2026: Mama Does Derby by Clare Watson & Virginia Gay

 

Mama Does Derby by Clare Watson & Virginia Gay. Windmill Production Company in Sydney Festival at Sydney Town Hall, January 15 – 22 2026

Reviewed by Frank McKone
January 16


Credits

Co-Creator, Director – Clare Watson; Co-Creator, Writer – Virginia Gay

Assistant Director/Choreographer – Larissa McGowan
Designer – Jonathan Oxlade; Lighting Designer – Lucy Birkinshaw
Musical Director – Joe Lui; Sound Designer – Luke Smiles
Story Consultant – Ivy Miller

Performers:
Amber McMahon; Elvy-Lee Quici
Benjamin Hancock; Antoine Jelk; Dylan Miller
Annabel Matheson; Aud Mason-Hyde; Calliope Jackson

Derby Athletes – Members of the Sydney Roller Derby League
Sydney Derby Team Leader – Nicole “Ziggy” Eyles
Skate Consultant  – Jude ‘Vaderella’ Gaffney 

Hero image photography – Claudio Raschella and Bri Hammond



“A single mum, a teenage daughter, and a new life in a regional town where neither quite fits. Billie is 16 and restless, trying to navigate the chaos of adolescence. Mum, meanwhile, is spinning into a rebellion of her own – in the sweaty, rough and radical world of roller derby.”
https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/mama-does-derby 

I have to call the form of this surprising show a theatrical cartoon Rock’n’Roll Derby, full of symbolism.  What’s surprising is that it succeeds in celebrating women’s overcoming their demons.

When a girl is born resulting from a failed, perhaps abusive relationship, how is her mother to raise her?  Mama Does Derby says go out and achieve in your own right, because your daughter needs you to be the model she needs to overcome her fears.  

So instead of a gloomy view in response to the issue of family breakdown, the show is a rock’n’roll entertainment which has all the women in the audience,  and I suspect some men, whooping and cheering as daughter and mother finally hug and understand each other – and the rock band strikes up for the curtain calls.

There is no curtain, of course, as my photo of the set as the show opens, shows: just the roller derby track, onto which set pieces are rolled on and off by the women rollers scene by scene, of rooms in the house, and a complete rock band.

A throughline in the plot shows the rather satirical episodes with the professional – woman – psychological counsellor working on the assumption that the daughter has mental health problems, and then starts to think the mother has some too. But Mama's success in winning the derby competition puts the counsellor in her place as they hug each other at last.

Of course in cartoon style there’s not much subtlety in the treatment of their demons, though the daughter has nightmares which become an amazing glittery figure played by someone who is, as daughter exclaims, very flexible. A tremendously attractive looking demon indeed.  Unfortunately the cast list supplied doesn’t name each performer’s role.

Though early on I wonder how things would go, in the end Mama Does Derby is drama with a happy ending, and I’m glad it is, for it offers women the encouragement they need to be strong and self-determined.

©Frank McKone, Canberra

 

 

 

 

 

2026: Opera for the Dead - Sydney Festival

 

 

Opera for the Dead by Mindy Meng Wang & Monica Lim in the Sydney Festival at Bell Shakespeare, the Neilson Nutshell, January 15-18 2026

Reviewed by Frank McKone
January 15

Credits

Creative Concept and Composition – Monica Lim and Mindy Meng Wang
Dramaturg – Ophelia Huang; Animation – Rel Pham
Set and Lighting Design – Jenny Hector; Choreography – Carol Brown
Costume – Leonas Panjaitan; Sound and Video System Design – Nick Roux

Guzheng – Mindy Meng Wang; Electronics – Monica Lim
Vocals – Yu-Tien Lin; Percussion – Alexander Meagher
Cello – Nils Hobiger

Production Manager – Justin Heaton
Producer – Penelope Leishman & Seb Calabretto, Insite Arts
Sound Engineer – Sascha Budimsk
Hero image photography – Michael Pham



“Inspired by Chinese mourning rituals but speaking to universal truths of grief and remembrance, Mindy Meng Wang and Monica Lim’s multi-sensory journey surrounds you with sound, movement and light.” 
https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/opera-for-the-dead 

As the crowd moves into the performance space  where there are no seats, and people begin to move around and among elements of the set within which are the musicians, singers and electronic keyboard, they find themselves surrounded by devices quite unknown to traditional Chinese opera.

All around them hang 12-inch loudspeakers, facing upwards, with up to four ‘oranges’ on them, made from light-weight plastic, which are vibrating, even jumping up and down, because the speakers, hanging from above, are wired in to the sound of the percussion.

As I saw it, these represented the constant vibrations of the universe.  As the music and singing worked up towards a crescendo approaching the end of the 50 minutes, the oranges bounced more and more until many jumped right out of their concave loudspeaker homes.  Then I understood the concept expressed in the music about death.

