Max your summer in Sydney

George Brant’s solo play about a female fighter pilot floored audiences when it played at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013, picking up a Fringe First award and landing a New York season starring Anne Hathaway and directed by Julie Taymor. Now in a National Theatre of Parramatta production directed by Dom Mercer (Little Borders, The Block Universe (Or So It Goes)), the talented Emily Havea (Kill Climate Deniers, Wentworth) plays the pilot who, after years of flying combat missions, is grounded after the birth of her first child and co-opted into the “chair force”, delivering death and destruction to war zones by way of military drones.

Director and choreographer Graeme Murphy's 1990 take on Turandot is one of Opera Australia's true evergreen productions. Almost three decades after its premiere, it still looks fabulous, driven by dance and and an otherworldly design. Amber Wagner, who played Aida for OA this year, will sing the title role opposite Andeka Gorrotxategi as Calaf – who sings Pavarotti’s greatest hit, ‘Nessun Dorma’. See what else is in the Opera Australia 2019 season.

There’s a key moment in the middle of Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahue’s wildly successful, consistently funny and surprisingly uplifting solo play about a child grappling with their mother’s suicide attempts. The performer who plays the role of the child and narrates their story – in Belvoir’s production it’s Kate Mulvany – offers one piece of advice for anybody contemplating suicide: “Don’t do it.” Why? Because things get better. They mightn’t always get brilliant, but they will get better. It’s not the most profound piece of advice, and it’s unlikely to actually bring somebody back from the brink, but any piece of theatre that tries to provide a solution to life’s toughest challenges is doomed to fail. Every Brilliant Thing is more concerned with bringing together a group of people to hear one person’s experiences and deal with the social complexities of mental health with empathy and good humour. The play was originally performed by Donahue, but at Belvoir the character has been gender-swapped for Mulvany’s unique talents. When this character was seven years old, her mother made her first suicide attempt, or, as her father informed her, she did “something stupid”. The child’s response? She started to write a list of all the brilliant things in the world, starting with ice cream, water fights and staying up past your bedtime to watch TV. Of course, simply being reminded of the brilliant things in the world will never be enough to save somebody from suicide or allevi

In the immortal (and very Russian) words of Tolstoy, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s production of Erika Sheffer’s 2012 play Russian Transport focuses our gaze onto one particular Russian-Jewish migrant family living in Brooklyn as each character chases their own version – or perversion – of the elusive American Dream. Uncle Boris (Nathan Sapsford) has come to stay. He waltzes into stern matriarch Diana’s (Rebecca Rocheford Davies) home, charmingly innocent to American colloquialisms and brandishing a babushka doll filled with vodka. Boris is charismatic and suave, and quickly establishes himself at the centre of the family’s life. Anna Gardiner’s two-level dolls house set fits all the action compactly within it, easily moving our attention from domestic dramas about Chinese takeout to jaunts driving around Flatbush. It works to reflect the split between the younger and older family members, with interloper Boris going between them: as both the bridge, and later, the division between the two generations. Fourteen-year-old Mira (Hayley Sullivan) and older brother Alex (played by the excellent Ryan Carter) are both quickly drawn into Boris’s underworld hijinks. Mira’s ongoing battle with her mother about travelling for the summer has the markings of a typical adolescent push-and-pull, but leads to the revelation of some pretty unsavoury family secrets. Alex lets his ambitions take him in way over his head. Comedy is at the he

Powerhouse combo director Gale Edwards and designer Brian Thomson (HOSH's Carmen) created this production for Opera Australia's 2011 season – and it has proved a popular hit. Some love La bohème, some loathe it – but there's no doubt that there's plenty of those Puccini earworms (including the famous double-dose back-to-back arias 'Che gelida manina' and 'Mi chiamano Mimi'), and plenty of romance, sex, tragedy and comedy. To that mix, Edwards and Thomson add the sizzle of Weimar Germany (cue topless club girls, red-curtained cabarets, bedazzling frocks, and the best kind of boho threads). This is an eminently accessible, attractive production that will satisfy die-hard romantics, Puccini fans and opera noobs alike. The 2019 iteration kicks off on New Years Eve, with Lebanese-Canadian opera star Joyce El-Khoury making her Opera Australia debut as Mimi. See what else is in the Opera Australia 2019 season.

