Earlier this month White Box Theatre Company and KXT Kings Cross Theatre hosted the world premiere of Dead Skin a new work by emerging playwright and actress Laneikka Denne. My review of the premiere can be found here. I recently sat down with writer and star Laneikka Denne, and director Kim Hardwick, to chat about developing new work, the importance of queer representation, and telling authentic stories about young people.
Category: Theatre
Dead Skin: Teen Writer Explores Young, Queer Love in Compelling But Scattered New Play
Denne’s story offers a painful look at two young women desperate to be loved but aching from the pain of choosing people who won’t love them back. At times Denne and Hardwick’s commitment to abstract storytelling confuses the story rather than helping it.
Stop Girl Review: Long-Winded Tale of PTSD
Stop Girl is a provocative reflection of what can happen when we succumb to the pressure to achieve at all costs, regardless of deteriorating health and mental health. In the age of the pandemic, where working from home is forcing the boundaries between our personal and professional lives to be blurred, the central message of Stop Girl—that your mental health is more important than any job—is not one to be neglected.
Review from the Archives: The Feather in the Web
If The Feather in the Web is one thing – it’s audacious. Like his protagonist, a woman who does whatever she wants and is afraid of nothing, Nick Coyle’s bold new play has a fearlessness that is perfect for the Griffin Theatre Company stage. Kimberley, played by Claire Lovering, is a like a bowling ball,…
Review: THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Six trembling pre-teens take the stage for the competition they have prepared for their whole lives. It’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the stakes (and nerves) are high for these academically inclined youngsters. The UNSW Theatre Society’s 2019 major production, conceived by Rebecca Feldman, written by Rachel Sheinkin with music and lyrics by William Finn, is…
Fangirls: A Musical That’s So Much Fun You’ll Think You’re At An Actual Pop Concert
Take a bag of glitter, a dozen red bulls, and thousands of pre-teen girls’ high-pitched screams and you’ve got Fangirls, a musical so rich with energy and euphoria you’ll think you’re at an actual pop concert. It’s 2019 and fourteen-year old Australian schoolgirl Edna (playwright and composer Yve Blake) is desperately in love with Harry…
Review: A Girl In School Uniform (Walks Into A Bar)
Peter Brook once said, “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.” He claimed that for theatre to exists, one just needs a space and an actor. Pointing out the existence of radio theatre, he insisted that even light is not necessary for theatre. I’ve never seen Brook’s ideas demonstrated as…
The Almighty Sometimes: Brave and Heart-Wrenching Tale of Motherly Love
Narratives about fathers and sons have dominated the canon of great plays for centuries. Sophocles, Shakespeare, Miller: these men, and their oft told tales of struggling patriarchs, are still staged internationally today. Male playwrights, directors and actors have for so long taken up all the space in the cultural conversation. Plays are designed to show…
Macbeth: Impressive Cast Delivers Devastating Tragedy With A Twist
The beauty of Shakespeare’s plays lies in their flexibility and creative potential. Written over four hundred years ago, the Bard’s thirty-seven comedies and tragedies have inspired film, theatre, musicals, television and more. It is remarkable to consider the infinite directorial possibilities that these plays hold. This week in Sydney alone, two different theatre companies stage…
Review: Single Asian Female
When Lady Bird aired earlier this year, women all over the world fell in love with it for its painfully accurate representation of mother-daughter relationships. Sitting in the Belvoir St Theatre watching freshly divorced mother Pearl (Hsiao-Ling Tang) struggling to keep it together while running a Chinese restaurant and a family single handed, I was…
Review from the Archives: NUTS presents Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi
All-female plays aren’t very common. In fact, statistically, women in the Arts aren’t that common. The ratio of women to men in the performing arts is around 3:10, and women make up only 7% of the top directors in Hollywood. That’s what makes the New South Wales University Theatrical Society’s (NUTS’) latest production so important. Written by…
Review: NUTS presents Savages
If you want to lose your faith in men entirely, NUTS’ production of Savages is perfect evening viewing. Four horny, aggressive, lonely blokes sail away on a cruise ship for the boys’ trip of a lifetime. However, their close living quarters quickly feel suffocating as old rivalries resurface and tensions rise. Written and directed by women (Patricia…
Scribbles of Stage and Screen 