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Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly)

18/06/2026 Paige Jenkins🥉🦉

Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly) Rating

★★★★★

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‘Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly)’ returned to the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre after its 2025 MerrigongX season run. The audience was packed in with family, friends and theatregoers in a beautiful display of community. It was hard to turn any corner without someone stopping to say hello to another patron, but that’s Wollongong for you!

‘Yandha Djanbay’ is a beautifully lyrical one-woman show by Gunai woman Kirli Saunders that uses poems from her published collections in tandem with song and monologues. It was such a treat to hear a beautiful blend of each of these performance-styles with parts of the show spoken in her family’s native tongues. Saunders has a soothing and rich voice that came out of nowhere. Her regular speaking voice is calming, however when she began to sing, I thought at first it was a backing track it was so smooth. Like the ocean she spoke of so fondly, it felt like stepping into the calmest of waves and floating in the sun as she sang.

Her set was minimal. At first, it was an eclectic pile of “stuff” that was hard to make out. As the performance went on and each story unfolded, a prop was selected from the pile and left scattered around the stage. I like the symbolism of leaving parts of yourself behind rather than taking something to remind you of where you’ve been. The realisation that each item was also so deeply connected to the stories made for a beautiful moment, particularly when it came full circle and the big picture came into focus.

I adored the use of the screen and quotes from both her set and from Australian politicians and other influential characters. The humour of well-known jokes and asides to break up the abhorrent nature of each publicly said statement, broke up the performance into sections and allowed for the audience to take small moments of reprieve from the heaviness of each story. The use of visuals such as the ocean and cultural practices based on Dharawal and Wodi Wodi lands helped bring everything together and worked so well with her stories that it felt like breathing for the first time. I commend the production team for all their work.

Yandha Djanbay is a beautiful production that deserves to be seen, with deeply personal experiences and life lessons we all could learn from. The message to ‘Go Slowly’ is so versatile, especially in a world where everything seems to be happening at a million miles an hour. Each person has the space to take something unique away from the performance and its variety of themes, and that’s such a wonderful skill for a solo performer, especially when the source material is so personal.

Grab a ticket from the Merrigong Theatre Company website https://merrigong.com.au/shows/yandha-djanbay/ and make sure to check the performance warnings. The show closes Saturday 20th of June, so get in quick to secure your spot!

To book tickets to Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly), please visit https://merrigong.com.au/shows/yandha-djanbay/.

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Two Weeks

30/05/2026 Paige Jenkins🥉🦉

Two Weeks Rating

★★★★★

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‘Two Weeks’ by Siobhan Doran-Chaston made its Wollongong debut at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre last night. As part of the MerrigongX Program, where artists and creatives are encouraged and supported to develop their craft for the stage, ‘Two Weeks’ is a deeply intimate and inviting experience for everyone trying to figure out how to live and grow in this world.

Set across a period of two weeks, the audience is invited into the home of a young couple as they live out the good, the bad, the mundane and everything else in between. It took me a moment to place what the countdown was for in the background, which I feel a little silly admitting in public, but I was so focused on the actors that I couldn’t tell at first whether it was counting up or down. There were so many different elements collaborating to bring this story to life. The countdown across the back, the frame over the fridge dictating when a different day was starting or ending, as well as portraying medical charts and tests, and the seemingly never-ending amount of props kept out of view until they pierced what could’ve been overwhelmingly heavy moments. The audience was in stitches over the intermittent Facebook doomscrolling projected onto the big screen, and the use of both characters phone screens and messages was so incredibly clever. It had us believing one thing and drawing conclusions all the way until the end.

If you’ve read some of my work, you’d know that I’m very big on staging and sets, as I am a firm believer that a set can make or break a performance. This set was so well done. It was messy in all the right places and homey in all the others. The duality of it being a living room, a kitchen, a doctor’s office and an airport all without moving any furniture and yet being so believably immersive is just outstanding.

I have to commend both Jess Spies and Nathan Langworthy for delivering such authentic performances. I was sitting close enough that I could see every expression and little glance, which was so odd to see in the theatre as it’s typically an over-exaggerated setting to ensure that even the people the furthest away are still able to follow along. I don’t know whether those moments were conscious decisions or just how it happened in the moment, but it made me feel like I was watching a movie that was clawing out of the screen and coming close enough to for me to touch, which is so rare in the theatre, especially when there’s only two people on the stage. It was so authentic and it really did feel like we were just watching two people trying to figure out how to live life in amongst all the outside pressures and the garbage that comes with chronic illness and capitalism.

Grief is never easy to portray as it looks and feels different to everyone, but I adored the conversations and the theories around where people go after they die. It was so sweet and light-hearted whilst still projecting the undercurrent of sadness and loss. I just love the dynamics of this show, and I truly believe this will go on to tour and be well-loved and well-received all over the country and the world if they wanted it to.

Well done guys. I am utterly unravelled by you.

‘Two Weeks’ is only at the IPAC for two more shows and is part of MerrigongX’s Pay What You Feel experiences, so make sure to reserve your seat ASAP at https://merrigong.com.au/shows/two-weeks/

To book tickets to Two Weeks, please visit https://merrigong.com.au/shows/two-weeks/.

