BEYOND THE ALGORITHM: CHALLENGING THE MANOSPHERE

 

Beyond the Algorithm: Challenging the Manosphere.   

An ANU Wellspring Initiative lead by Leslie Barnes and in collaboration with The Street Theatre and the ANU School of Literature, Language and Linguistics. Directed by Robin Davidson. Stage Manager Rhiley Winnett. Lighting Operator Emma Burrows. Facilitators Vivian Gerrand and Robin Davidson.  Street Two. The Street Theatre. July 22^nd. 2026

Canberra Youth Theatre actors: Xavier Taylor, Ashleigh Butler, Rose Nixon-Poole, Matthew Hogan, Blue Hyslop, Disa Swifte.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Robin Davidson is the Facilitator in Beyond the Algorithm: Challenging the Manosphere

 

Theatre takes many forms. Forum Theatre is interactive theatre. Conceived by Brazilian Director Augusto Boal in the 1970s Forum Theatre aims to address social, political or economic issues in order to effect change. In presenting Beyond the Algorithm: Challenging the Manosphere, Robin Davidson continues to contribute challenging and thought-provoking theatre that marked his work with actors with various differences including physical challenges and mental health issues. His work with Rebus always addressed work that would improve self esteem and confidence through theatre that enabled a positive outcome. Now retired from Rebus, Davidson continues to pursue theatre that will make a difference. Forum Theatre is such theatre as conceived by the late Augusto Boal.

L-R  Matthew Hogan as Sam. Xavier Taylor as Alex. Ashleigh Butler as Rebecca. Rose Nixon-Poole as Sarah 

 

Forum Theatre as its name suggests is the interaction between the actor and the audience whom Boal called Spectactors. The audience is invited to watch a performance by actors and then when the performance is replayed they are invited to call out STOP, assume the role of one of the actors and improvise a narrative that may change the character’s attitude and behaviour. If the suggestion takes effect the play continues until another member of the audience calls out STOP and enters the stage to offer an alternative behaviour that will ultimately contribute to change and if possible a desired outcome.

Online Manfluencers on Reddit promote Misogyny

 

Boal introduced a mediator or facilitator whom he called The Joker. Beyond the Algorithm: Challenging the Manosphere explores teenage misogyny as depicted online through text messages and Reddit Manfluencers which is then presented as live theatre through the techniques of Forum Theatre. The scenario is simple enough for an audience to feel safe to participate in the search for solutions. Alex (Xavier Taylor) and Rebecca (Ashleigh Butler) are working on a school project.  Rebecca’s friend Sarah (Rose Nixon-Poole)  tells her that Alex made sexist remarks about  a girl’s body at a party and warns Rebecca to be careful about the arsehole. Alex’s friend Sam (Matthew Hogan) reinforces misogynistic behaviour in Alex, who becomes more and more confused and is unable to seek reassurance from his father (Blue Hyslop), who is unable to communicate effectively with his son. He is rebuked by his teacher (Disa Swifte) and in turn rebukes his father for being weak and a loser, which is where the performance ends before being replayed with interactive involvement by the audience members.

Davidson advises the audience that this is an experiment in exploring the digital use of misogynistic commentary online compared to the important role that theatre has to play in confronting the issue. When Boal devised Forum Theatre, the Digital revolution had not yet begun. Can the role of Forum Theatre and its unique nature be replicated on the internet, where young people are exposed to such sites as Reddit, Meta, various social media platforms, Tik Tok, Instagram Manfluencers such as the Tate Brothers and offensive commentators such as Tommy Robinson? In the Digital Age, the need for Forum Theatre becomes even more obvious. The recent ban on social media usage by young people under the age of 16 is preventative but it does not effect a change in attitude or behaviour necessarily. That is the challenge proposed by Beyond the Algorithm: Challenging the Manosphere by confronting the issue, such as online misogyny and devising an online platform to effect change as Boal intended.

Ashleigh Butler as Rebecca. Blue Hyslop as Dad. Rose Nixon-Poole as Sarah

 

Forum Theatre may not always be entirely effective in achieving change but judging by the participants’ commitment to arrive at a solution it certainly offers eye-opening opportunities to  tackle the problem of online misogyny. Davidson avoided the dark side of misogyny online to facilitate reasoned, open debate and judging by the intense focus and constructive and effective solutions presented by an engrossed audience, Davidson’s presentation of Beyond the Algorithm: Challenging the Manosphere was theatre at its most absorbing, thought provoking and hopeful. As one audience member observed- in live theatre one is compelled to interact face to face with the person in the space.  On line communication can be distorted, avoided or misunderstood, but as the cast and the spectactors showed in this powerful theatre form Boal’s Forum Theatre performs a vital function in facilitating change, which is at the core of what Boal termed the Theatre of the Oppressed. 

