UPDATE, June 28: As of June 26, the Greater Sydney region including the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong is under a compulsory two-week lockdown until 11.59pm on July 9. Many events in Sydney have therefore been cancelled or postponed until after this period.
Some of us spent lockdown deciding to finally tackle hefty classics like Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Others, well, errr, we streamed a whole lotta 20-minute comedy shows. The thing is, you don’t have to choose between high and low brow, bite-sized or behemoth. Sometimes life, and art, allows for both at the same time.
Billed as the “biggest little theatre festival in the world,” Short+Sweet returns to Sydney on May 16 bringing mini-plays galore to those hungry for more easily digestible culture, until August 23. Kicking off with the Hindsight 2020 Gala, it presents ten ten-minute plays that were supposed to compete for glory last year, until you-know-what happened. They include the delightfully named Love Me Tinder, penned by Melinda Jensen and directed by Stephanie Reeves. It’s a no-holds-barred look at digital dating, replete with verbatim Tinder conversations. We also love the sound of The End is Nighy by Frances Bowick. Starring Steven Tait and Edric Hong and directed by Gina Cohen, it relays the woes of a struggling actor who decides to confront his agent. They’ll perform for the judges at 2pm, at the newly renovated Tom Mann Auditorium in Surry Hills, with the Awards Gala following at 6pm.
Elsewhere in the fest you’ll be able to check out a bunch of sunny outlook plays cutely grouped together by theme, with plays grouped under the names of some of Sydney’s best beaches. New festival director Nick Hardcastle will lead a bunch of free workshops and panels about acting, writing and directing, with a focus on platforming emerging and more diverse voices. So if you can’t quite commit to a 90-minute show, this is the theatre festival for you, and you can find our more deets here.
