Observer

OBSERVER: Josephine Wants To Dance

Friday, March 28, 2025

Monkey Baa Theatre Company returns to Melbourne with Josephine Wants to Dance at the Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts from April 11-12.This musical production is based on the children’s book by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley with a deeper meaning around following dreams and believing in oneself.The show includes ballet, hip-hop and a kangaroo…

OBSERVER: Local Theatre Report

ShowsFab Nobs Theatre: Come From Away. Until April 5 at Fab Nobs Theatre, Factory 33, 1-45 Industry Place, Bayswater. Director: Sarah Tierney; Musical Director: Sally McKenzie; Ass’t. Director/Choreographer: Aimee John; Ass’t. Director/Ass’t. Choreographer: Amy Miles. Bookings: fabnobstheatre.com.auWarrandyte Theatre Company: When the Wind Blows (by Raymond Briggs) Until April 12 at the Warrandyte Mechanics’ Institute, 180…

OBSERVER: The Sex Lives of Married Women

Journalist Saman Shad had such a success with her debut novel The Matchmaker, she has taken up her pen again to write about the next chapter of women’s life.Her new novel, The Sex Lives of Married Women, examines what love looks like after 10 years with a partner, and when women decide that being able…

OBSERVER: Sleep At The G

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

On May 15, in a much-needed fundraiser for the Melbourne City Mission, sleepers will converge on the MCG to tackle youth homelessness. Each year hundreds of Victorians come together in support of thousands of young Victorians who are without a safe place to call home, for one big sleepover at Melbourne’s most celebrated sporting and…

OBSERVER: Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde’s wildly arch dialogue, enjoyed by audiences for 130 years, is on fire again in the National Theatre Live’s The Importance of Being Earnest.Director Max Webster imbues the production with a high-camp, pantomime vibe with new dialogue additions, fourth wall breaks and sight gags.The bare bones of Wilde’s comedy centres on Jack (Hugh Skinner)…

OBSERVER: Death, Deceit and Ducks

Club Voltaire was the perfect venue for this collection of six vignettes by Cerise de Gelder.Tucked away in Raglan St, North Melbourne, accessed by a narrow stairwell, and with drapery across the ceiling, the venue had the intimacy needed for these explorations of people’s foibles.Gelder’s scenarios were quirky and comic touching, as they did, on…

OBSERVER: Local Theatre Report

Essendon Theatre Company: Love, Love, Love (by Mike Bartlett)Until March 29 at the Bradshaw Street Hall, Bradshaw St., West Essendon. Director: Casey Bohan. Bookings: 0406448368 or trybooking.Fab Nobs Theatre: Come From Away. Until April 5 at Fab Nobs Theatre, Factory 33, 1-45 Industry Place, Bayswater. Director: Sarah Tierney; Musical Director: Sally McKenzie; Ass’t. Director/Choreographer: Aimee…

OBSERVER: You Can’t Say Everything These Days

ward-winning comedian and NSW RAW Comedy State Finalist Rian (‘imagine Ian with an R’) Howlett has had it up to here with statements that are just untrue.Tired of hearing people whinge about the limits of free speech he’s decided to do the only thing left in a world like ours.Howlett’s show You Can’t Say Everything…

OBSERVER: Come From Away

A musical beget from the tragedy of the 9/11 terrorist attack event that changed many things forever.Book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff (librettist and lyricist) and David Hein (writer) her husband put the small Newfoundland town of Gander (locally called ‘The Rock’) on the map with Come From Away, when some 38 planes containing…

OBSERVER: The Bunny Club

Monday, March 24, 2025

Blanche d’Alpuget is a successful and prolific writer, and her latest book has taken her in quite a new direction.Best known as a writer for her historical fiction, essays, and biographies of her late husband, former prime minister Bob Hawke, Blanche has just written her first crime fiction novel entitled The Bunny Club.Enter the world…