Photos by Nathan Smith 

 

 

Time Carved In Stone

 Book Review by Brian Rope

Time Carved In Stone: Benjamin Kopilow

All photographs, text and design by Benjamin Kopilow

Published by Benjamin Kopilow, ©2026. All rights reserved.

1^st Edition. Published in Canberra, Australia

ISBN: 978-1-291-82268-7

The cover of the book - image © Benjamin Kopilow

Benjamin Kopilow is a photographer, teacher and mentor. I have personally experienced Ben in all those roles when he has spoken and shown his images at our local photographic society, and evaluated members’ works providing quality commentary and advice.

Kopilow’s interest in visual art didn’t begin with photography, but with conversations with his painter father as he grew up - about colour, shape, light, and composition. Painting wasn’t his talent, but photography became his way of exploring those same ideas. More than twenty years after a mid-30s career change to photography, this experienced and award-winning photographer says he is still fascinated by the way light, colour and composition can transform an ordinary scene into something memorable.

In 2025 Kopilow and his wife travelled through some of the world's great desert and wilderness places, those of California and the Great Colorado Basin. He says the four weeks journey enabled him to explore and experience those places through form, shadow, texture, colour, and scale. He believes landscapes are sculptures shaped by time, and geological forces, then revealed in different ways by ever changing light.

Using images captured during the journey, Kopilow has now created this book. Time Carved in Stone is not simply images showing readers where they travelled. Much more significantly, this artist (for that is what he is) through his photo-art and accompanying words enables us to vicariously see what he refers to as a journey through deep time.

Each of twenty chapters looks at another place. First up is Death Valley with its salt-cracked floor. The last explores the polished granite walls of Yosemite National Park, well-known for the famous Ansel Adams’ images of it. 

Death Valley © Benjamin Kopilow

Along the way we see various canyons including, of course, the Grand Canyon. The Kolb Brothers (who invented the selfie) pioneered the capturing of this canyon’s beauty in black and white in the early 1900s, but Kopilow’s beautiful colour images here are something else. We see the folded spine of Capitol Reef and the vast red silence of Monument Valley. The artist tells us that all of his landscape images are not merely describing, they allow us to see them in quiet contemplation. He is right.

Before the first chapter there are informative words, a map and an image of the Colorado Basin. Then there are 64 pages of glorious images revealing, amongst other features, Kanab and Horseshoe Bend.

Kanab Sand Caves © Benjamin Kopilow

Next some words about and images of Monument Valley inform and reveal to us that the glorious landscape and the magical sounds of traditional flutes of the Navajo. Then we learn about numerous other locations, including Factory Butte, Hickman Bridge, Escalante, Kodachrome Basin, Maple Mountain Provo, and Great Salt Lake.

In the chapter about Factory Butte there is an illustrated page of information about Buttes, Mesas, Pinnacles and Hoodoos. Here it is, so you can read it and learn if, like me, you need to.

If, again like me, you have never visited some of these places, you may not have even heard their names. Nevertheless, as you explore the pages you will recognise particular features because you have seen photos of them before. But there will be many other features that are new to you. Regardless of which category any particular image fits into for each of us, every one of them is an excellent sensory contribution to our appreciation of the geological history of these areas.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Land © Benjamin Kopilow

The images in each chapter reveal peaceful places that our minds can return to without necessarily looking at them again. I suspect those who practice meditation would consider them most useful resources.

Bryce Canyon & Fairyland © Benjamin Kopilow

We are able to explore these places that have been shaped by geology – by prehistoric oceans and inland seas, vanished deserts, restless rivers. For hundreds of millions of years, unseen geological forces have been quietly sculpting. It has been said that in these places is North America’s hidden backbone, the ancient core beneath us when flying or driving over, or walking amongst, them.

