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Reich: Rejoice: Repeat

14/09/202614/09/2026 Catherine Wright🥈🔥🎭

Reich: Rejoice: Repeat Rating

★★★★★

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Following this concert I think the Vibraphone is my new favourite instrument. Think tubular bells mixed with a glass harp for the purest sound in an orchestra. As a tribute to Steve Reich who was influenced by Back to Coltrane and master of this instrument, the Ensemble Offspring offered a technically brilliant afternoon of sound. The self-effacing key speaker Claire Edwardes outlined the program and the ensemble’s history and love of Reich’s compositions and technical difficulty. She even wondered out loud why they had chosen some difficult pieces!

First up, Richard Cilli and Claire Edwardes strode on with metronomes and, accompanied by the amazing pianist Gabi Sultana, their body percussion and ballet melded sound, rhythm and the piano providing a surprising pulse. ‘Metronomes’, offered Reich’s classic phrasing of repeat, review and revise. The bodies moved in time matching the metronomes as they were out of sync and then in-sync as if they were a piece of separate music. It was compelling in its fluidity.

Richard then stepped forward and with fluid balletic dexterity presented a conversation with a silent partner as if the beat, piano and his movements were debating with another to get some response regardless. Gabi pushed the piano as if it were vibrating to the music whilst her fingers ran across the notes mastering the difficult phrasing.

Orchestra on stage performing live; musicians play violin, piano, bass, percussion, and strings under magenta lighting with an audience in the foreground.

Pianist in a blue dress plays a grand piano onstage while a male dancer in black performs a high kick in front of an audience.

Next we had the famous piece, Quartet from 2013, which featured two vibraphones and two pianos – just in case! The nimble dexterity and clarity of sound was beautiful and the pace was fast and furious. Lots of counter questions and answers between all four performers as they delved into the complex harmonies and difficult twists of hands and instruments to match the rhythm, fast, slow, fast and then faster. It was amazing to watch the ballet of fingers using the mallets as if playing four keyboards on one instrument and the precision of the timing was everything.

The finale of the whole ensemble added a bass guitar, flute, clarinet, violins, viola and cello which circled the pianos and vibraphones. Radio Rewire from 2012, is a piece not for the fainthearted. With shards of Radioheads’ Everything in Its Right Place and Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Reich offers a throwback to older composers using pre-existing music to weave in to their own variations on a theme. The piece moved back and forward in speed and finalised in a massive pure sound leaving the audience stunned by the sheer technical brilliance and the complex phrasing as variations were weaving around from each performer. The performance culminated in a cacophony of dynamic sound.

To book tickets to Reich: Rejoice: Repeat, please visit https://www.aco.com.au/whats-on/2026/ensemble-offspring-reich-rejoice-repeat.

Photography: Oliver Miller

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Behind Their Closed Doors

09/09/202609/09/2026 Catherine Wright🥈🔥🎭

Behind Their Closed Doors Rating

★★★★★

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Welcome to a new short and sharp Australian musical and get your tickets to support a world premiere! Seven strangers catch the train, each deep in their own worlds and worries until one passenger innocently breaks through the social barriers. They are told to board and leave emotional baggage behind but that is impossible.

Kudos to Producer and Playwright, Anna Notley and Musical Director, Composer and Pianist, Analise Wren (accompanied by guitarist, Abby McKimmie), for presenting new songs and leaping into the world of a mini Broadway-style musical. With hints of ‘Rent’, ‘Hairspray’ and a little of Sara Bareilles, we travelled with the passengers as each revealed their hidden selves.

Each character represented part of society struggling with their every day lives singing about how they were trying to ‘impress for success’. As the actors boarded the train, their stories unfurled. Freya Moore played a woman deep in depression looking down a dark road and Lizzie Tang, an effervescent young woman trying to weave a way through her future and rental costs. Aleksandra Ford portrayed a worn out but loving new mother whose identity is lost and Jemima Stratton played a character seeking to heal from heartbreak. Greg Thornton’s and Steve Rowe’s characters board the train as a father and son with obvious worry and fear around a father’s growing forgetfulness and finally Hannah O’Donoghue boards as a young woman with health issues putting on a brave face. Young and older, new love and love lost, health issues and worries about their place in life; it was a capsule of today’s post-covid life style and choices.

Each singer poured their hearts into the songs about who they are and their struggles. Freya Moore sang with a sad and lyrical gentleness contrasting with Lizzie Tang’s pizzazz. Aleksandra Ford and Hannah Donoghue presented their songs beautifully and Jemima Stratton tugged at our heartstrings. It was great to hear two male voices from Greg and Steve offering a gravitas as they sang about their worries around the same fears of ageing.

The musical is only an hour long but it is just the right length to take a ride with each character. The songs are the script and the well played piano and guitar gave enough support for the singers. Before it sounds too depressing, there are some fun songs and dancing as the ensemble gets to know each other and recognises in each person similar views of life and love. Some travellers bond and others support the breaking out of fellow passengers’ lives.

