How to Rule the World, by Nakkiah Lui
Sydney Theatre Company, at the Drama theatre, Sydney Opera House
An Aboriginal journalist, a Tongan political advisor and a Korean pro-bono immigration lawyer decide to take on the power structures that have seen their communities marginalised and oppressed by installing their own puppet candidate – a mediocre white man – in an upcoming election, and grabbing the balance of power. Lui’s taut, irreverent and poignant theatre not only takes pot-shots at weaknesses in our democracy, she throws a mirror up to systemic, aggressive and passive racism and dog whistling around issues of immigration and race. In a story where no one gets off lightly, we are reminded of the corrupting influence of power. Larissa Behrendt
The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonagh
Sydney Theatre Company, at the Roslyn Packer theatre, Sydney
Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane is renowned for its balance of comedy and cruelty. But this year’s Sydney Theatre Company production – starring powerhouse talents Noni Hazelhurst and Yael Stone in the co-dependent mother/daughter relationship of your nightmares – contained a tenderness and tension that was all director Paige Rattray. Part of a new generation of Australian talent, Rattray has a compassionate, thoughtful hand; she shifts our perspective just enough that we see classic stories, characters and situations unexpectedly anew. She found love in the cruelty, humanity in the comedy, vulnerability in the isolation. Cassie Tongue
City of Gold by Meyne Wyatt
Queensland Theatre and Griffin Theatre, at Bille Brown theatre, Brisbane, and SBW Stables theatre, Sydney
Breythe Black, an Aboriginal actor struggling against the prejudice he endures in his own profession, returns to his home in Kalgoorlie after his father’s death. Against conflict with his siblings and cousin, he also faces the hardened racism within his home town, where violence is close to the surface and too often bubbles over. This is both a simple story with a deep and stinging emotional heart and a profound, layered wake-up call about the soft and hard racism that still permeates the lived experiences of Aboriginal people today. Wyatt’s first play heralds a new, exciting voice in Australian theatre. Larissa Behrendt
Wake in Fright, adapted by Declan Greene from Kenneth Cook’s novel
Malthouse theatre, Melbourne, and coming soon to Sydney Opera House
Declan Greene’s adaptation of Wake in Fright, Kenneth Cook’s classic novel of Australian alienation, took the story by the scruff of its neck and shook it alive. Working with Zahra Newman, one of Australia’s most remarkable actors, Greene recreated Wake in Fright as a contemporary nightmare, channelling the gothic anxieties of settler Australia through the body of a woman of colour. Greene exploited the potencies of language and performance, creating a ritual in which the actor was a shaman who summoned the voices of the dead. Without doubt among the most astonishing performances of 2019, and unforgettable theatre. Alison Croggon
Douglas, by Hannah Gadsby
Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and more to come
Few people thought Hannah Gadsby could do it again after the resounding success of her viral Netflix special, Nanette; Gadsby herself announced she was quitting comedy. But with Douglas, her new show, which had its world premiere in Melbourne in March, Gadsby exceeded expectations. The Tasmanian comic stuck to her winning – if controversial – formula of eschewing traditional stand-up in favour of searing social commentary and raw personal revelation. This time, she both took to task the prejudices encased in fine art, in one brilliant power-point presentation, and revealed her autism diagnosis, making a case for the celebration of neurodiversity. Sad, funny, clever, and most of all authentic, Gadsby continues to rewrite the comedy rules. Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
Counting and Cracking, by S. Shakthidharan
Belvoir and Co-Curious at Belvoir St theatre, Sydney, and Ridley Centre, Adelaide
Belvoir and Co-Curious created Counting and Cracking, not only an epic drama of geopolitical trauma but a domestic tale of the human quest for belonging, with warm comic flourishes. I saw it twice and was captivated by the storytelling craft of 16 actors in some 50 roles across four eras. Combining incendiary politics, humans fleeing for their lives, and questions of identity for second- and third-generation Australians whose parents and grandparents felt the force of war in Sri Lanka, western Sydney writer S. Shakthidharan was inspired by the unanswered questions in his family diaspora. Director Eamon Flack took this show of ambitious scale to Sydney town hall and later Adelaide showgrounds, and then to seven Helpmann awards, including best new Australian work, best production and best direction. Steve Dow
Anthem, by Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irine Vela
Melbourne International Arts festival at Arts Centre Melbourne, with Sydney festival and Perth festival (forthcoming)
A particular joy of Anthem, set in Melbourne’s trains and stations, is found in knowing the work of the writers: Christos Tsiolkas’s families, Patricia Cornelius’s violence, Andrew Bovell’s choruses, Melissa Reeves’s satire. Their voices are distinct, yet come together in rich concert. Anthem occasionally falters, but it is an ambitious portrait of working-class Australia too rarely staged.