Moonscape Canyon © Benjamin Kopilow

The quality of both the words and images in this book provide a basis for us to think about the passage of time and its significance in life. Kopilow has used his personal sensory experiences to create images which have transformed the centuries old landscapes into living archives. He has delivered an excellent contribution to what is known as the quiet narrative genre, which relies primarily on his visual storytelling to convey messages, evoke emotions, and provoke thought. It challenges our perceptions and offers a deeper understanding of our human experiences.

Links to make purchases of the book in e-book, paperback and hard cover formats are available on the artist’s website, Lulu, Kobo and Ben’s Books.

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

 

 

5 LESBIANS EATING A QUICHE - Everyman Theatre - ACT Hub.

Meaghan Stewart - Crystal Mahon - Steph Roberts - Sian Harrington - Ylaria Rogers in 
"5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche"

5 LESBIANS EATING A QUICHE – Everyman Theatre – ACT Hub.

Written by Evan Linder and Andrew Hopgood – Directed by Jarrad West

Assistant Director: Jo Zaharias – Lighting and Sound Design: Nikki Fitzgerald

Set Design: Jarrad West – Costume Design: Fiona Leach

Presented by Everyman Theatre – ACT Hub – July 17^th – August 1^st, 2026.

Opening night performance on 17^th August reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Madam President having a moment - Crystal Mahon and Meaghan Stewart

 

(Q) What happens when five of Canberra’s most accomplished actresses are let loose on a play bearing the provocative title of “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” under the direction of the city’s most prolific director of queer theatre? 

(A) A night of zany, hysterically funny theatre from which its audience leave the theatre exhausted from laughter. That’s what!

Everyman Theatre has again hit the jackpot with this wonderfully silly play in which the entire audience becomes attendees at the 1956 annual quiche breakfast hosted by the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein.

Yes guys, this means you too, because in the interests of inclusivity, both males and females in the audience are provided with stickers bearing female names, making them honorary lesbians for the night.

 Conducting the event from the head table is the President of the society, Lulie Stanwyck (Crystal Mahon) who rules with an iron fist coated with an excess of charm.

Lulie is flanked by her events co-ordinator, Wren Robin (Steph Roberts), obviously aspiring to be Lulie’s successor; the society secretary, Ginny Cadbury (Sian Harrington) firmly under the thumb of Lulie; Dale Prist (Ylaria Rogers), the society historian; and Vern Schultz (Meaghan Stewart) the Buildings and Grounds Chairman. All of whom are competing for the honour of producing the best quiche. 

Sian Harrington demonstrating how to eat a Quiche
Ylaria Rogers - Sian Harrington - Crystal Mahon -Steph Roberts - Meaghan Stewart

Also present in the audience is the unfortunate previous society Chairperson, on whom the audience is encouraged to heap its disdain in support of the new regime’s efforts to make clear that changes are being made, as well as participate in the society’s rituals.  

To give too much away would spoil the surprises. Suffice to say, subtlety has no place in this production. The acting is gloriously over-the-top, as is West’s confident direction which ensures that the chaotic, brilliantly staged, slapstick scenes never get out of hand, and that each member of the ensemble cast gets a moment to shine.

Steph Roberts - Meaghan Stewart

A particular pleasure of this production is watching how each actor plays those moments for real with brilliant comedy acting, while supporting and playing off her colleagues, referenced by just two of those moments; Sian Harrington’s hilarious demonstration of how to relish a quiche, and Ylaria Rogers’ masterful monologue about a childhood trauma.

Yalaria Roberts with a painting of the founder of the Susan B. Anthony Society for The Sisters of Gertrude Stein

Jarrad West’s imaginative setting draped in American flag bunting, together with Fiona Leach’s colourful 50’s costumes, provide a perfect environment for the madcap antics of this accomplished cast who ensure that this production is guaranteed not only to raise your spirits, but is also one you’d be mad to miss.

   

                                                       Photos by Janelle McMenamin

This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. Link - 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche - Everyman Theatre

     

5 LESBIANS EATING QUICHE

 

5 Lesbians Eating Quiche by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood.

Directed by Jarrad West. Assistant Director · Jo Zaharias Lighting & Sound Design · Nikki Fitzgerald. Assistant LX Design · Rhiley Winnett. Set Design · Jarrad West. Set Construction · Matthew Ovenell. Costume Design · Fiona Leach. Backstage Managers · Marion West & Alice Ferguson. Marketing Design · Louiza Blomfield. Marketing & Publicity · Karina Hudson. Production Photography · Janelle McMenamin. Cast: Sian Harrington, Crystal Mahon, Steph Roberts, Ylaria Rogers and Meaghan Stewart. Act Hub. Causeway Hall. 14 Spinifex Street Kingston July 17 – August 1. 2026. Bookings: ACTHUB.COM.AU

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

I am not a Lesbian and I don’t eat quiche for dietary reasons, so why should I have found this so riotously funny that it even had me laughing, and if not uproariously at least with a permanent grin on my face that not even Dale’s tragic monologue could not remove.

