Funeral Flowers review | Red Stitch

Seventeen year-old Angelique dreams of becoming a florist, sparked by the creativity and tenderness of crafting stems and petals into something extraordinary. Yet while she learns to cultivate beauty, she must navigate a world shaped by poverty, racism and the care system. Inspired by the life of Tottenham community leader Gina Moffatt, Emma Dennis-Edwards' Funeral Flowers transforms a deeply personal story into a rich portrait of the people and relationships in Angelique's life, filled with vivid storytelling and sharply observed characterisation.

Told from Angelique's perspective, the script depicts an entire community from a single voice, introducing family members, carers, teachers and friends with assured clarity. It balances humour and heartbreak, making room for warmth and optimism to flourish without diminishing the harsh realities of Angelique's circumstances.

He review

He commences with a man crawling out of the ocean and onto a beach. He looks frayed and exhausted. He has returned to a small town in El Salvador, a place he swore he's never set foot in again. Written by Rodrigo Calderón, He is a heartbreaking love story of a man growing up in a community run by toxic masculinity and homophobia.

Calderón gives a captivating performance as a man grappling with the trauma he has experienced. While the story veers into some serious melodrama and improbable twists, Calderón is able to keep the work grounded and allow for genuine emotions to be released and expressed. Calderón also brings great physicality to the role and transfers the man's emotional turmoil into a striking physical representation.

Member - Midsumma Festival review

Presented as part of the Midsumma Festival by Fairly Lucid Productions and directed by Casey Gould, Ben Noble's Member was incited by the death of gay man Scott Johnson in 1988, when his body found at the bottom of a cliff at Manly. Deemed a suicide, there has always been speculation that he was a victim of a gay hate-crime. However, the narrative focuses on Corey, your typical Aussie living in Manly with his wife and child. We follow Corey through various moments in his life that have led to where he is now, in a hospital room, his son lying unconscious, seemingly fighting for his life.

Ben Noble is exemplary in his performance as Corey (and all the other characters he plays). From the very beginning, our eyes are glued on him and even as he begins to unravel and the truth becomes clearer, we still cannot look away. Corey is a complex character but Noble is able to bring some insight into his actions and thoughts while still holding him accountable for them.

Us review | La Mama Theatre

Presented as part of La Mama Theatre's Explorations season of works in various stages of development, Margaret Hickey's Us provides an insight into six very different lives bound by one thing in common, a connection to others. Through six ten-minute monologues, these stories are explored in a light-hearted yet truthful way that has us questioning what it is we are seeking from other people.

Hickey has struck gold in assembling the cast that she has for this show.  Natalie Carr, Travis McMahon, Ned Napier, Daniel Rice, Sally-Anne Upton and Janet Watson Kruse, all find the essence of their characters and their individual displays of equal bravado and vulnerability are perfectly captured. It is clear that each has put in much thought as to how their character carries themselves and their state of mind.

Kindred review | Revolt

Every week in Australia a woman is killed by a current or former partner. It is an astonishingly frightening statistic and yet doesn’t seem to be reported by much of the media. Produced by Goldfish Creative, Rachael Blackwood’s new play Kindred brings this issue to the surface as she explores one woman’s struggle to escape from a violent relationship.

We are introduced to this relationship between Princess (Aimee Sanderson) and Knight (Ben Ridgwell) through the eyes of Princess’ various “personalities”: the childlike Minnie (Jessica Martin), the sexual Selina (Madeleine Mackenzie), the motherly Faun (Gabrielle Sing), the wise June (Aisha Jakszewicz) and the aggressive Diana (Blackwood herself).

From the initial fairy-tale beginnings of meeting the charming knight, through the gradual abuse suffered by Princess, right up to the difficult-to-watch final moments, Blackwood’s script is brutal, honest and unflinching.

Dog Day Trio review

Michael Olsen’s Dog Day Trio presents a trilogy of monologues of people lamenting and reminiscing about their contrasting and varied lives. While the narratives are linked by themes of love, loss, death, and life passing us by, they are highly individual stories about an assassin, a widower and a hotel housekeeper.

We open with Cynthia (Rosa Nix), as she irons her handkerchiefs and gradually reveals that she was – and still is – an assassin. As she teaches us the 9 steps to being an assassin, she beguiles us with her past identities and kills: “You always remember your first,” she fondly says. 

The story is intriguing and filled with light comedic moments from this seemingly gentle murderess, in an intelligent believable performance by Nix. All the elements of writing, directing and acting come together so seamlessly in this piece that I could easily have watched Cynthia’s story unfold for an hour.

Unfortunately I felt the other two stories of mournful George (Kirk Alexander) and hotel housekeeper Betty (Kelly Jane Harrison) are not as absorbing. With Betty’s narrative timeline traveling back and forth, and with many characters introduced, her story is difficult to keep up with. On the contrary, while George’s narrative is more linear, it felt a little too long to sustain audience interest. Both these stories have potential to be just as affecting as Cynthia’s with some fine-tuning to the narrative. Despite these issues, Alexander and Harrison’s performances are also well-thought-out and authentic.