamanu dingo Moon (found alone in the desert at four weeks old and infested with mange), into the Tanami desert. She’s searching for a caravan of miraculous dog-headed beings, glimpsed in dreams and the dementia tales of an old desert lady.”

It was written over thirty-seven desert crossings, sometimes on the motorcycle with the dog on the back. The entire second half of the book was written on a typewriter after a motorcycle crash (the unsuccessful 37th crossing) left Crispin unable to use a computer.

Warlpiri jarntu/warnapari, dingo-dog, wild born on Warlpiri lands,

Kirndangi Jampijinpa, or “Moon”, on the motorcycle pillion (in K9 moto-cockpit)

 

Work from The Dingo’s Noctuary has already received prizes, including the 2023 Sunshine Coast Art Prize and the 2020 Blake Prize for Poetry. Images and texts from the book were included in a Lunar Codex time-capsule which was deposited on the moon in 2024.

The list of Contents indicates there will be 43 Noctuary entries, interspersed with 10 Visions and 2 poems on a Murder at Wave Hill. All are set within three sections – Wormwood (which explains this is not a fairy story), Abyss of the Birds and Astreides.

There are many quotes throughout this book. An early one – in the First Noctuary (journal) Entry – sets a wonderful scenario for anyone investigating their family connections: “There are spider-strings”, she told me. In a strange arachnid lisp, “connecting us to everyone we’ve ever loved.” The author proceeds to tell us “When the lie unravels it takes your breath away.” The entry closes by telling us the journal will be a Noctuary, a record of things passing by night. Now we know what we have commenced reading – hopefully exploring the contents.

Ascending Being 18 - All the dead night spiders, flying around in new bodies, over a bioluminescent sea.

 

Lumachrome glass print and chemigram. Eight dead huntsman spiders with copper chloride and acid on fibre paper. Exposed 24 hours with electric current.

The story unfolds through combinations of poetry and prose, alongside beautiful visual images - accurate hand drawn maps of the Australian central deserts, numerous pressings of rare plants, and forty-seven of the artist’s extraordinary lumachrome glass print creations, afterlife portraits of animals and birds, which many have already enjoyed in galleries, or her social media and website.

Cassini - Star Map 1

Ascending Being 5 -  After the highway, the lights, the cool dark wind that moved him, Murat, somewhere in that gigantic night, discovered a door.

Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram. Road-killed Quokka, with ochre, wax, vegemite, pollen, bark, seeds and sand. Exposed 2 hours in WA, 26 hours in NSW in a perspex box.

 

Land Map 2 (Duck Ponds to Newmont Mine)

 

Ascending Being 23  - Mother lost to trucks, it was cold, and the night raining stars. Henry left the

highway, following songlines across the great dividing range, to the sky country of kangaroos.

Lumachrome glass print, chemigram. Frozen newborn joey on fibre paper, 36 hours in very cold conditions, mist and winter light.

All of this sets the pace of reading, causes us to pause, reread, review, consider the words or image or both – before resuming, continuing to absorb the story, recalling what we have previously read or heard about major events such as the Wave Hill walk-off. Sometimes a few dots or dashes - or a dividing line between sections of the story - cause us to review what we have just explored or to ask ourselves what else might have been included there. This is all good - pausing and contemplating should ensure we read meanings, not just words.

Pressed Plant 7 (Bats Wing Coral Tree, Erythrina Vespertilio)

Ascending Being 39 - Lily returns to Altair, the brightest of Aquila’s stars, wearing the body of a crow.

Lumachrome glass print, cliché-verre. Roadkill crow, ochres & dandelion seeds on fibre paper. Exposed 32 hours in autumn light under brushed perspex.

 

Following the final journal entry, there is additional material - more pressed plant images, a list of desert birds, and chapter notes. The enormous task is completed - assembled comprehensively into a superb volume.

A longer version of this review, plus information about a way to support the community that supported her whilst she was writing the book, is available on the author’s blog here.

BROADWAY - National Capital Orchestra

 

Louis Sharpe and the National Capital Orchestra in Snow Concert Hall

Snow Concert Hall, November 16^th, 2025 - Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Having just been awarded by the Canberra Critics Circle for its consistent quality of performance in presenting challenging repertoire and playing new Australian compositions, the National Capital Orchestra rounded out a successful year by presenting a dazzling concert in the Snow Concert Hall.

