Latest Reviews

Echo: Every Cold Hearted Oxygen
By Jennifer Beasley. A Meta and immersive ‘cold-reading’ play that time loops on the question, is life a play, and what are the echoes that reverberate and connect us to life? Interesting, interesting, interesting. Here I am, a reviewer told to not say too much about...
Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde The Musical is a stage adaptation of the popular 2001 film. With a book by Heather Hach, and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, Legally Blonde The Musical debuted on Broadway in 2007, and made its Australian premiere in 2013....
Smokescreen
By Ash Cottrell In my humble opinion, fortyfivedownstairs is one of the most exciting places to see theatre in Melbourne. Conveniently located at the Paris end of Flinders Lane, the theatre is flanked by prominent bars and restaurants to value-add to an evening out....
Annie
Review by Carissa Shale They say never work with animals or children, but Annie defies that proverb, proving that when done right, both can elevate a show to new heights. Annie has enchanted audiences for decades with its heartwarming tale of a plucky orphan's...
Mother Play
By Adam Rafferty Celebrated American playwright Paula Vogel has never been one to shy away from confronting political and social issues. In Mother Play, she tackles deeply personal subjects as she presents parts of her own life story on the stage that will likely...
Happy-Go-Wrong
By Jennifer Beasley. Roller skating through debilitating pain touches creative depths in this inspired one-woman show that delves into death, existential crisis, luck – and hope. Andi Snelling has created an interesting one act and one-woman 80-minute play based upon...
Soldier Boy
By David Gardette Anthony Hill’s Soldier Boy, adapted from his 2001 novel, brings to the stage the poignant true story of James “Jim” Martin, the youngest Australian soldier to die in active service during World War I. At just 14 years old, Martin lied about his age...
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...
Features

Dean Drieberg’s new take on an old classic
Dial M For Murder, Frederick Knott's classic 1952 edge-of-your-seat thriller, launches its highly anticipated arrival at Theatre Works next month. Possibly best known as the 1954 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (screenplay by Knott), Smoke and Mirrors Productions of...
Karis Oka sings ‘Dead Mom’ from Beetlejuice The Musical
The Australian Premiere production of Beetlejuice The Musical is now playing at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne's East End Theatre District, with the final performance on Thursday 11th of September! Tickets available at: www.beetlejuicethemusical.com.au ...
Sonia Marcon Talks Earnestly about Earnest
Oscar Wilde's most well known society play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is soon to grace The Motley Bauhaus stage, but, in the hands of the production company Misfit Toys, this new adaptation is not what one might expect. Presented by an all-female/femme...
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...
News
The Machine Stops at Theatre Works
From the team that brought you The Human Voice and Moth comes the radical 1909 dystopian epic that predicted the internet. A rhapsody of sound and light brought to life by two virtuosic performers, this world premiere is a masterful new adaptation of the novella by...
The Face of Jizo at Seymour Centre
In commemoration of 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The story takes place in Hiroshima some three years after the dropping of the atomic bomb on that city on 6 August 1945. Mitsue, a young librarian, arrives home to find her father Takezo there. She...
Trophy Boys at Riverside Theatres
A queer black comedy about power, privilege…and debating It is the biggest night of Melbourne’s high school academic calendar, the Grand Finale of the Year 12 Inter-school Debating Tournament. The all-boys team from the elite St Imperium college are ready to totally...
Red Stitch presents the world premiere of Keziah Warner’s ‘What’s Yours’
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre will present the world premiere of What's Yours, a funny, heart-breaking and hopeful new work by talented Melbourne playwright Keziah Warner. Opening Friday 1 August 2025, What’s Yours is directed by the esteemed Isabella Vadiveloo (Wolf...
Competitions

Win Tickets to The Machine Stops
Win one of 2 double passes for the 7:30pm show on Friday the 22nd of August of The Machine Stops at Theatre Works. To be in the running, please send your response to the below to: editor.kris@theatrematters.com.au Where does all humanity survive in The Machine...
Win Tickets to Are You There?
Win one of 2 double passes for the 7:30pm show on Wednesday the 3rd of September of Are You There? at the Explosives factory To be in the running, please send your response to the below to: editor.kris@theatrematters.com.au How old is Colleen? ——————————————-...
Win Tickets to Dial M for Murder
Win one of 2 double passes for the 7:30pm show on Thursday the 7th of August for Dial M For Murder at Theatre Works at the Acland Street venue in St Kilda. To be in the running, please send your response to the below to: editor.kris@theatrematters.com.au Who is...

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