Paul Ellicott - Whats The Show

Trophy Boys – Spirited Yet Sobering Satire

25/10/2026 Paul Ellicott🥈🎭

Trophy Boys By Emmanuelle Mattana Rating

★★★★★

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It is the Grand Finale of the Year 12 Interschool Debating Tournament, and a near-capacity Pip Theatre audience watch on as boys from the elite St Imperium College are in lockdown, preparing their argument that ‘feminism has failed women’. The twist? These boys are played by an entirely female/non-binary cast – and they are about to discover one of them has been anonymously accused of sexual assault.

Trophy Boys by Emmanuelle Mattana offers a fascinating and fearless account about privilege and power, where misogyny masquerades its motivation, even while avowing allyship. Friendships become fragile, with every man for himself, however the patriarchy is perennially protected. The 70-minute duration moves quickly, with script, performances and creative design each multi-layered and gelling well.

Despite a serious theme, there are plenty of laughs in Trophy Boys, largely at the expense of insecure teenage masculinity, elevated with keenly observed characterisation and funny physicality by the energetic ensemble, who make me forget I’m not watching a group of high school aged boys; Credit is due to Gabby Carbon as David, Emily Liu as Owen, Stella Peterson as Scott and Tayla Rankine as Jared, for bringing these characters to multi-faceted life. While on a certain level, this show is a send up of the students’ obnoxiousness and elitist entitlement, the performers each bring dimension to their roles, collectively deeply flawed yet human, with redeeming features like an old boys’ network to call on if all else fails, complete with a prominent lawyer as a father.

While these characters are undoubtedly problematic, they carry their own burdens too. The weight of expectation on their lofty aspirations is heavy, as they try to figure out their own authentic, independent identities; Scott and Jared seem like more than ‘just friends’ and a play with a multi-cultural cast explicitly discussing intersectionality invites reflection around social dynamics and how race may also benefit or disadvantage people and groups at an esteemed establishment like St Imperium. Only first produced in 2022, Trophy Boys explores timely themes, which feel safer coming from male characters played by female/non-binary performers, as they uncover behaviour that should not be tolerated but is concerningly normalised, and each of them questions the others, but is also questionable in turn.

Overall, Trophy Boys is a fine addition to an excellent 2026 programme for Pip Theatre. Director Anne Pensalfini and the entire creative team succeed wonderfully with this production, inviting our serious reflection with a humorous wink, in this spirited yet sobering satire. Highly recommended.

To book tickets to Trophy Boys By Emmanuelle Mattana, please visit https://piptheatre.org/trophy-boys/.

Photographer: Kenn Wylchi

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Anastasia: An Elegant, Enchanting Enigma

21/09/2026 Paul Ellicott🥈🎭

Anastasia The Musical Rating

★★★★★

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According to Anastasia’s writer Terrence McNally, a fairy tale is a story that even if it isn’t demonstrably true, tells us something very truthful about who we are. So even if modern DNA testing has concluded any claim about a runaway Romanov, the rumour, legend and mystery of Anastasia rightly endure and find luminous life in a Broadway show, now performing at QPAC’s Lyric Theatre in Brisbane. Set largely within economically shattered early 1900s Russia, Anastasia avoids excessive sentimentality, canvassing a society struggling to survive, and haunted with loss. Street sweeper Anya is groomed by conmen Dmitry and Vlad to pose as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, rumoured to have escaped and survived her Imperial family’s execution, so they can pocket a reward. However, as the story develops, the grift turns to gratitude, and the fiction may not be so far-flung.

Every facet of Anastasia is impressively crafted, creating a musical that is spirited and spellbinding, yet sombre. Of the performers, Georgina Hopson is an admirable Anya, exuding the guts and grace to embody both the peasant and the princess with authentic likeability, not to mention pitch-perfect vocals, delivered with power and tender restraint. Robert Tripolino is eye catching as the resourceful rogue, Dmitry, a conman with a conscience. The magnetism between Anya and Dmitry is evident earlier than the characters realise it, and their burgeoning romance provides them with satisfying realignment and redemption, respectively. Rodney Dobson brings lived-in levity to the character Vlad, wily associate of Dmitry, and ex-member of the Imperial Court, sharing good connection and timing, particularly in his scenes with Tripolino, and Rhonda Burchmore – who is a giddy, glamourous and genial Countess Lily. Joshua Robson stands out as Gleb, capturing the complexity and ambivalence of the character, with velvet, vibrato-rich vocals, while as the Dowager Empress, Nancy Hayes commands with gravitas and regal decorum. The entire ensemble is highly commendable, vivacious and versatile.

Anastasia’s projection and videography are remarkable, adding depth and cinematic spectacle to the stage, immersing us in the adventure even more thoroughly. Dance is another special feature, with effervescent group numbers and stirring contrast between Russian waltzes, beautiful but bygone, and the up-tempo jazz stylings of 1920’s Paris. There is some phenomenal ballet added in for good measure, which provides a dazzling link between the old and new. The stylistic changes in costume, dance, and music achieve a marked tonal shift from the repression of revolution era Russia to the joie de vivre of Paris – and the possibilities of a new dawn. The costumes are stunning, the women’s regal dresses in particular draw gasps of appreciation, and the music is sumptuous and memorable, with undertones of melancholy befitting the fallen who at once grace and haunt the stage.