Photographer: Tracey Leigh Images

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My Brilliant Career

11/05/202611/05/2026 Paige Jenkins🥉🦉

My Brilliant Career Rating

★★★★★

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‘My Brilliant Career’ is now playing at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, and it is a must-see for all. It’s always a treat to have original cast members come back to a production, and the passion for this story is overwhelmingly clear from this incredible ensemble cast.

From the moment you walk into the theatre, you’re met with upbeat live music from the cast on a simple yet stunning stage set-up. I love a simple set, and this set up made the stage look like a vast expanse of country with a beautiful piano raised in the centre, surrounded by what we would quickly discover to be some of the most talented musicians I’ve ever seen. I lost count of how many instruments each cast member played throughout the two and a half hour run, and I was at awe every time a different guitar was picked up or instruments came together to not only support the vocal talent, but be ambient sounds of being out on a boat in the middle of nowhere. The obvious musical talent from the entire cast cannot be understated. Dancing while playing an instrument is difficult enough, high kicks while playing a cello that is strapped to your body is honestly insane and I am going to be thinking about that for a long time.

Sybylla Melvyn is the kind of character that you can’t help but root for, and the pure energy and authenticity brought to her by Kala Gare also made her impossible not to love. Her embodiment and growth throughout the show as Sybylla aged was perfection. From the first song, with punk rock attitude and mannerisms, I knew we were in for a treat. Having been a 15-year-old girl not too long ago, it was the perfect display of the amount of ‘hate’ a 15-year-old can muster at the world. Gare is an absolute powerhouse. Her tenacity and playfulness were so engaging, and my goodness she did not stop the entire time and there was not one hint of exhaustion or vocal deterioration. I cannot applaud her enough, that is indeed, one brilliant performer.

The simplicity of sets and costumes rounded out the explosiveness of the arcs in ‘My Brilliant Career’. It easily could have played out as just another story we’ve heard many times about a young woman in the 1800’s who had to follow a pre-determined path rather than having the opportunity to do whatever she wanted in life. However, the wholistic approach and balance of big songs and simple effects was excellent. Single spotlights and a slow violin drew everyone in and a simple joke or facial expression diffused any notions of this being a show about romance. Every step of the way felt exactly like the journey of finding yourself for yourself, and not giving in to what everyone else is telling you to do and to be.

‘My Brilliant Career’ is a must-see for musical lovers, dreamers, and anyone looking to have some fun. Get yourself a ticket to go and sit amongst your “Fellow Australians” and enjoy a night at the theatre. Head over to the Merrigong Theatre Company website and don’t miss the powerhouse that is this incredible cast and show.

To book tickets to My Brilliant Career, please visit https://merrigong.com.au/shows/my-brilliant-career/.

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Arawarra

27/03/202627/03/2026 Paige Jenkins🥉🦉

Arawarra Rating

★★★★★

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The opening night of ‘Arawarra’ at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre saw a sold-out theatre and a standing ovation for the brilliant work and performance of Jake Māra.

‘Arawarra’ tells the story of a First Nations leader and hero of the South Coast, at the time of colonisation. This is the legacy left behind from a prominent figure who was erased from the history books, and it is a story that everyone should be told, especially if you’re from the Illawarra and South Coast.

It’s not often that one person can command a room for an hour with two props and stagnant set of a table and chairs, some boxes and a teacup, but Jake Māra did exactly that. He had the entire audience enthralled in his performance. It was captivating like nothing else. Māra’s storytelling was simple and beautiful, filled with soul and just outstanding. He embodied each character with such grace and ease that it was easy to forget that he was the only one on stage. The story itself was woven through the voice of his uncle, Arawarra himself, and his ancestors. Whether he was sat at the kitchen table, or commentating and dissecting moments from history, it felt just like a friend sitting down and talking about their life. It was warm and inviting and had the audience laughing and sympathising throughout. I have found it to be quite rare to have a gift like that, scripted or not. I simply cannot praise this performance and this story enough.

Technically it was stunning. The use of lighting and occasional images across the cyc (the white curtain at the back of the stage) at pivotal moments was just perfect. Red lighting flashes in time with swift acts of violence, the black and white image of the sacred mountain, displaying the handwritten words of Alexander Berry, all of it was simple and yet, so incredibly effective. It’s easy to be lost in amongst sound and lighting, particularly when it is just one person, but the creative team found the exact balance to do this so well.

I really enjoyed the mix of native language and English that was so seamlessly used throughout the performance. Even if you did not know the language, you could still understand what was happening within the story. The emotion and the characterisation took you through each moment the same way it does watching an opera in a foreign tongue.

This is not a show you should miss. Thankyou to Lincoln Smith and Jake Māra for bringing this story onto the stage and sharing this piece of history and culture with us. You should be incredibly proud of what you have created.

Arawarra has now sold out, but keep any eye out for any repeat performances in your area.

Photographer: Tracey Leigh Images

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