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The Jungle And The Sea

17/07/2026 CAW

The Jungle And The Sea Rating

★★★★★

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It was a three hour journey and worth every minute of it. Written and directed by S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack, the audience travelled with a Sri Lankan family who represented all aspects of the country’s differing religions, cultures and approaches to conflict, family and life. Backed by haunting live music, sensitively and beautifully played and sung by Indu Balachandran and Arjuna Puveendran, we were immersed in the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers (1983 to 2009), as the family rushed back and forth between so-called safe zones seeking security, home and peace.

The cast of Prakash Belawadi, Emma Harvie, Nadie Kammallaweera, Shiv Palvar, Dushan Philips, Kalieaswari Srinivasan and Rajan Velu told the story of a hidden war often forgotten. All were superb as witnesses to their own tragedies and to those other travellers on the same road looking for safety. The mother, played by Anandavalli, who eloquently and delicately expressed her grief and desires through dance, chose only to see her whole family regardless of the consequences. The father gently living in a civilised past with his own belief system shattered by tragedy. The three sisters all with one foot in past traditions, seeking to move forward into the future of science and modernity, all acted with intensity and truth. There is a splitting of the family as the father and one daughter manage to escape to Sydney while a brother is brain-washed in a time of anger leading to a family searching to recover him. As each faces their destiny, the final dance and mournful song left the audience silent for seconds followed by a standing ovation.

The set was a simple revolving stage with props cleverly representing change. The actors stepped on and off as they needed to walk to the next safe zone and also when their emotions were heightened. Small props representing buses, planes and even the Sydney Harbour Bridge symbolised the passing of time or arriving at a new place. A signpost alerted the audience to the year and the length of the war. The actors carried suitcases and baggage representing their changing circumstances and life including a chicken, all remnants of their previous identity and peaceful existence.

Inevitably, without giving the story away, each character questions his or her belief system and who is to blame for it. Which side caused the issue and how had the war been triggered? What was the actual role of the UN who left their local employees behind and of course, the use of weapons. As the son-in-law states perfectly to his father trying to justify his government and actions, “order is just violence done neatly” and each character presented a different facet of who created the conflict and who was complicit.

To book tickets to The Jungle And The Sea, please visit https://belvoir.com.au/productions/the-jungle-and-the-sea-2026/.

Photographer: Brett Boardman

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Still Sitting In The Afterglow

17/07/2026 Chantal Harrison Writer🥈

Afterglow Rating

★★★★★

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Belvoir was buzzing with an eclectic mix of people heading towards two different shows. It was difficult to discern who was headed where, but it was a delightful mix from varied walks of life, all excited for a night of theatre.

Afterglow was in the downstairs theatre, one I hadn’t yet visited, and I was immediately put at ease by the intimacy of the space. I love intimate theatre.

I had seen two songs from this show at Homo Grown, and I am also a massive fan of Cassie Hamilton. I had been wilfully declining theatre trips due to my own rehearsals making this an incredibly busy time for me, but I was already getting FOMO seeing it advertised when the review request came in, and my arm was officially twisted. Let’s just say, thank God for that.

The space is black box style and the set is a lounge bar we come to know as Afterglow. This theatre is warm and welcoming, but it has some limitations. As a singer, I was initially concerned for the performers singing without microphones, but they were so exceptional at their craft that you quickly forgot it. I imagine they are being given some great coaching to help with this challenge. However, there is a unique privilege in seeing a show like this in such an intimate setting while knowing, without doubt, that future runs will be on a much bigger scale.

Afterglow is a world premiere by Purple Tape Productions, presented as part of Griffin Theatre Company’s Lookout program. Written by playwrights Sheanna Parker Russon and Dr Lillian M. Hearne, and co-directed by Cassie Hamilton and Lily Hayman, it is a barbershop rom-com following Michael through a coming-of-age, and the unlikely community of people that play a part in it.

We begin with the barbershop quartet singing about manliness and the importance of keeping barbershop purely for the boys. We note Michael, played by Cassie, is uncomfortable, making small mistakes then berating himself through a song about the desire to be normal. It’s 2012, he’s 21, and this is his only aspiration.

