Observer

OBSERVER: Stolen Painting

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

In the early 21st century, a painting by early 20th century artist Egon Schiele was discovered in the house of a young suburban chemical worker by a modern art specialist. The painting had disappeared when it was looted by the Nazis in the Second World War.The Stolen Painting is based on this true story when…

OBSERVER: Local Theatre Report

ShowsThe Basin Theatre Company: Educating Rita (by Willy Russell) August 7 – 17 at The Basin Theatre, Doongalla Rd., The Basin. Director: Sharon Maine. Bookings: thebasintheatre.auWilliamstown Musical Theatre Company: Disney’s Dare to Dream Jr. August 1 – 10 at Altona Theatre, 115 Civic Pde., Altona. Director: Stuart Dodge; Musical Director: Ang Cuy; Choreographer: Gabriele Pagano….

OBSERVER: Blood Wedding

In an ambitious but overreaching and ultimately disappointing production, Theatre Works, Tashmadada and JMC Performance Ensemble presented Blood Wedding, the grand Spanish tragedy by Frederico Garcia Lorca.The play revolves around a proposed wedding. The bride-to-be is betrothed to a young man but is in love with another man, Felix.Unfortunately, Felix and the bridegroom come from…

OBSERVER: Glass Menagerie

In a tale of two halves, Running with Scissors Theatre and Victory People Productions put on a production of uneven quality of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie at the The Stables in North Melbourne’s Meat Market.The play started with one of the characters, Tom Wingfield, setting the scene as he reminisced about living with his…

OBSERVER: Ordinary Days

Clovelly Fox’s artistic director Tyran Parke has announced the cast and creative team members behind its forthcoming production of Ordinary Days, performing at fortyfive-downstairs from August 2-31.Described as a “beautifully intimate chamber musical by acclaimed writer Adam Gwon”, Ordinary Days traces the intersecting lives of four New Yorkers as they search for meaning, connection, and…

OBSERVER: Snatchers

The Australian dark comedy feature film Snatchers, a debut comedy feature film from married duo Craig Alexander and Shelly Higgs, had its premiere in June in London at the largest independent film festival – Raindance Film Festival – with a nomination for Best Debut Feature.Reviews have hailed the film as “unashamedly Aussie”, “entertaining” and “darkly…

OBSERVER: Mary Poppins Jr

Emphatically presented by the Young Australian Broadway Chorus in the Cripps Centre, Caulfield Grammar School, Mary Poppins Jr was a theatrical highlight.The company’s youth (18 and under) cohort have differing years of training and experience, yet the whole cast worked as one , particularly in the huge choral numbers like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious .It was nothing short…

OBSERVER: The Mikado

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

I was so excited and honoured to see the 90th anniversary Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria’s matinee production of Mikado.Patience or ‘Bunthorne’s Bride’ for GSOV was my first-ever stage show and first ever lead role as an 18-year-old in the 1981 centenary production at MLC.We are all most grateful and pleased that the tireless…

OBSERVER: A Twist of Fate

Scary Goats Theatre presents A Twist of Fate from August 21-23 at The Motley Bauhaus, Carlton.Inspired by The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, each season of A Twist of Fate contains four short plays about the unusual and otherworldly, each with their own devastating twist.Described as “A little unnerving, a little thought-provoking and just a…

OBSERVER: Numa and Karl

Sevenfold Theatre Company presents a new Australian play titled Numa and Karl: Extraordinary Man That He Was by trans writer and performer Em Chandler, supported by Maribyrnong City Council as the 2025 Arts and Culture Supported Season recipient.Inspired by the life and legacy of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs; a pioneering queer activist who, in 1867, became…