Claire Mulcahy🥉 - Whats The Show

The Ride Of Your Life!

12/11/2025 Claire Mulcahy🥉

Ride the Cyclone Rating

★★★★★

Click if you liked this article

If you blended the dark wit of Heathers with the existential charm of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, you might come close to capturing the wild, weird brilliance of Ride the Cyclone, Sydney Musical Theatre’s latest production. This cult-favorite musical, written by Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond, spins a tale that’s equal parts carnival nightmare, teen talent show, and philosophical meditation on what it means to live.

The premise is audaciously simple: six teenagers from the St. Cassian Chamber Choir die in a freak roller coaster accident. Now, trapped in a limbo-like carnival, they are offered one miraculous chance, by the mechanical fortune-teller Karnak, to sing their stories, and for one of them, to return to life. What unfolds is a haunting, hilarious, and unexpectedly moving journey through identity, regret, and the fragile beauty of being human.

Each number is a genre-hopping revelation. Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg’s biting self-importance (What the World Needs) crackles with manic energy, while Mischa Bachinski’s hard-edged rap ballad (This Song Is Awesome) hides a tender heart beneath its bravado. Jane Doe’s ethereal lament (The Ballad of Jane Doe) stops the show cold; a ghostly aria of lost memory that would feel at home in Phantom of the Opera’s darkest corners. And then there’s Constance Blackwood’s tearfully exuberant Sugarcloud, which blossoms into the musical’s emotional core: a celebration of joy reclaimed after despair.

Certainly a highlight of this production is the impeccable singing of the cast. Amira Clark as Ocean and Raven Swinkels as Jane Doe are absolute vocal standouts. Kielle Murillo as Constance and Xion Jarvis as Mischa display excellent comedic skills. Andrew Read and Lex Sywenkyj have the audience in stitches during their moments on stage.

The staging is a visual feast of carnival lights, decaying grandeur, and eerie automaton choreography. The ensemble choreographed by Elise Simpson works like a finely tuned ride mechanism: precise, kinetic, and emotionally fearless. Director Ssarah Shanahan has embraced the absurdity of the musical without losing the show’s heart, letting the humour sharpen rather than undercut the poignancy of the thematic concerns.

By the final reprise, Ride the Cyclone well and truly had the audience in its spell. It’s a production that dares to find joy in tragedy, laughter in death, and life in limbo. Beneath the spectacle lies a message that lingers: we are all, for better or worse, passengers on the same unpredictable ride.

To book tickets to Ride the Cyclone, please visit https://www.sydneymusicaltheatre.com.au/.

Photographer: Althaia Frost

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

The Shark Arm Case

17/08/2025 Claire Mulcahy🥉

Shark Arm Case Rating

★★★★★

Click if you liked this article

Sydney has always feared the shark; every Sydneysider’s felt some trepidation when venturing into the waters that surround our beautiful city. But as it turns out, sharks come in human form too. Shark Arm Case, a joint collaboration between Deadhouse Productions and Museums of History NSW, shows just how dangerous and destructive those particular creatures can be.

On 17th April 1935, a fisherman caught a small shark off Coogee Beach. As he reeled in his catch, a four metre tiger shark swallowed the smaller fish. The man then hooked the tiger shark quickly taking it to the Coogee Aquarium Baths, a very popular attraction at the time, where he knew the tiger shark would bring in crowds during the coming Anzac Day weekend. The crowds did indeed arrive to peer at the trapped shark. Horror ensued when the animal suddenly vomited up a human arm. Unsurprisingly, initial impressions were the owner of the arm had been an unfortunate victim of a shark attack given that Sydney had recently experienced a spate of shark attacks. Medical examination, however, showed the arm had not been bitten off; instead it appeared to have been severed by a knife or other sharp instrument. Was the arm’s owner murdered and if so, whodunnit?

Sydney’s Justice & Police Museum near Circular Quay is the perfect setting for an immersive theatre performance depicting the nefarious activities of the city’s 1930s criminal underworld. After police realised they were dealing with a victim of crime rather than a shark attack, the press soon picked up the story. The arm featured a tattoo of two boxers in battle; it was this tattoo and the coverage of the story in the city’s newspapers that drew the attention of Edwin Smith. His brother, Jim, a small-time crook turned police informant (known as a ‘fizgig’), had been missing for weeks. Coincidentally, Jim also had a distinctive tattoo on his forearm of two boxers. Had Jim Smith been murdered? This is the pressing question the performance opens with. The play starts with Jim’s wife Gladys (Madison Chippendale), and another character Mrs M (Karli Evans), in Gladys’ living room. The audience surrounds the two, witnessing Gladys’ harrowing realisation that the victim may well be her husband. In the next scene, we’re introduced to Reginald Holmes (Barret Griffin) and his wife, Inie (Roz Hicks) in their north shore home. Holmes runs a successful boat-building business but is also involved in illegal activity using his speedboats to smuggle drugs and other contraband into Sydney. We hear a heated conversation between Holmes and Patrick Brady, another small-time crook and associate of Holmes. Holmes’ fear of Brady is palpable. What exactly have Brady and Holmes been up to?