Sian Harrington as Ginny.
Meaghan Stewrt as Vern

So how did it happen that this quirky, queer work by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood worked so successfully for this straight man with no propensity for a bacon free quiche. Well it’s simply because of director Jarrad West’s pacy, snappy and clever business and his cast’s over the top shenanigans carried out by the finest ensemble of comic actors that one is likely to find in Canberra. Steph Roberts as Wren Robin – Events Coordinator  is the ideal organizer of the Susan B Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein annual quiche breakfast. Poor Ginny Cadbury - Secretary (Sian Harrington) is the fazed member of the committee. With her Scottish accent she is no true blue patriot of the star spangled South and therefore an easy butt for an uppity Lulie’s meanness. Ylaria Rogers as Dale Prist -Historian is your picture postcard poser, all bounce and bubble with a sad secret to reveal when the time comes. Vern Schultz – Buildings and Grounds Manager - (Meaghan Stewart) is your butch maintenance member prone to a tantrum that can bring the house down, and then there is Lulie Stanwyk - President (Crystal Mahon), the grand dame of the group with a devotion to chickens and the glorious egg. She too has a secret to throw the hens among the cats. Together they are the guardians of the sacred widows’ ritual of glorification of the egg and I don’t mean the chicken’s.

Crystal Mahon as Lulie. Meaghan Stewart as Vern

With an ensemble so deliciously madcap and with a taste for farcical mayhem, 5 Lesbians Eating Quiche is no buffet of intellectual gourmandizing, but it’s worth developing a taste for a healthy diet of entertainment. The flyer promises wild audience interaction, which harbours the threat of audience participation. At the door we are asked to choose a name to stick to our clothing. Is this a foreboding of having to become involved? Rest assured, you are put in the role of an assembled Society member while the committee sets about to judge the winning quiche. Apart from one plant who is targeted as the hapless Marjorie and butt of the committee’s verbal abuse or incriminating glances, you will only be urged to applaud, cheer or sing along. It’s all good fun which only becomes more chaotic when an atomic explosion hits the town and everyone is trapped in the dining hall bunker of the community hall, gaily festooned with 4^th July decoration. Only in America. An unlikely event? Perhaps but a willing suspension of disbelief will keep you laughing at Linder and Hobgood’s satirical swipe at silly societies that take themselves too seriously.

Ylaria Rogers as Dale

So for a treat to chase away the winter chill, 5 Lesbians Eating Quiche at ACT HUB serves up a delicious taste of top-notch comic performances in this eggcellent production.

 

 

KEROSENE - Off the Ledge Theatre - Courtyard Studio - Canberra Theatre Centre

Winsome Ogilvie as Millie in "Kerosene"

Written by Benjamin Nichol – Produced and Directed by Lachlan Houen

Assistant Director: Anna Lorenz – Stage Manager: Lucy Van Dooren

Co-Lighting Designer – Liah Naidoo -Composer: Fergus Mashman

Voice and Performance Coach – Sarah Chalmers.

Presented by Off the Ledge Theatre.

Courtyard Studio – Canberra Theatre Centre 16th - 19th July 2026.

Performance on 16th July reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Winsome Ogilvie as Millie in "Kerosene"

Director, Lachlan Houen certainly set himself and his actor, Winsome Ogilvie, a challenge with his production of Melbourne playwright, Benjamin Nichol’s 2021 monodrama, “Kerosene”.

Raw and confronting, the play is narrated by Millie (Winsome Ogilvie) who describes the events leading to a catastrophic event which she has initiated.

Millie is a tough, streetwise young woman seeking love and acceptance. However, she encounters rejection at every turn, except from her elderly grandfather, and her best friend, Annie.

Millie’s friendship with Annie becomes her emotional anchor, but when Annie becomes involved in a relationship with an abusive boyfriend, Millie’s inability to cope with the situation becomes the central focus of the play.