The story of Salome – the princess who demands the head of prophet John the Baptist on a silver platter in return for performing a dance – is a biblical one, referred to in the books of Mark and Matthew. But this young woman, who may have altered the course of history through the power of her dance, is never named in the text. It really wasn’t until Oscar Wilde’s controversial 1891 play, Salome, that her story became widely known and studied. The play, which forms the basis for Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera, places Salome at the centre of the action as she comes under the lustful gaze of her stepfather, Herod. In biblical versions, Salome’s mother, Herodias, is insulted by the prophet’s criticism of her second marriage, and encourages her daughter to demand his execution. In Wilde and Strauss’s versions, Salome is her own woman with her own reasons for doing so. Gale Edwards’ production of the opera premiered in 2012, and explores how male artists have constructed images of femininity over the centuries. It’s most obvious in her approach to the infamous ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ – her version features a series of dancing women embodying male fantasies of female sexuality: innocent child with teddy, French maid, dominatrix pole dancer, Marilyn Monroe with her billowing white skirt, mother Mary as a saucy go-go dancer – but the male gaze and battles for power are unpacked in every scene. If anything, Edwards’ approach rings with even more clarity in 2019 – it constantly thro

It’s been 12 years since Colin Lane and Frank Woodley last performed together as the wildly popular comedy act Lano and Woodley. They split up back in 2006 after two decades to ensure that their real-life friendship wouldn’t suffer from spending every waking second working together. It seems the time apart has served them very well: not only is there a new freshness and energy to their act, but their split has also given them a very funny premise that plays directly into their dynamic. Col has agreed to the reunion on very strict conditions: firstly, he doesn’t want to appear on stage with Frank at any time. He doesn’t want the stress that comes with dealing with Frank’s nonsense, so he’s decided that they must tag-team the show. More significantly, he doesn’t want to do comedy anymore, but a serious play about the Wright brothers inventing the first successful aircraft. As you can imagine, things don’t quite go to plan as Col’s priggishness again comes into conflict with Frank’s childish wonderment (which is still innocent and joyful, even though he’s now 50 years old). The physical comedy is just as thrilling as it’s ever been – there’s a great bit with an electric shock collar – and they manage to make the 900-seat Playhouse at Arts Centre Melbourne feel very intimate. Fly is an impressive feat and a wonderfully constructed show. This is no mere cash-grab reunion tour – although I’m sure it will make plenty of money – but a superb and silly showcase for two comedians s

The house and grounds, forest and sheds of Bella Vista Farm will be transformed into Puritan-era Salem this month in a revival of Sport For Jove’s award-winning production of The Crucible. The original 2014 production scored rave reviews and picked up Sydney Theatre Awards for actress Georgia Adamson and set designer Anna Gardiner, and this revival promises the same level of brilliance, with Adamson returning to the stage alongside James Lugton, Suzanne Pereira, Lizzie Schebesta and Christopher Tomkinson. For those unable to make it out to Bella Vista, the production will also do a brief season at the York Theatre at the Seymour Centre.

George Brant’s solo play about a female fighter pilot floored audiences when it played at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013, picking up a Fringe First award and landing a New York season starring Anne Hathaway and directed by Julie Taymor. Now in a National Theatre of Parramatta production directed by Dom Mercer (Little Borders, The Block Universe (Or So It Goes)), the talented Emily Havea (Kill Climate Deniers, Wentworth) plays the pilot who, after years of flying combat missions, is grounded after the birth of her first child and co-opted into the “chair force”, delivering death and destruction to war zones by way of military drones.