Though an individual’s death is an end-point for them, the universe doesn’t die – it continues to vibrate with perhaps extra depth of feeling as each person dies.

So, though I have had only fleeting experiences of Chinese opera and have no understanding of the words being sung, in this very modern abstract presentation in visual effects as well as in sound, instrumental and voice, I found a peace of mind in knowing the universe continues on, while experiencing the feelings, often of despair, at the time of a loved one’s death.  

As a presentation in a cultural festival this is quite remarkable – an original work invoking an ancient culture in the histories of many Australians of Chinese origin, while passing on to others such as myself and other audience members I spoke to, a more philosophical way of thinking about death.

This Opera for the Dead is for the Living, too.

©Frank McKone, Canberra

2026: Nowhere by Kahlid Abdalla

 

 

Nowhere by Khalid Abdalla. Presented by Fuel UK in the Sydney Festival, 13 – 17 January, 2026 at Roslyn Packer Theatre.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
January 14

CAST & CREDITS
Writer and performer: Khalid Abdalla
Director: Omar Elerian; Set & Costume Designer: Ti Green; Choreographer: Omar Rajeh
Lighting Designer: Jackie Shemesh; Sound Designer: Panos Chountoulidis
Video Designer: Sarah Readman; Dramaturg: Ruth Little; Writing Mentor: Chris Thorpe
Associate Director: Riwa Saab; Set & Costume Associate: Jida Akil
Associate Lighting Designer: Rajiv Pattani; Associate Video Designer: Virginie Taylor
Lighting Associate: BROCKMAN; Press Representative: Bread & Butter PR
Poster Photography: Helen Murray; Trailer: Jamie Isbell / Jam + Post
Production Manager: Milorad Zakula; 
Company Stage Manager: Hannah Clare; Technical Stage Manager: Rachel Bowen



To say Nowhere is an original piece of theatre production is not sufficient.  It seems rather weird at first as you begin to wonder is this an actor playing himself?  He plainly is performing a script as an actor playing a role; but the role is himself revealing in choreographed, often almost dance-like, movement in response to the story he tells – via a variety of multimedia formats, visual and audio – of his life, born in Egypt and brought when very young by his parents as refugees to London, where Wikipedia records him as

an Egyptian-British actor and activist. He became known after starring in the 2006 film United 93.

Abdalla starred as Amir in The Kite Runner (2007) and acted with Matt Damon in Green Zone (2010), his second film with director Paul Greengrass. Abdalla appears as himself in Jehane Noujaim's documentary on the 2011 Egyptian revolution, The Square, which won the Audience Award at Sundance Festival in 2013. In 2022 and 2023, he starred as Dodi Fayed in seasons 5 and 6 of the historical drama series The Crown, for which he received a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

He often appeared to be addressing us directly – even engaging us in an audience participation segment – and yet, it seemed on one occasion, he forgot his lines and had to ask for help from Prompt, who supplied the line he then repeated and continued on.  

Philosophically, at some point, he – in character – queried our perception of ourself compared with the self we would like to be, as if this is a real concern for Khalid.  Yet it’s obvious to me that his success on stage shows that he understands himself very well, in order to be able to act this ‘play’ called Nowhere.

In the end the essence of the play is represented by the white dove of peace trying time after time to find somewhere to land – but finding nowhere in modern times through the days of his great-grandfather, grandfather and father being jailed for their opposition to the British colonial government of Egypt, and the following governments, to the point where if he were to go back to Egypt now, his activism in the 2011 revolution could see him jailed.

And now The Guardian writes ‘An Arab in a post-9/11 world’: Khalid Abdalla’s one-man play about belonging comes to Australia

In Nowhere, The Crown actor interweaves personal experience and family history with commentary on western colonialism and the Israel-Gaza war.  In what is an example of good theatre taking risks, the script includes referring to the recent Bondi shooting in raising the question of the need to recognise the horror of the treatment of Jews in the Holocaust, while maintaining the need to support all people, and peoples, with equal respect – including the Palestinians at the time of the establishment of modern Israel and in Gaza today.

His audience participation game is gently and thoughtfully managed to reveal how multicultural the audience is in today’s Sydney, leaving us to consider the future of the white dove of peace for all.  The stage where he performs, he explains, is a safe place – but he calls it Nowhere, because nowhere else can the dove safely land.

In the light of what has just happened at the Adelaide Writers Festival, Kahlid Abdalla has taken a risk in presenting his life story in such a way, but this is what theatre is for – to reveal what we may not easily accept about human society.  Nowhere is highly recommended in my view.

Khalid Abdalla
performing in his play Nowhere, Sydney Festival 2026

©Frank McKone, Canberra