Sydney Theatre Company - Wharf Theatres

It seems that across time, the pursuit of creative expression has often been, in itself, an act of rebellion and self-sacrifice. Writers and artists rarely live lives of stability or wealth, and yet, in humanity’s most uncertain and desperate moments, it is to poetry, theatre and art that we turn to make sense of the world. The relentless act of writing, of shaping and sharing one’s perspective on life, still carries a quiet defiance, even in a technological age where everyone has a keyboard and an opinion. It is perhaps for this reason that My Brilliant Career continues to resonate today. Since its publication in 1901, the novel has been adapted across multiple forms, including film and stage, with a television adaptation currently in development by Netflix. Now, it’s on at Sydney Theatre Company’s Roslyn Packer Theatre. What is the premise of My Brilliant Career? This award-winning iteration of My Brilliant Career, which debuted at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2024, is a musical theatre adaptation with a book by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant, music by Mathew Frank, and lyrics by Bryant. It follows Sybylla Melvyn (Kala Gare, SIX the musical), a fiercely independent young woman growing up in rural Australia in the 1800s. Chafing against the limitations placed on her as a woman – particularly the expectation that she should marry for security – Sybylla dreams instead of becoming a writer and forging a life of her own making. As she navigates family hardship, social...

Love, for all its risks, is rarely framed as something unsettling or dangerous. Desire, hope and care are often gathered together in pursuit of joy. Though sometimes what emerges is darker: love can shift your sense of self, clouded by danger, deceit and dread. The River, directed by Margaret Thanos, explores the space between desire and deceit in an evocative introspection on love. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth, the production forces the audience to confront not only what love reveals, but what it conceals. What is the premise of The River? The Man (Ewen Leslie) and The Woman (Miranda Otto) spend a weekend together at his remote cabin by a river. He is eager to share a particular fishing expedition with her – one that can only happen at night, with no moon. As the play unfolds, what begins as ripples of a tender, romantic escape becomes more uncertain – an estuary sifting through contradiction, manipulation and honesty. The production never fully decides what it wants to be – a romance, a tragedy, or something in between. While these questions linger, Thanos’s creative vision allows the ambiguities to become an asset, giving the audience space to remain in the uneasy territory between desire and distrust, where each confession feels both revelatory and suspect. Rather than resolving its tensions, the production lets them pool and deepen, leaving the audience suspended – albeit a little too long – in its murky emotional currents. Who are the cast...