Latest Reviews

Super
By Darby Turnbull What does it mean to have good intentions in a system that relies on undermining altruism in order to maintain the status quo? Proactive initiatives are insidiously inhibited through endless bureaucratic red tape designed to exhaust whilst self...
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Review by David Gardette John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a cult classic that continues to resonate. This bold, genre-defying rock musical tells the story of Hedwig, a genderqueer East German singer whose botched sex-change...
Proteus
By Jennifer Beasley. Twenty-one incredible performers showcase their outstanding talents, redefining what ‘Circus’ traditionally means. Firstly, I’d like to congratulate the creative talents of co-creators Sage Bechtler Cushman and Hugo Oliverira for this amazing...
Circe’s Carnival of Vice – Bloomsday in Melbourne
By Natalie Ristovski Bloomsday, a commemorative yearly celebration of the life of James Joyce, finds its Down Under home via Bloomsday in Melbourne - a team of dramaturgs who have been diligently working going on thirty years to bring the works of the esteemed Irish...
Looking for Alibrandi
By Tim Garratt First published in 1992, Looking for Alibrandi was the debut novel of Australian writer and teacher Melina Marchetta. It has since been read by several generations locally and overseas (the novel has been published in 16 countries and translated into a...
The Wrong Gods
By Adam Rafferty Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan, author of the widely awarded epic Counting and Cracking, seen as part of the 2024 RISING: festival, returns this year with the rather more concise, fable-like story of The Wrong Gods. A ninety-minute tale of a...
Love and Information
By Chris Hosking Can love be measured in megabytes? What information is stored in memory? How do we find it once lost? Will a barrage of information bring us closer together or divide us? Caryl Churchill’s brilliant 2012 text Love and Information is a challenge and...
Batshit
By Jennifer Beasley. A showcase of a fractured mind unearths the pathologisation of women. Trigger warnings: Depictions of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and flashing lights. Ah, the good old days. When the easy fix for an unhappy and sexually unavailable woman was...
FEMME PLAY [ungrateful slut]
By Ash Cottrell It had been many, many years since I’d been to, The Butterfly Club. Last week marked the first time in a long time and it was great to be back. An eclectic, artistic, albeit kitsch coupling of trinkets and colours characterises the space. It all feels...
Features

Christopher Samuel Carroll reveals what lurks beneath in Smokescreen
Bare Witness Theatre Company's latest offering, Smokescreen, is described as a razor-sharp power play about the dark arts of marketing behind climate denial. For writer and director, Christopher Samuel Carroll, this horrifying insight into the impact of covert...
Karlis Zaid unveils the real David Bowie in Loving the Alien
Karlis Zaid's show, Loving the Alien, will have its world premiere at Arts Centre Melbourne this July. A love letter to David Bowie, this original theatre piece features songs and storytelling with Zaid and entertainer, writer and director, Aurora Kurth, in the lead...
Alan Dukes in The Spare Room
Helen Garner's harrowing but loving story, The Spare Room, is set to open at Belvoir Theatre tomorrow. Adapted for the stage by its director Eamon Flack, The Spare Room is set over the course of three weeks while the narrator, Helen, cares for a friend dying of bowel...
Beng Oh: Finding the light in Soldier Boy
Soldier Boy is the story of the youngest Australian known to have died in World War I. James Charles Martin was only 14 years and nine months old when he succumbed to typhoid (after serving for only seven weeks) during the Gallipoli campaign. He was one of 20...
Emma Woods explores connections and communication in Love and Information
With its rapidly shifting scenes and characters, Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, explores contemporary human connection and communication in a society saturated with information. For actor Emma Woods the biggest takeaway from Churchill's insightful piece is...
Rachelle Ann Go: overcoming insecurities with joy
Rachelle Ann Go was always destined to be a singer. Her parents told her she was humming along to a song on the radio at just eight months old. Inspired, her father taught her to sing and play musical instruments. At the age of six her father would put her on...
News
The 3 Little Pigs – Melbourne School Holiday Fun For The Whole Family!
Melbourne based theatre company AG Theatre is thrilled to announce that they are returning with a brand-new season of the classic fable The 3 Little Pigs, back to the stage this July school holidays playing for a limited season at the historic National Theatre,...
Broad Encounters presents WHEN NIGHT COMES
Lauded as “the leading creator of exciting and thoroughly immersive theatre in Australia right now” (ArtsHub), Broad Encounters today announced their thrilling new creation WHEN NIGHT COMES, will take up residency at the historic Union Bond Store in The Rocks from 22...
Ensemble Theatre – Emerald City
Ensemble Theatre is thrilled to present David Williamson’s 1980s classic play, Emerald City, an iconic tale of ambition, power and the quest for success, from 18th July to 23rd August. Led by Ensemble’s Artistic Director Mark Kilmurry (The Lover & The Dumb Waiter,...
The Lovers is coming to Sydney
ALL NEW AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION OF HIT POP MUSICAL THE LOVERS IS COMING TO SYDNEY IN OCTOBER Producers Shake & Stir Theatre Co and John Frost for Crossroads Live have announced that the breakout Australian pop musical The Lovers is coming to Sydney. The new...
Competitions

Win Tickets to Songs for a New World
Win one of 2 double passes for the 7:00pm show on Tuesday the 5th of August ofSongs For A New World at Chapel Off Chapel 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran. To be in the running, please send your response to the below to: editor.kris@theatrematters.com.au Songs for a...
Win Tickets to Smokescreen
Win one of 2 double passes for the 7:30pm show on Wednesday the 9th of July of Smokescreen at fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne To be in the running, please send your response to the below to: editor.kris@theatrematters.com.au Who does Bud work for?...

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About Us
Theatre Matters is a community group that loves, promotes and discusses all things to do with Australian theatre.