Mary Jane – A Quietly Devastating Portrait Of Love And Resilience

Mary Jane

Mary Jane Rating

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Written by Amy Herzog | Directed by Rachel Chant | Presented by Mid Todo Productions at the Old Fitz Theatre

In Mary Jane, director Rachel Chant and playwright Amy Herzog deliver a moving, understated, and profoundly compassionate story. Set in New York, the play follows the life of Mary Jane, a single mother caring for her chronically ill son, Alex. With remarkable grace, humour, and resilience, she faces a cascade of challenges – yet never loses her grip on hope.

Eloise Snape brings quiet power and emotional authenticity to the role of Mary Jane. Her performance is restrained yet deeply affecting, anchoring the production with a sense of dignity and realness that never veers into sentimentality. Through her, the audience is drawn into a series of poignant, often heartbreaking moments.

Alex, born extremely premature, requires round-the-clock care. Mary Jane’s world is shaped by hospital visits, shifting diagnoses, and a rotating cast of support figures. Much of the play’s strength comes from the ensemble cast – Sophie Bloom (Hensser), Janine Watson, Di Adams, and Isabel Burton – who deftly inhabit multiple roles, from friends and neighbours to nurses and chaplains. Their seamless transformations mirror the changing stages of Mary Jane’s life and underscore the idea that help often arrives in different forms.

The fluidity of the staging – shifting from Mary Jane’s modest apartment to hospital waiting rooms and children’s wards – is handled with quiet elegance, thanks to production designer Soham Apte and stage manager Estelle Gomersall. Lighting design by Izzy Morrissey and Luna Ng, along with Alyx Dennison’s subtle musical cues, help shift tone and place without disrupting the flow.

The American accents, coached by Linda Nicholls-Gidley, were well executed across the cast – an impressive feat for an all-Australian ensemble. Director Rachel Chant handles the material with a light yet sure hand, allowing the play’s emotional weight to emerge organically, without melodrama.

Originally described by The New York Times as “the most profound and harrowing of Ms Herzog’s many fine plays,” Mary Jane is slow-burning and gentle, but never dull. It holds the audience with quiet force, unfolding with empathy and depth. It’s no surprise the work was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Play.

Presented by Mid Todo Productions and executive producer Chad Traupmann, this production of Mary Jane offers a rich, affecting night at the theatre. On now until 15 June at the Old Fitz Theatre, it’s the kind of intimate, beautifully crafted play that lingers long after the final scene. And yes – the pub upstairs does excellent food and drinks, making it a perfect evening out.

To book tickets to Mary Jane, please visit https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/book-now.

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The Anarchy 1138-53

The Anarchy 1138-53 Rating

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3

The Anarchy 1138-53, presented in KXT on Broadway, is like walking into a narrated RPG walkthrough that spans levels of anarchy, death and destruction!

The stage is a mirrored walkway where the mirror is at once a reflection in water as you travel through the oceans on an imaginary boat before becoming the beach where you are shipwrecked, as enemies swoop in, dragons fly and various characters aim to destroy you.

The imaginary RPG campaign you find yourself in is set in Britain, or another dystopia where anarchy prevails and suffering is a plenty – this is the ‘Crossworlds Universe’, narrated by two hyper-verbal guides whose stamina is as relentless as their script.

While in regular theatre productions the actors play out the scenes, in this play it is mostly just narrated, with moments of re-enactment and audience interaction being a much needed respite from the tyranny of the spoken words that flow out of both actors at astronomical speed.

As the story progresses you from the ‘tutorial’ and through the myriad of ‘levels’, it becomes one level too many, and this 135 minute no interval play, begins to resemble a notoriously long boss fight—technically impressive but emotionally numbing.

Though the dark, punk world the play creates is intriguing and the production is inventive and daring, the overall experience is somewhat languished and the script feels a little too self indulgent.

Sometimes some levels are best left sans walkthrough, for the gamer to navigate, even if that means dying and respawning a few times.

To book tickets to The Anarchy 1138-53, please visit https://events.humanitix.com/the-anarchy-1138-53.

Photographer: Skye Gellman

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A Dark Comedy Of Art And Ideas

The Shape of Things

The Shape of Things Rating

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Neil Labute’s ‘The Shape of Things’ is a one-act show crackling with tension. The dialogue and four-person cast do a seriously good job of unsettling and amusing their audience in equal measure; it’s a tightly woven exploration of art, youth, truth, and how on earth you find your way through those things when you’re still in university.

Kathryn Thomas has skillfully directed the company to explore the strange and complex interactions between manipulation and agency, art and artist. The script itself is excellent, and this production does a great job of finding the humanity, mainly through illustrating the loneliness of each character, even in their worst moments.