Essentially an examination of what drives people to commit acts of violence, “Kerosene” is presented on a bare stage without props, costumes, or other actors. The challenge for both director and actor is to maintain audience interest for the duration of the play.

Houen and Ogilvie attack this challenge head on.

 

Winsome Ogilvie as Millie in "Kerosene"

Perfectly cast as the disaffected protagonist Millie, Ogilvie’s understanding of the character is clearly projected and the clarity of her diction admirable. Her impressive performance is brave and compelling, never flinching, despite confronting dialogue.

It may have been even more affecting had she been able to bring more light and shade to her performance which was pitched at such an intense level throughout as to leave her nowhere to go as the play reached its climax.

Similarly, Houen’s direction, though thoughtful and inventive in exploring opportunities to have his actor prowl the stage rather than risk the production becoming too static, missed opportunities to bring out more of the play’s subtext, such as the significance of the opal gifted to Millie by her grandfather. It would also have benefited from more dramatic lighting that didn’t reveal so much of the bare stage.

Nevertheless, this is a production that warrants attention as an admirable initiative by Off the Ledge Theatre to provide Canberra audiences with the opportunity to experience the work of an impressive emerging Australian playwright in Benjamin Nichol.

                                                 

                                                         Photos by Andrew Sikorski



This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW -  KEROSENE - Off the Ledge Theatre

                                                  

    

 

KEROSENE

Kerosene by Benjamin Nichol.  

Directed and produced by Lachlan Houen. Assistant Director Anna Lorenz. Lighting design by Lachlan Houen and Liah Naidoo. Stage Manager Lucy van Dooren. Sound designer and composer Fergus Mashman.  Off The Ledge Theatre. Courtyard Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. July 16-18 2026. Bookings: 62752700.

 Reviewed by Peter Wilkins.

 

“Love is a stain I never want to fade.” It is a love brandished in the complex and confusing world of a young woman growing up, rejected and alienated and desperately searching for love and friendship.  Winsome Ogilvie gives a powerhouse performance as Millie, a young woman struggling to assert her identity in a world that is more prone to judge than to accept, to diminish rather than support and feed insecurity rather than inspire confidence and security. And yet Benjamin Nichol’s startling debut monodrama offers hope. His writing pulses with dynamic realism, uttering a voice that is singularly that of Millie, a battler, burning with defiance in a quest to discover herself. Ogilvie breathes a fire into her character fuelled by an inner resilience and the love for her best friend Annie, a love so strong that she gifts her friend an opal that her grandfather gave her.

Winsome Ogilvie is Millie in Benjamin Nichol's Kerosene

Nichol’s writing is visceral, plumbing the struggles of Millie’s coming of age and her passage from the onset of her menstrual cycle at the Lilydale Swimming Club to the awakening of a wider world. Through it all Nichol weaves the relationship of Millie and Annie and the abiding power of loyalty and unswerving love of a dear friend.

Director Lachlan Hoen presents Nichol’s intense monodrama in the sparse setting of the Canberra Theatre Centre’s Courtyard Studio against the blacks and with only Ogilvie to tell the story unencumbered by any setting. Only a variety of spots capture the shifting moments of Ogilvie’s 50 minute telling of her story. Nichol’s writing is powerfully evocative capturing the shifting emotions of a girl and a woman confronting life’s challenges. The language is from the heart, forceful, often profane, or poetically evocative. Ogilvie, alone on stage, embraces the text with all the passion and energy of Millie’s search for meaning and eruptive anger at Annie’s abuse by her partner that fires the urge for revenge. Together Nichol and Ogilvie forge a partnership that has resulted in a compelling and fiery performance. It has been said that all that is required for excellent storytelling upon the stage is two actors and a plank, and sometimes you don’t need the plank. Playwright Nichol’s debut work needs no plank and only Ogilvie to tell his tale. Ogilvie gives a performance that every aspiring young actor should see.

Kerosene sees the creation of a new partnership that promises to ignite an exciting new flame in Australian theatre and in the spirit of Millie’s final moment of love and hope, I await more collaboration between Nichol and Ogilvie under the direction of Off The Ledge Theatre Company’s Lachlan Houen. Houen is moving Off The Ledge Theatre Company to Melbourne but I hope that future work by this exciting new company will again be seen on the Courtyard Theatre stage.

Production Photographs by Andrew Sikorski