Nat Jobe leads the quartet as the old-skool male who is a feminist purely by virtue of having married a woman, yet believes fiercely in upholding traditional male spaces. The character becomes the vehicle for exploring what it means to be a man and the awkwardness of trying to connect when social norms keep restricting you. Jobe plays it with tremendous warmth and comic precision.

There is beautiful a-cappella accompaniment scattered throughout in the barbershop style, with Dr Hearne playing Trevor and taking to the keys at poignant moments. The harmonies are infectious.

Nic Prior’s character T gets a stunning solo that takes us into the depths of an interior world that is tender and enormous. The voice is breathtaking; there is a fragility to the emotional delivery that sits in complete contrast to its power. When Michael and T reconnect two years later, the connection deepens, and Cassie delights with a goofy, gorgeous spiral as Michael tries to navigate T’s vulnerability while still performing what it means to be “one of the boys.”

The lighting design by Tyler Fitzpatrick feels deceptively simple, but the choices are anything but. Moving from the full wash which made us all visible to one another (leaning into the metaphor of trying to blend in), to a single spotlight when characters turned inward was quietly brilliant. Clare Hennessey’s sound design holds the space with equal care.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Cassie Hamilton is a powerhouse, and her character’s big solo moment is elevated by the voice belting behind it, leaving me teary. The first of many times.

By 2016 things have gotten messy, and the boys are doing their best to show up for their friend while not quite knowing how to communicate outside of messy metaphors. The important thing is that they are trying, and learning that vulnerability might actually make them better.

Lincoln Elliott as Matt is great fun, and I genuinely do not know how Elliott manages to be in so many wonderful things at once. The whole ensemble moves together with a generosity that speaks to the room Cassie Hamilton and Lily Hayman have created.
Afterglow is a bittersweet, joyful, poignant romp; full of heartache and, most importantly, trans joy. Sheanna and Lillian’s joint journey and shared heart make this a uniquely beautiful story.

I was in tears at the end. Tears of sadness, hope, joy, and just the deep appreciation of a wonderful shared experience.
Go share in it. You will sit in the afterglow for days.

To book tickets to Afterglow, please visit https://griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/afterglow/.

Photographer: Lucy Parakhina

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Dealing with Clair

15/07/202615/07/2026 Anastassia Gerakas🥈

Dealing with Clair Rating

★★★★★

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There is a distinct, intoxicating magic to discovering a razor-sharp, chillingly prophetic revival in an intimate local space, and Sydney is incredibly fortunate to have venues like the historic Old Fitzroy Theatre—a charming, subterranean pocket where the audience is pulled so close to the stage that they can feel the moral atmosphere shift in real-time. This extreme physical proximity acts as the perfect, claustrophobic incubator for the tension of Martin Crimp’s psychological thriller, “Dealing with Clair”. First performed in 1988, Crimp’s play is heavily inspired by a haunting, real-world tragedy: the unsolved 1986 disappearance of London real estate agent Suzy Lamplugh, who vanished into thin air after leaving her office to show a house to a mysterious client. This unsettling historical anchor hangs like a heavy, cold fog over the entire production, transforming what could be a simple, sharp satire of a booming property market into an agonizingly tense, slow-burning exploration of vulnerability, predation, and systemic greed.

The narrative centers on Clair, played with exquisite nuance by Olivia Hall-Smith, an ambitious young estate agent who believes she can safely navigate the cutthroat, transactional waters of London’s real estate boom through sheer professional charm and quiet determination. Hall-Smith beautifully captures the delicate friction between Clair’s eager-to-please, professional armor and the profound, isolated vulnerability that slowly begins to leak through as the pressure mounts. As the transaction unfolds, we watch the veneer of polite, middle-class respectability slide away from homeowners Liz and Mike, portrayed with a delightful, superficial hypocrisy by Talia Benatar and Arkia Ashraf. Though they initially boast of their unwavering moral integrity—vowing to act honorably and avoid dirty gazumping tactics—their principles instantly dissolve when a mysterious cash buyer named James, played with a magnetically sinister composure by Daniel Fletcher, offers to outbid their original buyers. Fletcher’s performance is chillingly effective, wrapping predatory intentions in a smooth, highly articulate warmth that keeps the audience in a state of constant, low-humming anxiety.

