Mature Skin review | Northcote Town Hall

Written by Gabrielle Fallen, Mature Skin traces the charged connection between Paul, a successful cis gay fragrance designer in his 40s, and Jasmine, a young trans woman and retail worker who sells his products. A chance encounter in the bathroom of a work event quickly deepens, leading them into a relationship that probes passion, kink, fetishisation, queerness, trans identity, and shifting power dynamics. The play navigates intimacy and attraction, highlighting the vulnerability and complexity of their interactions.



Peter Paltos and Bailey Ackling Beecham bring an affecting chemistry, built on a tension that sits somewhere along seduction and resistance. Their characters circle one another with a mixture of fascination and discomfort, and the actors maintain that equilibrium with poise. The result is a volatile entanglement, where magnetism and hesitation are never quite separate.

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.

Gina Rhinestone: Pig Iron Queen of Asstraya review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

Tina Arena’s "Chains" and Merril Bainbridge’s "Mouth", iconic Australia pop songs, greet us as we take our seats for Kimberley Twiner’s Gina Rhinestone: Pig Iron Queen of Asstraya. The political satire on Australia’s richest woman digs into the life of Gina Rinehart while raising questions about how much wealth and power one person should possess.

Twiner makes a monster of an entrance as she rides atop a bedazzled child’s toy excavator. She performs a number of sketches from “Gina Rhinestone’s” life, including baby Gina’s first words to the valuable “daddy thoughts” she has been raised on, with some incredibly racist comments about Indigenous people made by her father, comments that Rinehart has never publicly condemned.

We are also treated to the more adult events in her life, such as being named Telstra’s Businesswoman of the Year, where she shares her own “me too” ordeal, and the debacle over her demands that a portrait of her hung at the National Gallery of Australia be taken down. Twiner finds marvellous humour in these sketches, sometimes exaggerated and sometimes subtle, but mostly cleverly highlighting the power and influence that Rhinestone’s wealth has afforded her. Some toilet and bodily function gags undermine the thoughtfulness and consideration that Twiner has put into the show and perhaps there's a need to reconsider those moments.

Monument review | Red Stitch

Edith Aldridge has just 90 minutes to prepare for the most important day of her life, and it's not her wedding. Makeup artist Rosie has arrived at the hotel as a last-minute call-in to ensure Edith looks gorgeous, after all, how often do you get sworn in as the youngest female leader of a country? Written by Emily Sheehan, Monument explores the power that makeup, fashion and beauty hold over women and also the power that women can have from this. It's a delicate act that is captured by an intriguing and interesting premise.

Julia Hanna is brilliant as Rosie, a perfect foil to the matter-of-fact and calmly distressed Prime Minister. Her line delivery, pronunciation and speech patterns convey much about the character's background and make her inexperienced interactions with the Prime Minister seem genuine. Sarah Sutherland as the Prime Minister presents a woman who is slowly unravelling by forces outside her control and feeling the pressure of being relentlessly monitored over the minutest of details. She exposes Edith's emotional turmoil in a very raw way, including a compelling scene of her silently releasing her anger and frustrations out into the world.

What Every Girl Should Know review

Four young girls living in a Catholic reformatory in 1914 experience an awakening when they come across Margaret Sanger’s Family Limitation, one of the first guides on birth control to be published in the United States. Monica Byrne’s What Every Girl Should Know has the girls questioning and challenging the faith and beliefs they’ve held as they start to explore their desires and fantasies from their new-found enlightenment that offers them power and liberation. 

The ensemble - Ravenna Bouckaert, Rachel Kamath, Vivian Nguyen and Shirong Wu – do a great job of bringing these girls to life and while they have distinct personalities, they don’t let them become stereotypes as they create a depth and authenticity to them. Nguyen is a highlight of the production, providing some comedic relief to the otherwise bleak (yet hopeful) narrative and she displays a carefully considered depiction of Lucy’s apprehension, fear and struggles.

Twigs That Never Took review

It can be difficult to move forward when you can't let go of the past. Where you spend your time reminiscing about your younger years as you try to avoid the future that awaits. In Donna De Palma's Twigs That Never Took, a middle-aged woman grapples with her mortality and loneliness as she opens up to the audience about her two lost loves. 

There is so much potential for this to be a refreshing exploration on gender roles and ageism, however the show reveals few important or profound realisations. This is most noticeable in the first half that consists of our protagonist Bianca describing her two weddings as well as all the various things one must consider when planning a wedding. While there are humorous moments presented, very little of it leads to anything substantial.

The Three Graces review

Climate change, gender equality and the role of women in society all come together in Laura Lethlean's The Three Graces. Manifesting as a water fountain that has been turned off, three goddesses come together to voice their distress and opinions of where the world is heading and whether or not it's too late to work towards change. 

Madelaine Nunn, Candace Miles and Anna Rodway play Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne, collectively known as The Three Graces who were regarded to possess the essence of beauty, charm and grace. The three actors are dressed in various black jumpsuit-like outfits that echo peploi that The Three Graces would have worn, but also suits the characters they play in the contemporary scenes. While the three are adept with the material, the performances sometimes feel too exaggerated with big, expressive movements and dialogue that is awkward and unnatural.

The Last Supper review

Being a leader is not the easiest thing to be. Especially when you are a leader of a mob group or crime syndicate and have to determine who is genuinely looking out for your safety and to constantly second-guess in whom you can put your trust in. In The Last Supper, crime lord Dorian is facing these problems. What follows is an evening of truths being spoken, lies and deception revealed and the extremes that people will go to, to be a leader and claim the power.

Dorian (Gregory Caine) has invited his most inner circle to a meeting, his "trusted" associates and partners. Those invited include his brother Brody (Karl Sarsfield), Madam President, Claudia (Ashley Tardy), the Head of Intelligence, Novak (Kashmir Sinnamon) and the Chief of Police, Vaughan (Christopher Grant). Once Dorian is finished with his interrogations, this may indeed be the last supper for some of them, as failure to perform their jobs results in death.