Eat Slay Zombie | La Boite Theatre
Don’t let the title or the zombie masks fool you – this is far from a typical horror-comedy. McGrady brilliantly channels the chaotic framework of a zombie outbreak as a sharp, clever metaphor to deliver a powerful message about colonisation and First Nations survival in contemporary Australia.
The Female of the Species | Cut & Run Productions
The Female of the Species is wry comedy excellence, and everyone onstage is at the top of their game for the full runtime. Smart, funny, political, and with a running gag about the soothing power of soup, I really urge everyone to check out The Female of the Species while they can. It's the type of show that I think Magandjin could use more of, and I hope that Cut & Run continues on the winning path they have set for themselves.
Deal With It! | Hanson Creative
Halfway between Rosemary’s Baby and a screwball comedy, Deal With It! is an odd play. Following couple Alix and Max as they investigate roommate Bridget’s comings and goings, the play strikes a horror-comedy tone that, while a welcome change of pace from Magandjin’s usual dramatic fare, left me wanting more.
We Were Promised Honey | AllEntertainment
Raising the spectre of debates around determinism vs free will, Tenielle reminds us that the We Were Promised Honey dialogue is already written. But there is still a sense of immediacy and even improvisation in the performance, thanks to interactions with the audience that includes several willing patrons repeating and even reading, lines from the script.
A Few Good Men | Queensland Theatre Company
A Few Good Men is the must see show of the year—or possibly the Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) production of the decade. It is a show for our time, and a play that goes to the heart of what it means to be honourable and courageous. Director Daniel Evans has created a show that is both epic and intimate, and which emphasises the light and shade of the story. It gets a 6-star, 10 out of 10 rating from me. Go if you can find a ticket for this show!
HEAT | Zen Zen Zo
Heat takes place in the sweetly nostalgic backyard of Morningside Scout Hall, a classic school-yard style building with layered timber and a tall roof. The addition of a clothesline, a ring of eucalypts, a sunset and a passing trainline results in a richly sensory experience that charms the early show audience.
Horse Play | Nathaniel Crossinggum & Lunch Friend
Following punter Georgie as she is dragged into activist Pony’s impending bomb plot targeting the Melbourne Cup, Horse Play is an exploration of the intersection between protest, obligation, and fear, unpacking this venn diagram so thoroughly that by the end, you’ll be wondering why you’re not doing more.
Tell Me Something | Davidson Gluyas Productions
Tell Me Something is a great piece of theatre, and I hope that its inclusion in the 2025 Melt Festival attracts queer and wider audiences. Yes, the protagonists are queer, and yes there are some strong sexual references and deep themes. But each of these themes have a universality that is not limited to sexual orientation or identity. Tell Me Something is a reminder to all of us to be truthful with ourselves, and with our closest friends.
Make Me Better Ma | Jazz Zhao
Throughout her reading, Zhao’s vulnerability was palpable, permeating the theatre space with its rawness and authenticity and yet still encouraging laughter from the audience.
Whitefella Yella Tree | La Boite Theatre
Whitefella Yella Tree is the Romeo & Juliet of our times. The La Boite debut of award-winning Palawa playwright Dylan Van Den Berg deserves a sold-out close to its short run. It is a clever, and sometimes funny, piece of writing that addresses big issues through a sensitively told story.
Malacañang Made Us | Queensland Theatre Company
Malacañang Made Us is a must-see show: great writing, clever design, and a strong cast. And I also love the way in which this show normalises and integrates queer identities and culture. Malacañang Made Us is a great choice for the Queensland Theatre Company program, and is certain to be on many top three lists from the 2025 Melt Festival. Go and see it if you can.
Terms and Conditions Apply | Play on Stage
The play is witty, funny and has some great dance moves. Unsurprisingly, as Day, Dombay and Hosie are each credited as co-creators and writers, the artists are well-cast and portray each of their characters as believable twenty-something housemates.
Saint Joan | The Island of Misfit Players
The Island of Misfit Players have approached Saint Joan with a level of respect and earnestness that felt refreshing to me; with no urge to modernise or reimagine the script, what they have achieved is an excellent, straightforward adaptation of the play while still maintaining a very personal stamp on their interpretation.
The 39 Steps | Woodward Productions & Neil Gooding Productions
Ian Stenlake is a great choice for the role of our unsuspecting hero, Richard Hannay. Lisa McCune is a talented actor: charming as the foreign spy, highly amusing as the farmer’s wife, and fabulous as Hannay’s love interest. Casting The Umbilical Brothers is a great idea; the duo is an experienced comedy partnership, which means that Collins and Dundas are very capable of improvising and working hard to see if they can each ‘corpse’ their fellow artists.
The Natural Horse | Salad Days Collective
The Natural Horse is a deeply strange play, in more ways than one. A dark comedy about an ex-Soviet family and their struggles with the American dream, it's a work with a lot of lofty concepts and low-brow comedy, much of which is achieved with a scrappy heart that I appreciated.
Daydreamer | The Travelling Rose Theatre
Director / scriptwriter, India Rose has assembled a stellar cast to deliver her powerful autobiographical unflinching script that addresses what it means to live with this unseen disability. All in a mere sixty minutes.
A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen (or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry) | Joshua Hinton
A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen made for heartwarming theatre. Its soulful unfolding is a testimony to the transformative power of stories, especially the ones we relish and rely on for the sustenance of our selfhood.
The Platypus | Soft Tread Enterprises
A black comedy tackling the complexities of family, relationships, housing, and child rearing, The Platypus utilises its genre-bending format to unpack our cultural biases and ask uncomfortable questions.
BATSHIT | Leah Shelton
BATSHIT is, well, batshit. It’s a theatrical fever dream, giving a little burlesque, a little verbatim, a little mixed media, and a lot of comedy.
Back to Bilo | Belloo Creative
Back to Bilo’s painstaking efforts in amplifying the refugee story with so much attention to detail are praiseworthy. It is a necessary Australian story. One that needs to traverse terrains and timelines across the continent to the enduring hum of humanity.