To book tickets to Behind Their Closed Doors, please visit https://sydneyfringe.com/events/behind-their-closed-doors/.

Photographer: Daniel Ferris

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Gioia Mia – Sweetheart

03/09/2026 Catherine Wright🥈🔥🎭

Italian Film Festival – Sweetheart (Gioia Mia) Rating

★★★★★

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‘Gioia Mia’ or ‘Sweetheart’ is a gentle, coming of age film with a wonderful cast. It is a moving and thoughtful journey addressing abandonment and the young and old who have loved and lost, with secrets that still hurt. Written and directed by Margherita Spampinato in her feature film debut, we are enveloped in a young boy’s life where his only communication is with his phone.

Sent off to live with an old aunt who is full of regrets and frustration, the two clash as age, technology and a different way of life collide. Nico is played by Marco Fiore and his face flashes with obstinate retorts, trembles with hurt and sadness and finally beams with joy. Every event and conversation sweeps across his face. His aunt, Gela, played by Aurora Quattrocchi, is the classic, traditional religious aunt who has shut herself and her heart away. Her life is acted out quietly with restraint but with a fullness of emotion as she and Nico spark against each other as both are at different ends of a lifecycle. They learn how to bond and there are sweet moments as Nico moves from technology to tradition and Gela accepts him into her heart.

Without giving away the gentle plot, there is a tribe of grandmas hilariously offering advice when none is requested. They bake sugar cookies as that is their answer to grief, shouting orders from balconies in the traditional way whilst others use technology. It is a fading world in a beautiful fading town. The women have gone through life together and forgiven what could be as they observe their grandchildren play and grow.

A group of children is feisty with the leader, Rosa, a growing young girl played by Martina Miami, resenting an outsider. Martina is a foil to Nico as they clash and reject each other. They finally recognise they are both abandoned children with similar feelings, they bond together and there is a lovely sense that all will be right in the end.

With shades of ‘Cinema Paradiso’, the glorious Italian light is a backdrop adding to a sense of the summer heat and oppressiveness of life and emotions. With an emphasis on close up cinematography all of the acting is in the faces and is played without over-dramatising for effect. That being said, it is Marco Fiore and Aurora Quattrocchi who hold our attention and draw us in.

To book tickets to Italian Film Festival – Sweetheart (Gioia Mia), please visit https://italianfilmfestival.com.au/films/iff26-sweetheart.

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The Book Of Everything

29/08/2026 Catherine Wright🥈🔥🎭

The Book of Everything Rating

★★★★★

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“What I want to be when I grow up? Happy!” said Thomas Klopper, aged ‘nearly 10’. The audience was young and old and instantly charmed by Thomas played by a grown up Matthew Whittet. We were let into his imaginary world of tropical fish in the canal, his joy of reading and talking to a very present and comical Jesus (John Leary). He is also part of a post-war family dealing with just about everything.

The set of a giant book that was opened and re-opened with dreamy cartoon-like scenes was another character that took on a life of its own and provided a backdrop to each event. A musician (Jack Ward) playing music beautifully, added emotion with a range of instruments providing a childlike understanding of life and sound. The cast members also contributed to the ‘soundtrack’ by playing instruments themselves.

We were engaged within five seconds being brought into the world and gentle naivety of children pushing back the past dark war years and its impact on what is left of life. The script (Guss Kuijer) is full of witticisms and the audience responded with laughter and joy. The team of Richard Tulloch, Neil Armfield and Kim Carpenter produced a play that was delightful, funny, thoughtful and uplifting. This play, which addresses serious themes skilfully balanced with humour, is highly recommended for the young and young at heart.

Thomas’ father (John Gaden), a dry, deeply religious and angry man, his mother (Claire Jones), a weary and loving mother and Margot (Rebecca Massey), a sprightly teenager coming into her own, form a family living in Amsterdam and dealing with family secrets. On the sidelines is the observant neighbour, Mrs Van Ammersfoort, (Julie Forsyth), with the look and panache of the neighbourhood witch but who is really a war resistance survivor. Aunty Pie (Pamela Rabe), rebels by wearing trousers and Eliza (Bridie McKim), is Thomas’ love, despite being 16 years old and having a leather and hinged leg.

The lesson is about kindness and how Thomas’ gentle and whimsical heart breaks open the community as he desperately tries to resolve his father’s violence towards his mother. It is a journey of discovery around loneliness, fear and finding a sense of self. As each character breaks open, new life reveals itself and in a childlike manner, the adults discover their innocence and desires.

Audience participation was included with one hilarious action and young people are invited on to the stage. Serendipitously, a large group of schoolboys was in the audience and they bounded down the steps to joyfully join the cast and be ‘nearly 10 years old’ again. They took a group photo after to celebrate. And that was what the play was about; the celebration of kindness, innocence and people’s dreams, even if all it really amounts to is being happy.

To book tickets to The Book of Everything, please visit https://belvoir.com.au/productions/the-book-of-everything-3/.

Photographer: Brett Boardman

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