Although it didn’t include any Australian compositions, Sunday’s concert certainly demonstrated the orchestra’s mastery of challenging repertoire.

Louis Sharpe conducting the National Capital Orchestra in Snow Concert Hall

Under the enthusiastic baton of its musical director, Louis Sharpe, who also doubled as a jovial compere, the orchestra of nearly 80 musicians was a spectacular sight as it launched into a lush arrangement by Robert Russell Bennett of the overture from the Jule Styne musical, Funny Girl.

Then followed a feast of music from landmark musicals commencing with a rousing rendition by guest artists Joe Dinn and Jared Newall of "Agony" from the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods and followed with a delightful rendition of Harold Arlen’s "Over the Rainbow" by Alira Prideaux.

Joe Dinn  - Alira Predeaux - Jared Newall - performing "Do-Re-Mi" in Broadway".

It was interesting to hear songs written for female artists but performed by male singers for this concert when Jared Newall offered,"You’ll Never Walk Alone" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, and Joe Dinn sang "Memory" from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats.

Compositions by Leonard Bernstein ended the first half of the program in sensational style when Alira Prideaux took the stage in a dazzling red sequined gown to perform a virtuosic rendition of "Glitter and Be Gay" from Candide; following which the National Capital Orchestra thrilled with a stunning performance of selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story arranged by Jack Mason, which left the auditorium abuzz.

How did they top that? Well may you ask.  

Selections from Lerner & Loewe’s, My Fair Lady, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, Phantom of the Opera and Schonberg & Boublil’s, Les Misérables, superbly sung by the three guest artists, is part of the answer.

But Louis Sharpe still had some aces up his sleeve in the form of brilliant orchestral arrangements of music from the Stephen Schwartz musical, Wicked, arranged by Ted Ricketts, and a gorgeous new arrangement by Marcus Martin of the spectacular "Waltz" from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel, both thrillingly performed by the orchestra.

Apart from the sheer pleasure of hearing the orchestral items so stylishly performed with thrilling precision and attention to detail by an orchestra of this size, there was also pleasure in marvelling at how sensitively the orchestra accompanied the vocal items, and the care taken by Sharpe to insure that the soloists lyrics were not lost in the orchestral sound, particularly evident in Jared Newall’s beautifully nuanced rendition of "The Music of the Night", and the lovely duet, "All I Ask of You", sung by Alira Prideaux, and both from Phantom of the Opera.  

Zahra Zulkapli performing "On My Own"

For the penultimate act of the concert Sharpe introduced a final guest artist in the form of fourteen-year-old Zahra Zulkapli who wowed the audience with her flawless rendition of "On My Own" from Les Misérables. She then joined the rest of the cast, the orchestra, and the audience, in a heartfelt rendition of "Do You Hear the People Sing", from the same musical, which brought a memorable concert to its rousing conclusion.

 

                                                          Photos by Peter Hislop

               This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 17.11.25

 

Equus by Peter Shaffer - Free Rain Theatre

 

Equus by Peter Shaffer.  Free Rain Theatre Company at The Hub, Kingston, Canberra, 12 - 22 November, 2025.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Nov 14

CAST

Martin Dysart – Arran McKenna

Alan Strang – Jack Shanahan

Dora Strang – Janie Lawson

Frank Strang/Harry Dalton – Bruce Hardie

Hesther Salomon – Crystal Mahon

Nugget/Horseman – Sam Thomson

Jill Mason – Lily Welling

Nurse - Caitlin Bissett

Horses – Jamie Johnston, Finlay Forrest, Samara Glesti, Bianca Lawson, Robert Wearden

    

CREATIVES

    Director – Anne Somes
    Associate Director – Crystal Mahon
    Movement Director – Amy Campbell
    Set Design – Cate Clelland
    Director of Marketing – Olivia Wenholz


The drama Equus, based on a true report of a young man stabbing the eyes out of horses, is at its heart about a professional highly-regarded child psychologist becoming doubtful about the legitimacy of his work. 

Anne Somes’ production is top-class in design and acting quality – proof once again of the value of The Hub in our community.

