Observer

OBSERVER: Richard Clapton

Friday, July 18, 2025

Richard Clapton is performingThe Best Years of Our Lives show at 7.30pm on Friday, August 1 at The Palms At Crown, Southbak.He is celebrating 50+ years on stage, and performing a songbook featured in the soundtrack to almost three generations of Australians, including Trust Somebody, I Am an Island, Girls on the Avenue, Goodbye Tiger, Capricorn…

OBSERVER: Stories of Bradmill

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Yarraville, a vibrant inner-western suburb of Melbourne, known for its village atmosphere and heritage architecture, was once a mix of industry servicing a fledgling Melbourne and beyond.Back in 1925 and founded as Davies Co-op, Bradmill grew to become recognized as a most important textile producer, expanding into spinning, weaving, becoming a national leader in cotton…

OBSERVER: Breaking The Castle

Peter Cook’s one man show, Breaking the Castle, is a tribute to surviving addiction.Based on Cook’s own struggles with alcohol and drugs, the theatrical creativity employed in both the writing and performing of the piece enables the audience to appreciate the nature of addiction and its causes.Deftly threaded through the work are indications of the…

OBSERVER: Local Theatre Report

ShowsTheatrical: Legally Blonde Until July 27 at the National Theatre, St Kilda. Director: Aimee Forrest; Musical Director: Kent Ross; Choreographer: Maggie Lynch, Bookings: booktickets.com.auMordialloc Theatre Company: Lord Savile’s Crime (by Constance Cox) July 24 – August 2 at the Shirley Burke Theatre, 64 Parkers Rd., Parkdale. Director: Deborah Fabbro. Bookings: mordialloctheatre.com.auEncore Theatre: Agatha Crispie (by Cenarth Fox) Until…

OBSERVER: The Orchard

Cult theatre collective Pony Cam brings a cutting edge adaptation of the Anton Chekhov classic The Orchard to the Beckett Theatre, Malthouse from August 5-16.Following their acclaimed original works Burnout Paradise (Rising) and Grand Theft Theatre (Melbourne Fringe Festival), Pony Cam co-creators and performers Claire Bird, Ava Campbell, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub and Hugo Williams…

OBSERVER: Ordinary Days cast

Clovelly Fox’s artistic director Tyran Parke has announced the cast members and creative team behind its production of Ordinary Days, performing at fortyfive-downstairs from August 20-31.An intimate chamber musical by writer Adam Gwon, Ordinary Days traces the intersecting lives of four New Yorkers as they search for meaning, connection, and beauty in the everyday.Taking centre…

OBSERVER: Echo

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

In a short season at Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s latest play, Echo: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen, challenged expectations of what theatre is.Over seven nights, a new actor each night performed an unrehearsed, unseen script based on Nassim’s experiences in Iran which led him to flee into exile in Berlin.Each actor had to follow…

OBSERVER: What’s Yours?

Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre will present the premiere of What’s Yours from July 26 – August 24 at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, St Kilda East.A new work by Australian playwright Keziah Warner, What’s Yours is directed by Isabella Vadiveloo (Wolf Play) and marks the second play in the theatre’s 2025 season developed through its INK…

OBSERVER: Annie

Annie has arrived at the Princess Theatre. Still going strong since its world premiere in August 1976 in Connecticut.Based on the popular Harold Gray’s comic strip Little Orphan Annie and Thomas Meehan’s book, it gave rise to the musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin, and has played worldwide since its…

OBSERVER: Chunky Moves Phantasm

Australian contemporary dance company Chunky Move premieres Phantasm, the haunting new contemporary dance work from Australian choreographer Melanie Lane, from August 8-16 at Chunky Move Studios, 111 Sturt St, Southbank.Developed as part of Lane’s 2023-2024 Chunky Move Choreographer-in-Residence tenure, Phantasm draws from stories of feminine spirits and fictions to conjure a liminal space of ghosts,…