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Good Food & Wine Show

22/07/202521/07/2025 Manuela Kacomanolis🥉

Good Food & Wine Show – Perth Rating

★★★★★

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As we entered the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre for the Good Food and Wine Show I didn’t know where to start, there were so many stalls. With our complimentary tasting glasses in hand, it was time to start sampling.

Maps are provided, setting out all the different stalls but we thought we would be a bit adventurous and make our way around, allowing the sights and smells to draw us in.

Alcohol tasting was first-up. The show isn’t just about wine there are many other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Gins, liqueurs, whiskies and kombucha drinks of all different flavours, even Vodka Iced Tea. I think I must have tried all the different liqueur flavours from Cello, in the end, the lemon and amaretto liqueurs were the winners.

As for the wines, there was one large aisle devoted to the Barossa Valley wines. A big drawcard to South Australia for wine lovers.

For those wanting to dial the experience up a notch, there are the Tasting Rooms where for $34 you join a small group of up to 14 people for an interactive guided tasting with a Wine Selectors wine expert.

If you have never flown business class but wanted to know what the food is like, you could purchase a VIP ticket to the Singapore Airlines VIP Lounge. The food and beverages are inspired by the First and Business Class in-flight experience. The VIP service includes 5 alcoholic beverages, a lunch prepared by award-winning chef, Andrew Ballard and a special take-home gift.

Back to the general entrants, there are still so many stalls to experience that you won’t be disappointed. One of the most popular stalls was the prawns on the stick which were selling 2 sticks for $10.

Smelly Cheese Co was also popular with their delicious, melted cheeses.

The Harvey Norman Kitchen delivered an impressive line-up of chefs and culinary icons. You could learn how to make Flamenca Eggs with Miguel Maestre and soup dumplings with Brendan Pang.

I thought it particularly clever having Australia Post setup in the corner (and no they were not handing out any free stamps or envelopes) it was for those who perhaps bought more than what they intended and rather than lugging all the purchases around they can head to the Pick Pack station and have the wines posted.

I have been to the Good Food and Wine show a few times throughout the years. Unfortunately, one of the setbacks I found about this year’s show was the closing time. I found it odd that the show’s starting time and closing time for Friday and Saturday were 10am to 5pm. I thought 5pm was far too early to end such an event. I’ve been to the show in the past on a Friday night and I loved it. It was something to look forward to after work. Likewise, I think the show would be popular on a Saturday night given that alcohol is a big part of the show. Hopefully they might reconsider the closing times in the future.

To book tickets to Good Food & Wine Show – Perth, please visit https://goodfoodshow.com.au/.

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Heart Lines

13/07/202513/07/2025 Manuela Kacomanolis🥉

Heart Lines Rating

★★★★★

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Written and directed by West Australian award-winning playwright, Kerry Bowden, Heart Lines delivers a heartfelt and thought-provoking play between heart donor and heart recipient.

The play directs the audience to view the heart as being more than just a vital organ of the body.

Having never met the family of his heart donor, 23-year-old heart recipient, Noah, played by Nick Stevenson, records several video blogs to the family, expressing his gratitude and how his life has changed for the better since his heart transplant operation. This clever embodiment of these monologues in the form of video blogs in the play allows the character to speak from the heart directly to the audience.

Noah ponders on the type of person his heart recipient was and how he wished he knew more about the recipient.

Through a series flashbacks, the audience are taken back into of the lives of three young housemates living in Fremantle, Western Australia. Like many other young Australians in their early twenties, Anna, James and Tim are juggling university studies with part-time jobs whilst also squeezing a bit of time to socialize. At first, it is unclear as to which one of these housemates becomes the heart donor but as the play progresses, the new traits and hobbies Noah has developed since his operation are so strikingly similar to one of them that there’s a poignancy knowing this character is going to die.

Noah makes a point about the bittersweetness of heart transplants. The obtaining of a healthy heart has meant the death of another person. In this instance, that other person is only twenty years old.

The play is cleverly written as full-circle story. Noah, who is from the Gold Coast, is drawn to the other side of the country Perth, the hometown of his recipient and even more so to Margaret River where his recipient loved to surf. Although unaware, Noah also crosses paths with people who knew the recipient.

To effectively switch between scenes of Noah’s video blogs and the flashbacks, a warm spotlight is used on Noah, bringing an intimate feel to his messages whereas bright fluorescent lighting is used to capture the upbeat and carefree lives of the housemates in the flashbacks.

At only 70 minutes long, Heart Lines is a short and sweet play presented by the Melville Theatre Company who will contribute $1 for every ticket sold to the non-for-profit organization, The West Australian Heart and Lung Transplant Foundation. A worthy play for a worthy cause.