Wikipedia records: The narrative centres on religious and ritual sacrifice themes, as well as the manner in which Strang constructs a personal theology involving the horses and the godhead "Equus". Alan sees the horses as representative of God and confuses his adoration of his "God" with sexual attraction. Also important is Shaffer's examination of the conflict between personal values and satisfaction and societal mores, expectations, and institutions, and between Apollonian and Dionysian values and systems.

For me, now 50 years on from the first production of Equus, personal confusion about one’s “God” and sexual attraction – which makes the play powerfully dramatic – is not the personal issue.  Canberra is replete with professionals, whose doubts about Apollonian and Dionysian values and systems make the character of Martin Dysart the one we can identify with.  

At a more purely bureaucratic level, consider the years of conflict and emotional confusion in the life of whistle-blower Derek Elias, assistant secretary for regional processing contracts in the Department of Home Affairs since 2019, reported in detail this very day as I write, November 15, 2025, in The Saturday Paper.

While the blatant male nudity in the final scene of Equus is no longer surprising and certainly not as controversial as it was in 1973, it brings to light Dysart’s dilemma.  He has engineered his patient into acting out what really did happen when he and the girl who worked with him in the horse stables met, presumably for his first sexual experience.  We experience watching how a young man’s twisted imagination, worshipping his all-knowing “god” named Nuggety, leads to emotional disaster and the blinding of the horse.

This is drama at its most demanding of our sympathy, even empathy if we dare, especially in close-up in the intimate space of The Hub.

So, what does Martin Dysart worship?  Not a horse, but the belief that he can really make a deluded child patient become normal – whatever “being normal” means.

This is where the writing skill of Peter Shaffer comes into play.  The essence of great theatre, as we all know from Shakepeare, is universality.  We all have our Nuggety.

Mine was my worship of the two young lads in autocratic Portugal who publicly raised a toast to freedom, leading to the establishment of Amnesty International in 1961.  In 2004 I represented Amnesty on the Australian Government Working Group responding, as Australia was required to do, at the end of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education.

In the meantime I came to understand the necessity of the Arts – and in my case Drama and Theatre – in education, as basic to the understanding and practice of human rights.  It’s fair to say, I guess, that though my 33 years as a full-time professional teacher, trying often to achieve Martin Dysart’s aims in my own way, ended in 1995 as prostate cancer made its play – I’m still a human rights educator through drama as a nowadays unpaid reviewer.

So Equus means a great deal to me, even if I look around and wonder if Amnesty International is still as great a god for good in the confusing world of self-induced climate change, as I had hoped when I turned 20 in 1961.

See Free Rain’s Equus, find your Nuggety, and open your eyes to world betterment.

 

Lily Welling as Jill Mason – Jack Shanahan as Alan Strang 

 

 

 

TIM MINCHIN - SONGS THE WORLD WILL NEVER HEAR

 

Lighting Design: Willie Williams – FOH Sound engineer: Darius Kedros

Canberra Theatre - November 13^th -17^th, 2025

Opening Night performance on November 13^th Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS. 

Watching Tim Minchin perform in the Canberra Theatre reminded me of my first encounter with him.

Early in 2000 I read that Todd McKenney was preparing a cabaret for presentation when his two-year stint with the hit musical The Boy From Oz finished its run in Perth. I contacted Todd to invite him to premiere his show at our School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan.

When Todd arrived from Perth, he had with him as his accompanist, a young Perth pianist, Tim Minchin.  

Although those two weeks performing with Todd McKenney at The School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan in September 2000 represented Tim Minchin’s cabaret debut on this side of the nation, nobody who saw those shows could have suspected that that young musician was destined to become a world superstar.

It was the presentation of his break-out cabaret show, Dark Side, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, then later at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005, that set Tim Minchin on the path to international fame as the extraordinary composer/performing artist/ provocateur par excellence that he has become.

His show Songs the World Will Never Hear celebrates the 20 years since Dark Side, along with the fact that he has just turned fifty.

His show is a remarkably personal reminiscence presented on the scale of a Cecil B. DeMille movie with a red-hot band, pyrotechnics, and a stunning light show.

During that 20 years Minchin has created an incredibly varied career performing his own songs in theatres, concert halls, and cabarets around the world, writing the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals, Matilda and Groundhog Day, played Judas in a Stadium production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and written for, and acted in, hit television series, to mention just a few of his accomplishments.

