John Shand Posts

March 31, 2026 / Theatre Reviews

Roslyn Packer Theatre, March 25 8/10 How many novels spawn a film, play, musical and forthcoming TV series? The fascination with Miles Franklin’s 1901 story continues because protagonist Sybylla’s debunking of patriarchal ideas of marriage as fulfillment for a woman, instead following a nascent dream of being a writer, so…

March 28, 2026 / Features

The feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford makes subsequent hostilities between Taylor Swift and Kanye West, or Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, look like playground skirmishes. The Hollywood stars’ fabled 40-year vendetta is investigated in a play by Anton Burge, Bette & Joan, at Ensemble Theatre, with Jeanette Cronin…

March 17, 2026 / Theatre Reviews

Playhouse, Sydney Opera House, March 11 7.5/10 Julius Caesar was my childhood pathway into Shakespeare: a heady mix of history and gripping verse. I skated over the curious plotting: not so much that the titular character’s dead – if not quite gone – by half way, but that this vacuum’s…