Later we move into a larger room where our guide and the Aquarium manager’s wife in a combined role (played by actor Kyla Ward, who is also the show’s writer) fills in the backstory. A screen projection shows the moment the tiger shark purged itself of the tattooed arm – a suitably gory moment in the riveting production that elicited more than a few groans of disgust. Police investigators Frank Mathews and Allmond now take on the case. Our personable guide informs us that Mathews does not like losing a case; he will do whatever it takes to win. But maybe this time Mathews will meet his match, coming up against a lack of convincing evidence and a stubbornly impenetrable criminal underbelly.

The performers are truly the compelling force of this clever production. Driven by powerful dialogue, the play takes us into a fascinating cold case that to this day remains unsolved. Mark Stokes as the feisty Mathews and Sam as his calm offsider, Allmond, are the backbone of the play. A yin and yang duo, both detectives try to solve a case that lacks a crucial piece of evidence: the victim’s body. Kyla Lee Ward as the guide is particularly entertaining. Her commentary provides humour and levity throughout the piece. Ward is also to be commended for her writing. Roz Hicks gives an emotional performance as the long-suffering Mrs Holmes. In fact, it is the women in this story who suffer the most, standing by men who repeatedly let them down through the poor life choices they make. Barret Griffin as Reginald Holmes captures the businessman’s cravenness; he later adeptly transforms into the commanding Clive Evatt KC, who represents Brady at the coroner’s inquest. Mention also goes to Steve Maresca as Jim Smith and Karli Evans as Grace Brady. Kyle Stephens’ lighting design and props managed by Lew McDonnell added just the right atmosphere and mood to each scene.

Deadhouse Productions are certainly keeping Sydney’s criminal history alive through their immersive theatre productions. Judging by the full audience on the night I attended, there is truly an insatiable appetite for true crime stories such as the Shark Arm Case. So, if you fancy yourself a detective and you’re hungry for some unsolved crime, get along to the Justice & Police Museum for a fascinating night out.

To book tickets to Shark Arm Case, please visit https://mhnsw.au/whats-on/events/shark-arm-case/.

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Three (Short) Plays by Tennessee Williams

10/08/2025 Claire Mulcahy🥉

Three (Short) Plays by Tennessee Williams Rating

★★★★★

Click if you liked this article

Ground Floor Theatre Company’s debut production of three one-act Tennessee Williams plays is a rare opportunity to see some of the American playwright’s earlier work. The three one-act plays, At Liberty, Auto-Da-Fé and This Property is Condemned, provide a compelling snapshot of the playwright’s early writing and excitingly foreshadow his later classics such as The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Each play is like a staged vignette; a portrait of unfulfilled dreams, repressed longing and shattered innocence. In At Liberty, Gloria La Greene (Helena Cielak), a struggling actress, returns home in the early hours of the morning after a night out with a beau. Her mother (Emma Wright) sits waiting for her daughter. Theirs is a strained relationship. Gloria clearly chafes against the control her mother tries to exert over her, dismissing her mother’s concerns about her health. We see here Williams’ preoccupation with the domineering matriarch; an early prototype perhaps for the unforgettable Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie who suffocates her children in her attempts to love them. There are also shades of Blanche Du Bois in Gloria’s character; a woman in her thirties, still unmarried, still unfulfilled, still clinging on to the last remains of her youth and beauty.

In Auto-Da-Fé, we again witness an enmeshed parent-child relationship; this time between a mother and her adult son, Eloi (pronounced El-wah). Eloi (Will Manton) is in his late thirties but still lives at home, working in a post office. He casts judgment on the people who surround him in a rundown, impoverished New Orleans neighbourhood, condemning their licentiousness as if their vices threaten to infect him. Eloi is repressed but he needs to tell his mother something. In his postal worker job, he has come across a ‘dirty’ photo; it is almost too much for Eloi to describe yet Madam Duvenet (Emma Wright) draws the information out of him. Similar to At Liberty, we again see an adult child straining against the cage their mother has placed around them. But Eloi is also trapped in a cage of repressed sexuality and his preoccupation with the ‘filthy’ photo suggests something more. Again, Tennessee Williams shows early signs of the themes, particularly around sexuality, that he would grapple with in his later plays.