What begins as a mundane, polite negotiation quickly spirals into an unsettling examination of how easily human empathy is traded for financial gain, as Clair’s sharpest instincts quietly scream that something is deeply wrong with James, yet her ambition and professional duty force her to ignore the warning signs. The supporting cast is uniformly brilliant in fleshing out this dark, morally compromised ecosystem. Jade Fuda is profoundly affecting as Anna, the young Italian nanny virtually imprisoned in a windowless room by her self-congratulating employers, showcasing a quiet, isolated parallel to Clair’s own entrapment. Meanwhile, Bayley Prendergast displays dazzling versatility, shifting seamlessly between a rugged, earthy tradesman and a slick, rival real estate agent. Ultimately, under the sharp direction of this production, the play builds a suffocating momentum that refuses to offer easy resolution or comfortable answers, leaving the audience to reckon with the horrifying realization of what—and who—we are willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of personal security and material success. It is a masterful, deeply unsettling theatrical experience that lingers in the mind long after the basement lights of the Old Fitzroy have faded to black.

To book tickets to Dealing with Clair , please visit https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/dealing-with-clair.

Photographer: Robert Miniter

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Emily Granger – A Thing Of Beauty National Tour

15/07/202615/07/2026 Mark Hobgood🥉

Emily Granger Solo Album Tour Rating

★★★★★

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How do you describe the sheer beauty and joy of Emily Granger’s live harp performance? It’s impossible but I’ll give it a try.

There’s something otherworldly about the harp. The Lyres or Harps of Ur are the oldest surviving stringed instruments in the world. They were made of cedar, boxwood, gold, silver and lapis lazuli. Four and a half thousand years later, the classical harp that Emily borrowed for the evening is still a work of art, crafted from wood, decorated with gold.

If you close your eyes, you can picture yourself as part of tradition that has survived since ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, evolving through the feasting halls of Ireland and Scotland’s Celtic chiefs, to the Royal palaces of France and Italy.

Nothing will ever replace the wonder and magic of being there, in the room, with a world-class musician, holding an audience enraptured.

In movies, the purity of harp music can be heartbreaking. You feel like you’re holding your breath, like the world is somehow spinning more slowly.

The delicate sounds of the harp defy words and conjure feelings and images, like a magic spell.

I found myself imaging a tiny child, wearing a princess dress and a pair of dress-up fairy wings, running barefoot through soft wet grass, gumboots in hand, after a rain spell. I wondered what everyone else in the audience was feeling or seeing in their mind’s eye.

As Emily said, “I hope with everything going on in the world, that this music makes you feel a little lighter.”

Emily’s new album, “A Thing Of Beauty,” is an absolute delight. It’s a wonderful treasure house full of new compositions, and we were blessed to have four of the composers sitting alongside us in the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room.

The evening’s performance sparkled with new music including “Emily’s Suite,” composed by Alice Chance, and “sanddollar,” composed by Sarah Elise Thompson. We journeyed from reminiscences of winters’ past to Californian beaches, from Christina Rossetti’s poetry to lullabies gifted to newborn babies.

Granger is a warm and natural performer, telling us little personal stories of visiting the tiny village of Karoola in Tasmania. She recited poet Hilary Burden’s four Karoola Seasons haikus; Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and played the four harp pieces they inspired, composed by Christina Sonnemann Baehr.

Granger’s versatility and talent are matched by her devotion to music. Her new album, “A Thing Of Beauty,” is full of new harp music that she has commissioned, creating incredible opportunities for contemporary composers.

As Emily told the audience, “I believe in creating a little happiness every day.”

Emily Granger’s new album, ‘A Thing Of Beauty,’ released through ABC Classic, is now available on CD and streaming.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/classic/shop/emily-granger-a-thing-of-beauty/106866470

You can find Emily Granger online at:
https://emilygranger.com/

To book tickets to Emily Granger Solo Album Tour, please visit https://emilygranger.com/a-thing-of-beauty.

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