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KEITH GOW, WRITER

My new play, Turn Turn Turn, opens at Theatre Works in September 2023.

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My Favourite Theatre of 2022 (and 2020/21)

In 2020 and 2021, I relished any and all theatre I got to see because shows were so few and far between. I think I only saw ten shows in total in 2020 and not much more last year. 2022 was still affected by COVID, from low numbers at the start of the year because of the wave in January, to shows pushed and pulled and cancelled throughout. If the audiences were back, cast and crew continued to be struck down and you never knew if the show you had booked for tomorrow would happen or not. Mainstage companies produced shows that had been waiting to debut for two or three years. Small theatres took baby steps to announce seasons, sometimes half a year at a time. Indie companies had to be agile when it came to postponing – some started their seasons and had to find time and space to regroup later. The state of theatre in Melbourne in 2022 was strong, though. At all levels. If the worst part of COVID was not having theatre at all, perhaps having more time allowed shows to simmer long

REVIEW: Cut by Duncan Graham

Please note: this review contains spoilers for the play. The play contains scenes of sexual violence, murder, stalking and assault. Duncan Graham’s play CUT begins with a warning from the solo performer on stage, a woman who is playing a flight attendant. It’s a warning you might usually expect from venue staff or a voice from the P.A. system. Turn mobile phones off. Cover watches that glow. Much of the production relies on true blackouts and this is as much about protecting the performer and the audience as it is about preserving the vision of the production. But then she says, if the audience wants to leave at any time, they must put up their hand and yell out the safe word “CUT”. Cut, cut, cut. She repeats. And if you are to leave during the performance, you will not be welcomed back. And all of a sudden, what is ordinarily intended for audience safety and comfort turns sinister and rejects any notion of support. I’m used to going to shows in black box spaces that have strict

REVIEW: Emilia by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

“In the old age, black was not counted fair, Or, if it were, it bore not beauty’s name; But not is black beauty’s successive heir, And beauty slandered with a bastard shame.” Shakespeare’s 127 th Sonnet is the first of his Dark Lady sequence, poems inspired by a woman with black hair and dark skin. Who was this mysterious woman that Shakespeare used as his muse? One answer could be Emilia Bassano, the first woman in England to claim the title of professional poet. Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s play Emilia assumes this connection to be true in order to explore how history revered the man and hid the woman and how we are still dealing with the fallout of such treatment centuries later. The play begins with an older Emilia reading the work of Dr Simon Forman, whose casebook details his interactions with Emilia. This text forms the basis of much of what is known of her life and her ambitions, but it is one man’s observations of a woman who came to him for astrological readings – w

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