John Shand Posts

September 25, 2025 / Theatre Reviews

Ensemble Theatre September 12 9/10 Simon Maiden’s Lee creates a tension thick with latent violence; a black hole of negative energy. His blank eyes stare with hate and resentment. “You go ahead, like I wasn’t even here,” he tells his brother Austin (Darcy Kent), who’s trying to write a screenplay,…

September 24, 2025 / Theatre Reviews

Hayes Theatre, September 11 8/10 Don’t necessarily judge a musical by its soundtrack. The original Broadway cast recording of Bright Star suggested I was in for a long night. The music and lyrics, by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, are in a bluegrass/country vein, evoking the setting in North Carolina’s…

September 23, 2025 / Theatre Reviews

Belvoir St Theatre, September 10 8/10 I dreamt I attended the theatre on a torrentially rainy night, and saw a play based on Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, her fantastical character who effortlessly swaps and blurs gender, while living from 1588 until modernity. But rather than attempting to replicate Orlando, the play…