To book tickets to Heart Lines, please visit https://melvilletheatrecompany.au/current-production#cca6dbda-c607-4472-9f7c-054b47d62a0f.

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Hopelessly Devoted

09/06/202509/06/2025 Manuela Kacomanolis🥉

Hopelessly Devoted Rating

★★★★★

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It is never easy having to care for an elderly, sick parent. Art in Motion Theatre Company presents Hopelessly Devoted, a play in which the heart of the story centres on adult siblings Amy and Andy, who care for their sick mother whilst also trying to make a life for themselves.

Set in Gosnells, Amy is the main caretaker as she stays at home looking after their sick mother full-time whilst her younger brother Andy works providing for his sister and mother. Although the mother’s illness is never specified, it is understood that she is ill and elderly.

Amy is insistent on taking care of their mother but her life is mundane with nothing much to look forward to. As a form of escape, she fantasises about her idol, Olivia Newton-John. She continuously persuades Andy to take part in role-playing in which she plays the part of Olivia Newton-John in various stages of her life. For example, in one scene plays Olivia a guest on the Parkinson show with Andy acting as the interviewer, Michael Parkinson. These little role plays are performed throughout the entire play. In between, Andy attempts to bring Amy back to reality with the possibility of moving their mother into a nursing home.

Whilst Andy is kind enough to give in to his sister’s role-playing requests, he is desperate to move on with his life and to put his plans for the future into action.

Both characters are at a transitional time in their life, but where Andy is ready and eager to embrace the future, Amy can’t let go of the past.

Humour and the popular songs of Olivia Newton-John are used to balance the serious nature of the story. Amy belts out all the Newton-John classics, Physical, Xanadu, You’re the One that I Want, Suddenly, and of course, Hopelessly Devoted to You as she dons a blonde wig, believing she’s Olivia.

The entire play is set in the living room of their modest family home in Gosnells. I found it particularly amusing that some of the references they made to Gosnells.

Keri-Rose Baker delivers a passionate performance, showing off her vocal cords playing the devoted daughter and Olivia Newton-John fan, Amy. Michael Carroll also delivers a convincing performance as the realist Andy.

Hopelessly Devoted is a funny and innovative play that will resonate with any person having to care for an elderly or sick family member and in which personal ambitions are in conflict with familial responsibilities.

Olivie Newton-John fans will love it too!

To book tickets to Hopelessly Devoted, please visit https://drpac.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/149070.

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Roxy Lane Theatre: At Home With The Sheridans

03/06/2025 Manuela Kacomanolis🥉

At Home With The Sheridans Rating

★★★★★

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Nestled in the affluent leafy western suburbs of Perth a dramedy unfolds between childless couple Mr and Mrs Sheridan, two burglars and Mr Sheridan’s mistress.

Written by Perth playwright, Yvette Wall and directed by Russell Chandler, the Roxy Lane Theatre presents a play that breaks through the superficial exteriors of society which categorises people into classes to reveal characters that perhaps are not so different from one another.

As Chandler puts it “what is the real difference between successful white collar middle aged Western Suburbs dwellers and younger disaffected and troubled youth that have fallen off the tracks?”

When seasoned burglar Jake and his accomplice and first-time home intruder, Marilyn break into the Sheridan’s house, they don’t get very far in their quest to steal when Max Sheridan arrives home early with his mistress Zoe. Unbeknownst to Max and Zoe who are in the living room, Jake and Marilyn are hiding in the master bedroom. It doesn’t take long until the four become acquainted. A brawl between Max and Jake ensues and just when things couldn’t get worse for Max, his wife arrives homes.

The play gives the audience the opportunity to see the different dynamics between the characters and a deeper insight into who they are. In the first scene it’s Jake and Marilyn. Both characters are troubled young souls who got an unfair start to life and haven’t done much to turn their lives around. It is revealed that Marilyn has a young son in foster care and is in an abusive relationship. Underneath Jakes tough exterior he cares for Marilyn and tries multiple times to get her to see that her abusive Paul does not love her.

When Jake and Marilyn are hiding in the bedroom, the audience gets to see the dynamic between Max and Zoe which is funny and playful until Zoe drops a bombshell of secret and shows him a picture that will change his life forever.

The final scene is between Max and his psychologist wife Beth which I’m not sure how realistic their resolution is but it’s fair to say it appears to end well for all five characters.

Out of all the characters, Beth, played with such grace and elegance by Emma Kirby, is the most kind-hearted and likeable. The other actors Michael Hewson, Genevieve Wilson, Chris Harris and Lisa Divall were all convincing in their performances and it was clear to see the stage chemistry between them all.

At Home with the Sheridan is an enjoyable, short and sweet play that takes a light-hearted and humorous approach to societal structures.

To book tickets to At Home With The Sheridans, please visit https://www.taztix.com.au/roxylanetheatre/.

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