Tying it all together is Irine Vela’s composition for strings. As I left, a busker played the cello outside. It was a beautiful clash between the stage and the street, following me to the platform and on to the train home, shifting the way I carried myself in the world – the way all good theatre does. Jane Howard
Prima Facie, by Suzie Miller
Griffin Theatre Company, at SBW Stables theatre, Sydney, and Canberra theatre centre, Canberra
A razor-sharp, urgent look at Australia’s broken sexual assault laws, Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie powerfully drove home the flaws of a legal process that often fails to treat victims with fairness or humanity. This new Australian work, presented as a one-woman show, felt intricate and informed – particularly due to ex-lawyer and playwright Suzie Miller’s deeply rooted understanding of the system’s pitfalls and the patriarchal pillars that still uphold the legal definition of “justice”. Sheridan Harbridge delivered a hard-hitting performance as the snappy criminal defence attorney who knows the ins and outs of the system yet becomes entrapped, and eventually traumatised, within it. The play is both quick-fire entertaining and emotionally devastating, and altogether difficult to forget. Debbie Zhou
Gender Euphoria, by Maude Davey and Mama Alto
Midsumma, Melbourne International Arts festival and Arts Centre Melbourne, at The Famous Spiegeltent, Melbourne
A project of love and an expression of community from performer and director Maude Davey and Melbourne singer and impresario, the legendary Mama Alto, the cabaret Gender Euphoria at the Spiegeltent for Melbourne festival (following a sold-out, one-night-only performance at Midsumma earlier this year) was less a mere show than a loud embrace of the messy instinct to love and be loved that makes us all so very human. Under Mama Alto’s gentle wing, an impressive cast of trans and gender-diverse performers alternatively sang like angels, danced like demons and told stories of their lives that brought the crowd to fits of laughter or audible tears; a joke about dildos in bumbags, memorably, to both. An authentic joy. Van Badham
Fangirls, by Yve Blake
Brisbane festival, Queensland Theatre and Belvoir, at Bille Browne theatre, Brisbane, and Belvoir St theatre, Sydney
Remember your first crush? Chances are, they were a pop star.
Anyone that has ever been a teenager (particularly a teenage girl) will relate to this delightful and fun musical, produced this year as part of the Brisbane festival, before a later season at Belvoir in Sydney.
The very rowdy and loud musical follows 14-year-old Edna who is in love with Harry, a singer in True Connection, the biggest boyband in the world. Will she get the money to go to the concert? And will her plan to meet Harry work?
It’s high stakes if you’re a teenager in love. For the rest of us, it’s a lot of fun. Brigid Delaney
Solaris, by David Greig, adapted from Stanisław Lem’s novel
Commissioned and staged by Malthouse Theatre, The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, and the Lyric, Hammersmith
David Greig’s adaptation of Stanisław Lem’s infamously oblique sci-fi novel, Solaris, was a study in directorial restraint; appropriately for a story of the human disorientation that results from unexpressed pain. Directed with cold precision by Matthew Lutton at Malthouse, Solaris spins Lem’s crew of isolated cosmonauts into the dangerous orbit of a planet that resurrects from their memories the ghosts of their beloved dead. Sharp performances and clinical design evoked Grieg’s sparse and clever metaphors; both imprinted in the mind a tangible visual of the mysterious planet, despite it never once appearing on stage. Van Badham
Every Brilliant Thing, by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe
Belvoir, at Belvoir St theatre and Riverside theatre in Parramatta, and another season to come (with Steve Rodgers) in 2020 at Belvoir
A one-woman show is one thing. A one-woman show starring the lightning bolt of brilliance and braveness that is Kate Mulvany is another.
Her mother doesn’t want to live, so Mulvany’s character, as a child, decides to solve the problem. She begins – and, as it turns out, never stops – making a list of every brilliant thing that makes life worth living. Ice cream. The colour yellow. Things with stripes. People falling over.
Audience members are cast as characters and the lights stay up. Many are teary by the end; a few are sobbing. Because it is so sad and honest yet full of hope journeyed towards together, it feels more like group therapy than theatre. You leave changed. Kate Hennessy
