I truly believe Fangirls has the potential to play on a Broadway stage one day, and hope it continues to grow and improve with each iteration. Fangirls is a joyful, hilarious show that demonstrates an incisive understanding of contemporary fandom culture in the internet age, and I can’t wait to see it staged again.
Tag: Sydney Theatre Reviews
Review: STC’s Chalkface at the Sydney Opera House
As a political commentary about how some of society’s most important and hard-working individuals—teachers—are systematically undervalued and overlooked, Chalkface succeeds. However, as a comedy—which the play is marketed as—Chalkface is a disappointment.
Review: Looking for Alibrandi at Belvoir
Looking for Alibrandi is a thoughtful depiction of a teenage girl torn between cultural identities, and a moving tale of mothers and daughters. Ultimately, I was disappointed by the director and designer’s use of the Belvoir space. While the production lacked the warmth of the original writing, the funny, loving lead performances of Macri and Mastrantone are a joy to watch, and it is well worth seeing.
Review: The Lifespan of a Fact at STC
The script is not subtle in its moralising about facts versus art, but it is effective. STC’s marketing evoked Aaron Sorkin, which is an apt comparison. Jim is agonisingly pedantic about the facts, and John is a pretentious egotist. Neither of them are fully likeable, and neither are 100% right or wrong— the writers let you decide where you fall. Jim and John’s battle is the clash of pragmatism and high-mindedness, a battle against what is correct, and what is dramatically compelling.
Anatomy of a Suicide: One of the Best Plays of the Year
Birch’s script is complex, ambitious, and tightly constructed. For almost all of the play, these three women and their stories of motherhood exist on stage simultaneously, defying realism in favour of compelling and abstract storytelling. Birch boldly raises big questions about fate, mental illness and intergenerational trauma.
Scribbles of Stage and Screen 