Anastasia shares many elements with the animated 1997 film, including five of the songs, but it achieves something new and more grown up, with each aspect combining beautifully. Director Darko Tresnjak and the entire creative team truly sweep us away in the journey. Overall, the legend of Anastasia endures, and this production is an elegant and enchanting enigma, telling many truths, including about how serendipity leads us where we are meant to be. Highly recommended.

To book tickets to Anastasia The Musical, please visit https://anastasiathemusical.com.au/tickets/brisbane/.

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Scenes with Girls: Complex, Contemporary Tragicomedy

10/09/202610/09/2026 Paul Ellicott🥈🎭

Scenes with Girls Rating

★★★★★

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Salad Days Collective return rowdily with Scenes with Girls by Miriam Battye, a story exploring the contradictions of friendship between three younger women, living lives alone, together. Set primarily in the intimate setting of a share-house lounge room and adjoining bathroom, Scenes is a chaotic, compelling and a non-linear romp which traverses the entire emotional spectrum, successfully balancing both light and dark themes throughout. The play is a thoughtful choice, which seems well aligned with the Salad Days Collective, a fast and fiercely evolving creative company, guided by the principle that theatre can’t be polite to be powerful.

A noted playwright and screenwriter, Miriam Battye writes unapologetically and with freedom; In interviews, she acknowledges her tendency to actively complicate her plays, and Scenes with Girls is a likely example of that, perhaps deliberately evasive in parts (what is the actual deal with Fran’s relationship?!) leaving the audience a lot to contemplate and resolve, and the performers plenty of wonderful space to play in. While certain plot points don’t all wrap up clearly or fairly, this adds honesty and texture to the tale; It is fair to say that sometimes friendship is the greatest love story of all, and the path to true love never did run smoothly. Themes and dialogue come from a reality of twenty-something females, yet Scenes with Girls transcends gender and age, boasting belly laughs to boot.

The central performers each bring their own magnetic madness to the stage. Lou and Tosh (Hannah Ward and Jasmine Prasser) are the main protagonists, and regular antagonists here; Fran is certainly part of the story, but she is typically on the outside looking in. It’s not entirely clear how much she deserves that based on the past, but she might do – there are of course different subjectivities and recollections within any friend drama! Hannah Ward and Jasmine Prasser shine on stage, projecting honest emotional connection in their individual ways, committed to their characters, and each other. Lou and Tosh each embody the contradictions of the play itself, which the performers have embodied beautifully – vulnerable yet vicious, funny and fallible, brave but not always. As Fran, Georgina Sawyer brings sympathetic restraint, winning the audience’s loyalty and concern. Fran cares and tries in a world where such qualities can be construed as failings – or is it that she forces things too much?

Director Ruby Sanders and the entire Creative team have done a fine job with Scenes with Girls, putting their guts out on stage with courage, style and humour. I enjoy the girl grunge of the set and mood-making sound and lighting design, operated with impressive precision. Scenes with Girls is altogether a play worth seeing and makes me reflect on the transformative and provocative power of both theatre and friendship. A complex, contemporary tragicomedy that is enthusiastically recommended.

To book tickets to Scenes with Girls , please visit https://queenslandtheatre.com.au/plays/scenes-with-girls.

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Gutenberg? Darn Tootin-berg!

06/07/202606/07/2026 Paul Ellicott🥈🎭

Gutenberg! The Musical! Rating

★★★★★

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The latest effort from Second Beat Productions, Gutenberg! The Musical! is a side-splitting spoof, following Bud Davenport and Doug Simon, authors of a wildly inaccurate and off-beat musical about printing press inventor Johannes Gutenberg, who are auditioning their work to potential Broadway producers – with delirious overconfidence. The actors boast that chances are if you don’t know the person sitting next to you in the audience, they in fact are a producer; Since details around Gutenberg’s life are scant – at least based off the most cursory Google search Bud and Doug did – we are told the musical is historical fiction, which is, apparently, fiction that’s true. This intentional ineptitude and naiveite sets the tone for the entire show, a rib-tickling tour de force from the creators of Beetlejuice: The Musical.

The plot follows Gutenberg, a wine presser, intent on enlightening the illiterate townsfolk of medieval German town Schlimmer, culminating in his invention of the printing press, despite the nefarious efforts on an evil Monk, who seeks the destroy the press, and keep the town in figurative darkness. Described as a reading of a musical, with no set or costumes, and just a few props – Bud and Doug play all the parts themselves, with the help of hats labelled with character’s names – making the chorus line particularly comical. Gutenberg! The Musical! has no pretensions, and it is soon evident that what Bud and Doug lack in expertise and conventional talent, they make up for with relentless enthusiasm and optimism. This script itself bursts with silly asides and flippant dark humour, subverting expectations throughout for the funniest evening at the theatre I’ve enjoyed this year.

The night I attend, Bud is played by Liam J.K, who co-directs the play with Daniel Kirby, with Kirby playing the role of Doug. They are capably accompanied by Rae Rose on keys, who is also credited as Music Director. J.K and Kirby throw themselves into their work with gusto, bringing the perfect balance of charisma and chaos, each literally wearing a multitude of hats, navigating the shifts between multiple characters with madcap mastery and natural comedic credibility, their timing and interplay with each other top-notch, regardless of which character they are portraying at a given moment.

Overall, it is remarkable the substantial impact a small team with a clever script can deliver – without any major production features or other artifice. Gutenberg! is an amusing look behind the curtain, and an eminently enjoyable antithesis to other more polished and produced shows. Highly recommended.

To book tickets to Gutenberg! The Musical!, please visit https://piptheatre.org/gutenberg-the-musical/.

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