Jessie Ngaio Smith is prescribing connection, ritual and reflection in Magical Prescriptions | Midsumma Festival | Meat Market

In Magical Prescriptions, Jessie Ngaio Smith becomes a doctor of a different kind, offering ten-minute, one-on-one appointments where she listens, honours silences, and responds with a personalised artwork. Drawing on her own journey of chronic pain, misdiagnosis and dehumanisation in the medical system, Ngaio Smith uses the project to explore connection, intuition and ritual. We sat down with her to talk about where this unusual work began, what it asks of her and why she believes our systems of care need to be reimagined from the ground up.

Ngaio Smith’s experiences in the medical system, along with her time in the aged care and disability support sector, pushed her to look for the humanity that hides in a classic doctor’s appointment. "I was thinking about the strange, sad absurdity of us trying to source support and healing within the tight confines of a 15-minute bulk billed doctor’s appointment. I was also studying for my Certificate in Aged Care and Disability Support which was depressing and it forced me to recognise how broken and under resourced our systems of care are," she tells me. "I wondered to myself if art might offer something which feels so lacking in a doctor’s appointment; a connection that is wilder and weirder. It has been my experience that we are suffering, and it can be incredibly difficult to find someone who will actually listen and sit with the discomfort of witnessing suffering."

Nihilistic Optimism on Trampolines review | Theatre Works

It was on a dreary November night that we took our seats for Nihilistic Optimism on Trampolines, a loose reimagining of the origin of Frankenstein. Rather than setting it during the year without a summer in Switzerland, when Mary Shelley conceived her famous tale, this production places us in a contemporary trampoline play centre, Trampoline World. Here, the employees are each tasked by their supervisor with writing a ghost story.

The characters are named after people who spent time with Mary at the villa, so we have our Byron and Percy and Claire and John all present. Gabrielle Ward is committed as the protagonist, displaying her gradual obsession with completing the story and uncovering the more unsettling impulses behind creation. Eleanor Golding also leaves a mark as Byron, a senior supervisor at Trampoline World. He isn’t particularly integral or complex, but Golding brings an authenticity to him that elevates his scenes and makes him interesting to watch.

Motley Bauhaus expands its family with the new Motley Spielhaus

The Motley Bauhaus is expanding its bubbling creative empire, and the newest addition arrives with a splash of colour, a glass of wine and a courtyard full of people who would rather be making things than scrolling through them. Scale Up is the official launch of The Motley Spielhaus, a small blackbox theatre and gallery/wine bar. The official launch will take place Saturday 29 November running from 12 to 6pm, and it has all the makings of a breezy summer afternoon with a side of art and community spirit.

Across the day, four artists, Blinkerfluid, Stella Tavener, Boxedin and Jason Cavanagh, will be turning blank walls into permanent murals in the Spielhaus courtyard, with bold urban edge next to soft abstraction next to cheeky still life next to theatrical surrealism. It will be an aesthetic feast as audiences will be able to watch these varying styles unfold simultaneously side-by-side.

Proud review | The Motley Bauhaus

James Watson's Proud follows Jack, a nineteen-year-old suburban kid who finds himself edging into the world of online right-wing politics, pushed along by a mix of grief, confusion and the kind of hunger for belonging that certain corners of the internet know how to exploit a little too well. The play tracks how family tension, old wounds and casual racism can set the stage for something far darker, and Watson clearly understands how easily that spiral can happen.

It is an engaging story, and one that captures the mood of how disillusionment and a need for purpose can make young men vulnerable to that pull in a believable and alarming way. I do think it would have been a bolder decision for Watson to actually name the cultural background of George's wife. Leaving it vague reads less as universality and more as hesitancy, which softens the impact of what the play is trying to interrogate.

Dark Erotica Quartet / Footfalls review | Fortyfivedownstairs

Two different plays share the stage in a double bill that explores passion and vulnerability. James Hazelden's Dark Erotica Quartet offers three short, loosely linked vignettes about sex and intimacy, while Samuel Beckett’s Footfalls follows an elderly woman speaking to her unseen mother, a meditation on memory and presence. Both pieces are carefully contained, but each invites the audience into varying kinds of human experience.


Each story in Dark Erotica Quartet stands alone, yet they converse with one another, forming a small universe of desire and openness. Under Blake Barnard’s perceptive direction, Hazelden’s script leans into sensual imagery and frank dialogue that is sexual without being crude. The comedy lands, but never at the expense of the characters, whose sexual natures are treated with authenticity and seriousness. When one reflects on the time a partner’s tears fell on his erect penis, it is delivered not as a joke, but with blunt, candid honesty.

Whitefella Yella Tree review | The University of Melbourne

Dylan Van Den Berg's Whitefella Yella Tree follows Ty, of the River Mob, and Neddy, of the Mountain Mob, who meet under a lemon tree and, over time, grow from cheeky teenage messengers into young men in love as their world changes beneath the shadow of colonisation. With direction from Declan Greene and Amy Sole, the narrative weaves together Blak queerness, the pain of dispossession, and the weight of the past with a sharp, poetic edge.
 
Joseph Althouse and Danny Howard are terrific as Ty and Neddy. Althouse shines as the more anxious Ty, always glancing to Neddy for reassurance. He depicts Ty’s sensitivity beautifully, letting emotional shifts play out with a quiet honesty. Howard, on the other hand, plays Neddy with a rush of excitement and bravado, the kind of kid who believes nothing bad could ever touch him, while hinting at the loyalty and warmth that make him such a compelling counterpart to Ty. As the story moves on and the years roll by, we watch them shift from boys into men shaped by very different paths. Through it all, the two share a surprising softness and affection, and Greene and Sole guide them into moments that feel intimate and earned.

The Haunting of Spook Mansion (by ghosts) review | Chapel Off Chapel

The Haunting of Spook Mansion (by ghosts) opens with a cheeky premise, a sceptical professor, a believer, and a cash reward big enough to convince anyone to spend a night in a purportedly cursed mansion. It promises chills, chuckles and a full tour of every haunted house trope you can think of, and for a while it delivers exactly that. But as the story progresses, the humour sometimes trips over its own hair-raising ambitions.
 
The play opens at a reading for A Bullshittery of Ghosts, the latest book by Professor Adrian Chambers, the Head of a University Paranormal Disproval Department. There he meets Beth, a fan of Chambers' and the supernatural who challenges him to stay overnight in Spook Mansion and pocket five hundred thousand dollars for his trouble. Adrian barely pauses to breathe before accepting, and the slumber party kicks off.