The show is intimate; set in bedrooms, lounge rooms, corners of campus and, notably, two gallery settings. The most impactful moments in this production come from the subtle misunderstandings that litter the conversations; each of the students in this fictional college town is thoroughly on their own arc, while being irrevocably changed by where their arcs intersect. Influence and change are central themes, and each actor does well at finding their character’s particular place and pace.

Evelyn is the most enigmatic character of the set, and is here performed as being quite aloof and hard to read. This leaves the mystery of her motivations to be interpreted, which lead to some whispers of speculation in the audience throughout the show. Some of the most disarming moments are when she softens and connects with Adam, the other lead.

Adam transforms across the play, and is played with an earnestness that endears him to the audience despite some of his choices. The web of connections and misconceptions that thread through the play leave a lot of questions and offered plentiful conversation on the car ride home.

Every character has moments of comedy and moments of vulnerability, and this small cast carry them off in style. There’s crackling tension, youthful energy and also moments that drew genuine gasps from the audience. The final moments had us holding our breath.

If you’re interested in dark humour or theatre about human beings in the throes of their fears and insecurities, this is a fascinating and engaging production of a whip-smart play. Lane Cove Theatre Company’s new space in The Pottery Lane Performance Space is a great fit for this show, and the clever, minimal set design works really well in the room. This is an impactful and interesting show, and worth a look in for HSC Drama Majors as an excellent production of a core text for Topic 6: Black Comedy.

To book tickets to The Shape of Things, please visit https://www.lanecovetheatrecompany.com.au/.

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Heaven: The Longing Beneath The Surface

Heaven

Heaven Rating

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3

Two spotlights. One long wooden bench. That’s all that occupies the simple stage. Yet from this minimal set emerges a richly layered, emotionally textured piece of theatre. Heaven is a quietly compelling two-hander that rests entirely on the shoulders of its actors, and both carry it with grace, depth, and humour.

In alternating monologues, Mairead (Lucy Miller) and Mal (Noel Hodda) each tell their side of a shared story. They never speak directly to one another, yet the interplay of their perspectives – tender, funny, and heartbreaking – creates a powerful sense of connection. The chemistry is in the contrast: Mairead is fiery, frustrated, and yearning for affection; Mal is warm, wry, and wrestling with a long-buried truth.

Set in a rural Irish town on the night of a mutual friend’s wedding, Heaven captures a pivotal moment in two lives quietly unravelling. Mairead, long disconnected from both her husband and daughter, finds herself tempted by an old flame. Mal, equally starved for intimacy, reveals his lifelong but unacknowledged attraction to young men – something he has kept hidden behind the veil of domesticity. His quip about fantasising over “Jesus” as a young altar boy is one of several unexpected, laugh-out-loud themes that punctuate the play’s poignant revelations.

Director Kate Gaul describes the couple as “great friends, warm to each other,” but with “huge parts of themselves they haven’t revealed.” That observation anchors the emotional core of Heaven. Each character has settled into a life that looks fine from the outside but feels hollow within. On this one night, their reflections hint at the fragile possibility of change – of choosing not comfort, but truth.

O’Brien’s writing is lyrical and intimate. There’s an authenticity in both characters that feels deeply human – flawed, funny, searching. If the title Heaven seems elusive at first, it may be because both characters are chasing their own vision of it, hoping to escape the quiet despair of lives not fully lived.

Performed in the intimate amphitheatre-style space of The Loading Dock Theatre at Qtopia Sydney, the production’s closeness intensifies its impact. Every line lands clearly, every expression matters. With only subtle musical cues, the emotional texture is carried entirely by the strength of the performances – and both Miller and Hodda deliver. Both are Australian yet their Irish accents sound authentic!

The venue itself is worth a visit. Located in the heritage-listed former Darlinghurst Police Station, Qtopia is the largest museum and cultural centre dedicated to queer history and culture in the world. With four buildings on site, it’s worth arriving early or staying after the show to explore. A bar onsite offers refreshments, and the audience – an even mix of ages and genders – added to the warm, community feel.

Presented by Bitchin Wolf, a theatre and film company devoted to bold, magical storytelling, Heaven runs until 31 May. The performance lasts 90 minutes without interval. Tickets are $45 general admission and $35 concession.

A moving, quietly radical meditation on love, regret, and identity, Heaven proves that even the simplest staging can hold a world of complexity.

Written by Eugene O’Brien | Directed by Kate Gaul | Presented by Bitchin Wolf at The Loading Dock Theatre, Qtopia Sydney

To book tickets to Heaven, please visit https://events.humanitix.com/heaven-at-the-loading-dock.

Photographer: Alex Vaughan

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