His show lasts almost three hours during which, (excepting the interval), Minchin never leaves the stage.  He performs around twenty songs, some referencing career highlights, like “Revolting Children” from his musical, Matilda and “I Know Everything” from Groundhog Day. 

Others are very personal, like his unlikely love songs to his wife, “You Grew on Me”, and “I’ll Take Lonely Tonight”. There’s a moving song for his parents, "Apart Together", and an advice song to a rebellious teenager, “Ruby”.

But Minchin is also a potty-mouth entertainer who delights in shocking, even if those shocks are hilarious. He’s a master communicator who revels in disarming his audience with laughter while delivering observations on the serious business of life, love and human existence. Most of his repertoire indulges that gift.  

The technical aspects of his show are also impressive. Superb sound ensures that every lyric is crystal clear. A large video screen captures Minchin’s performance in real time from various angles. It also displays superbly edited archival footage and special effects, and the contributions of his band of multi-instrumentalists, Jak Housden, Evan Mannell, Sarah Belkner, James Hazelwood and Audrey Powne, who embellish his songs with playful harmonies and lush musical arrangements.

But behind all the technical wizardry it is the humanity of an exceptional mind that shines through this remarkably entertaining presentation that makes Songs The World Will Never Hear such an unmissable event.  

     This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 14th November 2025.

EQUUS - Free Rain Theatre - ACT Hub/

 

Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart) - Sam Thomson (Nugget) - Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) in "EQUUS".

Written by Peter Shaffer – Directed by Anne Somes

Set Design by Cate Clelland – Costume design by Anne Somes

Sound Design by Neville Pike and Patrick Dixon – Live soundscape by Crystal Mahon

Stage Management: Jill Young – Movement Direction by Amy Campbell.

ACT Hub 12^th – 22^nd November 2025.

Opening night performance on 12^th November reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

A Court Magistrate in a small town in England visits a local child psychiatrist to implore him to interview a 17-year-old boy in an attempt to discover the boy’s motivation for blinding six horses. 

This is the pretext of Peter Shaffer’s acclaimed 1973 play, “Equus”, which is currently playing in the ACT Hub in a masterful production directed by Anne Somes for Free Rain Theatre. 

Presented on an atmospheric, stripped-back setting, designed by Cate Clelland, which eschews furniture and hand-held props in favour of dramatic lighting and sound to create drama and spectacle, Somes relies on the skill of her actors, and the imagination of her audiences to fill any gaps in the storytelling.   

Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart) - Crystal Mahon (Hesther Salomon) in "EQUUS".

Shaffer’s play is wordy, but in this production Arran McKenna shines in the demanding role of the psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, who is himself questioning his own sense of purpose and the nature of his work. As Dysart, McKenna delivers Shaffer’s wordy musings on human nature, the drivers of sexuality, and the value of psychiatry, with impressive aplomb.    

As the troubled boy, Alan Strang, who resists Dysart’s intervention by refusing to communicate other than by singing advertising jingles, Jack Shanahan is riveting, offering a brave performance that requires him to perform naked for much of the second act.

Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart) - Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) in "EQUUS". 

Playing Dysart’s confidante, the magistrate Hesther Salomon, Crystal Mahon brings a re-assuring warmth and dignity to the role, while Janie Lawson also contributes a strong performance as Alan Strang’s uncomprehending mother, Dora Strang.

Bruce Hardie is effective as both Alan Strang’s father Frank, and as Strang’s employer Harry Dalton; as are Lily Welling as Jill Mason, the unwitting catalyst for Alan Strang’s atrocity, and Caitlin Bissett who plays a nurse.

Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) - Janie Lawson (Dora Strang) - Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart)

However, it is Sam Thomson who displays remarkable presence in the non-verbal role of the horse, Nugget, and his stablemates, Jamie Johnson, Finlay Forrest, Samara Glesti, Bianca Lawson and Robert Wearden, who are most likely to remain in the memory. They are on stage for the full duration of the play, either as horses or observers, and it is the spectre of their presence which ultimately drives the play.

Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) - Sam Thomson (Nugget) in "EQUUS".

“Equus” is a play that has fascinated audiences for more than 50 years. Anne Somes inventive and imaginative production at ACT Hub is a strong indicator of why this is so.

                                                     Photos by Janelle McMenamin.