The refuge of fantasy is particularly poignant in the final play of the show, This Property is Condemned. Two children, Willie (Helena Cielak) and Tom (Will Manton), on the threshold of puberty, play by railway tracks. They seem to know each other but have lost touch. Their conversation reveals Willie’s broken family life; her mother has taken off with a man and her sister, who supported the family through sex work (although this is never said overtly), has died. The house they lived in is condemned yet Willie still somehow occupies it. She lives off rotting, abandoned food, sustaining herself emotionally with the memories of her sister she embellishes as a way to protect herself from her brutal reality.

Director Megan Sampson very competently captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of the worlds these characters inhabit. The small, intimate space of the Old Fitz downstairs theatre is perfect for the scenes of suffocating domesticity; we feel we are sitting in the living room with these damaged characters, straining to be free, to breathe fresh air. Set and costume designer, Meg Anderson uses simple props and costumes to evoke a 1930s Southern milieu. All three actors show admirable versatility in playing multiple roles, even attempting, though not always successfully, the difficult tonal shifts in the Southern dialects the characters speak in.

Three (short) Plays is running until August 15 at the Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo.

To book tickets to Three (Short) Plays by Tennessee Williams, please visit https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/three-plays-by-tennessee-williams.

Photographer: Robert Miniter

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Betrayal

31/07/2025 Claire Mulcahy🥉

Betrayal Rating

★★★★★

Click if you liked this article

Watching Sport for Jove’s production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, now playing at the Old Fitz Theatre, I ran through alternative titles for the piece in my head. Some were: The lies we tell each other and ourselves; Why do we lie to each other? And lastly, why are humans so horrible to each other? On reflection, these are probably more questions the play provokes rather than suitable titles.

Betrayal is certainly a play that will have you wondering about why we cheat on each other. While set over fifty years ago, the theme of infidelity is a timeless one. Pinter wrote the play in reverse. It opens at the end of an affair, rather than at the beginning. In the first scene, Emma and Jerry, both in their late thirties, meet for a drink at a London pub in the spring time. Their conversation soon reveals they have been clandestine lovers, with their affair ending two years before. She is married to Robert who is best friends with Jerry. Jerry is married to Judith. Both couples have children. Emma reveals to Jerry that her marriage to Robert is over, in fact, they’ve broken up the night before. More shocking to Jerry though is that Robert has now learnt about their previous affair.

Desperate to talk to his long-time friend, the second scene sees Jerry meeting with Robert at his house. Their awkward dialogue hints at a brittle friendship. When Jerry finally talks to Robert about his affair with Emma, he is shocked (again) to discover that Robert had already known about the affair at least two years before. Jerry realises Emma has lied to him. How many times has she lied to him before? In his moment of outrage, Jerry seems to forget that he’s been lying too.

From here on, each scene moves backwards in time, travelling towards the final scene in which we see where the seeds of Emma and Jerry’s affair were planted. Pinter’s use of a reverse plot structure is effective. Each scene painfully reveals more to the audience about the couples. We start to see that behind the facade of domesticity lurk secrets and lies. A particularly devastating scene is when Robert discovers Emma’s infidelity as they holiday in Venice. Pinter’s economic dialogue here is especially biting, revealing so much in what is not actually said.

Betrayal is undeniably a bleak play. Under Cristabel Sved’s direction, the performers work hard to portray the ugliness of infidelity and the pettiness we are all capable of in our relationships. Ella Scott Lynch as Emma shines on stage; a woman caught between two men she both loves. Andrew Cutcliffe playing Robert captures the pain and impotency of a man whose wife has cuckolded him with his best friend. Matt Hardie as Jerry is effective in portraying a seemingly likable man who reveals himself eventually. None of the characters are particularly likeable but I think that was Pinter’s point. He has crafted characters who are real and, at times, baffling in their behaviour.

Set and Costume Designer Melanie Liertz has created a minimalistic set that fits well with the stark nature of the story. Vertical blinds are set to good use with scene titles projected onto them as well as photos of (ironically) happy family moments. I did wonder if the choice of these blinds was some kind of metaphor for the characters’ ‘blind’-ness in their relationships? Composer Steve Toulmin uses compelling piano music as transition between scenes. Verity Hampson and Luna Ng’s lighting design adds suitable mood to each scene.

Ultimately, Betrayal never really answers why we betray each other. Perhaps what it shows instead is that there is no answer for why we behave in the ways we do.

Betrayal is now running at the Old Fitz Theatre in Woolloomooloo until August 10.

To book tickets to Betrayal, please visit https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/betrayal.

Photographer: Kate Williams

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Connect Online